Beneath the gloomy sky, cold winds howled. Sometime during the day, a light snow began to fall, dusting the ground white. In the park in City 003, great swathes of trees lay toppled, the scene as devastated as if a tornado had swept through. The air reeked of blood, nauseating anyone who breathed it in. A gigantic ape, as large as a hill, with black fur like steel needles, lay motionless on the ground. A bowl-sized hole gaped in its chest, and blood had stained half its body red.
Chen Daolin stood beneath the black ape monster's corpse, as tiny as an ant. No one would have guessed that this ant had killed a giant beast ten or twenty times his size. Ji Xuan was using her Spirit Reading Power to retrieve the flying daggers she had just sent out. Grade 9 Flying Daggers were extremely expensive.
"This Black Demon Ape is powerful, even among Intermediate Lord Level monsters. Its materials should fetch around 1.7 billion if we sell them to the HR Alliance," Chen Daolin said with a smile as he watched Ji Xuan use her telekinetic tools to cut up the materials.
Snowflakes landed on Ji Xuan's head, only to be pushed away by an invisible force. Chen Daolin couldn't help marveling at how useful Spirit Reading Power was. Unfortunately, Spirit Readers awakened naturally, and they were both mysterious and exceedingly rare.
The frigid wind howled, snowflakes swirled, and the world had turned into a silvery expanse. Three figures suddenly appeared in the snowstorm. They moved like ghosts, covering long distances with every blink. As they drew closer, it became clear that they were three martial artists.
One was a handsome young man in his twenties, wearing a blue combat suit and carrying a sword. He had a refined appearance and an elegant bearing.
In the middle was a beautiful woman wearing a silver combat suit. Her long silver-white hair and exquisitely sculpted features gave her an almost otherworldly allure, like a young girl's. She carried two silver-white curved blades. Her figure was slender, and her bearing seductive.
The last was a towering, bald, muscular man, two meters tall and built like an iron tower. He wore a brownish-yellow combat suit, carried a black greatshield on his back, and held a bronze-colored battle axe. The three sped past like a roaring gale, soon vanishing at the edge of the city.
Anyone who recognized them would have cried out in surprise. All three were famous figures among the War Gods: Wind Sword Liu Feng, Savage Axe Tie Liu, and Silver Pupil Long Yue. They belonged to the same War God squad and had been life-and-death partners on countless adventures for years. Every one of them was a War God!
"Long Yue, is it here?"
In a high-rise building not far from a sprawling university campus, the three War God-level powerhouses who had just traveled through the snowstorm appeared in a secluded, spacious room. They sat down to rest and drink water. The silver-haired woman, whose eyes also shimmered faintly with silver light, was as beautiful and bewitching as a young girl. Her voice rang out like a heavenly melody, clear and ethereal. "That's right. It's inside the sports stadium on the university campus ahead."
"Long Yue, you're sure your information is correct?" asked the bald, muscular giant, who stood over two meters tall and had muscles like cast iron. His voice rumbled. "After all, our target this time is no ordinary one."
"It's correct," Long Yue replied. "I've already confirmed it."
The War God in the blue combat suit, who looked like a handsome young man, smiled. "Of course we trust you. Otherwise, we wouldn't have come along."
Long Yue smiled back.
Tie Liu, Liu Feng, and Long Yue belonged to different forces, but they had once served in the same squad. Over more than a decade of life-and-death adventures, their other teammates had died, while they had each become War Gods in turn. It was only natural that their bond ran deep. Long Yue was also a powerful Spirit Reader, and her standing within her faction even surpassed that of Zhou Yongzheng, head of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall in Jiangnan Base City.
"A Three-Eyed Fire-Tailed Fox. It'll be troublesome, but the three of us should have no problem handling it together," the iron-tower of a man, Tie Liu, said with a nod.
Long Yue reminded them, "Our main objective isn't to kill the Three-Eyed Fire-Tailed Fox. It's to get that item. We may have to draw out the fox and its entire monster pack, then have Liu Feng, who's fastest and has the best Movement Technique among us, sneak inside and bring the item out."
Liu Feng and Tie Liu exchanged a glance and nodded. "We understand."
Long Yue smiled, her bewitching smile seeming to brighten the entire room. "Now, let's go over the battle plan carefully..."
While the three War Gods were appearing outside the university campus, a battle was also erupting several kilometers away. A series of deep, thunderous roars rang out. A gigantic, four- or five-meter-tall Lion Mastiff Beast, its entire body silvery white, was fighting a tall, black-haired female martial artist. Their fierce battle had reduced the surrounding buildings to ruin, filling the air with smoke and dust.
Ji Xuan moved with graceful agility, dodging the Lion Mastiff Beast's attacks while repeatedly slashing at it with the long saber in her hand. The blade accelerated with every swing until it broke the sound barrier. Though her strength was only at the Intermediate Warlord Level, her strikes reached the power of the Advanced Warlord Level. Her speed surged, her blade flashed like snow, and she cut the Lion Mastiff Beast until blood sprayed everywhere and it roared in fury.
A figure stood on the sixth floor of a residential building nearby, watching Ji Xuan fight the Lion Mastiff Beast with an astonished expression.
"Xuan's saber technique is incredible. She's already trained the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade to the third layer, and she has Perfect Level movement skills. It looks like this Advanced Beast General Level Lion Mastiff Beast won't be a match for her."
The Nine-Layered Thunder Blade had been created by Thunder God, the world's second-strongest fighter. Along with World Destroyer, it was an SSS-level secret technique, and was also known as the world's most difficult technique to master and the ultimate art with the highest Force Application Technique.
The Nine-Layered Thunder Blade had nine layers. Each layer mastered added seven surges of hidden force to the original attack. After mastering all nine, a practitioner could unleash seven times their original power.
Legend had it that Thunder God, the creator of the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade, was the world's fastest fighter, had the world's strongest body, and was the world's greatest swordsman... By all rights, with the world's greatest speed and strongest body, and the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade—said to be the world's strongest Force Application Technique—Thunder God should have been the strongest in the world.
But Hong was universally recognized as the strongest.
No one dared challenge Hong's position. Perhaps only Thunder God came close to matching him.
Even other Beyond War Gods were no different from ants before Hong.
Hong was synonymous with invincibility, a legend in every martial artist's heart.
The snowfall grew heavier. The cold wind swept across the heights, tossing Chen Daolin's hair as he watched the battle below, now nearing its end. His gaze was clear and calm. "Xuan's physical strength must be around eighteen thousand kilograms. With the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade's third layer, which multiplies her strength by 2.8, that gives her fifty thousand kilograms of force. With her Perfect Level movement skills and exquisite saber technique, she can toy with this Advanced Beast General Level Lion Mastiff Beast even without using her Spirit Reading Power."
Chen Daolin couldn't help marveling at Ji Xuan's talent. Since August, she had trained for just over five months, yet she had already reached this level.
In saber technique, Ji Xuan, already Proficient Level and nearing mastery, was far ahead of him, whose spear technique had only just reached Proficient Level.
In movement skills, she was a whole major level ahead of him.
As for Force Application Technique, the Nine-Layered Thunder Blade was said to be the world's hardest secret technique to master, yet she had managed to reach the third layer in just four short months. Its 2.8-fold Force Application Technique far surpassed his own 1.9-fold technique!
If not for his cheat-like King Kai Fist, which helped him train, rapidly improved his physical strength, and the Dragon Blood, his physical strength might not even have matched Ji Xuan's at that moment.
Chen Daolin felt immense pressure.
I have to work even harder, Chen Daolin thought. If Ji Xuan surpassed him despite the huge lead he had, he'd never live it down.
Of course, he had no idea that Ji Xuan was progressing so quickly because she had made him her target to catch up with.
Chen Daolin was currently the brightest star in the Elite Training Camp, widely considered the student among its recent batches most likely to become a Beyond War God in the future.
Being partners with someone like him put a lot of pressure on Ji Xuan, too.
But both were quiet types. Neither said a word; they simply kept their heads down and tried to catch up.
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