After one fight, he left at once. Lin Huang kept walking and soon returned to his residence, paying no heed to how Prefecture Lord Chen flew into a rage after Lin Huang had acted on a whim.
He placed the long saber he had borrowed from the Three Holy Mothers on the bed, then took off his ridiculous elephant mask. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Lin Huang took various divine materials from his Sumeru Ring and mixed them into divine liquid. He submerged himself in it and focused on breathing and recovering. Only when the divine light in the liquid went out and its medicinal power was exhausted did he rise. He casually wiped himself off, felt that his body had grown stronger, and nodded in satisfaction.
"Looks like robbing the Zhongnan Dojo was the right decision."
With the divine materials he had stolen from the Zhongnan Dojo, Lin Huang had consolidated his body. He laid the saber across his knees and continued contemplating Blade Slashing the Six Paths, incorporating the essence of the Six Paths he had learned from the Sages of Zhongnan into the technique, one part at a time.
He spent the night in silence. The next day, Lin Huang opened his eyes right on time, still reluctant to stop. "I'm just a little short. In the end, this is someone else's blade path, not mine."
"I hope today brings me a surprise."
With a thought, Lin Huang appeared in the Dream God Realm once more and waited for the second preliminary round to begin.
"Second preliminary round: a thousand-man battle. Map: Despair Valley. The round ends when a hundred contestants remain."
After the brief introduction, the scene before Lin Huang changed, and he appeared in a small valley. The peach blossoms beneath his feet were crushed, and peach-colored miasma shrouded the valley, restricting his senses.
"Hmm. Poison?" With a thought, Lin Huang realized that the peach-colored miasma was poisonous—and extremely peculiar. It could actually eat away at a Divine Body. After a moment's calculation, he knew that his minor-stage Desolate God Body could withstand the miasma for only two quarters of an hour.
"So we're supposed to finish this quickly?"
Lin Huang murmured, saber in hand, and looked up.
Rumble!
Vital energy surged, divine light crisscrossed, and auras shot into the sky. Several people had unleashed their auras without the slightest attempt to hide them, brimming with confidence and fearing no one.
Lin Huang pushed off and headed for the nearest person.
As the second disciple of the Samsara Dojo, Mo Tu had been deeply aggrieved at not being chosen as a seeded contestant. In the first preliminary round, he had slaughtered his way through the field, joining forces with several junior disciples assigned to the same match and killing their round down to fewer than a hundred contestants.
His name as the Butcher had spread far and wide, making him one of the brightest stars of the first day's preliminary round.
Mo Tu planned to repeat yesterday's performance in the second preliminary round. The moment he entered, he unleashed his aura without hesitation.
"I, the second disciple of the mighty Samsara Dojo, wasn't even chosen as a seeded contestant. What a disgrace! You ants are out of luck. Only slaughter can soothe my fury!"
Mo Tu shouted. He didn't care that he had revealed his position. Walking at an unhurried pace, he reached the halfway point and suddenly threw a punch—domineering and arrogant. With a boom, a contestant hiding in the miasma screamed, was torn to pieces, and vanished in a streak of light.
His punch shook the heavens. Seeing him blow up a contestant with a single strike, so impossibly strong, several contestants who had been preparing to join forces and attack him felt their hearts turn cold and hurried to flee.
But it was too late. Mo Tu moved, and the distance between them vanished. In a single step, he appeared behind them. Without dodging or blocking, he simply threw a punch. The force was terrifying; he flicked his wrist and killed them outright.
The blow shattered the heavens. Every contestant within a hundred yards of Mo Tu panicked and hurriedly retreated, not daring to fight him.
"Haha! Run! Scream! Then every last one of you can die!"
Mo Tu laughed wildly. He walked at an unhurried pace, yet moved with astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, he caught up to a contestant. With a feral grin, he ignored the sword thrust at him, thrust out a hand as broad as a fan, and slapped the man dead like a watermelon.
After casually slapping one man to death, Mo Tu's gaze turned cold. "I see you. A few little mice."
He murmured, then flashed forward and blocked the path of a group of five.
"It's the Butcher! Damn it, why did we have to run into him?" The group's leader recognized Mo Tu and felt his heart sink. He shouted, "Everyone, split up and run! This guy's the second disciple of the Samsara Dojo!"
"Fuck! The second disciple of one of the Ten Great Sacred Lands is still taking part in the preliminaries? What's the point of even fighting?"
"Mo Tu, we surrender. You're an Upper-Stage Marquis-Sealing powerhouse. Don't make things hard for us. We'll leave right now."
Mo Tu looked at the five with a mocking expression. "Fine, I won't kill you. Take your own lives."
The five-man group froze.
"You won't take your own lives? Then I'll help you find release. Remember, I, Mo Tu, am the one who killed you! Hahaha!" Mo Tu laughed wildly, bent his legs, and threw five simple straight punches, not even bothering to use a technique.
Boom!
The punches were fierce, kicking up the crushed peach blossoms as they struck in an instant. Five screams rose one after another, then abruptly stopped. The force of the punches continued for a hundred yards, severely wounding a contestant hurrying along with his head down.
"Haha!"
Mo Tu burst into a wild laugh. His gaze flickered toward the other contestants who had dared to announce their presence, and he licked his lips. "Killing these people is no fun. Though torturing them to death feels great, Eldest Senior Brother will surely lecture me if he finds out. I'd better go kill those few instead."
"Hmph. You dare put on a show in front of me, Mo Tu? I'll kill every last one of you!"
Mo Tu sneered, pushed off, and charged toward the nearest contestant.
Midair, Mo Tu suddenly let out a quiet exclamation. He changed direction and turned back, looking ahead. "Someone else who isn't afraid to die. Interesting."
With his saber in hand, Lin Huang walked unhurriedly through Despair Valley. He encountered many people along the way. He said nothing, only striking once with his saber.
The Blade Slashing the Six Paths he had learned from Qianshan Huo grew ever more practiced and weighty. If Qianshan Huo saw it, he would be horrified; the Blade Slashing the Six Paths Lin Huang wielded contained the true meaning of the Six Paths, profound and heavy. Even his master, the Mortal World Blade King, could not match this strike of Lin Huang's.
"One strike, and all Six Paths are cut down."
Lin Huang shook his head. "That path is wrong. Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Yin, and Yang are the origin of the world. Who could cut them all down with one strike? The true meaning of this strike should be to open up the Six Paths with a single blow. Only then could they go on without end, the Six Paths revolving and suppressing everything."
As he fought his way onward, Lin Huang used only this one strike, over and over. It had helped him find his foundation. Everything he had accumulated about the Six Paths could be fused into this single blow.
"Too bad I wasn't born to practice the saber. I can't achieve a state where I have nothing but the saber. Otherwise, with this one strike, perhaps I could comprehend the Dao of the Mortal World too."
With a sigh, Lin Huang looked ahead.
"So there really is someone who isn't afraid to die." Mo Tu turned back. Folding his arms across his chest, he looked Lin Huang over but couldn't gauge his strength. His gaze passed over the long saber in Lin Huang's hand, and he gave a scornful laugh.
"Looks like you're confident. Fine, I'll let you strike first."
Mo Tu was arrogant. Lin Huang remained unmoved, nodded, and struck with his saber.
With a single strike, he opened up Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Yin, and Yang. The Six Paths revolved without end, like the creation of heaven and earth, as Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind were reshaped and Yin and Yang were cleaved apart.
Mo Tu's expression changed at once. He roared, "How despicable!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, light swirled in Mo Tu's eyes, and two divine rays shot out. Bearing the truth of all things returning to the cycle of reincarnation, they reversed everything, annihilated Yin and Yang, and turned Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind backward. Like a dream or a bubble, it all shattered in an instant.
The long saber that had been swung was back in Lin Huang's hand, as if he had never struck that blow at all.
Before you continue