The Barbarian Hammer King's Thoughts

Over the next few years, Gulanxiu cultivated within Barbarian Hammer King's courtyard.

It had to be said that Barbarian Hammer King, as a teacher, treated his disciple exceptionally well, demonstrating the three axe arts for Gulanxiu over and over again every single day.

Since Gulanxiu had already passed the first three levels of the Sky Bridge through Space Slaughter, the first six forms of the Earth-Splitting Thirty-Six Axes posed little difficulty for him and were quickly mastered.

Barbarian Hammer King primarily focused on guiding Gulanxiu in cultivating the other two secret manuals.

In truth, these three manuals merely refined the axe arts within the Giant Axe Chaos Tablet—every six axes corresponded to one axe from the tablet, and fully mastering all thirty-six axes was equivalent to reaching the eighteenth level of the Giant Axe Sky Bridge.

What was surprising was that these three manuals were all authored by the same person. According to Barbarian Hammer King, this person had since become an exalted Cosmic Sovereign, but since the manuals were written when he was still a King-level, their price was relatively low.

Yet even these "low-priced" manuals, as Barbarian Hammer King called them, had nearly drained Gulanxiu's entire fortune, leaving him both amused and exasperated!

In truth, Barbarian Hammer King had long since fully mastered these three manuals, making it easy for him to guide Gulanxiu. However, since the copyright information wasn't in his hands, he couldn't directly teach Gulanxiu—Gulanxiu had to purchase them first before he could offer guidance.

With a renowned master providing one-on-one instruction, Gulanxiu made rapid progress over these years. Both the Mountain-Opening and Stone-Shattering axe arts had reached the fifth axe, and with just one more axe each, they would catch up to the progress of the Earth-Splitting Thirty-Six Axes.

At that point, he could consider merging the three axes into one—and that would be the true test. If he couldn't achieve the merger, then all these years of bitter cultivation would be wasted. He would have no choice but to honestly focus on the Earth-Splitting Thirty-Six Axes, waiting until he reached the peak of King-level before trying to comprehend other paths.

If he succeeded, he would be on the right track. Though the road ahead wouldn't be entirely smooth, at least he would see a direction forward.

While resting from cultivation, Gulanxiu let his mind wander. Just then, he received a message in the Virtual Universe.

Glancing at it, he saw it was from Bafen, the guardian of the Sky Bridge. The content was simple—just a single line.

"Xiusite, a member of the Virtual Universe Company's original secret realm, has passed the fourth level of the Dragon Walk Chaos Tablet. I hope the rest of you can keep up the effort and achieve even greater results!"

Gulanxiu smiled lightly and said to himself, "The fourth level, huh! It's been twenty-five years since this batch of geniuses started cultivating! Looks like it'll be hard for him to break through to the fifth level before leaving Chaos City.

Still, things are looking up for me. Bafen actually sent me a message too—he never used to send me one when others passed their trials!"

[At this point, I hope readers remember our domain: 101 Reading Network Book Library, 101kk s.com, your choice]

Through years of exchanges with Barbarian Hammer King, Gulanxiu had gained some understanding of the members in this Strongman Battle.

The strongest in this Strongman Battle was naturally the peerless genius Yunmiao. The moment she arrived in Chaos City, she had already passed the fifth level of the Sky Bridge. After over a decade of cultivation, she had now cleared the seventh level. However, she hadn't challenged the bridge much in recent years, so no one knew her current strength.

What's more, Yunmiao cultivated both illusion techniques and controller arts simultaneously, excelling in both. Unlike Jialai Xi from the original story, who had one primary and one secondary path, this was an extremely rare combination in the universe.

Yet aside from Yunmiao, the overall performance of this Strongman Battle's members was mediocre. There were no other standout geniuses. If Gulanxiu hadn't chosen to cultivate three paths simultaneously and merge three axes into one, surpassing Xiusite would have been effortless.

But after choosing to cultivate three axes together, Gulanxiu could only pass the fourth level of the Sky Bridge by mastering the merger of the three axes. Otherwise, relying solely on the sixth-axe level of each of the three manuals wouldn't be enough to clear the fourth level.

"I must master the merger of the three axes. I can't let my teacher down!" Gulanxiu silently resolved.

Over these years, he had witnessed Barbarian Hammer King's dedication. The king tirelessly demonstrated the axe arts for him to comprehend, even setting aside his own cultivation. This deeply moved Gulanxiu.

Though decades meant nothing to a King-level Immortal, how many lofty Kings would care so much about a Cosmic-level disciple's cultivation?

Even True Evolution King from the original story hadn't guided Luo Feng like this! True Evolution King was already invincible at the King level, with no room for advancement—he had all the time and energy in the world. But Barbarian Hammer King had just broken through to the peak of King-level, was cultivating the path of merging three axes, had the potential to become a Sovereign, and still had plenty of room for improvement.

Thinking this, Gulanxiu acted on it. Moments later, he once again entered deep cultivation.

In the adjacent room, Barbarian Hammer King saw Gulanxiu's diligence and nodded in approval. He was quite satisfied with this disciple.

Though Gulanxiu's cultivation speed seemed a bit slow to him—barely a once-in-ten-thousand-years genius—which sounded decent but fell short by a King-level Immortal's standards of time and insight—his firm resolve and hard work were still very gratifying. Of course, Barbarian Hammer King didn't dare hold overly high expectations for Gulanxiu's ultimate achievements.

In his view, Gulanxiu's talent might not suit the path of merging three axes. After all, the merger didn't provide a massive boost to early combat power; its main value lay in making it easier to comprehend the seventh axe of the Giant Axe Chaos Tablet.

But fully comprehending the seventh axe meant becoming a Cosmic Sovereign. And every Cosmic Sovereign was a peerless genius who dominated their era. Even a genius born once in ten thousand epochs only had a slim chance of becoming a Sovereign. For someone with Gulanxiu's talent, becoming a Sovereign was virtually impossible.

In fact, with Gulanxiu's talent, the normal expectation was to reach Marquis-level Immortal, with a chance at King-level. Mastering the sixth axe of the Giant Axe Chaos Tablet by walking a single path would already be impressive.

So for Gulanxiu to tackle the more difficult path of merging three axes early on might not be suitable. If he wasn't careful, he could waste time and lose his drive.

But since Gulanxiu had chosen this cultivation method, Barbarian Hammer King wouldn't dissuade him. In his eyes, labels like "down-to-earth" or "overreaching" were just outsiders' judgments. In truth, neither was wrong for the individual—as long as one stayed firm in their heart and kept moving forward.

What was truly taboo was hesitation and second-guessing, always worrying about gains and losses.

"Since Gulanxiu has chosen this path and cultivates so diligently, I should prepare a small gift for him. Whether or not he passes the fourth level when he leaves Chaos City, I'll give it to him," Barbarian Hammer King murmured to himself.

At the same time, he logged into the Virtual Universe and began browsing through the dazzling array of goods, carefully selecting...