Optimizing Gale Sword Art

Ancient Civilization Ruin No. 9 was hidden deep within the South Amazon Jungle. The group traveled aboard a Smart Fighter Jet and arrived at their destination roughly an hour later, landing in a patch of wilderness.

The cabin door opened, and Chen Yuan and the others followed Liu He out of the fighter jet. They saw Liu He standing quietly in the middle of the clearing, seemingly waiting for something.

Before long, hissing sounds came from underground. Suddenly, the ground before Liu He split apart to either side, revealing a five-meter-wide underground passage. Then, a silver-gray elevator slowly rose and stopped at ground level.

The elevator doors opened, and a Red-Robed Elder stepped out. He gave Liu He a slight bow. "Inspector Liu."

Liu He nodded, then turned to the War Gods behind him. "All right, the entrance to the ruin is below. Just follow him down."

Having said that, he showed no intention of accompanying them. With a flash, he returned to the fighter jet. It shot into the air and soon vanished over the horizon.

"Please follow me, everyone," the Red-Robed Elder said.

Thus, Chen Yuan and the others entered the elevator. As the doors closed, they began descending into the depths beneath the Amazon.

Whoosh! The elevator doors opened, revealing an alloy corridor before them. Fluorescent lights had been installed overhead, making it exceptionally bright.

Led by the Red-Robed Elder, Chen Yuan and the others passed through nine checkpoints in the corridor before finally arriving at a vast hall spanning several hundred square meters. Quite a few people had gathered there; they were all staff stationed underground.

"All right, this is the entrance to the ruin. Are you ready?" The Red-Robed Elder turned to look at them. Once he saw them all nod, he turned back and called out loudly, "Open the entrance passage!"

As his words fell, the arc-shaped alloy wall directly ahead suddenly split open, revealing a circular passage.

Chen Yuan focused his gaze on it. The passage was entirely dark brown, resembling tangled dead roots. Only the first two or three meters near the entrance were made of alloy.

At the end of the passage stood a constantly glowing mirror. That was the true entrance to the ruin.

"The entrance is open. Just follow the passage and walk into that mirror. Remember, once you enter, there is no turning back."

"War Gods, I wish you good luck," the Red-Robed Elder said solemnly.

It was clear that, when faced with the threat of death, everyone hesitated somewhat. Only Chen Yuan, who knew more about what lay inside, did not hesitate. He was the first to step forward and pass through the mirror-like gate.

It felt as though space had shifted. In the blink of an eye, Chen Yuan found himself inside a black hall.

He looked around and found no one there. Recalling the plot described in the original work, Chen Yuan stood where he was and waited patiently.

Suddenly, a multicolored light enveloped him.

"XXXXX..." A string of complex sounds rang out.

Chen Yuan raised his left arm. The Smart Optical Computer displayed the translated text: "Congratulations. Your Brain Domain Width is 21, exceeding 18. You are qualified to enter this trial base's 'Elite Passage.'"

After Chen Yuan finished reading, a rumbling sound suddenly rose in the distance. Looking up, he saw that a black passage had appeared in the wall of the black hall, quiet and unfathomably deep.

"This should be the Elite Passage." Chen Yuan did not hesitate. His figure flashed, and he entered the passage.

The passage was incomparably deep and dark. After Chen Yuan advanced five hundred meters, a fork appeared ahead, with nine branching paths in total.

Recalling the original work's description, Chen Yuan casually chose one of the paths and walked in. After reaching the end, he once again faced nine branching paths.

Chen Yuan did not hesitate and continued onward. Before long, he arrived at another fork.

"Hmm... the trial enemies should be appearing soon, right?" Chen Yuan recalled the plot. Luo Feng seemed to have encountered the enemies in the passage at around this time.

Sure enough, before long, Black-Robed Men emerged from the different paths and surrounded him. A rough count put them at around eighteen.

"Just like the original work—eighteen peak War God Black-Robed Men attacking together. Do they think I'm Luo Feng?" Chen Yuan looked around at the Black-Robed Men, with no intention of fleeing.

A mere eighteen peak War Gods were not enough to send Chen Yuan running in panic. He was far stronger than Luo Feng had been during the same period.

With a soft snort, Chen Yuan decided to strike first. His figure moved like lightning, instantly closing in on a Black-Robed Man as his Long Sword tore through the Void.

"Die!" With a cold shout, Chen Yuan unleashed his full strength. A force of 1.68 million kilograms swept through the Black-Robed Man's neck via his battle sword, instantly severing his head.

Their defense isn't particularly strong. Using a killing move would be wasteful. Peak War God strength alone is enough to kill them. Chen Yuan silently assessed them. Their movement speed is around eight hundred meters per second, surpassing ordinary apprentices, but it's still nothing worth mentioning.

Since neither their strength nor speed surpasses mine, why should I run? Chen Yuan felt that he and Luo Feng were still quite different. At the very least, there was no need for him to flee from these enemies.

"Roar..." The remaining Black-Robed Men had already charged at Chen Yuan with furious roars.

Yet in the next instant, Chen Yuan's figure became a Streamer, Shuttling among the Black-Robed Men. As sword light flickered, the remaining Black-Robed Men fell one after another.

In less than three seconds, all eighteen Black-Robed Men had been slain. Chen Yuan sheathed his battle sword and waited quietly.

The Black-Robed Men's corpses lay scattered across the ground. Before long, their bodies seemed to melt, slowly sinking into the floor and disappearing.

Then...

"Whoosh!" Like rain, transparent Streamers shot down from above without warning, interweaving in midair.

In an instant, those transparent Streamers formed a Crystal Room five meters high and eight meters long and wide, trapping Chen Yuan inside.

"XXXXX..."

The mysterious voice echoed through the Crystal Room once more.

Looks like it's the same as in the original work. The Elite Assessment should be next. A trace of delight appeared on Chen Yuan's face as he lowered his head to read the Smart Optical Computer's translation.

"Elite apprentice Chen Yuan, your assessment death mission has officially begun!"

"During this period, you will be provided with food and water..."

"Engraved on the walls of the assessment chamber are the 208 basic forms of the genetic Martial Artist secret teachings. Study these 208 forms, and you may have a chance to break open this assessment chamber."

"Assessment death mission requirement: break open the assessment chamber within three years!"

"Failure to break open the chamber within three years will be deemed a failure."

"Failure means death!"

"Three years?" Chen Yuan smiled, unconcerned. He raised his head and greedily read the writing on the walls, only to soon discover awkwardly that—he could not understand any of it.

It was written in the universal language of the universe as well. Chen Yuan had not learned it yet, so he could only point the Smart Optical Computer at the images and text on the walls, scan them, and translate them into Huaxia characters.

Chen Yuan then lowered his head and looked at the translated secret manual. Perhaps because this was his first contact with a secret method from the universe, he studied it extremely carefully. The farther he read, the more pronounced the smile at the corners of his mouth became.

"Haha, I was right. This secret method truly surpasses Earth's standards by far." Chen Yuan could not hide his excitement. "Its maximum Force Exertion Level is twenty times! And it uses the most orthodox method of exerting force."

"With this Martial Artist Basic Secret Method, together with the Earth martial arts manuals I've collected, just how far can I optimize the Gale Sword Art?" Thinking of this, Chen Yuan impatiently opened the panel.

"System, establish an optimization task!"

"Optimization target: Gale Sword Art. Optimization direction: use the Wind of Existence as the Conception core, assist in comprehending Domains and laws, maximize the Force Exertion Level, integrate all current insights into the branches of Wind Artistic Conception, abandon universality, and optimize according to my personal circumstances."

Chen Yuan made a long string of demands in one breath.

Optimization task established. Current optimization target: Gale Sword Art; optimization direction: use the Wind of Existence as the core, integrate all Wind Artistic Conception power, improve Domain and law comprehension efficiency, maximize the Force Exertion Level, abandon universality, and optimize according to the host's circumstances.

Estimated Kill Point cost for this optimization: 99. Establish optimization task?

"Ninety-nine points. It looks like the optimized result shouldn't be low-level." Chen Yuan did not hesitate and directly selected confirm.

Optimization task established. Optimization time: 48 hours.

"Two days." Chen Yuan silently watched the panel. Everything will have to wait until two days from now.