Counter-kill and Entry

"Whoosh!"

Feng Qingmo's footwork suddenly improved to an incredible degree; he was like a withered leaf caught in the wind, dancing along with the breeze, yet leaving no trace behind!

Intent Realm! Finally...

As if triggered by a chain reaction, once his footwork stepped into the Intent Realm, his swordsmanship rose to the same level. Moreover, during one particular swing, a third surge of hidden force erupted within him, causing the speed and power of his blade to leap forward significantly!

He seemed to have transformed into the wind itself; no matter how narrow the gap, the wind could not be fully blocked!

Sword after sword, with his force multiplier at 3.6 times, his power instantly reached the peak of a Low-Level Warlord, coming extremely close to a Mid-Level Warlord.

Arctic Wolves fell to the ground one by one, and Rock-Thunder Birds perished in succession...

"Awooo~" The Arctic Wolf King let out a miserable howl, and the remaining pack immediately began to scatter and flee.

"Skree~~" The leader of the Rock-Thunder Birds also let out a mournful cry; the flock in the sky stopped diving and instead flapped their wings to soar high away.

"You want to fight when you please and run when you please? Do you think this place is a public restroom?" Feng Qingmo roared. Taking advantage of the reduced pressure as the pack retreated, he tightly circled the Arctic Wolf King with his sword. He unleashed his spiritual force to its limit, driving it downward toward the Rock-Thunder Bird King to force it to fly lower.

When it was less than five meters from the ground, Feng Qingmo flicked his left hand, and the Gold-Severing Thread he had practiced with for months made its return.

The triangular barb, trailing the thin wire, wrapped around the Rock-Thunder Bird's neck at an incredible speed. It then looped around the neck, wound twice around its sharp beak, and locked tight.

In a panic, the Rock-Thunder Bird flapped its wings violently, attempting to shake off the Gold-Severing Thread. But before it could counteract the downward force, two flying daggers had already pierced the roots of its wings.

The Rock-Thunder Bird plummeted to the ground.

Seeing the fate of its rival, the Wolf King had no time to rejoice before realizing its own situation was dire. It immediately risked being pierced by the long sword and dove headfirst into the snow, attempting to escape via a snow-tunneling maneuver.

"Shoo~"

A shrill sound of wind being torn apart rang out as a flying dagger, trailing a sonic boom, plunged straight into the snow.

A miserable beastly roar seemed to echo from beneath the snow, and then, all sound ceased.

At this moment, the Rock-Thunder Bird was frantically clawing at the ice, but it had never done such a thing before—that was usually the work of its terrestrial rivals.

Feng Qingmo unleashed his spiritual force to the maximum, causing another flying dagger to hover beside him. It dove into the bird's wound and churned through its internal organs!

The Rock-Thunder Bird shuddered violently. Ignoring the fact that its neck would be lacerated by the Gold-Severing Thread, it desperately lifted its head, then went limp and collapsed onto the ice.

"That was truly dangerous..." Feng Qingmo exhaled, his body swaying as he nearly fell. At this moment, not only was his physical stamina critical, but his spiritual force was also nearly exhausted from that final burst. If his footwork and swordsmanship hadn't reached the Intent Realm, today would have been truly perilous.

Do not be fooled by how easily he finished off the Wolf King and the Rock-Thunder Bird with his flying daggers; that was only possible because he could go all-out without other threats nearby.

Under the siege of a beast horde, he first had to use his spiritual force to control the surrounding environment, and second, use his flying daggers to clear attacks that even his Perfect-level footwork couldn't fully dodge. Under such circumstances, one could imagine how little spiritual force remained to control the daggers against two Lord-level monsters.

Now that both beast hordes had fled in defeat and he was left alone, he finally had time to reflect on the sensations of his sword and footwork entering the Intent Realm.

No wonder Senior Bian Xiangqing said at the end of the third volume that mastering it would put me on par with his own realm, and that I would know how to proceed on my future path. He even expressed confidence in being able to create the fourth and fifth levels of the Wind-Washing Sword...

With his footwork and swordsmanship in the Intent Realm, he indeed had a new understanding of the Wind-Washing Sword, and he now had a vague direction for his subsequent cultivation. He believed that as long as he continued along this path, his understanding would only grow deeper.

"But at the Apprentice stage, the Intent Realm is the limit." He hadn't understood before why Bian Xiangqing didn't create the fourth level before breaking through, but now he understood: without reaching the Planetary Level, one cannot cultivate a Domain, and beyond the Intent Realm lies the Domain.

However, the Intent Realm is still incomparable to the Perfect level. After all, in the universe, the division of realms is: Foundation—Intent—Domain—World!

Everything below the Intent Realm is collectively referred to as the Foundation.

He tilted his head and stopped overthinking. He uncoiled the Gold-Severing Thread and, using his spiritual force, plunged it into the ground to wrap around the Wolf King's carcass and pull it out.

Next was the time for the harvest.

Using the sharpness of his SS-Grade Flying Dagger, he began to dissect the two Lord-level monsters, harvesting their most valuable materials one by one and placing them into his backpack.

What Feng Qingmo did not notice was that as he dissected them, the blood flowing from the corpses of the Arctic Wolves and Rock-Thunder Birds on the surrounding ground seeped into the snow, and the crimson snow quickly faded, as if absorbed by some hidden presence.

After finishing the dissection of the two Lord-level monsters, he was about to search for a few High-Level Warlord-class corpses to collect materials when an anomaly occurred.

A faint whistling sound seemed to echo in the air, and within a radius of several hundred meters centered on Feng Qingmo, the air suddenly began to vibrate.

Before he could figure out what was happening, with a "hum," the space in the entire area seemed to fold. In an instant, the stars shifted, and Feng Qingmo, along with all the monster corpses, vanished. A fierce wind blew, and after snow and ice particles covered the area, the ground returned to its pristine white state, showing no signs that a great battle had just taken place.

An immense, overwhelming force squeezed in from all directions, causing the bones throughout Feng Qingmo's body to creak. Many of the capillaries inside his body were ruptured by this massive pressure, leaving large patches of his skin blood-red.

Fortunately, the duration was short, and the pressure receded. Had it lasted any longer, he wouldn't have died from the beast horde's siege, but would have been crushed into a meat patty by this force.

He stumbled, barely managing to steady himself. He cautiously extended his spiritual force and couldn't help but be shocked.

The space he was in was not large, perhaps a few thousand square meters, with a height of several dozen meters. The surrounding walls curved inward, resembling an inverted giant bowl.

The first things his spiritual force detected were piles of tattered combat suits and boots, not far from his feet.

These combat suits were still worn on human remains, though they were merely severed limbs, some of which had already begun to rot.

Recalling the immense pressure from just moments ago, he immediately understood what had happened: "These must be the missing members of the Boria Mercenary Group. They entered here the same way I did and were crushed to death by that force..."

Although his physical fitness was only at the peak of the Low-Level Warlord stage, when that massive force struck, he had applied his 3.6-fold force multiplier to his defense without reservation. This gave him the physical defense of a Low-Level Warlord approaching a Mid-Level Warlord, and with his S-Grade Combat Suit absorbing a small portion of the pressure, he was able to survive.

The members of that mercenary group lacked S-Grade Combat Suits and did not know how to integrate force-multiplying techniques into their defense. With only the physical fitness of pure Warlord-level martial artists, they naturally could not withstand that force.

The entire space was not dim; the ceiling was covered with countless inverted cone-shaped spikes resembling stalactites, emitting a milky-white light that made the entire area quite bright.

"Is this what they call a 'Relic'?" Feng Qingmo shook his head. He couldn't see a single item with a technological style; other than a small stone platform in the center, the rest of the area was empty.

Feng Qingmo did not know that the monster corpses had vanished from the surface along with him, but strangely, those corpses did not appear in this space.

He took a tentative breath; the air did not feel stale, nor was there any foul odor, suggesting that ventilation shafts or similar passages existed.

He sat cross-legged first, beginning to cultivate his Genetic Energy, using it to repair his damaged body.

Cosmic energy surged into his body, transforming into Genetic Energy that rapidly flowed into his damaged tissues. A tingling sensation spread throughout his body, and the various damaged tissues quickly recovered under the infiltration of the energy. His stamina and spiritual force also gradually returned.