Whoosh!
Feng Qingmo's footwork suddenly improved by an astonishing degree. Like a withered leaf dancing in the wind, he drifted along, impossible to track!
"Artistic Conception Level! I finally made it..."
As if a chain reaction had been triggered, once his footwork reached the Artistic Conception Level, his swordsmanship rose to the same level. Then, during one swing, a third wave of hidden force surged through him. His sword suddenly became far faster and more powerful!
He seemed to have become the wind itself. No matter how narrow the gap, nothing could block the wind completely!
His strikes came one after another. With his Force Application Technique at 3.6 times, his strength reached the peak of the Beginner War God level, coming extremely close to that of an intermediate War God.
Arctic Wolves fell one after another, and Rock Thunder Birds dropped dead from the sky...
"Awooo!" The Arctic Wolf King let out a pained howl, and the remaining wolves scattered in every direction.
"Creee!" The Rock Thunder Bird leader gave a mournful cry. The flock overhead stopped diving and began to flap away.
"You can attack when you want and run when you want? You think this is a public restroom?" Feng Qingmo shouted. With the wolves retreating and the pressure easing, he kept the Arctic Wolf King firmly occupied with his sword. At the same time, he unleashed his Spiritual Force to drive the Rock-Thunder Bird King down from above.
When it was less than five meters from the ground, Feng Qingmo swept out his left hand. The Gold-Severing Thread, which he had practiced with for months, made its return.
The three-pronged hook and its fine thread whipped around the Rock Thunder Bird's neck at incredible speed, then looped around its neck and twice around its sharp beak, locking tight.
Panicking, the Rock Thunder Bird beat its wings furiously, trying to break free of the Gold-Severing Thread. Before it could counter the downward pull, however, two flying daggers pierced the roots of its wings.
The Rock Thunder Bird crashed to the ground.
Seeing its old enemy's fate, the Wolf King barely had time to rejoice before remembering that it was in trouble, too. It let the sword wound it and plunged into the snow, trying to escape by burrowing through it.
Whoosh!
A flying dagger cut through the air with a piercing roar and buried itself in the snow.
A pained beast's cry sounded from beneath the snow, then fell silent.
The Rock Thunder Bird was busy clawing at the ice, but it had never done this before. Usually, only its natural enemies on the ground did that.
Feng Qingmo unleashed his Spiritual Force, and another flying dagger floated beside him. It plunged through the bird's wound and into its body, twisting through its innards!
The Rock Thunder Bird's whole body convulsed violently several times. Ignoring the Gold-Severing Thread cutting into its neck, it strained to lift its head, then went limp and collapsed onto the ice.
"That was close..." Feng Qingmo let out a breath and swayed, nearly falling over. He was not only running out of stamina; after that final burst, his Spiritual Force was nearly depleted as well. If his footwork and swordsmanship hadn't reached the Artistic Conception Level, he really would have been in danger today.
It might have looked as though he had easily taken care of the Wolf King and the Rock-Thunder Bird King with his flying daggers, but he had only managed it by unleashing them at full strength when there were no other threats nearby.
Under the beasts' assault, he first had to use his Spiritual Force to stay aware of his surroundings. He also had to use flying daggers to eliminate attacks that even Perfect Level footwork couldn't fully evade. In those circumstances, it was easy to imagine how little Spiritual Force he had left to control the daggers against the two Lord-level Monsters.
Now that both groups of beasts had fled and he was alone, he finally had time to reflect on what it felt like to reach the Artistic Conception Level in swordsmanship and footwork.
"No wonder Senior Bian Xiangqing said at the end of the third volume that mastering it would bring me to his level, and that I'd know how to proceed with my future cultivation. He was even confident he could create the fourth and fifth forms of the Wind-Washing Sword..."
After his footwork and swordsmanship reached the Artistic Conception Level, he had gained a new understanding of the Wind-Washing Sword. He also had a vague idea of where to take his cultivation next. As long as he kept following this path, he was sure his understanding would deepen.
"But at the apprentice stage, the Artistic Conception Level is the limit." He had not understood why Bian Xiangqing hadn't created a fourth form before making his breakthrough. Now he did: without breaking through to Planetary Level, it was impossible to cultivate a domain. And beyond artistic conception came domain.
Still, the Artistic Conception Level was worlds apart from Perfect Level. After all, the levels of mastery in the universe were divided into foundation, artistic conception, domain, and world!
Everything below the Artistic Conception Level was collectively known as the foundation.
He tilted his head and stopped thinking about it. After unfastening the Gold-Severing Thread, he controlled it with his Spiritual Force, drove it into the ground, and wrapped it around the Wolf King's corpse, pulling it out of the snow.
Now it was time to reap the rewards.
Using the sharpness of his SS-Grade Flying Dagger, he began to dissect the two Lord-level Monsters, removing their most valuable materials and stowing them in his backpack.
Feng Qingmo failed to notice that as he worked, the blood from the Arctic Wolf and Rock Thunder Bird corpses around him seeped into the snow. The crimson snow quickly faded, as if something had absorbed the blood.
After he finished dissecting the two Lord-level Monsters, he was about to look for a few High-level War General corpses to harvest when something strange happened.
A faint whistle seemed to rise in the air. The space within several hundred meters of Feng Qingmo suddenly began to tremble.
Before he could figure out what was happening, the entire area gave a sudden buzz. Space seemed to fold in on itself, and the world spun around him. Feng Qingmo and all the beast corpses vanished. A gust of wind blew by, and snowflakes and ice crystals blanketed the ground, restoring its pristine white surface. Nothing showed that a fierce battle had taken place there.
An immense force squeezed him from every direction. His bones creaked, and the pressure burst capillaries throughout his body, turning patches of skin crimson.
Fortunately, the force faded quickly. If it had lasted any longer, he might have been crushed into a meat pie by it, even though he had survived the beasts' attack.
He staggered before managing to steady himself. Carefully probing with his Spiritual Force, he couldn't help but feel startled.
The space around him was not very large, perhaps a few thousand square meters, and tens of meters high. The walls curved inward toward the center, like a giant bowl turned upside down.
The first thing his Spiritual Force detected was a pile of tattered Combat Suits and boots not far from his feet.
The Combat Suits were still on people's bodies, but only pieces of them remained, and some had already begun to rot.
Recalling the tremendous force that had crushed him moments ago, he immediately understood. "These must be the missing members of the Boria Mercenary Group. They entered this place the same way I did and were crushed to death by that force..."
His physical strength was only at the peak of the intermediate War General level. But when the force hit, he had applied his full 3.6 times Force Application Technique to his defense, instantly bringing it close to that of an intermediate War God. His S-Grade Combat Suit had also absorbed some of the pressure, which was how he had endured it.
The mercenaries had no S-Grade Combat Suits, and they hadn't incorporated their Force Application Technique into their defense. With nothing but the physical strength of War General-level Martial Artists, they couldn't possibly withstand that force.
The space wasn't dim. Countless inverted, stalactite-like spikes hung from the ceiling, glowing milky white and brightly illuminating the whole area.
"So this is the so-called 'ruin'?" Feng Qingmo shook his head. He couldn't see a single object with a technological look to it. Aside from a small stone platform in the center, the rest of the place was empty.
Feng Qingmo didn't know that the beast corpses had vanished along with him, but strangely, they hadn't appeared in this space.
He tried breathing. The air didn't feel stale, nor did it have any strange smell. There was clearly some kind of ventilation passage.
He sat cross-legged and began cultivating Genetic Energy, using it to repair the damage to his body.
The universe's energy flowed into him and transformed into Genetic Energy, which quickly surged into the damaged tissues. A tingling sensation spread through his body as the various injured tissues rapidly healed under its nourishment. His stamina and Spiritual Force gradually recovered, too.
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