A vast, gray space stretched around them, as if they were standing in the chaos-filled void.
With a whoosh, Lei Zhan and the Yellow-Haired Great Bear appeared out of thin air.
Lei Zhan looked around. Everything was gray and hazy, an endless expanse of nothingness.
"This is arguably the most important place in the entire cave abode..."
"Arguably the most important place?" Lei Zhan nodded.
The Yellow-Haired Great Bear looked at Lei Zhan and continued, "There are still many secrets in the cave abode. Even your master, Immortal Juhua, knows nothing about many of them."
"I'm sure you've noticed as much. But if you want to learn more, the only way is to keep growing stronger."
"Mm." Lei Zhan nodded.
He understood that the Water Mansion held countless secrets. If he hadn't shown such talent, this seemingly easygoing Yellow-Haired Great Bear probably wouldn't have given him the time of day.
At the very least, the Yellow-Haired Great Bear treated him, Lei Zhan, far more amiably than he treated his master, Immortal Juhua!
The Yellow-Haired Great Bear said, "Of the seven divine abilities in the Divine Ability Hall, only the first was left behind by the master himself. The other six were left behind by his disciples."
"Your master... Senior, I've heard you mention him many times, but I still don't know who he is..." Lei Zhan asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
"The master..." A trace of age-old weariness flickered in the Yellow-Haired Great Bear's eyes. "He was an ancient being who became a great power before the Three Realms were born. Few in all the Three Realms could compare to him. Knowing this now won't do you much good."
The Yellow-Haired Great Bear gave a slight shake of his head, then looked down at Lei Zhan. "With your current strength, obtaining the first divine ability is by no means guaranteed. So, what matters most right now is to set your mind on nothing but the battle ahead."
The Yellow-Haired Great Bear had watched Lei Zhan's performance over the years, along with his talent and comprehension. Naturally, he didn't want the promising young fellow before him to miss out on the most important opportunity at hand.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have taken Immortal Juhua's provocation.
He was a Magic Treasure Spirit, born when the ancient Pangu World was destroyed. He had followed his master, Master of Star-Plucking Mansion, for countless years. How could a Loose Immortal who had lived for only a few million years easily manipulate him?
He had merely gone along with it.
"So it's not a sure thing..." Lei Zhan nodded. Still, the Yellow-Haired Great Bear had decided he had a very good chance.
All he needed to do was fight with everything he had, kill the warriors in the Divine Ability Hall, and obtain its mightiest divine ability—the Star-Plucking Hand.
"Enough. Get ready!" As soon as the Yellow-Haired Great Bear finished speaking, he vanished into the vast void.
The gray, hazy space was utterly empty, an endless expanse of gray and boundless desolation.
Suddenly, with a whoosh, a massive black stele appeared out of nowhere and landed on the ground. Around a hundred God-Devil Script characters densely covered its surface.
"Use the power of the gods and devils!"
"Choose any weapon you like from those beside you."
"Go forth and slaughter!"
"Divine abilities are the ultimate techniques of slaughter."
"The more warriors you kill, the more powerful the divine ability you'll obtain... The moment you fall and your body is shattered, the Divine Ability Hall's trial will be over."
Lei Zhan studied the God-Devil Script on the stele, reading every word. His mind was utterly calm.
He turned to look beside the black stele. A huge table had appeared out of nowhere a short distance away.
It was piled high with weapons: hundreds of swords, hundreds of sabers, hundreds of spears, hundreds of staffs... weapon after weapon, packed tightly across the table.
"I can't use Qi Refining Path techniques, but these weapons..." A peculiar smile appeared on Lei Zhan's face. He stepped forward and picked a spear about the same length as the Cold Shadow Spear.
As for using the Three Heads and Six Arms divine ability when the challenge was still easy at the beginning?
He wasn't that foolish.
The warriors conjured in the Divine Ability Hall were practically endless. If he started with his strongest moves, no amount of divine power would be enough.
Aside from slowly recovering on its own, his divine power had no other way to quickly restore him to peak condition.
As Lei Zhan chose his weapon, the gray air in the surrounding void began rapidly gathering, taking the form of one humanoid creature after another.
"They're here!" A blazing fighting spirit surged through Lei Zhan.
He looked at the figures that had suddenly appeared. These humanoid creatures were all extremely muscular, with three fierce, glaring eyes apiece. They were almost naked, wearing only loincloths or short skirts around their waists.
Each of them had a little excess flesh, and each held a weapon: some carried great axes, some long staffs, and others massive hammers.
Their breaths boomed like thunder, their footfalls shook the earth, and their bodies radiated a fierce, murderous aura.
In the blink of an eye, hundreds of humanoid monsters had formed all around him.
"Warriors resembling gods and devils." Lei Zhan swept his gaze over the hundreds of warriors who had appeared in the hazy space. A thought flashed through his mind.
"Kill!"
Lei Zhan gripped his spear and charged straight at them.
Gods and devils excelled at killing, and they were reborn in bloodshed.
"Kill!" The hundreds of ferocious, weapon-wielding warriors around him roared as well. They strode through the clouds and mist like a gale, charging straight at Lei Zhan.
The warriors shouted the God-Devil Script word for "kill." Their three blazing eyes fixed on Lei Zhan, and they moved at astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, they had crossed a hundred yards and reached him.
"Hmph! Die!" Lei Zhan strode forward and swept his spear across the battlefield. The blow crashed toward the warriors with enough force to halt rivers and shatter mountains.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Lei Zhan had cultivated the Great Xia World's number-one divine demon body-refinement technique, the Crimson Bright Nine Heavens Map. His strength was immense. Though he was only at the late Purple Mansion stage, he could match an ordinary Wanxiang divine demon. With one sweep of his spear, the Three-Eyed Warriors in its path were hurled away like battered sacks.
The warriors howled as the tremendous force tore them to pieces. Then they dissolved into mist and vanished from the hazy space.
"This is only the beginning. These warriors aren't that strong." Lei Zhan looked into the distance. Just now, thirty or forty Three-Eyed Warriors had died beneath that single sweep.
But the more Lei Zhan killed, the more warriors gathered anew in the space.
Far away, countless warriors continued to form. In an instant, hundreds more had appeared.
"Even a man's strength has its limits. I'll have to conserve my divine power!" Lei Zhan thought. "Blazing Spear Domain!"
Whoosh!
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Golden-red flames appeared in the void, one after another. The moment they ignited, the entire space twisted in the heat.
One patch, two patches, three patches—in an instant, they covered a thousand-yard radius.
The flames were searing and explosive, yet razor-sharp, as if countless spears of fire lurked within the sea of flames.
Every flame contained the mysteries of the Dao, and each was astonishingly powerful. They immediately surged toward the Three-Eyed Warriors all around him.
Whoosh...
Without the slightest hesitation, Lei Zhan controlled the blazing sea of fire. In an instant, countless Three-Eyed Warriors were burned to ash.
The slaughter continued, and the Three-Eyed Warriors kept multiplying.
The more Three-Eyed Warriors died, the stronger the newly formed warriors became. They moved faster, their bodies grew tougher, and their axe and hammer techniques improved.
Naturally, they were also much harder to kill!
Outside the entrance to the Divine Ability Hall in the Water Mansion, Immortal Juhua and the Yellow-Haired Great Bear stood together.
"Lei Zhan's killing speed is quite impressive! By combining the Way of Blazing Fire with the Great Dao of the Spear, he can mow down an entire swath at once, even as the warriors continue to grow stronger."
The Yellow-Haired Great Bear praised him. "It seems he's the most promising one of the last several generations to obtain the master's legacy."
"Hmm? What's happening in there?" Immortal Juhua was itching to know, and asked curiously. He knew nothing about what was going on inside the Divine Ability Hall.
Even though he had spent millions of years partially refining the Water Mansion, he still couldn't perceive a thing.
"Weren't you so arrogant earlier? If you're so capable, don't come begging me." The Yellow-Haired Great Bear shot Immortal Juhua a cool glance.
Earlier, the immortal had pressured him to keep his word in front of a junior. Though he had gone along with it because he thought highly of young Lei Zhan, he was still annoyed.
Doing something of your own accord was worlds apart from being directed and lectured by someone else.
"You..." Immortal Juhua could only sigh. This cave abode's Magic Treasure Spirit really held a grudge. But he was worried about his disciple, and after millions of years as a Loose Immortal, his Dao heart was no ordinary one.
Immortal Juhua patiently smiled. "Senior Big Bear, my disciple Lei Zhan is the cave abode's successor, but he's also my only disciple. Could you use the Water Mirror Technique so I can watch too?"
"Hmph." The Yellow-Haired Great Bear glanced at Immortal Juhua beside him and shook his head slightly.
Whoosh~
A massive water mirror appeared in front of the Divine Ability Hall's entrance.
The mirror showed a gray, hazy space. Within it, a handsome young man holding a spear was locked in fierce combat with a crowd of bare-chested Three-Eyed Warriors.
A thousand yards around the handsome young man, golden-red flames swirled. They burned without pause, killing Three-Eyed Warriors by the moment and turning them into wisps of gray mist.
"Mm. It looks like young Lei Zhan is handling things with relative ease." Immortal Juhua finally relaxed, calmly stroking his beard.
Lei Zhan had reached the Domain Realm of the Dao in two paths and had also entered the threshold of a Great Dao. The combined might of his paths was far beyond that of any single Dao.
And right now, Lei Zhan was using only the Blazing Fire Domain Realm and the Great Dao of the Spear. He hadn't even used the Three Heads and Six Arms divine ability or Law of Heaven and Earth. He was still holding back more than half his strength.
"Lei Zhan's talent... really is monstrous. His soul is powerful, and after cultivating the visualization method you gave him, he can even control objects with his Divine Sense."
"His comprehension of the Dao is also exceptional. He's reached the Domain Realm of the Dao in two paths. Even by relying on telekinesis and the Domain Realm of the Dao, he can sweep through and kill countless warriors."
"He's also the one most likely to obtain the divine ability technique the master left behind."
That was exceedingly high praise from the Yellow-Haired Great Bear. Even among the countless powerful gods and demons under his master, few disciples could have reached that level by the age of ten.
Of course, those born with a Dao already in their grasp, like his master, didn't count.
Even setting them aside, anyone who met all these conditions was a rare find.
This chapter was an extra update. I got a private message from the site yesterday. My previous book got the first and second rounds of recommendations, then fizzled out. I had no choice but to rush it into paid serialization.
I want this book to last longer before going paid, so I can only rely on all of you for support.
Getting recommended depends on the stats, and I think follows and continued readership count for the most. I'm not entirely sure.
Anyway, if you all support me, I'll go all out. That's all there is to it.
Lastly, I'm begging you all to keep reading!
I've been working hard to build up a stock of chapters. When the second round comes, I'll add two chapters. I'm too lazy to wait until paid serialization. I'll add chapters whenever I can; if I can't, I'll pay them back slowly.