This Seat Can Cleave the Sun, Moon, and Stars with a Single Sword Strike!

[Your swordsmanship is decent, but you still have a long way to go!]

[After ascending to the Divine Realm in my previous life, This Seat happened upon a divine sword. From then on, I devoted myself to studying the way of the sword.]

[Though This Seat took up the sword late, my talent was peerless. My swordsmanship could cut through anything—a single strike could bring down the sun, moon, and stars!]

[Even the Sword God admitted he was my inferior!]

[Three million Sword Immortals in the heavens, and every one of them must bow before me!]

Ning Wen: "..."

This voice pack never stopped showing off.

After listening to it long enough, he almost felt as though he really were that incredible.

Fortunately, he knew his own limits. No matter how much the voice pack bragged, he never let it go to his head.

In his previous life, his inflated ego had turned him from a millionaire into a man a million in debt in just a few short years.

Just then, a reward notification sounded in Ning Wen's mind for the first time in a while.

[Ding! Congratulations, host. You have received a critical hit reward: Basic Swordsmanship Mastery.]

Hum!

Vast as an ocean and exquisitely refined, insights into swordsmanship flooded Ning Wen's mind like a raging tide.

Swinging, cleaving, thrusting, parrying, redirecting force... countless intricate fundamentals of swordsmanship were branded deep within his mind.

It felt as though someone else had spent centuries or millennia training day and night, honing their swordsmanship through countless battles, only for all that hard-earned mastery to become his in an instant!

An odd look flickered across Ning Wen's face.

Wasn't this critical hit reward a little too timely?

The voice pack had just finished bragging about its supreme swordsmanship, and now he had been handed Basic Swordsmanship Mastery!

Ning Wen would never believe there was nothing suspicious about that.

"Little Wen, come here!"

Chen Xin called softly. His expression remained calm and impassive, but ripples stirred deep in his heart.

As the Titled Douluo widely acknowledged to possess the strongest offensive power on the continent, he had spent his entire life pursuing the pinnacle of swordsmanship.

His mastery of the sword had reached such heights that almost no one could surpass him, leading people to respectfully call him "Chen Xin of the Sword."

Yet the realm of swordsmanship described in Ning Wen's thoughts exceeded anything he had imagined.

Bringing down the sun, moon, and stars with a single strike!

The mere thought of it shook him to his core.

Three million Sword Immortals in the heavens, all bowing before him!

Though he did not know what a Sword Immortal was, he imagined it must be someone who had traveled incredibly far along the way of the sword—perhaps even a Deity.

At his call, Ning Wen hurried forward. Without the slightest hesitation, he drew his dagger and plunged it straight into the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's throat.

Swish!

Precise, decisive, clean.

Seeing this, Chen Xin raised his brows slightly, a thoughtful gleam passing through his eyes.

His movements had changed.

When Ning Wen had killed the Bloodflame Tiger earlier, his movements had still carried a hint of awkwardness and restraint.

Now, however, his movements flowed seamlessly, every action displaying precision and proficiency honed through countless repetitions.

Shhk—

The blade pierced a vital spot.

The Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's enormous body shuddered violently. Its scarlet eyes rapidly lost their luster, and its immense vitality swiftly ebbed away.

A purple soul ring slowly rose from its corpse, the rich, dense glow flowing around it particularly dazzling.

[Finally done. That wasted quite a bit of This Seat's time.]

[Obtaining soul rings this way is too much trouble. It seems I'll have to find a way to talk that fellow Asura into giving me some God-given Spirit Rings.]

Ning Wen: "..."

He had to admit that the voice pack had a point.

Compared to hunting soul beasts for soul rings.

God-given Spirit Rings were clearly the better choice.

After all, every soul skill provided by a God-given Spirit Ring was tailored to the soul master's own martial soul.

They were a better match than anything a soul beast could provide.

Their age could also be guaranteed to reach the very limit of what he could withstand.

But God-given Spirit Rings were hardly easy to obtain.

Only divine trials offered a chance to receive them.

It was true that the Asura God valued Ning Wen, but the problem was that he had yet to see even a hint of the Asura God's Nine Trials.

Besides, given the difficulty of the Asura God's Nine Trials, he clearly could not pass them as he was now.

Moreover, the Divine Realm's rules forbade Deities from interfering in the lower realm.

If the Asura God bestowed God-given Spirit Rings without putting him through divine trials, that would clearly count as interference.

Still, remembering the Asura God's double standards, Ning Wen silently shook his head.

That probably wasn't such a big deal.

After all, compared to resurrecting Tang San and reshaping the entire continent, a few God-given Spirit Rings were child's play.

Provided the Asura God was willing, of course.

And right now, Ning Wen had no way to contact the Asura God.

Ning Wen suspected that he would have to visit Slaughter City to truly begin the Asura God's Nine Trials.

That was still a long way off for him.

"Little Wen, although this Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's soul ring is only close to two thousand years old, it will probably be no easier to absorb than a three-thousand-year soul ring."

Ning Fengzhi slowly stepped forward, his gaze falling on the purple soul ring floating in the air. With a solemn expression, he warned, "If anything goes wrong, call for our help immediately."

[What a nag. In all my life, when has This Seat ever needed someone else to bear the consequences of my actions?]

[Hmph. Don't think I'll be grateful just because you're meddling.]

Hearing these thoughts, a vein bulged on Ning Fengzhi's forehead.

I'm meddling?!!

He had only meant well, yet somehow that had become meddling.

At that moment, even the gentle, refined Ning Fengzhi could not help feeling a little aggrieved.

"I understand, Uncle Ning."

Ning Wen took a deep breath, suppressed his excitement, and slowly walked up to the soul ring before sitting cross-legged.

The instant the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's energy entered his body, it went berserk, as though intent on tearing him to pieces.

A faint, profound, supremely powerful blood-red light quietly bloomed, instantly suppressing the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's power and rendering it immobile.

This was the Asura God's power. Even if it was only a trace, the idea of a mere Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear challenging it was laughable.

The pressure on Ning Wen abruptly vanished, leaving his entire body at ease.

The rest of the absorption process was much like before, with little pain.

Time ticked by.

His surroundings were quiet, with only the soft rustling of the forest breeze and the occasional roar of a soul beast in the distance.

This time, the absorption took longer than before.

Only after two full incense sticks' worth of time did Ning Wen slowly open his eyes.

A purple soul ring rose from beneath his feet.

His aura surged higher and higher, breaking through barrier after barrier!

Level twenty-three, level twenty-four, level twenty-five!

Finally, it settled firmly at level twenty-six.

His soul power had risen four levels in one go!

That alone showed just how formidable the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear was.

"Level twenty-six?!"

Sensing the fluctuations in his soul power, all three of them were stunned.

After absorbing two soul rings, Ning Wen had jumped straight from level twenty to level twenty-six—a full six-level increase.

Perhaps a Titled Douluo even younger than Tang Hao would soon emerge—and from their Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, no less.