The fifth level is a world of fire. Dry and hot air rushes towards you, and the exposed rocks under your feet are extremely hot; even Ninth-level Warrior can barely withstand it.
There were many familiar faces on the fifth floor. Experienced powerhouses like Desri, Fain, Tulilei were mostly resting on this floor. They were surprised to see Linley enter, and after hearing about the awakening of the Ba-Serpent Linley the third floor, they all became worried for him.
Desri looked at him, his gaze scrutinizing. "Being able to come out alive is already a stroke of luck. How much do you believe in my Purple Blood Soft Sword now?"
Linley looked down at the sword in his hand. On the third level, it was this very sword that had blocked the azure light that had even caught the attention of the Midgod Ba-Serpent. He had long suspected it was different, and now he was even more certain that this was a true divine artifact.
Linley said, "I believe you. But a good sword alone isn't enough. My current human form can't really be considered human yet."
Desri glanced at him, said nothing, and simply nodded.
Although the fifth level is listed as the least dangerous, it doesn't mean we can let our guard down. Linley explored this fiery rocky ground with Desri and the others for several days, figuring out the intricacies of this level before gradually feeling at ease.
He sat on a relatively flat rock, gazing at the perpetually burning volcano in the distance, and began to consider something else.
The human form is too weak.
Currently, his human form is only at the Saint Realm Early Stage, and he only maintains the strength of the Peak Saint Realm by relying on his Dragonform. However, the Necropolis of the Gods is full of dangers, and even after Dragonform, he can only barely protect himself.
"Mental strength..." Linley muttered to himself, "Let's see if we can make a breakthrough."
He----
In a relatively remote spot within the fifth layer of rocky terrain, Linley sat cross-legged for three days without opening his eyes.
For three days, he didn't see anyone, and even Bebe was persuaded to stay far away and squat on the ground to keep watch. He only did one thing: immerse his mind in the sea of his spirit, constantly pondering that power that was always just a little bit short.
He studied two laws: Wind Element and Earth Element. Wind requires flexibility, while earth requires solidity, but both are based on mental strength. The stronger one's mental strength, the easier it is to control the laws; if one's mental strength stagnates, even with a deep understanding of the laws, one will be unable to use them.
For the past six months, he has been trying to break through the bottleneck of his mental strength, but that barrier is like an invisible high wall that he can't break through no matter what he does.
Then he found that wall again.
Without any Battle-qi or Dragonform, Linley used his most ordinary human form to transform his spiritual power into a thin thread and continuously tapped the high wall. At first, it was useless; the high wall remained unmoved. But Linley was not in a hurry. He had felt fear when facing the Ba-Serpent on the third level, and he had felt sad when Barker's life or death was unknown. Delia and the two children were still waiting for him on the Yulan Continent... With these thoughts in mind, he steadily supported himself like a breath held in his hand, pushing upwards again and again.
I don't know how much time passed.
A ripple, unlike anything seen before, suddenly appeared in Linley's sea of consciousness. The invisible wall that had always blocked his way was now being breached by his indomitable spirit.
As a result, his entire sea of consciousness expanded. The shackles that had been binding him seemed to recede like the tide, no longer providing any obstruction. Linley's vision suddenly opened up, and he could even feel every wisp of heat emanating from the fiery rock ground of the fifth level, and he was even more acute about it than before.
Slowly, I opened my eyes and exhaled.
"My spiritual power has broken through." He muttered to himself, then weighed the sword in his hand. This time, he didn't use Dragonform, but rather his spiritual power in human form to enter the Saint Realm.
Bebe noticed from afar that he had opened his eyes, so she quickly ran to his side, her round eyes Jingjing, and asked, "Boss, did it work?"
"Your mental strength has indeed made some breakthroughs," Linley said with a faint smile.
After his mental strength broke through, Linley was no longer in a hurry to travel.
Desri and the others had already entered the Necropolis of the Gods and agreed to stay on the fifth level for nine years. This way, even if they were defeated later, they would only need to stay for a few months before they could leave. Linley strongly agreed with this view. Now that his spiritual power had reached the Saint Realm, he could take advantage of this relatively stable period to cultivate his human form realm.
He cultivated diligently every day. During the day, he practiced swordsmanship on the fiery red rocks, and at night he would sit cross-legged, fusing the laws of wind and earth with his newly acquired spiritual power. The Purple Blood Soft Sword became more and more proficient in his hands, and the unity of Wind-Earth Fusion became more and more mellow and refined along with the growth of his spiritual power.
During the day, just as Linley was about to get up after completing his meditation, he suddenly felt something gently touch the humanoid body inside him.
A slight thought stirred within him, but instead of standing up, he sat down and continued to probe deeper, following the subtle sensations. After a long time, a power slowly welled up from his body, suppressing all his understanding of the wind and earth over the past few years, as if gathering all of these understandings and fusing them into a single furnace.
Humanoid form, Saint Realm Middle Stage.
Linley opened his eyes and clenched his fist. He didn't immediately test the effect of the sword, but quietly felt the stable power within this humanoid body that no longer needed to rely on Dragonform to maintain its strength. There was a hint of barely suppressed joy in his eyes.
"Boss!" Bebe was the first to crowd around, her round eyes full of eagerness, "Your human form... has it leveled up again?"
" Saint Realm Middle Stage." Linley stood up, lightly twirling the Purple Blood Soft Sword in his hand. "Although I haven't reached the Peak Saint Realm yet, my Battle-qi and defense have both increased significantly!"
Bebe's eyes Jingjing.
Linley wasn't overly joyful. After sheathing his longsword, he turned his gaze towards the sixth level, his eyes gradually calming down. Life on the first four levels was relatively stable, but Desri's words had always been imprinted in his mind, and it was only after the sixth level that things began to become dangerous. His humanoid cultivation at the Saint Realm Middle Stage and his Saint Realm- level mental strength were the assets he had prepared to enter deeper levels.
After resting on the fifth floor for half a month, Linley had consolidated his previous breakthrough.
Desri and Bebe were both by his side. One evening, as the group chatted, Desri earnestly said to Linley, " Linley, the sixth level is different from the previous levels. Back then, neither Fain nor I dared to touch the sixth level; we only dared to hide on the fifth level and wait for our ten-year term to expire. If you really want to go, you must think it through carefully."
"I understand," Linley said. "My human form has reached the Saint Realm Middle Stage, and my mental strength has also broken through. I don't want to leave empty-handed from what's buried in the Necropolis of the Gods."
Desri looked at the young man before him, feeling a strong resemblance to his younger self, yet he himself hadn't taken this step back then. He stopped trying to persuade him, simply pointing to the distant volcano and saying, "The entrance to the sixth level is inside the volcano. If you want to go, remember, you can rely on your strength to tough it out in the first five levels, but after the sixth level, it's all about wisdom, luck, and a willingness to risk everything."
Following his gaze, the volcano that spewed heat year-round was right before him. A journey even more dangerous than that of the Ba-Serpent awaited him. But he also understood that a Dragonblood Warrior who only dared to live peacefully in a stone house at the Saint Realm Middle Stage could not protect the world he had built with his own hands.
" Bebe," Linley turned to the little beast beside him and said, "Let's go."
Bebe raised her little head, her round eyes showing no hesitation, "I've been waiting for you to say that, Boss!"
The setting sun cast long shadows of men and beasts on the scorching volcanic rocks. They advanced step by step toward the crater. Behind them lay years of peace, the buffer of the first five layers; ahead lay the sixth layer, a dangerous place never before set foot on by Desri.
Linley held the Purple Blood Soft Sword that had blocked the Ba-Serpent's attack for him, and walked slowly in front of the entrance to the sixth floor.