Three years

Bai Mo had not come here with many expectations. He knew very well that training Magnetic Field Power was not merely a matter of increasing horsepower. With power alone and no matching technique, without knowing how to use that power to kill an enemy, he would amount to no more than another Gang E in the end.

The best approach was to receive guidance from a master, followed by obtaining a peerless martial art manual. If he could get the Bodhidharma Sutra, he would really take off, but that was merely wishful thinking. And now, a peerless powerhouse had appeared before Bai Mo. The Great Blade Martial God, one of the very strongest in Martial God. Although he had exited the story early, his strength and talent were surely unmatched. His eventual entry into the Ultimate battle royale alone was enough to prove that.

Presumably, he was the dominator the system had mentioned.

Great Saber said nothing. He merely picked up the blade blank, and a fierce wind howled. Bai Mo could not see it, but his instincts as a living creature, his sense for danger, told him that a terrifying power was gathering in the blade blank in Great Saber's hand. That plain, unadorned blade blank felt like an abyss to Bai Mo.

Fortunately, it did not last long. Soon, Great Saber dropped his stance, tossed down the blade, and finally turned and walked into the sea, leaving only the blade blank behind, as though he had never been there. When Bai Mo looked at the blade blank again, he felt the same helplessness as someone about to climb Mount Everest barehanded.

Bai Mo said, "Whatever. Since I don't know what to do, I'll start with the basics!"

There were plenty of fish in the sea and wild fruit on shore, anyway. Having reached Electric Current Push, his body was already fairly strong, and he would not normally get sick. Following what he remembered, Bai Mo began with the most basic exercise: doing push-ups while circulating Electric Current Push.

Three months later.

Out on the sea, a reef stood amid the waves. Surf battered the rock, and fragments seemed to fall away, but how could waves damage a reef like that? It was Bai Mo. Over these three months, his once-frail body had become sculpted, his muscles firm and well-defined. Now, he was striking the reef amid the waves. The seawater greatly weakened his punches, but their force could still shatter this reef standing amid the surging sea.

Bang! The reef shattered. Bai Mo shook his hands. On his first attempt, his fingernails had split and both hands had been left a bloody mess. Now, smashing this reef barely made him feel anything. He then looked at the blade blank nearby. These rocks could no longer make him stronger. He needed to challenge a higher peak.

Three months later.

Thud. Bai Mo lay panting on the beach, the blade blank tossed beside him. All this time, he had simply been working hard at swinging the blade. He knew no blade techniques at all and could only perform the most ordinary movements, but the result was that both his hands were almost ruined. Had he not learned through experimentation two months earlier how to use Electric Current Push to absorb the vitality of plants to heal himself, his hands would probably have been crippled already.

Bai Mo calculated inwardly: This damned thing weighs nearly a thousand jin. And for some reason, when I use my power, this blade blank absorbs it like a black hole, leaving less than a tenth of its effect. It barely passes as training equipment.

But if I want to use it as a weapon, I'll have to keep it in my hands for at least fourteen hours a day. This thing will probably break my body before it grows strong enough to use it.

It was like a novice walking into a gym and immediately setting the weights to maximum. That would only tear his muscles apart.

With no strength left in either arm, Bai Mo could only struggle to absorb vitality through Electric Current Push to recover. After these three months, he felt he had made no progress whatsoever. What the hell? Weren't magnetic field powerhouses supposed to get stronger after just three months? Not only had his horsepower remained stuck at Electric Current Push without advancing an inch, but his blade technique still consisted of the most basic chops, no different from a child waving a branch around for fun.

But Great Saber never responded.

Then Bai Mo gave up trying. "Come on, at least give me some hope. I don't know anything. So I just can't get out of here at all, huh? Then I'm done playing along." With that, Bai Mo flopped down, unwilling to do anything. He simply lay on the beach in the sea breeze for a full day and night.

But when he woke the next day, the sea was still the same sea, and the blade was still the same blade.

Bai Mo stared at the blade in silence. He did not know what to do. It felt as though he were pursuing an unattainable goal, one even he found ridiculous. It's impossible. Even if you train here your entire life, you'll never reach that level. He was merely a nobody who had happened to gain power. After so many days without any improvement in his Magnetic Field Power, Bai Mo had begun to suspect that he had no talent whatsoever, that Electric Current Push was his limit, while the so-called Complete Realm remained forever out of reach.

Bai Mo felt that his efforts were utterly meaningless, like the foolish old man trying to move mountains. How could human strength possibly shake a mountain? He might as well give up here, build a little house, and live alone. Give up. Give up. At that moment, Bai Mo felt as though the entire world were saying those words to him. This isn't your fault. You've already tried, but it was no use. Giving up now is the smart choice.

Bai Mo stopped thinking about it. He began catching fish in the sea and building a shelter. But every day when he woke, that blade stood there. Every day, he found it painfully glaring, like a mountain, a mountain pressing down on him.

In the end, Bai Mo walked over once more and gripped the hilt with both hands.

This time, he held on for a long time. He felt his arms spasm. He saw the skin between his thumbs and forefingers split from the shock. He felt his bones wail in agony, his shoulders seemingly about to shatter. But he simply gritted his teeth and swung at the sea, again and again. Gradually, he lost all feeling in his hands. They kept swinging the blade, but he felt nothing. He only felt the sea breeze blowing toward him and heard the waves striking his body. Gradually, a scarlet trail flowed into the sea.

After one final swing, Bai Mo collapsed unconscious. The tide would rise soon. It would probably drown this unlucky unconscious fool any moment now.

The waves rushed in, but strangely, the surf seemed to deliberately avoid Bai Mo, as though he were a reef in the sea. Then a figure appeared beside him. With his giant-like body, the man picked Bai Mo up, and Bai Mo's hands began to heal miraculously. This was Magnetic Field Power-Cellular Regeneration.

Later, Bai Mo woke. He looked at his hands in seeming disbelief. They felt somewhat unfamiliar, because they now held power, a very strong power. He walked out the door. The sea was still the same sea, and the blade was still the same blade. But now there was someone else on shore: the Great Blade Martial God.

"Um, does this mean I passed?"

Great Saber leaned against a stone tablet without looking at Bai Mo. He merely patted the tablet and said evenly, "People are like blades. Without tempering and sharpening, they cannot become sharp, and they cannot cut anything down. Now you can wield it."

Great Saber had been watching the blade blank the entire time. Bai Mo walked toward it step by step. This time, he raised it again. The blade blank was heavy, but now he could lift it overhead with one arm. Gazing at the enormous blade blank that almost blocked out the sky, Bai Mo froze.

"I've prepared some techniques for you on this stone tablet. Whether you read them is up to you."

Then Great Saber walked into the sea once more.

"Wait!"

Bai Mo called out to stop Great Saber, but Great Saber did not turn back. He simply kept walking.

"Thank you, Great Blade Martial God!"

Hearing those words, Great Saber's steps slowed for an instant. But it was only an instant before he continued into the sea.

Who knew how much time passed? Bai Mo could no longer be bothered to count the days. Throughout this time, he immersed himself in training. Carved into the stone tablet Great Saber had left was a peerless blade technique-the Avici Hell Blade. Bai Mo now loved this feeling, the unmistakable sensation of growing stronger step by step, pain and pleasure together. His daily training filled every moment of his days. He had even brought the blade that once tormented him back into his hut, and lay on it to sleep.

Three years later.

On the tranquil sea, waves surged. Above those waves, a figure silently swung a blade blank. Just then, a fish leaped out of the water.

"Perfect timing. You can test my current strength."

Bai Mo swung at the fish. Something weighing hundreds of jin slammed straight into that ordinary fish. Surely, a blow that could shatter reefs would blast the fish into powder.

Yet it did not. The blade blank struck the fish and hurled it against a reef. The next second, the reef shattered like an exploding watermelon, while the fish remained completely unharmed and merely escaped back into the sea.

"Not bad."

Hearing the voice, Bai Mo could not help smiling as he looked at the man nearby, the Great Blade Martial God. After a year of training, Bai Mo had more or less memorized all the techniques on the stone tablet. After that, Great Saber had come ashore of his own accord.

At first, he merely watched Bai Mo, then began occasionally offering pointers. Great Saber had a keen eye and could spot the flaws in Bai Mo's techniques at a glance. Over the following two years, he had continued guiding Bai Mo.

Putting away the blade blank, Bai Mo approached Great Saber and asked.

"Master, how many tens of thousands of horsepower do I have now? Would I count as an expert in the Martial God Era?"

Great Saber pointed at the blade blank he had left back then and said, "That stone tablet can test your strength. If you can smash it, you'll count as a powerhouse who can hold his own."

Bai Mo did not hesitate after hearing that. Not knowing how strong he was, he desperately wanted to find out what level his strength had reached. Without hesitation, he took a deep breath.

Avici Hell Blade - Splitting the Sky!

But that utterly confident strike failed to damage the stone tablet. It did not leave even the faintest scratch.

"Ugh, impossible. That's impossible."

Bai Mo took quite a blow. After training so hard for so long, he could not even cut down a stone tablet. That strike had failed to cut down the tablet, but it had shattered his pride instead.

Great Saber merely watched. He knew very well that pride was utterly meaningless.

"Brat, arrogance is every powerhouse's natural enemy. When someone thinks he's already invincible, he may well be about to die."

Great Saber slowly stroked the stone tablet, looking calmly at Bai Mo. "You've already achieved some measure of success. There's no point staying in a greenhouse any longer. Brat, go."

At those words, the vast sea seemed to hear Great Saber's command. Countless enormous, surging waves immediately rushed toward Bai Mo. This was the second lesson Great Saber wanted to teach him: truly peerless power was never something proclaimed with words. When you were truly invincible, when you became the strongest person in history, that fact would be known to everyone, just like the waves upon the sea.

Bai Mo tightened his grip on his blade, then closed his eyes. Once, he had nearly drowned in the sea. Now, however, he felt no fear of this tsunami, dozens of times more terrifying than what he had faced back then. It hasn't become weaker. I've become stronger.

Avici Hell Blade - Eighteen Levels of Hell!

Bai Mo swung the blade blank. Countless streams of blade qi stirred up a thousand layers of surf and hurled them straight at the enormous waves. More astonishingly, on closer inspection, the spray Bai Mo had slashed out had actually become countless great blades, chopping into the towering waves. With a boom, countless bursts of blade force cut down the sea's enormous waves. The sea, raging only moments before, became as calm as a pond.

Great Saber said, "That's enough."

Bai Mo said, "Huh? That's enough?"

The Great Blade Martial God nodded.

Bai Mo said, "But... I still can't use the Peerless Demon Blade. Is this really enough, master?"

After receiving the Avici Hell Blade Technique from Great Saber, Bai Mo had begun addressing the Great Blade Martial God as his master. Although Great Saber had not accepted it, he had not refused either. Great Saber, too, felt somewhat dazed. By the time he came back to himself, he had taught Bai Mo almost everything he could. Under his deliberate control, Bai Mo had never reached the realm of Magnetic Field Rotation.

Great Saber knew that cultivating Magnetic Field Power was actually somewhat simpler than cultivating the Complete Realm. That was why the blade blank he had given Bai Mo had been suppressing his progress in Magnetic Field Power all along. But being able to unleash Avici Hell Blade - Eighteen Levels of Hell at the Electric Current Push realm was already enough in Great Saber's eyes.

The Great Blade Martial God said, "The reason you cannot unleash the Peerless Demon Blade is that you haven't found your own blade intent."

Great Saber's words left Bai Mo somewhat bewildered. Although he knew that blade intent existed in Martial God, something so utterly abstruse was simply impossible to comprehend.

Great Saber said, "Blade intent requires the experiences of a lifetime to accumulate, and mine may not suit you. The reason you cannot unleash the Peerless Demon Blade is that your strength, your life, have amounted to nothing but training on this stretch of sea. Without that crucial driving force, naturally, you cannot unleash the Peerless Demon Blade.

*

Great Saber said, "You lack a reason to swing your blade, and my blade intent may not suit you. Just as the Blade of Hell did not suit Bai Wunan when he used it back then, and he ultimately used Universe Battles Me. When you find the will that drives you to swing your blade, that will be the moment your Peerless Demon Blade leaves its sheath. This place can no longer offer you any improvement. Brat, go."

With that, a distorted vortex appeared behind Bai Mo. He stared at it all, somewhat distracted. People were like that: suddenly having to leave a familiar environment always felt a little uncomfortable. But Bai Mo truly had no reason to remain here any longer. It was time for him to go.

"All right, but there's still something I'm curious about, master."

"Speak."

"Exactly how many tens of thousands of horsepower do I have now? And what about my Complete Realm? How many tens of thousands of horsepower does it take to smash that stone tablet?"

"As for power, you're still at Electric Current Push. Your Complete Realm is only about thirty percent. As for that stone tablet, nine hundred and ninety thousand horsepower should be enough to smash it."

Then Great Saber's figure vanished. He was too fast. Even Bai Mo, who was now immensely powerful, could not follow his movements. Or perhaps... the Great Saber of these past three years had been a product of the system all along, a simulated Great Blade Martial God.

But he was still his master. Whether Great Saber acknowledged it or not, Bai Mo had always regarded him as his honored teacher. Then Bai Mo knelt toward the spot where Great Saber had just stood and kowtowed heavily three times. Without further hesitation, he turned and stepped into the vortex.

"You forgot your things."

The familiar voice rang out. Bai Mo turned back in delight, but there was nothing there anymore. The beach and the sea had all vanished. For a moment, Bai Mo thought he had imagined the voice.

Thud! A heavy sound rang out as a blade blank fell. It was the very blade blank Bai Mo had always used for training. He reached out to touch it, and the familiar sensation brought a smile to his face.

"Goodbye, master."