Nine Yang Sword Saint

With every slash of Yang Dingtian’s blade, the invisible banshee body became even more transparent by the seconds. It was probably a sign of how her existence was gradually, but surely, being eradicated.

“Ten more. Ten more hits and this will be over for you,” Yang Dingtian thought to himself.

Swish Swish Swish Swish Swish.

In just a split second, Yang Dingtian had struck nine times with his blade at the banshee. She was practically invisible by this point.

One more hit! That’s all it took. Yang Dingtian just had to spend his very last bit of mystic qi to destroy this banshee completely.

Or so he had thought.

Just before she was about to be exterminated, the banshee glared at Yang Dingtian with her eyes wide than ever before.

“Die. Die. I’ll take you with me…” She scowled, then transformed herself into a dim, grey speck of light. It was a desperate move. The final attempt before her eventual death, apparently.

As weakened as she was, the banshee’s attacks could still be quite lethal if she concentrated her powers into just a small area.

And that’s what she was trying to do. By putting herself in her spiritualized form, the banshee turned herself into a beam that was targeted right towards Yang Dingtian’s head. If she made her way into Yang Dingtian’s head like this, the consequences could be dire.

Yang Dingtian’s first reaction was to defend with his Formless Sword but quickly chose to finish with his Prison Break Sword, a technique he had rarely used before. It would be cool to use just one technique in an entire five-hour fight, but Yang Dingtian didn’t think the Formless Sword was strong enough to withstand the desperate last cry of a banshee.

With Prison Break Sword unleashed, a mysterious shadow emerged from the blade of Yang Dingtian’s youngling sword. After that, it quickly wrapped itself around the banshee and crushed her up.

“Gah…” The banshee shrieked as her entire body shattered into countless sparks of light. Since there was still a bit of life in her, Yang Dingtian decided to deliver the killing blow with his Yin Yang Heaven and Earth Sword, which at the same time, deployed all the mystic qi that was left inside of him.

With his stamina completely drained out, Yang Dingtian dragged himself back to the center of the hall for another breathing session.

It was the same sensation all over again. Yang Dingtian could feel the endless streams of qi entering and filling up his meridian, which then flew into his qi vessel and gradually began to reduce in size.

Slowly, slowly, slowly.

Once the qi had made its way into the qi vessel, it began to reduce into smaller, yet more concentrated units.

After ten hours of filling it up, the qi vessel inside Yang Dingtian’s body was completely full. Afterward, a white flash appeared and took away all his senses, forcing his body into a temporary state of rest.

Yang Dingtian just had another breakthrough, and it was a big one at that. He went straight from an eight star intermediate, eight star senior, all way to becoming a nine star Mystic Martial Artist. He was very close to becoming a Mystic Martial Master.

There really was a lot to learn from this secret realm. With the wrong training method, you can do any hard work, you can try risking your life, even then, you won’t get anywhere in making progress.

On the other hand, the right training method would help you to exceed far beyond your potentials, and you can make the same amount of improvement as you would in a lifetime of training under normal conditions.

After being knocked out two times, Yang Dingtian knew he wasn’t going back to the golden palace. There just wasn’t a point in going back and get his body beat up by the silver robot in the second room. Choosing the fire palace, on the other hand, seemed like a much more worthy option here.

After taking one step in the room inside the fire palace, Yang Dingtian could feel an immense heat from all directions. Every part, every corner, every inch of this place, was burnt as they had just come out of a volcano. Yang Dingtian had to cover himself up in qi to prevent getting hurt by the hundred-degree air around him.

Suddenly, a monster fell out of the wall. Its charcoal-dark body was completely covered in flame, but there was no sign of it being in any kind of pain.

Regardless of the hooves on its legs, its bat-like face and the turned horns on its head, this monster was actually quite similar to a human. Well, in the sense that it had two arms and stood on two legs.

It was a fire yasha. Yang Dingtian knew the mystic beast. It belonged to one of the many existing man-beast species. As speaking of which, the fire yasha was also known for its cruelness and quick wits.

“Welcome, human!” The yasha waved its weapon towards Yang Dingtian, “Your heart must be very delicious. I’ll make sure to enjoy it after I’ve had my fun with you.”

From what it looked like, the fire yasha was wielding a whip that was tens of meters long as its weapon. It was very good at using it, too, judging from how flexibly it was lashing the thing despite green flame burning all over it.

“Inferno Sky Sword!” Yang Dingtian shouted towards the streak of green flame circling on top of his head, and a pile of red flame came out of his youngling sword to deflect the incoming attacks pressing down on him.

Apart from looking for a chance to strike, Yang Dingtian also had to keep covering his body up with the Inferno Sky Sword. Needless to say, this was a very qi-consuming tactic to fight with. Since the flame was materialized purely from his internal energy, Yang Dingtian would’ve to spend more than ten times the qi he would’ve used to perform a normal mystic technique.

Still, fighting this way was way less wasteful than performing a single mystic technique.

With the two twirling flames pushing each other off, Yang Dingtian could feel the heat around him rising. From rough estimation, it went from just about fifty degrees to several thousand degrees in less than a minute.

Unlike Yang Dingtian, the fire yasha was thoroughly enjoying the temperature. Since it was already a fire element mystic beast, turning qi into the fire was already embedded into its instinct. Creating green flames was like snapping a finger to it.

Despite the environmental disadvantage, Yang Dingtian’s rank was still a bit higher than this yasha. He could still match himself against it for about thirty minutes or so. After that, he had no choice but to let the red flame slowly die out.

Once he had hit the thirty-minute mark, Yang Dingtian could feel an intense burn on his skin. It was a hundred degrees. No, two hundred degrees.

This won’t do. There had to be some other way.

Just when Yang Dingtian was about to leave the room, the yasha lashed out its snakelike whip and wrapped it around his head.

Pig Slaying Sword Art: The one strike to the throat.

With a twist of his wrist, Yang Dingtian pointed his sword towards the center of the flame circle above him.

Pig Slaying Sword Art: Cleaning the intestines.

With his weapon moving in a circular movement, Yang Dingtian was able to tie yasha’s whip into a bunch of tangled lines.

Yang Dingtian jumped straight towards the exit, but just when he did so, the whip grew about several meters longer and struck at him from behind.

“Agh…” Yang Dingtian groaned at the sting at his back. Even though he had made his escape, the whip still got him by the neck and inflicted a wound that was deep to the bones.

Damn.

So it didn’t matter which element Yang Dingtian chose. Whatever trial he had decided to enter into, the boss waiting for him would always have an insane amount of home advantage at hand.

Since Yang Dingtian’s injury was rather light this time, it only took about less than half an hour for him to heal up inside the giant’s chest. He went for another breathing session after that, but just as he had thought, there wasn’t even the slightest breakthrough in his mystic qi.

To put it simply, getting yourself beat up would not make you have any improvement in this secret realm.

After he had refilled his mystic qi, the first thing Yang Dingtian decided to do was to head to the ice palace. There was only one reason to do so, and that was to practice his Prison Break Sword technique.

“Oh Go- Ah-choo…” Yang Dingtian sneezed as he took his first step in.

It was super cold in the room. Like so cold, that even time itself was frozen still here. Worst yet, the whole area was covered in white snow, meaning that visibility was virtually zero.

Judging from rough estimation, Yang Dingtian could tell that the temperature here was about negative forty degrees. If it weren’t for his Nine Yang Mystic Meridian, he would’ve had to guard his entire body in mystic qi like most human beings.

Suddenly, a thin layer of ice fell from the wall in front of Yang Dingtian. And as soon as it fell on the ground, a chilling breeze went by and blew it into a statue of a naked woman.

“Hello stranger, are you here to play with me?” The ice woman spoke. Yang Dingtian had never heard a voice so crisp and brittle before.

“It’s so cold here, mister! Could you warm me up with your blood?” The ice woman asked with a seductive smile, but her eyes were as cold as death itself.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh.

Like a butterfly stretching its wings, there were countless shards of ice coming out of the ice woman’s body, and there was absolutely no hiding spot in this room. It was a pretty fancy way of attacking. Pretty cruel, too, at the same time.

If it were anyone else who was entering this trial, the shards would’ve scrunched them up like a school of piranhas. The cuts would’ve chipped away an entire person from the skins to the marrows of their ribs.

The incoming blades completely covered Yang Dingtian. He didn’t defend himself in any way, nor did he try to move from where he was standing.

“Ha ha ha…” The ice woman giggled as she slowly began to retreat her shards, “Bye-bye now, stranger. It isn’t much, but I’ll still thank you for the blood you’ve given me. It’s going to make me ju~st a little warmer than before.”

“Oh, yes. More delicious blood…” The ice woman widened her large, watery eyes while the shards flew back to her body, but something wasn’t right.

Yang Dingtian was still alive. Actually, there wasn’t a single scratch on his body.

“No! How is that possible?” The ice woman gasped, her voice was no longer as soothing and crisp as before.

To be honest, even Yang Dingtian didn’t know that it was going to be this easy with his Nine Yang Mystic Meridian. He knew he had the advantage from the start, but to take no damage at all? There really was a first time for everything.

That being said, Yang Dingtian might as well make the most out of this experience.

“Inferno Sky Sword,” Yang Dingtian shouted, and the youngling sword in his hand started glowing red. There wasn’t any flame coming out of it, though. It’s just that the blade was changing its color.

Yang Dingtian charged towards the ice woman, but strangely, the ice woman wasn’t moving at all. She simply stood still as Yang Dingtian plunged his sword right into her chest.

Needless to say, the hit would’ve shattered the ice woman into pieces. As it turned out, however, that didn’t matter too much.

“Hmm, mmm.” The ice woman smiled as her body slowly broke and fell on the ground.

A cold breeze came by. Then, after blowing the broken pieces back together, the ice woman was in her complete form once again.