One Ocean Heart is a school officer.
Two are generals!
Three are marshals!
Four are demon kings!
Five, which is also the highest level, should be the True Demon Emperor himself.
It sounds like the small soldiers are not worth mentioning, but the problem is that the small soldier in front of Ling Xiao is actually a one-tenth power half-step Heavenly Venerable.
This is the lowest level of miscellaneous soldiers, yet they are so strong!
Of course, this level of strength no longer poses a threat to Ling Xiao. He casually shot out a qi sword, and the small soldier shattered, turning into water mist.
Ling Xiao continued forward, but before he had walked more than ten metres, he encountered a similar situation. This time, however, he met a level-two soldier with two-tenths power half-step Heavenly Venerable strength.
The third encounter was a level-three soldier with three-tenths power half-step Heavenly Venerable strength.
At the same time, similar situations appeared in the other completely sealed more than three hundred spaces.
“What’s going on? This is different from what Senior Brother said. How can the enemies be so strong?”
“How powerful was the Demon-Suppressing Empire back then? Even mere small soldiers are so terrifying.”
“I’m done for. It seems I have no chance to continue forward.”
“But if I stay here to cultivate, after ten minutes pass, I’ll still be actively attacked. Indeed, there’s no such cheap thing in the world.”
Battles were taking place simultaneously in these places, and the number of disciples who were killed or voluntarily withdrew was increasing.
After just three rounds of battles, more than twenty disciples had helplessly left the True Demon Forbidden Land.
Not many died, only two, belonging to those who didn’t know better.
Outside the True Demon Forbidden Land.
On the blood-red desert.
Suddenly, more than twenty figures appeared.
“Zhao Zhi!”
“Zhao Ci!”
Yuehua Sect’s Zhao Zhi and Zhao Ci were eliminated. They had no choice; their strength was insufficient. When they encountered level-three soldiers, they had no way to deal with them. However, they knew to quit while they were ahead and retreated as Ling Xiao had said.
“I’m sorry, Sect Master. Our performance wasn’t good enough!”
“Hahaha, it’s already very good, very good! Being able to enter the True Demon Imperial Palace means your ranking is at least within the top four hundred. This result is already excellent, and it might even be better.”
Wu Xiang laughed heartily. He showed no sign of dejection.
“By the way, how are Ling Xiao and the others?” Jin Guang Heavenly Venerable hurriedly came over and asked.
“They should be fine. We all entered that final place thanks to Senior Brother Ling. Even my current cultivation is thanks to Senior Brother Ling’s help.”
Zhao Zhi said excitedly.
“Two-tenths power half-step Heavenly Venerable! How did you improve so quickly?”
Wu Xiang checked Zhao Zhi’s cultivation and was immediately shocked.
“Zhao Ci isn’t bad either; she has broken through to one-tenth power half-step Heavenly Venerable.”
Tian Yan Heavenly Venerable also looked at Zhao Ci and was very satisfied.
In the past, Tian Yan Heavenly Venerable didn’t value Zhao Zhi and Zhao Ci as disciples, but now, these two had become the most outstanding among all his disciples. One couldn’t help but sigh at how things had changed.
“How are our sect’s casualties?”
Zhao Zhi asked.
Before entering the True Demon Imperial Palace, too many had died, especially from Li Youdao and Tang Jiu. Basically, any disciple they encountered couldn’t escape their ruthless hands, except for people from the southern three sects whom they didn’t kill.
“It’s alright; more than ten died, and the rest came back. Some sects are much worse off; they went in with over a hundred people, and only a dozen or so survived.”
Zhao Zhi turned his head and saw that the leaders of some sects were pounding their chests and stamping their feet in grief.
He felt some emotion in his heart.
Other sects were different from Yuehua Sect.
Everyone in Yuehua Sect had secret technique scrolls, refined with Ling Xiao’s help.
So, when encountering danger, they could still escape.
But other sects didn’t have so many secret technique scrolls; each sect having twenty or thirty was already good. The rest had none, and their way to escape was to run outside.
However, with inferior strength, how could they outrun them? Naturally, the casualties were very high.
The people of Yuehua Sect sighed and felt fortunate that their sect had someone like Ling Xiao.
At this time, Ling Xiao was still battling in that sealed space.
Interestingly, every time he killed a soldier condensed from black mist, the black mist would integrate into his body, becoming pure true essence energy.
His cultivation would improve a bit.
At this pace, it was much faster than sitting cross-legged and cultivating there.
The one in front of him was a level-five soldier with five-tenths power half-step Heavenly Venerable strength.
For Ling Xiao, this wasn’t a powerful opponent, but this was still just a small soldier.
He didn’t know how strong the sergeants appearing next would be. Would their strength be equivalent to those top hundred heaven’s favourites in the Martial Arts Festival rankings?
Whoosh!
Still just a qi sword shot out, and the small soldier shattered on contact. The black mist integrated into Ling Xiao’s body, turning into pure energy.
Presumably, others encountered similar situations.
While gaining benefits, the dangers faced also increased.
Naturally, the more of these things killed, the better.
But when the strength reached five-tenths power half-step Heavenly Venerable, the number of people who could confront them decreased further.
The number of failures began to increase constantly.
Just now, more than twenty people had been eliminated, and now, the number eliminated was close to a hundred.
Martial artists above five-tenths power half-step Heavenly Venerable, although more than in previous preliminaries, were only around two hundred or so.
Moreover, under the same realm, some martial artists might not be able to defeat these level-five soldiers. Being eliminated was completely normal.
Fortunately, this was a sealed space. If unable to win, one could voluntarily give up and then escape. They wouldn’t be chased and killed by disciples from other sects, so the death rate was greatly reduced. Basically, they were eliminated and helplessly returned along the original path.
Of course, those with secret technique scrolls could directly teleport out.
On Yuehua Sect’s side, Lan Yu’er could still maintain composure in facing the enemy.
However, Dai Yuling and Leng Hao were struggling more.
Shenjian Sect’s Long Chen had already entered Golden Dragon form, relying on powerful defence to persist; otherwise, he would have been eliminated long ago.
When many martial artists were still facing level-five or even level-four soldiers, Ling Xiao had already confronted a sergeant.
Sergeants were divided into upper sergeant, middle sergeant, and lower sergeant, three levels in total.
Originally, Ling Xiao thought the lower sergeant’s strength would be six-tenths power half-step Heavenly Venerable. However, when he truly encountered it, he realised he was ridiculously wrong.
This guy wasn’t six-tenths power half-step Heavenly Venerable but had directly soared to eight-tenths power half-step Heavenly Venerable!
This was a leapfrog improvement.
Ling Xiao took a deep breath. Among the martial artists entering the True Demon Forbidden Land this time, currently, the highest cultivations were Yan Liehuo, Li Youdao, and the like.
Tang Jiu was also at this level, but he was already dead.
They were all eight-tenths power half-step Heavenly Venerable.
If Ling Xiao wanted to defeat them, then this lower sergeant would be his touchstone.
“Come on, perfect!”
Ling Xiao smiled faintly, took out the Rain-Covering Sword, and prepared to have a good battle with this lower sergeant, trying to fully integrate his newly comprehended sword moves.
