Chapter 304: Martial Skills of Ancient Times (I)
Wang Yuanyuan nodded in response, “That’s right, it should be about technique. If his strength is only at the sixth step, then we couldn’t have possibly lost. We have even beaten powerhouses of the seventh step before! How could we lose against one at the sixth step? But then, could this be that he used the battle skills of the ancient times? Those that have been lost to the current times.”
Han Yu replied, “It is highly possible. This is the only possible explanation. However, this red skeleton’s skills are just too powerful. It’s especially the case for that ability of afterimage, that left even Captain helpless.”
Indeed, Long Haochen had shown all his trump cards. It was not only his Saint Spiritual Stove that had gotten countered by the red skeleton, but even Bright Rain, Hibiscus of Light turned out useless. In the same way, the Lock technique didn’t manage to hit because of that afterimage technique, which played a great role in the red skeleton’s fighting strength that reached the peak and wiped them out completely.
Long Haochen replied, “It should be the case. As a matter of fact, who among you has heard before about those Asura Strike and Asura Thrust abilities we have learnt? Or have even seen those in the Alliance’s Treasure Hall?”
Everyone shook their head.
Long Haochen continued, “Then, it’s very likely techniques from the ancient times that we have learnt. Asura Strike and Asura Thrust were also abilities that this red skeleton possessing the spirit of a powerhouse was capable of learning, but acquiring battle skills requires a great deal of self-training. It looks that this skeleton senior will stay here for some more time. From now on, including Lin Xin and Ying’er, we will all challenge this senior one after another. No more team battle formation!”
“What?” With the exception of the mute Cai’er, everyone looked dumbstruck at Long Haochen.
Beforehand, even by joining hands, the seven of them weren’t a match for that red skeleton. For how many seconds would they be able to last if they went in one versus one just like Long Haochen said?
Long Haochen calmly explained, “There’s nothing strange with that. Do you really believe that without experiencing enough of oppression, you would still be able to break through to the sixth step with no difficulty? Just as you said, your spiritual energy had risen up too fast, and because of this, breaking through will be even more difficult. Those of you that have spiritual energy left will take turns in asking for his guidance. This red skeleton won’t harm us for real, and it’s a teacher of a rare kind to find. It’s especially the case for us close-quarters fighters: if we can learn from those natural and flowing attacks, how could our strength not gain a lot? In a duel, even opponent of one step above wouldn’t be anything to fear.”
Han Yu nodded in approval, “Captain is right. And atop of that, when we passed through the fourth trial, all the three previous ones disappeared. Then, won’t the fourth and the fifth trials disappear accordingly after this? This was a total of several hundred spiritual energy gained every day for us… After breaking through the sixth step, when we get to the five thousand spiritual energy like Captain, we’re not even sure to have the same kind of chance to keep rising up, but that doesn’t mean we should renounce so easily to progressing.”
On the ten following days, they happily took beatings from that tyrannical red skeleton.
However, the word happily could only apply to Long Haochen.
After all, regardless of whether it was at the time he followed Long Xingyu for his training or was trained by Ye Hua, he had almost only experienced hellish kinds of trainings. Thus, despite being the one who looked for the red skeleton the most everyday, he was still the most firm in the group.
Cai’er didn’t whine either. She wasn’t even capable of speaking, so how could she whine?
As for the others, as this time of fun went on, it appeared like torment to them.
The one whose situation was worst was Lin Xin, every time he was sent flying by this red skeleton, he would complain straightforwardly, before lying on the ground and snorting continuously.
However, in this training, their progress was very clear. This could naturally not reflect on their spiritual energy, but on their battle skills.
When being tormented everyday by a skeleton whose battle skills were close to perfect, it was hard not to progress. They were now at least capable of lasting for a bit longer against that red skeleton.
As for Lin Xin, the three seconds he could last at the very beginning already became ten seconds, the changes appearing rather obvious to him. The one who lasted the shortest was still Chen Ying’er, but she was the most helpless about that. At every challenge, she gave a magical crystal for the little big McDull to eat, but right after he’d be taken care of, Chen Ying’er would inevitably follow next. At least for the current time, in the process that McDull crossed hands with the red skeleton, she had never completed the incantation for the Creature Summoning Gate, but McDull’s various skills in times of battle clearly increased.
Long Haochen was as before the one who lasted the longest. In front of the attacks of the red skeleton, he was now capable of lasting for more than a minute. In addition, his battle skills looked more and more smooth as time went on.
Ten days later, Long Haochen and the others decided to temporarily have some time to rest after discussion, and temporarily stopped being abused. One reason for this was because they needed time to stabilize their progression, and also because the day of the opening of the Illusory Paradise was nearing. Someone could already look for them at anytime. To take advantage of this last bit of time, Long Haochen finally took his Holy Spirit Pill, raising his spiritual energy to 6,000.
Although their days of cultivation were dull and uninteresting, it was extremely stable for them. In particular, when sensing the continuous growth of their strength and with Cai’er who stayed continuously by his side, Long Haochen didn’t feel the least lonely.
It could be said that over this past year, his cultivation speed had been the fastest of his whole life, surpassing his past speed by a huge margin.
Father, Mother, wait for me! I’ll be soon looking for you.
Slowly opening his eyes and finding himself inside of their training room, Long Haochen looked at the nearby Cai’er who was still in the midst of cultivation. Ever since they stopped going into the Tower of Eternity, Cai’er rarely communicated with Long Haochen, entirely immersed in her cultivation. Long Haochen could faintly sense that she was already very near to breaking through.
“Haochen, are you inside?” The door was lightly knocked from outside.
“Yes?” Long Haochen agilely landed on the ground, trying as far as possible not to let out any sound that could disturb Cai’er, and opened the door, going out in a flash.
Against his expectations, the one who came was Han Qian.
“Grandteacher, how is it that you came personally? Cai’er is still cultivating, so I’d rather not have us go in.” Long Haochen said with an apologetic expression.
Han Qian replied with a smile, “Don’t worry, cultivation is the most important thing. Hey, wow, it looks that you have lately progressed again.”
Looking at the disciple before him, Han Qian was unable to conceal his own surprise.
It looked that Long Haochen had grown up even more. At fifteen years-old, he looked now close to 1.8 meters tall. The changes on his build were still not the most obvious ones, as what changed the most clearly were his temperament and his expression.
He still had that handsome appearance that girls would envy, but looked somewhat less childish, more mature and muscular, his black hair hanging on his shoulder. If he only looked at his eyes, Han Qian would be absolutely unable to tell out that this child was only fifteen years-old. Long Haochen’s both eyes were still as limpid, without any impurity in his golden eyes, but his gaze was extremely steady and reserved. This looked rather closer to a middle-aged man managing to hold his spiritual energy in. Han Qian was even unable to sense what level his current cultivation reached. But he clearly sensed that compared to the twenty days ago, his disciple had made enormous progress.
Scion of Light, he truly deserves being called Scion of Light! This kid was already at the sixth step, and would perhaps reach his current level of cultivation before even reaching thirty years of age.
As the first Scion of Light of the Temple Alliance, he would inevitably forge a new history. In the known history of the Temple Alliance, the youngest Divine Knight reached his level at the age of thirty seven, but Long Haochen would clearly not take as long.
“Haochen, I came to look for you because of some changes that happened regarding the entrance to the Illusory Paradise.”
“Ah?” Long Haochen was in a sudden alarm. In fact, his group had made all the preparation for entering the Illusory Paradise over the past days, so suddenly hearing of some change appearing was hard to accept for him.
Han Qian calmly continued, “Don’t worry so much. This was a change that happened because of the number of people to be let in! This time, a total of forty-two Demon Hunt Squad had paid assistance to the Southern Mountain’s City, and with the exception of those Emperor grade and King grade Demon Hunt Squad, the rest were all of the Commander grade and below, with an overwhelming number of members that are also at the sixth step of cultivation. Thus, a problem arose to select the candidates for the Illusory Paradise.”
“After all, this is an opportunity that arises only once every century, so everyone would want to go in. But the total quota of people allowed is only of ten, with more than a hundred people competing for that. Thus, I’m afraid that there will be some problem about giving a place to both Cai’er and you.”
Hearing Han Qian say that, Long Haochen nodded in approval, “This would indeed be very unfair to the others. Grandteacher, how has the Alliance decided to assign these ten places?”
Han Qian replied, “There’s nothing to be done. For the sake of fairness, it can only take the shape of a competition. (sigh)…” Saying that, he felt very helpless. Although he was the current representative of the Alliance, the Temple Alliance had a reputation to hold regarding its fairness, so a lot of matters could not be decided by him. Moreover, with so many of those Emperor grade Demon Hunt Squad as well as the people from the Priest Temple as witnesses, a problem would obviously arise with these two allocations scheduled in advance.
“Grandteacher, you don’t have to worry. We’ll just participate in that competition. I am confident in my ability.” Long Haochen actually turned out to be the one who comforted the other party.
Han Qian smiled bitterly in response, “Fool, how could it be that easy! To reach the commander grade of Demon Hunt Squad, all of them crawled out from heaps of corpses. And so that you know, the limit for entering the Illusory Paradise is ten thousand. You have just reached the sixth step, but among those Commander grade Demon Hunt Squads, there’s no lack of youngsters at the peak of the sixth step belonging to all those commander grade Demon Hunt Squads present.”
Long Haochen chuckled to that, “Grandteacher, there are some trials that cannot be avoided in one’s life. How could we know before trying beforehand? Are there prior requirements for participating in this competition?”