Edited by Lord Immortal

Lin Xun’s closed-door cultivation resulted in a significant improvement, enabling him reach the Mastery of Human-gang Realm. His fighting prowess had also been improved.

If he fought with Huang Jianchen again, Lin Xun was absolutely confident that he could easily defeat him without even using RFS (Reaching for the star).

Honestly speaking, Lin Xun did not feel much threatened when he had fought against Huang Jianchen in the arena last time.

The last cut that defeated Huang Jianchen at the end contained only thirty percent power of RFS. He hadn’t used the full power of it.

As for how strong he was now, even Lin Xun wasn’t sure. At least he wouldn’t be afraid when encountering the Earth-gang practitioners.

After adapting to the strength changes, Lin Xun took a deep breath to converge his raging energy. In a flash, his fierce power was restrained, and his temperament returned to its previous indifference.

Humming ~

In the room, Assembling Spirit Formation was withdrawn by Lin Xun and completely disappeared.

Although this practice had lasted for just one month, it consumed a lot of materials. First of all, the purchased Cloud-gang & Purple-spirit Pills had already been completely used up. At the same time, wielding the Assembling Spirit Formation for one day needed ten high-ranking spiritual stones.

So just this month, Lin Xun spent more than six thousand gold coins for cultivation.

Such a colossal expenditure was absolutely unaffordable for the average practitioners. Even those descendants of wealthy families wouldn’t spend so many materials on a single month’s practice.

However, there was no other way as Lin Xun’s Windstorm Millstone was a bottomless pit. While possessing profound and incomparable power, he also consumed much more resources than the other practitioners in the same realm.

“Every coin has two sides.” To maintain his extraordinary strength, Lin needed more cultivation resources.

Otherwise, even if his natural gifts and talents were outstanding, without enough support, it was doomed to be impossible to go far on the path of cultivation.

This was the same as the common saying that a skillful woman can’t not cook without rice.

When Lin Xun walked out of the room, Shue Jin, who had been drinking, looked up at Lin Xun carefully for a moment and then muttered, “What a monster indeed!”

Lin Xun was startled and asked with a laugh, “Why do you say that?”

Shue Jin answered grumpily, “I’ve never seen any Human-gang practitioner who can practice without eating or drinking for a whole month. Those who tried to do so either went mad or died of body explosion. However, nothing has happened to you, and you have improved your cultivation during this time. Aren’t you a monster?”

Lin Xun stood there as if in deep thought, then gravely announced, “Old Jin, if you want to praise me, just say it directly. You don’t need to beat around the bush; that seems too polite.”

Shue Jin felt as if the air was stuck in his chest as he retorted, “You are getting more and more shameless, boy. Aren’t you afraid of retribution for your arrogance?”

Lin Xun thought about it and laughed, “It’s all right. There are too many shameless people in the world, and I’m just one of them.”

Shue Jin had no way to deal with Lin Xun’s words. He changed the topic, “Are you planning to attend the Centennial Celebration of Keystone Business? It’s not too late now if you want to go there.”

Lin Xun shook his head, “I’m not interested in that, so I’ve asked Chu Feng to take my place. I’m here for something else.”

Shue Jin sighed, “I knew that the more familiar you get, the less polite you will be. Now you even take it for granted to ask for my help. I wonder whether I should keep some distance from you in the future.”

Lin Xun replied with a smile, “Of course, you can keep away from me, but if that’s the case, it will be difficult to make an armor with spiritual tattoos for you in the future. After all, you would have drawn a clear line with me. I have no way to give you a favor.”

Before he could even finish, Shue Jin felt a headache coming and cried out, “Stop this nonsense, you little fox. What are you going to do?”

Lin Xun stopped before going too far. He then turned serious, “From now on, I need to once again go into closed-door cultivation for some time. If it’s quick, it may be for just one day. But I don’t know how long it will really take. I just hope that during this period, you can guarantee that nobody will disturb me.”

Shue Jin didn’t understand, “What’s the difference between this practice and the previous one?”

Lin Xun answered, “It’s not the same. Without your protection, if an accident happens, the consequences will be dire.”

Shue Jin narrowed his eyes. He could vaguely perceive that it should not only be a simple practice.

“Deal.”

Shue Jin thought for a moment and agreed.

Lin Xun breathed a long sigh of relief.

Today, the third pass of Green-cloud Path in the Heaven-accessing Place would open. Lin Xun knew very well that once he entered the Heaven-accessing Place, he would lose all sense of the outside world. If someone disturbed him at that time, it would lead him to fatal danger.

In the past, Lin Xun was in safe places like Feiyun Village and Bloodthirsty Camp. Therefore, Lin Xun did not have to worry about any danger when he broke through the passes.

But now, it was different. There were many enemies in Mist City. They might be afraid of his fighting prowess and dared not offend him at this time. But what if that really happened?

Therefore, Lin Xun had asked Shue Jin for help.

…

Returning to his room, Lin Xun sat cross-legged on the bed, emptied his mind, and quietly perceived the Gate to Heaven that was suspended in his Sea of Consciousness.

Lin Xun didn’t know how much time had passed when he felt the shaking of his Sea of Consciousness. In a trance, the familiar feeling surged all over his body.

In an instant, Lin Xun appeared in that mysterious space once again.

Straight Green-cloud Path was floating in the air, leading to the end afar where there was the mysterious and lofty Gate to Heaven.

Lin Xun stood on the Green-cloud Path, looked around, and became sentimental. Unconsciously, a whole year had gone by since he broke through the second pass.

Soon, the familiar obscure wave came quietly and swept through Lin Xun’s whole body. A cold, emotionless voice sounded in the space.

“Practitioner, the third pass of Green-cloud Path is Hundred Battles. You have three chances to break it through. Each time you fail, you will have seven days to adjust yourself. If you fail three times, you will lose the qualification to challenge. At the same time, the Heaven-accessing Place will reduce to be sealed.”

“I understand.”

Lin Xun nodded. He had been here many times and was familiar with the sound.

“The break-through begins.”

With the sound, a sharp light suddenly appeared on the Green-cloud Path. It instantly covered Lin Xun’s figure.

“Entering the Secret Realm of Hundred Battles and fighting with a hundred strongman.”

“You can smoothly pass if you aren’t defeated in a hundred battles, but you won’t get any rewards.”

“If you win a hundred battles, you will be rewarded.”

“If you fail in any battle, you lose a chance.”

The ice-cold voice continuously sounded, announcing the rules of passing the third pass of the Green-cloud Path.

Lin Xun found himself on a large platform that was suspended in the air. Looking around, it was boundless nothingness.

Around the platform, there were many sculptures. Each of them took different shapes. There were people, demons, ghosts, spirits, and even some strange living creatures that Lin Xun had never heard of.

Some sculptures had two pairs of wings and a skeleton with a vertical eye between their eyebrows.

Some sculptures were giants with black scales who stood on a tortoise and had a snake around their ears.

Some sculptures were Taurens with golden skulls, heavily armored, riding nameless beasts, and holding dancing lightning.

Every different image was just like a representation of the ancient living creatures. They appeared together after boundless years and brought an unspeakable shock to Lin Xun.

Lin looked around and was surprised to see these sculptures that were so mysterious and strange that he had never heard of such creatures before in the world.

There were many legends about ancient times in the empire, such as humans, gods, demons, and so on. But Lin Xun couldn’t merge those legends with the statues in front of him.

It was too mysterious and amazing to imagine the origin of these creatures and why they had appeared in Heaven-accessing Place in the form of sculptures.

According to the instructions from the cold voice, he would experience a hundred battles with strongmen in this secret realm. Did those sculptures had something to do with those strongmen?

Lin Xun’s heart was not calm.

“Practitioner, in this Secret Realm of Hundred Battles, you have a hundred opportunities to fight. If you can’t persevere until the end, you fail this time.”

“In battles, every death means failure. After the resurrection, you have a quarter of an hour to adjust.”

Suddenly, that cold voice resounded again, elaborating the rules of this battle.

This stunned Lin Xun. There were altogether three opportunities for passing, and each time he would fight a hundred battles.

This was a bizarre way of breaking through the challenge.

What struck Lin most was that after a death in the battle, there was still a chance of resurrection. It was quite shocking.

But he soon reasoned that this Heaven-accessing Place was a mysterious place, so everything presented in front of him must be derived from some unfathomable and terrible power. In that case, death and resurrection should not be a reality, and it must be done through the rules of illusion.

Otherwise, all this would be too shocking and completely break the law of life.

Lin Xun carefully studied the rules and found that even if he failed a hundred battles, he could pass the trial successfully with the help of resurrection. That was weirdly simple.

If so, with the idea of failing a hundred times and relying on the resurrection conditions in the rules, he could pass the challenge easily.

But soon, Lin Xun frowned. It would not be so simple. There were only three chances to break through the challenge. Each time, there were a hundred battles. If it were so easy to pass this trial, the conditions for breaking through the customs would not have been so complicated.

Humming ~

Lin Xun had no time to think too much. In the right corner of the platform, there was a snake sculpture with four arms and an aggressive appearance. It produced a strange wave, and with a twist, the stone debris around it peeled off its body as if it had come alive.