Chapter 138: Trading Life for a Curse

Gao Wu discussed the trial of the Elite Ranking with Song Mingyue, and to his surprise, she was already aware of it.

"The trial takes place at the end of September," Song Mingyue said. "I heard from my master that the competition this year will be exceptionally fierce. Beizhou University has specially recruited Grandmaster Li Xuanyang from the military. This grandmaster has brought along a very young and gifted disciple named Li Chunyi. He is said to be a senior warrior with the combat strength of a martial master, and having been through countless battles and slain numerous exotic beasts, he is immensely powerful."

"Indeed, heroes emerge in every generation!"

Instead of feeling daunted, Gao Wu grew somewhat excited. Though the likes of Yan Shanyue were considered geniuses, they failed to spark much of his interest. The main reason was that these three so-called geniuses could only clear up to the sixth stage of the Ultimate Ninefold Heaven, making them seem a bit weak.

Of course, using the Ultimate Ninefold Heaven to measure combat prowess was hardly accurate. The giant tigers in each stage of the Ultimate Ninefold Heaven doubled in strength, but the giant tigers designed for the first six stages all possessed certain glaring weaknesses. For instance, their speed was insufficient, their turning radius was slow, or their perception lacked sharpness. Discovering these weaknesses required multiple rounds of probing.

Genius martial artists like Yan Shanyue faced a persistent problem: every time they entered, they had to start from the very first stage. By the time they reached the sixth stage, their physical and mental energies were utterly exhausted, allowing them at most two or three attempts. This dictated their extremely low clearance efficiency, necessitating long periods of repetitive experimentation.

Gao Wu, however, relied on the Azure Dragon Divine Qi Incantation to swiftly recover his condition. More importantly, he possessed a super-physique that did not fear injury, granting him an extremely high fault-tolerance rate. Even with superior martial arts cultivation, others would never dare to boldly test the waters the way he did. After all, a single mishap could cost them their lives; this was no joking matter.

Gao Wu was well aware of this and did not underestimate Yan Shanyue and the others on that account. That said, the fact that they could not speedrun the Ultimate Ninefold Heaven proved that talents like Yan Shanyue were merely mediocre—at least, they had not reached a realm far surpassing his own.

After chatting with Song Mingyue for a while, Gao Wu proactively initiated a spiritual resonance with her to jointly cultivate their mental power. Having received instructions from a grandmaster, Song Mingyue's Netherworld Dark Serpent displayed significantly more agility. Although her mental power had not increased, the Netherworld Dark Serpent seemed as though it had come alive, and its resonance with the Azure Dragon took on an extra layer of ineffable profundity.

Through resonance with the Netherworld Dark Serpent, the Azure Dragon could draw upon the desolate chill of the serpent to stimulate its vitality. In turn, the Azure Dragon continuously tempered itself while neutralizing that desolate chill, steering Gao Wu's mental power toward a state of rounded perfection.

Through this mental resonance, Gao Wu realized that martial arts grandmasters were truly different. After just half a day of instruction, Song Mingyue's Netherworld Dark Serpent had made massive progress. He was genuinely happy for her; Little Song's progress was his progress!

Returning to his bedroom, Gao Wu completed his daily routine and glanced at the Boundless Merit Book. Seeing that his merits had increased by hundreds of thousands, he felt even better.

Rising the next morning, Gao Wu checked the Boundless Merit Book first. His merits had already surpassed ten million, causing him to breathe a long sigh of relief. With this accumulation of merit at his disposal, he could attempt to awaken a new divine incantation. No matter how severe his injuries might be, as long as he was not torn to shreds, these merits could bring him back from the brink...

Gao Wu packed his backpack, mainly stocking up on Fierce Dragon energy drinks, Intermediate Ginseng Oral Liquid, and other supplies. After bidding farewell to Yang Tailin, Gao Wu entered the Ultimate Ninefold Heaven secret realm.

Drawing on yesterday's experience, it took him only two hours to fight his way to the seventh stage.

The environment in every stage of the Ultimate Ninefold Heaven was identical; the only difference was that the giant tiger grew progressively stronger. The giant tiger of the seventh stage already bore some resemblance to a true tier-7 exotic beast. Its body was covered in neatly arranged dark golden scales that looked like custom-fitted armor, seamlessly conforming to its physique. It possessed both a heavy, substantial texture and sleek lines, exuding a formidable and powerful aesthetic.

In this state, the giant tiger's charge speed reached one hundred meters per second, and it could even execute sudden turns and mid-air position shifts with exceptional agility. The power behind a casual swipe of its tiger paw was at least twenty thousand kilograms—truly terrifying. Combined with its thick golden armor, even the exceptional sharpness of the Destiny Sword struggled to pierce the golden armor after breaking through the tiger's source-energy field.

After pondering for a long time, Gao Wu discovered only two vulnerable spots on the giant tiger's body: its rear and its throat. Due to its anatomical structure, neither location could grow scales of any significant thickness.

Today, Gao Wu intended to try his utmost to clear the stage. Standing inside the red line at the entrance, he first downed two bottles of energy drink before channeling the Azure Dragon Divine Qi Incantation to enter a state of deep meditation. Not until the communicator flashed did Gao Wu snap out of his meditation. He turned off the communicator, stretched his limbs slightly, and stepped into the battlefield.

The dark-golden giant tiger lunged at him head-on. At a velocity of one hundred meters per second, it was as fast as a high-speed train, its charging momentum at least ten times more powerful than the giant tiger in the first stage.

Although Gao Wu desired to trigger a divine incantation, facing the giant tiger's charge head-on still made him somewhat nervous; a single mistake could result in the giant tiger directly crushing him to death! He had actually tried stabbing himself with his sword before, but aside from causing himself some pointless suffering, it yielded no results. Clearly, such self-mutilation lacked effectiveness—he felt no genuine sense of crisis, let alone the intense stimulation of a life-or-death situation.

Yet, confronting the fiercely charging giant tiger, Gao Wu felt that sharp, acute stimulation. Suppressing his instinctive urge to flinch or retreat, he drew the Destiny Sword and slashed straight toward the giant tiger.

The disparity in size between the two was enormous. Gao Wu's sword-wielding figure, though valiant, appeared utterly minuscule, much like a little mountain goat attempting to resist a tiger with its horns...

The giant tiger was not only exceptionally massive, but even more terrifyingly, it could command a powerful source-energy field. According to Gao Wu's estimation, the source-energy value exerted by the giant tiger exceeded five thousand. Even if he unleashed all eight layers of the Azure Dragon Divine Qi Incantation simultaneously, his absolute limit of source energy would only be around three thousand. Even with the Destiny Sword in hand, he could not bridge the massive gap in power, speed, and source energy.

At this moment, Gao Wu did not dare to use the Azure Dragon Divine Qi Incantation, as he was saving it to save his life.

In the blink of an eye, the giant tiger was upon him. It thrust out its paw to grab Gao Wu directly, unsheathing five dark-golden claws a foot long, sharp as blades, shimmering with condensed source energy. The moment a claw swept down, five dark-golden blade-arcs materialized in the void, accompanied by a piercing howl that instantly reached Gao Wu's ears.

The rock-splitting stance Gao Wu used with his rapid slash of the Destiny Sword was intended as an exchange of sword for claw. He fully intended to use the tiger's claw to injure himself while seizing the opportunity to inflict some damage on the tiger in return. Consequently, he poured all his strength and source energy into this single stroke, the chilling sword-light exceptionally unyielding and fierce.

The clash between sword and claw erupted with brilliant radiance. The peerless, terrifying force of the tiger's paw transmitted directly through the Destiny Sword into Gao Wu, causing his protective source-energy field to shatter almost instantly. Just as the sword was about to be wrenched from his grip, he naturally reined in his blade and stepped back, following the irresistible force of the tiger's paw.

At this critical juncture, Gao Wu suddenly recalled the "Overbearing Dragon's Regret" imparted by Lu Yuan. To pull back and withdraw one's force when reaching the absolute peak of strength—this was the essence of the Overbearing Dragon's Regret. Yet, who among those truly at the absolute peak would ever repent? Truly possessing such staggering wisdom would prevent one from ever reaching that tragic end.

Nevertheless, at the level of martial arts, multiple layers of interpretation had already been given to the Overbearing Dragon's Regret. Having received Lu Yuan's teachings and diligently practiced the technique over the past two days, Gao Wu naturally thought of retreating to diffuse the force when confronted with the giant tiger's tyranny, perfectly aligning with the profound meaning of the Overbearing Dragon's Regret.

Grasping this realization, the Destiny Sword transitioned naturally from unyielding to flexible, its spinning blade morphing into a fan-shaped, brilliant arc of light—the exact manifestation born from the Overbearing Dragon's Regret.

The radiant sword-light, dense and resilient, temporarily blocked the tiger's claw.

Yet, the giant tiger still surpassed Gao Wu vastly in every aspect. With another exertion of power from the tiger's paw, the resilient, radiant sword-light instantly shattered. An irresistible, monstrous force surged downward, and amidst a humming vibration, the Destiny Sword was blasted directly out of his hand.

Although Gao Wu had comprehended the Overbearing Dragon's Regret and utilized every exquisite nuance of the technique, it was shattered by the tiger's brute strength, leaving him with no further room to maneuver. The blade-like tiger paw pressed forward, plunging deeply into Gao Wu's chest, the dark-golden claws even protruding from his back.

Yet Gao Wu's physique was extraordinarily resilient; the tiger paw failed to slice him apart and was instead locked tightly by his flesh. The giant tiger paid it no mind, raising its paw to tear Gao Wu apart with a single bite. At that exact moment, his Yin Spirit, grasping the Destiny Sword, unleashed the sixth layer of the Vermilion Bird Divine Light Incantation.

Infused with the Vermilion Bird Divine Light Incantation, the Destiny Sword surged with scarlet flames, its temperature instantly soaring past three thousand degrees...

The formless, invisible Yin Spirit thrust the sword straight ahead. Blazing with fire, the Destiny Sword instantly pierced the giant tiger's protective source-energy field, plunging deep into its rear...

Suffering severe trauma, the giant tiger instinctively flicked its paw, flinging Gao Wu away, while it leaped over ten meters into the air, screaming frantically in the sky!

Despite its massive body, even having a sword thrust into its rear was something it could endure; the fatal flaw was that the Destiny Sword was enhanced by the Vermilion Bird Divine Light Incantation, reaching a heat no flesh and blood could withstand. Furthermore, the Yin Spirit's swordsmanship was supreme, twisting and turning the blade the moment it penetrated, inflicting maximum damage upon the beast. Crucially and viciously, the Yin Spirit did not withdraw the blade, leaving the blazing Destiny Sword embedded deep within the tiger's body.

After all, this creation was merely a simulated energy construct devoid of high intelligence. Knowing full well that something was terribly wrong with its rear yet incapable of fixing it, the tiger could only scream madly and jump about erratically.

Clutching the Destiny Sword, Gao Wu had his Yin Spirit manipulate the blade to rapidly drag him back within the red line.

Reaching safety, Gao Wu let out a breath of relief. Only because the giant tiger lacked intelligence had the Yin Spirit's stealthy ambush succeeded so easily. Against a genuine tier-7 exotic beast, the Yin Spirit would never have had the chance to approach undetected while holding a sword.

Since this was merely a simulated stage, after screaming for a while, the giant tiger's body quickly dissolved, reverting into a cluster of spiritual light, and the Destiny Sword embedded within it dropped to the floor. The door leading to the next stage opened on the opposite wall as well.

However, Gao Wu was in no rush to cross over, nor did he pay attention to the other Destiny Sword. He was currently injured—very, very severely.

The five foot-long tiger claws, carrying terrifying kinetic energy and reinforced by formidable source energy, left his outer body looking intact, while destroying the majority of his internal organs. Only his exceptional constitution allowed him to suffer such wounds without dying. Even martial arts grandmasters like An Ziru possessed physical flesh that could not withstand such horrifying trauma.

At this moment, Gao Wu could barely draw breath. Yet he refrained from activating the Azure Dragon Divine Qi Incantation, waiting instead for the Boundless Merit Book to trigger a new divine incantation...