The Third Trial

After a while, the effects of the fist finally dissipated, allowing Wu Zhen to see again. The power of Endless Void fists was truly endless.

The next day.

Wu Zhen signed up for yet another match, but this time, it was against a Qi Ocean 4. He wanted to push himself to truly get even stronger. That match with Yu Qiling had enlightened him on how to get stronger. Fighting with people weaker than him wouldn't help him at all, only strong opponents could truly unleash his full potential.

The match had already started in a couple of minutes. Ever since that spectacular match with Yu Qiling, they had begun giving him priority over other fighters due to his popularity.

The man he was fighting was bald and was wearing a yellow robe. He looked like a monk.

His opponent looked up at Wu Zhen before dashing towards him at high speeds. The monk tried to punch Wu Zhen but using the perceptive abilities of his soul, Wu Zhen was able to dodge just in time. The monk wasn't just going to stand there, though, he continued to send a barrage of kicks and punches in Wu Zhen's direction, some of which missed and some of which hit.

Wu Zhen was sick of getting hit, he wanted to hit his opponent too, so he replied with a barrage of his own. It quickly devolved into an all-out brawl.

The monk had an upper hand due to his high cultivation which meant he had a larger amount of qi. With a larger amount of qi, he could continue fighting until Wu Zhen ran out and end the fight.

"Golden Ape Fist!"

The monk's fist glowed a bright gold and struck Wu Zhen with the fierceness of an ape trying to survive in the rough jungle.

"Thunderstorm Palm!"

Wu Zhen's palm was surrounded by bolts of lightning as he dashed forward as fast as he could.

Both of their attacks hit each other, and they were flung backward from the sheer force it created. Wu Zhen looked at the monk, who was still in the arena.

"I'll show you my full power now."

He condensed all his qi into his closed fist, and let out a guttural scream as he let out his most powerful trump card.

There was no glow to his fist, only the absence of glow. Darkness identical to what happened in the practice stage spread throughout the arena.

It was the Endless Void fists.

The crowd was shocked and confused. The darkness had spread over the entire arena, not allowing anyone to see anything.

Finally, the darkness dispersed, letting them see the arena. The monk was laying on the floor while Wu Zhen stood victorious.

The crowd cheered intensely as he left the arena.

Without the Endless Void fists, that monk would've been hard to defeat, but now that Wu Zhen had comprehended the first move of the Endless Void fists, it became easy.

The rewards for the battle were many. 10000 gold, and a token that allowed access to the second floor of the Martial Star Library.

Wu Zhen rushed over to the Martial Star Library, entering the second floor and beginning to read all the palm and fist techniques. The elder who guarded the library once again observed Wu Zhen's insane binge of every martial art book in the library.

Wu Zhen read god knows how many books per day, memorizing hundreds of martial arts. Unlike the first level, the second level contained many Origin level mid-rank martial arts. Origin-level mid-rank martial arts were much stronger than low-rank martial arts, being created by combining multiple lower-level martial arts into one, taking the best aspects of each.

Each rank was somewhat like a sieve, allowing only the best aspects of every martial art to pass on, which made the next rank more powerful.

Even though there were only around 1000 martial arts on the second floor, each of them was much harder to memorize than lower-ranked martial arts, meaning that the time taken would actually be greater.

5 months. 5 months had passed since he came to the mortal world, and he finally exited the Martial Star Library. After exiting the Martial Star Library, he decided to return to his town and stay with his parents for one month before returning.

It took him about a week to return to his town. Once he came back, he gave his parents all the money he had collected fighting in the Martial Star Arena. He didn't keep a single piece of it. After all, money and such didn't exist where he was going.

He practiced as hard as he could to unlock more martial intents. He was going to need every single bit of strength he had to survive the next trials. Every second was spent trying to improve.

Finally, it was time to return. He sat down on the ground and waited.

He waited and waited, and suddenly, he was back.

The familiar great void surrounded him. He was alone once again.

It had been a pleasant half a year in the mortal world, but here he was again, in this place of great fortune and disaster.

"Oh, finally back to this god-forsaken place."

Words appeared in front of him.

[3 months, 24 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes, and 45 seconds remaining.]

There were almost 4 months till the beginning of the next trial. Now that 6 months had passed, his cultivation had finally stabilized, which meant it was finally time to breakthrough!

He activated the Great Dao Vortex Art, which immediately began to funnel qi into his body.

Faster, faster, faster...

The rate of its growth was even faster than when he was in the Qi Condensation realm.

The speed of cultivation using the Great Dao Vortex art was astonishing.

Low Qi Ocean 1, achieved.

Mid Qi Ocean 1, achieved.

High Qi Ocean 1, achieved.

2 months had passed. Wu Zhen had grown used to sitting still like a statue, managing to even stop his thoughts. As a Qi Ocean cultivator, his hunger and thirst had decreased, allowing him to not eat. sleep or drink for a few months as long as he kept absorbing qi. Its body was directly using the energy from qi to function instead of using the energy it got from food.

Whenever he got bored, he would just chat with Freedom God-Emperor, who would tell him the tales of his bravery back when he was alive. The months flew by quickly.

Soon, he was at the very peak of Qi Ocean 1.

The immense amount of energy flowing in every second completely obliterated the bottleneck, allowing him to progress to Qi Ocean 2.

Still, it didn't stop. It continued all the way to the peak of Low Qi Ocean 2. Then, he could finally move.

It had been three months, meaning there was only 1 month and 24 days left before the next trial started.

Wu Zhen gobbled up the meal that was provided to him every day. Although he wanted to eat more, he just didn't have anymore. After that, he once again went into a deep slumber and awoke almost a week later.

17 days and 1 month left.

He planned to try to master the 2nd move of Endless Void fists, Void Consumes All.

While he had mastered the 1st move, the 2nd move was still far too hard to perform for him.

He tried over and over again, failing in miserable ways. Freedom God-Emperor snickered at him, which made Wu Zhen even more frustrated. He, the perception genius, could not perform a move!

No matter what he did, the 2nd move stumped him, so he gave up. Instead, he began trying to unlock more Origin-level mid-rank martial intents. Perhaps he had to build up his Dao of martial arts more before comprehending the second move.

Comprehending mid-tier intents was a piece of cake compared to performing the 2nd move of Endless Void fists. Within 1 month, he had unlocked 5 Origin-level mid-rank intents. All of them were a little weaker than the Divine Lightning Intent, but they were still useful.

1 minute was left till the third trial began. Wu Zhen had comprehended 7 martial intents by now. He was ready.

He wondered what the third trial was. Would he be forced to climb another mountain, or fight an especially strong opponent? Would it perhaps be like the secret trial where he had to face illusions?

His heartbeat rose rapidly.

[The Third Trial will now be beginning. Transporting contestant...]

He was suddenly teleported to a sea of stars. He was floating. There was no ground above him, nor a ceiling above him. Darkness surrounded him. He couldn't even make out if he was moving or staying still. In the area surrounding him, he could see other people!

He called out to them, but they couldn't hear him.

How could anyone hear him? It would be impossible! After all, this was space!