The First Level

Xue Chang realized that he had a severe lapse in judgement the second he felt a thump fall into the pits of his stomach.

Immediately a cracking sound escaped from his abdomen.

While Tian Hai was frozen there in shock, the golems were not the same. They all went into a frenzy and charged straight at him without any regard of what was around them.

Their erratic and mad behavior was a surprise for Xue Chang so his first instinct was to dodge out of the way.

Taking a step to the side, he brought his saber around and sliced off the arms of one of the golems. And as he suspected, they were able to regenerate but the density of the spiritual force in the air began to lower.

It seemed that orb really couldn't send its energy out anymore and one enough damage was accumulated, the golems would be done for.

Finally without worry, he began his retaliation against the animated objects.

Every step he took was accompanied with a swing from his blade. Stone limbs and heads flew into the air as he began to overpower the statues.

But it didn't last long.

As the battle raged on, Xue Chang felt a stabbing pain within his guts.

It felt like shards of broken glass had been shoved down his throat and were now tearing away at his organs.

And the pain only got worse from there.

His movements began to slow down and the amount of times the golems actually struck him began to increase.

Tian Hai, who was on the sideline, noticed his strange maneuvers and got a bad feeling from it.

And when he got a clear look at the expression in Xue Chang's face, he knew that something had gone wrong.

Xue Chang had an expression of absolute agony. His face was scrunched up and he was ba to NG his teeth, while clenching his jaw tightly.

It was obvious that he was in extreme pain, but Tian Hai couldn't tell why.

But things only got worse from there.

As he accumulated more injuries, Xue Chang's healing speed, which was incomparable to even the golems who were known for their regeneration, had begun to slow down.

The number of wounds he had increased but he was unable to heal them.

Something was seriously wrong!

Tian Hai picked up his sword and prepared himself to charge in there.

Meanwhile Xue Chang wasn't having the best of times.

It wasn't that he was unable to regenerate anymore, but something inside of him was holding him back.

It was like the pain in his body was tearing away at him continuously on the inside and was disrupting his concentration.

Now he could only focus int he battle at hand and healing whatever it was destroying him in the inside.

"You fool! You actually swallowed a spirit seal! That thing can store and release an unbelievable amount of spiritual force. The very thing your body is incompatible with!"

Yong Heng couldn't believe what he just witnessed. He couldn't figure out for the life of him what made Xue Chang do what he did.

The spirit seal was the name of the orb, and after witnessing everything that had happened lately Yong Heng realized what was going on.

It seemed that the golems were somehow connected to the spirit seal and every time they were injured, it would release spiritual force in order to assist the automatons in their repair.

As such, although he could now permanently injure the golems, the spiritual force distributed by the spirit seal would in turn make a mess of Xue Chang.

It was injury for injury.

Yet while Yong Heng should've been a little worried, he was actually quite excited instead.

I mean, why wouldn't he be excited?

Although Xue Chang's decision had placed him into a precarious situation... this was also a great chance for the both of them.

While he expressed his anger toward Xue Chang's idiotic decision, he was secretly gleeful on the inside.

But that didn't mean he wasn't worried about the danger it poses. If he didn't escape with his life, then it really wouldn't matter what advantages they might receive in the end.

And just as Xue Chang was about to collapse due to the intake of spiritual force, a flash of light flew passed him and pierced into the heads of two golems.

The two statues, that had tried to slam down their fists onto Xue Chang, fell on the stop and their movements ceased.

Finally Tian Hai had arrived.

"Xue Chang, what's wrong!"

Through his clenched jaw, Xue Chang was barely able to sputter out a couple of words, "Orb...spiritual- force... bad... golems heal... energy release..."

Although his words were broken and most incomprehensible, with what he knew of Xue Chang he was able to piece the puzzle together.

While he wanted to immediately find a way to assist his friend, he had to deal with the left over golems first.

The eight golems that Tian Kai had speared were still stuck to he wall, meanwhile Xue Chang himself had dealt with twelve of them.

That meant only four were left.

He had to deal with them quickly and then assist Xue Chang as from what he could gather, every time a golem was destroyed more spiritual force would be released from the orb.

Taking in a deep breath, Tian Hai prepared himself for what was to come out.

Holding his sword to beside him, he felt the elemental energy within his body rumble and shake as his strength began to flow into his blade.

Crescent slash was the first proper skill he and Tian Kai had ever learned. But it wasn't the only one.

Crescent slabs was simple and straight forward, a swipe of the blade while leaving your wrist flavor until the last moment.

This gave him all the time he needed to adjust the trajectory no matter what came in his path, and that's what made it so unique. It never missed.

But his other skills were much harder to learn than that.

Especially this one.

As the elemental energy dispersed within his sword, cracks and tears began to form across the face of the blade.

And as he swung it in the four golems direction, the blade actually disappeared from sight before even reaching the golems themselves!

"Lunar Arch!"

Like the moon slowly fading every night until it completely disappeared, only to reappear shortly after; his blade, which had vanished, reappeared every time it passed through a golem.

Crescent slash was the attack that couldn't be dodged, but Lunar arch was the attack that couldn't be blocked.

The martial art was designed by Xue Chang, Tian Hai, and Tian Kai together. While Xue Chang really did most of the work, they would pitch in whenever they could.

And when it was being created, they all had the same question, how many techniques did one need to become invincible?

The answer... was four.

The second technique of their four step martial art, lunar arch was devastating. It's only downside was that it took up some spiritual force or elemental energy, unlike crescent slash which solely depended on one's comprehension and battle prowess.

But the destructive force was worth it.

It couldn't even be said that the golems were defeated, they were completely decimated.

Each one exploding into thousands of pieces, and falling to the ground like grains of sand. This was undoubtedly his victory.

But he would rather not use this skill often as not only did it take up a lot of his strength, but his weapon couldn't handle it.

The sword within his grasp shattered to pieces as the cracks formed across the blade tore down the weapon.

Tian Hai felt his body immediately empty of all strength as he struggled to even stay conscious.

No matter how strong they were; at their level of strength, which wasn't even at the first level of Qi refinement yet, they couldn't use these skills and abilities easily.

Each one was almost too much for them to handle. Yet when it was brought out, it was a game changer.

With the golems dealt with, Tian Hai immediately ran over to Xue Chang to see if he could help with anything.

But things weren't looking good.

Xue Chang was kneeling on all four and while Tian Hai didn't have unique eyes like Xue Chang did, he could still feel the rich spiritual force flowing from his body.

"What should I do!?"

Although he asked that, Xue Chang was in too much pain to respond properly.

Tian Hai took a hold of Xue Chang's arm and tried to think of any solution.

But as he took a hold of his hand, he could feel I his depleted strength refresh a little.

That was when an idea popped into his mind.

Tian Kai and Tian Hai always carried with them a bottle of earth fire in case they ever had time to cultivate. After all their cultivation depended on earth fire and spiritual force was only a resource for replenishing their lost strength.

And right now with his body drained of power, it was the ideal time for him to begin replenishing his strength.

Uncorking the vial and swallowing the contents, a blazing heat engulfed his body as he placed his hands over the fallen Xue Chang.

At that moment he began to absorb the spiritual force from his body to replenish his own strength. And whenever his dantian began to get filled up, he would use the burning hot earth fire he swallowed to forcefully advance his cultivation further.

And with his strength rising, he'd be able absorb more spiritual force from Xue Chang's body.

The effects of his actions could be seen immediately as he Xue Chang's face began to calm itself.

Three hours later the spiritual force within Xue Chang's body was removed.

Although the spirit seal was still trapped inside of him, and undoubtedly held more of the energy inside of it, at this moment it was no longer an issue.

And as soon as the situation was dealt with, Xue Chang felt his consciousness fade away as he passed out due to the painful experience he went through with the spiritual force.

Meanwhile Tian Hai sat back with sweat dripping from his brow.

Heaving out mouthfuls of air, he looked over at his fallen friend and clapped his back kindly.

"Sorry Xue Chang, looks like I might not be able to accompany you for a while."

With a sad smile hanging on his face, Tian Hai walked out of the strange chamber and back to the surface.

Looking at his body which was beaten and battered from the golems, and sensing his internal organs being burnt and maimed from his directly consuming earth fire, which was something no one in their right minds would do because of the intensity of the heat, he couldn't help but think about how unprepared he was.

With his injuries already weakening him, and his weapon gone, he didn't expect much for what was to come next.

A dark cloud formed overhead as thunder and lightning streaked across the sky.

Loud booms resounded in the air as all the hair on Tian Hai's body stood on their ends.

His forceful absorption of the earth fire and spiritual force underground had caused his cultivation to advance rapidly.

And with his already stable foundation, it wasn't long before he was supposed to make a breakthrough into the first level.

Yet that experience had shot up his strength all the way up to the first level.

Without enough time for preparations, Tian Hai was now to face his cultivation tribulation!