Promoted to Level 5, King of Battle!

"Hum..." The little flower blooming upon the Intent Seed, which had long since transformed to the third stage, began to grow. Bigger! Bigger! Bigger! The flower shot into the sky, thrusting aside the weight of the great stone. A trunk lengthened, branches spread—and the flower became a little tree! The third-stage Intent Seed had become a battle-intent sapling! With that, his battle intent had fully matured! Bai Zhou stood where he was and did not move. His expression was dazed, his mind sunk deep within. This ancient ruin of an arena was welcoming, in its own peculiar way, the first visitor it had received in countless years. Last words all over the ground, and marks all over the walls, laid those bygone days out before Bai Zhou. Scene after scene of life-and-death combat he seemed to see through his daze, and the sounds of roaring and slaughter never left his ears. "Such pure combat. Such a powerful heart for battle!" Bai Zhou felt the blood throughout his body burning, boiling. Surging battle intent turned to hot currents running through his limbs and bones. Watching the countless movements of those people as they slaughtered one another, he suddenly felt that something familiar to his eye lay within them. "This is...?" Bai Zhou went blank all at once. Every fist, every saber, every sword, every claw—the secret techniques they used in battle, even as a blazing realm of Intent clung to them, actually seemed to carry part of the techniques of the Nine Basic Slashes as well! Though these techniques were only superficially alike, and not wholly the same, it was as if... the Nine Basic Slashes contained every variation of these secret techniques, as if it were the ancestor and the source of them! "That would follow. The Nine Basic Slashes are vast and profound, and they are an inherited secret technique of the Sun Temple..." "In the civilization of Troy, the secret techniques mastered by these level-6 Gladiators might all have had some connection to the Nine Basic Slashes." The realization broke over Bai Zhou, and then he watched with every shred of his concentration. In those people's hands, the technique of every swing could be called perfect, like an art of slaughter, and Bai Zhou watched as if drunk on it. Little by little, he finally understood why his comprehension of the "Fifth Basic Slash" had been stuck all this time, as if he were looking at flowers through fog. Studying it, he had spent twice the effort for half the result, and could hardly make any real breakthrough. So that was it. Of the eighty-one moves in the eighty-one pictures of the Fifth Basic Slash, more than half had to be driven by a realm of Intent... Back in the gray fog, Bai Zhou had once picked up knowledge of a similar kind. It was half a volume. In it there was a supporting character whose family sword art was claimed to be unrivaled under heaven, yet no matter how he trained, it remained utterly ordinary—until he himself cultivated the corresponding internal force. At once the same sword moves multiplied in power, swift as a ghost. "Intent" was just such a thing. Only by attaching "Intent" to the saber moves could one comprehend the true essence of the Fifth Basic Slash. Perhaps it was for this reason, too, that there was a saying one had to comprehend Intent before breaking through to level 5. Because a secret technique capable of helping an Extraordinary break through to level 5 required, before all else, that one comprehend a mature Intent. Only then could one truly step through its gate! Now, before those seniors who used the Nine Basic Slashes, Bai Zhou watched them fight at the very edge of life and death with techniques that contained the Nine Basic Slashes. Understanding leapt from one thing to another, and his grasp of the eighty-one pictures corresponding to the Fifth Basic Slash advanced by bounds! One powerful senior Adventurer after another, using secret techniques similar to Bai Zhou's own, fought without holding anything back at the edge of life and death, and let Bai Zhou experience it as if he stood there himself. This was simply cheating. Bai Zhou quickly digested the knowledge of the Fifth Basic Slash. And not only the Fifth. He had even gained a little understanding of the Sixth Basic Slash. "Hoo..." Surging "Intent" rose of itself from his body. This "Intent" had neither form nor color, yet it shrouded the space all around. If another person stood within it, they would feel this surging, pure battle intent. Under its influence, they would either be frightened out of their wits, as if facing a vast army, or be stirred by it, morale soaring, fearing neither life nor death! Blazing! Domineering! Pressing on, and never turning back! Above the arena. A pair of eyes like emeralds faded in and out of the air. The main body of the Wolf Knight statue was still inside the Sun Temple, yet in truth he took in everything in the arena. "Pure battle intent is the Intent best suited to the Adventurer pathway, but in truth not many can comprehend it." "Because it requires a fearless heart, the courage to draw a blade against anyone at all, and, for its driving force, the conviction to fight without cease at any time." The Wolf Knight shook his head. "And yet, in Troy, within the mere scope of a Professional, how many battles of life and death can an ordinary person experience? In Troy the strong stand thick as clouds. The more one knows how vast heaven and earth are, and how small one is oneself, the less one can nurture an invincible heart at the stage of a level-5 Professional." "That battle intent could appear upon an existence such as Wolf is because, back in those years, he was... Naturally he possessed a proud and invincible heart. The slaughter of the countless Gladiators in the arena, though filled with the purest traces of combat, used Intent that for the most part was not battle intent. Just as their secret techniques were all born of the Nine Basic Slashes, in truth not one of them was qualified to learn the Nine Basic Slashes." "In the early years, countless somewhat weaker Gladiators also had to enter the arena and fight. Among them there was no lack of people who hoped to comprehend battle intent at the edge of life-and-death slaughter. Only, those who succeeded were very few." The Wolf Knight statue offered this judgment, speaking into the empty air before him, as if addressing the High Priest in the heavens, and as if talking to himself. "But Bai Zhou had only to fight me, and he comprehended a seed of battle intent. That means his past experiences were likely far from ordinary. His confidence is even further beyond my understanding." "If he can succeed..." A ghostly green light flickered in the eyes of the Wolf Knight statue. "Then upon him I would be able to see, at one and the same time, the shadows of both Wolf and Our King." "Bearing the strengths of both, shouldering the inheritances of both—can it be that he is truly able to take Troy's future upon his shoulders?" As it spoke, it raised its head and looked toward the deep darkness within the temple. The emeralds flickered faintly, and it said no more. In the arena. A purple-gold saber appeared all at once in Bai Zhou's hand. His consciousness was nearly scorching. A giant tree of battle intent shot skyward in his heart, and deep in his mind the eighty-one pictures of the Fifth Basic Slash lit up one after another. Then Bai Zhou drove his battle intent and laid it upon the saber. As if he had forgotten every variation of form and technique, his body only followed where Intent went. Yielding to the boiling, surging battle intent in his heart, Bai Zhou swung the saber in his hand. "Slash!" With all his strength he cut straight ahead, holding nothing back—toward the empty air before him, toward the marks covering the walls, toward the eternal silence of this arena, old as the ages. "Boom, boom, boom!" Saber intent passed over the last words strewn across the ground, its momentum vast, as if he were deliberately performing it for them to witness. "Rumble, rumble, rumble." After flying nearly a hundred meters, the formless saber intent exploded. A great stretch of gravel on the ground was crushed by an invisible force, forming a fan-shaped vacuum, and the air all around twisted as if it had been cut apart. "I..." Bai Zhou's spirit shook. "I made it!" In the next instant. "Hum!" The Sea of Ignorance boiled once more. Formless saber intent surged up from beneath his Fate Principle, rose into the air, and became a secret art mark in the shape of a long saber, slowly branding itself onto the White Sun of his Fate Principle. Bai Zhou's heart shook. —The fifth secret art mark! Before this secret art mark, there were four others. One mark was like a red moon. It was the Moon Cinder section of Moon Cinder Holy Oath Slash made manifest, exhausting the profundity of "Body." One mark was like a human face opening its mouth to recite an oath. It was the Holy Oath section of Moon Cinder Holy Oath Slash made manifest, holding the mystery of "Heart." One saber-shaped mark was circled by a biting saber-qi. It was the First Slash of the Nine Basic Slashes made manifest. It had helped Bai Zhou advance to a level-3 Extraordinary, and within it were the transformations of "Qi." One saber-shaped mark had, for the background of its pattern, mountains and rivers and the vastness of heaven and earth. It was the first three slashes of the Nine Basic Slashes united into one. It had helped Bai Zhou open the inner and the outer and attain the unity of heaven and humanity, and had brought the luminous clarity of "Essence" to its limit. The last saber-shaped mark, the one the Fifth Slash of the Nine Basic Slashes had just become, was a semi-transparent pattern, its realm of Intent ethereal and yet filled with a keen edge. The so-called "secret technique"—only when a secret art mark could be condensed upon the Fate Principle did the name secret technique come to be. Only a Destined could condense a secret art mark. To brand five secret art marks upon the Fate Principle meant that a fate-changing Extraordinary had already mastered five powerful secret techniques, and had proficiently linked the five great domains of "Body, Heart, Qi, Essence, and Intent." In other words— With this, Bai Zhou had already advanced to a level-5 Destined! A level-5 Destined Adventurer! The threshold of what Tinghai called a high-level Extraordinary already lay beneath his feet, and Bai Zhou, as a Destined, even stood above it! "Rush, rush, rush..." Like a tide surging in, the spirituality within Bai Zhou boiled and overflowed. All at once, both the number and the quality of his 291 motes of spirituality shot upward, rising as the water rises, and did not stop until they reached 360. Remembering Crow's earlier teaching, Bai Zhou hurriedly gathered his mind and guided this spirituality to settle into its separate places and structure within his body. Soon these 360 motes of spirituality within Bai Zhou had arrayed themselves in the pattern of the stars circling the heavens. "Hum!" In the instant the last mote of spirituality settled into place, all 360 quaked at once. Even as they blazed with light, they linked and resonated with one another, forming a cycle of their own within Bai Zhou, each supplying the others, each strengthening the others. Every one of them was twice as large as it had been at level 4. Three hundred and sixty such motes of spirituality spread through his limbs and bones, through his organs within, like stars hung high and shining, as if a clear night sky had appeared again inside Bai Zhou's body. "So strong!" Bai Zhou drew a deep breath and opened his eyes. One hand held the saber, hanging naturally at his side. The other rose and slowly clenched. A sense of surging power filled his whole body. His five senses had been lifted into a new dimension, and even the range of his Mind's Eye instinct had expanded from a few meters nearby to a radius of ten meters all around. Within that range, he could close his eyes and clearly "see" the paths of dust drifting in the air, as plainly as the lines on his palm. From then on, the world of spirituality had the Celestial Pivot to observe it, and the real world had the Mind's Eye to probe it. Bai Zhou's ability in actual combat had surged past belief. Nor was that all. Among his other instincts, Companion Lightning had also improved, and because of it the power of Eye-Strike had grown markedly. Only the instinct of Life-and-Death Intuition—he could not yet tell whether it had changed. "Is strength like this enough?" Light flickered in Bai Zhou's eyes, and his palm tightened around the hilt of the purple-gold saber. As if it sensed its master's heart, the saber, circled in purple-gold light, gave a soft hum. In a single night, an earth-overturning transformation of strength. Was it enough to deal with the Major and the Zijing Group? Enough... to kill him? "Hoo." Bai Zhou slowly let out a long breath and pressed down the newborn power galloping through his body. His gaze turned again to the last words writhing all over the ground. In truth, these last words held little grievance. They had been born seeking battle, and had died for battle. They had died as they ought. If one's skill was inferior, there was no one to resent. So it seemed Bai Zhou had no way, by fulfilling the last words, to obtain any gift. But in fact— the greatest gift among them, Bai Zhou had already received. Because these last words held far too much emotion, and directly contained the "Intent" of their lives, they had let Bai Zhou see the scenes of their battles. Without those scenes of his seniors fighting at the edge of life and death, Bai Zhou could not have forced the seed of battle intent to ripen into a tree, much less gone a step further and mastered the Fifth Basic Slash through to proficiency. To cross two thresholds in a single breath, and complete his advancement to a level-5 Extraordinary, was for Bai Zhou an enormous surprise beyond any doubt. In the course of comprehending battle intent, and in the course of being moved by the emotions of those seniors, Bai Zhou had also gradually come to realize... For these seniors, who had fought without cease all their lives, failing to comprehend the "battle intent" best suited to combat, and comprehending some other "Intent" instead, had been a regret from life all the way to death. Perhaps this was why their last words had crawled out from beneath the ruins of their own accord, and of their own accord had helped Bai Zhou... "Thank you." Toward the bloody runes all over the ground, like worms, Bai Zhou bowed in earnest. "This lesson—I have graduated!" He murmured in his heart, "That road stretching on from battle intent—I will explore it in my seniors' place." "Hum..." In the instant the words of his heart fell. The last words on the ground shattered one after another and turned formless, as if relieved, and went with the wind. Fragments flickering with red light spiraled away toward the far end of the sky. A little of that red light fell upon Bai Zhou and went straight into the battle-intent sapling within his body. As if nourished by sunlight and water, the roots of the battle-intent sapling spread, its branches grew denser, and upon the whole tree there appeared a measure of mysterious fortune that Bai Zhou could not yet understand. "Congratulations, Bai Zhou." At that moment, the voice of the Wolf Knight statue sounded beside Bai Zhou's ear. Its voice was still just as ice-cold. Not a trace of emotion could be sensed in it. "To have become a level-5 Adventurer and an initiated ritualist at the same time, even in the vast and perilous Rome, you already possess, at a basic level, the ability to protect yourself. Opening the arena consumes a great deal of energy. The time is about right. You ought to come back." The instant the words fell, the arena gave a great shudder. A pillar of light descended from the sky, as if to receive Bai Zhou and take him back. Yet just then. By the white light the pillar brought down, Bai Zhou caught a different sight from the corner of his eye. At the center of the ruins, in the deepest place covered by the shadow of the ring of high walls, upon the empty ground where Bai Zhou had seen nothing before, an ancient stone platform of pitch black had appeared at some unknown time. Beneath the platform, even gravel hardly remained. It was utterly, immaculately clean. "What is this...?" Bai Zhou blanked for a moment, certain he had not seen this thing before. Could it be that only someone who had comprehended "Intent" was qualified to see it? —Upon the high stone platform, two weapons stood quietly planted, as if looking down over the whole arena. On the left was a deathly still long saber, as if made of bone. The blade seemed ground from the spine of some enormous creature. Every joint of bone gleamed with a dull white luster. Merely looking from afar, one seemed to smell a piercing reek of blood. A thirst for blood was stirred, and there was even a dreadful feeling of life force being devoured! On the right was a knight's greatsword, its whole length flowing with the silver radiance of starlight. The silver blade was long and elegant, as if forged from the dust of stars in the sky. Faintly, spinning star-dust circled the blade like a nebula turning, magnificent beyond compare, a stark contrast to the bone saber beside it. The two weapons stood upon the high platform, wholly out of place amid the rough, wild ruins of the arena, and yet as if they had always stood here. Noble. Domineering. High above all else. Suppressing everything. They did not seem like two dead objects. In Bai Zhou's senses, they were more like two... Two living primeval behemoths! Extremely dangerous! Suffocating! "Spirit-Name Secret Treasures!" Bai Zhou's heart shook. By instinct, Bai Zhou recognized them at once. "They must be Spirit-Name Secret Treasures!" And in the very instant Bai Zhou's gaze touched them— "Clang!!!" As if saber and sword had left their sheaths, the ringing clash of metal exploded in the depths of Bai Zhou's mind. An ancient will, everywhere at once, from every corner and crevice of the arena, rumbled through Bai Zhou's mind: [One who has comprehended battle intent is qualified to open the arena's contest trial.] [—Titled King of Battle, one may have the saber and sword conferred upon the body!]