Chapter 977: Hundred Battle Test
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The information that Mo Qingge had compiled for Mo Wen had mentioned the Nine-Day Art of Creation. The details were rather solemn. This was where the core of the ancient Creation Sect lay. It was said that this was related to the Creation Pool.
Mo Wen planned to keep the Nine-Day Art of Creation a secret. He was determined to not breathe a word about it to anyone else.
He looked around. He was surrounded by so much snow it was as if he was in a snowfield.
There was no doubt about it. He was now at the seventh test—the Hundred Battle Test.
The previous six tests had been assessing the basics but the seventh test onwards was the true test of a person’s abilities.
He could move on to the next test if he passed the seventh one. If he failed, then the Path of Creation would end here.
According to the information, the seventh test was much better than the two tests that would follow. It was not too dangerous. That said, no matter how little danger it seemed to pose, the danger level still varied from person to person. Throughout the course of history, there had been several monks who had overestimated their abilities and had ended up dying.
Mo Wen leaped into the air and flew far into the distance. Quick as a flash of lightning, a spacious city immediately appeared in his peripheral vision.
The Hundred Battle Test. There was only one city in the seventh test, and it was called the Hundred Battle Test. As its name suggested, it was likely that there would be a lot of battles waged in the city.
After a moment, Mo Wen flew into the city. The city was as small as a hand from a distance but upon closer inspection, the city was so big it filled Mo Wen’s field of vision. It was impossible to see the edges of the city; it seemed to stretch on for thousands of miles.
It was impossible for a city in the mortal realm to be this big but, for martial arts practitioners, constructing such a city was not a difficult task.
However, the Hundred Battle Test was different. This was not a city populated by human beings; there were not even animals in it. This was a city completely automated, and it was somewhat similar to the mechanized maze city in the Lord of Dragon City. But it was bigger and much more mysterious than the mechanized maze city.
The ancient Creation Sect had the Power of Creation in their hands. Whether it was refined weapons, alchemy, puppet mastery, or machine mastery… As long as it involved creation, the attainments of the ancient Creation Sect were unparalleled.
Mo Wen had always had a deep longing for the ancient Creation Sect. Although Ji Wuya had gone on to be heralded as the Medicine Sage, she still could not hold a candle to the alchemy of the Creation Sect. That era was still one that was difficult for people of today to envision.
Mo Wen soldiered on without stopping, heading straight for the city. This city was constructed rather strangely. There were seven floors to it, and all the floors were connected. However, there were no obstacles between each of the floors. One could even say that there was a city built on top of another one, and there were even more cities above.
Regardless of which level of the city you were at, there was no difference between this and any regular city. If you looked up, you could still see the blue sky and white clouds, which completely defied the basic laws of physics. However, the ancient Creation Sect was a titan of their era, so it was not surprising that they had come up with something like this.
“Die, intruder!”
All of a sudden, mechanized voices started ringing out from within the city. Shadowy figures followed tightly behind one another and appeared on the walls of the city. Although those figures seemed very human-like, they were not: they were puppets. Some of the puppets were even self-aware and could make progress with their cultivation. This was all rather fascinating.
Mo Wen was intercepted the moment he came close to the city, but he never stopped. He continued flying forward.
The city had little regard for negotiations. They valued ability, so you had to fight to get through them.
“Attack!”
When they sensed that Mo Wen had no intention of stopping, the puppets on the walls turned hostile and started attacking right away.
In an instant, rays of energy shot out from within the city. They covered the sky and the earth as if they were locusts passing by.
Mo Wen did not even bat an eyelid at the rays. Shadows that resembled clouds and fog manifested from his body. The tightly knit energy rays did not even come into contact with the edges of his clothes.
The Glory of Cloud had made it difficult for regular attacks to even reach him. Energy rays like this that lacked any sort of depth were very unlikely to damage him at all.
The power of the energy rays wasn’t that strong. They were about as strong as an attack by a martial art practitioner in the Martial Arts Grandmaster First Realm. To Mo Wen, this sort of power would barely even scratch him even if he did not get out of its way.
The defense outside the city was something that even a somewhat powerful martial arts grandmaster could tear through. What was really difficult for Mo Wen was the seven-floor city pond. The higher up he went, the greater the difficulty. If he went in recklessly, he could risk dying there.
Like a flash of lightning, Mo Wen pushed past the defense and sped into the city, leaving all of them far behind him. There was absolutely no way the puppets on the city walls who were, at best, on par with those at the Martial Arts Grandmaster Second or Third Realm, could hold him back. They could barely even keep up with his shadow!
A Battle Platform!
He flew into the city and landed straight in the midst of the hundreds of battles that were being waged in the city center.
The Battle Platform was situated in the middle of the city, and it took up quite a large space. It had a circumference of about several hundred miles; there were rows of weapon racks placed by the edges, on which all sorts of weapons were placed.
With a wave of his hand, a long spear flew into Mo Wen’s hands. The long spear was just a regular weapon. It was no magical treasure, but Mo Wen tested it a little to find that it was actually rather solid and sturdy—even he found it difficult to destroy. This sturdiness of this weapon was no worse than a profound level weapon.
Every floor of the city had its own Battle Platform and passing the test of the Battle Platform meant an overall pass. The average person could move on to the next test as long as they passed the test of the Battle Platform on the first floor. Those who expected more of themselves could continue to rise up through the levels and clear all seven floors to attain the highest achievement.
In the history of Tianhua Palace, there were a lot of people who had gunned for the highest achievement, but it was no mean feat. There had been one person who had managed this, but that had been about 3,000 years ago.
It was rumored that, amidst the younger generation of Tianhua Palace, there were several once-in-a-millennium geniuses who could probably achieve it.
As soon as Mo Wen landed on the battle platform, eight shadows crept up to him. Those were not people. They had bodies made of gold that glinted in the light—these were the most common puppet dolls.
There were many types of puppet dolls. The most common and basic of them were, without a doubt, the puppets that had gold bodies like these ones. They looked very much like machines on the outside, and they came in many different shapes. Some were tall and strong, some were handsome, and some had beautiful figures. There were even some that were crafted to be female puppets with charming attributes.
The eight puppets in front of him were synchronized. They looked rather plain on the outside and the power they were giving off was also nothing out of the ordinary. They were only at the Martial Arts Grandmaster Third Realm.
But when these eight puppets who were at the Martial Arts Grandmaster Third Realm combined forces, they posed quite a big threat to the average person. Battling one of these was already somewhat challenging, let alone taking on eight at once.
“No wonder there aren’t many people who could clear the seventh test and move on to the eighth. Only the Infinite Powerhouses are likely to be absolutely sure they’re strong enough to make it through the Battle Platform of the first floor,” Mo Wen remarked quietly. To him, the few puppets in front of him were but jokes, but this was probably no easy task for the average monk who was on the Path of Creation. Even if they were all at the Martial Arts Grandmaster Third Realm, there was no guarantee they would make it through this stage. If they could not even make it through the Battle Platform on the first floor, they could forget about moving on to the eighth test.
Besides, he realized that these eight puppets were not just simple units. It seemed like their breath and energy were connected to each of the other puppets. If Mo Wen was not mistaken, the eight puppets were probably capable of coordinating with each other, even to the extent of pulling off a stratagem attack.
The Fire Leaving Diamond that Wise Man Ku Ji had requested had not been present in any of the previous seven tests. It would only be found in the eighth. No wonder he had searched for young martial art practitioners who had potential and strength. The average person would probably not make it as far as the door to the eighth test, let alone succeed in attaining the Fire Leaving Diamond.
Boom!
The eight puppets moved onto the Battle Platform and struck out first. They seemed to move simultaneously, like an enveloping web.
Mo Wen was rather curious about what the eight puppets were truly capable of. He made no move to attack them, choosing instead to use the Glory of Cloud to evade their attacks.
As expected, the eight puppets had a good understanding of when to advance and when to retreat. They were very well-coordinated with one another and were well-equipped with a good set of tactics. Other than their tactics, it was likely that there were also stratagems imprinted on their bodies. Whenever they launched an attack, they moved seamlessly, like a single entity. The average Infinite Powerhouse, let alone someone at the Martial Arts Grandmaster Third Realm, would fall prey to such a battle formation if they lost focus for a second.
Mo Wen, on the other hand, had little to no interest in these eight, low-grade puppets, but they were representative of the situation on the whole. If the first floor was like this, then the subsequent floors would likely present similar scenarios.
After briefly analyzing the situation, Mo Wen quickly lost interest in it. With a shake of the long spear in his hand, a terrifying force abruptly surged forth. The power split into eight and accurately hit all eight puppets.
With just this one move, the bodies of the eight puppets were torn asunder. They fell to the ground, and the pieces of the wreckage were instantly carried away by invisible forces.
He had made it past the first round. Two beams of light suddenly appeared above the Battle Platform. They were extremely deep as if they connected to another world.
Mo Wen knew that one of them was the way to the eighth test, and the other would lead him to the next floor of the city.
Naturally, he would not leave this easily. There was no way he would let the highest achievement of the seventh test slip away from him. After enduring the transformations from the previous six tests, he felt that attaining the highest achievement for the seventh test was likelier to be easier than for the previous six tests. This was because he had no idea how strong he had become in actual combat.
Unsurprisingly, Mo Wen breezed through the second, third, fourth, and fifth floors… From the fourth floor on, puppet warriors at the Primordial Soul Realm had appeared. However, Mo Wen had wiped them out with a single blow.
He made it all the way to the sixth floor before he ran into trouble. What had appeared were seven puppets at the later Primordial Soul stage. Not only were their attacks strong, but they had also had a firm grasp on a rather profound stratagem similar to the Big Dipper. When these seven puppets at the later Primordial Soul stage linked up, it was more than enough to pose as a challenge for a practitioner at the pinnacle of the Primordial Soul Realm.
At the end of the day, these puppets were still just puppets. They were still some ways behind human warriors, so Mo Wen made it past them with a bit of effort on his part.
With a flash of light, Mo Wen had made it to the seventh floor.
The seventh floor was different from the first six floors. It looked more like a garden and not like a city. The center of the garden had two empty platforms suspended in the air, one on the left and the other on the right. They gave off a rather ancient aura.
The moment Mo Wen appeared, he immediately noticed that he was not the only person on the seventh floor. He was sure that the other figure there was just as human as he was.