Translator: Lordbluefire Editor:

  Qin Wentian stared at Di Shi’s silhouette as a trace of vigilance flashed through those dark eyes of his. Although his comprehension of his first stone monument was exceedingly deep, he dared not underestimate an era-suppressing genius like Di Shi.

  When he stepped into the second row of stone monuments earlier, he had already seen Di Shi on the third row. In the span of seven days, Di Shi had comprehended three stone monuments, yet he didn’t advance forward. Evidently, he also knew that he required more time to comprehend the power within each stone monument fully and digest it. Right now, since Di Shi had actually chosen to return to the second row, he naturally didn’t have any good intentions in his heart.

  The astral light in their space transformed into a golden screen of light, enveloping Qin Wentian, akin to the light of the rising sun. He resembled a primordial great roc that exuded overwhelming power and a lofty air.

  In order to allow him to better comprehend its power, the first stone monument had bestowed upon him the unique ability to really transform into a golden-winged roc. Since he had already left the first row, there was no way he could transform now. But in this space of the stone monuments, one could only use power comprehended from the stone monuments; all other techniques were useless.

  Despite the golden screen of light being only illusory, Qin Wentian’s presence still resembled a true primordial great roc, and emanated a terrifyingly keen sharpness.

  Gales of demonic wind blew around Di Shi, emitting a sinister cold air that unceasingly washed over Qin Wentian.

  Bzz!

  The raging wind whistled as Di Shi stepped out towards Qin Wentian in a supreme manner, like a sovereign of all. His palms blasted out, his five fingers were like hooks that shot towards Qin Wentian as the manifestation of an incomparably golden sharp talons directly sliced instantly towards Qin Wentian. The claw was immensely huge, like the talons of a gigantic primordial bird of prey seeking to tear people into pieces.

  The golden light around Qin Wentian grew increasingly resplendent, and then shot out in a beautiful arc, directly splitting apart the manifestation of that talon. His speed rose to the extreme, and even surpassed Di Shi’s.

  The raging wind howled, Di Shi’s eyes were ice cold. He continued pursuing Qin Wentian while constantly lashing out with his talons, creating manifestations of countless claws that unceasingly struck towards Qin Wentian.

  Qin Wentian continued evading and at the same time, his golden wings slashed out with indomitable force, slicing the talons slashing towards him into pieces repeatedly. His palms also spammed out countless times, and as an incomparably huge manifestation of an incomparably sharp talon that was even larger than Qin Wentian’s body came flying at him, it was shattered into dust by the golden runic lights which Qin Wentian blasted out from his hands. Although this attack didn’t have the ferociousness and baleful aura of his opponent’s manifested talon, it still gave the spectators a feeling that the palm imprint hurled forth had nothing it could not conquer.

  “Qin Wentian can actually defend against Di Shi’s attacks?” The eyes of the spectators flashed with interest. Although Qin Wentian was the weaker combatant, he used his speed to evade as well as his own powerful attacks to negate that of Di Shi’s. But what made these people thunderstruck was that if they only considered single-target attacks, the power of that palm imprint Qin Wentian blasted out was evidently stronger than Di Shi. How could all of them not be shocked?

  A short exchange between them had already enabled Qin Wentian to understand where his advantage lay. When faced with Di Shi’s enraged and violent attacks, he used his advantage in speed and strength to counterattack his opponent, and was not purely evading. The manifestations of talons were shattered one after another as he now took the initiative and pressured Di Shi.

  Such a scene caused dumbfounded looks to appear on the faces of the spectators. Qin Wentian was actually initiating attacks against one of the eight era-suppressing geniuses, Di Shi?

  “As expected of Di Shi, he comprehended three different kinds of innate techniques in a mere seven days, and can even unleash the powers he learned from these three monuments to such an extent. His achievements are truly something ordinary people would find hard to match. However, that other fellow only comprehended a single monument in this seven days, the power he gained from his deeper comprehension can surpass any one of Di Shi’s individual techniques, which led to the scene just now. If his opponent wasn’t Di Shi but was me instead, I’m afraid that my defeat would be inevitable,” Lin Xian`er spoke in a low voice as she looked on.

  Princess Jiao Yang nearby couldn’t help but nod in agreement. She was insta-defeated by Qin Wentian because of the difference in their power gained from how deep their comprehension was.

  “However, Di Shi has already comprehend the power of three monuments. Even if his understanding isn’t that deep yet, it’s obvious he still hasn’t erupted forth with all the power he is capable of mustering,” Princess Jiao Yang replied. All the while wondering in her heart if that man who insta-defeated her could face Di Shi’s attack if Di Shi went all out?

  And just at that instant, Qin Wentian arrived in front of Di Shi, and runic lights abruptly flashed. Di Shi’s entire body grew resplendent, erupting forth with overwhelming might as the entire space seemed to be filled with the after-images of Di Shi. All of the images were unleashing an attack at the same moment. A torrential cutting energy sliced its way towards Qin Wentian, blotting out the skies and sun, and shaking the heavens with its might.

  “It’s concluded.” Many spectators sighed in their heart when they saw Di Shi’s attack.

  Qin Wentian, who was only a few inches away from Di Shi, was also stunned. But his reaction was extremely quick, and he didn’t abandon his notion to advance forwards. His illusory pair of golden wings cut a perfect arc in the air, causing a radiant screen of golden light to instantly envelope him protectively in the time it took for a spark to fly off the flint. And when that first stream of attacks smashed into his body, Qin Wentian borrowed the force of that momentum and soared up into the air, his bearing like a real primordial great roc.

  Bang, bang, bang!

  Attack after attack slammed into Qin Wentian’s body, each increasing his speed further, to the point where Di Shi’s later attacks could no longer hit him.

  Qin Wentian curved through the skies in a radiant arc, but the impact of the attacks slamming into him caused his real body standing in front of the stone monument to cough out blood. However, his eyes in the space of the stone monument grew even sharper and flashed with loftiness as he regarded Di Shi. It seemed like this battle wasn’t going to be an easy one.

  Qin Wentian wasn’t so arrogant as to believe that he could use the power he understood from only one monument to lord unrivalled over the other participants, despite his comprehension being deeper than any of them. His choosing to stay behind at the first row was equivalent to taking a risk. Maybe if he had made the same choice as others, and advanced to the third stone monument with mediocre comprehensions, he might not be any weaker than the current Di Shi. However, since he had already made his choice, he had no regrets.

  Di Shi’s brow was heavily furrowed when he discovered that his attack earlier didn’t destroy Qin Wentian. He continued pressing forward towards Qin Wentian and unceasingly unleashing his attacks. However, given that Qin Wentian was already on his guard. He continued using his advantage in speed and single-target attacks to match the variety of attacks Di Shi could use. This resulted in a closely-fought contest between them. Unless Di Shi’s every attack could be as powerful as that earlier surprise attack he launched, he had no way to defeat Qin Wentian.

  Eventually, Di Shi chose to give up. His perception retracted from Qin Wentian’s monument as he immersed himself fully into comprehending the monument he had chosen on the third row. The image projection in the air disappeared as the battle between them ended. Such an ending caused an uproar among the spectators on the floating bridges.

  Di Shi actually failed to eliminate Qin Wentian!

  Shang Tong’s countenance changed, his demeanor grew heavy, layered with shock and unwillingness. He was defeated in a domineering manner by Ji Feixue, yet Qin Wentian could fight evenly against Di Shi who was ranked on the same tier as Ji Feixue? Shang Tong didn’t want to admit what this indicated.

  Lin Xian`er’s eyes flashed with laughter and surprise, as well as anticipation.

  Princess Jiao Yang also heaved a sigh of relief. With Qin Wentian’s ability displayed like this, her heart felt much better, and she could better accept her miserable defeat at his hands.

  All this seemed to have no effect on that young man. Qin Wentian acted as usual; he didn’t invade others and chose to quietly comprehend the power of the stone monument on the second row he had chosen. This innate technique was a terrifying power that could be unleashed via palm strikes. He could see the faint silhouette manifested by the stone monument, which was clad in astral armor with powerful intense astral runic lights flashing in its palms as it blasted up to the heavens, shattering the stars.

  This kind of attack technique was similar to the Star-Seizing Palm of the Star-Seizing Manor he had witnessed when he was younger. However, the power level was as different as the earth and sky. The strength of this palm strike was much more ferocious, comparable to Di Shi’s earlier attack. However, Di Shi’s claws contained a baleful aura to them, while the power behind this palm attack was purer, thicker, and heavier.

  “In fact, it actually resembled an attack unleashed with the augmentation of the Spirit Refinement Method I found in my dad’s memories.” Qin Wentian was clearly taken aback. He had never forgotten to use the Spirit Refinement Method to refine his astral energy into divine energy, and this was also the main reason why he could easily jump levels and defeat opponents of a higher cultivation level. The technique contained within this stone monument actually had the shadow of the Spirit Refinement Method within it, the intense astral runic light flashing in its palms concentrated astral energy to a maximum before exploding out with pure power. “Isn’t this similar to how I usually condense divine energy? Although the essence of this two techniques are similar, it’s obvious that the Spirit Refinement Method is still of a higher tier.”
——

  On the path of monuments, the number of Heaven Chosen became fewer and fewer. There were some extremely famous people who were also eliminated, and among them was Qin Wentian’s senior apprentice brother, Duan Han. As for that dazzling Gu Liufeng, he had already proceeded on to the fifth row of the monuments.

  The various Heaven Chosen still remaining began to slow down as they took the time to fully comprehend the stone monuments they’d chosen. It was as though they were enlightened after seeing how Qin Wentian was able to clash evenly against Di Shi.

  The eight era-suppressing geniuses were all still present, their presence was like they were announcing to the world that they were as outstanding now as in the past. Only the incident between Di Shi and Qin Wentian shocked everyone, and led to nobody else daring to challenge Qin Wentian any longer.

  Now, less than twenty remained on the path of the stone monuments. The hearts of those on the floating bridges were thumping. It might not be long before the top ten of the Immortal Martial Realm of this batch would appear. Those outside the realm were likely filled with anticipation as they looked forward to the moment where the results would be out.

  But regardless of how the situation was on the outside, be it great waves startling the heavens or absolute quiet, all of that had nothing to do with Qin Wentian, who was now quietly immersed in his comprehension. He knew his purpose was to take every step solidly, building a stable foundation, and raise his strength.

  If by luck he became the last contender, he would naturally be extremely happy. At the very least, he could give an answer to the band of brothers who had aided him through the realm, enabling him to climb to this point. At the same time, he could also give an answer to the one waiting outside the Immortal Martial Realm. Even if time corroded his memories, he would never forget the pure, flawless smile of that beautiful countenance that could topple kingdoms who had always believed in him——

  Seven days later, Qin Wentian who had already defeated two people could proceed onwards with no barriers. He walked towards the third row of monuments, and this time around he actually chose the stone monument which Di Shi had chosen earlier. Such a scenario caused many to widen their eyes as the impression of Qin Wentian grew deeper in their minds.

  Currently, only twelve remained on the path of the monuments. This young man who fought against Di Shi and came out the victor. As long as he could hold on for two others to be defeated, he would become a dark horse. Becoming one of the top ten existences in this group that had ventured into the Immortal Martial Realm.

  Outside the Immortal Martial Realm, the bright and beautiful silhouette that was always in Qin Wentian’s heart was still standing in the midst of those from the Medicine Sovereign Valley. Her lovely face was filled with anxiousness. Those dainty hands of hers had not relaxed since she had seen Qin Wentian’s name on the stone monument. They were tightly clenched; not once had they loosened up since then.

  Staring at those drifting names ‘hovering’ on the stone monument, she no longer cared how high Qin Wentian’s ranking would be. She only hoped that when he exited the Immortal Martial Realm, his condition would be just as before, and not injured in the slightest!