Northern Yan - Chapter 56: The Burning of an Incense Stick

Placing his hand upon the handprint, he immediately began to channel all his spiritual power into it. The handprint emitted a faint glow, and as he continuously exerted his spiritual power, that radiance started to grow brighter and brighter.

With a slight tremor of the passage, a long crack appeared right down the middle of the handprint, splitting the entire wall. Following a loud crash, the wall bearing the handprint actually swung open to reveal a door. Beyond it lay another bottomless, pitch-black space—the first trial was about to begin.

After fully recovering his spiritual power, Mo Hao stepped with one foot directly into the dark space. Contrary to his imagination, it was not dark inside at all; rather, it was as bright as day. Upon entering the space, his attention was immediately caught by a half-kneeling cultivator ahead. Mo Hao felt a flicker of confusion:

"Didn't Xu Jian say there should be ten cultivators at the late stage of Qi Condensation? Why is there only one? Could there have been a mistake?"

The cultivator, gripping a massive warhammer, slowly raised his head to look at Mo Hao. His eyes were completely hollow, just like those of a puppet. A brief sensing told Mo Hao that this cultivator possessed extraordinary strength—he should be at the half-step Foundation Establishment stage. When Mo Hao looked at his face, he froze in sheer astonishment. Not only was this person familiar, but they also shared a blood feud. Mo Hao had slain him during the grand sect tournament, yet why would he appear here now?

Indeed, this person was none other than Zhang Kunxiang, a cultivator who harbored an irreconcilable enmity with Mo Hao. As a physical practitioner who relied on a giant warhammer, he was supposed to be invincible, yet he had ultimately fallen at Mo Hao's hands.

Why would Zhang Kunxiang appear here? This left Mo Hao utterly baffled. What puzzled him even more was why the ten late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators had been bypassed entirely. Could it be related to the old man instructing him to input his maximum spiritual power?

After pondering for just a moment, Mo Hao pushed the thought aside, for Zhang Kunxiang had already slowly stood up. Mo Hao knew there was no retreat left; he could only fight with his life on the line.

Channeling all his spiritual power, Mo Hao cursed out loud:

"You've got to be kidding me! Not this again!"

Mo Hao suddenly recalled the most harmless-looking yet nearly fatal level in the Abyss of Profound Flames—the fifth floor.

Yes, the test of this first floor was identical to that fifth floor. The only difference was that Mo Hao could mobilize a tiny sliver of spiritual power to retrieve a magical artifact from his Cosmos Sack, though it was clearly impossible to actually activate any artifacts.

Mo Hao only hated himself for not preparing any talisman papers this time, otherwise, even this minuscule amount of spiritual power would have been enough to activate talismans to aid his attack.

Before he could finish that thought, Zhang Kunxiang had already swung the giant hammer toward Mo Hao. Without a second thought, Mo Hao pulled the Dragon-Intimidating Halberd out from his Cosmos Sack, gripping the great halberd horizontally with both hands.

"Clang!"

With a deafening explosion, Mo Hao was blasted backward several steps by the force of the hammer, the web spaces between his thumbs and forefingers throbbing with a sharp pain.

Fortunately, the Sea-Overturning Art was still usable. Thrusting forward with the Dragon-Intimidating Halberd, Mo Hao aimed at Zhang Kunxiang, who blocked the blade's edge with the haft of his hammer. Mo Hao immediately pushed upward, attempting to flick the giant hammer away.

Yet to his surprise, with that burst of strength, the heavy hammer remained completely motionless and even showed a trend of forcing the halberd downward. Realizing something was wrong, Mo Hao hastily pulled his halberd back.

Zhang Kunxiang's hands began to glow, and soon, rays of light converged from his Dantian toward his palms.

"I thought spiritual power couldn't be used?"

Seeing this, Mo Hao cried out that things were looking bad, but realizing the truth, he blurted out in shock:

"Physical essence? This bastard's physical body is also at the half-step Foundation Establishment stage!"

Physical essence was something that only physical-cultivation martial artists who focused purely on the physical body would develop upon reaching the Foundation Establishment stage. For someone like Zhang Kunxiang who possessed a trace of physical essence, he was undeniably a half-step Foundation Establishment practitioner.

"I can't take this head-on!"

Mo Hao pushed the Sea-Overturning Art to its absolute limit, feeling as though he had stepped into a swamp, but fortunately, he managed to extricate himself. Just as Zhang Kunxiang finished gathering his physical essence, Mo Hao managed to break free from the epicenter of the attack.

"Boom!"

Though he had escaped the core blast radius, he was still caught in the shockwave. Tumbling and rolling, when he finally came to a stop, his blood and Qi were churning violently, causing him to cough up a mouthful of blood. Raising his head to look at Zhang Kunxiang, he saw that the latter, finding his first strike unsuccessful, was already beginning to gather his physical essence once more.

Mo Hao scrambled to his feet; this was no time for resting. Gripping his halberd tightly, he shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Sea-Overturning Art—Ocean-Resisting Flying Charge!"

This was a movement technique within the Sea-Overturning Art meant exclusively for physical practitioners—one that Mo Hao had never practiced before. At this moment, his philosophy was to advance rather than retreat; he was forced to ride the tiger and had no choice but to use this move!

Yet one could hardly blame Mo Hao for not cultivating these various physical techniques, as the arts were simply too redundant and chicken-rib-like. For a peak late-stage Qi Condensation cultivator like Mo Hao to practice such moves was truly using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

However, the Dragon-Intimidating Halberd was, after all, a spiritual weapon. Even without spiritual power to activate it, it remained an unbreakable, razor-sharp divine artifact.

Mo Hao charged straight for Zhang Kunxiang's head. Zhang Kunxiang clearly lacked cognitive function; while the diagonal strike of the halberd descended toward his head, he was still stupidly gathering his physical essence. Overjoyed at the sight, Mo Hao realized this first trial was actually quite simple; he had simply overcomplicated it in his mind.

With a sweep of his hands and a drop of the halberd, he cleaved the massive body directly in two right down the neck. Seeing Zhang Kunxiang's torso slowly collapse to the ground, Mo Hao finally let out a long sigh of relief. He walked over to the corpse to inspect it thoroughly, ensuring this fellow was dead beyond a doubt, before sitting down to regulate his breath.

Just as Mo Hao was wondering how such a realistic simulation could exist, a sudden rush of fierce wind brushed across his face. Startled, Mo Hao quickly opened his eyes and threw up his arms to shield himself. At that very instant, excruciating agony shot through his left arm—the arm used for blocking had been struck by a hammer, and Mo Hao was sent flying backward by the sheer force.

Enduring the throbbing pain in his arm, he looked ahead, only to find Zhang Kunxiang standing completely unharmed in his original spot.

Mo Hao noticed that an incense stick had appeared hovering above Zhang Kunxiang's head, its tip slowly curling with wisps of blue smoke.

"I knew it wouldn't be that simple! Looks like I have to survive here for the duration of one stick of incense!"

Slowly peeling off his bloodied outer garment, Mo Hao tore it into strips and crudely splinted his injured arm. Then, gripping the Dragon-Intimidating Halberd tightly in his right hand, he cast a cold, hardened gaze at the burning incense stick above Zhang Kunxiang's head!

He only needed to hold out for the time it took for one stick of incense to burn. Glancing at his left arm, his expression darkened unpleasantly. Never had he expected this puppet to regenerate, causing him to drop his guard and get ambushed like this.

"Screw it, I'll just outlast it!"

He intended to use a clever evasion tactic to idle away the time until the incense burned out, but Mo Hao quickly realized that the regenerated Zhang Kunxiang possessed even greater strength and speed than before, adding insult to injury for someone like him who had lost the use of one arm.

"Sea-Overturning Art—Ocean-Resisting Flying Charge!"

He executed the physical technique once again, but with only one functional arm, the power of the Sea-Overturning Art was halved. Mo Hao felt utterly aggrieved; clearly, he possessed absolute confidence in his ability to kill Zhang Kunxiang again, yet he was barred from using spiritual power here. The feeling was akin to a towering warrior forced to fight enemies using nothing more than a thin wooden stick.

Though weaker than before, utilizing the Sea-Overturning Art still allowed him to barely parry the opponent's onslaught. At first, Mo Hao felt somewhat at ease, watching the incense stick burn down a significant portion in the blink of an eye. However, as time wore on, with every single blow he blocked, the soreness in his right arm multiplied.

When the incense had burned down precisely halfway, Mo Hao drew a minuscule amount of spiritual power, retrieved the Hantong Sword from his Cosmos Sack, seized an opening, and lopped off Zhang Kunxiang's head once more.

This time, Mo Hao fixed his gaze dead on Zhang Kunxiang's corpse, not even daring to blink for fear of a repeat of the first incident. A moment later, he watched as Zhang Kunxiang rose again in an extremely bizarre posture. Just as Mo Hao readied himself to strike and kill him a second time, Zhang Kunxiang's head split right down the middle, cleaving apart to produce two identical Zhang Kunxiangs.

"Are you kidding me?!"

Staring at the two identical figures before him, he was momentarily dumbfounded. Wasn't this blatant bullying? The only good news was that the aura of both Zhang Kunxiangs had weakened noticeably. Wielding his halberd, he thrust forward, but things were far from easy. The two Zhang Kunxiangs coordinated flawlessly; killing them was out of the question, and even getting close proved extremely difficult. Fortunately, the Dragon-Intimidating Halberd lived up to its name as a spiritual weapon, allowing him to stubbornly weather the onslaught in combat.

Mo Hao understood that he had no choice but to drag out the time. Under no circumstances should he kill these two again; otherwise, heaven knew what kind of monstrosities would pop out next!

Yet Mo Hao also gradually began to grasp the true purpose of this first floor. It turned out to be a trial dedicated purely to tempering the physical body. A single level like this was enough to weed out a vast majority of entering cultivators. Fortunately, Mo Hao had diligently practiced the Sea-Overturning Art; although he hadn't mastered the physical combat techniques, his physical foundation was solidly robust, or he never would have lasted this long.

Dodge after dodge, he tried his utmost to avoid direct collisions with the two Zhang Kunxiangs. Even so, the sheer shockwaves of their hammers left his entire body aching with pain.

Just as the incense stick was on the verge of burning out entirely, the two figures ceased their attacks and stood frozen in place.

"Could the time be up? But the incense is still burning."

Mo Hao muttered to himself, refusing to let down his guard. Lowering one's guard here guaranteed major disaster. Like reflections in a mirror, the two figures stood on either side, simultaneously raising their massive hammers as physical essence surged over them. Mo Hao cried out in dismay, but the space was so cramped that there was nowhere to run. He could only retreat as far back as possible and brace himself for defense.

The radiance of the hammers grew increasingly blinding. Mo Hao closed his eyes to prevent the dazzling light from searing his vision, holding the Dragon-Intimidating Halberd across his body. He loathed this helpless style of waiting. He had attempted to sneak in and disrupt their channeling while they charged up, but when a physical practitioner utilized physical essence, there was simply no way to interrupt it—not to mention the blinding light made it impossible to keep one's eyes open.

In a flash, the giant hammers descended toward Mo Hao. Standing straight up, Mo Hao hoisted the Dragon-Intimidating Halberd high above his head. To his utter astonishment, however, no immense force crashed down upon him. It felt as if nothing had struck him at all; even the agonizing pain in his left arm had vanished entirely.

Blinded moments ago by the glare, Mo Hao sensed the anomaly and opened his eyes. The two Zhang Kunxiangs had completely vanished. Flexing his left arm, he found it had recovered entirely. It seemed the first trial had finally drawn to a close. Yet for reasons unknown, those two Zhang Kunxiangs hadn't brought their hammers down; otherwise, he would have either been dead or severely wounded. At that moment, Mo Hao congratulated himself on relying on the Sea-Overturning Art, while simultaneously regretting his reckless impulse in charging into the Hall of Timelessness. Hearing Xu Jian's description, he had naively assumed this was merely a place for dueling other cultivators, where he could rely on his diverse array of tricks to hold his own. Who could have imagined that stepping through the door would slap him with a closed reception?

Suddenly, an old man materialized before him, giving the deep-in-thought Mo Hao a fright. Inspecting him closely, he realized it was the guiding soul-entity old man. Irritation welled up inside him alongside a sense of helplessness—he seemed utterly powerless against this soul elder. The old man looked at Mo Hao, alternately nodding and shaking his head. Unable to hold back, Mo Hao demanded:

"What are you trying to do, nodding and shaking your head like that?"

Hearing Mo Hao's inquiry, the old man replied:

"Such a truly remarkable little cultivator. You must be assuming that this floor was a test of your physical body, right?"

Hearing the old man phrase it like that, could his guess have been wrong? Keeping quiet, Mo Hao simply listened in silence to what the elder had to say next!

"Hehe, this old man won't tell you. Nor am I allowed to tell you. Once you clear all five floors, you'll finally understand what the Hall of Timelessness is truly testing!"

Dark lines immediately webbed across Mo Hao's forehead. This old codger was still playing games!

Seeing Mo Hao on the verge of losing his temper, the old man hurriedly puckered his lips and motioned. Mo Hao followed his gaze and discovered that the heavy doors leading to the second trial had silently swung open!

Knowing that regret was useless at this juncture, Mo Hao stopped paying attention to the old man and braced himself to walk through the gates of the second trial.