The fearsome attack crashed into Tommy like the maws of a deadly beast. The ferocious roar of wind accompanied by excessive violence was enough to make those watching to shake like leaves.

Those watching struggled to keep their eyes open under the wind pressure. When they blinked to clear their vision and briefly make out a figure standing resolutely against the churning blade intent.

Strangely, the wildly whipping wind seemed to stop after nearing the person.

Only the few standing behind Tommy was fortunate enough to see clearly everything that had happened.

When the deadly blade intent touched the orb of blizzard, the frightening howl and unreasonable force was pulled into the sphere.

However, the Triple S level attack far overwhelms Tommy’s Secret Art in power, and so only a small part of the blade intent was sucked in at a time with the rest are left outside.

Inside the orb, the different energies clashed brutally.

While the blade intent overwhelmed everything, the storm shown no signs of stopping. Slowly, a strange thing occurred, facing such power, the storm instead grew in both size and ferocity.

While the blade intent tore apart the wild forces of nature, it also provoked the storm.

When the three elements of nature worked in tandem, ‘change’ becomes inevitable. It ripped apart the stable blade intent, twisting it and moulding it into all kinds of forms.

The fourth form of the blade, the accumulated essence of a blade master’s skill, could cleave apart a mountain from a thousand paces away.

Yet, before the untameable blizzard, it split apart in the chaos and struck itself like there was a great urge to self-destruct.

Red Blade, “…..”

The lips of the blade master twitched uncontrollably as he watched his own technique slowly destroyed itself as though a masochistic ghost had possessed the killing move he took great pains to unleash.

The blade intent continued to become smaller and smaller until its entirety was drawn into the blizzard orb and disappeared.

A wide goofy smile appeared on Tommy’s face.

Although he knew that it was because blade intents are uncontrollable after executed that allowed his Secret Art to rip a SSS-level attack apart, just thinking about it was exciting.

His own blizzard orb dispersed shortly after that and he looked at Red Blade and asked in triumph, “Can you still fight?”

The tall and powerful man slowly stood up to his full height.

For a moment, Tommy was afraid their battle will carry on. Since External Practitioners are famous for their ability to recover it is possible that Red Blade would have enough to go another round.

He didn’t know that this guess was completely on spot.

Fortunately, the blade master no longer felt an itch to fight. The battle had been truly satisfying.

The Heaven Titan practitioner had recognised Tommy’s strength and bowed his head slightly saying, “I will join you. Of course, you still need to complete this trial first.”

Tommy rejoiced at once. With the aid of such a powerful external practitioner, their first step is already a resounding success.

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He looked at the remnant Frosthral Frontline soldiers and walked slowly towards them.

Except the ones brainwashed into thinking that Tommy is in the guise of a child of Avalon and enemy of their homeland, many are already considering throwing down their arms.

Despite what the charred man had said, when Red Blade was defeated, the crowd’s general consensus had once again leaned towards Tommy.

“Young master, we are willing to follow you without a fight.”

After a swift discussion, an ancient barbarian hobbled out and relayed his group’s intentions and it quickly struck a chord with the rest and many shouting their support.

But unexpectedly, Tommy shook his head and rejected them.

“Let’s finish this properly.”

“But… young master, there really isn’t a need. You’ve already proven yourself.”

“There are still around five thousand of you. Don’t you think victory is still uncertain?”

“No, no, it’s quite certain.”

“But I see there are still many among of you that wants a fight.”

“Don’t worry about them. They only appear that way because they are ugly. I assure you the trial is over with your success,” the barbarian said. In his heart, he is begging Tommy to quickly accept their proposal and end this needless fight.

A series of complains surfaced in his heart.

“Young people now adays are so stubborn. Must everything be done properly?

Please accept our surrender. Let’s be peaceful and just enjoy a new partnership and new life.

And those idiots that still want a fight. Don’t they know that even if we changed leaders, it wouldn’t affect us.

Look at me hanging back all the way. Pulling all my punches. You guys should learn a thing or two from me.

If we defeat him, we still have to fight Saint Empire without a commander.

We might as well just accept him right from the start. This trial could’ve finished days ago if everyone thought like me.”

Unfortunately, sometimes bad luck is like a sticky gel that can’t be flung away no matter how hard you try.

Tommy looked at him and resolutely shook his head again, “Don’t worry, I’m far from my optimal condition. Look, I can’t even walk properly without swaying. Let’s continue the trial, I may not be able to succeed after all.”

“It’s… it’s alright. We are also very weakened and can’t fight much longer,” he said, almost pleading.

“Then, let’s fight as long as we can. We better hurry while it’s still possible to swing our fists,” Tommy laughed and ran towards him.

This old barbarian had truly suffered for the past few days. He wisely deduced the pointlessness of this trial from the outset. After he secured the promise that their families will not be harmed even if Tommy succeeded, he was fine with accepting defeat. At his age, he already seen past the need to uphold tiresome traditions and know that the rules in one’s life needs to be set by oneself. For him, his only rule in life is to do as he pleases and thus, he went to the edge of the battlefield to wait for the challenger to win or tire out.

But, once the trial started, there were barbarians flying all over the place and he had to rapidly dodge their falling bodies without rest. Then afterwards sword intents were crossing the battlefield unrestrainedly because of Sword Slave and Swordy. Then, Tommy charged across the place dangerously in his Byakko Combat Form. Then, the unnatural blizzard followed by the three days of deep freezing. Later on, even running around avoiding things became dangerous with the blade intent booby traps. And finally when the end is nigh and he could get some rest, Tommy banged his fists together and joyfully rejected the group’s suggestion to stop.

“No, no, no!”

A flying old man declared their final bout.

The other barbarians – many reluctantly – fought back desperately against a fully hyped Tommy.

“This guy… he’s really enjoying fighting!”

The day was filled with yelps of pain.

No matter those against Tommy or those supporting him, everyone was thoroughly beaten up. Some of them several times.

The battle maniac that Tommy is, fully bare his teeth.

Usually, it isn’t possible for a promotion trial to have thirty thousand participants as the Warlords or Lords should be the ones fighting, however this is a special scenario because of the war and a great opportunity for a fighter with Dharma constitution.

Tommy is the least afraid of fighting a large number of weaker foes. He loves how countless people surrounds him. At the very least he wouldn’t need to worry about finishing them off too quickly.

Furthermore there weren’t any dangerous talismans or treasures that could threaten him. This trial was more like a three-day training course for him.

If the barbarians knew this is what he thought, their fragile hearts would be devastated.

With unsuppressed joy, he limped towards the barbarians, almost clapping and dancing his way.

It was tragedy for the barbarians.

Soon after the trial started, Tommy looked near-dead from his wounds, but days later, he is still looking near-dead and still beating them up.

“Come on, be more professional, this is a trial!” Tommy roared with vigour.

“Lies… It’s all lies...,” one of the fallen ones weakly cried out, his words muttered through swollen lips.

“He doesn’t take surrenders… Someone save us…”

“Help…”

Tommy: “Don’t run away. Just let me hit you once and you can rest, it’s a good deal!”