CHAPTER 249 THE SPACE OF BLADES AND SWORDS

"Roar!" The sound of the cave resonated and echoed far beyond the distance. Slowly, each brick

started to melt, one by one, as if it were a volcano. What did the cave hide however?

Surprising all four of them, the cave before Darren collapsed, and a light gate appeared. They closed

their eyes because the light was too bright, and slowly one by one they reopened their eyes as they

adjusted to the light of the gate.

Swiftly, Bowen, Norris and Quinn flew over to Darren. Seeing the intensely impressive scene, they

were deeply overwhelmed. More than that they wondered how powerful Darren was.

Darren examined the faces of his three astonished companions as he readied himself to go through the

light gate. He looked around to make sure the space they were about to step in was safe and then said

to his three stunned companions in order to enter the next space with a simple, "Let's go." Darren

called the stunned three to enter the next space. This belongs to - ©.

The three heard Darren, but they moved slowly and awkwardly, nodding as if in a trance, staring at

Darren as if he were some kind of monster and not their friend. A multitude of questions circled around

in their heads, perhaps to be answered, and perhaps not. Nevertheless, they were extremely excited

about this next space Darren was leading them into.

In the distance, there was a slight rattling of stones which they paid no attention to. However, as they

were about to step into the light gate, the stone guardian suddenly came back to life again. It seemed

like he was an impenetrable wall of bricks, and he was very tall with red piercing eyes. He was fearful.

Bowen, Norris and Quinn were shocked and paralyzed in their spots with fear. Their faces flushed and

their pulses quickened from the veins in their necks, and their hands started sweating as they tried to

rub them dry on the clothes. Their eyes widened in horror and they were speechless. "Eh? You must

want to die once more!" Unfazed, Darren shouted with his eyebrows furrowed.

"My challenger, you are really powerful," said the stone man to Darren. He seemed to admire his

opponent's strength. In his deep strong and sturdy voice, he said to Darren, "Since you have passed

the test of the second space, this is your reward. I'm certain you will need it." The stone man's tone

was no longer cold. Slowly, he took off his suit of armor which gradually shrunk as he slowly

approached Darren.

Surprised by the stone guardian's present, Darren composed himself and addressed the stone man by

saying, "Well, thank you for the gift. I like it." Looking at his new suit of armor with pride, he turned

around and held it up for his friends to see who were all mesmerized by the entire exchange between

the stone man and Darren. Then Darren put the armor away.

Subsequently, Darren led the three others towards the next space. However, to his surprise, barring

him the other three were all denied entry. He was puzzled and thought something was seriously wrong.

He asked the stone man, "Why did this happen? Do you really want to be killed again?" Darren looked

back and stared at the stone man.

"You can enter the next space because you have passed the test. The truth is you did it alone without

their help, so they are not qualified to enter the next space unless the three can defeat me," the stone

man explained.

Upon hearing the stone man's explanation, the three others sighed woefully and forced a bitter smile.

They found themselves languishing in an abyss of disillusionment about brokering some type of

bargain of entering the next space. Regretfully they were out of ideas, so they retreated back into the

distance and slouched down on some stone rocks as seats.

Then the stone guardian also pointed out that even if Darren helped the three others to defeat him one

more time, they were still not qualified as passing the test. The only way for them to be allowed to enter

the next space was they personally killed the stone man without Darren's help. As if reading the

disappointment in their minds, the stone man assertively announced, "Those are the rules here and

there is no use changing them."

Disheartened, but nonetheless proud of his friend, Bowen said encouragingly, "Darren, you should go

first. Don't worry about us."

"That's right, Darren. I hope you can reach the eleventh space. We are not as powerful as you, so we

can do nothing to help you, but rather, we will drag you down. So you just go ahead," Norris echoed as

he tried to hide the distress in his voice and the disappointment in his heart.

Looking intensely at the three, Darren thought to himself, 'So be it.' He felt he had no other choice.

However, this little voice inside of him did not want to abandon his warrior friends, so he shouted to

them, "Well, don't give up! I believe you can make it. Bowen, your talents are no less than mine. Have

faith in yourself." With these words, Darren stepped into the light gate and disappeared.

The words Darren said to Bowen were more than encouraging. Apart from the ability to assimilate,

Bowen's talents were extremely close to those of Darren's.

Suddenly, Bowen felt a strange warmth engulf him; inside him, a flood of emotion surging high.

Inwardly, he had sworn to himself that he must pass the test in the second space.

"Let's go to hunt more magic herbs!" Bowen cried out and set out first.

...

Upon arriving in the third space, Darren killed the defenders and promoted his realm all the way. In just

the last three months, he had cut his way through the eighth space. He was proud of his effort, but

knew he still had a long way to go and that nothing could distract him.

"Whew! Finally here I am," Darren sighed as he finally reached the ninth space.

The view was quite different from those of the other spaces. Before this, Darren could obtain nothing

but magic herbs good for his cultivation base or some martial skills occasionally, though being of little

use to him.

While in the ninth space, a river flowed before Darren's eyes, and it had distinct views on both banks,

for there were endless blades and swords. He found this so extraordinary.

It seemed that the blades and swords were inserted into each side with no end.

'What does this mean?' Darren thought to himself, quite puzzled at the image before him.

Since he practiced blade and sword skills, he thought his cultivation must have something to do with

the blades and swords in this space.

Outside the space

The guardian of the Ancient Void Battlefield was observing Darren's behavior all the time.

Seeing Darren breaking through the spaces one by one and killing many powerful defenders incredibly

fast, the guardian's face lit up with an unprecedented excitement.

"Will he be the first genius to break through the Ancient Void Battlefield?" the guardian murmured to

himself. However, he shook his head immediately and sighed, "The defender of the thirteenth space is

too dreadful for him to..."

Observing for a while, Darren didn't find anything special. Therefore, he flew down to the river intending

to see it clearly.

'It is the blade and sword intent!'

Darren was startled. Upon touching the water, two strong forces of intent crashed into him. He found

out that the river was formed by immeasurable blade and sword intent.

'The intent here is even stronger than mine, at least having reached the primary level of the premium

blade and sword intent, ' Darren then thought to himself, deeply shocked. He could feel his heart tense

up because his blade intent and sword intent were weaker than the intent in the river.

However, none of these were critical issues. What really mattered was that he hadn't found his target. It

was infeasible for him to attack the river ceaselessly.

The blade and sword intent in the river aggressively assaulted Darren. With all his might, he withstood

the attack while flying overhead. According to his experience, he knew that each space must have a

defender. If he found the defender, he would get a chance to pass the test in this space.

Bang!

The river started to become even more restless as countless waves darted into Darren.

It was overwhelming and Darren felt bad as if he was resisting thousands of blades and swords. He

had never suffered such bloodcurdling blade and sword intent before. It was even worse than fighting

another self. After all, his blade and sword intent at that time was much weaker than that of today.

"Oh!" Darren said as he smiled wryly. He painfully bore the endless abuse and harassment from the

blade and sword intent. He felt his heart beating wildly with sheer terror.

Then he tried to shoot his own blade and sword intent. However, it drowned in the river without any

reaction.

'It seems that this space is designed based on the challenger's martial skill so that the challenger will

fail to bring all his strength into play, ' Darren thought to himself. Finally, he realized that he had

perceived the mystery of the space.

"Roar!"

Darren snarled all of a sudden. The demon core ran quickly inside his body driven by the demonic

internal force. Immediately, Darren displayed the demonic transformation skill. Instantly, he looked like

a Demon God.

Rumble!

Beforehand, in the former tests, Darren had improved his skills to the limits within his realm. Now, his

surging demonic internal force collided with the blade and sword intent from the river.

Their powers were almost equivalent, shaking heaven and earth.

However, this didn't mean that Darren's demonic internal force was stronger than his blade and sword

intent. Actually, they were both powerful, but Darren's blade intent and sword intent were suppressed

here. What was worse, he couldn't find the target.

That was why up till now Darren hadn't released the Blade and Sword Domain. He knew clearly that

even the domain couldn't afford to resist the endless blade and sword intent from the river.

Driven by a crazed blood-lust, he let out a resounding "Roar!"

His eyes turned scarlet as he once again ejected an internal demonic force. Then the blade and sword

intent was bombarded to be scattered around, fiercely devastating the earth.

Rocks flew in all directions as the firmament quivered. Out of those, an extraordinary figure stood

immovably firm, shocking heaven and earth.

Thunder!

Then there was the all too familiar sound of resounding bone chilling thunder! All at once the blades

and swords along the river started flying high and formed two huge swirls in the sky.

Amazed and bewildered, Darren looked up as lightning sparked in the middle of the two large swirls,

which almost seemed to burn the extraordinary figure into ashes.