--
Level UP!
Cultivation Level 7 → 8
Total % Base Stats Buff: 7% → 8%
Base Stats w/o adjustments
Stamina (LV 5 → 6)
HP (LV 5 → 6)
250 → 275
81,504 → 89,605
Endurance (LV 5 → 6)
199 → 212
Durability (LV 5 → 6)
220 → 230
Power (LV 5 → 6)
Attack (LV 5 → 6)
1,710 → 1,860
5,060 → 5,560
Qi (LV 5 → 6)
11,405 → 12,405
Total Score
100,348 → 110,147
Black Nine-Tailed Fox (Boss) HP: ~5B
--
Oh, my Yinhai. Hu, what was up with your mind? Julius stared at the towering Black Nine-Tailed Fox. An absolute unit for a boss. This was a massive upgrade for Hu. Her indicated health numbers are astronomically high. His seventy-two kills weren’t effortless. It all relied on the constant slashes and beatings without giving away a time gap. And now, for the final round, he expected everyone to provide a sense of teamwork to the level one boss.
“Phew…" Julius exhaled, getting ready to face the ultimate boss. He attempted a reboot of his qi supply to supplement his energy. From others’ perspective, Julius didn’t appear to be phased out when mentally and his inner body were desperate to shut down. Skoltor’s system saved him in that regard, which he tried not to take for granted. It also benefited the Skolritters. So, they stood first with Julius and watched the ultimate boss preparing herself.
As he watched the stamina bar being refilled, Empress Cai’s footsteps came from the right side, reaching for his corresponding eardrums. “Are you ready?” she asked, while rubbing her sore forearms.
“Yes, I am. Nothing more other than surviving to the end.”
“With that tone of yours, I sometimes can't understand,” Empress Cai said, mentioning his unintentional tone of ambiguity.
“Oh, no…no. I don't mean it that way. I hope I didn't utter it in that manner.”
“Well, try to keep your mind cool during this, and don't overthink. It will come to you in sync,” Empress Cai advised.
“I'll try.”
Julius began to move downhill as Solomon led the way. He remained on his tail, and the cultivators followed with. Subsequently, all ditched the walk and paced themselves right toward the Level One Boss, who noticed them coming. Black, vibrant waves of energy were summoned on both of her front paws. In a blink of an eye followed by a thumped echo, the boss’s left paw is up in the air. “Solomon!” he yelled at him to dodge.
Boom!
The shockwave generated from the paw’s swipe sent them rolling down to the floor. His ears rang, similar to when he got flash-banged by a bomb on his active-duty years ago. The shock must have been insanely loud because he had blasted unprecedented amounts of qi, forming a mushroom cloud greater than the height of a commercial airplane flight. The reaction of the cultivators was more severe. Literal hot sauce bottles. Eardrums squirted consecutively of bright red and poured onto the tainted desert sands, wetting it again over the dried dirty dust. The next second, they crashed down flat, and their howling cries symbolized the unbearable pain.
Celeste, with her right half paralyzed, jolted a gesture from her index finger. One yank upwards summoned a barrier a second ahead of the Level One boss’s subsequent swipe that could have decimated them further. A cringy and scratching motion left a set of wide and lengthy claw marks on it. Five parallel lines seeped halfway through the layers of it; the distorted and irregular pattern. Julius rolled a little away in his spare time as the boss focused on demolishing the shield. He flicked his greatsword away by a couple meters and grabbed Celeste; thus, rolling away with her in his arms. Following the direction of Licht landed was where Solomon lay, lifting his monstrous body and raining dust from his clothes. Julius caught his attention as headed in his direction.
“Don’t,” he muttered with a slow raise of his palm.
Julius came to a sudden stop. The sudden realization resulted in him silently grunting, and while not looking to his left, he whispered to Celeste’s ear while tapping her. “Don’t look to our left…summon the barrier.”
Swoosh!
The two looked immediately after the immediate slide up, witnessing the face of a phantom fox staring through the transparent barrier. Lazer struck, and red eyes flashed behind the shield’s thin layer. “Hold on,” Julius said, and then speedily rolled to Solomon. He has an abundance of qi, willing to be shared. His right abdominal region began to heat up. “Here,” he said, tapping right onto Solomon’s shoulder, boosting him up. Following, he gripped Celeste’s paralyzed right arm which felt like hanging branches desperate to be snapped off. He quickly exerted a defibrillating motion, triggering a spark, and his fingerprints shot sparks. Celeste reacted with an expressive groan, jerking her body upward. Julius let his arms go, and both rolled away from each other. Both stood up from the sandy floor and wiped them off from their clothes. Empress Cai came from near the entrance area. She and Victoria were the last ones to depart from the spot, which was probably a smart decision by them. Thrusting Licht to his chest, she immediately pulled out her katana and insisted on going to deal with the ultimate boss. “Are we ready?”
“Yeah, definitely,” Julius responded on the Skolritters’ behalf.
Unfortunately, as of right now, there are no healer-based cultivators in this match. A whole jeopardy of an operation. Nonetheless, Julius followed Empress Cai with others trailing. They headed back to the wounded cultivators. Within the crowd, Feng stood erect from the many on the ground.
“Share any excess energy if you have some!” Empress Cai yelled, pointing at the crowd while speeding at near light speed to the scene.
According to Skoltor’s system, only one second has passed.
Feng appeared stable amid the dried blood trail conquering her left side. The Skolritters landed hard on the floor in the middle of fallen cultivators, pinpointing their excess energy through their feet and hands. The boss reacted by jumping to the scene as she followed their movement. A red bloodied pillar of an aura leaped into the sky, striking the border of the level as the vibration reflected on the ceiling. An echo manifested because of the center of the clash filled with overloaded qi. The reflection reflected and redirected the bloody red qi back to the surface, raining lethality. A couple struck the boss in a nick of time, prompting her to fly back as the force of the qi was visibly punching. It hit her stomach and pushed her flat to the sandy ground, sending all the contents into the air.
Julius was next. He triggered his sky-blue aura and followed with a pillar, or so he thought. Celeste, Empress Cai, Solomon, and others put out theirs on display. Julius overwhelmed them so much that the force pushed him a couple of inches off the floor. That was when he turned around and witnessed an absolute behemoth. Instead of a beam, his qi has widened from a pillar into an entire wall structure. Julius was baffled at the mega, and it revitalized every fallen cultivator in an instant. Everyone stood and felt motivated by the surge of the unexpected evolution of qi. Their eyes flashed either blue, red, or green.
After the awareness of the change, Julius turned back and faced the Black Nine-Tailed Fox, who lifted itself back up to its four paws. It howled; hence, everybody followed his command of embrace and subjugated the qi for defense. Breathe and exhale. He mindfully mumbled the word as he did. A gust of qi touched his back and lingered like during a cold shower. His upper back flexed in response as he reabsorbed it into his body. The qi filled his back, and it was cold that reached up the edge of his head and neck, while down to the sole edge of his feet. That made him more alert than he ever felt before, indescribable at best. Once fully absorbed, the surge spread to his entire abdomen, and quickly he fired one beam through his mouth, right at the boss. Finally, it felt like he finally had control as he attempted to move one leg at a time.
“Everyone now!” Empress Cai yelled from the side.
Julius moved faster toward the boss, while blasts of qi were fired and swarmed past his peripherals right at the fox’s many vital points on her body.
--
Black Nine-Tailed Fox (Boss) HP: ~5B ↓
3.5B
--
The organ Chugan, he only now started to feel it operated underneath his skin the longer he continued emitting the beam. Skoltor’s numbers indicated the rapid plunge of the fox’s health. In half a minute, everyone’s effort took one and a half billion away from her health percentage. A thirty-percentage drop was massive progress. Julius hadn’t asked for the rest of the Skolritters' visual systems’ performance; even though it was only one level up. The effects were massive. It seemed others have a similar cause and effect despite not getting theirs updated.
Empress Cai, her performance was unprecedented and incalculable. Her prior experience with her master was one factor for her unpredictability. The day of the botched tournament revealed her strength. Today was interesting. He learned she did fifty kills, and the only buff was the flame of wrath. However, the buffs don’t apply until level one is a hundred percent completed. Which could only mean one thing: she was restraining herself? Otherwise, how she could look fairly clean after having a high kill count? She was sitting down for the last few minutes before the one thousand total kills mission reached completion.
Empress Cai launched herself, followed by a shockwave emitted from her boots. She brought out her katana from her sheath, preparing to put out a slash. Julius immediately dashed right behind her, too, with his greatsword drawn. He watched the tip of her katana blade face up high in the sky. With one glare, the dark clouds in the air began to disperse. The sun's rays ran through the open space and struck right to her blade like a source. It triggered a scarlet red burst of qi and sprinkled from the tip of the blade. As a result, the qi watered her blade, revealing the disordered hamon and hidden imprints from the tip of the blade to the forte. The hidden imprints shone flashing white light, and the characters vibrated echoes of sound waves. It had a form of a paralysis effect, and Julius sensed something was off and pulled his brakes, landing hard on the ground. His landing stopped with a few inches to bear. Some cultivators who were following his movement crashed down to the ground, face flat. Julius half turned to the back and yelled at the rest of the stampede to stop. “Stop!! Don't go past me!!”
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Shit. With no other choice, he fired a small orb right at the ground to avoid a direct shot at the upcoming. The blast shot up bags worth of sand right to them, prompting a sudden stop. And they fell on top of each other, forming a small pile. Feng and Mr. Kang, who were right behind the pile, took them off and gave each space. Solomon and Daiyu were nearby and maintained their blasts, continuing to take a portion of the fox's health. Julius went back to preparing to unleash the contents of his greatsword, and he kept his eyes remain at the boss as she was faced with a couple various forms of attacks while he and Empress Cai were preparing their signature moves.
The echoing grunt came from the fox, reminding it had enough of being barraged. It raised its mouth and came off with a loud roar that deterred Solomon and Daiyu. Daiyu lost control of her blast as it came from her palm, went off of her alignment, and the black beam went right to Empress Cai’s source. It struck through the sun's rays, disrupting the surge of her scarlet red qi. She quickly turned right to Daiyu distraught. “What the hell are you doing?!” she yelled, breaking her voice. She had to launch her failed signature move, which appeared no different than an ordinary slash similar to Julius’s Lunar Tsunami (Yueqiu Haixiao/月球海啸), but thinner and more regular in a crescent shape. The fox summoned its shield as it headed to her.
Oh, it’s over. God damn it. Julius thought.
To the surprise of everyone, the thin crescent slashed through the shield and lacerated the fox’s neck and arm. It tumbled partially to the right and moaned upon bracing a limp. Julius didn’t expect that at all, and it almost disturbed him from focusing, maxing out his qi through the blade. He felt it was close. One eye glared up at the tip of the greatsword’s blade, Licht began to leak out sky-blue qi all over and reached down to his white hilt. When it touched his palms, he received a telepathic call.
< Hey, I know what we can do to defeat this. > Licht came on out of the blue.
<< You really have a stock of ideas coming…as if you knew what you could do. >>
< And I still don’t. I’ve been awake the whole time. Plus, I was also thinking. And it got me one idea that I forgot about. >
<< Tell me then. What do you have in mind? >>
An invisible force thrust downwards to his arms, a heavy push down. Afterward, the yanking motion triggered a bloody misty red out of the blade’s tip. Instinctively, he articulated the greatsword in a swaying motion. A couple right to left, back-to-back, and followed with an upward and downward motion. Therefore, the mist overtook the blade, extending a foot long and wide as hell. It became so unimaginable that even physics can’t describe the possibility of it happening.
<< Licht. Why is this so big? And where did you even get that red qi?! >>
< I have no words for it; we only have to find out what it leads to. Also, it’s the person behind you at your right…she could answer you the question. >
Julius turned and saw Feng, who was cast in a bloody red aura all over her body. She came up with an electrifying look. A wide grunting smile with a horrific dragon’s breath as she breathed. He stared momentarily as she received from his eyes observing her. “You are the bloody red…huh, what a twist,” he said before turning back, getting ready to push forward. The paralysis effect from Empress Cai subsided pretty quickly after Daiyu’s black beam of death accidentally struck her source.
With his grip holding Licht in front of him, Julius pulled it back and exerted himself, triggering a violated boom followed by one more from Feng, who was pretty angry through to her soul.
< We’re ready. > Licht said.
<< Alright. >> Julius replied without patience.
He then gave one look to his left, and Daiyu fired another black beam of death. The black qi shot at the fox, not giving her a chance to summon another defense mechanism. Empress Cai’s slashing move gave it a hard time to properly defend herself. The former gave her a massive load of barrage as her screams of despair reached back down to the surface. After it was certain Daiyu was good, Solomon, with his axe, sprinted off to the fox, and therefore, Julius did the same. He steered up into the air while directing his eyes at level one boss’s head, pinpointing at the crown. Once he reached the right position, he flipped his body where his feet faced up to the sky. Thus, he boosted from there, generating a shockwave that destroyed more of the unpleasant clouds. The sky got brighter as he sped down. He went all out: aura, everything.
Julius saw Solomon, with electrifying eyes and a flaming aura, hover near ground height and utilize more of a low targeting strategy. Feng followed him and sequentially the rest of the cultivators followed fully drawn. Like raging ants, they paced up and sped right to the compromised boss. Finally, Julius drew Licht right to the top of the boss’s head.
BOOM!
The blade sent a town-sized demonstration. One shockwave from the strike was all it needed to turn the tide around. Therefore, every single dark cloud that remained in the Realm of Blue River was forcefully wiped from the map. Not a trace of it left. The air was clean, wiped like a breeze. It gusted the ground from its stability as every grace of sand particles whooshed in the air and sent away in one direction. The entire ground went all gray and black like rock solid, as if the floor had burned. Unexpectedly, an eruption occurred. A tsunami developed from the spot of the strike. The swirling wide hole generated a wave of qi, mimicking the pattern of the flow of water. Red and blue fought each other as the waves spread until they reached the realm’s borders. Within that swirling hole was hollow and dark. At that deep point, the darkness turned bright; something of orange and yellow colors shot itself out.
Explode!
The second eruption specifically brought the remaining heat left that the waves masked earlier. It didn’t do a good job holding it, so all hell breaks loose. The last of everything out into the air. A disordered mushroom cloud took the sky in a glimpse. Circular orange rings hovered and encircled the stem. More updraft from the force within the stem pushed it further until it flattened the roof as it reached the realm’s ceiling. It disrupted the force from the updraft, creating a plus sign pattern in the sky. And that was it. It’s over. It’s done.
--
Black Nine-Tailed Fox (Boss) HP: 0
--
----------------------------------------
--
Level UP!
Cultivation Level 8 → 9
Total % Base Stats Buff: 8% → 9%
Base Stats w/o adjustments
Stamina (LV 6 → 7)
HP (LV 6 → 7)
275 →300
89,605 → 96,000
Endurance (LV 6 → 7)
212 → 225
Durability LV 6 → 7)
230 → 240
Power (LV 6 → 7)
Attack (LV 6 → 7)
1,860 → 2,010
5,560 → 6,060
Qi (LV 6 → 7)
12,405 → 13,405
Total Score
110,147 → 118,240
Mission Completed!!
Survive in any manner.
Defeat the Boss of the Black Nine Tail Fox. (黑九尾狐）
Kill the Black Nine Tail Fox. (黑九尾狐）→ (1000/1000)
--
“That was rude of you. When did you have the guts to unload all of that? We all could have been killed,” Hu said, appearing trashed, and all fucked up.
“What are you expecting from us, fighting tirelessly for at least three hours to survive? And then you came up with such a large health number. So, I took the risk from Licht,” Julius said in response while wiping his blue blood that continued hemorrhaging from a gape on his forehead. He then glanced at everyone who all had at least one would in a range from a minor to near threatening. “But the fight paid off. Everyone is alive. They passed. They understood their assignment and stuck with it.”
“I mean…I can’t deny that. However, I’m warning you to try constrain yourself from going through with these reckless decisions…Luckily, this realm has no significant environmental impact and is more open. But I can’t say the same for higher levels from here now on,” she then directed her advice to everyone. “You have to rely more on anything wise to succeed, like pure swordsmanship with the blade and a restrained form of strength. That doesn’t mean I’m saying not to be reckless, but only to do it when it is certain there are no options.”
“Restrained form of strength?” Julius questioned while holding his forehead from the gape. It didn’t heal immediately. “Enlighten me on it.”
Empress Cai lay on the grass with her eyes closed and turned right to Julius. “You’ll be interested. For someone like you, I think you will like it more than mushroom clouds.”
Julius sighed and lay down on the edge of the hill. His eyes viewed the realm from the spot and it looked trashed. At least it recovered quickly compared to minutes ago, when the entire ground was rocky and exposed. Am I insane? He asked himself the question. He doesn’t think so, but something to ask once in a while. “Have you experienced it too?"
“Yes, of course. While I’m not a master at it, I had a medium degree in it, and that was already high for the time. When I finished my qi arts and academics, the rest of the hours remaining were on studying restrained strength. I think that if you can go through restrained strength training, you will be doing wonders and not having to rely on explosives.”
“Anybody else had restrained strength training?” Julius asked.
Only around half of the crowd had their hands raised. Solomon had his hand half raised. The rest of the Skolritters were hands down. Qiang, all the House of Kang, and his two cousins were the half he saw raising their hands. Ah, no wonder. Qiang. She was a menace as a markswoman without ever using a sword.
“So, when are we starting?” he continued with another question.
“One day…” Empress Cai muttered. “One day. I will teach you once we have the time.”
Julius nodded and slightly coughed. “Thank you…”
While keeping his eyes open, he relaxed amongst the flowering blossoms. He kept staring at the scenery. The grass has all returned, and the river flows are back to normalcy. It was back to the natural beauty it was before like nothing happened. His lungs were healing as he breathed better. Skoltor and Hu found his lungs were smoked from the impact. It wasn’t the qi move that got his breathing in a crisis, but the second stage with the igniting of a magnitude that was larger than a nuclear bomb or any of his experiences in history. Hence, she offered a gradual healing potion for the lingering effectiveness.
Julius continued to lie there while others were doing their own business. A couple minutes passed, and the bleeding stopped when he felt nothing leaking to the skin of his palm. When his health got better, he lifted his upper torso up from the hill. Next, he came to the team. The Skolritters had convened in a circle with Hu sitting in the center. Empress Cai stood nearby, slightly watching the moment before noticing Julius coming up. “I didn’t accept.”
“You didn’t? I don’t think it would matter. It's not for everybody.”
“Why did you have it?”
“It saved my life. If I never got it, my progress would stagnate.”
Empress Cai’s eyes turned questionable as she grew curious. “You had a condition?”
Julius bobbed his eyes. “Yeah, my natural body at one point can’t contain when the qi reaches out of control. However, ever since I got Skoltor, those moments have not happened. I’m grateful for that. I sometimes get a thought about what if I’m removed from this system. Will I experience it again? Or because it’s a optimized supplement for me to improve that taking it out in the future, I would never have to deal with it again.”
“You describe yourself more only means the method of Restrained Strength is the safest best for you in the long run,” Empress Cai said with a stare, expressing happiness and excitement at his words. She then turned to the Skolritters. “It seems they’re done.”
Qiang walked up to the scene and lifted her cowboy hat off of her head. “Restrained Strength? What more can you have?”
Empress Cai turned to her. “Ah, you are that cowgirl who was with Zhou at the residence earlier. Finally, hearing you talking…and I have to say, I’m not disappointed. You look vibrating.”
“And I didn’t know until a couple of days ago that there was a lady ruler before him,” Qiang muttered, gaining a nod from Empress Cai, who then turned to Julius.
“I’m unlucky for my nearly decade-long reign, but maybe he could turn things around and unite everyone under one flag.”
“We fought in that arena. He is the first I’ve ever seen to hold such aggression. I don’t have a firm knowledge of Restrained Strength, but I think if he embraces it…it will be a change in this world,” Qiang concluded.
Julius listened while watching them talk about him. “Kind words…I think I got a brief outlook of what to expect from Restrained Strength. But I have one question. Is it varied or unified?”
“It’s varied,” Hu responded. She stood from the circle as the Skolritters simultaneously stood. “However, the foundation stage is exact for everyone, like a textbook study session. Once you pass that stage, how you will utilize it will be an open book.”
“You are lucky that I can read. Some could find that first part boring.”
Hu shrugged as there was nothing that could be different. “One way or the other, studying is crucial because lacking the knowledge is pretty dangerous.”
Fair point. Julius nodded. “So, what’s next? We completed this level.”
“Here it is,” Hu said and pointed to the visual pop-up summoned from the sky. It appeared wide and with clear written words. Everybody watched as the words were typed at the speed of a typewriter. It was lengthy, but descriptive and straightforward.
Julius took a minute to comprehend all the information. By the end of the last sentence, he turned to everyone. “Good,” he said in one word. Nothing else needed to be said further.