Chapter 168: Perfect Mastery of Blade Intent!
Ye Tian had often sought the existence of top-tier spatial talents but had never found any clues, not even coming across high-level spatial talents except when he fortuitously duplicated one in the Beast Realm. Unexpectedly, he had managed to duplicate a top-tier spatial talent today, though it cost him the use of his life-replacing talent once.
However, he felt it was well worth it. After all, the life-replacing talent couldn't truly enhance his strength, but the top-tier spatial talent could significantly boost his power. For instance, the distance of teleportation and the strength of the space blade would increase manyfold.
"Merge!" In a small cave, Ye Tian began the merging process. Soon, the top-tier spatial talent was successfully integrated. Ye Tian, somewhat exhausted, activated the top-tier spatial talent. Instantly, a wave spread out, covering thousands of miles of space, completely freezing that area.
"Space is like a flowing river, similar to air. To imprison space is to halt its flow. Those with weak strength can't even move in frozen space, and even the powerful will find their speed greatly reduced," Ye Tian realized.
Moreover, he could use spatial imprisonment and the space blade together, first freezing the void and then shattering the enemy's body with the space blade, killing them in one stroke.
"The reason the Space Devouring Beast didn't use the space blade to kill me is probably that it would cost a lot to strike me from afar with the blade. It was obviously called in to help and didn't want to pay the price, so it didn't attack me and just played a supporting role," Ye Tian speculated.
At that moment, he thought - If the Space Devouring Beast had used the space blade while imposing spatial imprisonment, even if he had used his life-replacing talent in time, he wouldn't have been able to duplicate its top-tier spatial talent. So, it was all a matter of luck.
With the top-tier spatial talent, Ye Tian's strength surged. He estimated that few among the Saints could contend with him, and even some Emperors, if directly hit by his space blade, might not survive.
The power of the space blade lay not in its attack strength but in its spatial damage. Emperors had no way to defend against Ye Tian's space blade unless they possessed power beyond the Emperor level.
Of course, while Emperors couldn't contend with the space blade, they could still dodge it. Ye Tian's space blade wasn't fast enough to directly hit powerful Emperors.
After resting for half a day, Ye Tian stealthily headed towards the spatial rift. Soon, he arrived and saw mages setting up arrays. The ground was littered with more beast corpses, indicating a battle had taken place after he left. The Kings stood far away, daring not to approach the spatial rift.
Ye Tian remained unseen, fearing that the news of his survival would reach the beasts. He approached Yun Mengli and transmitted his thoughts: "Yun Mengli!"
Startled by Ye Tian's voice, Yun Mengli was taken aback. It was unmistakably Ye Tian's voice!
"Lord Ye Tian, is that you?" Yun Mengli whispered. He had clearly seen Ye Tian pierced by a golden spear and falling to the ground, and even collected Ye Tian's body.
They had confirmed Ye Tian's death!
"Yes, I'm not dead. The body pierced by the golden spear was a fake corpse I created. The real me was hidden using a secret technique. The Emperor-level beasts in the other realm couldn't come over, so they mistakenly thought I was dead. Don't let others know I'm still alive. At most, inform Blood King and Qing King. Originally, I planned to keep this from you, but you will eventually go to Zhonghai Super Base and find out anyway, so I might as well tell you now," Ye Tian explained.
"Lord Ye Tian, it's great that you're not dead!" Yun Mengli sighed in relief. Ye Tian's death would have been detrimental to the Demon Sea Base, as a living Ye Tian was like a guardian deity for the base. If a crisis arose, they could seek Ye Tian's help.
"I’m going to Zhonghai Super Base!" Ye Tian bid farewell. After his departure, Yun Mengli conveyed the message to Qing King and Blood King. Initially, they didn't believe it, but a close examination of Ye Tian's corpse convinced them of his claim. Even a perfect doppelgänger could be identified upon close inspection as not a real human body. The corpse had long been dead, its blood comprised of beast components and some special materials, with evident signs of having been crafted – clearly a fabricated body. This matter was only known among Yun Mengli, Blood King, and Qing King, with other Kings remaining unaware of Ye Tian's survival.
Upon arriving at Zhonghai Super Base, Ye Tian spent a few days touring the base with his sister to reassure her, before proceeding to the War God Tower.
He had several objectives this time.
First, he aimed to comprehend array patterns, elevating his array master level to construct top-tier cultivation rooms, thus significantly accelerating his sister's training pace.
His second goal was to understand blade intent. With his blade talent already enhanced to the Morning Star level, with the aid of the War God Stele, he could definitely achieve complete mastery of blade intent, elevating his gold-level blade techniques to full mastery.
The third objective was to challenge the War God Tower. Now a Saint, he had dropped out of the King's List but could enter the Saint's List. Additionally, with his current strength, conquering the eighth and ninth levels of the War God Tower wouldn't surprise anyone, and it was a good opportunity to earn points.
In the War God Stele space, Ye Tian began comprehending array patterns, activating triple time acceleration. After three days, he deciphered the 200th array pattern, officially reaching the level of a top-tier array master. Then, spending two more days, he deciphered another 20 array patterns, reaching the level of 120 array patterns. A top-tier array master capable of inscribing 120 array patterns was considered strong among his peers, sufficient to build top-tier cultivation rooms.
Subsequently, Ye Tian shifted his focus to blade intent. With his Morning Star level blade talent and the War God Stele's aid, his comprehension speed was more than tenfold faster than before. Innumerable insights about the blade surged into his mind, improving rapidly every moment. Five days later, he reached 90% of the blade intent realm, and after fifteen days, he achieved perfect mastery of the blade intent.
"Only 85 points left, time to challenge the War God Tower again!" Ye Tian stood up, leaving the War God Stele space.
He then entered the eighth level challenge space of the War God Tower. With his strength, he easily defeated the black-robed warrior, but the points he earned were somewhat disappointing.
"10 points!" Ye Tian questioned, "Spirit, when I conquered the seventh level, I got 32 points. Why only 10 points for the eighth level now?"
The spirit replied truthfully, "Ye Tian, when you conquered the seventh level, you were at the King level, but now as a Saint, it's much easier for you to conquer the eighth level, so you can't get 64 points. The points rule I told you before was for Kings. Now that you've reached the Saint level, here's the new rule: 10 points for the eighth level, 20 for the ninth, 40 for the tenth, 80 for the eleventh, 160 for the twelfth, and so on. How many points you can get depends on your strength."
"Greedy spirit!" Ye Tian cursed inwardly, but he also knew this rule was more reasonable. It would be irrational if Kings and Saints were treated the same.