Chương 84: War God’s : — Chapter 84 - He Has Already Set Foot on the Martial Path, While We Have Yet to Begin

Wang Xian's receding figure grew smaller and smaller. Finally, it became a pinpoint of light, the faintest source of illumination in the dim, lightless depths of Spiderheart Peak. But the students present still hadn't left. Their feet felt as if filled with lead, growing heavy.

"Madman, a complete madman!" Li Zihang roared, his eyes reddening as he stared at Wang Xian's back. Over a decade of his beliefs seemed to collapse in that instant. He knew who the dozen-plus students trapped inside Spiderheart Peak were. It could only be Chen Yuting's group, who had entered not long ago. A simp he might be, his feelings for her were real. But if it meant paying with his life, he wasn't that stupid.

Yet Wang Xian, someone who had already drawn a clear line with Chen Yuting, someone who barely had any connection to those dozen-plus students, had turned around and charged toward Spiderheart Peak.

'My martial path is not for scores...' The words resounded in his mind like a great bronze bell. Shattering his muddled 19 years of life! At the same time, Ye Miyue snapped back to her senses and was the second to charge forward. A wisp of azure radiance flickered in her eyes, resolute and unwavering.

'That day, I could only watch you go.'

'Because I knew if I followed you then, I would only be a burden.'

'But now...'

'I have a taboo talent...'

'I must be able to help you...'

'I never want to wait alone again...' In Ye Miyue's vision, Wang Xian's back overlapped perfectly with the image of him vaulting over the railing the day the Wind King Falcon attacked. Except this time, it was different. She chose to follow. The other students' bodies trembled uncontrollably. Their hearts churned in torment. The soul-shaking impact of that solitary, defiant figure jolted them as if from a deep dream. As if, like newborn infants, they opened their eyes and saw the world anew.

"Now I finally understand why I could never replicate that blade strike of his..." Tan Tianze from Fourth High turned and looked toward Spiderheart Peak, as if suddenly enlightened.

"Because he long ago set foot on the true martial path. He is a true martial warrior."

"While we haven't even begun our journey!"

"The starting point is beneath our feet..."

"Everyone, I'm going to walk my own martial path now." With that, Tan Tianze laughed heartily, raised his blade, and charged out as well. The many students shuddered once more.

"Fuck this!" Lin Ao stared at Tan Tianze's back, his eyes reddening.

"None of you care about your scores anymore, is that it? All rushing to throw your lives away? Students in the back, does anyone still have vitality restoration potions?" Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Those with life force under 50, you rookies don't go throwing your lives away. If you have restoration potions, give them all to us!" But at this moment, who still had vitality restoration potions left? Dozens of elite students couldn't scrape together more than two or three bottles. Lin Ao didn't hold much hope.

"I have three bottles." Just then, Li Zihang spoke up from behind, his voice hoarse.

"Take them all." He pulled out the three bottles he had intended to keep and handed them to Lin Ao.

"I still have one bottle..."

"I have half a bottle..." Sparse voices gradually rose among the students, growing more and more numerous. They scrambled to offer what they had.

"Three years of martial study, and I feel like this is the first time I've ever been this foolish..." He Yiming took the seven or eight bottles of vitality restoration potions, gently removed his glasses, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes.

"He can give up the national martial exam championship... compared to that..." Xu Rong couldn't hold it together anymore, tears already glistening in her eyes.

"What are we, really? Tan Tianze is right..."

"The martial path is right beneath our feet."

"He has already set out."

"We can't fall too far behind, can we?" Before long, the faint glimmers surging toward Spiderheart Peak gradually grew in number. Outside the camp at Crimsoncloud Mountain.

"What are these students trying to do?" Commander Zhao watched the scenes unfolding on the screen, his eyes reddening. Bai Hongtian stood beside him in silence.

"I think I understand now..." Commander Zhao looked at Bai Hongtian.

"Why you value this kid so much..."

"What a fine embodiment of the true essence of martial arts."

"What a fine example of marching toward death to live!"

"Isn't it good?" Bai Hongtian countered.

"Good, it's almost too good." Commander Zhao slammed the table.

"For our Western Shu to produce warriors like this, I couldn't be happier!"

"Perhaps this is the martial spirit that the Old Martial Arts sought to pass down centuries ago..."

"Perhaps it is precisely because he has no martial talent that he could inherit this spirit..." He gazed toward the heavens, the dusky sunlight casting a heavy expression across his face:"The tide of New Martial Arts surges forward. Supernatural powers run rampant through the world."

"Chasing glory, thirsting for power, scrambling for resources, factional struggles, even imperial gambits..."

"Deception and intrigue, profit above all, scheming and backstabbing, harming others for personal gain..."

"In this era of ours, too many people no longer know what a true 'martial warrior' even means." At this point, Commander Zhao sighed softly and said:"Let's go. We'll go together."

"We can't let these promising seedlings be harmed by a single 'bonus question.'""If even a slight mishap occurs..."

"I fear I would regret it for the rest of my life." Bai Hongtian revealed a faint smile and nodded. The two walked out of the camp together. Wang Xian was the first to charge into Spiderheart Peak. A roar, carrying the stench of blood, howled down from the summit above. He looked up. A massive serpent, at least 50 meters long, coiled among the mountain rocks. Its serpentine body was covered in obsidian-like scales. The scales refracted a devouring light under the glow of the setting sun.

Along its spine jutted rows of coral-like bone spikes, from which viscous venom continuously secreted, releasing a nauseating stench. Most horrifying was its chrysanthemum-shaped head, covered with petal-like striations that formed a kind of specialized head-armor. Only at the center gaped a massive mouth, its flickering tongue several meters long. Its tail end was forked into three bone whips, and at the tip of each whip segment hung tumor-like glands.

Once ruptured, who knew what kind of toxic mist they would release.

"Abyssal Demon Chi." Wang Xian thought to himself, so it was this beast. Fodder-level beast from the alien battlefields. Of course, "fodder" was relative. It was still terrifyingly formidable. Its base life force was always in the four digits or higher, possessing extremely high defense and terrifying wide-area venom attacks, with no obvious weaknesses anywhere on its body. Normally, even the weakest D-rank beast had several thousand life force.

Some that had devoured martial warriors and absorbed their talents would evolve, easily reaching C-rank or even B-rank. This one before him was clearly weak. Obviously captured and brought here. The middle section of its spine was broken, severely wounded, and its life force fluctuations clearly didn't exceed 1, 000.

"Probably around 900..."

"More than enough to slaughter examinees with ease..."

"Unless hundreds of examinees unite, or... use some other method to kill it..."

"No..."

"This Abyssal Demon Chi probably didn't start with 900-plus life force..." Wang Xian recalled what the fleeing examinee had said. This beast had crawled out from a fissure in Spiderheart Peak. And all the Soul-Devouring Mother Spider corpses they had killed had fallen into that fissure, becoming food for this beast. The more people challenged Spiderheart Peak, the more it ate. As a beast from the alien battlefields, devouring the corpses of its own kind to grow stronger was a basic law of survival.

And not just its own kind. Devouring martial warriors' bodies and gaining their talent powers made them even stronger. That was also why beasts slaughtered humans. Because human bodies harbored the power of martial warriors. The more they ate, the stronger they became. They could even evolve. The stronger a martial warrior's talent, the more dazzling they appeared in a beast's eyes, like stars in the sky. So, generally, once a martial warrior was buried amidst a beast horde, there was only one best option.

Self-detonation. ➤ Next: I Handed In An Answer Sheet Belonging to a True Martial Artist