Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Despite being quite shocked by what he was looking at, Yang Dingtian didn't hesitate to use his Inferno Sky Sword on the ice woman's head.

Smash.

Again, it was a clean hit that knocked off the ice woman's entire body off. Not that it was effective in any way, though. Pretty soon, another breeze came by blew her back into her original shape.

“Ha ha ha…” The ice woman threw a mysterious look at Yang Dingtian.

Was she immune to all physical attacks? Yang Dingtian didn't think that was the case, so he just kept swinging harder with his youngling sword.

It was her chest, her neck, her waist, and both of her legs. Whatever vital spots Yang Dingtian could think of, he immediately struck each of them at least ten times over.

Not surprisingly, it was the same results over and over again. Yang Dingtian smashed his enemy into pieces, and the pieces kept coming back together.

“My turn now, stranger.” The ice woman suddenly spoke in a seductive voice. Afterward, she let out a sharp shriek towards the ceiling and vanished into the air.

But wait. It wasn't like she was gone or anything. Instead of remaining in her original form, the ghastly thing had split herself up into tiny snow particles floating around the air. From what it looked like, these particles were forming into the shape of a mouth, and the size of it was just enough to swallow a whole person.

“Inferno Sky Sword!” Yang Dingtian injected all his qi into his youngling sword, and a giant flame came out of his hand. It wasn't getting any hotter here, though. If anything, the direct opposite was happening.

Negative thirty. Negative forty. Negative fifty.

As the snow dust engulfed Yang Dingtian, the temperature started dropping drastically by the seconds.

It was so freaking cold!

Even with his Nine Yang Mystic Meridian, Yang Dingtian could feel his internal organs going a lot slower than before. It was his bones, his blood, nerves, meridian. It was everything, basically.

Yang Dingtian had to react somehow, but whenever he tried to ignite his sword, a freezing air just kept deactivating it.

On and off. On and off. All of Yang Dingtian's attempts at using his Inferno Sky Sword went to naught, and he had to lose a great deal of his qi every single time.

This fearsome cold had a will of its own. It was aggressive. It was fast. But, most importantly, it was entirely unpredictable.

After an hour of his futile resistance, Yang Dingtian had to accept the fact that his current strategy wasn't doing anything. The snow dust continued to trap him wherever he tried to go, and it wasn't like he had a way to escape.

Well, it was time to be creative.

With no regard to the decreasing temperature, Yang Dingtian decided to stop using his youngling sword as a lighter. Instead, he struck it right to the ground below him.

“Earth Seal Sword!” Yang Dingtian shouted and shot out a powerful qi out of his weapon, which then spread its way out to the rest of the room.

Technically speaking, the energy Yang Dingtian emitted was not of ice, but of the element fire. However, it was still capable of splitting itself up into countless tiny units to counter the ice woman's attack.

If anything, it was the perfect counter for this scenario. Not only was Yang Dingtian able to maximize the advantage of his fire element qi, but the Earth Seal Sword was also leaving no s.p.a.ce for the snow dust to escape. In other words, the jailor and the prisoner had switched their roles.

Since the ice woman had nowhere to run, Yang Dingtian decided to use his last bit of qi for the finis.h.i.+ng blow.

“Inferno Sky Sword!” He shouted, and a giant hole was punched out of the freezing particles surrounding him.

It wasn't quite over yet. Pretty soon, the snow dust gathered back together and formed into the shape of a woman. From what it looked like, though, this woman was looking very hurt. Kind of surprised, even.

She had probably just used up all the tricks up in her sleeve. There wasn't anything she could do to Yang Dingtian now, and she sounded like she wanted to run. Actually, she was trying to reattach herself back to the wall she fell from.

There was no way Yang Dingtian was going to do a round two. If he allowed the ice woman to make a retreat, it wouldn't be long before she could recharge herself with an infinite amount of chilling energy. Or, she could just choose not to fight and let Yang Dingtian waste his time.

“Earth Seal Sword!” Yang Dingtian shouted and incapacitated the ice woman's body. If she weren't made entirely out of pure energy, he would've had to let her have her escape. He was not an ice element user, after all.

With nowhere to run, the ice woman had no choice but to keep letting Yang Dingtian deliver his attacks.

Inferno Sky Sword!

Countless flames had shattered the ice woman suddenly.

There was a breeze before the countless shards gathered and regenerated a complete ice woman.

“Earth Seal Sword!” Yang Dingtian imprisoned the ice woman who was about to scuttle away.

“Inferno Sky Sword!” The flaming giant sword slashed down.

Just like this, the process repeated.

The Earth Seal Sword and the Inferno Sky Sword were brandished in turns.

The ice woman's body was getting smaller and smaller, and smaller!

“Inferno Sky Sword!”

After spamming the same attack for about 39 times, the ice woman was finally destroyed without a piece left of her.

Yang Dingtian was right. His Nine Yang Mystic Meridian did bring him an overwhelming advantage to completing his trial inside the ice palace. If he weren't born with such a gift, there would've been no way to survive the h.e.l.l that he had just experienced.

An enemy that cannot be touched, but her body was entirely made out of weapons that cannot be blocked by any means. Just thinking about it still gave Yang Dingtian the chills.

After having left the palace, Yang Dingtian came to have another breathing session at the center of the hall. He didn't need to heal himself up this time.

…

This time, it took about twelve hours for Yang Dingtian to fill up his qi vessel. That being said, it was the same process all over again. The qi just kept inflating and inflating and inflating, and once they had reached a certain point, a white light flashed out and put his senses into a temporary state of rest for about thirty straight seconds.

Finally, another breakthrough! Yang Dingtian just went from being a nine star intermediate to a one star Mystic Martial Master. It wasn't just a level up this time. It was a rank up!

Yang Dingtian was exasperated. He had seen it coming before, but the excitement of actually having a rank up was enough to make his blood boil.

Well, it was probably only natural for him. Before coming to this secret realm, Yang Dingtian had never made so much progress in such a short period before. He had been a Mystic Martial Artist his entire time since leaving the Palace of Ten Thousand Snow, and the most he got to was a five star after he had learned the second stage of the Pig Slaying Sword Art.

Next up, Great Mystic Martial Master! Yang Dingtian was only ten levels away from attaining the rank that he had desired.

With the Five Elements Hall helping him, such a goal was very much plausible. If killing three bosses was the condition to get from a six star Mystic Martial Artist to a Mystic Martial Master, then Yang Dingtian could probably become a three star Great Mystic Martial Master by killing all the bosses that remained.

Oh, how sweet would that be! If things went right for Yang Dingtian, he would've been recognized as one of the most renowned figures in this world. By becoming a Great Mystic Martial Master, he could start training his mystic technique and craft his soul fire.

Once he had filled up his meridian and qi vessel, Yang Dingtian came back to the fire palace for a second attempt. Since fire and ice neglect each other out, it was the most disadvantaged trial he had to go with.

Just when Yang Dingtian was about to lift his leg to make the entrance, the traumatizing thoughts about that yasha suddenly came back to him.

It was such a troublesome opponent, to be honest. Especially that whip and the green flame it could create so effortlessly. Yang Dingtian was completely powerless against these two during his last attempt.

“d.a.m.n it,” Yang Dingtian took a deep breath and said to himself, “Whatever it takes, you d.a.m.n monster. I'll just take another bath inside the giant's chest.”

Again, as soon as Yang Dingtian had made his way in, the fire yasha instantly appeared and lashed out its whip at him.

“Inferno Sky Sword!” Yang Dingtian shot out a streak of flame from his youngling sword.

Oh!

Compared to the yasha's green flame, the flame generated by the Inferno Sky Sword was clearly brighter and bigger. Actually, Yang Dingtian couldn't even see any green flame. All he could see was his own flame coming right down at his enemy with absolutely no resistance in the way.

The yasha was just split in half in one hit. Yeah, it was that simple. Its body, just kind of, fell apart before it could even bleed, and it dropped on the ground and was burnt into ashes.

This whole fight took, like, one second.

…

Yang Dingtian didn't know what to think. He, well, expected some kind of gruesome fight awaiting for him.

Really? So that's what ranking up does to you?

There might be just one level of difference between a nine star Mystic Martial Artist to a one start Mystic Martial Master, but the power scale between the two was simply incomparable.

Speaking from Yang Dingtian's memory, the flame he could create from his Inferno Sky Sword was about several inches tall when he was Mystic Martial Artist. Now, after becoming a Mystic Martial Master, it was about several tens of meters tall.

A fire yasha could violate Yang Dingtian when he was a nine star Mystic Martial Artist, but Yang Dingtian could annihilate a fire yasha in an instant when he was a Mystic Martial Master now.

Just what the h.e.l.l?

And that's that.

Without any expense of his qi, Yang Dingtian came back towards the center of the hall. Apart from the element thunder, he had now defeated the first boss of every element in this place.

So, what should he do now? Should he head to the thunder palace, or should he enter the second room of the wind palace?

As mentioned before, there really wasn't a point in matching against thunder. If anything, this rare, rare element was a bug in this universe. There was n.o.body who possessed this element, and you'd rarely see it in an actual fight.

If Yang Dingtian had to say, there wasn't even a need for thunder to have a palace of its own. In fact, why was it considered one of the five elements in the first place? He knew that fire and ice were a pair, and the same logic applies to gold and wind. But if so, shouldn't thunder be paired with something?

…

After thinking for about half an hour, Yang Dingtian decided to give a shot to the most mysterious, dangerous element in this world. If anything, really, he was just curious to see how scary thunder could be.

With his youngling sword in hand, Yang Dingtian came to the front door of the thunder palace. Unlike the other palace in this location, the color of the entrance he was facing was always changing. It was not green or red or blue, but rather a continuous s.h.i.+ft between all of them.

Before taking his step in, Yang Dingtian could see that it was completely dark inside this palace. It's almost as if he was looking at an infinite, ever-expanding universe, and the mysteriousness of it made him grind his teeth harder than he already was.

Still, Yang Dingtian went in. He didn't know what to expect, so he just kind of jumped in and hoped for the best.

Just when he thought that it couldn't be any darker, a great shadow came across Yang Dingtian and completely took away his vision.

There was no sight. Nor sound, either. There wasn't anything to sense or detect here, and even time and s.p.a.ce seemed like they had been erased.

“What the…”

Yang Dingtian held onto his sword. He wanted to hurry up and get this over with, but there wasn't any enemy coming at him.