In the Formation Hall, Zhu Xuelian decided to take a look in the Killing Field and see how the others were doing. What she saw immediately impressed her.

  The eight of them fought against five hundred Core Formation beasts, with a dozen or so Nascent Soul beasts in the mix. Zhu Xuelian couldn’t tell the precise cultivation levels of the beasts, as her cultivation was still a bit too shallow for such precision.

  When she saw this, Zhu Xuelian initially thought they lacked the confidence to take on larger numbers, but she soon realized that confidence was not the most important factor.

  Zhu Xuelian and Wu Yulan, when they fought thousands of beasts, did not do so out of confidence. It was a combination of their personalities and their martial arts. To begin with, Zhu Xuelian desperately sought a powerful sword and would go through any hell to obtain it — dying a hundred times every day in this Killing Field was no obstacle to her, mentally or physically.

  Wu Yulan had a peculiar personality. To claim that Wu Yulan anticipated, and sought, death would not be incorrect, but it wouldn’t be a complete description either. Wu Yulan expanded her sword and tactics with each death, coming closer to the Dao with each mistake due to her unique martial art.

  Back then, Zhu Xuelian and Wu Yulan obtained a Transient Sword from an Ancient Sword Graveyard. This martial art was incomplete and unsuitable for their cultivation realms. However, they managed to adapt it to their existing martial arts and utilize some of its unique properties.

  Zhu Xuelian obtained the ability to move between spaces in any way she wanted — Liminality Steps. To an ordinary cultivator, that may not seem like a great advantage — the ability to strike an opponent effectively, and from any direction, was overshadowed by the fact that any effective strike would end a confrontation, regardless of its beauty. However, when fighting a thousand beasts, the ability to obtain ten times the effect with only one tenth of the effort was incredibly useful.

  On the other hand, Wu Yulan’s swordsmanship followed the principle of the Eternal Moment. Wu Yulan could cut anything in her line of sight a dozen or even a hundred times with one strike, and before physically touching it. The white line that threatened the elders back then was a demonstration of this. The downside of this incredibly destructive power was that Wu Yulan could not adjust or retreat from her commitment — once the line was drawn, it became prophecy. Wu Yulan would move through that space, and cut it eventually, and a smart and observant cultivator could take advantage of that.

  However, after falling to her own mistakes, ten or twenty steps after her commitment, hundreds and thousands of times, Wu Yulan had learned how to not make mistakes anymore, to put it bluntly. Her traps, decisions, and tactics had become so advanced that thousands of foes fell to her blade, without any hope of survival or counterattack.

  On the contrary, these eight cultivators didn’t lack the confidence to take on more beasts, but it was a limitation of their tactics that prevented them from doing so.

  Unlike Zhu Xuelian and Wu Yulan, they used proper tactics and roles. With just the two of them, Zhu Xuelian and Wu Yulan could employ only limited stratagems, but they performed all the traditional roles on their own — support, offense, defense, and so on.

  In other words, the eight cultivators fighting in the Killing Field lacked the mobility to fight more than five hundred at a time, which became obvious very quickly.

  Lei Yangming and Mu Jingyu were the heavy hitters in the little squad of killing machines. Their powerful martial arts quickly dealt with the few outstanding Core Formation beasts and the Nascent Soul leaders. The Frozen Peak Palace disciples formed the core support element of the tactical unit, using their internal arts to freeze and slow incoming monsters for the defense group to eliminate.

  At no point, ever, did they allow themselves to get surrounded. Since the Frozen Peak Palace disciples lacked the offensive and defensive power to stand up to dozens of waves of Core Formation beasts, this limited their mobility, as losing these disciples meant that they would eventually lose the entire front line without their support.

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  After an hour, all the demonic beasts were dead, and the group didn’t lose a single member — they never even got close to losing one of theirs.

  [ Load test complete. 488,320 energy generated. ]

  [ New personal best performance: Tian Li, Yuan Qiuyue, Xiang Liling. ]

  [ Additional rewards distributed for new best time: 1:19:24. ]

  Zhu Xuelian narrowed her eyes as the words appeared on the glassy firmament of the formation’s world. Best time? Best performance? Those things didn’t exist before.

  Did Epsilon modify the formation to motivate the group to perform better?

  The group slowly approached Zhu Xuelian. They looked exhausted, but also excited.

  “Sister Zhu, did you see that? What did you think? We got better, right?” Tian Li asked. He barely paused in between the questions.

  Zhu Xuelian smiled. “I saw. It was really good. The tactics and strategy were sound.”

  Lei Yangming smiled. “Sun Yongzheng came up with the idea for how we should fight.”

  Zhu Xuelian looked to Sun Yongzheng. “I thought you might end up the leader, Brother Sun. Your experience is certainly valuable.”

  Sun Yongzheng shook his head. “I am not the leader. Xiang Liling is.”

  Zhu Xuelian looked to Xiang Liling next, surprised.

  “Forgive me, Sister Xiang, I just… always thought that you came along with us because of Mu Jingyu,” Zhu Xuelian said, truthfully.

  Xiang Liling shrugged. “I-it’s not… like we have much of a choice… now.”

  Lei Yangming laughed loudly — thunderously even. “Don’t be like that, Sister Xiang! Sister Zhu, Sister Xiang must be the best tactician in our generation. Her ideas are crazy!”

  Tian Li nodded to the words, while Xiang Liling only blushed harder at all the praise. Yuan Qiuyue — the other disciple Zhu Xuelian thought only came along because of Mu Jingyu — comforted Xiang Liling.

  “Although, we can’t implement any of them yet,” Tian Li said. “What do you think we lack, Sister Zhu? Would you mind giving us your opinion?”

  Zhu Xuelian nodded. “I’d say you lack speed and versatility.”

  Tian Li clapped his hands together. “That’s exactly it! See, Sister Xiang? It’s not your fault. Zhu Xuelian agrees. We are just too slow!”

  Xiang Liling couldn’t even look at the group anymore out of embarrassment. “I… I am still the reason… for holding you back…”

  Ren Jinhai shook his head. “You aren’t holding us back, Sister Xiang. If we went any faster, we wouldn’t be able to keep up. Please don’t only blame yourself.”

  Zhu Xuelian chuckled suddenly, and everyone looked at her curiously.

  “Sorry, I just thought it was funny,” she said. “You are all forgetting that you just dealt with five hundred demonic beasts on your own, and you still have the guts to act like this is an underwhelming result.”

  The words surprised them, and the thoughtful expressions that followed made it seem like they did forget this important detail — it was an unprecedented result. No one would ever believe them that they could pull off such a thing.

  But it also excited them. They knew that this was not their limit. They could do more. What else was possible? Their whole lives, they believed that certain limits existed on what a few can achieve, or what someone can achieve on their own.

  Tian Li lifted his chin proudly. “What do you say we take a break? The Nine Fragrance Incense is on me.”

  They nodded in agreement.

  “Sister Zhu, do you want to join us in the cultivation hall?” Tian Li asked.

  Zhu Xuelian shook her head. “Sorry, Brother Tian. I have to focus on my own progress.”

  Tian Li chuckled. “That’s right. That’s right. I got carried away. All right, we will go, then.”

  Everyone bowed politely to Zhu Xuelian, which made her slightly uncomfortable — it’s not like she was their elder or anything now, so she didn’t think there was a need for such politeness.

  When they all shuffled out of the Killing Field, Zhu Xuelian also departed, but rather than head for the cultivation halls, she instead went to the stele in the chamber from which one could access the Killing Field and other formations.

  When she placed her hand on the stele, a glittering stairway of gold light appeared, opening a path to the second floor of the Formation Hall.

  In the past, the Formation Hall and the Martial Hall were both wings of the Martial Pavilion, but now the buildings were entirely separate. As a reward for completing a challenge, Zhu Xuelian unlocked access to the second, third, and fourth floor of the Martial Pavilion, and became the Realm Master. The formation she was interested in was on the second floor.

  Though it looked different now and had other doorways leading to other fascinating places, Zhu Xuelian was only interested in the glossy, entirely black door. Perhaps calling it a door was generous, as it looked like an opaque sheet of obsidian glass, with no handle or any way to open it.

  Zhu Xuelian pressed her hand to the door and closed her eyes.

  [ Fractured Sword selected. Secret Sword Realm Nexus unlocked. ]

  When she opened her eyes, she was in a different place.