Chapter 7: Strength After Advancement (Part 1)

Borijigong enjoyed sparring but disliked life-or-death battles. Seeing Yingbei’s astonished expression, he couldn’t help but feel curious, so he invited Guo Shier to spar once to see just how strong the other was.
Guo Shier was equally curious. He also wanted to understand the world’s top experts, and sparring would be the best way to do that, allowing him to gauge his own strength in this world.
Borijigong possessed a Level 9 demon insect, which he had nurtured since childhood. It was extremely powerful, especially when merged with its master, greatly enhancing its strength. In their hometown, Borijigong was undoubtedly a top expert, but when it came to sacrificing to the stars, his strength was no longer at the highest level.
Of course, Borijigong wasn’t weak. Even if not the strongest, he was still among the best experts, far stronger than many others, which gave him the confidence to spar with Guo Shier.
The three flew outside the manor and stopped after traveling thousands of kilometers. They didn’t dare spar inside the manor—given their strength, a single careless mistake could destroy the entire manor.
Borijigong released his demon insect, and the two merged, with the insect transforming into armor. Guo Shier exclaimed, “Amazing! Beautiful!”
Borijigong was a great envoy of the Nanrong tribe, and most of his abilities relied on this demon insect. Once merged, its strength soared several times. Electric currents crackled across the black armor, and two giant swords extended, which he grabbed.
The Level 9 Lightning Black Mantis, if used alone, would almost certainly be no match for Guo Shier. But when combined with Borijigong, its strength increased dramatically. This was also a unique technique of the Nanrong tribe.
Yingbei said from the side, “It’s certainly amazing. But you’ll encounter even more peculiar and amazing races in the future—be careful.”
Guo Shier habitually summoned his altar but found he couldn’t enlarge it as usual. He was stunned before remembering that this was the rule of this world. Yingbei smiled and said, “Here… it’s better not to summon an altar. Your body is the altar, and your soul is its core.” He gave him a hint.
Fortunately, the two were only sparring. If it were a real battle, Guo Shier’s moment of distraction would have been enough to cost him dearly. This was why he wanted to spar—to get used to the rules of this world.
Guo Shier retracted his altar and pondered for a moment. Borijigong didn’t rush him, waiting quietly.

A not-too-large sacrificial artifact flew out—it was the Umbrella Tower Sacrificial Artifact, rotating slowly above Guo Shier’s head. Rows of runes swiftly descended, enveloping his figure like curtains. Then another sacrificial artifact flew out; the Soul Calming Cauldron rose directly above the Umbrella Tower Sacrificial Artifact. The fist-sized Soul Calming Cauldron emitted a faint glow.

Next, the Moon Blade flew out, circling around him and leaving trails of bright light.

Guo Shier unleashed all three of his best sacrificial artifacts at once. As for the others, he rarely used them anymore. With his rapid advancement, most of the sacrificial artifacts he had used before were no longer usable due to a lack of time for refinement. After all, as the altar advanced, the sacrificial artifacts also needed to be refined accordingly to improve in quality, and he couldn’t possibly refine all of them again.

Ying Bei’s eyes shone. Just by seeing these three artifacts, he knew how powerful Guo Shier was. Although he hadn’t yet seen their true power, the fact that Guo Shier could use them meant their strength must be considerable. Ying Bei himself only had two sacrificial artifacts, one for offense and one for defense. This was also the habit of professionals—no matter how many artifacts they had before, once they reached the top tier, they usually chose two and refined them carefully.

Bo Riguang smiled and said, “Are you ready? I’m going in!”

Guo Shier suddenly retracted the Soul Calming Cauldron. He realized that the Umbrella Tower Sacrificial Artifact was sufficient for now, and he didn’t need to add the Soul Calming Cauldron. If the Umbrella Tower Sacrificial Artifact wasn’t enough for defense, he could always use the Soul Calming Cauldron later. The Soul Calming Cauldron was both offensive and defensive, and it was his most powerful artifact, far surpassing even the Moon Blade.

The old man in the altar said, “Kid, are you not used to this?”

Guo Shier couldn’t help but smile bitterly. His soul trembled slightly as he said, “That’s right. Without an altar beneath me, I almost can’t fight. Sigh, it’s really not easy to change this habit…” Since becoming an altar-level professional, most of his battles had taken place while sitting on an altar, especially against experts. If he didn’t sit on an altar, he felt a bit at a loss.

The old man said, “That person is right. Your body is your altar. That’s the right way of thinking. You just need to get used to it.”

Guo Shier took a deep breath and said, “Come on, Bo Riguang.” Anyway, it was better to fight first to get used to it.

Bo Riguang’s armor was majestic, glowing with dazzling arcs of light. He carried two enormous swords that seemed unreal in size—created from the forelimbs of the Lightning Black Mantis. He warned, “I’m coming!” With a swing of the two swords, they instantly appeared in front of Guo Shier. The swords crossed and slashed wildly, sending lightning from their blades flying out.

Guo Shier moved away in an instant teleportation. He couldn’t quite gauge the strength of his opponent’s attacks and hesitated to engage head-on for now. A series of lightning-fast attacks rained down from the sky like thunderbolts. Guo Shier darted around like a ghost, silently assessing his opponent’s combat prowess. He found that the opponent’s attack speed wasn’t fast enough—given his current skill level, he could easily dodge them. So far, he believed the opponent’s strength posed no threat to him.

The improvements from the altar were real; after several upgrades, Guo Shier’s strength had increased significantly. Taking advantage of sparring with Bo Riguang, he continuously adjusted his own power, getting more familiar with it bit by bit. That’s why he hadn’t launched any attacks yet, sticking to passive defense.

After dozens of consecutive teleportations, Guo Shier finally struck. A golden beam nearly a thousand meters long suddenly descended from the sky, radiating immense power. Along with a faint sound of wind and thunder, it quickly turned into a roaring blast that rushed downward as if the Milky Way were falling from the heavens.

Ying Bei, not far away, paled greatly and shouted, “Be gentle!” Bo Riguang remained relatively calm, but his heart felt as if it had been punched hard, beating wildly out of control. It felt as though the sky had collapsed. With a thunderclap and flashes of lightning, he frantically tried to dodge.

In fact, Guo Shier was also a bit frightened. He hadn’t used his full strength—only 20%—yet he hadn’t expected the Moon Blade to generate such a terrifying blast. Hearing Ying Bei’s roar and seeing Bo Riguang fleeing desperately, he realized that in a real battle, he could instantly kill Bo Riguang by locking onto him with his soul. But since this was just sparring, he certainly wouldn’t do such a thing.

Setting the locked target aside, the golden light from the Moon Blade slashed diagonally downward.

Puff! Boom!

With a soft sound, a massive explosion erupted. A trench a thousand meters long and a hundred meters wide appeared instantly. The two shockwaves generated by the explosion, carrying soil, rocks, and broken trees, were hurled outward in all directions.

Although Bo Riguang managed to escape the range of the Moon Blade’s strike, he couldn’t avoid the subsequent shockwaves. With a roar, his entire body emitted blinding electric light, like a tiny sun, trying to block the incoming debris and trees. Yet he still couldn’t withstand the force of the shockwave and was sent flying into the distance like a cannonball.

The umbrella-shaped tower atop Guo Shier’s head slowly rotated, blocking the incoming shockwaves. He felt quite embarrassed and coughed, saying, “Ahem… Hehe, I’m sorry, it was an accident… Um, this… that…” His face turned red—just one attack had nearly killed his opponent in the sparring match, which made him feel ashamed.

Ying Bei muttered in horror, “Damn it, are the professionals coming out of the Spellcraft World really this fierce?”

Bo Riguang flew over awkwardly and said, “Why are you so violent? That’s too harsh…”

Guo Shier explained helplessly, “Bo Riguang, I only used 20% of my strength. It was really just a test attack.” Seeing Bo Riguang’s dismissive attitude, he grew anxious and said, “Step back a bit. This time… that’s when I’ll use my full strength!” With that, his Moon Blade surged violently, sending dozens of golden blades slashing out wildly.

Bo Riguang and Ying Bei were stunned. The combined power of the blades doubled in intensity, and just a few attacks turned the entire landscape into chaos—vast forests were destroyed, and deep trenches thousands of meters long appeared on the ground. Now they believed Guo Shier’s explanation; he indeed hadn’t used his full strength before.

Ying Bei kept forcing a smile. He suddenly realized that his once-prideful skills meant nothing against Guo Shier. He knew full well he couldn’t withstand an attack of this scale.

Bo Riguang no longer dared continue the sparring. He could clearly see that his opponent was extremely powerful, far beyond his ability to resist. Continuing would only be asking for humiliation. Shaking his head, he said, “Forget it, let’s stop. I can’t even block one hit, so what’s the point?” In his free time, he often sparred with Ying Bei, as their strengths were roughly equal, making the spars interesting.

Ying Bei said, “Sigh, your sparring… just two hits and you’ve destroyed such a large area of forest… What a shame.” This area was his private property, and it would be a lie to say he wasn’t heartbroken.

The massive disturbance alerted Li Ran and Qi Wu Zhen. Others also sensed it and flew over from the manor. Li Ran asked, “What’s going on?”

Guo Shier replied, “Nothing. I was just sparring with Bo Riguang.”

Li Ran glanced at the forest below and said, “Oh, no wonder there’s such a big disturbance. What’s the difference between here and the Spellcraft World?” He hadn’t tried using his powers here before, so he didn’t know the differences.

Guo Shier said, “It’s huge… well, there’s a huge difference. There’s no sense of being restricted like in a small world. This place is even better than the World of Talismans. One’s strength can be unleashed to its extreme—well, it can be increased several times over. And that doesn’t even include the professional rank improvements one can achieve here.”
Qi Wu Zhen smiled and said, “In that case… the stronger one is, the greater the chance of leaving.”
Guo Shier smiled bitterly and said, “Sister Zhen, sacrificing to the stars is certainly nice, but I think… the great world is the real good place.”