Volume One: First Glimpses of Greatness Chapter Eighty-Eight: Slaying, Ascending, Breaking Through!

"Kid, who is your master?" Sensing the danger around Wang Jue growing ever denser, Jin Hai hastily stepped back and asked in a cold voice.

"I understand now. So that's how it is," Wang Jue suddenly said.

Jin Hai was taken aback. "What?"

Wang Jue offered no explanation. With his sword in hand, he strode forward and rushed in.

Under the dim night, Wang Jue's features flickered in and out of view, but the strange excitement in his eyes made Jin Hai's heart lurch, and an unaccountable sense of danger rose violently within him.

The next instant, stellar power surged through Wang Jue. Brilliant sword light burst forth with a savage howl, scattering the drifting dust around them like a flood breaking its banks.

Clang!

A force far more brutal than before came crashing back through the weapon.

"Damn it." Jin Hai's expression changed slightly, and the sense of peril in his chest only grew stronger.

As Wang Jue fought with increasing ferocity, a chill at last crept into Jin Hai's heart.

"No good. If this goes on, I'll be at a disadvantage."

Jin Hai found it harder and harder to block Wang Jue's attacks, and a trace of retreat emerged in his mind. "Forget it. If I keep wearing myself out, this brat may very well drag me down with him. Better find a chance to leave and come back for revenge once my injuries heal."

Having made up his mind, Jin Hai fought Wang Jue head-on without holding anything back.

Amid the spray of sparks, he clearly saw Wang Jue's youthful face, and the retreating thought in his heart was swiftly replaced by malice. "Kid, you forced my hand. I've killed so many people, but I've never killed a genius before!"

He envied Wang Jue for being younger than him, yet possessing such formidable strength.

If he had once had this kind of power, he would never have spent so many years struggling and wandering.

More than that, he understood all too well what genius like Wang Jue meant.

Once they became enemies, they had to be cut down completely, leaving no future trouble behind.

If he did not kill him now, then once he grew stronger in years to come, he would become Jin Hai's nightmare.

Thinking this, Jin Hai no longer tried to flee. In his heart and mind alike there was only the thought of killing Wang Jue. His spear and Wang Jue's sword struck together once more.

Clang, clang...

In the shower of sparks, Wang Jue said coldly, "If those are your last words..."

The sword edge twisted, erupting with boundless chill.

Cutting Heaven at full strength!

"Then you can die."

Rip!

Jin Hai did not even have time to mock Wang Jue's arrogance before a wound more than twenty centimeters long was carved across his left shoulder by the longsword.

A great gush of blood burst forth like a fountain, staining the ground red in an instant.

He was injured?

He was actually injured?

His eyes widened as he stared at Wang Jue, disbelief filling his dark pupils.

And wounded by a brat at that?

He seemed unable to understand why he had failed to take that previous sword.

The next second, another flash of sword light swept by.

Head and body separated.

Jin Hai's head, still carrying that look of utter disbelief, flew through the air. The headless corpse crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Hu... finally dealt with."

Off to the side, Wang Jue leaned on his blade and panted hard. Turning back to look at the corpse, he could not help but feel a measure of relief.

If the other man had not first been gravely wounded in his fight with Old Liu.

If he had not raised Cutting Heaven to the minor mastery stage.

Then tonight, the ones lying dead here would have been him and Old Liu.

Ignoring Jin Hai's body, Wang Jue, once he had caught his breath, hurried over to check on Old Liu.

"Good. He's only unconscious."

After a careful examination, Wang Jue let out a small breath of relief and immediately called emergency services.

...

Five minutes later, the ambulance arrived.

Upon seeing Jin Hai's severed head and body, the driver and nurse screamed in terror on the spot.

Even the doctor who came afterward was badly shaken.

Though their line of work involved death every day, this was an abandoned square with scarcely a soul around. The atmosphere and circumstances were entirely different.

In the end, it was the doctor riding along who steadied himself and quickly called the public security office.

Watching Old Liu being lifted onto the ambulance, Wang Jue, hidden in the shadows, quietly slipped away.

...

There was no doubt that Wang Jue got home rather late that night.

Wang Xiaoyu had been preparing to pick a fight with him and exact her revenge, only to spot the roast duck and immediately change expression. She scampered over at once, circling around Wang Jue with the ingratiating look of a little lackey. "Brother, that smells amazing! Brother, aren't you tired?"

Wang Jue glanced toward the living room and, not seeing either his mother or father, hurriedly handed her the roast duck. "Here, take it quickly. Just make sure Mom doesn't find out."

"Don't worry. I swear I won't sell you out!"

Wang Xiaoyu held the bag with the roast duck in one hand and thumped her own small chest with the other, making a solemn vow.

"If only you could study with the same enthusiasm you eat with."

Wang Jue ruffled her hair, and amid the little girl's indignant but helpless glare, he laughed softly and left.

Back in his room, Wang Jue opened the panel.

Experience +1000

Seeing the additional thousand experience points on the panel, Wang Jue was not excited at all; instead, he felt a little regretful.

He had originally guessed that killing star beasts would yield both star essence and experience, so would stronger warriors than star beasts also do the same?

And perhaps more?

Now that he looked at it, he had clearly overthought things.

...

Over the next few days, Wang Jue came and went early and late every day.

Blood Wolf Valley, the Martial Association, and home: a three-point routine had nearly become his standard way of life.

During this time, Wang Jue would spend the morning in Blood Wolf Valley until dusk drew near, then return, sell the materials to his senior brother Monkey, go to the Martial Association to wring out more gains, and head home to sleep after the hall closed.

Perhaps because he had spent several consecutive days slaughtering blood wolves, Wang Jue felt his state of mind gradually being eroded by killing intent. He therefore gave up the idea of hunting blood wolves and instead began honing himself in the Martial Association's virtual battle room.

Since Wang Jue had been fighting blood wolves every day during this period, his practical combat experience had improved considerably.

He was no longer pinned down as badly by the "bootleg version of himself" at the same cultivation level as before.

Even though he was still the one being battered in the virtual battle room each time, compared with when he had first started, he could now hold out a little longer.

At times, he could even fight back and forth.

Although he still lost more than he won, it could barely be considered a passing standard.

If Wang Jue were to go to Blood Wolf Valley now and use blood wolves as training targets, he could definitely kill them with a single sword strike. He would no longer need several blows as before.

Of course, all of this had been bought with money.

Since Wang Jue had given up hunting blood wolves, he basically stayed in the Martial Association's virtual battle room.

By now he had already been there for more than a week, at least ten hours a day.

At ten thousand per hour, Wang Jue spent a fixed one hundred thousand every day.

One hundred thousand a day, one million in ten days.

For people of modest means, that might be an impossible sum. But for Wang Jue, it was hardly worth a second thought.

After all, before coming to the virtual battle room, he had already spent five or six days in Blood Wolf Valley.

The money he earned each day had already pushed the six digits in his account up another place, turning it into seven digits and multiplying his net worth several times over.

Compared with that money, what truly satisfied Wang Jue was that his star essence points had already exceeded the amount needed to improve his talent.

That was why he chose to stop.

It was not that he did not want to keep making money or earning star essence points, but that he needed to let his disturbed state of mind recover before raising his talent.

As for the time spent recovering, of course he would not let it go to waste.

Thus the virtual battle room became his target.

To be honest, forget the fact that he had spent less than one million in just a few days. So long as it was useful to him, let alone one million, he would gladly spend ten million.

It was not that he did not feel the sting of it. It was simply that most of his money had been earned by his own hunting of blood wolves. If he ran out, he could just make another trip to Blood Wolf Valley, so naturally he would not be pained by it.

...

When there were five days left before the exam, Wang Jue finally decided to raise his talent.

After these days of relentless slaughter against the bootleg Wang Jue, his cultivation had not only been thoroughly consolidated, but had even reached the threshold of a breakthrough.

All was ready; only the final push remained.

Wang Jue did not choose to break through at the Martial Association. Instead, he returned home early.

Back in his room, Wang Jue sat cross-legged and began the breakthrough!

He spent five hundred star essence points, and his talent rose from the upper red rank to the lower orange rank; the star essence required became one thousand, which was still acceptable.

The improvement in talent immediately caused the cultivation art within Wang Jue's body to begin circulating on its own.

At that moment, with Wang Jue's room as the center, stellar power within a radius of several miles was drawn in, slowly gathering into a mist.

Deep in cultivation, Wang Jue did not notice the changes in the room's stellar power. Instead, he clearly felt that as his talent improved, his absorption and refinement of stellar power became several times faster.

With such dense stellar power, Wang Jue, already at the threshold of a breakthrough, advanced effortlessly to the ninth level of Body Tempering.

And after breaking through, his speed did not slow. The stellar power shrouding him was continuously absorbed by his body, refined, and gradually used to consolidate his cultivation.

Time passed bit by bit.

It took about two hours before Wang Jue finally managed to stabilize his cultivation. But he did not stop; instead, he planned to seize the opportunity and push on to the tenth level of Body Tempering!

At once, the mist-like stellar power in the room was absorbed by Wang Jue's body at a terrifying speed.

At the same time, Wang Jue's cultivation also rose little by little.

Soon.

An hour passed.

The motionless Wang Jue suddenly shuddered, and the aura emanating from him underwent a dramatic transformation.

If a Spirit Nurturing realm cultivator had been present at that moment, they would have immediately sensed that the aura Wang Jue now emitted was no longer that of the Body Tempering realm, but of the Spirit Nurturing realm!

Breaking through to the tenth level of Body Tempering had exhausted all the stellar power in the room.

Wang Jue had no choice but to abandon the idea of further consolidation. He opened his eyes, felt his own strength, and a curve appeared at the corner of his mouth. "Right now, I should count as truly invincible within the Body Tempering realm."

Then, remembering something, Wang Jue immediately opened the panel.

Name: Wang Jue

Cultivation: Tenth Level of Body Tempering

Talent: Orange Rank, Lower Grade 0/1000

Cultivation Art: Star Body Soul Art, First Level (Unknown) 0/1000

Secret Art: Cutting Heaven (Damaged) (Mastery) 0/10,000,000

Martial Skill: Basic Sword Technique (Grandmaster) 0/10,000,000

Martial Skill: Basic Fist Technique (Grandmaster) 0/10,000,000

Footwork: Basic Footwork (Grandmaster) 0/10,000,000

Star Essence: 162

Experience: 232312

Looking at the information on the panel, Wang Jue nodded in satisfaction, and his heart swelled with confidence.

His current talent, cultivation, martial skills, and strength had all reached their limits.

From here on, all he had to do was wait quietly for the exam to arrive...