Chapter 758

Cultivator Hao did not rush to agree, choosing instead to observe first.

Ao Pan, with his chest sunken and back hunched like an old ape, moved along at a slow pace.

His posture was composed, yet he still occupied the leading first position. He had already acquired five bronze artifacts.

However, the bronze long whip he was most skilled with had suffered too much wear and tear and was no longer in use.

He was using a bronze long staff the most.

Ao Pan's martial arts foundation was very solid; he could use all eighteen types of weapons.

In second place was Tie Zheng.

This Jin Dan-level martial cultivator was currently in the process of collecting his fifth bronze artifact.

Surrounding him were four weapons: a bronze blade, sword, long spear, and sickle.

They cooperated tacitly, advancing and retreating with ease, occasionally unleashing combo moves or joint attacks.

Tie Zheng wore a bronze beast mask, and his mastery of spiritual sense control was in no way inferior to a puppet cultivator of the same cultivation base!

Lu Zeng was in third place.

Holding a bronze long spear, he had just begun a battle with his fifth bronze blade.

He used his four weapons, including a bronze hammer, in rotation.

The bronze blade's swordsmanship had reached the realm of "winning without moves"; it suddenly slashed over, appearing plain and unremarkable, yet Lu Zeng was caught by a flaw.

He could only sigh, let go of the bronze long spear, and roll to avoid the blade's edge.

He held his hands in a void-grasping motion and smashed toward the bronze blade.

In an instant, the bronze hammer that had been floating by his side actively placed itself into his hand.

Bang.

He didn't hit it, but he did force the bronze blade back.

Seeing this scene, Cultivator Hao found it quite interesting: "As a Jin Dan-level martial cultivator, Tie Zheng uses the Profound Armored Shell just like a puppet cultivator. Yet Lu Zeng, as a puppet cultivator, fights in close quarters just like a martial cultivator."

"It seems their identities don't match, but in reality, both are consciously training themselves and tempering their weaknesses."

"They are both preparing for the third round."

The top three spots were occupied by three Jin Dan-level cultivators, which fully reflected the significant importance of cultivation base.

Becoming a Jin Dan is a qualitative change; possessing a Jin Dan brings comprehensive improvements to a cultivator.

The fourth place was a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Zhang Wangxing smiled, full of confidence: "Come, let me see what the fourth bronze artifact is?"

Relying on the "Flesh and Blood Variation Scripture," he did not engage in normal combat, but instead used the advantage of his strange and variable body to directly imprison the bronze artifact.

This happened to counter the performance of the Profound Armored Shell.

After all, the Profound Armored Shells in the first few rounds basically fought in close combat.

Only from the sixth one onward would the Profound Armored Shells unleash spell-like attacks.

Zhang Wangxing made full use of his strengths, taking shortcuts three times in a row, which greatly boosted his confidence.

"I can counter the first five Profound Armored Shells. The real difficulty is the sixth one!" He was full of ambition.

Zhang Wangxing also knew the relevant information about the Nine-Layer Profound Armored Shell trial.

The strategy he set for himself was to quickly refine the first five Profound Armored Shells to make his own strength skyrocket, and then fight the sixth Profound Armored Shell with all his might.

Since he participated in this Xingyun Trial, everything had developed according to his plan.

Now it was the fourth Profound Armored Shell.

A massive bronze mace appeared before Zhang Wangxing's eyes.

"So thick and large..." Zhang Wangxing's eye twitched, and he showed a look of difficulty.

The bronze mace sensed Zhang Wangxing and slowly pressed toward him.

Zhang Wangxing gritted his teeth, stepped forward, and bared his chest: "Come on, hit me!"

The next moment, the bronze mace smashed hard into Zhang Wangxing's body.

Blood splattered, and his skin and flesh deformed violently like mud, surging upward in an attempt to cover the mace.

The mace pulled back fiercely, bringing with it countless fragments of rotting flesh.

The intense pain made Zhang Wangxing grimace, his whole body sweating from the agony.

He bit the bullet, opened his arms, and threw himself onto the mace.

"Merge with me!" Zhang Wangxing roared.

Naturally, the mace was unwilling, constantly pulling, stabbing, and smashing, causing a series of massive injuries to Zhang Wangxing!

"I..."

"You..."

"So... the mace also counters me!"

Zhang Wangxing was in so much pain that his whole body was twisting, hissing as he drew in cold air, but he could only continue to persist.

Below Zhang Wangxing, in fifth place, was not Ban Ji, but the Rust Disaster Craftsman.

Surrounding him were bronze blades, swords, and so on; the surface of every Profound Armored Shell showed signs of corrosion.

When Cultivator Hao checked on the Rust Disaster Craftsman, his brow furrowed subconsciously.

He loathed the other party from the bottom of his heart. In fact, this was not his individual prejudice; almost all cultivators of the Profound Armor Cave disliked the Rust Disaster Craftsman.

"This person possesses inferior talent and can rust other objects."

"The magic array in the cave is difficult to suppress the exertion of this talent, so it allowed him to take a shortcut—by rusting the bronze artifacts, he greatly reduced the difficulty of subduing them."

"Therefore, this person is ranked among the top."

The Nine-Layer Profound Armored Shell Xingyun Trial was intended to promote the Profound Armored Shell, to let more people use them, and to let more excellent cultivators establish close ties with the Profound Armor Cave.

But the Rust Disaster Craftsman damaged the Profound Armored Shells, which went against the purpose of the Profound Armor Cave's event. Thus, everyone secretly harbored resentment toward him.

The sixth place finally fell to Ban Ji.

Cultivator Hao saw that Ban Ji was alone, holding a mace and a chain hammer, occasionally using flying knives, and was currently fighting against a pair of nunchucks.

He took a few looks and let out a laugh.

"Ban Ji's use of these weapons clearly carries the shadows of blade and sword moves."

"I understand a little now."

"Why they wanted me to rig the operation and arrange bronze blades and swords for him."

Cultivator Hao looked back again and couldn't help but show a strange expression.

He discovered that the top five cultivators all had blades or swords, but when it came to Ban Ji, there wasn't even one.

"These bronze weapons are arranged by the array and deployed randomly."

"Blades and swords are the most common, so there are the most of them."

"Ban Ji has practiced blades and swords hard, yet he hasn't encountered a single one. More importantly, the bronze artifacts he obtained aren't even decent."

"If there were something like a mace or an axe, he could barely use his blade and sword moves. But he doesn't even have those. How bad is his luck?"

Cultivator Hao watched the battle.

Watching Ban Ji use flying knives, chain hammers, and a mace against the nunchucks, the strange look on his face deepened a little.

"Let me see, what is his fifth bronze artifact?"

Cultivator Hao used his permissions to secretly check the subsequent ones.

"Uh... it's a shield. And after that... still no blades or swords!"

"Has this kid done something so heaven-defying and earth-resenting?" Cultivator Hao even felt a bit of sympathy for Ban Ji.

Ban Ji drove the weapons, but he was performing sword moves and blade moves; such combat made him look incongruous, as if every movement were affectionately calling out: "I want blades and swords, I want blades and swords!"

Ban Ji had practiced other weapons, but the problem was that the time he allocated to martial arts was almost entirely concentrated on blades and swords.

In the heat of battle, he didn't have time to think, and his body subconsciously performed blade and sword moves.

There was really no help for it; he had practiced them too well!

Cultivator Hao thought to himself: "However, Ban Ji only needs to wait a while to enter the third round."

"Once in the third round, he will at least be able to obtain a blank Profound Armored Shell."

"He also specializes in the upper dantian and has abundant spiritual sense; with his foundation, it's very likely he will obtain two. This means he will eventually be able to get a blade and sword."

"The Ban family wants me to secretly help him; they must want him to have good results in the second round."

"The more bronze artifacts obtained in the second round, the better the final results in the third round usually are."

"Only by collecting nine can one be qualified to win the top spot in the Profound Armor Cave."

"I understand. The Ban family wants Ban Ji to win the top spot, to help him catch up with the first wave of geniuses and squeeze in among them."

Thinking of geniuses, Cultivator Hao skipped the seventh and eighth places, his gaze subconsciously jumping to Ning Zhuo on the other side.

Ning Zhuo was holding a blade and sword, fighting a bitter battle against the gauntlets.

Cultivator Hao saw at a glance that Ning Zhuo was at a disadvantage and couldn't help but think: "Our Xingyun Trial here counts by fives in the second round. Once a certain number of cultivators have taken five Profound Armored Shells, the third round will automatically open, and those with fewer than five will be eliminated."

"According to Ning Zhuo's current progress, I'm afraid he won't make it in time."

"To be able to learn while testing, he really has a big heart."

Cultivator Hao had a change of thought: "However, if he really intends to intercept Ban Ji, given his strength, I'm afraid this is the only way. After all, in the third round, the array still prohibits cultivators from using other means; they can only use these Profound Armored Shells and their physical prowess."

"In other words, Ning Zhuo is actually very confident that he can sharpen his spear at the last minute and, after learning, stop Ban Ji."

"Such confidence... perhaps this is the difference between a genius cultivator and us ordinary people."

Cultivator Hao put away his thoughts and secretly transmitted via spiritual sense, formally agreeing: "Fine. I can do this favor."

"However..." He showed a strange expression.

He had just checked once and found that almost all cultivators had a blade or a sword, or both. There weren't many blades and swords left, and all of them had special properties to some extent.

The Profound Armored Shells collected in the Profound Armor Cave partly came from their own forging, and the other part came from the feedback of countless cultivators.

If the Profound Armored Shells they fed back were of relatively high value, the Profound Armor Cave would reward them with other treasures as compensation.

Every Xingyun Trial, the Profound Armor Cave would give out many Profound Armored Shells. But every year, cultivators would return here to fulfill their promises, offering the Profound Armored Shells they had forged back to the Profound Armor Cave.

The grand array would randomly draw some Profound Armored Shells from the armory and deploy them to the participating cultivators as opponents.

The remaining Profound Armored Shells were basically quite special and could not be deployed at will.

"These blades and swords are generally very strong; even Jin Dan cultivators find them difficult to face. If I arrange them for Ban Ji, can he handle it?"

"Actually, the bronze shield he is about to face is of very high quality. There is only this one shield in the second round of this Xingyun Trial. Shield-type Profound Armored Shells are often very helpful in the third round."

Cultivator Hao thought for a moment and felt there was no need to tell Ban Ji, which would only increase the time and mid-way complications.

He immediately acted in secret, using his own permissions to mobilize the array, quietly cutting the two bronze blades and swords into the original sequence, and incidentally scrambling the bronze artifacts everyone was originally going to face.

Cultivator Hao was not worried.

Doing this much was actually within the tacit approval of the higher-ups.

After all, the higher-ups were also human and had descendants and friends to take care of; this level of backdoor dealing was just right, and even if it were exposed, the price Cultivator Hao would have to pay wouldn't be that great.

Ning Zhuo slashed diagonally with the blade and thrust straight with the sword. Left and right, one hard and one soft, they attacked the gauntlets simultaneously.

The bronze gauntlets struck after but arrived first. The left fist drew an extremely precise and short arc, avoiding the blade's edge.

Ning Zhuo immediately changed his move, switching from a diagonal slash to a downward chop. As a result, the bronze gauntlet was very precise, landing on the force-exerting node of the bronze blade's changing move.

With a muffled clang, Ning Zhuo's blade momentum vanished instantly.

Ning Zhuo's right sword strike was brushed aside by the other bronze gauntlet, which used a clever force to deflect the bronze sword outward, causing the sword tip to miss.

With both hard clashes and exquisite unloading and guiding, the bronze gauntlets, one hard and one soft, alternating between light and heavy, kept Ning Zhuo at a disadvantage.

Ning Zhuo's brow was tightly locked, feeling quite troubled.

He had already changed his offensive many times, but the bronze gauntlets were only "panicked and at a loss" at the very beginning, and subsequently "adapted," suppressing Ning Zhuo again.

This made Ning Zhuo have an illusion, feeling that the bronze gauntlets were owned by someone, only the owner was completely transparent and could not be observed by the naked eye.

But Ning Zhuo also knew that this was just an illusion.

"This is a higher realm of martial arts!"

"The previous bronze sword and blade were only at the apprentice level. The sword only had basic moves, and the blade was stronger, not only having basic blade moves but also combos and small routines."

"And by the time we reach the bronze gauntlets, the martial arts realm has already moved beyond the apprentice level and reached the craftsman level."

"The bronze gauntlets not only skillfully master various move combinations but can also change moves on the spot according to the opponent—that is, my actions."

"Martial apprentices only practice on their own, focusing on making every move standard and proficient, and combining them."

"Martial craftsmen incorporate a certain degree of tactical thinking, sensing the opponent and engaging in tactical games."

"I understand, so that's how it is."

The many life experiences Ning Zhuo obtained by using the Burning Boat Soul-Crossing Technique possessed a massive amount of tactical games.

Ning Zhuo reviewed the old to learn the new, and his realization was very profound.

He himself was also someone who could improvise, could create illusions, and had flexibility and autonomy. The bronze gauntlets before him were equivalent to teaching him hand-in-hand.

He was not a beginner either; it was more like a revival, a resumption of studies.

Therefore, he mastered it extremely quickly.

"Take my blade and sword combo!" Ning Zhuo, with a blade in his left and a sword in his right, unleashed the Wave-Breaking Star-Pointing Style.

The bronze blade performed the three-fold wave-break, and the bronze sword assisted with consecutive stabs, knocking one of the bronze gauntlets down.

Ning Zhuo could have pressed his advantage, but he stopped in place, letting the bronze gauntlet float back and regroup.

After fighting for another few dozen breaths, Ning Zhuo finished his setup and suddenly unleashed the Entangling Silk Mountain-Collapsing Style.

The bronze gauntlets were left scrambling, unable to defend, and one of them was hacked to the ground by the bronze sword.

Ning Zhuo spared the gauntlets again, stopping and letting them attack again.

After a few more rounds of offense and defense, Ning Zhuo finished his setup again.

Blade and Sword Combo—Dividing the Water and Lifting the Moon!

Clang, clang, clang...

The blade and sword were like a violent storm, striking the bronze gauntlets and emitting a series of crisp sounds, while simultaneously sparking a large amount of fire.

The bronze gauntlets could not defend and were both knocked down.

This time, Ning Zhuo did not hold back; he immediately abandoned the blade and sword, grabbed with both hands, pressed down on the backs of the gauntlets, and quickly refined them for his own use.

Several cultivators who saw this scene widened their eyes slightly.

The third-style blade and sword combo, which they had the least regard for, actually had the greatest power in real combat!

"Time to speed up." Ning Zhuo estimated the time, put away the gauntlets, and continued on his way.

Soon, he encountered the fourth Profound Armored Shell—it was a bronze shield.