Chapter 31 - 31: 5th Level

Long Chen found himself standing in a vast field, and in front of him was a spirit beast. It looked like a bull, but Long Chen could see that it was a spirit beast as it had a cultivation level that was at the 6th stage of the Spirit Establishment realm. 

Long Chen recognized this beast and knew it was called Stone crushing bull, and that it had a normal grade bloodline, so it was a pretty average spirit beast in Long Chen's eyes. It was mostly known for its raw strength, but low agility and intelligence. 

Long Chen took out his Mountain crushing sword from his storage ring and got ready to attack this spirit beast.

"Seven forms of saint sword, 1st form Cleansing!"

As soon as the beast started running towards him, Long Chen used his sword Martial skill and slashed forward.

A bright golden light came slashing towards this Stone crushing bull. Before this Spirit beast could actually get closer, he was slashed apart and died. Long Chen had finished the test as soon as it started. But even Long Chen himself was shocked by the strength of this attack.

What Long Chen used was a Martial skill. Although he had never been to the second floor of Martial Hall and didn't choose a stronger Spirit grade Martial skill, his father, Long Jun had gifted him this sword skill called 'Seven forms of saint sword' when he was in the body refining realm.

Long Jun had told him that this Martial skill was pretty extraordinary and Long Chen should learn it wholeheartedly, only then will he be worthy of this skill. Since then, Long Chen had been learning it wholeheartedly. 

This skill had seven sword forms with every higher move being stronger than the previous one, and Long Chen only used the first one to defeat this first spirit beast. 

Long Tian had used this skill a lot of times before when he was in the body refining realm, that's why Long Chen knew how strong this skill was. But today its power was beyond his expectations. He wondered why it was so strong

Long Chen knew this first move of this skill was strong, but he didn't recall it being so strong that it could defeat a 6th stage spirit beast so easily in one move. There must be something else going on for its strength to increase so much.

After a while, Long Chen's second opponent appeared. It was a 7th stage Spirit beast. Long Chen defeated it as well and passed the second level of this test. After a little more time and effort. Long Chen defeated his next opponent as well, which was an 8th stage Spirit beast and passed the 3rd level.

As Long Chen was finishing trial after trial, Elder Yang was standing outside stunned, staring at three of the 5 transparent crystals glowing with bright green color, signifying that Long Chen passed the third stage as well. He could not believe what was happening.

"Tiger father begets tiger son! He is just as impressive as you Long Jun. You have a promising son, you can rest in peace in heaven, my friend."  Elder Yang mumbled to himself as he looked upwards.

While Elder Yang was waiting for Long Chen to finish the test and come out, he thought passing the third level would be Long Chen's final round. But the 4th crystal turned green, astonishing Elder Yang once more. 

 "Amazing!!! Maybe... Maybe he can do it and pass the 5th level as well!" Elder Yang became expectant.

While Elder Yang was amazed looking at Long Chen's results, he was sitting tired inside the test. The fight with a 9th level Spirit beast was the hardest he had so far. 

Long Chen had to go all out to win that fight, even using the third form of 'Seven forms of saint sword - Destruction' and finally achieved victory after fighting for over 15 minutes. He had exhausted a lot of his Qi in this short time and now was trying to rest and recover his qi. 

Long Chen believed that it was a good thing that his qi recovery speed has been increasing day by day, ever since the day he had found that ring. He continued resting like this for 10 minutes until the next Spirit beast appeared. It was a 10th stage spirit beast and looked like a tiger.

Long Chen recognized this Spirit beast as well. It was called Spirit devouring tiger. It was a normal bloodline beast and it was said that its speed, strength, and defense were all strong. But that wasn't the most frightening part - the scary part was that it was a beast that was proficient in spiritual attacks. 

Although it mostly killed its prey through pure strength, when it faced a stronger opponent, the spirit devouring tiger targeted their Martial soul through spiritual attacks to trap them in a mental prison while he killed them on the outside.

 Long Chen understood that it was going to be a hard fight. He clutched the mountain shattering sword in his hand as he started running towards the spirit devouring Tiger. His sword struck the Tiger, but Long Chen could see that there wasn't any heavy damage to this Tiger. 

The battle kept going on for a while, with their clashes mostly ending with Long Chen flying like a broken kite and crashing onto the ground. Long Chen could discern that if he kept taking damage like this, he would be going to lose pretty soon.

'Seven forms of saint sword - second form Devastation!' Long Chen attacked with his Martial skill, and finally, there was some damage. But Long Chen could see that if it continued this way, it would take him pretty long to defeat this tiger.

The Spirit devouring tiger opened its mouth wide, and Long Chen knew what was coming. Long Chen knew that the Spirit devouring beast had a Martial skill called the tiger's roar. If he was hit by it, he would end up in a pretty bad condition. 

"Heavenly Demon Wings," Long Chen immediately used His Martial skill as two beautiful wings appeared on his back. Long Chen flew in the air just a moment before the tiger's roar passed where he was standing. 

Long Chen knew that he could not stay in the air for long, so he decided to utilize his advantage while he can. He kept assaulting the Spirit Devouring Tiger with seven forms of saint sword from the air.

The Spirit Devouring Tiger was getting furious as he wasn't able to attack Long Chen physically in the air and utilize his full physical strength. As his Long-distance Martial skills were easily being evaded, he was getting frustrated.

The Spirit devouring tiger looked towards Long Chen as his eyes turned black. Long Chen felt a splitting headache as he felt like a void was sucking his consciousness and soul, trying to imprison it. Long Chen knew it was the Spirit devouring beast's spiritual attack, but Long Chen couldn't do anything about it at the moment. 

Just when Long Chen felt like he couldn't hold on for longer, Long Chen's Martial soul opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the Spirit devouring beast, its eyes completely blood red.