"Boss!"
"Kill him!"
The remaining Fallen Ones finally reacted, roaring as they unleashed their martial spirits and pounced on Dongfang Jing.
Swords flashed and shadows danced, soul power surged.
However, all of this seemed so ridiculous in front of Dongfang Jing.
He wielded the Blazing Sun Blade, his figure moving like a ghost through the cramped tavern.
Each swing of the sword brought forth a slender golden sword light.
With each flash of sword light, a fallen soul master silently vanished in the flames.
In the corner, the bartender responsible for pouring drinks was already paralyzed with fear, his crotch wet and hot.
He watched helplessly as the twenty-odd thugs, who were usually fierce and ruthless, were as fragile as paper dolls in front of the silver-haired youth, and were slaughtered in less than ten breaths.
In the entire tavern, there was no one else alive except him.
Dongfang Jing sheathed his sword and stood there.
He slowly turned around, his eyes, burning with golden flames, landing on the bartender.
"The... entrance... is... under the bar..." The bartender felt his soul tremble when he saw those eyes. He didn't even need Dongfang Jing to ask; he blurted out all the secrets in a tearful voice.
Dongfang Jing didn't say anything, but simply walked towards the bar.
He didn't even glance at the bartender who was terrified.
"Bang!"
He kicked it out, and the solid wooden bar counter instantly shattered into pieces, revealing a dark hole underneath.
A cold, damp smell, mixed with an even stronger stench of blood, wafted out of the cave entrance.
Without the slightest hesitation, Dongfang Jing leaped into the bottomless darkness.
Only after his figure completely disappeared did the bartender, who had been slumped on the ground, seem to come back to life. He scrambled out of the tavern and ran madly toward the edge of town, shouting incoherently.
"The devil! The devil has come!"
...
As he entered the darkness, after falling only a few meters, Dongfang Jing found himself firmly on solid ground.
He no longer needs light; he can now see everything clearly in the dark.
This is a very long and deep passageway.
The walls were made of an unknown black rock that felt cold and hard to the touch, and seemed to be covered with a layer of slippery moss.
Dongfang Jing walked down step by step, his footsteps echoing clearly in the quiet passageway.
He released his mental energy, attempting to explore his surroundings.
However, as soon as the mental energy left the body, it seemed to hit an invisible wall and was bounced back.
"Um?"
Dongfang Jing stopped in his tracks, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
He tried again, this time focusing his mental energy into a single point for a concentrated breakthrough.
But the result was still the same.
He was surprised to find that the walls of the passageway were made of a very special material.
It seemed to be covered by an extremely faint yet incredibly resilient layer of divine consciousness.
It was this divine thought that completely isolated his spiritual power.
'Could it be... that this place was created by a deity?'
Dongfang Jing pondered in his heart.
Although this divine sense was powerful, it was still far inferior to the divine sense of the Blazing Sun God.
If he wanted, he could easily find another way to forcefully break through it.
But he didn't do that.
The task of the Divine Exam is to annihilate ten thousand fallen soul masters; there's no need to waste energy on such trivial matters.
He continued forward, and after walking about 1,462 steps, the passage finally came to an end.
A commotion arose ahead, with the faint sounds of clashing weapons and the roars of wild beasts.
The moment he stepped out of the passageway, the view before him suddenly opened up.
This is a huge underground space, like a hollowed-out mountain belly.
The walls were covered with countless torches burning with green flames, casting a ghastly green light over the entire space.
Before him stood one hundred and one black-armored warriors in neat rows.
They were covered from head to toe in heavy black armor, and wore ferocious metal masks on their faces, revealing only pairs of eyes that gleamed red.
One hundred of them, wielding heavy swords as black as their armor, stood in a square formation, exuding a cold and murderous aura.
At the very front of the formation, a particularly tall knight sat atop a tall warhorse also clad in heavy black armor.
The warhorse's eyes burned with blood-red flames, and it snorted from time to time, spewing out two plumes of black smoke that smelled of sulfur.
When Dongfang Jing appeared, all eyes were instantly fixed on him.
"You have broken the rules."
A deep, cold, inhuman voice came from the black-armored knight on horseback.
Dongfang Jing narrowed his eyes slightly: "Are you going to block my way?"
"If you break the rules, you must accept the punishment."
The knight slowly raised a giant sword wider than a door panel, its tip pointing towards the Eastern Mirror.
"Defeat me, and you will gain entry into the City of Slaughter."
"I am the Dread Knight, Scott."
"Interesting," Dongfang Jing said.
He could sense that from the moment he entered this passage, his abilities could not be fully utilized, as if they were being blocked by some kind of force.
He activated his soul power and summoned his martial soul.
However, although his soul power circulated freely within his body, he was still unable to use soul skills.
'Is this a built-in domain effect of this space? Suppressing the use of all soul skills...'
Dongfang Jing immediately understood.
In this environment, any Soul Master who relies on Soul Skills for combat would likely have their strength reduced by more than 90%.
But for him, it meant nothing.
Even without soul skills, he can still use the power of the Hall of a Thousand Mirrors.
It also possesses an indestructible physical body, forged in the Hall of Ten Thousand Mirrors, its mirror-like form and soul shattered.
"kill!"
Scott the Dread Knight roared and spurred his horse's flanks.
The heavily armored warhorse let out a neigh, its four hooves pounding the ground, and charged towards Dongfang Jing.
Dongfang Jing's face remained completely expressionless.
He simply raised the mirror blade slowly, aiming it at the charging terrifying knight.
...
Two and a half minutes later.
"Wait! I...I surrender! You have passed my test and are qualified to enter the City of Slaughter," the Dread Knight said with some difficulty.
What he didn't understand the most was that most Soul Masters would be shocked to find that their Soul Skills were unusable when they came here.
But the masked person in front of them seemed completely unaffected.
Besides, that brilliant golden longsword in his hand, isn't that his martial spirit? It seems to have a natural advantage over those who have fallen...
A black sign was handed to Dongfang Jing, who casually took it.
The sign has a skull engraved on it, with a number below it.
9191.
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(End of chapter)