The fourth stage was the Perception of Martial Dao.
The first stage was the Road of Thunder, second stage the Eyes of Mist, and the third stage was the Saber of Will, which were all testing one"s spirit will. As long as one had a tough spirit will, they would be able to resist it.
But the fourth stage was different, it tested one"s perception.
If one"s perception didn"t meet the mark, a tough spirit will didn"t matter.
Of course, those that had a strong spirit would generally have a good perception too.
The instant Li Fuchen stepped onto the isolated island, lines appeared in the air. Some lines were straight while some were bending, some were sharp while some were sluggish, some were domineering while some reserved, some were blazing hot while some were icy cold. Every line felt as though they had their own spirit and weren"t just some simple lines.
On this stage, the testee would have to combine some of these lines and form a martial arts technique. This martial arts technique had to be equivalent in level to a mystic cla.s.s low-tier martial arts technique.
Which meant to say that, Li Fuchen had to create his own mystic cla.s.s low-tier martial arts technique before he could pa.s.s this stage.
In the outside world, those that could develop mystic cla.s.s martial arts were also known as Martial Dao Masters.
Of course, with a.s.sistance from these lines, the difficulty would be decreased by a few folds. Otherwise, with Li Fuchen"s perception, he wouldn"t dare to say that he would be able to create a mystic cla.s.s low-tier sword art. Even if he could create one, it would take a ma.s.sive amount of time.
"Interesting. Let me give it a try!"
Li Fuchen stuck out a finger and started to fiddle with the lines in the air, attempting to integrate them together.
15 minutes had pa.s.sed and there were many compressed line combinations in front of Li Fuchen. When the lines were combined, it formed a shape of a sword, it was obviously a sword art.
"No good. The cla.s.s is too low." Li Fuchen scattered the lines.
This sword art was only at the yellow cla.s.s peak-tier and had yet to meet the requirement.
Another 15 minutes had pa.s.sed and Li Fuchen scattered the lines again.
It wasn"t an easy task to self-develop a mystic cla.s.s low-tier sword art using these lines as the fundamentals.
After all, mystic cla.s.s martial arts contained martial dao intent. Martial dao intent contained the heavenly dao and was extremely mystical.
One hour had pa.s.sed.
Two hours…
Gradually, as Li Fuchen combined the lines, it began to emit a severe intent.
The severe intent flowed with the will of the heavens and was supported by formless energies.
Howl! Howl! Howl!
There were countless bursts of violent wind. An artifact sword was birthed when the lines were completely combined and this sword was swirling in the violent winds. The severe sword intent was revealing its ability that was so exceptional.
"Mystic cla.s.s low-tier sword art, formed?" There was this glow that flashed in Li Fuchen"s eyes.
Self-developing a mystic cla.s.s low-tier sword art was much more difficult than he had expected. Fortunately, he had a.s.sistance from the lines and took only two hours to complete it.
"I shall name you Severe Wind Sword Art!"
(TL note: I will be using Sword Art instead of Sword Style from now, similarly to the other martial arts. I feel that it flows with the translation more)
The Severe Wind Sword Art contained the Severe Wind Sword intent. This sword art utilized speed and severity as its core, which made it specialize in speedy attacks.
Rumble!
As Li Fuchen created his own mystic cla.s.s low-tier sword art, Severe Wind Sword Art. The lines in the air vanished and the Monument of Names appeared on the isolated island.
"The ranking monument has appeared?"
With a single glance, Li Fuchen noticed that the Monument of Names didn"t segregate the markings by groups anymore, it was listed as a rankings table instead.
Excluding the dimmed markings, there were only a few dozens of marks that were still lit.
Which meant to say that in the East Unicorn Continent, there were only a few dozen surviving martial artists that were able to pa.s.s the fourth stage on their first attempt in the Star Road Hidden Domain.
"Those marks that are on here must be either a generational master or prodigy. A pity that I didn"t see any of them before. I am unfamiliar with their qi presence, hence I cannot differentiate which mark belongs to which of them."
The East Unicorn Continent was filled with martial experts.
All of those martial experts were prodigies during their youth days, while these martial experts that could leave their mark on the fourth stage Monument of Names were definitely generational prodigies in their youth days.
If they weren"t 6-star bone frames, they would have been heaven defying 5-star bone frames.
Just like the Azure Water Sect"s Patriarch, Ouyang Wentian. He was a prodigy that was of the same cla.s.s as Sword Maniac and Sword Tiger, but it was a pity that he wasn"t qualified to leave his mark on the Monument of Names at the fourth stage.
Li Fuchen reckoned that the Celestial Star Sect"s Patriarch, Doulin Clan"s current Patriarch, and the Eternal Spring Valley"s Master, who were at the pinnacle of these influential forces, should have left their mark on this Monument of Names.
From Li Fuchen"s information, these people were all of 6-star bone frames or heaven defying 5-star bone frames.
"Those dimmed marks don"t have a ranking. Only those that are still bright have a ranking. I wonder what would be my mark"s ranking."
Holding the Brush of Names, Li Fuchen began to draw out his "Sword" mark in the air.
Once the "Sword" mark was drawn, it flew towards the Monument of Names.
Third rank, second rank…
Once Li Fuchen"s "Sword" mark was formed, it flew straight towards the third rank and began to climb.
First Rank… surpa.s.sing the first rank.
Li Fuchen"s "Sword" mark was extremely tyrannic, forcefully pushing down the originally first ranked marking and taking the first rank spot for itself.
The originally first ranked mark didn"t want to yield as it rushed at the "Sword" mark while bursting with spirit will and mystical waves. Behaving like it had a spirit, it was shrouding Li Fuchen"s "Sword" mark.
Li Fuchen"s "Sword" mark didn"t just sit around waiting to be attacked. It also burst forth with its own spirit will and mystical waves while attacking back.
Li Fuchen stood by the side and observed as he found it interesting.
After multiple attacks, the original first ranked mark was unable to maintain its prowess and obediently withdrew to the second ranking spot, no longer wanting to challenge the "Sword" mark.
As such, Li Fuchen"s "Sword" mark branded itself firmly onto the Monument of Names.
The Monument of Names released a light, a light pillar that rushed into the sky and penetrated the starry skies.
No one knew how high this pillar of light went.
Its height had exceeded logic and was seemingly able to match with the entire Star Road.
Rumbling!
In the starry skies, countless golden lightning drew across it.
When Li Fuchen left his mark on the Monument of Names at the third stage, the golden lightning reached over tens of kilometers to hundreds of kilometers. But now, these golden lightning reached over thousands to tens of thousands of kilometers. There were a few of them that reached hundreds of thousands of kilometers.
As the golden lightning skimmed across the Star Road, even Li Fuchen felt a little fearful.
"These lightning have extended to such a length. If it was real, a single lightning would be able to destroy the whole East Unicorn Continent right?"
The golden lightning that reached up to tens of thousands of kilometers in length was already sufficient to destroy continents. If those lightning that reached up to hundreds of thousands of kilometers were real, who could block against them? These golden lightning weren"t just long, they were also wide in radius and the power that it contained was unfathomable.
Boom!
There was a silent ripple as half of a star in the far distance was destroyed by the lightning. Li Fuchen remained speechless for a long time when he saw this scene.
After pa.s.sing the fourth stage, there was a total of eight portions of Star Road energy that surged into Li Fuchen"s body.
Right now, Li Fuchen had a total of fifteen portions of Star Road energy.
With such boundless Star Road energy, it gave Li Fuchen an uncomfortable feeling if he didn"t make a breakthrough.
"Looks like I have to breakthrough my cultivation level now."
Li Fuchen sat cross-legged and prepared to breakthrough to the 4th level of the Earth Realm.
Circulating the True Inferno Technique, a blazing qi presence surged from Li Fuchen"s body.
Boom!
Before the 15 minutes mark, Li Fuchen broke through from the 3rd level to the 4th level of the Earth Realm.
Furthermore, there wasn"t any void in his qi and it felt unusually stable, more so than when he broke through with the Earth Shattering Fruit. It felt as though he had already broken through to the 4th level of Earth Realm for a considerably long time.
At the same moment, three portions of the Star Road energy had been expended from Li Fuchen"s body.
"I should be able to breakthrough to the 5th level of the Earth Realm."
Li Fuchen continued the breakthrough, chugging large quant.i.ties of pills into his mouth.