Hua Jian’s few sentences were naturally not enough to convince everyone present.
Her personal charisma was not that strong, and she couldn’t rely on mere words to make these cultivators follow her into a dangerous risk.
Even if the main character of a cheat-code novel she had read were here, they would likely struggle to succeed.
Although she was strong, she was still just a nameless small fry.
If she had the same fame as Ji Caiyue, perhaps she could have gained their trust. Unfortunately, she was not her.
Seeing the other cultivators politely decline her invitation, Hua Jian was not particularly disappointed.
She was just testing the waters; there was no loss in failure. At most, she had lost a few pieces of cannon fodder who could have stood in the front.
Otherwise, could she really expect this group to help her take down a Ling King in the Forbidden Land?
For a Spirit Master to defeat a Ling King, there were only a few ways: either use Ling King-grade Spirit Tools, or possess strength inherently capable of contending with a Ling King.
Hua Jian relied on Ling King-grade items — well, she counted Mirage Qi Bullets and Dream Flower Mist as Spirit Tools, since she truly couldn’t face a Ling King head-on at all.
In contrast was Linglong. The Little Dragon Girl could actually fight a Ling King directly. But that was Linglong — a peerless super genius. Ordinary people couldn’t compare to her.
“I remember Linglong saying that the Ling King cultivators in the Secret Realm have their strength suppressed. If we go together, we might not necessarily lose,” Hua Jian whispered to Shiqi after the failed recruitment.
If it was just two people, so be it. Defeating a boss with only two people meant more experience points!
“Can we really win?” Shiqi felt things shouldn’t be that simple.
“You have to have confidence in yourself. If we can’t win, we’ll just run. It’s not embarrassing.”
Other geniuses possessed a certain level of pride and were unwilling to accept defeat, but Hua Jian had none.
She would run when she needed to and cheat when she needed to. As long as she was shameless enough, no one could restrict her!
This was the so-called ‘The more shameless one is, the more invincible they become!’
Holding this thought, after a night of preparation, Hua Jian and Shiqi set off for that Forbidden Land early the next morning.
This time, they didn’t just test the outskirts but chose to delve boldly into the depths.
The environment inside the Forbidden Land was completely different from the outside.
While the outside was covered in white snow, the inside was filled with flowing lava, as if it were another world entirely.
The further they advanced into the depths of the Forbidden Land, the more terrifying the pressure Hua Jian felt.
A hint of hesitation rose in her heart, making her want to stop and turn back immediately.
Even the Spiritual Civet shrank back into Hua Jian’s arms, too frightened to come out.
“This aura is much stronger than an ordinary Ling King…” Shiqi murmured softly.
“It feels a bit like the strength of a Peak Ling King, but the Saint Sect couldn’t possibly place a cultivator of that level here.” Hua Jian shared the feeling, and that was exactly the problem.
A weaker Ling King could be defeated if Spirit Masters worked together, but a Peak Ling King was not something Spirit Masters could overcome.
It was possible to win while jumping one or two small stages, but jumping an entire major realm — and a full one at that — meant it would be hard even to escape.
Did the Saint Sect arrange the Forbidden Land just to kill all the cultivators who wandered in?
That seemed impossible.
The boss here must be strong, but not invincible; it couldn’t truly be a Peak Ling King.
“Maybe it’s just a bluff. Let’s keep going.”
“Alright.”
After about thirty minutes, the two crossed the intersecting lava rivers in the Forbidden Land and reached its center.
At the center was a massive Obsidian Platform. A sturdy man with a bare upper body sat cross-legged on the platform, eyes closed in cultivation.
Flames danced around him, making him look exceptionally imposing.
However, his strength was as Hua Jian suspected — not that overpowering. He seemed to have only recently broken through to the Ling King Realm.
The source of that terrifying pressure was actually a massive Stone Pillar standing behind the burly man.
“Someone finally found this place. Oh, it’s two young girls.” The man opened his eyes and looked at them, letting out a hearty laugh. “Come, let me see your strength!”
He beckoned to them.
But Hua Jian did not jump onto the stage to challenge him immediately. Instead, she began circling the Obsidian Platform.
As she circled, she fired questions at the Penglai Strongman on the platform.
“Senior Brother, which Sect are you from? Can you only fight us on the platform? How much power do you have?”
This string of questions left the man somewhat confused. Why did it feel like things were different from what he had expected?
By all logic, shouldn’t Hua Jian have jumped onto the stage to fight him? Instead, she was starting to probe his background.
He could answer those questions. Out of appreciation for the first juniors to find this place, he honestly answered Hua Jian’s questions.
The man was from Penglai, an Waimen Disciple working toward a Neimen Disciple position.
Although he looked quite sturdy now, he was actually only in his twenties, much younger than Hua Jian’s Little Lady.
As for the rules of combat, they were just as Hua Jian thought. The man could indeed only fight challengers on the platform.
However, if his opponents tried to exploit a bug by attacking him from outside, he could charge out and eliminate them.
“I won’t use Ling King-grade Spirit Techniques or Spirit Tools. If you can force me to use that power, you’ll be considered the winners of this battle.”
As Hua Jian suspected, the Saint Sect wouldn’t truly make them fight a Ling King in his peak state.
The opponent was forbidden from using techniques and tools accessible only to Ling Kings.
But even so, his combat power was not something a common peak Spirit Master could rival.
The mere difference in Spiritual Power quality between a Ling King and a Spirit Master was enough to give challengers a hard time, let alone the fact that a Ling King’s attributes were superior in every way.
Physical defense, recovery speed, perception — a Spirit Master could compare to a Ling King in none of these.
To win across realms, one truly had to rely on human wave tactics.
“Shall we try?” Hua Jian pointed toward the Penglai Strongman, who was already eager for a fight.
Shiqi hesitated for a second before nodding heavily. “We can!”
Precisely, she also wanted to see how strong she truly was. At this moment, a restricted Ling King enemy was an excellent sparring partner.
Having reached an agreement, Hua Jian and Shiqi stepped onto the Obsidian Platform. This arena was quite large, providing enough space for them to battle the man.
The moment Hua Jian stepped onto the platform, the man disregarded etiquette and took the initiative, hurling a large Fireball straight at her head.
“Senior Brother, you aren’t going easy on us at all!” Hua Jian shrieked, immediately using Flying Flower Evasion to dodge the Fireball.
The Fireball exploded behind her, and the resulting gale severely interfered with her Flying Flower Evasion, forcing her out of her hidden state.
Hua Jian could see that while this Senior Brother looked kind, he was actually quite ruthless. Every move he made was truly intended to kill her.
“Haha! Once you step onto the stage, you are my enemy. Naturally, there are no rules when dealing with an enemy.” The man laughed twice, and raging flames ignited across his body.
Seeing this, Shiqi, who hadn’t been hit yet, raised an eyebrow. The protective flames looked difficult to handle.
Although she was a Jianxiu and had the ability to throw sword qi from a distance, she was currently only a Spirit Master. In most cases, she still focused on close-range combat.
If she threw sword qi, her Spiritual Power would be depleted in a few strikes, and it was unknown if those strikes could even break the man’s defense.
Based on Shiqi’s estimation, if she threw a few waves of sword qi, the opponent probably wouldn’t even bother to dodge. It would likely feel like an itch.
While she was worrying, Hua Jian had already released her field magic, shrouding the entire arena in Colored Mist.
“Puny tricks. They won’t stop me…” Seeing this, the man showed a look of contempt. The flames on his body wouldn’t fear this mist; high temperatures could easily disperse things that blocked vision.
But before he could finish his confident words, he was surprised to find that the Magic Mist was not dispersed by his flames.
Instead, it stubbornly swirled around him, continuing to affect his vision.
Of course, the flames were working; they acted like a gas mask, isolating the toxic mist outside the fire.
However, he truly couldn’t solve the visibility problem.
Hua Jian vanished into the mist, her aura almost merging with the thick fog, making it impossible for the man to determine her current position for a moment.
Clang!
A faint sound came from behind him. The man immediately turned and threw a palm strike.
The fiery red flames transformed into a palm print that delved deep into the thick fog, tearing a path through the mist.
At the end of that path was a young girl holding a Black Sword.
Boom!
Shiqi hadn’t expected the man to find her position just from unsheathing her sword.
Facing the fiery hand flying directly at her, she could only circulate her Spiritual Power and slash out with her sword.
With a massive roar, the mist near Shiqi was blown away by the airwave, and Shiqi herself was sent flying back quite pathetically.
Fire-attribute cultivators were famous for their powerful attack power, and Shiqi had taken that hit from a higher realm head-on.
The fact that she was only sent flying was a testament to her decent strength.
Whoosh!
While the man attacked Shiqi, another bullet was fired at him from a different direction in the mist.
This small bullet made of Jade Marrow was extremely fast. Even though the man reacted, he could only use the flame barrier on his body to block its impact.
The flames seemed to solidify at that moment as a fiery red barrier appeared on the man’s skin, stopping the Jade Marrow Bullet.
Under the powerful impact, the Jade Marrow Bullet instantly exploded, and mist several times thicker than the field magic gushed out, completely enveloping the man.
But in the next moment, as the man surged his Spiritual Power, a blast of intense hot wind tore through the Magic Mist, rendering Hua Jian’s sneak attack ineffective.
“Good timing on the opportunity, but your power is too small.” The man stomped his foot heavily. “Since I can’t find where you are, I’ll turn this place into a sea of fire!”
With his shout, scorching flames began to spread rapidly from where his foot landed. Before long, they covered the entire Obsidian Platform.
Under the roasting heat, even though the Magic Mist still existed, the ground had become completely uninhabitable.
Hua Jian had been forced into the air. This Ling King from the Saint Sect was truly extraordinary; for a moment, she couldn’t find any way to defeat him.
If she used Mirage Qi Bullets, they might be blocked by his previous method. The mist from the Illusory Dream Flower was even harder to use against him.
Aside from calling A Meng out to bully the weak with her high level, she seemed to have no way to win against this boss.
When fighting Linglong, Hua Jian had to use all her tricks just to have a chance of winning. But against this man, she felt as if she wouldn’t win even if she used every trick up her sleeve.
‘I’ll try melee again. If it doesn’t work, we run,’ Hua Jian thought.
Gripping her Ling Sword and summoning several Vines from her back, Hua Jian concealed her aura and quietly approached the man.
But just as she wanted to launch a sneak attack, the man punched toward her location as if he had detected her presence.
Fortunately, the direction of the punch was slightly off. Hua Jian seized the chance to strike, and a fierce melee began between her and the man.
Shiqi, who had been sent flying, saw this and immediately joined the fray. Then, both of them were beaten so badly they couldn’t even lift their heads.
A Ling King was, after all, a Ling King. How could two Spirit Masters compare?
Even if the opponent didn’t use Ling King-grade techniques or tools, his physical fitness and Spiritual Power quality alone left Hua Jian with no room to fight back.
“You’re quite an interesting girl. Why aren’t these vines afraid of my flames?” At this moment, the man was also somewhat surprised.
He had expected to have the upper hand, but the combat power of Hua Jian and Shiqi truly impressed him.
Especially Hua Jian — that strange melee style had nearly caught him off guard several times.
If it weren’t for his overwhelming advantage in cultivation, he might have truly failed.
If both sides were at the same level, the man felt he wouldn’t be able to beat Hua Jian. This wasn’t low self-esteem; it was a rational judgment.
Aside from not using Ling King techniques and tools, he hadn’t held back at all.
Under these circumstances, Hua Jian and Shiqi were merely suppressed and hadn’t even shown signs of defeat in the short term, which was truly absurd.
“How should I know!” Hua Jian wasn’t lying. she didn’t know why her vines wouldn’t be burned by the fire; they just weren’t afraid.
Using the impact of the man’s punch, she performed a backflip to pull away and retracted the Magic Mist from the field.
“Shiqi, we can’t win. Let’s go!”
“Huh? Right!” Shiqi was also being forced back by the man’s attacks. Hearing Hua Jian’s shout, she hurriedly followed her and jumped off the platform.
As the two left the combat area, the flames on the man’s body gradually died down.
He looked at the two girls who had escaped unscathed and couldn’t help but praise, “Your strength is not bad. In this year’s Ascension Gathering, you two must be among the top geniuses.”
“That’s right. I should be ranked first, and she can make the top ten. But I feel like even if we brought all ten of the top geniuses to help, we still couldn’t beat you, Senior Brother.”
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