Ancient Martial Treasury.
A bloodied figure stumbled out of the vortex and collapsed into the frozen sea.
The piercing cold invaded his entire body. Jian Changsheng endured the pain and stiffness brought by the cold, struggling to swim a hundred meters before finally climbing onto a two-meter-long piece of floating ice.
"Cough...cough...cough..."
He lay weakly on the ice, his physical strength completely exhausted. A gust of sea wind blew, turning the moisture on his body into fragments and stripping away his last remnants of warmth.
Jian Changsheng stared blankly at the black sky and the gradually distant giant sword, his scarred face expressionless.
He survived.
He didn't know how he survived... The last moment of his memory was Chen Yifei standing before him with a gun. He remembered his heart being pierced.
Thinking of this, Jian Changsheng subconsciously reached for his chest. The flesh was still intact, without a large hole, and something seemed to be beating inside...
He could feel that with the beating of that heart, murderous intent flowed through his blood vessels, as if his entire being was being cleansed.
Also, something seemed to have been added to his body... It constantly resonated with the distant black giant sword.
"That guy... What kind of monster is he?" Jian Changsheng recalled the red-clothed figure that had single-handedly slaughtered through the Ancient Martial Treasury, still feeling a lingering fear in his heart.
Since he had counter-killed Yan Xicai and fought his way through, his morale had accumulated to an extremely sharp point. Yet, unexpectedly, Chen Yifei appeared and crushed his pride into pieces with just a few moves.
The key was that until now, he still didn't know what that person's identity was... A Fire Usurper? An Enforcer? Or some other conspiratorial organization?
Jian Changsheng rested for a moment, then sat up from the ice. His gaze swept across the boundless frozen sea, and a terrifying thought suddenly came to mind...
How was he going to get back?
When they came, they had taken a several-hour ferry ride. Now, he had nothing. Was he supposed to paddle back on floating ice?
Jian Changsheng's face turned even more unsightly as he realized that apart from this option... he really had no other way.
Gritting his teeth, he prostrated on the ice, his hands diving into the seawater. Relying on astonishing speed and strength, he slowly moved towards the direction of the Grim Winter Port.
Jian Changsheng never imagined that the once high-spirited "Asura" would now be reduced to a human-shaped engine.
He had to speed up...
Before he starved or froze to death.
...
On the way back to Zone 3, Chen Yifei told Han Meng everything that had happened in the Ancient Martial Treasury... of course, it was his processed version.
Han Meng listened silently until Chen Yifei had finished speaking for a long time before he rasped out his first question:
"How did Jiang Qin... die?"
"He was killed by that Fire Usurper No. 8." Chen Yifei paused for a moment. "I avenged him."
Han Meng looked at the coat originally belonging to No. 8 on Chen Yifei, unable to conceal the pain in his eyes. Chen Yifei had never seen such desolation and exhaustion on his face.
"...Thank you." This time, it was Han Meng thanking Chen Yifei.
Chen Yifei didn't respond because he felt he didn't deserve this thanks... Jiang Qin was already dead, and avenging him changed nothing. If he really had the ability, he should have saved Jiang Qin as well.
Regarding the others in the Ancient Martial Treasury, although their deaths were related to him, even if he didn't stir up the hatred between the Enforcers and the Fire Usurpers, after the Fire Usurpers obtained all the fragments of the Dao Foundation, both sides would still fight when they returned to the entrance of the Ancient Martial Treasury, let alone the presence of the Thief Sage Bai Ye outside.
From the beginning, there was no possibility for these Enforcers to leave the Ancient Martial Treasury alive.
"By the way." Han Meng looked at Chen Yifei. "Did you step onto the Martial God Path this time?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Which path?"
"The Asura path."
A flicker of surprise flashed in Han Meng's eyes. He nodded slightly. "The Asura path is not bad... There are only a few people in the entire Aurora City who have stepped onto this path."
"Which path did you take?" Chen Yifei asked innocently.
"The Judgment path."
"Is it different from the Asura path?"
"Of course, the Judgment path pursues extreme lethality, but after reaching higher tiers, the body becomes relatively fragile... While the Asura path is the king of close combat. Although its lethality is not as high as the Judgment path, its survivability is extremely strong.
Especially the first-tier skill, [Blood Cloak]. You should be able to feel the strength it gives you... Unless killed in one strike, the heavier the injury, the stronger the damage. When this effect is amplified to the extreme, the damage is even comparable to the Judgment path."
Chen Yifei nodded thoughtfully.
Now he had the third and fourth-tier skills of the Judgment path, as well as the first-tier skill of the [Blood Cloak]... Combining the two, he wondered if it could be considered complementing each other's strengths?
"After stepping onto the God Path, how does one advance?" Chen Yifei asked tentatively. "Are there any prerequisites that need to be met?"
"Prerequisites? There's no such thing."
Han Meng explained, "Although the fourteen God Paths in the world are different, their essence is the same... They all use mental strength to ascend tiers. Each time you ascend, you will not only gain different skills but also trigger a significant increase in mental strength.
Ultimately, it depends on personal talent. Those whose talent aligns with the God Path will experience faster growth in mental strength and faster advancement... If the talent is insufficient, advancement will be very difficult, and they will eventually only be able to stop at a certain tier, trapped in that rank for life.
Of course, from the fourth tier onward, advancement becomes increasingly challenging. Sometimes, apart from the accumulation of mental strength, some breakthrough opportunities are also required."
Indeed, others' advancement didn't require as much trouble as his own... Chen Yifei sighed inwardly.
Apart from the growth of mental strength, he also needed to complete the performance tasks on the stone steps. If he couldn't complete them, even if his mental strength was high, he couldn't proceed to the next tier. This meant that each step he took would be several times harder than others.
"How long does it usually take to advance from the first tier to the second tier?"
"For ordinary people, it's probably two years. If someone has good talent, they might be able to advance after more than a year..."
"So long??" Chen Yifei was shocked. "And how long did it take you?"
"Six months."
Chen Yifei:...
No wonder people in Zone 3 said Han Meng was a genius of the Martial God Path... In comparison, it was very obvious.
But Chen Yifei felt something was off because it had only been a little over a week since he stepped onto the first tier of the Thespian God Path, and now, his feet were almost touching the second step...
Chen Yifei even felt that he should be able to truly step onto the second tier in just a few days.
Was it because he was naturally talented?
Or... Did the reward after completing the performance save him a lot of time?