High Martial Arts Era

Chapter 160: Breaking the Shackles of the Divine Palace

Under Xu Bo's all-out effort and unreserved burst, he and Li Yuan finally dealt a fatal blow to the second-tier Fish Spirit Warrior.

"Boom~" "Clang."

The two huge war blades fell to the ground, while the Fish Spirit Warrior staggered back, desperately trying to stop the blood gushing from its throat with both hands but failing to do so. Its eyes were fixed on the two powerful human martial artists before it, filled with unwillingness.

It had been born in the Fish Spirit Astral Realm, enduring numerous hardships and fighting among its kind after being birthed by the mother fish. It had barely managed to step up in rank. In the Fish Spirit race, only those who reached the next tier could survive. Only by advancing could one be called a 'warrior.' If they couldn't advance within ten years of birth, they would become 'food' for their kind.

However, advancing was only the beginning. The constant wars in the Astral Realm had gradually increased its strength, almost becoming a second-tier warrior. Finally, it was selected and sent to the human world to participate in the war, a mission with no chance of survival. Yet, they had no choice but to hope to win the war.

After entering the human world and struggling in the underground caves, it gradually approached the 'core city' of the human world. Under the pressure of death, it broke the shackles of life, achieving harmony of body and mind, and directly broke through to become a second-tier warrior.

For the Fish Spirit warriors, reaching the second tier was extremely difficult. When the commander learned of this, he was overjoyed and immediately decided to use it as the core to set a 'kill trap' to ambush the human martial artist team.

They succeeded only once.

The second time, they encountered two elite human teams.

"Roar~" The second-tier Fish Spirit Warrior let out the last sound of its life before its massive body fell backward with a loud crash, silenced forever. Without the control of its mind, blood gushed from its numerous wounds.

Dead.

"[You killed a second-tier creature, breaking the shackles of the Divine Palace. Your spiritual awakening limit has increased to 30%.]"

"[You killed a second-tier creature, gaining spiritual nourishment. Your spiritual awakening degree has reached 25.1%.]" Two continuous notifications from the Divine Palace flashed across Li Yuan's vision, startling him.

Breaking the shackles of the Divine Palace? To break the 25% spiritual awakening limit, it required killing a second-tier creature. The shackles of the Divine Palace? Does it refer to the 25% spiritual guidance shackle?

Li Yuan quickly recalled. Initially, there was no spiritual awakening on the Divine Palace panel, only a notification that a high-level spirituality was hidden within him. Before the monthly exam, after he killed a first-tier Fish Spirit Warrior, the spiritual awakening appeared on the Divine Palace panel.

"Does this mean that the 0% to 25% limit, and even the 50% limit for spiritual awakening, are 'Divine Palace shackles,' similar to the major realm breakthroughs of life levels from the first tier to the second tier? Must higher-tier alien creatures be killed to break them?" Li Yuan pondered.

"And the increase in the spiritual awakening limit from 10% to 20%, from 20% to 25%, is similar to the level progress from 13 to 14, with no essential difference. As long as the mental power keeps increasing, the upper limit will continue to rise?" Li Yuan thought.

Without any precedents to follow, Li Yuan could only explore and summarize his experiences. However, based on this reasoning...

"In the future, if I want to break the 50% upper limit of spiritual awakening, I need to kill a third-tier alien creature?" Li Yuan muttered to himself.

A third-tier alien creature, comparable to a flying martial artist. Is it that easy to kill?

Although it seemed slow, with Li Yuan's current mental power, he thought of various possibilities within a few seconds. While thinking, Li Yuan wanted to approach the corpse of the second-tier Fish Spirit Warrior.

"Stop, don't get close," Xu Bo said in a low voice, still standing where he was.

"Teacher," Li Yuan looked at Xu Bo.

"It looks dead, and by the Fish Spirit race's body structure, it should be dead," Xu Bo's battle suit retracted from his skin, revealing his slightly pale face, "But remember, never let your guard down. Be cautious of the enemy faking death, waiting for you to get close and launch a sudden counterattack."

"Unless its head is cut off, its heart is smashed, and its limbs are completely torn apart, always remain vigilant," Xu Bo said, "When you venture into the Astral Realm in the future, remember this."

Li Yuan was taken aback, then nodded obediently, "Thank you, teacher, for the reminder."

He had the Divine Palace panel to detect the life and death of the Fish Spirit race, but his teacher's words were not wrong. Walking the line between life and death, one must not be careless. This was a lesson learned from the blood of countless warrior predecessors.

"Go and deal with the other Fish Spirit Warriors," Xu Bo said in a low voice, "I'll guard this one."

"The source martial artists should be arriving soon."

"Yes."

Whoosh!

Li Yuan also noticed that his teacher's condition seemed not good. He swiftly moved towards the Fish Spirit Warriors who were fleeing in terror.

"Roar~"

"Howl!"

In fact, when the second-tier Fish Spirit Warrior tried to escape, the remaining Fish Spirit Warriors had already been terrified and attempted to flee.

Even their powerful 'second-tier leader' was no match, let alone them?

However, Instructor Xing, Fang Longhu, and the other ten warriors had been frantically blocking these Fish Spirit Warriors, delaying their steps.

Therefore, when Li Yuan arrived, his spear whistled out, causing one Fish Spirit Warrior after another to fall.

Suddenly.

In the dark night sky, a flying vehicle approached rapidly.

Boom!

A figure leaped from the vehicle, and Li Yuan looked up to see a blurry human figure enveloped in a faint yellow glow, moving like lightning, whistling through the air, and falling onto the heads of several escaping Fish Spirit Warriors.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

With continuous lightning-fast collisions, the four Fish Spirit Warriors' bodies exploded, their blood and remains flying in all directions.

The attack was extremely violent.

Li Yuan saw it clearly. The attacking source martial artist's burst speed easily exceeded 100 meters per second. Moreover, his weapon was a pair of hammers! The two large hammers were covered with numerous spikes, making the weapon look extremely menacing.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

One Fish Spirit Warrior after another fell, and in the blink of an eye, they were all swept away.

Splat~

Li Yuan also killed the last Fish Spirit Warrior, thus ending the crisis at Nanhang Primary School.

The playground quieted down, and the warriors gathered, each breathing heavily. The recent intense battle had greatly exhausted everyone's strength.

Whoosh!

The source martial artist moved and appeared in front of Li Yuan. His energy battle suit retracted, revealing his true appearance.

Li Yuan saw that the other person's height was about the same as his own, and his face looked particularly young, though his eyes were very determined.

"Senior," Li Yuan bowed slightly.

With his current strength, in terms of pure attack power, he could only be said to be comparable to an advanced martial artist above level 19.5 and could pose a certain threat to a source martial artist. But compared to a true source martial artist? He was still far behind. Any junior source martial artist could defeat him.

"No need to call me senior," the young source martial artist with the war hammer smiled, "I know you, Li Yuan, you can just call me Gao Hao."

"Gao Hao?" Li Yuan's eyes flashed with confusion.

He hadn't heard of him.

"Deacon Gao Hao." Instructor Xing came running from a distance, slightly bowing, "Thank you, I am a martial arts instructor at the Guanshan Branch."

"Instructor Xing, I know you," Gao Hao laughed, "We had dinner together last time, and Lord Wan brought you along."

"Yes." Instructor Xing nodded repeatedly, then introduced, "Li Yuan, Deacon Gao Hao is also a member of our Starlight Martial Hall, a student at Starlight University, an A-level contract signer, now a fourth-year student and already a source martial artist."

Li Yuan instantly understood the other party's identity.

He was also a martial arts genius.

A student at Starlight University? As long as they trained normally until their fourth year, 99% would become source martial artist. According to the rules of Starlight Martial Hall, source martial artist were called 'deacons' if they didn't hold any positions. The flying martial artist were universally known as 'masters' among the martial artist community.

"Deacon Gao Hao." Li Yuan immediately changed his address.

"Haha, I've watched your battles in the Ten Schools Freshman Competition. Your skills are probably not inferior to mine," Gao Hao laughed, "And as for strength... you've just started your first year, yet you're already close to a source martial artist. Incredible."

"If you don't become a flying martial artist in the future, I'll find it unusual." Gao Hao laughed, praising Li Yuan highly.

Meanwhile, Fang Longhu and the other dozen human martial artist gathered around, looking at Li Yuan with different eyes.

The recent melee had made them realize how powerful Li Yuan was, far surpassing them.

...

After a brief exchange, Gao Hao understood the situation. Instructor Xing and Fang Longhu had already taken the other human martial artists to rescue the injured students. Li Yuan and Gao Hao then went to the corpse of the second-tier Fish Spirit Warrior. Xu Bo had been silently guarding it.

He hadn't joined the earlier conversation.

"Senior Xu Bo, impressive," Gao Hao said as he walked up, smiling. "To kill this second-tier alien, you really are as sharp as ever..."

It was clear that he knew Xu Bo.

Suddenly.

"Teacher!" a startled cry sounded.

Li Yuan dashed to Xu Bo's side, supporting him with a worried expression: "Teacher? What's wrong?"

Xu Bo's face was deathly pale, devoid of any color, his features slightly twisted, and large beads of sweat were forming on his forehead. Yet, he still stood tall, seemingly enduring immense pain.

"Senior Xu Bo, what's happening?" Gao Hao looked at Li Yuan, equally shocked.

After a moment.

Xu Bo's face showed slightly less pain, and he forced a smile: "Don't worry."

"I won't die in a day or two."

"It's just that I've been running my star meridians too long, and my body can't take it. After all, it's been years since I've truly used my source power." Xu Bo explained, "The toxins in my body have not only invaded my nerves but have also permeated every part of my star meridians. I didn't feel it when I was fighting, but now that the battle is over, my body can't take it anymore."

"Toxins in every part of your star meridians?" Li Yuan's face changed slightly.

What kind of toxin was this?

He only knew that his teacher had old injuries but never thought it was due to poisoning.

"Toxins in the star meridians? The Stellar Blood Spirit Poison?" Gao Hao was shocked. "Senior Xu Bo, I'll call for a medical aircraft immediately."

Gao Hao had evidently realized the cause.

The Stellar Blood Spirit Poison? Li Yuan had never heard of it.

"It's an extremely rare toxin from the Penglai Astral Realm, a nearly incurable poison," Gao Hao quickly explained.

Li Yuan was shocked, nearly incurable?

"Deacon Gao Hao, there's no need to call a medical aircraft. I'm beyond saving."

"This is a critical time, so don't waste medical resources." Xu Bo shook his head, refusing Gao Hao's offer.

"I've long been prepared for this day."

"It just came a year or two earlier than expected."