Having now passed the first and second trials, Qian Feng moved on to the third. After walking through the hallways and making many turns, the young boy finally came across what he was looking for.

In large bold letters, the marking noting it as the third trial lay, so there was no mistake.

As for the trial itself? Well, it wasn't as simple as the last two, that was for sure.

In front of him lay an ordinary mat for sitting, which there was nothing special about. In front of that, there was a door made of a greyish white type of wood - it seemed incredibly strong - that was bare except for a keyhole. How he would receive the key, the young boy had no idea.

On the floor the mat rested on, though, there was something far more interesting than either of the two things above, seemingly some sort of ritual circle. Although he had never heard of those in this new world, and thus wasn't sure if they existed, he was quite confident that that was what it was. As for its use, well, that was something far out of his reach, but he could guess based on the context it was in.

As it was under a sitting mat, Qian Feng found it safe to conclude that it would likely be activated if he sat on the said mat, which shouldn't kill him maliciously, given that all the previous trials implemented a fair testing system.

The moment he sat on the mat, Qian Feng's consciousness was transported to an ancient and barren battlefield; the pungent scent of blood contaminating the air. A voice sounded out in his head, through some mystical method: Welcome to the Bloody Battlefield. You have three years. Current combat rating: A. You must raise combat rating to S+ in order to pass. Time dilution rate: one day = one year in Bloody Battlefield. Begin.

With that, ten skeletons rose from the ground with heavy metal blades in their hands, charging at Qian Feng. Immediately realizing that he was barehanded, Qian Feng attempted to summon a guan dao, only to receive no response. You have the option to select a weapon at the end of this battle.

Soon to be surrounded, the young warrior instead materialized his own guan dao from Qi, summoning it from his already-condensed weapon on the Spirit Realm.

This placed a drain on his Qi, but with the combination of his formidable cultivation technique and relatively high cultivation, he wasn't going to run out any time soon.

Qian Feng started out with a thrust towards the leading skeleton, pushing it back and piercing a hole in its bone chest. With the Qi-fashioned guan dao still in the skeleton's chest, Qian Feng made use of Qi once again to send out a blast, shattering its body and sending the now unattached bones careening onto the ground, where they turned into light which was absorbed by the other skeletons.

From there, Qian Feng made a horizontal cut to the left, splitting a skeleton in half and cutting another halfway through. He did notice, however, that the second skeleton he killed was significantly tougher than the first skeleton, but paid no heed to it, assuming it was because of differing power because of the attack he used.

It became harder to ignore, however, when the two other skeletons he killed did the same thing when dead, adding a new, barely noticeable, metallic luster to their bones.

Twisting and turning, Qian Feng made headway up until the three-skeleton level.

Although there was only 30% of the original amount of skeletons, their individual power was far, far higher, and the young boy was hard-pressed to bite into their bones now.

Up until then, he hadn't been hit through his solid foundational footwork, but since the speed of the skeletons was higher now, it was getting more and more difficult to keep that up, until Qian Feng received a glancing blow, which was immediately reflected. If not for seeing the strike made, Qian Feng wouldn't even have noticed the force against his skin.

Significantly less scared, Qian Feng kept using his footwork, but trading blows when he judged it to be a worthy trade.

His strikes slowly became more and more refined, fluidly slicing through the air and hitting the joints of the skeleton it targeted, finally downing another skeleton.

And so there were two, glowing with power.

A powerful sword came slashing at Qian Feng, which he sidestepped and, making use of the resulting position of his feet, whirled around and sent a powerful horizontal slash. Despite the force of this blow, the skeleton was barely pushed back, and Qian Feng's arms were impacted by the shock, which didn't sound like much, but with his defense, the fact that the shock managed to get past his insanely toughened skin meant the hardness of the bones of the skeletons far surpassed his cultivation base.

Lacking martial skills of any kind, Qian Feng coud only soldier on and rely on pure technique.

The originally transparent guan dao, composed entirely of Force Qi, became tinged with a deeb brown, the Earth Qi lending it weight as Qian Feng's strikes morphed. Where he was originally developing in fluidity and dexterity in his fighting style, Qian Feng's attacks slowly got wilder and wilder as he received more and more blows.

Thankfully, the Earth Qi armor he conjured defended against most of any given strike, and the rest was barely able to penetrate Qian Feng's tough skin. Any wound that was made was also rapidly healed by Qian Feng's Life Qi; all in all, this was a sight that would cause any living opponent to feel despair.

The wildness of his attacks, however, did not mean that Qian Feng left more openings or was more wasteful with his force. Quite the opposite, in fact: even as he became more reckless in his fighting, he also became far more skillful, putting every bit of strength to masterful use and only making calculated risks - attacks towards his vital spots would be blocked or avoided just because of the possibility of injury, but those towards less important areas would be allowed to land, in exchange for Qian Feng sending a strike he knew was more powerful.

As he fought, though, Qian Feng started to succumb to his human limitations. His Qi was running out despite his huge reserves, and his stamina was also quickly depleting. Adding on to this, it also seemed that the two skeletons he was still fighting didn't tire at all.

Something needed to change.

Left with no other options, Qian Feng could only resort to a desperate ploy.

Placing his guan dao into one hand, he kicked back both skeletons he faced a summoned up all the rest of his Qi as he...