The third trial had begun. Within his personal illusionary world, Lutes’ blood was boiling in excitement. He felt an overwhelming urge to annihilate the enemies before him. His Slaughter Aura was overwhelming, but against illusionary entities that had no souls, they were unaffected, standing still and motionless like statues.

What descended from the bloody sky were sentinels. They were covered in full body plate armor. They all had different weapons. There were spears, bows, one handed and two handed swords, axes, maces, flails, and even fist weapons. The sentinels had a vast array of fighting styles at their disposal due to the myriad weapons.

They were all humanoid, standing even taller than Lute, the plate armor they wore was black, and seemed to suck light into it. But the most noticeable features were the eyes, there were none! In place of the eyes was a fog-like substance that varied in colors, some were crimson, others blue, even purple, and green were among them. What this signified, Lute didn’t know, but he wasn’t afraid.

The totals number of sentinels numbered around twenty, then each one had a Vicious Beast as well. Avian predatory birds, feline panthers, wolves, bears, serpents, lizards, even massive spiders that were the size of a full grown human, with fangs that secreted venom.

All in all, Lute was facing nearly forty foes all alone, without anyone to aid him. If it were anyone else, they would’ve probably given up immediately, even if they were a late stage Nascent Qi Cultivator as they would be overwhelmed by the sheer difference in numbers. However for Lute, he was instead itching for combat.

The fundamental strength difference for Lute and the average man were different; this was why he didn’t fear such a vast difference in numbers. Due to the Primordial First Physique, up to the second level of the Nascent Qi Realm, he didn’t feel the need to use his Qi. When he was up against the equivalent of the third level within the Nascent Qi Realm, he would have to start using some of his Qi, and at the fourth level, this was when Lute needed to be serious, and against the fifth level, he would need to have the utmost concentration, not wasting the slightest amount of Qi or he would lose. As for the sixth level onwards, he had no chance of winning, and would be forced into retreat.

Right now, he held no fear for his life at all, as long as he didn’t get cocky, slaughtering this group of nearly forty opponents with pure physical strength alone was inconsequential, and at the most, he would be slightly short of breath.

Lute’s eyes flashed with murderous intent, with a slight breeze his hair began dancing around as if on fire. With his Slaughter Aura released, Lute formed one of the evasive stances learned from the Thousand Ways Scripture. He refused to utilize Qi Explosion Tactics.

‘Once I face opponents at the third level, that’s when I shall use my techniques. But the most important factor of all, I can’t defeat them too quickly, I have to last for half an hour after all, if they jump in strength too much, that is the equivalent of asking for failure.’

No matter how much his blood was boiling and he wanted to fight, Lute remained rational, judging all that was before him, he deemed the greatest threat as the bow user.

‘Found you, you’ll cause the most problems if I am stuck in a melee, shooting me when I am occupied with the others, so I am sorry but your life is now forfeit.’

With this final thought, Lute let his violent thoughts take control and he thought of nothing except extinguishing the sentinel that wielded the bow. It was his only goal and he would do nothing else until it was accomplished.

Springing forward, the bloody ground cracked underneath Lute, he ran straight into the group of Sentinels and Vicious Beast illusions. The moment he sprang into action, so did they. Killing Intent manifested from all of them and combined into one mass. But this wasn’t a problem at all for Lute who used Slaughter Aura. Even if it was Killing Intent from a peak Heavenly Emperor, he would be unfazed.

The first opponents Lute encountered were spear wielders and avian birds, while the spears pierced towards all of Lutes’ vitals, the birds dove towards his eyes, attempting to block his vision.

With just this much information, Lute could tell they were a far more experienced than the disciples he encountered from Fallen Tide Hall previously; they only knew how to spar and didn’t understand how to truly survive on a field of life and death. For many, this trial would be the first experience of such an environment.

Lute seemed as if he was dancing. Utilizing the Thousand Ways Scripture stances that emphasized speed and evasion, he lithely moved in and out of the spears thrusted at him. Whenever a bird swooped down, he glided out of its trajectory.

It was only a few seconds, but now the sentinels that wielded spears were at Lute’s back and he ignored them. He continued to rush into the mass of adversaries. His vision was locked onto the lone bow user that was situated at the back of the group who was taking aim at him. He held no one else in sight; it was the eyes of a reaper that locked onto this sentinel.

Continuing to evade in rapid succession, Lute didn’t feel pressured yet, he hadn’t used any Qi and despite how fast he was moving, he hadn’t even depleted any of his stamina.

As Vicious Beasts would pounce toward him, and sentinels hacked, thrusted, or slashed at Lute, he avoided them all. No matter how quick they tried to move, their physical strength, and reflexes were all below Lute. It was a vast chasm between skill levels.

Swatting away the last Vicious Beast, a panther, Lute now only had the bow user in his sights. His Slaughter Aura surged, the intent to kill reached its peak. Lute dove forward, fluidly moving through the stances, switching to an offensive stance from evasive and struck the sentinel with his fist.

Despite wearing plate armor, Lute’s fist was strong enough that it caved in the armor; a metallic thud resounded from his strike. Forget illusions, even a real opponent that was in the same position as this illusionary sentinel, even if they were at the fourth level, would still suffer serious damage, as the sentinel didn’t even attempt to defend because Lute was too quick.

Withdrawing his fist, Lute watched as the sentinel dropped to the ground, its body began to dissipate, its purple clouds that were in the place of eyes floated down to the ground and remained there unmoving and idle.

Lute instantly turned around, now that the greatest threat was gone, without even a chance to retaliate, he was now free to rampage to his heart’s content. Lutes eyes seemed to change once again. This time instead of a reaper locking onto a single target, his eyes now radiated an unsurpassed bloodlust.

Slamming his legs into the ground, Lute’s muscles could be seen rippling as he catapulted high into the air by using the ground as a spring board. While rising into the air, Lute settled upon his next target, it was the spider secreting venom and attempting to spit it towards him.

Falling down, Lute slammed onto the top of it, thoroughly crushing it. But when he killed it, Lute was slightly surprised. Its body had collapsed far too easily.

‘It seems that since these are illusions, it can’t replicate the physique of a Vicious Beast. For one that is rank two, its physique might be weaker than even some rank ones.’

As the spider dissipated, once again, Lute noticed that the colored clouds representing its eyes, just like the previous victim of Lute’s wrath floated to the ground and sat there, idle and motionless.

But Lute didn’t care about what this meant or the reasoning behind it; instead he had a malicious smile upon his face. The illusions of vicious beasts couldn’t replicate the physiques of the ones they were created from as a reference.

‘This just got easier, that means if it’s at the nascent first level, then is its real strength won’t be comparable to a second level. Perhaps this is the same for the sentinels; maybe they are weaker than the average first level Nascent Qi cultivator.’

The sentinels slashed at Lute after he landed, attempting to block all paths of retreat. But Lute never intended to retreat from the beginning, estimating how much time had passed, roughly five minutes, Lute began to once again begin his deadly dance of evasion, moving within the attack range of a sentinel or beast wherever he moved. Making slow deliberate movements, he stalled for time, but with every strike of Lute, something would die, falling to the ground dissipating, and leaving behind the mysterious clouds each time.

After a few minutes, the bloody plains of carnage grew quiet; Lute exterminated the last sentinel, one that wielded a heavy sword. With his physical strength he directly clashed with a strike from the sword, and despite an initial stalemate, Lute won, smashing his fist into the area where a dantian would’ve been had it not been an illusion.

Despite having a slightly labored breath, Lute felt fine, there was nothing difficult about this first part of the trial. Within a minute, his breathing and heart rate returned to normal. Then, as if on que, light fell from the sky and enveloped the clouds that littered the ground, about forty in all.

Images of all the slain foes reappeared, and the clouds once again rose up. The illusionary images of every foe that he just killed reappeared however the air about them was fundamentally different.

Lute narrowed his eyes, attempting to figure out what the difference was.

‘Nascent Qi second level….no….. It’s not just that, it seems that these images have the ability to learn.’

Within Lutes’ vision, every opponent had increased one sub realm. But this wasn’t the most important fact that made him cautious. Instead, the illusions seemingly learned from the last killing festival that Lute had partook in.

They were in a close knit formation. With the bow user hidden at the very back, the spear users were lined with spears pointed out. In between the spears, lowered to the ground, ready to pounce were the entire melee Vicious Beasts. At their flanks, were any Vicious Beasts that were like the spider and capable of using ranged attacks.

The avian birds flew around, trying to distract Lute. As for all the other sentinels, they manned the flanks of the formation, prepared for Lute. This was why Lute was cautious, it wasn’t that they increased in cultivation, but the atmosphere around them was completely different, tactics were being utilized and it would no doubt be harder to rampage freely without suffering injuries.

‘Perhaps this will be much harder than I previously thought, even though my strength is superior, if they utilize tactics and teamwork, I might actually sustain injuries versus them.’

But no sooner did Lute have this thought; he gave the illusionary foes a vicious grin, full of his bloodlust. Even if he was now at a disadvantage, Lute was still prepared to win.

With a voice full of killing intent, Lute spoke to the illusionary images, even if he knew that they could not understand human speech.

“No matter what you do….Your lives are all forfeit!”

After saying something this overbearing, Lute didn’t fail to back up his words with action. He recklessly charged forward. Not worrying about the time as almost more than half had now passed and he already doubled the requirement of slaughtering twenty opponents.

Taking into account that his adversaries were utilizing teamwork and had learned after being killed the way Lute fought, he instead chose to not become rash and not believe only in the Primordial First Physique. Lute began to revolve his Qi; he was going to limitedly use the Qi Explosion Tactics.

Revolving his Qi at full strength, Lute confidently began walking towards the group of Sentinels and their beasts. This caused them to become slightly confused, Lute’s actions were not the same as before, he wasn’t blindly rushing into them.

Despite this, they didn’t lower their guard, no matter how close Lute approached. When he was almost within striking range of the spear wielders, one of the Vicious Beasts illusions grew impatient. It jumped out from the formation at Lute who was walking forward confidently.

As it pounced towards Lute’s throat, it failed to strike Lute. Lute had become blurry; an instantaneous movement from Qi Burst Steps had allowed him to move to the left, it was almost quick enough to the point that it could form the haziest of an afterimage.

Instead of killing Lute, the beast had met with a fist to the face; Lute’s fist had caved in its skull. Had it not been an illusion, and was a real Vicious Beast at the rank two level, it might’ve survived that strike, albeit with heavy injuries. But for an illusion whose physique was hardly on par with a rank one beast, they were like cannon fodder to Lute.

Now that one was down, Lute found his opening. The last Qi Burst Steps he used was only one step of the five he could utilize. This time he began to utilize the full strength of the movement technique, bursting forward in sets of five steps. With the full strength of Qi Burst Steps, the opening in the formation caused by the death of one beast had given Lute the chance he was waiting for.

The Sentinels all converged upon the weak point in the formation, but it was too late. Lute dove into it, and carnage ensued. Lute evaded until the enemies had clumped up around him, only to be met with an Exploding Palm. The force of the strike would immediately kill one sentinel or beast. Every time they tried to strike Lute, Qi Burst Guard would rebound the force of their attack against them, and as illusionary images that had physiques which were weak; the injuries caused from the backlash were severe.

As Lute had rebound another sentinels strike against them, a sort of sixth sense activated one which he honed for years. Lute immediately dove forward, but it was too late. An arrow, one condensed from Qi, allowing it to possess a strong piercing power struck Lute’s right shoulder blade, viciously tearing the muscle and causing slight fractures in the bone.

If his Primordial First Physique wasn’t nearing the second level, his entire shoulder would’ve been blown off, forcing Lute to forfeit. Luckily, the strength of his body was almost at the peak of the strength it could achieve within the first level of the Primordial First Physique.

Struggling to stand up while deflecting attacks, Lutes eyes turned slightly blood shot, locking on to the bow user from before. He had judged correctly, it should’ve been killed first.

Revolving his Qi at full strength, Lute thrust forward, suffering some cuts and bruises in the process as he disregarded everything but the sentinel wielding the bow in his vision.

Appearing in front of it, he savagely struck with an Exploding Palm from extreme close range. The entire upper half of its body ceased to exist at that moment.

“You reap what you sow, now lie there dead for a while before I come to kill you again.”

As he spoke, Lute locked his vision onto the remaining opponents, about thirteen left. He had spent roughly twenty minutes in here, and gained a new gauge of his strength. Although they were easily crushed, the sheer numbers and tactics of the Sentinels and Beasts were making up for their lack of attack power. Lute had started to accumulate small injuries that were becoming worse with every other one he acquired.

This was a valuable experience, allowing Lute to understand that even though individually he completely eclipsed their power, he wasn’t strong enough where he could take on an infinite number of opponents at this level yet without suffering an injury.

His body was ravaged by small cuts and bruises, but they were negligible for now, the only one worth paying attention to was his mangled right shoulder, it had become stiff, and moving it took a second longer than normal.

Lute locked his Slaughter Aura onto his remaining opponents, the will to annihilate them rising within, “Why don’t we finish this, if you had souls, they would become mere food for me.”

Lute dashed forward, this time without the Qi Burst Steps, or using any Qi. He’d expended about forty percent of his reserves; this was far more than he anticipated. But for only thirteen opponents, he felt that it would be safe to only use his physical strength.

Approaching one of the remaining sentinels, Lute clashed head on with it. Both of them crashing their fists together, naturally, Lute came out the victor. Completely crushing the fist and arm of the Sentinel; warping its Fist Weapon until it crumpled and further crushed the sentinel’s hand.

Lute didn’t meander, quickly finishing it off with a fist to the chest, he moved on to each opponent, until there was only one left. It was once again the heavy sword wielder. Rather than clash directly, Lute waited for it to make a strike. As every time it attacked, a large opening in its defenses would occur.

Missing Lute, the heavy sword slammed into the ground. With this opportunity, Lute struck. He used Qi one last time, using Exploding Palm; he annihilated the legs of the Sentinel intentionally. Keeping it alive, not allowing it to dissipate.

“Good, that should leave me with enough time.” Lute said, with a relieved look.

Retreating a large distance, Lute sat down onto the ground with a Lotus Position. He purposely destroyed the legs of the last remaining sentinel. As long as it was alive, the rest wouldn’t respawn. Since it couldn’t move, Lute had retreated nearly 100 meters. He was sitting on the ground, focusing on recovering his Qi and meditating.

He expended far more Qi than intended, and he also realized that despite being weak, each wave became stronger not only in cultivation, but also in decision making, they were learning the way Lute fought, adapting to fight him and nullify his fighting style.

If time ran out while he was regaining strength, then so be it, Lute was content with what he learned from this experience, he learned new limits of his strength, not for a one versus one, but for one versus many. The fundamental mindset when approaching these scenarios’ was different. Now, he felt that no matter what situation he found himself in, or how outnumbered he would be, he would be able to adapt quickly.

After nearly three minutes passed, as Lute was regaining strength, he failed to notice all the previously idle cloud eyes were slowly floating towards the last remaining sentinel.