Chapter 998: Nine Serpent Heart Sutra

As always, there were no instructions, only the familiar grinding sound of the millstone echoing through the air.

Rumble!

Li Qing was well-accustomed to this. He braced himself, allowing his divine soul to endure the millstone's crushing pressure.

He passed the first gate without any difficulty.

Before he could catch his breath, two stone rollers simultaneously bore down on him.

Hum!

The familiar, excruciating pain surged through him as his divine soul was caught between the rollers, relentlessly crushed and ground.

Even with his past experiences, he could never truly adapt to such agony.

Yet he endured, forcing himself through. The second trial failed to halt his progress.

After a long period of recovery, countless slender needles emerged around Li Qing's divine soul body.

He braced himself, preparing to withstand the piercing assault.

Shhh! Shhh! Shhh!

The needles plunged into Li Qing's divine soul, drawing a muffled groan from him. In an instant, his soul body was riddled with countless holes.

"Hmph!"

The extreme pain threatened to shatter his divine soul body. This was agony no ordinary person could endure.

Yet Li Qing persevered. His soul body trembled violently, still reeling from the torment.

After an agonizingly long interval, the Soulfall Mountain Spirit's mechanical voice finally echoed:

"Reward for the third trial has been granted. Proceed to the fourth trial?"

This time, the questioning didn't include the previous warning to Li Qing about refining a primordial spirit weapon before attempting the fourth trial.

The Soulfall Mountain Spirit simply repeated the question, over and over.

But Li Qing remained silent, knowing that any response would immediately trigger the fourth trial. He intended to use this brief respite to restore as much of his divine soul body as possible.

After a long silence, the Soulfall Mountain Spirit finally declared, "The trial participant has not responded. Proceeding to the fourth trial by default!"

This time, Li Qing felt no panic. He had already steeled himself for this moment.

Whoosh!

A cloud of dust suddenly billowed through the space, and within moments, a tall, imposing figure materialized.

It was a foreign race member, his hair resembling venomous snakes coiling around his head, giving him a bizarre appearance. Yet his expression was utterly rigid, devoid of any vitality.

"Just a past projection," Li Qing murmured to himself, his expression turning grave. "Probably some powerful disciple from the Nine Heavens Holy Sect."

He didn't underestimate his opponent, his gaze hardening with determination.

Within the Divine Soul Space, Li Qing couldn't use any mana-based techniques, relying solely on his divine soul to face the enemy.

Defeat meant the annihilation of his divine soul—a far more perilous situation than the previous three trials, which had merely required him to grit his teeth and endure.

The foreign race's figure appeared slightly ethereal, yet he launched the first attack against Li Qing.

His divine soul body moved with astonishing speed, charging toward Li Qing in an instant.

Simultaneously, the snake-like strands of hair on the foreign race's head seemed to come alive, scattering in all directions.

Whoosh!

These serpentine locks cascaded down like living snakes, coiling and slithering toward Li Qing.

"Hiss, another trick? Is this a divine soul divine ability or a primordial spirit weapon?"

Regardless, Li Qing reacted swiftly.

He leaped into the air, his divine soul body twisting into a contorted posture.

Soul-Condensing Thorn!

Shwshwshw!

He unleashed a barrage of Soul-Condensing Thorns, piercing through the snake-like strands of hair that covered the ground.

The foreign race seemed impervious to pain, continuing his relentless charge toward Li Qing.

As the figure drew near, it suddenly pulled a massive cleaver from its slightly ethereal form.

Boom!

This was its primordial spirit weapon. A single strike from this cleaver would inflict grievous damage to Li Qing's divine soul.

Without hesitation, Li Qing summoned the Divine Invasion Spear with a backhand movement and engaged the foreign race in combat.

Without the interference of divine soul spells, the battle resembled a mundane martial arts duel.

This was precisely Li Qing's forte. As a former grandmaster of martial arts, he had honed his skills through countless life-and-death struggles.

In armed combat, he feared no opponent.

The Divine Invasion Spear danced in his hands like a blooming flower, parrying each of the foreign race's cleaver strikes while simultaneously inflicting repeated injuries on its divine soul body.

With each thrust of the spear, the foreign race's form grew more ethereal.

Though occasionally hindered by the serpentine hair, Li Qing remained composed. He maintained a steady, methodical rhythm, dodging each attack with calculated footwork before retaliating with the Divine Invasion Spear.

"No wonder they require you to condense a primordial spirit weapon before proceeding with the trials," Li Qing murmured, his figure darting through the air like a phantom, evading attacks with ghostly agility. "Without one, there's really no way to deal with these opponents."

In the next instant, he executed a stunning counterattack, his spear flashing like a startled swan and flowing like a swimming dragon, piercing the foreign race's projection straight through.

"Disperse!"

Li Qing channeled his power, resonating with the Divine Invasion Spear in his hands, shattering the foreign race's divine soul projection into fragments.

Only after the projection had completely dissipated did the Soulfall Mountain Spirit's voice slowly resonate through the air:

"You have defeated the young master of Nine Serpent Island and passed the fourth trial. Your rewards are five Soul Condensation Pills, the Nine Serpent Heart Sutra, and a jar of Primordial Fortune Nectar!"

"Proceed to the fifth trial? Warning: All opponents in the fifth trial are controllers of second-tier primordial spirit weapons."

Li Qing was stunned by the lavish rewards. He had expected at most one item, but three were bestowed upon him at once.

Whether it was the Soul Condensation Pills or the Primordial Fortune Nectar, these were all invaluable treasures. And the Nine Serpent Heart Sutra was likely no less remarkable.

Despite the lavish rewards, Li Qing remained clear-headed and quickly regained his composure.

Primordial spirit weapons had five tiers. Upon initial refinement, they became first-tier weapons, like the Divine Invasion Spear Li Qing now held.

Through continued nourishing and refinement with one's divine soul, the weapon's power would steadily increase, advancing to second-tier, third-tier, and eventually fifth-tier.

Refining a primordial spirit weapon to the fifth-tier would likely require a divine soul surpassing even the great ascension realm, making it comparable to that of a true immortal.

"Do you wish to continue the fifth-tier trial?"

Faced with this question, Li Qing calmly chose to end the trial.

"No! I wish to terminate the trial!"

In such a pure contest of strength, the power of a primordial spirit weapon would grant an overwhelming advantage, one that even potent divine soul secret techniques couldn't overcome.

Li Qing wasn't foolish. He would never gamble with his life.

He might have been able to win the fourth-tier battle through his martial combat experience, but he couldn't guarantee he could sweep through the fifth-tier using the same methods.

Soon, Li Qing's divine soul body returned to his fleshly body.