Translator: CinderTL
A hush fell over the heavens and earth.
The ordinary Chen Clan members remained calm, unaware of the significance of the nightmare-grade difficulty.
But Chen Fang, Chen Yuan, and the other elders stared in stunned disbelief.
"F-fortieth stage already?"
"He's surpassed the ancestor?"
"Jiang Ye...?" The elders were utterly astonished.
Jiang Ye's breakthrough attempt was simply too fast.
More importantly, this was nightmare-grade difficulty. Even the ancestor had only reached the thirtieth stage in his prime.
Yet Jiang Ye?
He had surged from the twentieth stage to the fortieth in a single breath!
"Could it be... he achieved another breakthrough at the twentieth trial?" Chen Fang couldn't help but tremble inwardly. "Two breakthroughs in quick succession? Is this even possible?"
It wasn't just the elders who were shaken.
Even Chen Jiuxuan began to fidget in his seat.
"Under nightmare difficulty, starting from the thirtieth stage, opponents will be at a higher realm than the challenger."
"How did that brat Jiang Ye clear it so quickly?" Chen Jiuxuan's eye twitched. "How is this even possible?"
This shouldn't be happening!
Could Jiang Ye truly be capable of instant kills against opponents of higher realms?
That's absurd!
Jiang Ye was already at the late stage of the fourth breakthrough. Facing a peak fourth-breakthrough opponent, the gap between them should be immense. No matter how strong Jiang Ye was, instant kills should be impossible.
Just as Chen Jiuxuan was reeling from disbelief, the projection screen flickered again.
Jiang Ye paused briefly at the fortieth trial before resuming his relentless advance.
Forty-first trial.
Forty-second trial.
Forty-third trial.
In the blink of an eye, Jiang Ye had stormed through to the fiftieth trial!
Only then did he finally halt his breakthrough attempt, refraining from immediately proceeding to the next trial.
"The fiftieth trial already."
"How did Jiang Ye manage this?"
"Could he actually be stronger than our ancestor from back then?" The Chen Clan elders trembled with awe.
One of the elders couldn't help but ask, "Ancestor, could you be mistaken? Jiang Ye might not have triggered nightmare difficulty."
The other elders nodded in agreement.
Even the ancestor had only reached the thirtieth level of nightmare difficulty.
How could Jiang Ye possibly reach the fiftieth level?
If true, wouldn't that mean Jiang Ye's potential far surpassed even the ancestor's?
"Mistaken?"
Chen Jiuxuan fell into deep thought, his own doubts resurfacing.
The thirtieth level of nightmare difficulty was already terrifying beyond measure.
The fiftieth level? It was almost unimaginable.
Jiang Ye's potential was undoubtedly great, but could it truly reach such heights?
"Let's not rush to conclusions," Chen Jiuxuan said. "Let's observe further. If Jiang Ye stops at the fiftieth level, he'll likely emerge soon."
Hearing this, Chen Fang and the other elders settled down to wait patiently.
Meanwhile, Chen Zilu stared intently at the projection screen.
"Could it be nightmare difficulty?" she murmured to herself. "Jiang Ye, hang in there."
She sincerely hoped Jiang Ye had triggered nightmare difficulty.
If Jiang Ye succeeded, the rewards would undoubtedly be immense.
Yet, she also worried that this success would plunge him into danger. The young woman's heart was torn by conflicting emotions.
Time flowed onward.
Over the next few hours, Chen Haoyue, Chen Feng, and Chen Qian emerged one by one from the light gate, having completed their trials.
All three had stopped at the fiftieth trial.
By this point, Jiang Ye was the only one remaining in the trial space.
The Chen Clan members weren't overly concerned. After all, the longer the trials lasted, the greater the benefits they would reap.
Bathed in starlight, their life levels were slowly but steadily rising—a gift from the hundred cosmic refinements.
Time passed like water. In the blink of an eye, several days had gone by.
"What's going on?"
"Why is Jiang Ye still stuck on the fiftieth trial?"
"Is he ever coming out?" The Chen Clan members grew increasingly puzzled.
Jiang Ye had been on the fiftieth trial for a full five days.
Such a situation had never occurred in the Chen Clan's history.
"Could this kid really be stuck on the fiftieth trial?" Chen Jiuxuan murmured, his gaze fixed on the projection screen, his mind racing with possibilities.
Within the trial space, however, the reality was far different from what the outside world imagined.
Jiang Ye wasn't locked in a fierce battle. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the ground, utterly serene.
He had been in secluded cultivation here for a full four days.
His purpose, of course, was to digest the insights he had gained from his cultivation. After passing the twentieth trial, Jiang Ye had relentlessly fought his way to the fiftieth level, slaughtering over a thousand alien powerhouses along the way.
The massive influx of cultivation insights had led to a significant advancement in Jiang Ye's spear technique.
Suddenly—
Whoosh!
Jiang Ye's eyes snapped open, a terrifyingly sharp glint flashing in his pupils.
"As expected of insights from dozens of peak fourth-breakthrough experts," he thought to himself. "Truly refined. It took me four days just to barely digest them."
Five days earlier, he had encountered a massive battle here.
Dozens of peak fourth-breakthrough experts had laid a Heavenly Net, all of them top-tier geniuses with invincible dao bones like Yan Yi!
Against such a lineup, any Late Stage Fourth Breakthrough cultivator would have been instantly annihilated.
For Jiang Ye, it was an unprecedentedly fierce battle.
However, this kind of battle was precisely what Jiang Ye had been yearning for.
After a full day of intense combat, Jiang Ye finally unleashed the Luoshen Spear Technique's third ultimate move—Spiritual Sea—completely annihilating the alien race.
"Now," Jiang Ye murmured, gazing at the long spear in his hand, "the ultimate move of the Luoshen Spear Technique's third form is finally perfected. It can unleash the terrifying power of a fifth breakthrough expert."
This meant Jiang Ye now possessed combat power equivalent to a fifth breakthrough expert.
But this wasn't just any fifth breakthrough expert.
This was a fifth breakthrough expert at the top-rank dao bone level!
Jiang Ye, still only at the Late Stage Fourth Breakthrough, wielding such combat power was truly terrifying.
"Spear Technique," Jiang Ye noted, glancing at his status panel.
Luoshen Spear: Minor Mastery (7%)
"The progress bar hasn't budged," Jiang Ye mused. "If the spear technique's quality hadn't been constantly improving, it would likely have reached great perfection by now."
His extensive cultivation insights allowed Jiang Ye to continuously refine the Luoshen Spear Technique through Law Creation, causing the progress bar on the panel to appear "stagnant."
Yet, the fierce battles he engaged in constantly elevated his spear technique proficiency.
This back-and-forth made it seem as though his spear technique's progress remained unchanged.
In reality, the spear technique's power had already surpassed its previous levels by an immeasurable degree.
"However,"
"My spear technique seems to have hit a bottleneck," Jiang Ye observed, swinging the long spear in his hand.
The movements flowed with unparalleled smoothness.
Yet it was precisely this effortless perfection that made Jiang Ye realize his Luoshen Spear Technique had reached a plateau, with little room for further improvement in the short term.
Previously, Jiang Ye could clearly perceive the flaws in his spear technique, allowing him to refine it through practice and combat.
But now?
He could discern no weaknesses, hence the sensation of flawless execution.
"Just because I can't see the flaws doesn't mean they don't exist," Jiang Ye mused, his mind as clear as a mirror. "The Spear Dao is boundless. It's simply that my current abilities have reached their limit."
This limitation stemmed from his limited perspective and realm.
Jiang Ye's recent rapid progress had been fueled by his deep reserves of accumulated skill. Now that these reserves were depleted, he had naturally encountered a bottleneck.
"Good enough."
"Next, I'll focus on making a breakthrough attempt." Jiang Ye gazed up at the sky. "Starting with the next stage, I might face quasi-fifth-tier opponents."
"I wonder how far I can truly advance."
(End of the Chapter)
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