Translator: CinderTL
"Early-stage fifth breakthrough?" The Chen Clan elders couldn't help but hold their breath.
Jiang Ye was only at the Late Stage Fourth Breakthrough!
If he faced a quasi-fifth-tier opponent, there might still be a slim chance of victory.
But an early-stage fifth breakthrough? The gap was too vast; there was no hope.
"Of course," Chen Jiuxuan replied. "All of the above assumes normal difficulty." He added, "If Jiang Ye triggered nightmare difficulty, the enemies he'd face at the hundredth level would far exceed early-stage fifth breakthrough."
Chen Fang, Chen Yuan, and the others exchanged glances.
Then, they all shook their heads.
"It's definitely not nightmare difficulty."
"Even reaching this point on normal difficulty is already absurd. Nightmare difficulty? Impossible."
"Absolutely impossible." The elders' opinions were remarkably unanimous.
Even Chen Jiuxuan nodded slightly.
"Indeed, it's highly unlikely," he thought to himself, sighing inwardly. He had to admit he had misjudged Jiang Ye earlier.
After all, even he himself had only reached the thirtieth level on nightmare difficulty.
Now that Jiang Ye had reached the hundredth level, his performance clearly wasn't due to nightmare difficulty.
"Ancestor," Chen Fang couldn't help but ask, his own attention keenly focused, "do you think Jiang Ye can clear the hundredth level?"
"It's hard to say," Chen Jiuxuan replied, shaking his head. "If it were just one fifth breakthrough expert, it would be manageable."
"But if multiple fifth breakthrough experts appear, Jiang Ye's current realm makes victory unlikely."
The others nodded in agreement.
After all, Jiang Ye was only at the Late Stage Fourth Breakthrough.
"No matter," Chen Jiuxuan said calmly. "Let's continue watching. It will be settled within the next two days."
"Whether Jiang Ye clears this level or not," he continued, his voice drifting like smoke, "he will undoubtedly gain unimaginable benefits from the hundred cosmic refinements."
Hearing this, the elders couldn't help but feel a pang of envy.
Reaching the hundredth level!
The rewards must be beyond comprehension.
"Jiang Ye," Chen Zilu murmured, clenching her delicate fist, her peach-blossom eyes brimming with anticipation.
She had a faint premonition.
The moment Jiang Ye emerged, he would undoubtedly shock everyone.
While the outside world waited with bated breath, within the trial space, Jiang Ye found himself in unprecedented peril.
Level 100.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Jiang Ye roared repeatedly, charging forward with his spear, his entire being radiating a terrifying killing intent.
He was embroiled in a brutal battle, his profound black battle armor shattered into countless fragments.
Countless wounds, deep enough to expose bone, crisscrossed Jiang Ye's body, making him appear utterly wretched.
The cause of all this?
A towering figure stood before him, its aura thick and immensely powerful.
Mid-stage fifth breakthrough!
Whoosh! Jiang Ye launched his spear with explosive force, the spear's tip flashing like lightning as it hurtled toward the figure.
But in the next instant, the mid-stage fifth breakthrough expert raised his long blade and unleashed a single strike.
Boom!
An earth-shattering collision.
Jiang Ye felt a mountain-toppling force sweep over him, sending him flying backward. He crashed into the ground with a thunderous thud, like a meteor plummeting from the sky.
"Twenty times now," Jiang Ye muttered, rising from the ground and glaring at the figure looming in the sky.
This was his twentieth attack, and like all the previous attempts, it had been effortlessly blocked.
Mid-stage fifth breakthrough... so hard to kill, Jiang Ye sighed inwardly.
He was out of options.
He had exhausted all his trump cards on the ninety-ninth level, fighting for an entire day before finally clearing it.
Now, on the hundredth level, the difficulty had skyrocketed.
In addition to seventy early-stage fifth breakthrough experts, a mid-stage fifth breakthrough powerhouse was leading the defense!
One mid-stage fifth breakthrough expert can hold off dozens of early-stage fifth breakthrough cultivators, Jiang Ye thought grimly. This is a qualitative difference.
This wasn't to say that a mid-stage fifth breakthrough cultivator was dozens of times stronger than an Early-Stage one. The actual difference in power was only a few times greater.
But in real combat, the gap between them was vast in terms of life force, cultivation technique mastery, and combat skill.
A mid-stage fifth breakthrough expert could completely annihilate dozens of early-stage fifth breakthrough cultivators in an instant.
I'm out of moves.
Give up, Jiang Ye sighed inwardly, though he felt deeply unwilling.
Just one final step remained to clear the hundredth level and complete the perfected trial.
Anyone would find it difficult to give up at this point.
Jiang Ye was no different. He unleashed twenty full-power bursts, exhausting all his trump cards, desperate for a sliver of hope.
But alas, the gap in their realms was simply too vast.
Even with all his trump cards deployed, he couldn't even scratch his opponent.
Jiang Ye knew in his heart that continuing the fight would risk his life.
Abandon the trial! he thought grimly.
In the next instant,
Whoosh! An invisible energy enveloped Jiang Ye. With a flash of light, his figure vanished from the spot.
"Trying to escape?"
The mid-stage fifth breakthrough powerhouse snorted coldly and prepared to give chase.
But his expression froze.
"What's going on?"
"Where did he go?" The alien powerhouse was dumbfounded.
To his senses, Jiang Ye had vanished like mist in the sun, leaving no trace behind.
Even he couldn't detect the slightest trace of the youth's presence.
It wasn't just him. The dozens of early-stage fifth breakthrough experts were equally bewildered.
How could their target have escaped through their Heavenly Net? How was it even possible?
In the void of space,
Boom!
Jiang Ye's figure descended with a thunderous crash. He turned his head and saw nothing but an endless void, utterly desolate.
It was the same void space he had arrived at when he first entered the hundred cosmic refinements.
"It's over."
"What a pity," Jiang Ye sighed. "I couldn't clear the final stage."
"There's no need for regret," Bai Gui's voice echoed. "Your performance has already surpassed my wildest expectations."
"But I still feel it wasn't enough," Jiang Ye shook his head. "I couldn't achieve a perfect clear."
If he had been stuck at stage ninety, it wouldn't have mattered so much.
But he had reached stage ninety-nine!
Just one stage away from perfection!
It was impossible not to feel regret.
"Why strive for the unattainable?" Bai Gui shook her head. "There is no such thing as perfection in this world."
"Obsessing over such things will cloud your judgment."
"You're right," Jiang Ye nodded.
The martial dao knows no constraints!
If he had fixated on achieving a perfect clear, he would have fallen short of his true potential.
Let's not forget.
Reaching stage ninety-nine was already an unimaginable feat.
"In fact,"
"Your decisive abandonment at that critical moment required immense resolve," Bai Gui praised. "I'm truly impressed by your ability to do so."
"With a mid-stage fifth breakthrough expert holding the line, I had no choice but to retreat," Jiang Ye chuckled wryly.
At that moment, he had sensed the imminent threat of death.
At Jiang Ye's realm, his martial dao intuition was often remarkably accurate, sometimes even proving crucial.
In combat, for instance, intuition allowed him to predict an opponent's attack trajectory and even their next move.
His intuition now screamed that if he continued fighting, he would surely die!
This conviction drove Jiang Ye's decisive action.
"mid-stage fifth breakthrough, yet already so formidable," Jiang Ye mused. "And this is merely at the level of invincible dao bone."
"What about Transcendent Aptitude?"
"How much stronger is Zhou Xingkong?"
These thoughts weighed heavily on Jiang Ye's mind.
He still had a long way to go to reach the fifth breakthrough.
Zhou Xingkong had already broken through to the late-stage of the fifth breakthrough, and in six months, he would only grow stronger. Jiang Ye had a long road ahead if he hoped to defeat him.
As Jiang Ye pondered this, a faint notification appeared:
Congratulations! You have passed the 99th trial of the Hundred Cosmic Refinements.
Immediately afterward, a rumbling tremor shook the void.
The vibrations intensified rapidly, starting as barely perceptible tremors before escalating to earth-shattering force within seconds.
Soon, the entire void seemed to convulse!
Visible to the naked eye, vast streams of multicolored starlight surged from all directions, converging on Jiang Ye in a sweeping torrent.
(End of the Chapter)
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