CHAPTER 454: CHAPTER 254: BRANDED WARRIOR, UNLOCKING THE FIFTH GREAT LIMIT! (PART 2)

"You two are responsible for clearing them out. Xiao Gao can follow along to provide assistance. As for Xiao Zhao, stay here and set up a guard."

The short-haired woman doesn’t say much, grabs the watermelon head and swings her dual blades, charging toward the thick black tide advancing from the distant horizon.

"The high-level follower of that human-faced spider, its flesh was destroyed by me, but in the battlefield, there should be remnants of the limbs that can be collected as samples."

Qin Shi also instructs Zhao Su that battlefield cleanup is an essential task, specially trained by the Yellow Spring Camp.

In fact, the main task for the recruits of the three major camps is to do this job.

In a few short months, it’s far from enough to train rookies into qualified combat units.

"Alright! Sure!"

Zhao Su responds promptly, mixed with a hint of dialect.

After spending some time together, Qin Shi has already figured out the background of most members of the Yellow Spring Training Camp.

Gao Pao is almost like Cheng Ze from Old Factory Street, and if it weren’t for the grand expansion movement being so intense and fervent.

He might be lingering in the gray areas, doing some dangerous work of licking blood off the knife edge.

As for Zhao Su, the situation is relatively complicated. He’s not a native of Heng Province, but according to the standards of the Imperial Capital and Hai Province, he’s considered a "new immigrant."

Of course, Heng Province itself is a discriminated frontier planet, so it’s not worth being too serious about this point.

Overall, the quality of the new recruits in the Yellow Spring Training Camp is like the level of the Elite Class of the new No. 1 High School.

Qin Shi thus realizes the brutality of war itself. To be fair, even after completing all training and graduating from Yellow Spring, how many of these people would survive until the end of the grand expansion?

He suppresses the miscellaneous thoughts arising in his heart, gradually understanding how many stories of joy and sorrow are hidden behind Old Liang’s weathered face.

His spirit operates, cutting off uncalled-for emotions, merging seamlessly with his mortal body.

Every great battle offers a chance for breakthrough.

This is the unique upgrade path of the Old Martial Sect.

Compared to the New Martial Sect’s "theory determines framework," the Old Martial Sect is indeed more ancient and traditional to some extent.

They emphasize "sublimation and limit breaking."

One must use all means to break through the shackles imposed on the mortal body.

Even if the process might involve harm to the body, disregarding its vital nature.

"The fifth major limit is within reach."

Qin Shi quickly adjusts his state. Normally, people need to expend a lot of mental effort to recover from intense battles.

But Qin Shi, being at the Holy Embryo Stage, can easily enter into meditation, with the Divine Residence of the Inner World keeping the Sea of Consciousness spotless, allowing thoughts, emotions, and even the flow of thinking to be orderly.

"What level is Brother Qin exactly?"

After completing the search, Zhao Su carefully cleans up the battlefield.

He instinctively keeps a distance of about a hundred meters from Qin Shi, as if this is the only way to feel safe.

From his perspective, Qin Shi appears like a lifelike statue, without any rise and fall of the chest, and without the sound of breathing.

The originally boiling, vibrant life force seems like a dormant volcano, making one wonder if Qin Shi is still alive.

"Specialized Level... could it be stronger than the instructors of Yellow Spring?"

Zhao Su scratches his head. Imagination is the best filter, he’s already starting to somewhat believe the guesses that Gao Pao often whispers quietly.

Like Brother Qin, being an illegitimate child of a major family in Central City, forced by his father and elder brothers, reluctantly coming to the front lines...

Swoosh!

Activating the cultivation mode, Qin Shi crazily absorbs energy factors, finally putting his own state at its best.

What’s driven first is "Military Tactics Manual."

The Yellow Spring Training Camp takes black medicine and gains the attention of the Celestial Being, yielding a series of harvest results.

Which makes "Military Tactics Manual" progress rapidly!

Reaching close to five hundred layers!

Qin Shi’s torso and limbs are like a giant whirlpool formed of radiance, holding bright nodes within.

Dense, like stars!

Especially as Qin Shi’s life force purity breaks through the third dimension, reaching crystalline stage.

Whenever "Military Tactics Manual" operates, Qin Shi’s mortal body resembles a rising small sun, dazzling beyond compare.

This causes Zhao Su to retreat several dozen meters again.

He watches as torrents of thick energy streams converge, spreading into an ocean.

The shining dots surge, resembling a rising tide covering Brother Qin.

Causing Zhao Su to mutter:

"I’ve never seen such a scene."

Qin Shi is fully focused, blurring the distinction between the external world and his spirit.

He sighed:

"I’ve never cultivated like this before."

When the "Art of War" finished its cycle, other inheritances were also sequentially activated, making Qin Shi’s mortal body feel like a bottomless pit, impossible to fill.

As this terrifying level of cultivation continued for forty minutes, Zhao Su inexplicably felt that the black moon overhead seemed slightly dim, as if obscured by clouds.

Rumble——

After an hour passed, Qin Shi completed the first round of cultivation.

The perfect domain he formed was stably supported by four pillars, namely the "Art of War," the "Void Meditation Technique," the "Cosmic Furnace Secret Manual," and the "Hundred Forms Refining Stance."

To ensure the continual growth of the domain, the four pillars must balance each other.

"Having a value comes at the cost of several times more cultivation work compared to the same stage."

Qin Shi exhaled deeply, such a simple action causing intense tremors, as his pores opened and his skin, bones, and muscles tightly combined, expelling impurities from refining his body.

The ground trembled like a carpet, suddenly bouncing up and then surging!

With Qin Shi at the center, swirling dust expanded outwards, obscuring the figure of the erect young man, leaving only a blurry outline.

"This is a polluted area, Captain. Is it really okay for the boss to cultivate so recklessly?"

The short-haired woman and the bowl-cut man, returning after cleaning up the lower servants, looked from afar at Qin Shi, resembling a typhoon’s eye absorbing energy tides.

"It should be... I guess."

In response to the bowl-cut man’s question, the short-haired woman hesitated.

The formation of a polluted area is due to the rise in the Netherworld’s depth, like a continent submerged under the sea being lifted, colliding violently with the material world.

Cracks form, energy seeps through, making it easy to "pollute and mutate" life forms.

Many chaotic Great Demons exist in the Netherworld, and their power easily distorts and enslaves the lower beings, making them mutate and conform.

Though the wilderness is suitable for cultivation, most specialized level practitioners prefer to stay in cities for this reason.

"I’ve heard that the standard for judging whether an inheritance is powerful lies in the rate of conversion.

External energy, more or less filled with impurities, is like refining ore. SSS-level martial arts can achieve nearly eighty percent efficiency."

The short-haired woman speculated that this young boss probably mastered an SSS-level martial art.

...

...

"The fifth major limit, the membrane has opened."

Qin Shi felt calm inside, as if he had opened a valve in his thick, mercury-like blood, which faintly shimmered with a platinum hue.

His entire being resembled a terrifyingly hot steel furnace, warping the air, with his arms, thighs, chest, and back... his muscles swollen and filled like writhing earthworms, rising and falling.

His blood boiled, sublimated, and transformed, making his mortal body so hot it seemed about to melt!

At this moment, Qin Shi felt himself "growing."

The membranes enveloping his cells, the tissues of his organs, even the more unique structural membranes... they seemed to bathe in sunlight, like a sapling swiftly completing a transformation.

A "great net" appeared between his blood vessels and muscles, covering every part of his body.

Like seawater pouring in, the energy tides in Qin Shi’s mortal body suddenly "filtered" a large amount of impurities.

With every breath, the pores opened and closed, expelling everything.

This increased cultivation efficiency by another ten percent, reaching a terrifying ninety-five percent.

"Not enough, not enough!"

Opening the fifth major limit didn’t satisfy Qin Shi, who initiated the third round of cultivation again.

...

...

In the administrative building, the Human-faced Spider clan’s nesting hatching ritual suddenly erupted in a cacophony.

"Heluwas failed!"

"Swo also failed!"

"Even Debbie didn’t succeed..."

The priest slithering on the ground like a snake received this information, feeling both surprised and angry:

"Why is this happening? The night of the black moon, the energy tides, supposed to be the best stage for completing the nest’s hatching!"

Filled with reluctance, it actively projected its spirit, linking to the massive golden vertical pupil.

Under the raging mental storm, the priest trembled all over, bleeding from mouth and nose, receiving the final answer.

Yet it remained very confused, not knowing where the problem lay.

"The intensity of the energy tides decreased on the night of the black moon? What does this mean?"

The priest strained to look up, gazing at the black moon, significantly dimmed of its brilliance.

It couldn’t understand where the immense energy meant to complete the nest’s hatching had gone.

Could there really be someone capable of stealing the Black Moon’s power from the Netherworld?