the moon shone dimly among sparse stars!

    in the small cabin where xu nian was, he was constantly practicing with a hammer.

    the immensely heavy hammer created a roaring sound like crashing waves with his swings, its power far surpassing wang hu''s heavy battle saber.

    just the gust of wind from the hammer was enough to shake the ground and floor around him, showing signs of fracturing.

    "the power of heavy weapons is indeed great. if only i had a hammer technique gang skill." xu nian expressed with slight regret.

    although the ten thousand divine hammer was extremely powerful, it was after all a spiritual sense attack, which could be lethal with a single strike.

    it was generally used in life-or-death battles and was simply not suitable for the academy competition.

    "kid, i knew what you were thinking, so these past few days, i''ve created a basic hammer technique especially for you," the figure of emperor ye tian suddenly appeared in the room.

    "really? what grade is the hammer technique?" xu nian immediately became excited.

    a hammer technique created by emperor ye tian, even if basic, was bound to be extraordinary.

    "this hammer technique consists of three moves; the grades of the three moves differ. the first move, collapse thunder, is equivalent to middle earth level. the second move, meteor, is equivalent to earth-grade top-quality. the third move, heavenly gang, is comparable to heavenly rank low grade," emperor ye tian explained.

    "collapse thunder, meteor, heavenly gang? what domineering names!" xu nian couldn''t help but exclaim, his eyes filled with barely concealed excitement—especially when he heard that the last move was comparable to a heavenly rank low grade, knowing that the top three prizes of this academy competition were just that.

    "hmph, it''s just a heavenly rank gang skill. these so-called heaven and earth xuanhuang four grades are nothing but the most basic attacks, merely a simple operation of spiritual energy and gang qi. the truly powerful moves are those that combine the natural forces of heaven and earth, which is why your so-called saints are so powerful," emperor ye tian said with a cold snort, clearly disdainful of heavenly rank gang skills.

    xu nian simply smiled sheepishly, still feeling joyful inside.

    yes, reaching the saint realm would allow one to achieve unity of heaven and man and harness the power of heaven and earth, but that was still far too distant for him.

    at the moment, he had just barely entered the state of man and sword as one. beyond that was the comprehension of the power of heaven and earth, followed by unity of heaven and man and the understanding of nature.

    besides, achieving unity of heaven and man was not so easy to grasp. there were many marquis level battle kings and body kings, but very few saints.

    xu nian, with his upper body bare, was continuously swinging his fists.

    with each hammer strike, there seemed to be a faint sound of thunder, and the thunder seemed to grow louder and louder.

    "boom!"

    on the thousandth hammer swing, xu nian was already drenched in sweat, his arms trembling and breathing heavily.

    his well-defined muscles hinted at an explosive power beneath.

    being able to swing a hammer weighing 4,800 jin a thousand times demonstrated the immense strength contained within those muscles.

    "still not right, i can only bring forth one percent of the collapse thunder''s power," xu nian sighed inwardly.

    a night of cultivation only brought him to one percent efficacy in understanding collapse thunder, far from unleashing its true might.

    however, that night''s cultivation deepened his understanding of the flow of gang qi.

    continued use of the divine demon gang qi made his gang qi even more abundant, and he had reached the pinnacle of an eight-star body cultivator, on the verge of breaking through at any moment.

    "take it slow, after all, emperor ye tian said it would take me three months to comprehend this first hammer strike, there''s plenty of time," xu nian murmured to himself.

    although he felt somewhat unconvinced by emperor ye tian''s previous words, he was not so arrogant as to disregard them; if emperor ye tian said it would take three months, it wasn''t something that could be resolved quickly.

    "today is the battle for the top eight in the round of sixteen; i wonder who my opponent will be," xu nian said with a slight smile. after freshening up a bit and changing into clean clothes, he left his room.

    as he stepped out, he happened to run into dugu jingcheng and noticed that dugu had not changed clothes, clearly also having cultivated through the night.

    xu nian was curious how much dugu jingcheng''s strength had improved after the battle that day.

    afterward, xu nian and chen xifeng, along with dugu jingcheng, headed towards giant sword square.

    when they arrived at giant sword square, they found it once again filled with people, who were clearly more excited than the day before.

    reaching the top eight from the top sixteen was indeed an exciting prospect.