SWNOVELXO Chapter 59 - Tempered by a Thousand Strikes
Chapter 59: Tempered by a Thousand Strikes
At the moment when Li Ao’s consciousness touched the energy pillar.
His entire soul, life, talent, thoughts, the divine spark condensed from his previous memories and thoughts, and all the war beasts he had previously contracted resonated in an incomparable manner.
Even the hourglass of time hidden deep within Li Ao’s soul emitted an undying divine light from its outermost layers, resonating with the forces of eternal time.
Li Ao’s soul ascended madly in this extraordinary resonance.
This incredible elevation far surpassed his highest expectations.
The ascension of the soul drove a transformation in Li Ao’s life, not a degeneration but a metamorphosis into a more perfect evolution.
The energy pillar in the special space of the Gold-grade Native Card swiftly transformed after obtaining the life information of Li Ao.
In an instant.
A Pillar of Life was formed, completely integrated with Li Ao’s life!
Outside, Li Ao was bathed in radiance. As his soul resonated, an energy giant that resembled his figure thunderously stood up, easily surpassing a hundred meters in height, and began to solidify as the Pillar of Life was completed. The aura of the energy giant, as imposing as that of a legendary warrior, bore down, causing even the supervisors Dou Guang and Chang Chi not to dare look directly at it, and the ordinary temple staff were so frightened that they quickly bowed their heads to avoid sacrilegiously gazing at this extraordinary being destined for a legendary path.
To Li Ao’s left, the frost giant above Shuanghan still lacked a bit to reach thirty meters, forming a stark contrast.
As for the others on the Challenge List, the energy giants of different attributes rising above their heads seldom surpassed twenty meters.
However, Yue Sha’s Moonlight Giantess surged by several tens of meters before retracting during the solidification phase.
Even so.
Her Moonlight Giantess reached a height of twenty-seven meters.
Only slightly shorter than Ling Long’s Tide Giantess at twenty-eight meters and Huo Mei’s Flaming Giantess at twenty-nine meters.
The three old men watched with blooming joy.
This was the effect they desired.
Li Ao, as the New King, led the charge upwards, stimulating the supernovas on the Challenge List to vigorously compete, creating a splendid effect of a galaxy of stars in full bloom.
To prevent Li Ao and the others from inadvertently causing destructive effects with their energy giants, the old men hastily summoned multiple layers of energy barriers.
Layer upon layer.
Directly separating Li Ao, the twenty people on the Challenge List, and other new trainees.
“Is this the Pillar of Life of my lifetime? It feels quite different from the Pillar of Life I upgraded to a Gold-grade Native Card in my previous life!”
As Li Ao’s consciousness gradually awakened amidst the beautiful symphony of soul ascension and life evolution, he noticed that his Pillar of Life was unimaginably huge and appeared flawlessly perfect.
However, what was the divine light flickering inside the core of the Pillar of Life? Could it be that I have already stepped into the realm of gods? Impossible!
At the base were patterns of war beasts.
Below one meter was the naive Stone Bear, slightly above were the twin souls of the Boots of Shadows and the Demonic Rock Giant.
The Shadow Halberd was a bit further away, located above three meters, beginning to emit a very faint light.
Li Ao was somewhat surprised.
The Pillar of Life displayed more of the potential of the war beasts.
This impressive height attests to the extraordinary potential of the Shadow Halberd. Based on past experiences, ascending to the gold level is far from the pinnacle for the Shadow Halberd.
If Li Ao has sufficient patience, and enough time and resources to forge ahead, the future of the Shadow Halberd is boundless.
Proportionally speaking, not just the Shadow Halberd, even the currently Black Iron-level Stone Bear has the potential to rise to the gold level.
For a war beast to even display its pattern on the Pillar of Life, it must possess the potential to reach the gold level. The Pillar of Life can display information about ordinary war beasts.
However, it shows patterns.
The maximum potential of a war beast must reach the gold level to qualify.
The ten-meter-high Pillar of Life, at its middle, displays Li Ao’s physical form, his latent talents, and all other information…
“Thank goodness!”
Li Ao sighed in relief when he saw that there was no information about his rebirth or about the Hourglass of Time, one of the three primordial divine artifacts. His greatest concern was that these two secrets would be exposed; other aspects, like talents that had mutated after his rebirth, were less critical.
Nevertheless.
When Li Ao scrutinized the mutated talents that had surfaced after his rebirth, he couldn’t help but be shocked by his own abilities.
My goodness, such monstrous talents?
Is this really me?
The talent information displayed on the Pillar of Life clearly told Li Ao that rebirth truly brought about changes.
And these changes were not just significant, they were monstrous!
Even more monstrous than monstrous!
Super monstrous!
Tempered Steel (A Thousand Hammerings): Every battle is a tempering of life, and each time you fall and rise again, you become stronger than before.
A Thousand Hammerings: Trait one, each battle or trial allows you to draw useful energy from it, integrating it into your life. Trait two, having undergone countless life-and-death trials, you possess an unshakable will of the mind. Trait three, your soul’s flame has been tempered to an utmost purity, naturally connecting with the divine realm.
“Am I dreaming?”
Li Ao was incredulous that he possessed such a terrifying talent.
He still remembered the information about the Tempered Steel talent from his past life.
Tempered Steel: The more you are thwarted in battle, the braver you become. Failure cannot truly defeat you; each time you rise from failure, you become even stronger.
This talent initially added nothing.
No combat power at all.
If not for the numerous failures and life-and-death experiences Li Ao had, it would never have evolved into a divine talent.
The Li Ao of his past life built a divine talent through blood and pain; the cost of his growth was greater than anyone else’s. His setbacks and failures, pain and blows, forged a divine realm Li Ao.
That is why he became a millennium-old demon.
Returning to life.
Li Ao discovered his talents had changed for some unknown reason, possibly due to the effect of the primordial divine artifact, the Hourglass of Time, or perhaps the essence of achieving the divine realm in his previous life subtly altered his basic talents this life. Tempered Steel didn’t disappear; it evolved into A Thousand Hammerings, a terrifying talent that even made Li Ao tremble!
According to the information displayed on the Pillar of Life, the A Thousand Hammerings talent has not yet fully evolved.
He had not yet reached his limit.
Even so,
Li Ao was confident that he could return to the Celestial Realm and easily defeat those old spirits.
The greatest drawback of “Tempered Steel” had disappeared. Now, armed with the new “Thousand Hammers Tempering,” plus his previous life’s experience and the creation artifact, the Hourglass of Time, Li Ao felt that he didn’t even need to exert his full effort. He could just lay back and still effortlessly defeat his enemies along the way!
He then checked his maximum combat power: 4950.
“After increasing it three times, it still hasn’t broken five thousand?”
Li Ao guessed that the Pillar of Life was merely calculating what it knew, without considering the unyielding spirit fire formed by his indomitable fighting spirit, nor the special bonuses from the various Celestial Formations he was proficient in.
As for the temporal powers of the Hourglass of Time, it was even less likely to be accounted for.
But wasn’t there divine light emerging in the core of the Pillar of Life?
What was going on?
Could it mean that his reborn soul inherently had the ability to communicate with divine realms?
The situation after his rebirth was too complex, and Li Ao found it difficult to comprehend everything at once.
For the time being, he set these thoughts aside and hastily used the power of time to modify the display information in the Pillar of Life… His combat power value was too high; he needed to lower it a bit!
He didn’t want to drive the youngsters to despair; they needed motivation to chase after! The three old men witnessing it was one thing—they probably couldn’t be fooled, but the registration information couldn’t be too exaggerated.
Li Ao was planning a big breakout at the graduation performance in three months anyway!
Fortunately, Li Ao was a millennium-old monster, and modifying the information in the Pillar of Life was not a new trick for him.
Without the power of time,
Modifying it would be very troublesome and slow.
But with the supreme power of time, it was too simple. Most importantly, this wasn’t a permanent modification.
The next time Li Ao improved, the information in the Pillar of Life would update, and it would revert back.
Was there a problem with a temporary modification?
Of course not!
Who else would be able to see his native card after this?
A temporary modification.
Enough to deal with the information registration at the Pantheon of Myriad Realms!
“Modify the Shadow Halberd on the War Beast, and don’t bother with the Demonic Rock Giant. The talents are too abnormal; they need serious modification! Hmm, cover up the information from the previous life’s ‘Tempered Steel’ on top of it!”
After a busy moment of consciousness, Li Ao finally temporarily modified the information on the Pillar of Life.
The modified information was simultaneously updated on the external native card, causing the native card to flash, and the information levels drastically dropped.
“What is this kid doing?”
The tall bald old man was stunned.
“I bet he’s pulling a fast one on us!”
The old man with a goatee beard was the first to react.
“Haha, this makes it interesting. If he was completely honest, he wouldn’t be this session’s big demon king! Can a fool advance to legendary status? But it’s indeed a bit naughty to fool people in front of us; he must not know that we can see all the changes on him from outside,” the leading skinny old man particularly appreciated Li Ao.
“How should we write our report then? Report as is?”
The tall bald old man was a bit of a headache.
“Write according to the information on the native card,” the skinny old man decided definitively.
Rarely does a demon king-level newcomer appear.
Of course, they would protect him to the end.
The Pantheon of Myriad Realms wasn’t just one force.
If Li Ao appeared too abnormal, it would inevitably make people from other forces frantically vie for him.
Even if they couldn’t snatch him away, being targeted everywhere was not pleasant!
After Li Ao finished modifying the information in the Pillar of Life and exited the native card space,
He opened his eyes.
And was immediately startled by the sight of the three old men standing smilingly close to him—what were they doing so close?
Before the three temple elders could speak, Cang Yue and Lie Feng rushed over, bombarding him with questions: “What’s your talent? How much is your combat power?”