High Martial Arts: Become a God by Spending Money, Start by Spending All Your Compensation Funds

The temperature inside the crater is more than twice as high as the outside temperature.

The black stone beneath our feet was semi-molten, and the soles of our boots felt soft underfoot. With each step, we could hear the gurgling sound of magma flowing deep within the rock strata.

In the center of the cave, a red crystal floats three feet above a stone altar, about the height of a person, and is completely translucent. The red light inside seems to be alive, flickering in a certain rhythm.

As Lin Yun stepped onto the last stone step, a crimson figure emerged from the passageway opposite.

Jinguji Ruri.

The wound on her right shoulder had stopped bleeding, and the finger marks left from her battle with Basca had faded.

But Lin Yun could see it clearly through his spiritual eyes. The qi and blood in her body were deep and heavy, even more astonishing than Basska had described. Crimson energy surged through her meridians, steady and not chaotic.

This woman had played twelve rounds against Basca, yet she was still in top form.

The two looked at each other across the stone altar.

She spoke first, in fluent and clear Chinese: "Lord Lin Yun. There's a saying in your country, 'When two people meet on a narrow road.'"

"Meet again, my foot!" Guo Po squeezed up from behind Lin Yun, his skin burning red from the Reverse Blood Technique. "Let's fight!"

His shout ignited the entire crater.

"kill--!"

The twelve members of the Dragon Kingdom and more than twenty allied troops from the Kun, Zhen, and Lan kingdoms poured in through the gap above the stone steps; the remnants of the Sakura Kingdom, the remnants of the Goryeo Kingdom, and the elite troops of the island nations poured out from the passageways on both sides. The two streams of people collided violently in the cave, and the sounds of swords clashing, shouts, and bursts of blood and qi instantly turned the crater into a boiling pot.

Within the Sakura Kingdom's ranks, a samurai wielding dual swords charged straight at Lin Yun. Their tactic was clear: use sheer numbers to entangle the Dragon Kingdom's elite forces, buying time for Jinguji Ruri to seize his heart.

The man failed to reach Lin Yun.

A blood-red figure suddenly appeared, his spear sweeping across and striking the man's twin swords hard, sending sparks flying.

"Your opponent is me." Guo Po grinned, revealing his white teeth. "Dual-wielding? Good! Another one!"

The warrior's face darkened, and he suddenly unsheathed his twin swords, one above and one below, aiming straight for Guo Po's old wound on his left shoulder.

This move was cunning and ruthless, specifically targeting the wound. Guo Po, however, neither dodged nor avoided it, letting the blade penetrate half an inch into his shoulder, and then struck his opponent's ribs with a backhand thrust of his spear shaft.

He traded injuries for injuries, pushing the ferocity of the Reverse Blood Technique to its extreme. His blood and qi were burning like boiling water, and his wounds contracted, scabbed over, and then burst open at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The samurai was afraid.

He'd seen people risk their lives, but never anyone this desperate. The person before him was clearly risking his life for another.

The faster his sword moved, the more panicked he became. After thirty exchanges, his swordplay became scattered, and Guo Po struck him on the bridge of the nose with a headbutt. His vision went black, and his two swords clattered to the ground.

"You..." He covered his face, blood streaming from his nose.

"Get lost." Guo Po gasped for breath, blood streaming down his arm from his shoulder. "Now you know, right? The Dragon Kingdom team isn't just about Chu Bai, Xia Feng, and Lin Yun."

After the battle, the live stream chat was flooded with a uniform "Brother Po".

Three months ago, the entire internet was criticizing him as a direct descendant of the Guo family who suppressed Lin Yun. Three months later, on this volcano, he rewrote his name with a body full of wounds.

On the other side, Su Nianhe's sword had already pierced into the formation of the remaining Goryeo troops.

Without Park Joon-hee, the Goryeo team was like a pile of loose sand. Several martial arts masters surrounded them, taking advantage of their numbers. However, the "Heavenly Questions" sword in her hands was like a bolt of blue lightning. She pointed, flicked, wiped, and swept, and every strike was extremely ruthless.

As the battle raged on, not a single Goryeo warrior dared to make the first move. The woman in white before them was swift with her sword and even colder with her heart.

Han Bing and Liu Qing stood back to back guarding a passageway entrance, their cold, abyssal energy suppressing the glint of the blades, their swift swords weaving around the edges of the blades like flowers, one defending and the other attacking, forming a net; Qin Zhan and Duan Feng guarded the stone steps, one wielding an iron spear and the other a thick-backed sword, enduring the repeated assaults of the island nation's elite troops without retreating an inch; Ye Hongling's red-tasseled spear roamed the edge of the battlefield, each thrust aimed at joints and throats, ruthless and vicious, clean as a surgical operation; Wei Zi'ang, Hu Yanlie, Zhou Mu, and Lu Jiuxiao each formed their own battle groups, pushing back the island nation's elite troops pouring in from the two side passageways, layer by layer.

"The gap on the left flank has been filled." Ye Hongling's voice rang out in the communication channel, brief and concise. "The two in tunnel number three have been dealt with. The remnants of the Goryeo forces are retreating towards Miss Su's side."

"Received." Su Nianhe withdrew her sword stance, her gaze darkening slightly.

Park Joon-hee is dead. These people are like desperate soldiers, and desperate soldiers are least afraid of exchanging their lives.

She won't change.

She allowed the two Goryeo warriors to approach, their swords flashing and falling. At the same time, the wrists of the two men holding their knives went numb, and their weapons fell to the ground.

The entire Dragon Kingdom team was like a machine that had been broken in for seven days, with every cog knowing where it should be.

The allied forces of Kun, Zhenla, and Lancang were of limited strength, but they managed to hold off the island nation's reinforcements. Even with his wounded captain wounded, Kun was still yelling, "Hold them off! Hold them off for Captain Lin—!"

A martial artist from an island nation scoffed, "With your meager strength, you think you're worthy of risking your lives for the Dragon Kingdom?"

Captain Kun slapped him across the face with the back of his knife, spitting out a mouthful of blood: "When you were besieging the Dragon Kingdom team a few days ago, who gave us the hunting grounds for the C-level mission to make up for the lost points? It was Captain Lin! What have you ever given us? Nothing but cannon fodder!"

For the past two weeks, Lin Yun led the allied forces on missions, assigned hunting grounds, and scheduled rotations, never treating these three small countries as expendable resources. Human hearts are made of flesh and blood; now that swords are drawn, it's immediately clear who is sincere and who is deceitful.

The entire crater was in chaos.

Only the area within ten steps of the stone altar was eerily quiet.

Lin Yun and Jinguji Ruri stood facing each other across the suspended Heart of the Gods. The red light of magma shone through the crystal, falling on their faces, flickering in and out.

"Seven days ago," Lin Yun began, "you called my name from the viewing platform."

"Because in the entire A-20, only you are qualified to stand here." Ruri Jinguji slowly gripped the hilt of her sword. "Everyone else, including Ivan and Basca, are just there to set the stage."

"And what about you?"

"Me?" She smiled, her crimson pupils reflecting the light of the crystal. "I am the one who will win."

The sword is drawn.

Without warning, without any warning.

As soon as the blade flashed, the entire air was split in two. A line of bright blade energy swept across ten steps, heading straight for Lin Yun's throat. It was so fast that even the slow-motion camera on the viewing platform could only capture a fleeting afterimage.

"Lord Lin Yun, before you seize my heart..."

Her voice and the knife arrived at the same time.

"Ask my knife first."

On the viewing platform, everyone held their breath at that moment. The large screen zoomed in on the scene in front of the stone altar: the woman in scarlet had drawn her sword, the young man in black stood with his sword drawn, and between the two, the floating Divine Heart glowed red, making the entire crater look like the heart of purgatory.

At his seat in the Dragon Kingdom delegation, Qin Shanhe slowly put down his water glass and uttered only two words:

"They're here."