I defeated the saint with a parry.

Although Li west hadn't cultivated, he had a keen eye: "That doll is a spiritual treasure, even rarer than a spiritual artifact."

The prize pool is accumulating, and the difficulty is increasing. A Spirit Platform Realm cultivator who can fly and wields a spiritual treasure—Xu Ling knows he can't handle this even with a cheat code.

He could only deflect and parry, and he couldn't withstand every move head-on. If he failed to parry like he did when he faced the human-faced tiger, the old monk could easily kill him with a single slap.

To dodge an attack by dodging and rolling, one must first be very clear about the old monk's attack animation. But this monk is a cunning old man who treats his own son like a stupid disciple. Who can figure out his moves?

Xu Ling was under a lot of pressure, and he gripped his sword more tightly than usual.

"you!"

Sumi flew directly to Xu Ling's vicinity, as if he had discovered something interesting, and looked at Xu Ling with amusement: "You actually have a severed meridian."

Before Xu Ling could speak, Xu Mi burst into laughter: "Hahahaha, I thought you were so powerful, able to kill the Human-Faced Tiger despite being of a higher level. I never expected you to be such a useless piece of trash who can't advance any further."

"So what if my meridians are severed?" Xu Ling retorted. "I reached the Body Tempering Realm through my own efforts."

Xu Mi ignored Xu Ling's mockery and insults. Having reached his current level, his mindset was different. In his eyes, Xu Ling was no different from an ant. On the contrary, Xu Ling's severed meridians reminded him of himself.

He was troubled by spiritual practice throughout his life. No one knew how many obstacles he encountered or how much humiliation he suffered, but in the end, he had no way to achieve spiritual progress.

Now, seeing a "severed meridian" waste still stubbornly cultivating to the ninth level of Body Tempering, I can't help but find it truly absurd.

Xumi shook his head and subconsciously uttered "Amitabha," but immediately changed his tone, saying, "You are also a pitiful person, but unfortunately, you cannot cultivate my breakthrough technique. Otherwise, I should really take you as my disciple, change your fate, and let the people of this world see that the path of cultivation is not up to them."

Damn it, if this old man were a genuinely good person, Xu Ling could easily become a monk in a fantasy world. But hearing these words coming from the old monk's mouth only made Xu Ling feel nauseous, as if he himself was being tainted.

Xu Ling said disdainfully, "Oh my, is the old host trying to become a saint?"

"Why not?" Sumeru sneered, as if he hadn't heard the sarcasm in his words: "Which cultivator in this world hasn't stained their hands with blood? I'm just putting the dead together all at once, is that so wrong?"

"..."

As expected of a logically consistent scoundrel, his sophistry is unmatched and there's no way to argue with him.

When you encounter this kind of person, you can only accept your bad luck. Never argue with them, or you'll only end up getting angry yourself.

All that talk is no substitute for action.

Xu Ling drew his ink-black horizontal sword, activating his entire body's qi and blood, causing a faint crimson hue to emanate from the sword. After swinging the sword, a crimson blade of qi was unleashed. Sumi's face already showed a mocking smile, but the scene before Xu Ling's eyes suddenly changed.

Xu Ling stared at Xu Mi, his expression frozen on his face. Everything around him changed. A large amount of rubble fell from the sky, quickly piling up like building blocks to form a broken mountain peak, separating Xu Ling and Xu Mi.

The only entrance was blocked by a waterfall of "mist" as smooth as cream, and Xu Ling was standing in front of the waterfall.

A broken sword appeared beside him, its energy so vibrant that Xu Ling had never seen anything like it before. The energy emanating from the sword was a life force, not the murderous intent Xu Ling remembered.

The inscription beside the sword reads: "A life-saving sword left by a predecessor. You can heal here after being seriously injured."

Xu Ling looked back, but Old Hou and Little Li, who had been standing behind him, were nowhere to be seen. Tao Lin and Da Shan were also gone; he had been pulled into a separate system space.

This familiar scene left Xu Ling somewhat dazed.

He strolled forward, touched the waterfall, and silently disappeared into the milky white misty waterfall. Behind the waterfall was a boundless scene of "Peach Blossom Village," with Sumeru standing on the roof of the ancestral hall in the center, and Xu Ling outside the ancestral hall.

The old monk Xumi, who was captured and put into the space, had a line of words "Evil Cultivator Xumi" appear above his head, and he also had an extra health bar, but he remained motionless.

The dome of space was inscribed with the word "Trial," along with a note:

"Rules for using the Trial Space:"

This event is automatically triggered when encountering enemies at the Transcendent Realm or above. There is no time limit within the space, and it does not affect the real world.

The host cannot quit the trial midway unless they achieve the goal of killing enemies without taking damage.

There is no death in the trial space; if the host is seriously injured, he will be restored to his original state at the Life Sword.

Successfully completing the trial will grant attribute boosts, and a 20% increase in all damage dealt when facing that enemy.

Xu Ling was overjoyed after understanding the rules, because they were entirely designed to serve him. Someone on Qidian had once been able to perform surgery using such a trial-and-error space…

He's not bad either; it's not unreasonable for him to use it to take down the enemy now.

It's something to be happy about.

Without further hesitation, he stepped into the ancestral hall, igniting the hatred of "Xumi".

The heretical cultivator, Sumeru, leaped down from the rooftop, his eyes fixed on Xu Ling. He approached step by step, muttering to himself, "I have wandered my whole life, seeking cultivation but finding none. Sects and families have all treated me like straw dogs, discarding me like weeds. In middle age, I became depressed and became a monk. Later, in the deep mountains of Peach Garden, I obtained an extraterrestrial inheritance called Yaksha Ghost. Originally a spirit of the incense path, it was a cultivator who used a grafting technique to reverse the universe, stealing the secrets of heaven and taking the cultivation of the incense path for his own use. The price was nothing more than the lives of a hundred or so people and decades of blood sacrifices for the incense path. Now that my path is about to be completed, you all wish to obstruct it. Why not become my sacrifices and lend a helping hand to my path?"

Accompanied by a narration that sounded like a voiceover, Sumeru appeared beside Xu Ling like a ghost. Before Xu Ling could react, he was grabbed by the head and slammed to the ground.

The next moment, when Xu Ling came to his senses, he was already back beside the Life Sword outside the milky white waterfall.

"???"

Amazing!

As expected of a cultivator at the Spirit Platform Realm, he killed him with a single move.

This perfectly matched Xu Ling's assessment of Xumi's strength. After all, Xumi had destroyed the entire Peach Blossom Village before, and it was only by exchanging one move with someone. With such destructive power, killing him would be as easy as playing around.

"Don't panic, it'll happen a few more times, you'll get through it eventually!"

Boring and dull?

nonexistent!

Spending dozens of hours honing the skills to defeat a single boss is just the norm for any action game player... and now he has the opportunity to do it himself, which would only make veteran players from his previous life green with envy.

Xu Ling entered the trial space again, charging forward with his sword, but was still grabbed by the head and rubbed against the ground by Xu Mi. This happened about a hundred times, and Xu Ling finally figured out some patterns: Xu Mi was a paranoid personality type. His lifelong obsession had been satisfied, and his personality was now extremely inflated, going from inferiority to extreme narcissism. So before each move, he liked to make a small gesture, a squinting gesture that resembled intoxication and contempt for outsiders.

With this mindset in mind, after knocking Xu Ling down, Xu Mi even made a celebratory gesture of embracing the heavens and earth, muttering some incomprehensible dialect.

The main attack methods of Sumeru can be roughly divided into three categories.

The first is the instant-flash kill with invincibility. Sumeru will instantly appear next to Xu Ling, pin him to the ground, and execute him. Xu Ling tried this, but it couldn't be parried; he could only roll to dodge and exploit the invincibility frames. When he saw Sumeru squint and disappear from its spot, rolling was definitely the right thing to do, allowing him to dodge perfectly.

The second method is an ability unique to the Spirit Platform Realm: the manifestation of divine thought. At their level, ordinary weapons lose their purpose; they can conjure spiritual power with a mere thought, creating any weapon they desire, and achieving the strength of ordinary spiritual artifacts. In short, at their level, they can kill someone simply by slamming their spiritual energy into someone.

This old monk has never seriously cultivated in this area, has no experience, and doesn't even have as much practical experience as Xu Ling. He only needs to use a simple deflection and reflex reaction to deal with it.

The third method, the transforming magical doll, was the most troublesome for Xu Ling.