27: Chapter 27 Divine Arts

The heavenly light shifted, and the shadows dispersed.

The scene before Su Ming's eyes changed completely, and he found himself inside the Hanging Pagoda.

What met his eyes was an endless, desolate plain.

"Is this the Hanging Pagoda's trial space?"

Su Ming stepped forward slowly and looked up, curiously scanning his surroundings while remaining quietly on guard.

Right at that moment, an indifferent, cold mechanical system voice echoed out of thin air across the entire plain:

[The first trial of the first floor will begin in fifteen seconds. Trialist, please prepare for battle.]

Without the slightest hesitation, Su Ming's mind stirred, and the Nether Divine Realm Gate quietly unfolded as his dormant, waiting Undead Retainers stood fully prepared to strike.

Fifteen seconds flew by in an instant.

The void at the end of the plain suddenly twisted and shook, and a pitch-black, deep divine realm gate slowly emerged. The patterns on its frame were hideous and distorted, engraved with iconic abyssal demonic runes, radiating a dense, violent abyssal aura.

The Abyss was one of humanity's mortal enemies. The two races had been at war for millions of years, sharing a hatred as deep as the ocean.

In the next second, densely packed Abyss Worms surged out of the gate. Their bodies were slimy and hideous, shrouded in demonic energy. Their overwhelming numbers instantly filled the distant plain.

These were the lowest-level basic retainers of the Abyss. With terrible potential and low intelligence, they were not even worthy of being called cannon fodder on an ordinary battlefield.

"Clear the battlefield."

Su Ming calmly gave the order, and his retainers immediately charged forward to slaughter.

The two sides clashed instantly. In just a brief moment, Su Ming's worries were completely put to rest.

Although these Abyss Worms were numerous, they only had a cultivation of the first rank of the Extraordinary realm, with a very weak foundation.

Forget about his recruited retainers; even the ordinary Undead Retainers he had converted later on could easily crush and slaughter them.

The entire battlefield became a one-sided feast of slaughter.

Sargalian, circling high in the sky, opened his maw and exhaled. A pitch-black World-Destroying Dragon Breath swept in all directions. With every blast of dragon breath that landed, hundreds of Abyss Worms instantly melted and dissolved, leaving not even a trace of their remains.

At the same time, Su Ming activated Nether Sovereign, and a vast, overwhelming wave of Nether Yin Qi blanketed the battlefield.

After countless Abyss Worms fell dead to the ground, their bodies were instantly corrupted by the Nether Yin Qi. They struggled back to their feet, their pitch-black pupils turning completely into a deathly, lifeless gray.

The kin they had been huddling together with just a moment ago became undead under Su Ming's command in the blink of an eye, turning around to attack their former comrades.

At first, the living Abyss Worms grew slightly restless, seemingly rejoicing at the thought of their kin coming to help them, but in the next moment, cold fangs sank ruthlessly into their own bodies.

Caught completely off guard by their own kin turning against them, the entire swarm instantly fell into chaotic defeat.

Standing in the rear, Su Ming quietly looked down at the battle, thinking to himself, "The difficulty of the first trial is quite average. I wonder how many floors this Hanging Pagoda actually has, and what level the subsequent tests will be."

Before his thoughts could settle, the very last Abyss Worm on the battlefield also met its end.

The battlefield fell silent, yet that pitch-black Abyssal Gate still stood quietly, showing no signs of closing.

Su Ming's expression did not relax; he knew deep down that this was merely the beginning of the trial.

[First trial cleared. Rewards have been distributed.]

[You have received ten minutes of rest and recovery time.]

The moment the voice faded, a sphere of light materialized out of thin air, floating before Su Ming. Strands of a wondrous aura slowly drifted from it, permeating his limbs and bones.

Su Ming could clearly feel every inch of his flesh and every wisp of divine power within him instinctively trembling and cheering, giving rise to an intense yearning.

"What on earth is this sphere of light?"

He hesitated slightly, but in the end, unable to resist the temptation of this pure energy, he reached out and grabbed the sphere of light.

The translucent white sphere of light instantly dissolved, turning into a trickling stream of energy that flowed through the meridians of his palm into his body, circulating throughout his entire system.

In an instant, Su Ming felt entirely refreshed as his physical body, divine power, and divine soul quietly underwent transformation and sublimation.

The most direct change occurred within his sea of consciousness, where countless obscure and profound insights into the laws gushed forth, rapidly settling down and taking root.

His attribute panel refreshed in real-time:

[Su Ming (Demigod)]

[Divine Priesthood: None]

[Divinity: 0]

[Faith Power: 12,350]

[Divine Power: 166]

[Law of Death: 1.6%]

[Law of Soul: 1.2%]

Seeing the changes on the panel clearly, a look of joy instantly welled up in Su Ming's eyes.

"What this sphere of light increased was actually my comprehension of the laws!"

"A single sphere of light directly increased both of my laws by 1% each! Coming to this Hanging Pagoda was definitely worth it!"

He was wild with joy. Law comprehension was the most difficult and time-consuming core part of a deity's cultivation. Every tiny bit of improvement was as difficult as ascending to heaven, far from comparable to merely accumulating divine power or faith power.

More importantly, now that his law comprehension had broken through the 1% threshold, he had finally mastered true divine arts!

Su Ming raised his hand to gather power. The Law of Death coalesced in his palm, and a pitch-black, deep beam of light instantly materialized.

"Low-tier divine art, Death Ray!"

The beam of light shot through the air, landing on the distant, empty plain. It directly tore open a tiny spatial black hole, which slowly healed a moment later.

Su Ming frowned slightly, then turned his gaze to a severely wounded Undead Retainer beside him, a gentle, spiritual glow swirling at his fingertips.

"Low-tier divine art, Spiritual Nourishment!"

As the spiritual light entered its body, the hideous wounds on the Undead Retainer healed and repaired at a speed visible to the naked eye, and its declining aura steadily recovered.

Su Ming had learned several divine arts in school, but because his previous law cultivation had not even reached 1%, he had been unable to cast them even though he knew them.

However, after testing the two divine arts, Su Ming was not satisfied. Instead, he shook his head with slight disappointment. "The power of these divine arts is on the weaker side. Having just broken through the law threshold, my control is still rusty and needs more practice and refinement."

But in the next instant, intense anticipation flared up in his eyes once more.

"This Hanging Pagoda offers such a generous law reward in just the very first trial. It's hard to imagine how bountiful the gifts from the subsequent stages will be."

"I wonder how many other places of opportunity like the Hanging Pagoda are hidden within the entire Hanging Secret Realm."

During the following ten-minute recovery period, Su Ming immersed himself entirely in practicing his divine arts, repeatedly tempering his control over the laws and familiarizing himself with the rhythm of casting them.

Ten minutes flew by in an instant.

The demonic energy surged once more from the quiet Abyssal Gate in the distance, and larger, stronger Abyss Worms began to step out one after another.

"They're still Abyss Worms, just with a slight increase in cultivation. The difficulty is still not worth mentioning."

Su Ming cast a casual glance, completely unconcerned, and pointed his finger.

Several condensed Death Rays shot out instantly, precisely harvesting dozens of Abyss Worms and directly obliterating them completely, without even leaving a corpse behind.

"The power is excessive; I need to deliberately hold back my strength."

The speed of clearing this wave of monsters was several times faster than the first trial.

The reward for clearing the trial was still a law sphere of light, which this time increased both of his laws by 0.8% each.

It was not that the reward had shrunk, but rather that the further along one went in law comprehension, the harder it became to improve, with every tiny bit of progress requiring more source nourishment.

The subsequent trials went smoothly without any obstacles.

For seven consecutive trials, the enemies were all monsters of the Abyss race. Starting from the fifth trial, the appearing monsters changed to the stronger Abyss Infernal Imps.

However, they still could not pose the slightest threat to Su Ming.

Relying on Nether Sovereign's transformation ability, the monsters that died in battle continuously transformed into newborn Undead Retainers, causing his forces to grow larger and stronger the more they fought.

Currently, Su Ming already possessed an Undead Army of nearly a hundred thousand.

The monsters spawned in the subsequent trials were often instantly overwhelmed and slaughtered to the last by the tide-like Undead Retainers the moment they stepped out of the Abyssal Gate, without even requiring elites like the Yin Soldiers or Purple Zombies to take action.

The further he went, the faster Su Ming cleared the trials, advancing with near-absolute dominance.

Having cleared all nine trials, the cumulative nourishment of the nine law spheres of light caused his Law of Death and Law of Soul to skyrocket in tandem, with both breaking through to 5% comprehension!

Feeling the increasingly dense laws within his body, Su Ming's brows relaxed, his face full of joy. "This Hanging Pagoda trial is simply too easy. I really hope I can experience this kind of opportunity and test a few more times!"