347: Impossible levels

Whoosh!

Under Xiao Shi's manipulation,

the Crimson Refining Corpse walked directly out of the coffin and approached another coffin, grasping the Crimson Refining Corpse Blade within it.

With this, he drew out the Crimson Refining Corpse Blade.

Following this, the Crimson Refining Corpse then moved towards the Crimson Refining Battle Armor in another coffin and completed the equipping of the Crimson Refining Battle Armor.

With the current configuration of the Crimson Refining Corpse,

even if Xiao Shi hadn't mastered the Crimson Refining Secret Skill and couldn't fully unleash the Crimson Refining Corpse's Saint Grade power, with the combination of the Crimson Refining Corpse Blade and the Crimson Refining Battle Armor, he could still unleash powerful combat strength.

Most importantly... with this Crimson Refining Corpse, Xiao Shi had even greater confidence and assurance in facing the upcoming challenges.

Judging by the increasing difficulty of these challenges,

Xiao Shi felt that there was a high probability that Saint Grade enemies would appear in the next challenges.

Now possessing this Crimson Refining Corpse, at least he wouldn't be completely defenseless when facing Saint Grade enemies.

Zhou Hong, standing beside him, was not only astonished by Xiao Shi's might but also inwardly thrilled and excited.

He felt as if he had latched onto a powerful backer.

As long as he followed the other party closely, he believed he would be much safer.

The only regret was... after passing this challenge, he didn't receive any exclusive items as a reward.

However, just as they were about to leave this challenge,

Rumble!

The ground beneath their feet suddenly trembled.

Three arms covered in corpse spots stretched out from beneath the ground.

Following this, they saw three corpses crawling out from underground.

Information about these three corpses immediately appeared in Xiao Shi's vision.

"Name: Iron Refining Corpse"

"Type: Corpse"

"Grade: Saint Grade"

"Description: This is an ancient corpse refined during the Martial Corpse Era using the most common Iron Refining method. Due to its extreme age, the ancient corpse's body has begun to rot, and its inherent strength has been greatly weakened and affected, making it unable to fight for extended periods."

"Note 1: It can be controlled by feeding it with one's own essence blood."

"Note 2: Due to the extreme age of the corpse, its body will accelerate its damage during combat. The longer the battle time and the higher the battle intensity, the greater the damage to the corpse, until it is completely shattered."

...

Xiao Shi and Zhou Hong were both startled.

They hadn't expected corpses to appear again.

"Could this be the true reward for passing this stage!"

Zhou Hong's eyes lit up.

Clearly,

the previous Crimson Refining Corpse was more like an extra reward.

And it wasn't an extra reward that just anyone could get.

One had to possess a powerful physical body to obtain this extra reward.

The corpses that appeared now, however, didn't have such stringent control conditions, making them the normal reward one should receive after passing the stage.

Xiao Shi looked at the relevant information in his vision.

He realized that the Martial Corpse Era must have been an era primarily focused on corpse refinement.

Previously, through combat with these corpses, he had already sensed their astonishing sturdiness and sharpness.

At that time, he knew that the power of these corpses did not originate from body tempering.

"The strength of these corpses originates from the corpse refinement methods of that era!"

Xiao Shi's heart suddenly understood.

From this, he could also deduce that this Martial Corpse Era likely predated the Nether Moon Era.

Because he had sensed similar traces of corpse refinement on Evil Energy Users.

Of course,

Evil Energy Users and these corpses were also different.

Evil Energy Users both refined corpses and possessed bloodlines from body tempering.

They were a combination of corpse refinement and body tempering.

This is what created the extraordinary power of Evil Energy Users.

Furthermore,

the corpse refinement methods of the Martial Corpse Era clearly had varying degrees of strength.

"The Crimson Refining Secret Skill used to refine the Crimson Refining Corpse should be an extremely high-end and powerful corpse refinement method."

"While the Iron Refining method used to refine the Iron Refining Corpse was just a relatively common corpse refinement method in the Martial Corpse Era."

"Hence, there is such a huge difference between the corpses produced by these two corpse refinement methods."

Xiao Shi's mind became clear.

When both types of corpses were of Saint Grade,

the Crimson Refining Corpse maintained its complete body and power, unaffected by the passage of time.

However, the Iron Refining Corpse, created by the Iron Refining method, had already decayed over time.

It was no longer capable of prolonged, high-intensity combat.

Xiao Shi thought for a moment.

Although he had successfully taken control of the Crimson Refining Corpse, given his style of action, he couldn't reveal this trump card openly.

Therefore, he still needed to use the Iron Refining Corpse for open disguise.

So, in terms of distributing the three Iron Refining Corpses, Xiao Shi had Zhou Hong take control of two of them, and he himself took control of one Iron Refining Corpse.

He then put the Crimson Refining Corpse into his storage space.

Only displaying the Iron Refining Corpse outwardly.

After some travel,

they successfully exited this challenge and entered the official road leading to the next challenge.

"I wonder how many people will participate in the next challenge..."

Xiao Shi knew.

The more people involved in a challenge, the more complex the situation would become.

Especially if Martial Demon Realms from the Three Great Domains and the Great Wu Dynasty appeared simultaneously in the same challenge, it was highly likely that they would fight each other.

Of course,

judging by the difficulty of these challenges, it was believed that as long as these Martial Demon Realms had some sense, they would know that the upcoming challenges would be incredibly difficult and would require all of them to work together to pass.

If they knew nothing of the situation

and immediately started fighting each other, it would undoubtedly be a foolish act.

Moreover, once someone died, the difficulty of the challenge would increase.

No one should do that.

But if, after entering the challenge, there was some benefit within the challenge that only one person could enjoy, then it could very likely trigger a slaughter.

Soon,

they arrived at the intersection leading to the next challenge.

Here, a total of four official roads converged.

"Which means..."

"This challenge will gather almost half of the people who entered this special area."

Xiao Shi knew.

Based on the situation of the previous three stages, if everyone had survived the previous stages, then a total of twenty-four Martial Demon Realms would participate in this stage.

And all the Martial Demon Realms who entered this special area combined were less than fifty people.

It could be said that this challenge had basically gathered half of the total number of people.

Of course,

the number of Martial Demon Realms who could survive and reach this challenge was certainly not that many.

When Xiao Shi and Zhou Hong arrived at this intersection,

they found that they were not the first to arrive.

Before them, three people had already arrived here.

Judging by the three people's positions,

they all seemed to have come from the same official road, standing relatively close to each other.

At the same time, behind them, in addition to an unequal number of guards, there were also three corpses.

However, they were all Iron Refining Corpses.

Clearly, none of the three of them had successfully refined the Crimson Refining Corpse.

In addition,

Xiao Shi also noticed that these three were not Martial Demon Realms of the Great Wu Dynasty, but Martial Demon Realms from the Three Great Domains.

Therefore, the moment they met,

these three Martial Demon Realms tensed their bodies, filled with vigilance and caution, staring coldly at Xiao Shi and Zhou Hong.

However, they didn't lose their minds and directly attacked.

Instead, they adopted a defensive stance.

This was to prevent Xiao Shi and Zhou Hong from attacking them.

Xiao Shi and Zhou Hong were equally wary of these three Martial Demon Realms, standing at a considerable distance from them.

Both sides maintained a safe distance.

And there was no communication between them.

After more than ten minutes,

another group of people arrived from the third official road.

They were also three people.

However, they were three people from the Great Wu Dynasty.

This immediately made the three Martial Demon Realms from the Three Great Domains even more vigilant, adopting a stance as if ready to engage in battle at any moment.

Behind these three arriving Great Wu Dynasty Martial Demon Realms, there were a total of four Iron Refining Corpses.

This indicated that there were originally four of them in the third challenge, but ultimately only three survived and passed this challenge.

When they arrived, their gazes also converged on the three Martial Demon Realms from the Three Great Domains.

One of them, a man with a scar on his face, licked his lips with a bloodthirsty expression, his eyes filled with intense killing intent, but out of consideration for the bigger picture, he ultimately suppressed the killing intent in his heart.

Not long after these three Martial Demon Realms arrived,

the people on the last official road also arrived.

Compared to the previous official roads, the last one clearly had the most people.

There were a total of four people.

They were also from the Great Wu Dynasty.

And the leader among the four was precisely the sword cultivator designated by the Great Wu Crown Prince, the one everyone was to assist!

This person had an arrogant demeanor, a short ponytail, handsome features, and carried a pair of crossed longswords on his back, wrapped in black and white cloth respectively.

What shocked everyone the most was that behind this person, there was an extraordinary corpse, which was... the Crimson Refining Corpse!

Even Xiao Shi felt a tremor in his heart when he witnessed this scene.

He knew better than anyone how difficult it was to control the Crimson Refining Corpse!

He didn't believe this person possessed a powerful physical body capable of withstanding the impact of the corpse's power!

"He must have used some special method to control this Crimson Refining Corpse."

Xiao Shi pondered this thoughtfully.

As the person personally chosen by the Great Wu Crown Prince, besides leaving taboos on many Martial Demon Realms to make them fully assist this person, the Great Wu Crown Prince had clearly also prepared some powerful means for this person before entering this special area!

After all, the Great Wu Crown Prince had placed all his hopes on this person this time.

Naturally, he would provide full assistance.

Upon Chu Tong's arrival, he quickly scanned everyone.

His gaze directly settled on the three Martial Demon Realms from the Three Great Domains.

"Listen."

"From this moment on, the three of you must obey all my arrangements and deployments."

"If you dare to defy or disobey in the slightest, I will cut all three of you down on the spot!"

He spoke with considerable assertiveness and dominance.

When the three Martial Demon Realms from the Three Great Domains heard this,

veins bulged on their foreheads.

Clearly, they were quite annoyed by the other party's assertiveness and dominance.

But in the current situation... they knew that if they didn't agree, the other party would definitely attack immediately.

Currently, the Great Wu Dynasty already outnumbered them.

Coupled with the fact that this person also controlled the Crimson Refining Corpse, they certainly couldn't contend with him.

Even if they were a thousand times unwilling,

they could only grit their teeth and agree now.

Chu Tong nodded in satisfaction.

He began to make arrangements for the upcoming actions.

It seemed that with his arrival, he naturally became the leader here. Whether it was the Martial Demon Realms of the Three Great Domains or Xiao Shi and the other Martial Demon Realms of the Great Wu Dynasty, they had to obey his commands and arrangements.

The warriors from the Great Wu Dynasty were bound by the taboos on their bodies and had no choice but to assist.

The Martial Demon Realms of the Three Great Domains, on the other hand, had to obey due to the disparity in strength and numbers.

And so,

under Chu Tong's commands and arrangements,

their group began to enter the fourth challenge.

The fourth challenge was a lush primeval forest.

However, the trees growing here were thicker and taller than ordinary trees.

The ground was covered with dead branches and decaying leaves.

At the same time, the most peculiar aspect was the sky of this challenge.

The entire sky was a clear blue, but above this azure firmament, there were nine stars of different colors and forms.

Each star gave everyone an extremely powerful sensation.

In addition,

a signboard stood before them.

The signboard contained information about this primeval forest.

"Warning!"

"This place is the domain of the Saint Tree. Those who trespass without permission will be attacked within the Saint Tree's domain."

"Domain?"

Everyone was startled.

They knew.

Usually, only beings above the Saint Grade possessed a domain.

Which meant.

This challenge was the domain of a Saint Grade being!

Then what they had to deal with in this challenge... was very likely the Saint Grade being within this domain!

"How... how is this passable!!"

Immediately, someone grew anxious.

Saint Grade beings were already not something that Martial Demon Realms like them could contend with.

Moreover, it was a Saint Grade being within its own domain.

Even other Saint Grade beings, upon entering the opponent's domain, would not be a match, let alone Martial Demon Realms like them.

Xiao Shi also frowned at this.

Based solely on the information read from this signboard,

this was indeed an impossible challenge to pass.

Even if he and Chu Tong simultaneously used the Crimson Refining Corpse, they wouldn't be able to defeat a Saint Grade being within its domain.

This was very illogical.

Although Xiao Shi had previously anticipated that they would likely face Saint Grade beings in the upcoming challenges,

he had never imagined they would have to face a Saint Grade being within its domain.

This was simply impossible to accomplish.

"There must be... a problem here!"

Xiao Shi felt that no matter how much the difficulty of these challenges increased,

it couldn't increase to a point where there was no hope at all.