168: The difficulty of the second test in the Palace of Emperor Wu

"Senior Tianwu, you said that I should wait until I have confidence in myself before actively starting the assessment. In that case, I wonder what level my strength must reach to have a hundred percent certainty of passing the Xiantian Golden Core Realm assessment? I wonder if Senior Tianwu could enlighten me?"

"Haha! It's very simple!"

Hearing Lin Yi's words, the White-Haired Elder smiled and waved his hand.

Whoosh!

Accompanied by a distortion in the Void Realm, in the next moment, a Golden Giant stood beside the White-Haired Elder, Tianwu. It was over twenty zhang tall, even more massive than the Giants of Light from the tokusatsu shows of his past life!

Then, seeing Lin Yi's bewildered look, the White-Haired Elder continued to explain with a smile:

"This is the opponent you will face during the Xiantian Golden Core Realm assessment."

"Compared to the Heavenly Pride Assessment, the Innate Golden Core level assessment of the Martial Emperors Relic Palace is very simple. There's no need to test things like Comprehension Ability or will; it only assesses combat power."

"The Golden Giant before you possesses roughly five percent of the strength of an ordinary Martial Saint. If you can defeat it, you pass this stage of the assessment."

"Therefore, in the coming days, you shall spar with it! Once you are able to defeat it, call for me, and we will formally begin the assessment."

"However..."

At this point, the White-Haired Elder, Tianwu, paused slightly, but soon continued with a teasing smile:

"Little fellow, before you fight this Golden Giant, I must remind you of one thing: a normal Martial Saint is very strong!"

"As beings who have comprehended a Dao and used its power to temper their bodies to completely transcend the mortal coil, even an ordinary Martial Saint's strength surpasses yours by a hundredfold."

"So even though this Golden Giant only has five percent of an ordinary Martial Saint's strength, its combat power still far exceeds yours as you are now."

"Thus, my suggestion is that when you first begin fighting it, you should adjust its combat power to about twenty percent of its peak."

"This way, when you fight it, you can hone yourself without being instantly heavily injured or even beaten to death by a single punch!"

"As for how to adjust its combat power? When you want to change it, just tell it directly; it will understand."

"Yes! Thank you, Senior Tianwu!"

Hearing the White-Haired Elder Tianwu's introduction, Lin Yi's eyes immediately lit up, and his heart was filled with gratitude.

As the saying goes, a worthy opponent is hard to find.

Especially now that Lin Yi had reached his current level. To someone like him, ordinary Innate Golden Cores—even the top ten experts on the Heaven Rank—were pathetically weak and couldn't even withstand a single strike of his saber.

As for Martial Saints and people like King Lie, they were too strong, and he was simply no match for them.

So even looking across the entire Nine Provinces, the only ones who could potentially serve as Lin Yi's opponents were the Divine Monk Kongwen of the Great Chan Vajra Temple and Wang Xuanyi of the Wanxiang Tower.

But those two were always elusive in their pursuit of breaking through to the Martial Saint Realm, making them extremely difficult to find.

And even if he did find them, it was impossible for them to act as his sparring partner for a long period.

But now, with this Golden Giant that was even stronger than Wang Xuanyi and whose strength could be adjusted as a sparring partner, the effect would be far better than practicing his saber alone.

At this thought, Lin Yi was excited.

After respectfully seeing off the White-Haired Elder Tianwu, Lin Yi stared at the Golden Giant before him with gleaming eyes and spoke:

"Golden Giant, adjust your strength to twenty percent of your peak, then, attack me fiercely!"

Buzz!

As soon as Lin Yi's command fell, the red light in the Golden Giant's eyes began to flicker.

Then, Lin Yi saw with his own eyes that its posture seemed to relax significantly in an instant.

After more than a full breath of time, when the red glow in the Golden Giant's eyes stabilized again, its fist finally moved, smashing toward Lin Yi.

Boom!

The massive golden fist tore through the air, its powerful energy like the explosion of a small nuclear bomb, causing the Void Realm to tremble.

Its speed was even more terrifying; in almost an instant, that giant golden fist had traveled from a distance to right in front of Lin Yi.

"What! This speed... so fast?"

Seeing this, Lin Yi couldn't help but be startled. At the same time, he hurriedly moved the divine weapon, the starfall saber, executing the Saint-level Martial Art, the Circulation of Stars Saber Canon, to slash out a terrifying saber light.

Swoosh!

The cold saber light streaked across the sky, and in an instant, a brilliant and vast river of stars appeared before the Golden Giant's fist.

However... Clang!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Accompanied by the sound of metal clashing and a series of explosions.

Under the Golden Giant's punch, Lin Yi's full-strength strike—which was enough to heavily injure a top ten expert of the Heaven Rank in one move—was easily crushed like a brittle pear under a carriage wheel, vanishing into nothingness in an instant.

Then, the residual force hit Lin Yi's starfall saber with a 'clang', sending both him and his saber flying hundreds of meters.

Finally, he crashed onto the ground with a 'boom'.