Chapter 448

Translator: 549690339

Ever since entering the Hell difficulty, Lin Zhen had been spending each day amidst failure and challenges.

In the first month, Lin Zhen’s best performance was only achieving 15% progress.

However, a month later, Lin Zhen’s main body had completely absorbed the first round of Mysterious Iron Essence and was ready for the second round of absorption.

This time, the cost of the Mysterious Iron Essence was 8 billion Sanjiang coins, which wasn’t too much for Lin Zhen to handle.

After absorbing this Mysterious Iron Essence, Lin Zhen’s realm had another breakthrough, reaching the mid-phase of Meteor Level Eight.

Spending money wasn’t a big deal now, but Lin Zhen knew that once he advanced to the Comet Stage, his expenses would skyrocket.

After leveling up, Lin Zhen once again challenged the zombie siege in Hell mode, and after a month of trying, he reached 32% progress.

Then, he spent 16 billion to buy Mysterious Iron Essence, advanced to Meteor Level Nine, and challenged it again!

He achieved 50% progress, and at the cost of 32 billion, Lin Zhen finally made a significant breakthrough, successfully entering the Comet Stage!

After his main body entered the Comet Stage, Lin Zhen’s clone entered the Constant Star Stage.

However, Lin Zhen had never revealed his clone, as this was his crucial reliance after entering the World Stone.

During this time, Han Sha and the others would occasionally inquire about Lin Zhen’s situation, but he would always decline to meet them citing his busy cultivation schedule.

He didn’t want to be disturbed during this time and didn’t want others to see his rapid progress.

Entering the Comet Stage, Lin Zhen’s Star Power doubled again, releasing an exponential increase in strength after crossing this major boundary.

With the increase in strength, Lin Zhen fought all the way to 99% completion in Hell mode, only to lose at the final challenge against the Zombie King. This result also shocked Chris.

From that day on, Lin Zhen had found the best sparring partner for his spear practice, which was the Zombie King in Hell mode. Every time he reached this stage, Lin Zhen would fight against the Zombie King.

This zombie possessed both agility and power, and its strength had reached the peak of the Constant Star Stage, which was almost half a step into the Black Hole realm. At first, Lin Zhen was no match for it, but as time went on, he gradually became more offensive and defensive in the fight against it.

On the fourth month, Lin Zhen bought ten tons of Fire Copper Essence from the metal dealer.

The price of Fire Copper Essence was 5,000 coins per gram, and Lin Zhen spent 40 billion on his first absorption, which was ten times that of his consumption during the Meteor Stage!

After entering the Comet Stage, absorbing Mysterious Iron Essence was no longer useful. Lin Zhen roughly calculated that the several hundred billion Kirin coins he had now could ultimately only help him reach Comet Level 9.

After that, the cultivation at the Satellite Stage would require Mithril, which would consume most of the money he had on hand.

“Never mind, money is just an external object; it’s better to quickly improve my realm.”

In the blink of an eye, another three months passed….

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Lin Zhen sat cross-legged on top of a tall building in the ruined city, with stars flickering all over his body and his long hair dancing in the wind.

Beneath his feet was the central square of the city, where the zombies roamed in waves, and that Zombie King, whom he had faced countless times, dominated the center.

The Yin-Yang Spear laid across his body, and the Seven Stars Knife danced around him, forming a spinning blade formation, protecting Lin Zhen within.

“After seven months of training, my spear technique has finally reached the point of mastery.”

“Seven types of energy elements, the power of time, the power of space, all of my insights can be expressed within a single spear.”

“With the power of space and the acceleration of time, my spear technique is elusive and difficult to distinguish between real and fake. Moreover, the energy elements can switch freely, and all changes are at my command; even the gods will struggle to predict.”

“If I were to give my spear technique a name, it would be called Phantom God.”

With a raise of the Yin-Yang Spear, Lin Zhen leaped down from the tall building!

Although he couldn’t fly here, it was effortless for someone of Lin Zhen’s caliber to perform such a leap.

He rushed headfirst towards the ground, flipping his body gracefully just before landing.

Smelling the human scent, the zombies immediately howled and charged at Lin Zhen from all directions.

With a movement of his spiritual power, the Seven Stars Knife crossed the air, creating strings of electric sparks from the unleashed energy elements, and leaving corpses lying on the ground!

These zombies, who had reached the third and fourth ranks of the Constant Star Stage, couldn’t even withstand Lin Zhen’s single strike!

With one blow, all the minions around the Zombie King were killed, and Lin Zhen, holding his spear, charged towards the Zombie King.

The Zombie King’s iron armor allowed it to reach a speed of one hundred times the speed of sound, and it was in front of Lin Zhen in the blink of an eye.

Feeling the foul-smelling air rushing towards him, Lin Zhen kept his composure, took two steps back, focused his mind, and thrust his Yin-Yang Spear out.

A quick spear, a fierce spear, an unavoidable spear!

Phantom God Strike!

The spear suddenly accelerated on its way!

All the energy was concentrated on one point, and the zombie king’s armor, which was comparable to a divine artifact, couldn’t resist Lin Zhen’s Phantom God Strike at all. It didn’t even have a chance to react and was pierced through the throat by the spear!

The power of space spread along the tip of the spear, cutting the zombie king’s head off directly!

This was Lin Zhen’s first time slaying a Hell difficulty zombie king, and he did it with just one move!

“I did it!”

“I knew it, once I truly grasped my own spear technique, there would be very few opponents left for me in the Constant Star Stage.”

“Although I only comprehended one spear move, this one move is enough to defeat too many people, even those in the Black Hole Period!”

“Hell difficulty no longer poses much of a challenge for me. Next, I will try to challenge Purgatory!”

It took Lin Zhen seven months to break through the Zombie Siege on Hell difficulty, a feat that left Chris speechless.

Moreover, Lin Zhen had also advanced to Comet Level 4, his strength skyrocketed.

But when challenging the Purgatory difficulty, Lin Zhen once again encountered strong opposition. The lowest-level zombies here were at the Constant Star Stage, Level 3 zombies were at the peak of Constant Star Stage, and Level 4 zombies were in the Black Hole Period.

Level 5 zombie kings had reached the peak of the Black Hole Period!

Chris told Lin Zhen frankly that almost no Constant Star Stage martial artists could complete the Purgatory difficulty map. So far, none in the entire Sanjiang Star Domain Federation had completed it.

Lin Zhen didn’t know how many people in the Sanjiang Star Domain Federation had challenged Purgatory, but there was no doubt that the number was astronomical.

None of them had completed it, which gave Lin Zhen a new understanding of Purgatory’s difficulty.

However, he liked challenges. The harder it was, the more it could hone his skills. During this time, not only did his Star Power increase, but his Spiritual Power also grew stronger and stronger through constant life-and-death battles. Currently, within his Spiritual Consciousness Sea, his sky blue spiritual power had reached 70%, which was considered the late stage of sky blue.

“There are still four months before entering the World Stone. I hope that my realm will improve and my strength will increase in these four months, otherwise, I won’t be able to stand firm in the World Stone.”

The progress in Purgatory difficulty was as slow as a snail. In his first attempt, Lin Zhen completed only 5% before being defeated and driven back by large groups of high-level Constant Star zombies.

Lin Zhen’s interest was greatly aroused by this environment, and a new round of challenges began.

Time slowly passed, and another three months had gone by…

The challenge of the World Stone had attracted great attention from the Sanjiang Star Domain Federation.

This particular World Stone had quite a background.

As it was well known, a World Stone was actually the inner world formed after the death of a Star World-Level expert.

The so-called Star World-Level experts were World Kings and the strongest forces in advanced cosmic nations. For example, in the Fire Kirin Empire, only Emperor Tian Haoyu was considered a Star World-Level expert.

A Star World-Level expert lived for unknown years, and their wealth and treasures were mostly left in the World Stone, a safer place than a space ring. Unless they died, no one could get it.

The owner of this World Stone was called Yama, and he had lived for millions of years but died in a struggle.

He practiced the power of darkness and was said to have set up the Yellow Springs ghost world within the World Stone, leaving all his possessions there.

The wealth inside the World Stone was so great that even World King-level experts would drool, let alone ordinary martial artists.

However, after the death of a World King, there was still an automatic repulsion force in the World Stone. If a Star System Stage or higher expert tried to enter forcefully, the ghost world and Yellow Springs inside would automatically collapse, and those who went in would get nothing.

In the Yellow Springs ghost world, a large number of ghosts left behind by Yama guarded the place. It was extremely dangerous for people below the Star System Stage to enter.

After the World Stone fell into the hands of the Sanjiang Star Domain Federation, several attempts had been made by people to collect Yama’s treasures, but they usually died within.

Only one martial artist in the Black Hole Period managed to escape alive, and he revealed the general situation inside the World Stone.

After numerous studies, an agreement was reached among various parties to use the World Stone as a test for those going to the Fire Kirin Empire.

It was a kind of arena where people competed inside for three months. The one who came out with the most cosmic crystals was the winner.

The top twenty winners were eligible to join the camp for those under 100 years old in the Fire Kirin Empire.

Cosmic crystals were the basis of the biggest energy source in the universe, and they had a wide range of uses. However, they only appeared during the creation of a new world.

Apart from the expansion of the universe itself, these cosmic crystals could only be found inside the World Stone.

A small cosmic crystal, about the size of a soybean, was worth 100,000 Kirin Coins!

All the major powers wanted the cosmic crystals inside the World Stone, and as for Yama’s other treasures, whoever found them kept them!

As time went by, contestants from all over Sanjiang Star Domain Federation had come to Hills Star, waiting for the start of the World Stone challenge.

At this time, Lin Zhen also absorbed metal for the tenth time and successfully advanced to Comet Level 8!