Chapter 1214 - Endless Battlefield - Final (unedited)

"Ah, it's over already." Ming was secretly hoping that Jin was able to do more than injure the faceless Zeru in combat but it seems like his grandson was a tad too overconfident or perhaps tired that he made the mistake of charging towards Zeru.

In less than a blink of an eye, Zeru cut Jin up with another advanced lotus technique by summoning a storm of White lotus petals. They seemed harmless to begin with and Jin once again prepared a multilayer shield to prevent the attack but he did not know that the white lotus petal storm was a feint.

The Faceless champion swordsman had once again tricked Jin by inserting a trick within the white lotus petal storm as arrows of imbued chi pierced through the shields easily and straight in Jin's heart.

The battle instantly ended with the death of Jin with the chance of retaliation. Even his regeneration ability was able to kick in since the Faceless Zeru stabbed his sword right in the middle of Jin and a flurry of lotus petals rushed into the wound, cutting him up from inside out.

It's like a bloated rotting whale exploding once it reaches the shore. Once Suzaku confirmed the death of Jin, she smirked knowing that even though he was different initially, he was the same as every other soldier she had encountered in her lifespan.

Liars. Including the faceless master swordsman.

"I have seen enough and shall take my rest. Wake me up when he has passed all your challenges…" Suzaku said as her presence gradually disappeared from the wooden bench and Ming purposely sat aside to let Jin 'resurrect' back at his usual resting spot.

"So how? What was it like to fight against your master's younger self?" Ming said as he saw Jin gasping for breath the moment he came back to life.

"What the hell was that last move?! It's disgustingly crazy but a sure kill method." Jin said as he touched his entire body as if to make sure they were still intact from that advanced technique.

"Surely, he told you that he had fought against many assassins, assailants and many other cultivators to reach where he is right now. The System did not pick some lousy candidate to be your bellator." Ming chuckled when he saw Jin panicking for a moment.

"Yeah and he did say his lotus moves were stuff he copied and modified to suit his own style." Jin replied and Ming nodded his head, citing that Jin was on his way to be the same as him.

"Your previous technique where you use the bellflowers and lotus techniques to combine them into one new move already indicated to me that you could be something like Zeru… although each of us have our own opinions." Ming slowly turned his head towards Byakko and the white tiger lazily nodded his head.

"Yeah, if you leave it to Genbu, he would grudgingly say that you are centuries behind Zeru." Byakko said as he noticed how the battlefield died down to an eerie quiet decomposing wasteland.

"I probably say a century or two if you work hard on it."

"Are you kidding me? How can I even live that long? Just because I have been empowered by the System does not mean that I am some celestial being." Jin said as he arched his back a little to stretch.

"Yea, I concur too. You do not have such a luxury in terms of time but still, it's already a miracle you can get Byakko and Genbu by yourself this quickly. I honestly thought you would take years or even decades to have them join you. But it seems my plans have derailed so much because of your unexpected potential." Ming said, surprising Jin that this was supposed to be a long ass endeavour for him to grow.

"But right now, even with your enhanced cultivation as well as potential, you are still no way near Zeru's mastery and fervent dedication to his style." Ming shook his head, wondering if he had made the right choice to expose him to Suzaku.

"Why? Are you thinking of allowing him to postpone Suzaku's trial and head for Seiryu's?" Byakko queried.

"Well, it's not exactly the best idea but it's better to skip this and come back to it later. Right now at his level, there is no way he can win this even if he were to become a Grade 20 cultivator." Ming answered and Jin was there, merely listening to their monotonous discussion on what they should do for him.

"I am guessing if I return to the battlefield, I would be facing Zeru again? Is that why you brought me here for some debrief or to have a time out?" Jin decided to make them stay on topic.

"More or less. He won't become out until you defeat a bunch of those soldiers once more. I believed Suzaku had purposely made it in such a way that you cannot pass my trial until you defeat Zeru." Ming told Jin about the dead end he would encounter. "Ideally, it is for you to learn more of Zeru's technique so that you could counter him but from what I have known… that's nearly impossible."

"Because he can swiftly change the flow of battle to his favour because of the experience he accumulated throughout the years?" Jin asked and Ming nodded his head.

"No one is ever more serious against that champion of hers. Even I had to cheat a little with the aid of the other cardinal beasts to clear the trial. Previously, I had to fight for a year continuously."

"Oh is that why I did not see you for a year and you passed me to Uncle Fred?" Jin started to connect the dots to his old past.

"Erm…hmm yeah. You could say that. I thought you were too young to remember that." Ming said with furrowed eyebrows. "In any case, you could give it a try and learn the rest of the faceless soldiers but I doubt it would be any better until you solve this high wall. Else, we would just switch the trials a little …though having Suzaku by yourself would make things a tad easier for the rest of the trials."

"Yeah, and it's possible that you can break the grade 14 barrier into 15 much easily if you clear Suzaku's trial." Byakko remarked and it dawned upon Jin that he had forgotten about the infamous Grade 15 was considered as the starting line to be the strongest cultivators within the country.

"I will just give it a few more times before I see if I should give up.." Jin said as he stood up slowly and took a deep breath before entering the fray again.