Warrior's Promise

In the palace filled with extremely dense spiritual mist, Su Mo sat cross-legged.

He was attempting the bottleneck of the realm. To be more precise, the bottleneck of Lv 9 Martial King Realm.

Su Mo's cultivation was at Lv 7 Martial King Realm when he started this three-month training in seclusion. He successfully reached Lv 8 Martial King Realm one and a half months ago.

After cultivating for another month and half, he began to attempt Lv 9 Martial King Realm.

He had already exhausted all his cultivating resources and been working on the Supreme Spiritual Stone stored in the jade bracelet.

Supreme Spiritual Stones bore purer Spiritual Qi with less extraneous constituents which would be easier for martial artists to absorb.

However, the amount of Spiritual Qi Su Mo had been devouring was terrifying. This time, he took 300 million Supreme Spiritual Stones, equivalent to 300 billion Upper Spiritual Stones.

The dense spiritual mist filled every corner of the palace. Su Mo's body was sucking this Qi in crazily as if there was a bottomless pit.

His aura was surging like a monstrous wave. The five pieces of divine elixir were constantly shaking when the Spiritual Qi streamed in.

Even with the support of such endless Spiritual Qi, it was not easy for Su Mo to reach Lv 9 Martial King Realm.

Fortunately, he had plenty of time and was in no rush to break through his current realm.

As long as the large flow of Spiritual Qi continued streaming into his body, soon he would break through the bottleneck naturally.

Time flew by and ten hours passed quickly.

During these ten hours, 80% of the dense spiritual mist had been consumed by Su Mo and the bottleneck of the realm finally loosened.

Boom!

In his elixir field, the five pieces of divine elixir shook constantly, sending five-colored beams through Su Mo's body into the entire palace.

"Swallow!"

Su Mo activated the Devouring Martial Soul to absorb the remaining Spiritual Qi even faster.

The remaining 20% of the Spiritual Qi was quickly sucked into his body. Su Mo finally broke through the shackles and reached Lv 9 Martial King Realm.

Buzz...

The escaped aura caused some fluctuation and thickly clotted cracks in the space.

Vast force flew within his body. Su Mo felt stronger than ever.

At Lv 9 Martial King Realm, he needed one last breakthrough to reach the Martial Royal Realm.

A moment later, Su Mo slowly opened his eyes. The dazzling glow in his eyes soon faded.

Phew!

He let out a mouthful of murky Qi before rising to temporarily halt the training.

This three-month retreat was the longest he had ever had. It was time for him to get out.

Su Mo strode out of the hall and started wandering in the Firmament Palace.

Su Mo first visited the Illuminious Palace, walking from one long jade path to another all by himself.

The entire Firmament Palace covered an area about ten times the size of Heaven-sea City. This vast land was divided into nine regions.

A sect like this could easily accommodate hundreds of millions of disciples.

With just over 100,000 members in the Firmament Palace, the place felt cold and empty.

Before long, Su Mo arrived at the Illuminious Palace and the surrounding area was bustling.

"Greetings, master!"

"Greetings, master!"

Disciples of the Illuminious Palace saluted respectfully when they saw Su Mo's arrival.

"Great!" Su Mo nodded secretly. On these disciples, he sensed strong confidence and vigorous vitality.

All the disciples of the Illuminious Palace came from the Firmament Sect. It was the reason why Su Mo came here first.

Boom!

Just then, a series of explosive sounds came from a distance.

Su Mo looked intently and saw two disciples competing on a martial practice field with an audience of over one thousand.

Su Mo had a strange smile on his face seeing these two familiar figures in action.

One of them was his good friend from the Gale Island, Niu Xiaohu.

The other was Su Yu, the No. one talent of the Su clan.

Besides these two, Su Mo recognized many acquaintances on the field, such as Su Tianhao, Su Hai, Liu Yushan, Zhou Xin, Fei Kuang, and Ling Muchen.

Su Mo strode over and stood behind the crowd, watching in silence.

Su Yu's cultivation had reached Lv 6 True Spirit Realm, truly powerful.

Niu Xiaohu, only at Lv 4 True Spirit Realm, was surprisingly on par with Su Yu.

"Su Yu, you can't defeat me easily."

On the field, Niu Xiaohu shouted loudly while stamping hard on the ground, pushing his body towards Su Yu rapidly.

He threw a heavy punch at Su Yu like a cannon.

This powerful punch held all his strength together.

Su Mo was slightly surprised to find out Niu Xiaohu had been practicing the body refining technique. His physical strength was impressive, way beyond his cultivation.

"You are overreaching yourself!"

Su Yu gave a cold sneer as he confronted the strike with a punch. The dazzling fist radiance shone in all directions.

Boom!

As the two fists hit each other, a loud explosion sounded. Su Yu didn't move but Niu Xiaohu was shot back a few hundred zhang, leaving a scarlet mark on the corners of his mouth.

"Niu Xiaohu, you are not in my league. I want to challenge Ling Muchen!"

Su Yu turned with a proud smile to face Ling Muchen in the crowd.

Su Yu's smile suddenly solidified when he noticed Su Mo standing behind Ling Muchen.

The crowd followed the stunned Su Yu's eyes and all discovered Su Mo in the back.

"Palace Master!"

"It's Palace Master!"

"Greetings, master!"

The crowd was startled. They greeted Su Mo immediately.

Su Yu felt uneasy since he knew the close relationship between Niu Xiaohu and Su Mo. He wan't unsure if he would be punished for injuring Niu Xiaohu.

"You may rise!"

Su Mo motioned with his hand and felt some emotion in his heart. He didn't expect to see a fierce fight between two disciples of the Firmament Sect.

However, competition might be a good thing. It could stimulate potential and push progress.

Su Mo glanced across these familiar or strange disciples before speaking in a clear voice, "Everyone, I believe you are aware of the crisis the Firmament World is now facing. I want to see you all grow into mighty fighters before the major calamity!"

Su Mo turned around to leave without blaming Su Yu. It was a fair fight with no major mistakes made by either side.

"Master, I won't let you down!"

Su Mo strode away when Niu Xiaohu's voice sounded.

"Master, I'll follow your footsteps!"

"We won't disappoint you!"

"…"

Passionate voices came to Su Mo's ears. He didn't stop but a smile climbed on his face. Soon he disappeared from the public's sight.

On the martial practice field, the disciples watched Su Mo leaving without a word.

Niu Xiaohu, Su Yu, and Ling Muchen sighed with emotions. They once competed with Su Mo. However, the past had long become old memories. The present Su Mo was way beyond their reach.