Chapter 53: Limit Break, A Sword and A Supreme’s Sigh (2)

Neo didn’t know what hit him.

He had been careful.

Despite his attack on the phoenix, he had always had his attention on his surroundings.

But something had still been able to knock him into the air.

Something had sneaked up on him, and sent him flying.

He landed.

It was rough, but he stood up quickly.

Sword in hand, he looked in the direction he had been sent flying from.

There, he saw a mighty beast.

It looked like a normal ox.

But that was where all similarities ended.

Neo wondered how a creature this large had snuck up on him.

The phoenix was still in the air.

But it couldn’t move.

Its body was slowly dissipating.

The fire that once obscured it had long dispersed.

It was no longer an opponent he needed to concern himself with.

He focused his attention on the ox-like creature before him.

Now, that his attention was focused on it.

There should be no way for it to sneak up on him.

The ox stomped on the floor.

There was no thump.

It was silent.

Neo inwardly nodded at that.

That was one way it could sneak up on him.

Then it charged.

It was fast.

Same as the phoenix.

Neo wondered why every creature had suddenly become so fast.

He couldn’t be the one slowing down, could he.

If everything was this fast, he needed to become even faster.

After observing the ox just now.

He had discovered a way to prevent other creatures from sneaking up on him.

It was the reason he hadn’t immediately attacked the ox.

It was to learn how to prevent the same thing from occurring again.

The ox was already before him.

It was no doubt strong.

But Neo knew just the right way to counter strong.

So far it wasn’t ethereal like the phoenix.

Charging at him this way, the only ending for it was death.

Neo faced the charge head on.

He only swung once.

Whether it be the thick hide, the bones.

No matter how strong its body was.

Everything was cleanly sliced through.

The ox fell apart.

Into two equal parts.

The blood that sprayed, the gore.

Everything was completely devoured.

Nothing was left behind.

The phoenix had finally died.

Its agony ended.

It too was completely devoured.

Nothing left behind.

This place had pressured him.

It had pushed him to the very limit of his willpower.

He smiled.

It was a gentle smile.

Genuinely unflustered.

He would never break.

His heart now harbored one simple resolve.

As long as he had a goal.

As long as he had something to look forward to.

Nothing would ever break him.

Not this world.

Not even the whole of existence itself.

*

Neo’s life in this bleak world continued.

With the new resolve he now had.

He found everything easy.

The strength of the creatures continued to increase.

But no matter how powerful or mysterious they became.

Even if they knocked him flying a thousand times.

Even if everything in this world was set on killing him.

Even if in this bleak world, he was a lone soul.

All of it no longer bothered him.

The weight of the solitude no longer crushed him.

His whole attention was focused on the goal.

Reach the peak of the F-Rank.

And break the limit.

Step by step, he advanced.

His breakthroughs never stopped.

He never stopped killing all that set out to kill him.

He broke every limit that shackled him.

Level by level, he rose.

Until the very peak of the F-Rank.

Now, all that was left for him, was to break the limit.

An endeavor far harder than rising from zero to hundred.

Far harder than rising from the bottom of the F-Rank to its peak.

It wasn’t a matter of absorbing essence.

If it was that simple, no one in the mortal world would be struggling to break the limit.

It went far beyond anything that simple.

Even a breakthrough to the E-Rank was child’s play compared to breaking the limit.

The Immortal World might have perfected the method, but even their juniors had to go through a series of brutal training.

To break the limit, the very first thing one needed was a bloodline.

Without one.

Your chances of breaking the limit was very much impossible.

After that, one must perfect their very being.

The last thing needed was a powerful will.

A will powerful enough to break the limit existence had placed on a rank.

Everything in existence had a limit.

To break it was to challenge the natural order of existence.

It was an arduous task, but the rewards were great.

His senses flared with warning.

The sword in his hand moved.

It stabbed through the neck of the creature behind him.

It was a one-hit kill.

The creature that attacked him was no different from a human child in size.

He had no idea what these things were called.

Its body was pale.

It was humanoid, but its face lacked any features except a large eye in the middle.

Its hands ended in sharp blades that had been aimed at Neo’s neck.

Its body slowly dispersed from Neo’s sword as it was devoured.

This was just one among the many creatures that now appeared in this world.

Since the first phoenix and the first ox-like creature.

Different kinds of creatures began to appear.

It started with more beast-like creatures, then gradually humanoid creatures began to join them too.

There were also some special creatures that didn’t fit these two categories.

The more his level advanced, the more different kinds of creatures began to appear.

A chaotic swirl of darkness appeared in front of him.

It was one of those special creatures.

It didn’t have any defined form.

It twisted and turned. It shape chaotic and ambiguous.

Neo only slashed once.

It was still the same one-hit kill.

That was just how good Neo had become.

He had reach the very limit of the F-Rank itself.

In both cultivation and combat skills.

Now, he just had to break that limit.

And go beyond.

The world seemed to feel his desire to break that limit.

A trembling shook the world.

From all corners, as far as the eyes could see.

Creatures.

Of all sorts.

Beasts.

Humanoids.

Those that defied comprehension.

They rushed towards the place where Neo was.

He smiled.

This might turn out to be a worthy challenge.

His white essence aura spread out to encompass as much space as it could.

The sword in his hand rose up.

He slashed in a direction.

It was a wide slash that covered one corner.

The sword aura was wide and sharp.

The world brightened for a moment in the presence of this sword move.

The slash was very fast.

And powerful.

It no doubt would decimate everything in its path.

But that wasn’t what happened.

A bright light flickered on the bodies of the creatures that were caught in his strike.

It was the light of a formation.

It protected them from harm.

Neo slashed in different directions.

It was the same.

He smiled.

The formation mitigated his attack by disturbing it to every creature within it.

Every one of them only recieved a small impact from his attack.

Neo took a deep breath.

His smile became more relaxed.

He knew this would be a worthy challenge.

There were either of two things he could do.

He could either use a much more powerful strike, one that could kill every creature at once.

Or he could find the weakness of the formation, and destroy it.

Both were hard to achieve.

But there was no need to do one or the other.

He would do both.

He closed his eyes.

That limit was just a thin film.

He would break it.

This very moment.

That thin film was as hard as to shatter as a mountain.

But that didn’t stop him.

He prepared himself.

His move was ready.

He slashed.

The greatest slash of his life yet.

It was a wide slash that reached every corner.

The moment he slashed, something within him shattered.

At that moment, he had been at the very peak he could be.

His mind.

His soul.

His body.

His essence.

His whole being, at that very moment, had been in its most perfect form.

Even the sword in his hand.

All of them had resonated in perfection.

He opened his eyes.

Nothing remained around him.

The white essence aura that covered all around him, now had a tint of blue in it.

It was very light, but it was there.

He had broken the limit.

The very limit of the F-Rank.