Chapter 52: Powerful
Su Xiao's vision flickered with light and shadow, and when he steadied himself on solid ground, he stood within a spacious training hall.
The training hall was about a thousand square meters, with a height of around ten meters. The floor was made of hard, blue-gray stone blocks, and on the wall was written a massive character: 'Exhaustion.'
At this moment, Su Xiao wore only a thin shirt. All his equipment was sealed within his storage space, and his skills were forcibly locked. The only ability still active was: Close Combat Mastery Lv.57.
Beyond that, Su Xiao could only rely on his powerful physical constitution to fight—or rather, to be beaten.
[First Trial: Ash Warrior.]
A prompt appeared before Su Xiao. One by one, Soul Crystals (Complete) materialized out of thin air, then shattered with a crackling sound. Before the soul crystal fragments could fully scatter, they coalesced together, forming a towering figure.
The Ash Warrior stood a full five meters tall! His arms were grotesquely thick—without exaggeration, his biceps were thicker than Su Xiao's waist!
Su Xiao's hand instinctively reached toward his waist, but he grasped nothing. He hadn't grabbed a sword hilt.
Crack, crack...
Bones popped as the Ash Warrior looked down at Su Xiao. His eyes were crystalline and translucent, like two small Soul Crystals.
Su Xiao stared at the enemy before him, his cheek twitching almost imperceptibly. According to the Reincarnation Paradise prompt, the Ash Warrior's Strength, Agility, and Endurance attributes were all 130 points, and all were True Attributes.
That alone wasn't too concerning. With Su Xiao's combat experience, even unarmed, he could still kill an enemy. However, the Ash Warrior's Melee Combat Grandmaster Lv.40 ability was glaringly problematic.
The Ash Warrior clenched his fists, and two metal gauntlets appeared on his hands. This bastard even had equipment.
Boom!
The Ash Warrior vanished from his spot, and a pressure wave formed a hammer of air. Su Xiao immediately judged that he couldn't withstand it head-on. He leaped low, stepping onto the air hammer.
Bang!
Su Xiao jumped backward, midair, his eyes quickly scanning the surroundings, searching for the Ash Warrior's figure.
A massive hand descended, blotting out everything as if covering it all.
Midair, Su Xiao's body gradually relaxed as he used his vision to gauge the distance.
The large hand reached in front of Su Xiao. If he had a blade in hand now, the Ash Warrior could say goodbye to that arm forever.
Su Xiao grabbed the back of his own collar and tore off the thin shirt he wore.
Clang!
A slash of light appeared. Blade Grandmaster was sealed, Dragon-Slaying Flash was sealed, but Su Xiao's memory and combat experience remained.
Pfft.
The Ash Warrior couldn't dodge in time, and a shallow wound was cut into his upper arm. An outer garment flew toward his face.
The next moment, Su Xiao, charging at the Ash Warrior, felt the world spin. When he came to, he was already gripped in the Ash Warrior's hand.
Boom!
Su Xiao was slammed hard onto the ground, and the Ash Warrior punched down.
A large amount of soul crystal fragments exploded, surging into Su Xiao's body. His close combat abilities skyrocketed like a rocket.
Before Su Xiao could even check how many levels his close combat ability had increased, a woman in a long red dress with a high slit stood before him. There was no need to check her attributes—this woman was two to three times stronger than the Ash Warrior.
[Second Trial: Antelope Maiden.]
If Su Xiao guessed correctly, this trial would happen 109 times. While he wouldn't die, the experience was easy to imagine.
The Antelope Maiden was clearly more 'friendly' than the Ash Warrior. She blew Su Xiao a flying kiss.
Five minutes later. The Antelope Maiden embraced Su Xiao from behind and executed a 'Nuclear Explosion Backdrop' move.
In a true sense, Su Xiao wasn't just being beaten; he was personally experiencing the combat styles and techniques of various close combat powerhouses.
After each 'enjoyment' of the opponent's ultimate technique, Su Xiao's injuries would rapidly heal, and then he would absorb soul crystal fragments to improve his close combat ability.
After being baptized by 14 Soul Mirrors, Su Xiao confirmed one thing: with his current close combat ability, counterattacking was unlikely. What he should focus on was how to take the Soul Mirrors' ultimate moves with minimal damage.
He didn't need to defeat the Soul Mirrors at all to absorb soul crystal fragments. Although the process was very unfriendly, Su Xiao found his energy growing more abundant.
This wasn't an illusion. The Soul Mirrors were all composed of Soul Crystals (Complete). They had no memories, no consciousness. After shattering into soul crystal fragments, they were absorbed by Su Xiao, improving his close combat ability while slowly enhancing his soul strength.
That was why Su Xiao felt more energetic the more he fought.
Time passed quickly. Su Xiao felt that from the First Rank to the Fifth Rank, he hadn't encountered as many close combat powerhouses as he had today.
At first, it was one-on-one. But after 20 rounds of trials, it became two-on-one, mixed male-female double teaming. After more than 30 rounds, it became three-on-one, mixed male-female triple teaming.
To be honest, Su Xiao couldn't even handle one of them, let alone three at once. The scene was spectacular, and the experience was utterly terrible.
After 15 hours, Su Xiao lay in a shattered stone slab, the entire training hall looking like it had been hit by a typhoon.
[Prompt: Melee Combat Grandmaster has been upgraded to Lv.18.]
[Melee Combat Grandmaster: Lv.18 (Passive Skill)]
Skill Effect: Increases melee combat attack power by 420%, neural reflex speed +34%, dynamic vision +34%, and greatly improves melee combat techniques and reaction abilities.
Initial Additional Ability: Physical defense increased by 25%. Immune to all physical control effects derived from attributes lower than own Strength and Agility. When forcibly breaking free from physical control effects, judgment correction increased by 30 points.
Lv.10 Ultimate Ability: Power Penetration (Passive): All melee attacks will carry a force penetration effect, dealing defense-ignoring damage to the enemy's internal organs.
...
Su Xiao held a cigarette in his mouth. He raised his hand to pinch it, then leaped up from the ground, his movements incredibly agile.
Tossing the cigarette into his hand, Su Xiao activated [Sha's Medal]. A spatial teleportation sensation surged, and he appeared in a dining room.
"So early?"
Sha was chewing something, holding a soft flatbread in her hand. On the table before her was a large plate filled with chicken stewed with green peppers. The sauce was thick and oily, the green pepper's fragrance balancing the chicken's greasiness.
The soft flatbread soaked up the sauce. Sha took a big bite, her eyes narrowing in bliss.
"Wait for me ten minutes."
Sha continued to feast, not noticing anything unusual. When she was full, she sprawled back in her chair, legs apart, and let out a burp.
"Let's start. Just in time for post-meal exercise."
Sha snapped her fingers, and the two entered a training room of about a hundred square meters. Sha had now changed into a loose white outfit.
"What's with that expression? Did someone beat you up?"
Sha looked at Su Xiao with confusion.
"Not at all."
Su Xiao walked toward Sha at a moderate pace. Sha's smile gradually turned mischievous, then suddenly vanished.
Boom!
Sha sat against the wall, looking slightly dazed. Just now, Su Xiao had kicked her with a side kick, sending her from the center of the room straight into the wall.
"Burp~"
Sha let out a burp, her gaze shifting to Su Xiao.
"Kid, you're something. Almost made me throw up."
Sha sat up from the ground, tore off her loose clothes, and began to get serious.
"That's enough."
Su Xiao canceled the sparring permission. He just wanted to test how far his close combat ability had come. If it were before, he would have been thrown to the ground by Sha, and then she would have started laughing maliciously.
"You wait, damn it! Hey! Kicking me and then—"
Sha's voice faded into the distance as Su Xiao was teleported to the training ground. He decided that for the near future, he wouldn't come to Sha for sparring. That would be disastrous. Sha's comprehensive combat power at the Seventh Rank was no joke. The fact that he had kicked her flying earlier was entirely due to her being deceived by their friendly rapport.
In Sha's understanding, when it came to swordplay, she was just a wooden post, standing there to be cut down. She had personally tested this.
One day, Sha suddenly felt that using a sword was cool, so she grabbed one and pestered Su Xiao into a weapon duel. The result was that she went into seclusion. As for close combat, Su Xiao was the punching bag.
After returning to his exclusive room, Su Xiao collapsed into bed and slept for nearly ten hours. After washing up, he headed straight for the Paradise Arena.
Su Xiao's current rank was 159th. This time, his strength had increased too much; he didn't even know how strong he was now, so he urgently needed to test it.
If opponents ranked 150th or below were all easy pickings, then he could easily break into the top ten.
Besides, Su Xiao had been beaten 109 times earlier and was a bit annoyed. He had no grudge against the opponents he would be matched with, but he was just a little angry. He might hit a bit harder.