What Level of Attainment Is This

The Starsea Spectacle, the middle region.

The battles here were ten times more brutal than those on the outskirts.

If the outskirts had been a one-sided slaughter, then this place was a chaotic melee—a flesh grinder.

Most of those who made it into the middle region were elite disciples from major sects or seasoned rogue cultivators with real skill.

After the initial panic, they quickly regrouped, relying on advantageous terrain or arrays to fight the monsters to the death.

“Hold the line! Hold the damn line!”

On a massive floating sea rock, dozens of cultivators in matching blue-and-white Daoist robes had formed a circular formation.

At the head of the formation stood a clean-shaven, middle-aged man. He gripped a tortoiseshell shield in both hands, desperately blocking the charge of three monsters at the Deity Transformation stage.

“Those are… people from the Flowing Cloud Sect?” Wang Ping, hiding in the distance, recognized their robes at a glance. He shrank his neck. “The Flowing Cloud Sect is one of the top ten major sects in the Chaotic Star Sea. Even they’ve been driven to this point?”

Su Ji swept his gaze over them.

Although the Flowing Cloud Sect disciples worked together seamlessly, it was clear they were at the end of their strength.

Those three monsters possessed incredible physical power. Every impact made the defensive formation tremble on the verge of collapse, while countless lesser monsters lurked nearby, waiting for an opportunity to strike like parasites clinging to the bone.

“Ah—!”

A scream rang out.

One corner of the defensive formation was breached. A monster slipped through the opening, its claws instantly ripping apart the throat of a young disciple.

Blood gushed everywhere, splattering across the face of the female cultivator beside him.

Panic spread through the formation in an instant.

“Elder! We can’t hold on! The formation is about to break!”

In the depths of despair, a look of grim determination flashed through the middle-aged man’s eyes. He was just about to burn his essence blood and fight to the death when—

A figure appeared without warning behind the horde of monsters.

The man simply raised a hand and pressed it through the air toward the three Deity Transformation-stage monsters that were frantically ramming the formation.

“Get down.”

Boom!

An invisible force, as though the heavens themselves had collapsed, came crashing down.

The three monsters, which had been radiating overwhelming ferocity, did not even have time to grunt. Their enormous bodies were crushed into pieces in an instant, reduced to pools of flesh that were driven deep into the star rock.

The ground shook violently, sending fragments of stone flying.

The battlefield, which had been roaring with noise moments before, fell deathly silent.

Everyone from the Flowing Cloud Sect stood dumbfounded.

They stared at the three pools of flesh, then at the young man who had somehow appeared in midair. Their minds went completely blank.

Those had been three monsters at the Deity Transformation stage!

Their hides were thick and tough, and ordinary magical artifacts could hardly injure them. Yet now they had simply been… flattened?

The newcomer withdrew his hand as though he had done nothing more significant than swat a fly. He even had the leisure to dust off a nonexistent speck from his sleeve.

He turned and looked at Wang Ping, who was panting as he hurried to catch up.

“What are you standing there for? Collect the fee.”

“Huh? Oh! Right! Right!”

Wang Ping came back to his senses. He immediately put on a shrewd merchant’s smile and rubbed his hands together as he approached the Flowing Cloud Sect cultivators, who still had not recovered from their shock.

“Fellow Daoists, you’re all still alive, are you? Good, good.” Wang Ping smiled and cupped his hands. “When one sees injustice, one draws one’s blade to help. That’s the duty of every cultivator. But in times like these, every bit of spiritual energy means a better chance of survival… My senior here doesn’t make a move for nothing, and the spiritual energy he expended was considerable…”

The Flowing Cloud Sect’s elder was the first to react.

He looked at the unfathomable figure standing with his hands behind his back in the distance, then at the cultivator before him who looked every bit like a greedy merchant. How could he not understand what this meant?

They had come to collect protection money!

But…

This money had to be paid.

And it had to be paid willingly.

A powerhouse capable of killing three Deity Transformation-stage monsters with a single slap could crush them as easily as ants.

“Thank you, Senior, for saving our lives!”

The middle-aged man made his decision at once. He pulled a heavy storage pouch from his robes and offered it with both hands, his tone filled with utmost respect.

“This is only a small token of our gratitude. Please accept it, Senior. Consider it… a little nourishment to help replenish your strength.”

Wang Ping took the storage pouch and gave it a slight heft in his hand. His smile instantly grew even brighter.

“You know how to behave.”

He turned back toward Su Ji and made a gesture indicating that the gift was substantial.

Su Ji gave a slight nod without saying a word, then turned and walked away.

“Wait! Senior!”

The middle-aged man suddenly called out. Clenching his teeth, he asked, “May I ask for Senior’s honored name? The Flowing Cloud Sect will never forget today’s kindness!”

Su Ji did not stop walking. His voice drifted back from afar.

“Why bother asking the name of someone you’ve merely crossed paths with?”

“But since you’ve shown such sincerity, I’ll give you one piece of advice. If you don’t keep moving deeper…”

Before he could finish, the three figures had already disappeared.

The members of the Flowing Cloud Sect were left staring at one another in confusion.

…

The journey that followed became somewhat dull for Su Ji.

He was like a bulldozer, plowing straight through everything in his path.

When they encountered a lone, weaker monster, Su Jiu used it for practice.

When they encountered a horde of monsters, Su Ji took action.

When they encountered cultivators under siege, he rescued them on the way, then had Wang Ping collect the fee.

In barely half an hour, seven or eight storage pouches were already hanging from Wang Ping’s waist, clinking noisily as he walked. The wrinkles on his face had practically spread into a grin.

He had never fought such a wealthy battle in his entire life!

In the past, he had to argue until he was red in the face over a few top-grade spirit stones. But now, top-grade spirit stones came by the pouchful!

So this was what it felt like to have a powerful patron?

It felt fantastic!

Su Ji, however, looked anything but relaxed.

The farther inward they went, the stronger the oppressive sensation became.

The blood mist had grown so dense that it obstructed their vision. It had even begun corroding their protective spiritual energy.

Moreover, he had noticed a pattern.

The corpses of the monsters he killed would wither and dissolve in an extremely short time, eventually transforming into wisps of blood energy that drifted in the same direction.

Toward the central region.

Su Ji stopped and raised his head to look ahead.

That place had once been a vast expanse of starry sea.

Now, however, it had been replaced by a colossal, grotesque black altar.

The altar floated in midair, surrounded by countless blood-colored shadows that resembled vengeful spirits. A terrifying pressure spread outward in waves, like an endless tide, sending shivers through the heart.

Su Jiu’s little face had gone slightly pale. The trembling that came from the depths of her soul made her instinctively afraid.

“What realm is that?”

Wang Ping was even more terrified. He dropped onto his backside, his teeth chattering.

“S-S-Senior… are we really going any farther?”