This physique skill was, frankly, overpowered to the point of explosion. Without relying on any other ability, even the Eleven's lone Demon God's Body was utterly crushed before the Azure Dragon Imperishable Body. Skills of this caliber, like Susu's Sea Contract, were simply too difficult to fuse any further with other transcendent-grade top-tier skills.

It might be that skill proficiency was not high enough—reaching the level of perfection might raise the fusion success rate. Or it might be that Shi Jin's physique and the beast's willpower were again insufficient and needed further breakthrough. But either way, further fusion was impossible.

Still, Shi Jin felt that if the remaining skills could be fused, what emerged would certainly be quasi-divine skills. Take Starry Sky Power and Sea Contract—what if they fused into a Star Sea Contract?

So Shi Jin was both regretful and expectant.

For now, the foundation had been laid; what remained was the divine-grade fusion to come. Once the fusion was complete, there would not be much left for Shi Jin to choose from.

One: go copy more skills and continue fusing.

Two: add points to the fused transcendent-grade skills, aiming toward perfection. Three: meditate and cultivate.

Four: add points to the quasi-divine skills.

Shi Jin abandoned one and four first—his skill proficiency was not yet maxed out, so having that many skills was useless; and as for four, the success rate for adding points to quasi-divine skills was, according to the skill index, extremely low, and Shi Jin did not dare take that risk for the time being.

So in the end, Shi Jin chose to add points to their transcendent-grade skills, and then to meditate and cultivate, training his first and second beast-taming spaces. The results were gratifying: though it had not taken long, Shi Jin had cultivated his second beast-taming space to level four.

The level of a high-rank beast tamer.

Under normal circumstances, he could now contract a commander-level pet beast.

However, with Shi Jin's current physique, contracting a monarch-level beast in his second space across levels would certainly be no problem. But a overlord-level beast would be rather dangerous—after all, his physique could withstand it, but the space would struggle to.

Two months of time was, in truth, not long, and the entire team's strength had improved enormously. Yet at this very moment, Shi Jin finally could not sit still any longer. He was sick of it!

He did not want to add points anymore; he did not want to fuse anymore; he did not want to cultivate anymore.

For someone like him who could not stay put, it was much as before—two months of bitter cultivation was about the limit. If he forced himself to continue, his mental state would drag every aspect of Shi Jin's efficiency down to an extremely low level.

With still no word from Teacher Gemcat about the Golden Ink Deity, Shi Jin had already decided to head for the Ancient Kingdom of Heavenly Sword to explore some ruins, get some fresh air, relax his mood, and incidentally give the second team some training—and then prepare for Crimson Pupil's evolution.

At present, the soul avatar had also been taught and had been raised to the perfect grade; Crimson Pupil's several clones were ready, lacking only nurturing and fusion evolution. It was time for Shi Jin to go find resources as well. The Heavenly Sword Ruins of the Ancient Kingdom of Heavenly Sword were his hunting target!

"Master, when do we set off?" Lin said. "There's still half a year of time until the Ancient Kingdom of Heavenly Sword's Sword Trial Assembly—plenty of time."

"It's not exactly plenty anymore. After all, we still have to blend into other factions to obtain a competition slot. That ruin is in a demigod's home—we definitely can't force our way in, so we'll have to disguise ourselves and enter legitimately," Shi Jin said.

Shi Jin, a sprig of vanilla held in his mouth, continued, "I'll go out and have a word with Lin Shuo. He seemed to say that I should let him know when I set out." "You go check on Xiao Ji, Duck-Duck, and the others—I'll head over shortly. Our main force going forward will be them."

"Okay~" Secretary Lin flew off swiftly.

Meanwhile, Shi Jin dialed Lin Shuo's number. "Lin Shuo, I'm planning to go to the Ancient Kingdom of Heavenly Sword." Lin Shuo: ?????????????????? On the other end,

Lin Shuo was utterly baffled.

Hold on—didn't you say you wouldn't set out for a short while, that you'd wait until your strength was greater before departing? It had only been two months since the World Tournament!

"You're planning to go now??" Lin Shuo looked blank. "Say, are you confident?" he asked, rather worried. "Relax, I'm still eighty or ninety percent confident." Shi Jin had, recently, studied the Ancient Kingdom of Heavenly Sword's materials to shreds. The Ancient Kingdom of Heavenly Sword traced its heritage to the Totem Era.

Its origin was a demigod-level undead.

This undead demigod, when weak, had been the pet beast of a human beast tamer, born within a sword—a sword spirit. After the human beast tamer died, this sword spirit made itself king,

continuing single-mindedly in pursuit of the way of the sword, until it grew into a demigod.

Furthermore, it called itself Heavenly Sword and founded the Kingdom of Heavenly Sword, welcoming all races to join in the shared pursuit of the way of the sword—this was the origin of the Ancient Kingdom of Heavenly Sword. Thanks to Heavenly Sword's power, the Kingdom of Heavenly Sword indeed developed well at first.

Countless sword wielders and extraordinary beings mastering sword-type skills all pledged allegiance to the Kingdom of Heavenly Sword, this great family of the way of the sword.

Until, when this demigod passed away, it placed all the sword-way experience of its life, along with the numerous heaven-and-earth treasures it had obtained that could forge famed swords and divine swords, into an inheritance trial ruin it had built itself.

After that, around this inheritance trial ruin, the Ancient Kingdom of Heavenly Sword developed ever more prosperously.

At present, this Heavenly Sword Ruin, after thousands of years of development, had nothing left—save that most precious divine-grade metal-element meteorite iron, which no one had the talent or potential to take away—only a great quantity of sword-way experience that could be passed down continuously.

Although the resources had all been taken, these sword-way inheritances were themselves rare "resources"; the ruin had not fallen into desolation but had always been enshrined as a holy land for cultivating the Ancient Kingdom of Heavenly Sword's geniuses.

Every other year, this kingdom would hold a Sword Trial Assembly around the Heavenly Sword Ruin.

Through sword-way talent, potential, and strength, contestants vied over who was more qualified to enter the Heavenly Sword Ruin and seek deeper sword-way inheritance. That was right—a contest of swords.

This kingdom was very peculiar.

Nearly every living being within it used a sword.

Human professions could broadly be divided into sword wielders and beast tamers.

Sword wielders were human beast tamers who contracted undead-type sword spirits, sword souls, or sword ghosts, letting them possess their own bodies and fighting themselves.

And the beast tamers here were unlike the traditional beast tamers of other nations—their pet beasts, or rather, all the extraordinary beings and pet beasts of the Ancient Kingdom of Heavenly Sword, basically used swords. All of them mastered various sword-type skills.

This was the result of generation after generation of inheritance.

And this kingdom's most important events—the Sword Trial Assembly and the Heavenly Sword Ruin trial—also required beast tamers to duel using only sword-type moves.