Unbeatable! Invincible! Unparalleled!

What? Did we heard him wrong?

You want to temper your physical body inside the One Hundred Thousand Graveyard lake you say?

"Brat, did you lose your mind?" asked the old man with a frown as he cupped his chin while looking at Duan Li with a peculiar look, as if looking at an exotic creature.

"Human, you haven't yet to temper your physical body even once. If you were to go and temper yourself in that lake right now, the only thing that will improve is the surface level of the lake increasing by a few macrometres from your liquefied remains..." said the mother wolf.

Cough! Cough!

Duan Li had to cough dryly as he listened at their savage response.

"I... I think I can manage to do it somehow!" Duan Li replied with a confident look.

Seeing Duan Li's expression, the old man's face turned livid.

This brat! Just what is the use of that confident look of yours? If things were that simple in this world, a confident look is all it takes to make the impossible possible, then why haven't I yet ascended to the ninth shackle yet?

Look here, my confident expression!

Hmph!!

"Nevermind, its useless to argue with a junior. Even I back then, have such confidence within me before experiencing the vicissitudes of life! I'll just let him learn from his mistakes then!" said the old man to himself.

"Well... since I am in a debt with you human, for helping my child, let me repay you by bringing you along to that lake where I will be going soon anyway." said the mother wolf.

"Whether you decide to temper your body in it after seeing the lake, that would be entirely up to you." she continued.

She wanted to see for herself what made this human before her so confident. Duan Li's manliness somehow compelled more respect from her as well.

"Hop onto my back, and we will depart right after." she continued.

Duan Li nodded with a smile as he then hopped onto her back as he could feel a comfortable feeling from the soft fur of the mother wolf. The cub also hopped as well but instead, entered Duan Li's clothes once more as it poke its head out.

Arrff! Arrfff!

"I will wait for you guys over there then!" said the old man as he swiftly departed to the sky with a sonic boom. His speed was so fast that it only took about two breaths for his figure to disappear into the horizon!

Boom!

The mother wolf then stood mightily on its four legs as it stretched its body backwards like an arrow about to be released from its bow.

With a snort, the mother wolf dashed forwards. This dash was extremely fast, in just one breath and they had already crossed more than 400 metres!

Not only that, the mother wolf seems to be building up momentum with each dash. Slowly, a single breath increased to 600 metres, then 800 metres...

2000 metres per dash!

Psheww!

...

Meanwhile, somewhere in a lush forest on the first maze, a small figure draped with a full suit of turtle shells could be seen laying flat on the ground, unmoving. This figure was Xiahou Yu.

She was currently observing the behaviors of the monster in front of her. A three-tailed rabbit with two protruding fangs that was about one metre in size.

"A Fiend Rabbit... level 4 of the Qi condensation realm..." she swallowed her saliva as she read the details of the rabbit in the monster guide book.

Her entire body right now was covered with the shells of numerous turtles with varying sizes. The small ones were from level 1 where she equipped it on her two shoulders, elbows, knuckles and kneecaps. The slightly bigger ones were from level 2 and she equipped it as a helmet and another at her bum region. The larger ones were from level 3 and she donted it as a body armor that covered her chest and backs.

The turtles that she hunted down to get these shells from were called as Lazebum Turtles and were extremely weird. Even when they saw her standing right in front of them, they would only bare their short fangs out and that was it.

When she approached them, they quickly hid within their tough shells. According to the monster guide book, their shells were hard enough that it would perhaps require an attack from a steel hammer!

At first, Xiahou Yu was about to leave them alone, but a thought struck at her as her gaze flashed with a peculiar smile to it when she turned her head to look back at those frozen turtles.

She took out a bunch of explosive talismans and hopped onto their back as she slapped the talismans inside the openings of the shells. She then activated them with incantation gestures that was thought to her by senior teacher Ling Yu.

BOOMM!

BOOMM!

BOOMM!

All those turtles imploded from within and that cracked open their shells together as a result. As for what happened after, she had now donted a full body suit made up from the shells of those deceased turtles.

If the Guardian were to witness those tragic scene of the turtles as well, he would definitely put up a ruckus.

The Fiend Rabbit in front of her right now was the strongest monster in the first maze that was recorded inside the monster guide book. Their main highlighted attribute were speed and their sharp fangs. Thankfully, Xiahou Yu had already covered most of her body parts with the turtle shells.

Of course, these shells put together into a suit was so heavy that it added up a whole 100 kilograms to her weight. Had it been any other normal person that practices neither martial arts nor cultivates, they would probably become a solid rock right now.

However, Xiahou Yu were both of that. In addition, she had also finished tempering her physical body last night with the help from the materials provided by Duan Li's and her newfound friend, Shen Lu.

Therefore, her physical prowess right now was extremely strong and equipping such heavy turtle shells around her was just like putting on another piece of clothing.

"I have a good protection draped around my body and I don't think this rabbit would be able to make a dent on it.. but.."

The thing that she was worried right now was the method to attack this rabbit with. She wanted to slay it because of the monster core on its belly. Specifically, its monster core is of Fire element that is in line with her body attribute!

If she could cultivate it, not only would her level increase much faster, she would have the chance to invoke the Fire essence within her dantian in the future as well!

"Hmm... maybe I should observe its attacking pattern first.." she said inwardly.

She then laid down one shock trap talisman on the ground. If the rabbit were to step on it, the talisman would immediately release high voltage electricity that will be enough to paralyse the rabbit into an immobile state for a few moments.

However, her main concern was that she only had a few of these talisman with her right now. If she were to run out of it, that would significantly reduce her combat capabilities in the next encounter with other monsters.

Furthermore, to depend a lot on talismans would not be good for one's self-development in the future as it will restrict her battle prowess due to over reliance in external means.

Back then, she had already resolved herself to become strong enough to stood by Duan Li side by side for the end times. So how could she afford to be afraid of a mere rabbit in the level 4 of the Qi condensation realm?

Compared to the Nine hermit kings that she saw during Duan Li's bizarre trial, the rabbit in front of her looked nothing more but an ant.

With such resolve burning within her right now, her gaze had turned extremely sharp as her newfound confidence engulfed the bubbles of fear that was lingering by the corner of her heart.

...

Whoosh!

Duan Li and the rest had finally arrived at the One Hundred Thousand Graveyard lake. Looking around, Duan Li remembered the scene to be exactly the same like in his memories. This lake looked extremely vile and sinister with the protruding of many bones and dried up meat poking out from its surface. The appearance of this lake could not be any more redder than this.

In fact, the lake was too red that it glowed with a red mists forming above it. There doesn't seem to be any monster that was loitering around this area as well.

Furthermore, eventhough there were a lot of carcasses here that looked so old that they crumbled down due to the passing wind, the air doesn't smell foul even a tiny bit.

"This is the lake of the Eternal maze, or better known as the graveyard for all the living creatures within this dimension." said the old man with solemnity on his face as he clasped his hands behind his back.

"Did you entered the first region through this lake?" he asked towards the mother wolf.

"No... I had arrived here due to a sudden temporal displacement of the space when I was being pursuit by that accursed beast." replied the mother wolf as it growled a bit in fury.

Hearing this, the old man's interest was piqued.

"Oh? There are beasts able to push you to such an extent? What kind of species?" he asked as he stroke his beard.

The mother wolf took a while to reply. She then gritted her teeth together as she said, "Cerberus!" with a glaring hatred in her eyes.

Hearing the name, the old man's eyes turned wide, a trace of fear could be seen within it.

"Cerberus? That three-headed hellhound?How did it escape from that place?!" exclaimed the old man with a horrified voice.

"We don't know, it seemed that someone has snucked into the ninth region and broke the seal apart somehow. Most of the creatures that were trapped inside that place had broken free as well! My injury was caused by the hellhound minions!" explained the mother wolf.

The ninth region was already a place of battle royale for many of these mythical creatures. However, they still have a functioning society between them. But with the release of Cerberus the three-headed hellhound, the place was entirely thrown into chaos!

"Where was the Guardian? Did it not stop Cerberus?" asked the old man with a frown. He found it to be completely weird for the Guardian of the ninth region to not take any action with such a beast roaming free.

The mother wolf just shook her head indicating that she didn't know. The situation back then was too chaotic as all hell had broken loose!

Suddenly, just as they were about to converse some more, they heard an extremely unsettling sound.

Plop!

They turned their heads towards the source of this sound to see what was up, only to found by the edges of the cliff that a part of it had crumbled down into the lake.

"..." the old man and the mother wolf turned mute as their eyes and mouth opened wide.

...