entric Long''s eyes scanned the screens and frowned then asked.


    "Hmm, why is Du Shen''s enemy different?"


    His question piqued everyone''s interest and they all looked up. The screens though showing different stages all had one thing that was simr, it was the personing out of the gate.


    But for Du Shen, the person who came out looked far more hostile and way more deadly.


    Everyone else''s foe had a small cleaver, which was rather rusted, and the man that was carrying it was barely skin on bones, he did exude a powerful aura, but it was like a me sparkpared to the one in Du Shen''s trial.


    "That is because of the stage value," thementator said.


    "They''re all on the fifth stage, so why is only his at the King Level while the rest had their invader at the ascendant level? Isn''t that rather unfair?" Xiao Du asked.


    "I wouldn''t call it unfair, it was the result of Du Shen''s ability. After all, the stage rewards one due to their struggles and how well they do, the better they triumph and seed, the harder the next phase will be to give a challenge to the participant. For everyone besides Du Shen, they took some damage and upgraded their base with rtively a small amount of points.


    While Du Shen had used about ten times the point of the person in second ce to upgrade his base, that is why something this powerful came out," thementator said.


    "I suppose this will keep happening in the following rounds?" asked entric Long.


    "Indeed, the stronger the base, the more fearsome the wave, the higher the reward, a circle in a sense," thementator said.


    "Then, we can only watch and see how Du Shen will deal with this trial." entric Long sped his hands and watched intently as the monster of a man approached through the gate.


    ***


    "Bloody hell is that," I cursed as I was using my divine sense to scan the new entity entering the portal.


    It exuded the power of a King Stage cultivator, and that wasn''t something the primary barricade could stop. I doubt the entirety of the force I have here could stop it.


    The merchant snickered as he watched me fall into despair. Or so he thought.


    "Back off!" I ushered the puppets at the gate to back away, they would be nothing but scraps if they were to fight against that guy now.


    The turrets began raining down sts of fire, ice, and lighting upon the invader. But the man just used his massive cleaver to block the first wave, holding on as the iing blows increased in intensity then soon shed away at the first turret, sending a de wave forward that cut one of the towers from the middle.


    The tower slid down and crashed against the walls breaking another turret in the process.


    Stopping two weapons from functionality at the same time.


    He then proceeded forward, tanking the iing assault without exerting any effort.


    Not long after, he sliced at the remaining turrets bringing them down bar one was a lightning turret that was too far away from him.


    He shed an evil grin through the bandages covering his face as he dragged his cleaver behind him. Moved steadily as if he were an iing disaster ready to eat and destroy anything in its path.


    "Load!" I shouted and instantly several puppets alongside the main path loaded the cannons with shells that I made. They aimed the cannons toward the iing man and were ready for order.


    "Fire!"


    The cannon''s base allowed Qi to traverse through the entire length of the barrel, activating a dozen or so specialized inscriptions that would allow the shell to st through them with minimal friction and incredible rotatory power.


    The loud st of the cannons shooting the shells would deafen a man, as it thundered across the meadow and right into the iing man with incredible uracy.


    The being had prepared for the attack though and used his cleaver to block the impact, however, the explosive aftermath was enough to sear some of the skin on its body and burn most of the bandages on him.


    It revealed a body riddled with scars and sewing signs. Some form of revived corpse. No wonder, it wouldn''t feel pain or damage and would keep moving forward regardless of the injuries it would take.


    "Fire at will!" I ordered and watched as the juggernaut like being began actively dodging and slicing away at shells that he couldn''t avoid.


    More and more explosions echoed in the distance, but the damage dealt was too little for myfort.


    The four improved puppets were also on standby but I couldn''t send them just yet. It wasn''t their time.


    "Can I buy anything while the round is in progress?" I asked the merchant.


    "Yes, as long as you don''t actively assist in stopping the wave, you can buy and upgrade turrets for example, and repair barricades." He said.


    "I see, show me your wear," I said as I took a rapid look at the merchant''s wear.


    I then began picking several materials, including some herbs.


    "ce some turrets along the path," I said to the merchant as I specified that the turrets need to be ice turrets.


    The goal wasn''t to kill it, because these turrets wouldn''t have enough firepower.


    "You''ll need a level eight turret to kill it, you don''t have enough points for that," he said.


    "I''m not nning on killing it, just ce four ice turrets along the path, near the cannons,"


    The merchant ced them where I asked while I hurriedly began refining the herbs I bought.


    "What are you doing? You do know that you cannot interfere," he said.


    "I''m not, I''m only making an explosive bomb," I said.


    "But that is interfering," he said.


    "Not if I use materials bought from you, all I''m doing is refining the materials, which falls under the no interference rule. I''m not the one who''ll be using this explosive bomb, but one of my puppets," I said.


    "You''re really dancing on the line of disqualification, however, you are right, as long as you don''t directly toss it, or make it blow up manually or via range, it can be epted," he said.


    "Good to hear, I said as I rapidly increased my Soul me power, to extract as much essence from the herbs as I could.


    As much as I wanted to use my own personal poison, it was against the rules, all I could do was make poison from the wear that he was selling. So I rapidly assembled a cannister that had this liquid form of poison and added several inscriptions around it. I then ced a small Saint Qi crystal on top of the cannister which will act as a detonator for it.


    This is a weak explosive, but at the same time, I don''t want to st the corpse, since I don''t have enough materials or strong enough substances for that. But I don''t need to blow it up, not because I don''t want to, but because there are better ways, sadly it will take me some time to finish this thing up.


    The creep continued creeping forward, slicing away at the barricades and making my heart wrench at the cost of everything he was destroying.


    Everything I built was built with effort and a lot of nning, but then they throw this shit at my face. I''m not taking it lying down.


    But it''s good, now I know that whoever made this trial can ''cheat'' like this. So the next time I won''t be unprepared.


    The cannons kept rocking the man but they didn''t seem to be slowing him down anyway.


    I couldn''t allow it to reach the middle fortress. There is a lot of formations in there that would be ruined once that guy starts swinging his cleaver.


    Soon, the man-beast began blowing the cannons along the way, reducing the damage he was taking by a lot. Although the ice turrets were slowing it down, he didn''t seem too bothered by them, as every time he moved, he would break the ice around his body, and his foot stomped hard enough to rupture the ice on the road and stamp a massive footprint on the floor.


    Moving steadily step by step.


    He then arrived at the second Killzone, this was where the cannons and turrets on top of the front wall of the fortress were in range. They then began shooting shells at the creature, further slowing it down.


    With that much damage he is taking, I would probably need about an hour of grinding it down for it to die. But by the pace he is moving, he''ll reach the main base way before that timer hits.


    So, it was time for me to apply the second part of my n.


    "Come here," I said to one of the puppets, and one of them rushed to my side.


    "Run toward him, and press this button once you''re close enough," I said.


    The puppet grabbed the cannister tightly against its chest and sprinted toward the invader.


    The moment the puppet got close enough, the creature swung its cleaver, splitting the puppet in half, however, the puppet had already pressed the button enabling the mechanic inside it to activate.


    Suddenly an explosion sted in front of the beast, and in that time I raised my hand to stop the artillery from attacking it further.


    From the explosion, a powerful smoke curtain blew outward and covered the creature. Who slowly emerged from it seemingly unscathed. It walked for a bit, then began coughing lightly, then walked some more, and began throwing up ck blood.


    Not long after, the invader soon fell to the ground, and the merchant clicked his tongue.


    "Congrattions, you cleared this stage too…"