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nChapter 272: Self-Assessment

nTranslator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

nSizzle, sizzle ~

nThe sound, similar to the corrosion of steel by strong acid, suddenly emanated from Lu Ming’s body.

nThe moment the purplish-black poisonous gas landed on Lu Ming’s body, silver light emerged from his body again.

nThe purple poisonous gas, like a living creature, desperately burrowed into Lu Ming’s body, while the protective light on Lu Ming’s body acted like an armor, desperately resisting the purple poisonous gas.

nAs the two of them fought intensely, the silver patterns on Lu Ming’s chest also began to flash wildly.

n“Your source of magic comes from a body protective technique.”

nEsek muttered and then said, “It’s a very conventional path.”

nThere were many people who had advanced to the Ancient Realm through body protective techniques, more than other types.

nThis method was simple, but not very powerful, belonging to the lower tier of the Ancient Realm.

nEsek remained silent and just watched as the purple poisonous gas slowly burned through Lu Ming’s body protective technique, making direct contact with his skin.

n“It’s even weaker than the lowest tier, unable to withstand even a single blow…”

n“Therefore, I estimate that this person must have used a large number of Spirit

nRealm or even lower-level protective techniques to create these silver patterns.”

nEsek was not a fool.

nFrom Lu Ming’s words just now, he vaguely guessed Lu Ming’s situation. At this moment, he was not surprised to see this scene and just felt pity in his heart.

n“Exceptional talent but an unfortunate background. An unfortunate background means insufficient resources. Using a large number of low-level defensive techniques to create these silver patterns, their strength is even weaker than the ordinary methods.”

nThinking of this, Esek shook his head, “If it’s only at this level, I’m afraid you won’t be able to withstand my Zombie Beast Poison…”

nStrictly speaking, although Esek’s Zombie Beast Poison, while being the Foundation of Matter, was not very potent.

nThis was because the essence of the Zombie Beast Poison was to infect and transform exotic beasts into zombie beasts.

nBoth toxicity and corrosiveness were incidental and secondary.

nAccording to Esek’s own evaluation, the direct lethality of Zombie Beast Poison was probably only slightly stronger than the silver patterns of ordinary poison-type magic sources, but not significantly.

nEven so, this poisonous gas easily penetrated Lu Ming’s protective technique and the silver patterns of the Source of Magic!

nThis was enough to show how weak Lu Ming’s silver patterns were…. even weaker than the weakest level of the Ancient Realm by a significant margin…

n“Let’s end this,” Esek muttered. Then, he stood up and prepared to help Lu Ming again.

nHe naturally had the ability to retract the poisonous gas he released.

nHowever, just as Esek was about to do that, what happened before his eyes changed his mind.

nThe poisonous gas pierced through Lu Ming’s body protective technique and entered his pores, infiltrating his body.

nAt that moment, Lu Ming felt immense pain!

nIt was as if he had turned into an ordinary person, and someone had injected sulfuric acid into his body.

nCountless cells collapsed and disintegrated under the infection of the Zombie Beast Poison, and large ulcers instantly formed on Lu Ming’s body.

nHowever, Lu Ming was not flustered and just sighed slightly.

n“Ancient Realm… Ancient Realm!”

nAfter experiencing it personally, Lu Ming vaguely understood the strength of the Ancient Realm.

nThe strength of the Ancient Realm lay in the power of the natural order.

nAnd the power of natural order was above everything else!

nThe moment the magic patterns were born, the superhumans could be considered to have stepped into the Ancient Realm. The appearance of the magic patterns meant that the superhumans were accepted by the rules of the world, thereby gaining an intrinsic strength far surpassing that of the Spirit Realm or Source Realm!

nThe mystical patterns provided natural immunity to spiritual pressure and could even amplify the spiritual pressure of the bearer.

nThe mystical patterns could also provide natural immunity to source power manipulation and could even amplify the bearer’s ability to control source power.

nMystical patterns could also increase the strength of related source power skills or related abilities—for example, Lu Ming’s body protective technique.

nFrom the moment the mystical patterns appeared, the strength of Lu Ming’s body protective technique was immediately elevated countless times—of course, on the attribute panel, this change manifested as a new characteristic: Absolute Defense (Level 1).

nAnd when Ancient Realm experts battled, they were essentially competing in the strength of their mystical patterns, which could also be called their mastery and affinity with the power of the natural order!

nEsek’s Foundation of Matter patterns were stronger than Lu Ming’s Source of Magic silver patterns. Moreover, it was not just a little stronger.

nThe Zombie Beast Poison used its own weakness to attack the enemy’s strength. It actually easily disintegrated Lu Ming’s protective technique and directly affected Lu Ming’s body.

nThis meant that there was a huge gap in the strength of the power of the natural order between Lu Ming and Esek!

nAnd when the Zombie Beast Poison pierced through Lu Ming’s protective technique and broke down his mystical patterns, everything seemed to have been settled.

nThe Zombie Beast Poison penetrated Lu Ming’s body, advancing without any resistance.

nNo matter how strong Lu Ming’s body was, it was useless against the power of the natural order—this was the fundamental difference.

nLu Ming’s body was like air, while the Zombie Beast Poison, carrying the power of the natural order, was like an iron weapon!

nHow could air possibly withstand a sharp iron weapon?

n“Therefore, once the mystical patterns are broken, the outcome of the Ancient Realm battle is essentially determined.”

n“Without the mystical patterns, any resistance is completely futile in front of those with mystical patterns.”

nJust like when Spirit Realm beings faced Physique Realm beings, just the spiritual pressure alone was enough to disintegrate everything in the Physique Realm.

nSimilarly, when Source Realm beings faced Spirit Realm beings, the control over source power could instantly defeat the opponent.

nIt was the same when Ancient Realm beings faced Sourcen Realm beings. The mystical patterns brought about the most fundamental and entirely irresistible gap!

n“But… I refuse to accept this!!”

nFor countless days and nights, Lu Ming had been crazily boosting his attributes through the attribute system. He had forged his body to be as strong as steel, but now, he had easily collapsed under the power of the Ancient Realm mystical patterns.

nHow could Lu Ming accept this?!

n“I don’t believe that one can’t withstand the power of the mystical patterns with one’s physical strength alone.”

nAt this moment, Lu Ming had not calmed down.

nAs a result, Lu Ming’s temperament was a little stubborn.

nHe had tangled with this Zombie Beast Poison…

nTaking a deep breath, Lu Ming’s muscles tensed all over his body.

nA large amount of energy burst out of his body and rushed into his corroded cells.

nTherefore, the cells that had just been disintegrated by the Zombie Beast Poison regenerated and healed at an extremely fast speed!

nThe rotten sores on his body began to heal.

nHowever, they festered again under the corrosion of the Zombie Beast Poison.

nHealing – festering constituted a cruel cycle.

nWhat Esek witnessed was Lu Ming’s body being destroyed time and again and being regenerated and healed again and again!

nThis made Esek raise an eyebrow.

n“What incredible physical strength.”

n“And an iron-like will.”

nWhat moved Esek was not Lu Ming’s physical strength, but his willpower!

nIn the Spirit Realm and even the Source Realm, Lu Ming’s attributes of more than 600,000 were indeed explosively powerful. Coupled with the weakest silver patterns in the Ancient Realm, he was easily able to crush Haohuang and Queen blade, both of whom were only in the Source Realm.

nHowever, in the Ancient Realm, these attributes were not particularly remarkable, and were even considered ordinary, just enough not to be a burden.

nAfter all, Ancient Realm experts had access to higher-level body forging techniques and various natural treasures for body refinement.

nPlus, their lifespans were measured in thousands or tens of thousands of years.

nThis meant that even if they did not specialize in body forging techniques, they could easily maintain strong physical attributes. In other words, their efficiency in boosting attributes was much lower than Lu Ming’s. However, as pioneers, they had a huge starting advantage in terms of timing and accumulation!

nHowever, Esek did not know that Lu Ming was only 26 years old this year…

nNo one, not even the offspring of god who had started cultivating body forging techniques from his mother’s womb, could reach the height that Lu Ming had achieved at the age of 26…

nIn any case, Esek just watched and marveled at Lu Ming’s incredible willpower.

nAbout ten minutes later, everything finally calmed down.

nLu Ming, who was standing before Esek, was unscathed, but his face was a little pale.

n“It’s done…”

nHe muttered and slowly closed his eyes to sense his physical condition.

n“But the consumption was too great.”

nUsing pure physical strength to resist the Zombie Beast Poison that contained the power of the natural order!

nTen minutes.

nIt took Lu Ming a full ten minutes to completely erode the Zombie Beast Poison!

nHe felt immense fatigue, but it also confirmed a fact.

nThose without mystical patterns were not entirely powerless against those who possessed them.

nAfter all, although the specification was extremely high, the essence of the power of the natural order was only a form of high-level energy.

nAir indeed couldn’t resist an iron weapon, but if the iron weapon was exposed to the air for a period of time, it would rust or even degrade into dust!

n“Then here’s the problem… How much strength did this bit of Zombie Beast Poison consume from you?”

nAs he muttered, Lu Ming looked at Esek and saw that Esek had already suppressed his surprise, and his gaze towards Lu Ming had become much more serious.

nAfter some thought, Esek waved his hand again.

nAs a result, hundreds of streams of Zombie Beast Poison surged out of Esek’s hand.

nThis made Lu Ming’s eyes darken.

n“There was hardly any consumption…”

nThat stream of Zombie Beast Poison.

nThe poison that took Lu Ming ten minutes and almost exhausted all his strength to eradicate.

nEsek could easily produce hundreds or even thousands of them with a wave of his hand…

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