Heaven's Greatest Professor

The fourth disciple had not attacked maliciously. While the power of his attack was lethal, the sword master ensured it wouldn't strike any of Warden's critical organs.

The attack struck his lower body. And, as he had thought, Warden did not feel a thing. With [Absolute Invulnerability] triggered, he didn't have to worry about anything. While he couldn't feel any pain from the attack, Warden did manage to gauge the intricacies of the attack from a very close range. Not to mention, that attack wasn't completely directed at him.

Most of its force went beyond his form and bit through a huge chunk of the mountain, creating a large crater.

The upheaval in the wind calmed down as Warden found the fourth disciple standing with all his energy and stamina drained out of him. He didn't even lift his sword, much less attack for another chance.

Warden grinned and took a step forward, the spear in his hand.

"Any last words?" he asked, raising his spear.

"Wait wait wait wait," the fourth disciple stuttered. "You don't want to kill me… I mean, you don't have to kill me. You can advance to the next step. Ahem! I, the fourth disciple of Oa'keam, hereby announce…" The sword master struck him a look as if asking for a name.

"Warden," he supplied.

"…Weird name, but who am I to judge? Anyway, I hereby announce Warden to be the victor of our duel."

Warden had no way of knowing if such an announcement worked. But then again, there was no one to stop him from climbing. Just that he was exhausted beyond measure. Although the fight was over, Warden had to muster peak rank power with just his body. Not to mention, he had exhausted a large part of the Radiance essence. Some of it would recover; some of it wouldn't.

Warden sat down to meditate; unfortunately, it seemed he had a talkative companion as his company.

"How did you stop my [Apotheosis of the Storm]?" the fourth disciple asked. "You know, most people that came here didn't even manage to endure my first move, and yet you took care of my ultimate attack as if walking into a park."

Warden thought for a moment and decided it wouldn't be hard to answer this challenger's questions. After all, there was still so much he could learn from this guy.

"It wasn't anything too profound," he said. "Just a little trick."

The fourth disciple's expression soured. "Just a trick, you say... Just a trick," he repeated. She gritted his teeth. "Do you have any idea how many gold rankers I have slaughtered using the Sword of Ascension?"

Warden could only shrug.

"You have no idea," the dark-skinned man said. "And yet to be outlasted by a pesky Iron ranker."

"To be honest, it was a pretty unique trick."

"Aho, I can imagine," the man snorted. "Your luck is on your side that the Elysian suppressed more from an Iron ranker than from a lower class, or there would be no chance for this kind of audacious occurrence."

So, the fourth disciple was a gold ranker. Honestly, Warden had already imagined him to be someone of an Iron rank. The unique place had suppressed both their powers, though it had not dulled his intuition. Still, he couldn't believe the man before him was an esteemed gold ranker.

"I have been in this place for far too long—so long that my gold rank essence had begun to deteriorate. Perhaps I have fallen to a silver rank. I wouldn't know."

"Curious," he could not help but say. "If this place has such an effect on an anchor's body, why have you stayed here for such a long period of time?"

"I was young and foolish, very much like you, I would imagine," he chuckled and smiled ruefully. "I had almost climbed to the top of the Elysian only to fall into the last trap set by the Immortal. I should have given up long ago."

"What happened?"

"Nothing too dramatic... I fell into the trap, and my life was forfeit. Then the Immortal appeared and gave me a choice. I was to take this position I am in if I wanted to live."

Warden sighed. "And you took it."

"It was a choice between death and this; it wouldn't be far to say I had no other choice," the fourth disciple said.

Warden nodded. "For how long have you been here?"

"It's likely my sixth decade here," the dark-skinned man said.

"Are there others like you?" Warden asked. "In other checkpoints to weed out the participants?"

"There had been more, but many died, and the Immortal hadn't sent anyone else to take their place," he said. "Currently, there are only three checkpoints. You probably have no problem with the next; there was a conceited fellow there. Sadly, that is where you have to end your journey. There is a monster at the final checkpoint, who wouldn't let anyone pass to the summit."

"All of them gold rankers?" he asked. "Now weakened?"

The fourth disciple nodded. "Aside from the Final monster, I'd imagine."

"Looks like I have to up my game," Warden muttered. "Thankfully, I have managed to glimpse into something deeper in our fight. Thank you for that, Mister Fourth Disciple."

The dark-skinned man waved his hand, and Warden proceeded to meditate. A couple of hours later, when he was mostly rejuvenated, he jumped to his feet and drew his spear.

The fourth disciple was still there, seated in the corner of his checkpoint, watching him move.

Warden didn't wait ceremoniously. He entered flow and drew into the patterns. The wind swirled along with his spear, as he attempted something similar to the Fourth Disciple's first Move, Whisper of the Immortal Wind.

Obviously, his attack didn't have a similar scope, but Warden did comprehend the essence to create something alike.

Warden shot the fourth disciple a look, wondering what his impression would be. Perhaps he had expected some surprise from the guy, but he hadn't expected him to be completely dumbstruck.