Chapter 111: On the Warship (Part-10)

At the trestle connecting the two warships, countless experts from Western Mansion clashed head-on with the masked warriors.

Hundreds of figures collided in a chaotic battle. Blades flashed, energy roared, and the scene was nothing short of terrifying.

Corpses littered the trestle and spilled across the deck of the Void Warship. Blood soaked the metal beneath their feet, turning it slick and treacherous, while the air was thick with a choking stench of iron and death.

The moment Ryan arrived, the Remnant Shadow Sword in his hand began to dance.

Sword light flashed again and again. Masked warriors fell one after another, unable to withstand even a single strike. In just a few breaths, the pressure on the Western Mansion experts was greatly reduced as bodies dropped around Ryan like harvested wheat.

At first, when Ryan rushed into the battle, many of the Western Mansion experts were startled. His speed was simply too fast, so fast that some of them mistook him for an enemy Upper Exalt.

But when they clearly saw the candidate’s uniform he wore, the realization struck them all at once.

He was one of their own.

A candidate.

That realization only deepened their shock.

A candidate stepping into this level of battle should have been courting death. Yet the youth before them was cutting down masked warriors with frightening ease, as though he were carving through paper.

These masked warriors were enemies that even seasoned Western Mansion veterans found troublesome. But in Ryan’s hands, they were no different from livestock awaiting slaughter. One sword, one life.

Such strength was utterly incomprehensible.

All candidates were under twenty years old. How could someone of this age possess power to this extent?

To the Western Mansion experts, Ryan’s sword speed was almost impossible to follow. By the time they registered his movement, the broken sword had already passed through an enemy’s neck. Many masked warriors never even realized what had happened before their heads flew off their shoulders.

It was terrifying.

Was this really someone who needed to sit for Western Mansion’s entrance examination?

In truth, what they did not know was that Ryan was merely swinging his sword casually, relying on raw Upper Exalt strength without even using martial techniques. If he did, the devastation would be far greater.

Under Ryan’s relentless advance, masked warriors pouring across the trestle were steadily cut down. Together with the Western Mansion experts, he forced them back step by step until the deck of the Void Warship was once again under Western Mansion’s control.

For the candidates aboard the ship, this meant temporary safety, at least as long as the Upper Exalts in the sky did not descend.

After driving the masked warriors back onto the trestle, Ryan stepped forward alone.

Sword in hand, he stood guard at the trestle’s edge.

No Western Mansion expert stood beside him.

Yet even so, no matter how many masked warriors charged forward, Ryan met them with a single sweep of his sword, cleaving them in two without pause. None could approach him. None could withstand him.

As long as he stood there, he was like an unscalable mountain.

Unmoving. Absolute.

The aura he exuded was calm, almost indifferent, yet carried an overwhelming sense of power.

Everyone was stunned.

One man, holding a single position, forcing countless enemies to retreat.

It was unbelievable.

Even Upper Exalts could not easily achieve such dominance.

The Western Mansion experts behind Ryan stared in disbelief, mouths agape.

They had already thought Ryan terrifying when he cut down masked warriors earlier. Now, watching him guard the trestle alone, standing against countless enemies, left them shaken to the core.

What made it even harder to accept was that this man was not an examiner, nor a Western Mansion elder, but merely a candidate preparing to enter Western Mansion.

On the deck, battle cries still echoed faintly, but inside the ship, an eerie silence fell.

No one spoke.

No one even seemed to breathe.

All eyes were fixed on Ryan.

From his attire, it was clear that he was just like them, a candidate from one of the thirty-six cities of the North District. Yet the gap between them was like heaven and earth.

At this moment, Ryan resembled a god of slaughter. Masked warriors rushed at him only to be cut down instantly. His clothes remained spotless, his posture relaxed, his presence as light as a drifting leaf.

That calmness made him seem even more terrifying.

“This… this is the man from before!”

Suddenly, a candidate cried out in shock, his face filled with excitement. “When we were about to be slaughtered earlier, it was this man who suddenly appeared beside us! Then those masked warriors just… died. I didn’t dare believe it at first, but now I’m sure. It was him! He saved us!”

“Yes! It was the same for us!” another candidate shouted. “More than a dozen masked warriors had us surrounded. We were done for. Then he appeared, and suddenly those warriors became sluggish and were killed by us. I didn’t believe it at the time, but now I know. It was him!”

“So it was him on our side too!”

“I saw him as well!”

Gasps rippled through the crowd.

“So it was him!”

“He saved us!”

“He’s our savior!”

“He’s a hero!”

Now everything made sense.

Why the masked warriors who had flooded the ship suddenly died.

Why despair turned into survival in the blink of an eye.

It was not that the masked warriors were weak.

It was not that reinforcements arrived.

It was not some miracle.

It was the man standing on the trestle right now.

It was Ryan.

He had silently stepped into the darkness and cut down every masked warrior who threatened their lives, saving all the candidates aboard the Void Warship.

When Ryan secretly rescued the candidates earlier, his speed had been so extreme that the naked eye could not capture it. As a result, no one knew who had acted.

But now, standing alone on the trestle and displaying overwhelming might, Ryan revealed his strength openly. Only then did everyone finally understand that everything which had happened before was his doing.

Shock spread like wildfire.

For those candidates who did not know Ryan, a single question rose in their minds at the same time.

Who was this person?

As for those who did know Ryan, the shock in their hearts was even greater, like waves crashing one after another. Candidates from Fengyue City, from Lingyin City, Bai Ye, Mu Xianling, and many others were all staring at him in disbelief.

They could not understand it.

How could Ryan be this powerful?

At that moment, a system prompt rang out in Ryan’s mind.

“Ding. Congratulations to player Ryan for leveling up. Current level: One-Star Upper Exalt.”

After slaughtering countless masked warriors, Ryan finally broke through. A faint yellow light flashed beneath his feet, and a powerful aura surged from his body.

From this moment on, he was a true One-Star Upper Exalt.

As his strength rose, the Remnant Shadow Sword in his hand grew even fiercer. Each swing carried violent gusts of wind, tearing through the air with terrifying force, as if it could shred the world itself.

Faced with this unstoppable slaughter, the masked warriors finally felt fear.

They retreated to the far end of the trestle, no longer daring to take a single step forward. Their bodies trembled as they stared at the young man standing alone at the bridge, as though looking at a monster.

How could someone so young possess such terrifying strength?

Fear of death was not limited to ordinary people. These masked warriors were no exception.

At that moment, an Upper Exalt from the Skeleton Warship noticed the abnormal situation on the trestle. He turned his head, shifted direction, and flew straight toward it.

Because the Skeleton Warship had more Upper Exalts than Western Mansion, some of their Upper Exalts were not fully tied down in battle. They acted as mobile forces, reinforcing wherever needed.

Now, one of them was heading straight for the trestle.

This was a disastrous development.

An Upper Exalt entering the trestle battlefield meant absolute suppression. None of the Western Mansion experts could spare a hand to stop him. All of the Western Mansion Upper Exalts were locked in fierce aerial combat, often facing multiple enemies at once and barely able to protect themselves.

As for Elder Lu, he was still tightly entangled with the Lord rank expert from the Skeleton Warship, unable to break free.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep