After about five minutes to clearing and covering half the distance to his destination, Min Hong began to notice that it was gradually becoming harder for him to proceed at his previous speed.

The skeleton which he had previously used only one strike to destroy were now still standing even after striking them twice…

​​

Then the realization of the true difficulty of the test hit him like an escaping stolen vehicle…

"The closer I get to the end, the stronger they become…" Min Hong cringed anxiously at the thought…

But he still pressed on anyways as his speed dropped significantly.

Fwoom! Fwoosh! Shoom!

Three skeletons threw the spears they were wielding with the force of a Peak Emperor stage expert at Min Hong, as he used the chaotic steps to its fullest extent only to barely evade the three spears, but then all the hairs on Min Hong's body stood on end as found himself within a preplanned encirclement of black skeletons in a special formation.

In this formation, about thirty skeletons with close combat weapons surrounded Min Hong, whilst about another 70 skeletons wielding ranged weapons formed another ring behind the first ones.

Once the first ring attacks Min Hong, the second ring would attack Min Hong from behind piercing through their counterparts.

It was a deadly encirclement to Min Hong who fell gradually and gradually into a cornered disadvantage.

There was one time where a skeleton attacked Min Hong with a short sword and the moment he blocked the attack with his left ninjato, looking to destroy the skeleton with his right, another skeleton actually stabbed its bony spear at Min Hong through his own comrade…

Min Hong who was caught off guard by the skeleton which had a six-foot-long bony spear poking out of its ribs at him, had no choice but to ignore destroying the skeleton as he used his right ninjato to block this sneak attack...

But that left him open to another skeleton who stabbed a bony sword at the back of Min Hong's head, Min Hong who had only about a hundredth of a breath to respond didn't panic like he would have...

Instead, he calmly tilted his head to the side and used the momentum he was using to evade the sneak attack to barge into the skeleton which was blasted into bits and pieces by Min Hong's metal-like body structure…

Min Hong then picked a skeleton which he channeled all his focus on, before killing it and escaping his entrapment through that tiny window.

He looked back and saw that, if he had been a hair's breadth later to escape that entrapment, he would have been swarmed to death by the hundreds of skeletons that were just piling over each other like their survival depended on it.

Min Hong looked back and saw that he had already fought his way past 800 meters of black bones, then he looked forward and saw the grey skeletons that were awaiting him in front whilst radiating the aura of a Peak 2 Star Nascent Soul stage…

Min Hong gripped his 'soul slayer blades' and urged his black-robed personality as Daniel King responded in his head;

"What do you want?" "I need your help… I need someone to watch my back and there is no other person I would rather give that job to than myself…"

Min Hong mentally conversed with his alter ego as he fended off the skeletons that were now beginning to overwhelm him.

"Hurry!"

Min Hong used his ten percent access to nudge Daniel King who was still stunned speechless that his alter ego could actually come and beg him.

But after being nudges by Min Hong, he finally sighed and replied; "Fine, leave your mental and soul sense for me to control…"

In that moment, Min Hong's mind began to focus solely on any individual or group of skeleton he was fighting with, whilst leaving his rear to the protection of Daniel King…

Then just like that, a bipolar Min Hong descended on the battle field and instantly, all the skeletons could see and sense the difference.

They noticed that no matter how much they planned another entrapment and sneak attack for Min Hong, he would always only hover on the edge of falling within it but eventually end up dodging it.

In fact, they couldn't even stab him whilst he wasn't looking, it was like he had developed something like a seventh sense or something [like Spiderman's spider sense…].

What's more, his movement meld so well with his use of chaotic shadow steps so much that even Min Hong couldn't tell if he was the one using it or black-robed Daniel King…

When an expert is fighting using a movement technique, the expert can only decide to use an attacking movement art when he wants to attack or use a defensive movement technique when he wants to evade attacks, no expert had ever done both simultaneously…

But here was Min Hong, using the 'chaotic part' of the technique to attack whilst also dodging sneak attacks with 'shadow part' of his 'Dao Realm' [Chaotic Shadow Steps]…

Then before long, Min Hong had cut through another 150 meters of grey skeletons, before he looked forward and saw the white colored skeletons which filled the remaining fifty meters…

These white skeletons weren't crowded and in fact an area of about forty meters around them was devoid of any other skeletons.

Furthermore, they were only twelve in number and were wielding different assault weapons, from bony bats, to staffs, knuckle bracelets and all…

The weapons these ones were using were all hands on as they were giving Min Hong the vibes that this was going to be his greatest challenge ever, since he stepped into this pagoda…

Min Hong then looked at the open space around these white skeletons and decided to test his theory, so he stabbed his sword into a skeleton which instantly lost the red glow within its sockets signifying its death before grabbing another one and then throwing it into the 50 meter space around these white skeletons…

Then as if trying to confirm his theory, one of the skeleton which was wearing the knuckle braces took one step and instantly covered a ten meter space.

Then with two more steps, it arrived at the incoming skeleton and caught it by its neck before pressing his index finger on its neck, snapping it in the process and then finally popping off its head with a flick of its thumb…

Min Hong saw the scene and cringed warily at this skeleton that was capable of making a short work of the same skeleton it would take him almost four to five strikes to kill…

But at this point, he would rather be out of the encirclement of these Peak 2 Star Nascent Soul stage swarm of skeletons and face only the twelve 4 Star Nascent Soul stage white skeletons he was seeing in front of him…

Though, it was going to be a tougher and more dangerous fight, he still preferred their definite numbers…

Ten Minutes later, Min Hong finally arrived at the edge of the demarcated space these white skeletons had been respectfully given by their lower ranked comrades.

Then he stepped into the range and just as he was expecting, the swarm of grey skeletons pouring over in his directions stopped in their tracks as the strangest thing happened…

All the black and grey skeletons which were previously swarming at Min Hong stopped and gathered their looks over to the next fight Min Hong was about to have.

All of a sudden, Min Hong realized that these skeletons which were supposed to be mindless killing machines had actually turned themselves into spectators watching a death match take place before their eyes…

Taking the step Min Hong placed into the restricted area as him accepting the challenge, several grating sounds of cheers erupted from the jaws of these skeletons as Min Hong heard a zooming sound and felt a gust of air brush past his skin.

"Watch out!"

Boom!

An earth shattering explosion occurred as the scene displayed the ten-foot-tall white skeleton who had killed his counterpart earlier bending one knee with his entire arm buried into a hole in the ground.

Then about ten meters away, an off balanced Min Hong staggered into view as he stabilized himself after taking a single firmly planted step backwards…

Then the white skeleton removed its arm which had now dug a 2-foot-deep hole into the ground and turned his gaze to the Min Hong who was now about 13 meters away from it…

Min Hong gazed at the deep hole on the ground and cringed as he reminded himself; "That could have been my head…"

Min Hong's eyes which were now wide in shock mentally thanked his ancestors first, both dead and alive, before he then thanked his alter ego who had alerted him to the blistering fast fist strike of the white skeleton…

Though, the skeleton's fist strike was fast, there was no way it would have been faster than Min Hong's thought speed.

Thus, all Min Hong had left to do was react in time to dodge the attack which he did easily with the help of his 'Dao Realm' [Chaotic Shadow Steps]…

Min Hong took a deep breath and calmed his tensed heart as a drop of sweat trickled down the sides of his face, then he looked towards group of a dozen 4 Star Nascent Soul stage white but life-threatening skeletons in front of him.

Then, just as he was about to attack he felt his veins surge with battle intent as he smirked slightly.

"I guess it has been too long since he last had a blood boiling fight…" He thought as he could feel the eagerness of the black-robed Daniel King within his veins.

Then as if confirming his speculations, black-robed Daniel King voiced; "Shall we?", as Min Hong replied with a beaming smile;

"After you!"

The white skeletons who were looking at the almost sorry Min Hong suddenly begin to smile instantly put up their guard against him.

But for Min Hong, who was just very happy that he had found a common ground on which he can bond with black-robed Daniel King, he just pulled out his sword and released his control over the lower part of his body.

The moment he did that, his legs bolted forward as they flashed in a modern earth tactical zigzag pattern of approach.

Clearly, Daniel King was already merging the [Chaotic Shadow Steps] with his earthly fighting pattern…

Min Hon who was being moved in a pattern which he had never moved before, couldn't help but whistle in delight at the way this new movement pattern made it easier for him to pick an opponent per time, without having to worry about the others swarming him with attack.

In five steps Min Hong who noticed his control over his physical body was now perfect arrived in front of one of the skeletons who had a bony bat in his hands and slashed in a diagonal X manner with his twin ninjato as the skeleton took care of one sword strike whilst another white skeleton wielding a bony sword took care of the second slash before that knuckle-brace wielding skeleton also bolted in between his two comrades whilst showing Min Hong a large fist decorated with ragged and jagged bony spikes homing in on him at a breakneck speed…

Then when the fist was about ten inches from him, Min Hong raised his left leg in one fluid motion and bent his right leg sending his upper body falling until backwards until it was parallel with the ground [See Neo in Matrix evading the bullets from a Smith]…

The knuckle-braced skeleton which was caught off guard flew through Min Hong's previous position tragically missing its target as Min Hong planted the center of his head into the ground before borrowing its momentum to complete a smooth and well drilled backflip…

Min Hong rose to his feet stunned by the stunt he just pulled…

Actually, it was the black-robed Daniel King who initiated Min Hong's [Neo - matrix] move, but the part where he planted the center of his head on the ground to complete a back flip was subconsciously done by him…

But before he could think too long about it, Daniel King's voice rang in his head; "That is the advantage of the ten percent of me you have within your personality…"

Min Hong then remembered that though the idea was suggested to him by the black-robed Daniel King, the action was still taken by him because he was the one controlling his upper body…

But what made him stunned was that the suggestion and the action he took followed each other seamlessly in the same amount of time it take him to process a thought.

"This is just a tiny bit of what we could potentially achieve in battle…" black-robed Min Hong added as Min Hong actually thought out loud; "Fantastic!"

The skeletons who were about to attack Min Hong froze in their steps as they looked towards each other speechlessly with an expression that explicitly read; "This guy is nuts!"