Heaven's Greatest Professor

There was no daytime or nighttime in the Phantom Accursed Valley. It was always the dimming light that sometimes brimmed a little brighter or darkened into intangible darkness.

With the amount of time Warden fought with the images, he forgot how long he had been here. He had already drunk a healing potion even with his high recovery attribute to help with all the wounds he received.

Thankfully, there were places for him to hide and contemplate over his gains from the fight. His predecessors who came to train their intent have left many a place to rest up.

Throughout the fights, Warden had managed to manifest bits of his intent on more than two occasions as he put his spearmanship on the line without using void energy.

The echoes were a mysterious, unique existence. Although Warden managed to defeat them, as they disappeared in time, thinning out in their mellow ghostly forms, he was sure they would manifest again in due time. Perhaps it would take months or even years, but they surely would appear again. The valley itself was accursed. He guessed how it got the name of it.

The batches of malevolent spirits were only the lowest of what the valley had to offer, yet they put him under terrible stress with dozens of cuts into his body. Only with his regeneration ability and the potion did he manage to endure the fight for hours.

But it was still not enough. He needs to test his spear more and put himself under a lot of stress so that he would have no other option other than a breakthrough. Thankfully, he knew exactly what he needed to do.

As he came out of his meditation, he found June's figure standing a few paces away with a contemplative look in her eyes.

"How long has it been?" Warden asked.

"It has been about three hours for me," June said. "So about a day and a half for you. You seem to be enduring well."

Warden laid out a sigh and nodded.

"Although the potion would have kept you fed for the time," June said as she brought out her dimension cube, "I prepared some food for you."

She brought out half a dozen lunch boxes as she was familiar with his ravenous hunger. Not to mention the exhaustive state he would be in, he would need various essence-heavy diets for the days.

Warden opened a lunch box and a delightful expression appeared across his face as the tantalizing aroma entered his nostrils. They looked mouthwatering.

"I hope they will last you a couple of days," June said.

Warden did not waste a moment to devour the food. He gobbled them quickly, chewing through them like a ravenous animal.

June watched him finish from the sidelines for a moment and then disappear from the spirit realm.

"Thanks, June," Warden said, but his words went unheard as her figure had already disappeared.

With his stomach filled with food, it was about time he ventured deeper into the valley to fight against more formidable intent. Warden decided not to betray the trust she had put in him. He decided he would manifest his intent before the next time she came.

Of course, before that, he needed to take care of his articles. Warden immediately stripped down his legendary articles and shoved them inside along with his meals.

The two legendary pieces of equipment helped a lot in his defence. When Warden could not endure it anymore, they stood as the wall between the evil spirits to protect him. He hated to admit it, but those moments came more occasionally than he had even imagined whenever there were more than a few evil spirits.

However, having those two legendary articles left him with a lot of leeway. He was unable to really test himself against the true intents of ancient warriors. Even in their remnant forms, their will and intent twisted into evil power, they showed mastery over the weapons Warden had seen very rarely.

A spear advances through obstacles. Warden needed to put himself under the obstacles and come out without breaking.

The echoes deeper into the valley had unique intent in them through they were less in numbers. They had somehow managed to incorporate something else into their intent, like slaughter, nightmares, blood, yin ice, anything negative.

Warden moved through stealthily even though he did not find any ghost nearby. To be honest, they appear out of nowhere, Warden wouldn't like to test his regenerative powers getting callous.

Finally, he came across two echos of powerful intent who were clashing with one another. But as Warden appeared in the vicinity they joined hands to fight him. Unfortunately for Warden, both of them were swordsmen. Although all intent follows similar criteria to manifest, he would have liked to face some ancient spear master with horrific intent.

Warden fought them for a few minutes as cuts began to appear on his body, his fine tunic tearing up easily. Of course, the echoes had weakened as well in the fight, as Warden was getting more and more confident in manifesting his intent.

Then it appeared. Before this, all echos only passed like wind, but this one crackled like in low-pitch screech

It was huge and could be called the boss among the bunch, standing over 10 meters tall, holding a similarly large spear in its hands. Its form is more materialistic than most other echoes as well, as it screeched in his direction.

Warden felt a chill in his spine, but he did not back down. Wasn't this exactly what he was looking for? Why would he run out from it?

Since he would be fighting this one alone, he could put all his attention into it. The boss's echo shot at him, brimming with intent which incorporated with icy energy.

Without his void energy, Warden wasn't sure how long he would last against such an adversary. Within a couple of minutes, he was under the siege of the terrible icy intent of the spear. The remnants spear style was almost most intact in this form and not just some mumbo-jumbo chaotic moves.

This echo knew how to block.