That protagonist is trash; I could do better!

Hall shrugged. "As you can see, I surrender."

Ishtar's expression remained unchanged. "Surrender? You've offended me time and time again. Do you think you can just let it go with a simple surrender?"

"I don't think I can answer your questions or tolerate your threats without reason, just as you wouldn't give alms to humans without reason."

“I am a goddess, they are human, and so are you.”

Hall shook his head and said, "I was born in a modern world without gods. In my eyes, gods are no different from humans; they are just individuals with great power. I apologize for my previous offense and hope that we can establish an equal relationship."

“It seems we can’t reach an agreement.” Ishtar said with a look of disgust.

"I have surrendered."

“Yes, so I plan to beat you half to death before asking.” Ishtar smiled slightly, but her golden eyes held no hint of amusement.

"Wait a minute." Hall sighed, deploying a transmutation circle to fix himself to the ground. "Please beat me half to death and then throw me into this magical barrier for treatment."

Hall also severed his pain receptors.

“I will do that, so please use magic to protect your body, otherwise I might accidentally kill you.” Ishtar said cruelly with a smile.

boom!

Hall felt dizzy and realized he had been kicked into the air. His magic eye saw Ishtar rushing towards him and delivering a flying kick to his chest, followed by a series of flying kicks.

boom!boom!boom!boom!

The goddess Venus, while beating someone, roared in exasperation, "Humans! Humans! Mere humans!"

I'll beat you until you cry!

"You ungrateful bastard!"

Two ribs were broken.

The heart and lungs ruptured due to the impact.

Massive internal bleeding.

Hall silently maintained the body-enhancing magic and recorded the injuries.

Ishtar did not use any of the goddess's power, but her physical abilities surpassed those of ordinary Servants.

After ravaging him for about ten minutes, Ishtar, having vented her anger, threw the nearly dead Hall into the healing barrier.

"Are you mute? You don't even utter a sound." Ishtar put her right hand on her hip, her face full of displeasure.

Hall remained calm throughout, as he felt no pain. Ishtar, though ruthless, was also measured in her attacks, and her aerial Bajiquan routine only left Hall half-dead.

The injuries to the body healed quickly within the barrier, except for the necrotic right hand, which showed no change whatsoever.

"This makes us both feel much better."

Hall stood up and tried to heal his right arm with magic. His magic eye observed the changes and found that he was injured by the goddess's power. He had offended the goddess and was therefore affected by her power, a manifestation of a curse.

Outside the barrier, Ishtar, noticing Hall's injuries, said unhappily, "I give up."

She came to Hall's side, extended her right hand and placed it in front of Hall's right hand, her palm shimmering with golden light.

The wound on the cursed arm is visibly healing.

"Thank you," Hall said politely.

Ishtar put her hands on her hips and glared at Hall with displeasure: "Now, it's your turn to answer my question."

After a moment's thought, Hall replied, "Oh, Ereshkigal is one of the members of the Three Goddess Alliance."

"As expected."

“I have a bet with Ereshkigal: either I change her mind about destroying humanity, or my soul will belong to her a year from now. Based on the terms of the bet, we need to have frequent contact.”

Ishtar, who had been listening intently, covered her mouth, unable to hide her laughter, and mocked gleefully, "Pfft! Hahahaha, are you serious? She's the goddess of the underworld, the cruel and merciless goddess of the underworld. Although her personality has improved somewhat due to the vessel she's in, killing the living is still her job, her responsibility, and her way of being, pfft pfft~"

Ishtar, floating in mid-air, burst into laughter.

"At least her personality isn't as bad as yours now," Hall said, scoffing.

Ishtar rolled her eyes at Hall: "I didn't ask you to say anything unnecessary."

Ishtar scrutinized Hall intently, resting her chin on her right hand, and said seriously, "In my opinion, you have no chance of winning. Even if you change her view of humanity, she might still hide it in order to get you."

Do you care about me?

Ishtar's pretty face stiffened, and she retorted fiercely, "Huh? Why should I care about the life or death of a human? I'm just worried about Ereshkigal. The me from the other world has nothing to do with the me now. Don't think I have any special feelings for you!"

She became more and more agitated as she spoke, her pretty face flushed red, she clenched her fists trying to hold back, and then growled in exasperation, "I really did kill you."

Hall looked at her with a half-smile. If Ereshkigal inherited Rin Tohsaka's gentle nature, then Ishtar was probably just arrogant.

“No, killing you like this would be too easy on you.” Ishtar grabbed Hall’s face and forcibly turned it to the side, revealing the castle that was half collapsed.

"See this? This is the second time my temple has been in such a terrible state. I finally managed to repair it this morning, and now it's like this again. How are you going to compensate me?"

“We can just build another one. Besides, it’s better to destroy such a vulgar castle and temple.”

"Is it your mouth? You annoying thing." Ishtar's pretty face darkened as she pinched Hall's mouth hard and shook it.

Hall was unable to move. His gaze shifted downwards and saw her slender arms. Ishtar, with her near-complete Spirit Origin, definitely had a power level of over A-rank.

The devilish muscles are truly impressive.

After being put down, Hall summoned three earth elemental spirits, each only the size of a finger and emitting a faint yellow glow.

They flew towards the ruins of the castle, where the stones illuminated by the pale yellow light melted away like ice and snow, and stone pillars rose up one after another, rapidly constructing buildings.

"She's quite capable," Ishtar said, watching the scene with surprise.

This is not something ordinary elemental spirits can do; the core etheric crystals of these elemental spirits contain the foundational knowledge of alchemy.

In other words, they are elemental spirits that operate on the principles of Hall's alchemical foundation.

In less than half an hour, a brand-new temple was completed, retaining the simple style of Uruk architecture, abandoning superfluous decorations, with an overall grand and majestic appearance, while the details are more exquisite and full of structural beauty.

In Uruk, Hall had a lot of exposure to Uruk's architecture. Due to the ever-increasing population, there was a need to build houses. Ever since the earth elemental spirit demonstrated the miracle of building a house in one minute, Hall had become Uruk's most famous architect.

Ishtar's mouth gaped slightly, surprised by the building before her.

"How was it?" Hall felt a sense of accomplishment.

Ishtar rolled her eyes at Hall and said reluctantly, "Well... it's about the same as before, and the most important thing about a house isn't its appearance, but its comfort."

Ishtar and Hohr entered the castle, which was much better than the previous enclosed space. The interior was bright and spacious, like the Uruk Palace, and the statues and paintings were full of artistic atmosphere.

One of the murals caught Ishtar's attention: a woman with an indistinct face and giant horns on her head stood on the shore, gazing at the land.

Ishtar stared blankly at the mural, wondering if it was just her imagination but she could sense the sadness emanating from it. She couldn't help but ask, "Who is she?"

“Tiamat, don’t worry about it. It’s just a mural I created on a whim.”

"How could we not care! She is the Mother Goddess of Creation! And speaking of Tiamat, there is already a Mother of Beasts in the north."

"That's a fake."

"I can see that too, but for a human like you to know what a mother looks like, am I underestimating you?"

Hall turned and left, waving his hand and saying, "Your temple has been restored. Please come to work in Uruk tomorrow."

"Although you're not as good as before, I'll let you off this time. Be grateful for the goddess's magnanimity."

Chapter 392 Mom, I'm not human anymore!

On the way back to Uruk, Hall kept thinking about his own strength. Without prior preparation, he had no chance of winning against the gods, and even a sneak attack would only cause Ishtar some trouble.

Although the impact is not significant, it is still too passive.

The Star Cup, while a trump card, can make Hall invincible, it cannot offer much help in achieving Hall's desired goals.

It's like Hall wants to buy something but has no money, and all he has is a nuclear button.

"How can we improve our own strength? Strong strength can ensure that the plan does not get out of control."

Hall lay under the trees on the hillside, sunlight filtering through the lush leaves and dappling the grass, like scattered stars.

Gazing at the north wall, Hall fell into deep thought, half of his thinking ability gone.

As for martial arts, Hall's current skill level cannot be said to have reached its limit. By the standards of a Servant's skill, it is at least at the A+ level, and there is no possibility of further improvement.

Hall's martial arts training relied on the magic eye's spiritual calculation function. The experience he gained in one hour of calculation was greater than that of a martial artist who had trained for ten years. With the help of body alchemy, he reached the pinnacle of the martial arts field in less than a month.

But that's all. When Hall reached the pinnacle of martial arts, he realized that there was a realm in martial arts that could not be broken through by simply being "correct".

To go further, one must integrate all one's life's work into it and break through the constraints.

Abandon magic and alchemy, and instead integrate these foundational knowledge into martial arts.

At that time, it will be like a nuclear bomb punch, with a magnetic field rotating a million horsepower.

It sounded wonderful, but Hall simply gave up. Firstly, he knew he couldn't do it, and secondly, even if he could, it would be like picking up a sesame seed and losing a watermelon compared to the spirit summoning spell he was about to complete.

Hall knew that Miyamoto Musashi was someone who had reached a similar level, who integrated military strategy and Buddhist teachings into swordsmanship and created a unique Buddhist sword that could sever destiny, curses, and karma.

Miyamoto Musashi still believed that he had not yet reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship.

Even if we exhaustively explore the limits and reduce existence itself to the point where it cannot be reduced any further, there will still be something remaining.

What she seeks is the realm of zero, which severs existence itself.

"One can imagine that the level of swordsmanship that Miyamoto Musashi pursued was ultimately too far away for him," Hall muttered to himself.

The reason why we know the ultimate swordsmanship that Miyamoto Musashi pursued is because there was already a precedent, a being who reached the realm of zero—the Awakener.

The only human being to reach enlightenment and become a savior.

The so-called Zero Realm is the sword of judgment, cutting away all karmic obstacles, causes and effects, and existence in the world.

It's not about people; its essence is to erase cause and effect, to remove any trace of their existence from this world, as if they never existed.

Similar to King Solomon's first Noble Phantasm.

This ability to make judgments is merely the tip of the iceberg displayed by enlightened beings, and the only way to reach this state is through spiritual enlightenment.

Another example is the first Hassan, who walked through death, and only by being neither alive nor dead could he comprehend his destiny.

Hall considered himself inferior to these exceptional individuals who might only appear once every thousand years of human history.

There is nowhere else to go in the path of martial arts.