“The smell of death is similar to that found in Ashura City.”
Su Ping had learned the Sin Cutter from Dusk in Ashura City.
Ashura City was a place for the dead. There were no living creatures, only ghosts, skeletons and beings of the like. Dusk was the only living creature; he had once been a god servant who was later transformed into an Ashura by drinking the former Ashura King’s blood.
Su Ping was naturally surprised to find such a strong scent of death in the Valiant Academy, right at the heart of the Longyang Base City.
He touched those wisps of darkness with his fingers.
Those dark strands were immediately dispersed upon touch. Su Ping’s finger remained unharmed after making contact.
Since Dusk had asked him to drink the blood of the Ashura King, he had assimilated its strength. That was why he had been able to learn the Sin Cutter, to begin with. The Ashura King had once been the leader of that world. Therefore, the smell of death was completely unable to injure him.
Let’s see what’s at the end of this path.
Su Ping made up his mind. The Dragon Tower was indeed strange; it was ridiculous that the academy was letting its students train and test their skills in such a wicked and dangerous location. It was very likely that the teachers and students had failed to see the secret of the Dragon Tower.
Otherwise, the academy would have never allowed its students to enter. All of them belonged to influential families and were quite talented on their own right; losing any of them would be a tremendous loss for the human king as a whole.
But, how come he had stumbled across that secret?
Su Ping was quite confused.
Is it because of my good looks?
Of course not.
But, Su Ping was unable to think of anything else that made him stand out.
The system?
Not likely.
Was it because of the Solar Bulwark or the Ashura King’s energy?
Su Ping supposed those were the things that no one in the Valiant Academy could have.
After all, he got the Solar Bulwark from the system and it was a long-lost skill.
As for the Ashura King’s energy, it wasn’t a thing from the Blue Planet. The Ashura King family was large, and they had a Star Rank bloodline. Any of their members would be able to reach the Star Rank after some training.
Su Ping decided not to dwell on the subject.
He would immediately kill the insects whenever they crawled out from the flesh and blood walls.
As of that moment, he was barely able to kill the insects with his fingers alone.
Insects were larger and their shells harder in that place. They were quite similar to beast kings. Or, the weaker ones from before were like children, whereas those ones were the adults.
He began to wield the sword that Dusk had given him.
That was a Star Rank sword. The energy formerly contained in the sword had been enough to shatter space and time; the power had been drained but the sharpness remains the same.
Even so, Su Ping still found that killing those insects with the sword didn’t turn out to be easy. He felt the insects were even tougher than diamonds!
If this were a cultivation site, those insects could turn out to be quite good training partners.
Su Ping killed his way forward. While those adult insects were able to fight like legendary battle pet warriors-since they had extremely sharp claws and hard shells—Su Ping was not a weak fighter. He held the sword tightly in his hand.
Su Ping was getting tired due to continuous fighting. However, he realized to his delight he could still talk to them, even though he was unable to summon them to fight.
Besides, he could leverage the energy of his battle pets!
A titled battle pet warrior could also use energy synchronization! He could leverage his battle pets’ strength while they stayed in the contract space!
His battle pets could lend him energy constantly.
Of course, his battle pets were unable to give him all of their energy. There would be some loss in transmission as well. Despite that, Su Ping was still able to use the Little Skeleton’s energy, to make sure that he would always stay in his prime state. After all, the Little Skeleton was inside the contract space and didn’t need any energy.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He killed dozens of insects. He noticed that the corrosion and decay on the walls were getting worse. The flesh and blood were quite fresh at the very beginning, but the color on the walls was dull. The air was full of a foul and disgusting smell.
Su Ping was suddenly curious about what was inside the decaying flesh wall.
He found a spot and cut open the flesh wall with his sword.
The smell of decay was getting thicker as he went further in. Lucky for Su Ping, he had spent a lot of time in a harsh environment. Therefore, he was getting used to it after the initial stage of uncomfortableness.
He felt he was once again in a cultivation site.
Are those things bones? And those… Are they blood vessels?
Su Ping walked forward in the wall of flesh, making his way with his sword. To his surprise, the walls did seem to be flesh indeed, with bones and decaying blood vessels. The profound smell of blood was spreading everywhere. Su Ping cut the flesh again. He found himself in another passageway. It turned out that he had walked around and gone back to where he started. Is this the Dragon Tower or am I in some strange space? Su Ping wondered. He thought about the dragon bone tower in the Longtai Mountain. It had been left on the side for the dragon king to pick out a recipient of its legacy. Was that place the same thing?
Only Su Ping was unable to feel the tests. The insects could have killed legendary battle pet warriors.
After all, legendary battle pet warriors were forbidden to take out their battle pets, nor merge with them. They would not be able to win against those insects by only relying on themselves.
What the legendary battle pet warriors knew best was to merge with their battle pets, which could increase their strength over time.
The demonic things are becoming fewer and fewer and so are the insects, but the smell of death is getting stronger. What is that sound? Su Ping kept advancing. He heard something all of a sudden, and focused his attention to listen. The further ahead he was, the clearer that sound was.
Is that… some sort of roar?
Some ancient beast was snarling. That sound was not clearly audible. It still sounded as if located far, far away.
Besides, Su Ping heard a muffled sound, akin to something colliding.
That noise was getting clearer and clearer as well.
“… The world can end… but we will never stop. In the name of Heaven Killer…”
All of a sudden, originating from the sound’s general direction, something was shouting from a far, far off distance.
That shout was penetrating through time and space alike. Even though Su Ping had met many terrifying creatures, he had been stunned by that shout.
Is someone there?
Su Ping gazed into the distance but he didn’t perceive any breath.
He was sure that those words weren’t said to him.
He felt that it was like a clip of audio left in space and time, played on a phonograph. It was not someone speaking right there in reality. It was an echo in space. But how mighty would that creature have to be to prevent its shout from being erased over time?!
Su Ping suddenly felt scared. He didn’t want to go further.
However, he looked back and only saw darkness.
There was no way back.
After a moment of silence, Su Ping decided to press forward.
The number of insects was decreasing. New evil creatures swarmed out from the decaying flesh and blood; the evil creatures were large, much more powerful than the ones that Su Ping had seen before.
Those evil creatures had tangible bodies. They weren’t merely illusions anymore.
Finish it!
Su Ping made up his mind. He wielded his sword and a ray of dark sword-light lit up the bleak world.
Boom!
He poured Divine Energy into that move. The ray of sword light smashed away all the evil creatures up ahead.
Nothing would stop him!
Nothing!
Whoosh!
Su Ping dashed on, sword in hand.
He could hear demons whisper, and he could once again hear that roar from the distance. It was a roar of fury.
“… The world can end… but we will never
stop…”
Those words of anger stimulated Su Ping. He could no longer control his killing intent. He had been provoked.
Just the words themselves had made him furious. He could not even begin to think what kind of power was within those words.
Boom!!
Another evil creature died. Su Ping saw the end of the road all of a sudden.
The end!
It was another decaying wall of flesh. Whoosh!
Su Ping cut into the flesh wall, again and again, giving in. With a bang, the flesh wall finally gave in.
The moment he cut the wall open, the decaying and smell of breath swarmed out as if finally found a way out.
At the same time, Su Ping noticed that the snarl was getting further and further away and the voice’s voice was lowering. He had heard a shrill call and the next second, the view changed. The world he knew vanished in front of his eyes. Only a ray of glaring sword light was about to reach him. Su Ping had never seen anything like that. He felt as if something were cutting him and that he was dying. However, the next second, he saw that the ray of sword light was stopped. Dark blood was being spilled. A finger was cut and it fell.
All the views disappeared with a whoosh. Su Ping found that he was still standing in that passageway. He could see the blue sky from the cut.
The sky?
Su Ping was surprised. He stepped toward the cut. He crawled out and saw moss around the opening, as well as black iron chains nailed to the ground.
The illusion he had seen flashed past his eyes again. He could not help but look around. Soon after, he was able to see many tiny dots on the distant ground below. That was… Han Yuxiang, Xu Kuang, and the other students here. He was… at the top of the Dragon Tower?! Su Ping was unable to believe it. I went past the passageway and arrived at the top?!
“What…?”
Inside the Dragon Tower, just outside the first floor’s black door, stenographer Sen and his stenographer friends were stunned into stillness as they peered in front of their device. That signal climbed up from the 20th to the 33rd level!
The device has to be broken!
That has to be it!
The stenographers returned to their sane minds. They could see the shared confusion in each other’s eyes.
The device had never been broken. Ever since they became stenographers. “I, I must report to the Vice Principal,” Sen said in a hurry.
“Huh?”
Han Yuxiang felt something as he stood in front of the Dragon Tower. He looked up out of instinct to see the tower’s top. He thought he had heard a shout there. There was also something evil coming down from up there.
Han Yuxiang could not believe his eyes. He focused his eyes…
He saw a person standing there.
To be exact, flying there.
Su Ping?!
Wasn’t he in the tower?!
Han Yuxiang was baffled.
He had seen Su Ping entering the tower with his very own eyes and he had been waiting there. There was but one exit. When did Su Ping get there?
Mo Fengping noticed the strangeness of his teacher, so he looked up at the top as well, he had the same expression on his face soon after.
Whoosh!
Su Ping flew up.
He noticed that the smell of evil and death was trying to reach him. Some evil creatures were grimacing at him but they didn’t approach him, as if afraid of something.
Su Ping frowned. The evil creatures found at that spot were close to the Void State but they didn’t have that many special skills. Still, the smell of death around the evil creatures was enough to scare people to death. The evil creatures could even make beautiful illusions to confuse people. Are they afraid of light?
Su Ping was surprised.
The evil creatures were lingering in the shade. It was amazing for those evil creatures to keep being afraid of the sun.
The sun could not hurt people, unless someone got sunburnt.
If the evil creatures were afraid of sunlight, then he could put something over the cut to stop them from coming out.
Wait. I don’t think it has to do with the light. They’re afraid to come out, at all. Su Ping then noticed that one of the evil creatures was out of the shade but nothing happened.
Anyway, the evil creatures were not afraid of him.
They were fearlessly rushing at him.
I left a hole here. If those evil creatures get out, the academy, the entire Longyang Base City and even the Subcontinent District would be doomed.
Su Ping frowned.
He had created one great mess.
The number of evil creatures inside was large; some were close to the Void State. The academy would see the end of its days if they got out.
I wonder how much the academy knows about the Dragon Tower’s secret. I’ll have to ask them. Ah, so much trouble.
Su Ping was getting impatient. He had gone there to find his sister. Not only had he not found her yet when that happened. He didn’t like the academy at all. Of course, he could not allow himself to let those evil creatures and insects out.
He wouldn’t go as far as wanting something like destroying the world just because he had lost his sister.
Whoosh!
Su Ping flew away. Those evil creatures were unable to get out for the time being. He could go and ask Han Yuxiang first. At least, he had to inform someone, or else it would be too late to come up with a remedy.
Su Ping took a look back. That peak was massive. All of a sudden, he was seeing that illusion again.
The sword. The finger. The shout.
Su Ping thought of an impossible thing.
He flew away from the peak.
After moving away for thousands of meters, Su Ping looked back.
His blood froze.
