Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
They were from the same land as the Red Blood Palace. There never had been any serious feud or animosity between the two great factions, and the two could be considered allies.
Even if they did sign the Book of the Heart’s Oaths, the Red Blood Palace was unlikely to slaughter them intentionally. But they would lose all respect for them!
However, it would also be a great pity if the students of the Purple Cloud Palace had to give up the chance to enter the martial tower.
The martial tower was a place with an abundance of opportunities and rewards for the challengers. It had always been that way, and they would badly regret it if they simply gave up on it.
As they weighed up the odds, many of the students of Purple Cloud Palace were remorseful. If only they had stood up for the Red Blood Palace when they were being bullied by the Heavenly Knife Region earlier, they wouldn’t be in such a predicament right now.
After a long silence, Lü Chuyi bit her lip and stepped forward to face Su Yu. “Junior Brother Su, do we need to sign the Book of the Heart’s Oaths too?”
“Of course!” Bing Wuxin was the one who answered, showing no trace of mercy.
The looks on the faces of the Purple Cloud Palace students as they gloated while the Heavenly Knife Region attacked them were vividly etched on her memory. The payback had finally come!
“Did I ask you?” As gentle as Lü Chuyi always had been, she was speaking sternly, her words resonating with hints of hostility.
Bing Wuxin was a little startled. This seemingly random hostility perplexed her. “He’ll give you the same answer as me!” Bing Wuxin sneered. Su Yu’s ruthlessness and aloofness were even worse than hers.
Su Yu shook his head. “If you ask me, you’ll get a different response.”
“Hmm?” Bing Wuxin was stunned, and she cast a confused look at Lü Chuyi. Her woman’s instinct told her that there was a reason for Lü Chuyi’s hostility towards her. and the cause was right beside her—Su Yuxian!
Lü Chuyi’s pretty face was slightly flushed. Even though she had expected Su Yu to agree, she was feeling some strange emotions.
“You people should go back. I only have a limited amount of Vital Energy, and I’m unable to support the aperture for too long. I’m sorry about that,” Su Yu stated without any facial expression.
Raising his arm, he loosened his grasp on the seam, and the thin membranes closed up on their own, blending as one with the martial tower.
Lü Chuyi was frozen to the spot, as if she had fallen into an icehouse. The smile on her face faded gradually, replaced with a look of disbelief. She had a strong feeling that Su Yuxian was the other man deep in the depths of her heart, Su Yu.
Perhaps she was too used to him doing anything for her as if it was just a fair and reasonable routine. Therefore, when he rejected her request unexpectedly, she found it hard to cope with. It confused her.
“We do not owe each other debts of kindness anymore and have no more relations with each other. Besides, would you people really sign the Book of the Heart’s Oaths?” Su Yu shook his head, and turned to vanish into the martial tower.
Anyone would possibly sign the Book of the Heart’s Oaths, except Gu Taixu. It was totally impossible for him! Firstly, how would an arrogant, prideful person like him bow to Su Yu?
Secondly, once he signed, it would be the death of him! Su Yu could kill him while he wasn’t even allowed to fight back. Why would he make a vow that would cost him his life?
There was only one explanation as to why he allowed Lü Chuyi to come forward and test Su Yu. It was part of Gu Taixu’s master plan! The target wasn’t necessarily Su Yu; it could be anyone. Once successful, it could serve to disrupt Su Yu’s pace, while Gu Taixu would be able to forcibly enter the martial tower with his magical powers, and bring all the people of the Purple Cloud Palace inside effortlessly.
Gu Taixu couldn’t possibly know that an invisible silk thread was creating the opening. Gu Taixu might be able to enter the martial tower, but he had no control over the aperture.
Lü Chuyi was stupefied for a moment. A watery mist brimmed in her eyes, but she wasn’t in the least resentful. How could she be, when she had chosen Gu Taixu?
“Useless!” When she returned to Gu Taixu’s side, she was greeted by a blatant insult.
Since Gu Taixu had returned from his so-called errand three days ago, his attitude toward her had undergone a complete, drastic change. He started chiding her and humiliating her on the slightest pretext. It was totally unlike his previous gentle and thoughtful manner to her.
Despite not knowing the reason, Lü Chuyi dared not protest due to her own guilty conscience, and she could only bear it in silence.
Besides, she strongly believed that her choice wasn’t the wrong one. It certainly wasn’t.
“Let’s go! The beast yard is the final station of the Glittering Jewel Wonderland, and the most important one!” Gu Taixu turned and proclaimed. To him, the martial tower was useful, but it had its limits. His real goal was the beast yard.
Throughout the entire Jiuzhou continent, the last type of the Blood of the Real Spirit could only be found in the beast yard of the Glittering Jewel Wonderland.
Once the Body of Nine Spirits was accomplished, no one below the Mortal Fairies would be able to rival him anymore! Not the starry sky elites, not Mo Tianxuan.
“Did you reject your mistress so staunchly because you were afraid that I’d get jealous?” Bing Wuxin chuckled.
Su Yu shook his head. “Let’s go. We’ve already been delayed for two hours.”
All the students of the Red Blood Palace entered the martial tower and began their quest to negotiate its levels.
Swish!
Upon entering, Su Yu immediately felt a wave of space power and was transported to another independent space. Bing Wuxin was also transported away.
Su Yu’s surroundings were brightly illuminated, and it seemed as though he was in some kind of simplistic arena. At the center of the arena was an extremely realistic, lifelike puppet. Su Yu was flabbergasted by how realistic it actually was. If he hadn’t realized that he was in the Glittering Jewel Wonderland, he would have been unable to resist the strong urge to pounce onto it.
“Mo Tianxuan!!”
The puppet was Mo Tianxuan!
It was much younger and more youthful than the Mo Tianxuan whom Su Yu knew. It looked like a teenage girl of around 18 or 19 years of age. But judging from the temperament and facial features, it was undoubtedly Mo Tianxuan.
Suddenly, Su Yu recalled another piece of information that he had obtained. The story masters changed every year, something that was based on the challengers who had negotiated the greatest number of stories the previous year.
The greatest gate-crasher of the last batch would have their various capabilities recorded by the martial tower and would be configured to become the next story master. Mo Tianxuan happened to be the challenger with the best, most remarkable performance in negotiating the stories of the martial tower a hundred years ago.
Seeing her, a smile danced on Su Yu’s lips. “The teenage you? I can’t fight the current you, but I will be able to defeat the young, wimpy girl that you once were?”
With a vicious smile, Su Yu stepped onto the arena.
The puppet was completely motionless.
“It’s as I heard from the other challengers. The story master won’t ever initiate the attack if the challenger doesn’t attack.” Su Yu nodded. With a flip of his palm, he retrieved the eight round balls and placed them around Mo Tianxuan.
The presence of the Meteor Light Stream Great Formation could serve as a precaution. After all, no one knew how powerful Mo Tianxuan actually was back in the martial tower.
In the process of devising the formation, Su Yu had noticed that his movements had slowed down a lot. It was not just his movements, but his mental processes too. He was approximately 30 percent slower than in the outside world.
That was the biggest obstacle of the martial tower—slowed down and distorted time! All challengers would enter a state of slow-motion here in the tower.
“Let’s begin!” Once ready, Su Yu struck out a sword of Vital Energy from a certain distance and aimed it at Mo Tianxuan.
When the sword of Vital Energy was thirty feet away, Mo Tianxuan, whose eyes were tightly shut, finally responded. Slowly, her eyes opened. Two intense, powerful streams of air shot out from her dull and lifeless eyes. The sword of Vital Energy dissipated in the blink of an eye.
At the same time, waves of turbulent demonic energy rolled out from Mo Tianxuan’s body. Numerous demonic beasts transfigured from demonic energy charged towards Su Yu as they howled and shrieked.
Su Yu was fearless. He performed the Nine Dragons Demon Subduing Art, and six demonic dragons pounced forward. They became tangled up in a scuffle with the demonic beasts transformed from demonic energy.
Right at that moment, Su Yu felt a wave of cold chilling air closing in on him out of nowhere.
It turned out that Mo Tianxuan was holding a pitch-black broken sword in her hand, and she was lithely slashing through the demonic energy and aiming for where Su Yu stood.
Su Yu chortled. He could tell the stage that Mo Tianxuan’s cultivation had been at back then by this sword. Solely judging from the reservoir of Vital Energy, her cultivation should be ninth-grade Almighty. However, the power of the sword far surpassed her cultivation!
The space in the martial tower was disrupted by the strike of the sword, forming scattered, chaotic seams. The intense, harsh sword energy even made the space in the martial tower quiver. This could certainly rival the power of an All Creations Old Monster!
In terms of capacity, Mo Tianxuan certainly wasn’t any weaker than the greatest experts of the region and was at the same level as Bi Lingtian and Gu Taixu.
But it didn’t mean that Mo Tianxuan’s power stopped at this extent in her adolescent years. After all, the martial tower had only engraved the power she displayed but not her concealed strengths.
As the sword energy struck towards him, Su Yu was prepared. “Up!”
Boom! Boom!
All of a sudden, the several round pearls arranged underneath Mo Tianxuan’s feet began revolving instantly, forming the Meteor Light Stream Great Formation!
The formation generated a powerful absorptive force. Even Mo Tianxuan was confined at the center of the formation. The sword energy that surged out was drawn back by the formation and was forcefully shattered into pieces by the eight revolving round pearls.
“Slaying the world with a sword!” Suddenly, Mo Tianxuan spoke, and the pitch-black broken sword in her hand spontaneously emitted an extremely strong demonic energy.
The demonic energy transformed into millions of swords and shot towards Su Yu. It was as if dark clouds had gathered above his head.
The scene greatly amazed Su Yu. That was the second level of the Path of Swords, the Imperishable Sword Body! Mo Tianxuan is even a master of the Path of Swords? Su Yu had just discovered a secret that no one knew.
According to the rumors circulating on the continent, Mo Tianxuan had nothing to do with the Path of Swords. Ever since her name became renowned on the continent, she had been rampaging the world with her flying guillotine, never a sword.
The Mo Tianxuan puppet before Su Yu’s eyes changed his understanding of Mo Tianxuan.
Hardly anyone on the Jiuzhou continent could accomplish the Imperishable Sword Body, which was the paramount level of the Path of Swords, and would be phenomenal beyond measure if combined with cultivation!
The most distinct example was Bing Wuxin. How powerful would the Imperishable Sword Body performed by a ninth-grade Almighty be? Even Old Monsters who had just ventured into All Creations dared not be reckless.
And since Mo Tianxuan was the greatest All Creations, the power would be amplified several times if she performed the Imperishable Sword Body. Just how remarkable would that be?
Su Yu had to reconsider his approach in avenging himself and sorting things out with Mo Tianxuan after returning to the outside world.
This woman is, in fact, a person who hides a great deal., she’s in fact, the fellow who hides the most things! Su Yu felt as if he had found out a groundbreaking secret of Mo TIanxuan.
The Imperishable Sword Body crashed through the Meteor Light Stream Formation and surged towards Su Yu.
Su Yu was calm and composed. There was no one else here, so he could use his powers to the greatest extent.
He finally had somewhere to test his sword!
Su Yu turned his palm to grip the sword. The sword sheath on his back opened, and three blades of long swords glimmering with silver splendor quivered non-stop.
The shocking sword energy that was emitted billowed skywards, moving through the air with silver brilliance. The thousand blades of light swords shattered into smithereens under the unassailable sword energy.
With a flip of his hand, Su Yu drew out a blade and struck at the Mo Tianxuan puppet. This move was simple and plain, lacking all skills. There was no sword energy. There was not even the shrieking sound of the sword.
Nonetheless, the Mo Tianxuan puppet turned illusory and intangible. Inch by inch, it became like bubbles, alongside the broken sword in her hand.
Ding!
With a crisp sound, two objects fell from the illusory spot. One of them was a round-shaped crystal ball the size of a palm. It must have been the promised crystal, the reward for defeating the story master. A miniature, delicate star was carved on the crystal. It was a one-star crystal.
The second object was a piece of bone. Several strings of numbers were carved on it. Those were the points Su Yu collected from successfully negotiating the first story. He had received one point.
Is this piece of bone the container used to record points? Su Yu thought intently for a moment as he stared at the bone before putting it into his pocket.
After cleaning up the mess, Su Yu did not enter the second story right away. Instead, he stood on his spot and sank into deep thoughts.
The Mo Tianxuan puppet had a very strong potential for attack, especially the third strike, which is of the All Creations level. With the cultivation of the current challengers, apart from the greatest expert of each region, hardly anyone can fight it off!
However, her defensive power is rather weak. If one manages to inflict harm upon her by catching her off guard and fending off her third strike, they should be able to pass this level.
