Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Despite having nature-defying divine powers, Han Fei did not get a chance to use them. It was just empty talk.
With great reluctance, Han Fei shattered into pieces.
Upon failing the challenge, she was transported back to the spacious first story, where she would wait for the ten days to pass.
Shock, dissatisfaction, and reluctance filled her heart. Han Fei was nonplussed. “What actually happened in the final story?” As she hung her head low and thought about it, a gleam of wisdom kept flickering in her eyes.
At the same time, curses and scoldings broke out from all corners of the martial tower!
“What the hell? Why did the story master become Su Yuxian?”
“Da*n it! What’s the matter with that formation of simultaneous defense and attack?”
“Su Yuxian! I hate you in my bones!”
Initially, most people had used an organized, coherent approach when dealing with Mo Tianxuan. But at a certain point of time, the story master challenged by everyone turned into Su Yuxian!
The most frustrating thing was that they merely had to lie in ambush beforehand while contending with Mo Tianxuan, and she could be defeated within a short period of time. However, as soon as Su Yuxian was activated, the first thing he did was to operate the Meteor Light Stream Great Formation! This formation happened to be immensely powerful. Regardless of how perfectly your ambush had been laid, you would be churned into mud in an instant!
Fine, if the ambush didn’t work, then they might as well fight the story master hand-to-hand. However, their jaw dropped when they realized just how powerful Su Yuxian was!
His second strike was the Nine Dragons Demon Subduing Art. Under the imposing aura of the six demonic dragons, challengers below the ninth-grade Almighty couldn’t even ward off the attack, and all of them were eliminated as a result.
Even if a ninth-grade Almighty managed to guard against them, Su Yu’s third strike was even more horrendous than Mo Tianxuan’s final strike! That sword wasn’t even of a level which the Almighty could handle. Zhao Li, Qian Feng and Bing Wuxin were all exterminated by that single strike of sword.
As the story master, Su Yu had eliminated everyone the moment he appeared. Bi Lingtian was the only one who managed to sustain three strikes, but at the 90th level, he too failed to defeat Su Yu within seconds and so was eliminated.
“This is way too unreasonable.” Bi Lingtian began pondering. The unreasonable part lay in two aspects.
First, how did Su Yu actually become the story master?
Second, why was he so powerful?
“Did the martial tower deliberately strengthen Su Yuxian’s capacity, or is he that powerful in reality?” Bi Lingtian contemplated intently.
In the real world, the black dog stood on its hind legs, putting both forelegs on its waist. It was laughing heartily. “Wahahaha! Eliminating everyone in three days! I don’t have to worry about my meals for the next 300 years now!”
After a long laugh, it tapped Su Yu’s shoulder. “Not bad! As an eligible story master, your performance was freaking awesome! So much more powerful than those four-story masters who have gone home for dinner! From now on, you’ll be the designated story master of the martial tower, and you’ll knock the hell out of those challengers!”
“Get your paw off me!” Su Yu chided. He was recalling the final battle with Han Fei. He had seen that she was practically unassailable and, because she had nearly broken through all hundred stories, Su Yu had no choice but to intervene physically.
He had been able to easily defeat Han Fei with the help of the illusory techniques, ending her challenge of the martial tower. Therefore, Su Yu was the only one who would acquire the crystal balls and bones of the hundredth story.
“Godda*n dog, get me my things! I expect all the rewards from the 97th to the 100th story. Don’t cheat me out of any of them!” Su Yu said.
The black dog rubbed its paw “Umm, I mean, can I owe you first?”
Su Yu replied placidly, “Sure, but witnesses will be required for that. The 20,000 challengers that you’ve fooled probably are more than willing to be our witnesses once they wake up.”
“Don’t! I’ll give them to you, alright?” The black dog bared its fangs and spat out many crystal balls and bones.
After taking an inventory, Su Yu put them in his pocket and turned to leave.
“Where are you going?” The black dog had a foreboding feeling.
Su Yu pointed at himself matter-of-factly. “I’m going for another round of challenge, of course. Since I have passed, I certainly have the right to challenge once more.”
“You are a greedy, insatiable human! You’re still not satisfied even after robbing so much of my wages, and now you’re going for another round?” The black dog was incensed by Su Yu’s insanity.
Su Yu gestured with three fingers. “You’re wrong; I’m going for two more rounds! It takes three days to pass once, and there are still seven days left, so I can go twice.”
It might be hard to challenge another person, but what was difficult about challenging your own self?
“Ahhhh! I’ve never seen such a shameless person!” The black dog was so angry it was rolling all over the floor.
This guy requested for another challenge even after knowing that the challenge was virtually made-up. He clearly was after the crystal balls and bones.
Su Yu nonchalantly said, “It’s fine if you don’t want me to challenge again, but you have to let me take a look at the second story.”
What was really going on with the martial tower? Everyone was trapped in the delusional realm of the first story, thinking that they had been to other stories when they had never even stepped foot on the second story. Since time immemorial, for hundreds of thousands of years, it had always been that way.
Regardless of how phenomenally talented the geniuses who came were, they had only ever been to the first story. If that was the case, what on earth was in the second story? Was it a terrain no one had ever ventured into?
“No way!” The black dog scrambled up, grave and steadfast for the first time. “Before the martial artists of the Jiuzhou continent are well prepared, the second story can never be revealed!”
It involves the entire Jiuzhou continent? Su Yu thought for a while and said, “Can you tell me what the martial tower actually is?”
Based on his knowledge of the Jiuzhou continent, the martial tower was the central region of the martial yard, a domain where challengers negotiated levels and received rewards. But Su Yu could detect a different set of information from the words of the black dog.
“It’s not just the martial tower. Does the Jiuzhou continent really understand what the Glittering Jewel Wonderland actually is?” The black dog became profound and unfathomable all of a sudden.
Su Yu looked up at the martial tower. Thoughtfully, he said, “People have always told me that the Glittering Jewel Wonderland is an asset left for the outstanding young prodigies of the Jiuzhou continent, which provides opportunities and sublimations for young learners.”
“However, ever since I arrived at the Glittering Jewel Wonderland, I have had some doubts which no one has been able to clarify. My main question has been whether this place is really designed by the Glittering Jewel Mortal.” Su Yu finally voiced the question that had been lingering in his mind for a long time.
The black dog fell silent for a moment. “What makes you ask such a question?”
Su Yu said, “We’re talking about a Mortal Fairy of the eternity, the guardian angel of the Jiuzhou continent. Why would a Mortal Fairy of immense power and strength who had been safeguarding the Jiuzhou continent for so long leave behind an heirloom full of hunting and murders?”
“From the five great disasters, to the probabilities of obtaining sublimations from killing; from the concrete danger, to the system of competition, all of them remind me of bloody cruelty!”
The black dog retorted, “Is it so hard to understand? Killing makes men strong, and not every Mortal Fairy Lord is gentle and kind…” Its words trailed off.
“This is where the problem lies! A godlike entity that has guarded the continent for an eternity, leaving behind a ruthless, gruesome system to her descendants! There is a reason behind every conflict that arises!”
“There are two possibilities. Either this place wasn’t designed by the Glittering Jewel Mortal Fairy, but a conspirator behind the scene! Or, the Glittering Jewel Mortal Fairy wasn’t the continental guardian angel that she was said to be, but a person beautified by the creatures of the continent!”
The black dog had its eyes opened wide, scrutinizing Su Yu from head to toe. “However, this is only your surmise. You have no proof.”
Su Yu shook his head. “Yes, the evidence is all circumstantial. I, and the other hundreds of thousands of doubters, don’t have any concrete evidence.” The participants in the past must have tried to figure it out too.
The Wonderland did not seem like a wonderland. More like… a netherworld!
The black dog was silent for a long time. “However, the rewards in the Wonderland, are absolutely real.”
Su Yu nodded. “Yes. Indeed, it is because the rewards are real that remarkable geniuses in the past were motivated to advance dauntlessly in wave upon wave, causing a steep decline in the Jiuzhou geniuses of the generation!”
“From my perspective, the purpose of the Glittering Jewel Wonderland isn’t to sharpen the talents of the geniuses of Jiuzhou continent, but to conduct a centurial harvest on them!”
Gleams of iciness hovered in Su Yu’s eyes as he stared coldly at the black dog.
“My final question: who are you?”
This dog was very familiar with the nature of the martial tower, and clearly knew the nuts and bolts of the Glittering Jewel Wonderland. It definitely wasn’t an ordinary creature!
“Hehe, I’m only a creature born in the eternity, from a wisp of spiritual intelligence,” the black dog sneered peculiarly.
Su Yu questioned with indifference, “Why don’t you disclose your alternate identity? The story master of the martial tower!”
The black dog was caught off guard. It took two stealthy steps back and stared at Su Yu vigilantly. “How did you know I am the story master of the martial tower?”
“Very simple, you said it yourself!”
The black dog’s eyes turned as it tried to recall, but it just couldn’t seem to remember when it ever said so.
“You said the other four-story masters had gone home for dinner. In fact, weren’t you telling me that there were five vacant story master posts, and the last story master was you?” Su Yu uttered detachedly.
“I’d really like to know what your motive is in impersonating the spirit of the martial tower, fooling the challengers for all eternity, and impacting the first story repeatedly?” Hints of shrewdness gleamed in his eyes.
This black dog knew way too many things.
“Why should I tell you anything? I’m not playing anymore! Goodbye!” The black dog scampered off immediately as if blown by the winds. Meanwhile, he turned and said, “Without me, all of you will be trapped in the martial tower forever. A hundred years later, I will come and collect your dead bodies.”
However, before he could finish his sentence, Su Yu flashed a smile. “You seem to have forgotten the way of resolving the Illusory Truth Technique!”
Once the Illusory Truth Technique was deciphered, all 20,000 challengers would join hands in beleaguering the black dog. Would it be able to get away easily?
The black dog was casual and unhurried, sneering with bared fangs. “You can give it a try!”
The so-called Illusory Truth Technique was distinguished from the illusory techniques which affected the sight, hearing, smell and the rest of the five senses. It was an illusory technique which worked on cognition.
It was the most mystical of all illusory techniques. Even in the most flourished, developed era of the eternity, it was rarely spread, meaning it was almost like a myth.
It was a technique that infiltrated words, language, and communication, and which changed people’s perception and cognition in a surreptitious way.
For instance, when one person believed that there was an ancient kingdom amidst the desert, it was clearly fabricated. However, when ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, hundreds of thousands of people, billions of people believed it, it became a form of conviction, a cognition. By then, the phony rumor had become the truth!
The rumor about the martial tower consisting of a hundred stories had been passed around for nearly ten thousand years and had long become a widely known perception. Hence, when the challengers entered the tower, they were clueless about being in the illusory realm, in a hundred-story challenge that never existed.
This was the Illusory Truth Technique, an illusory technique to the cognition.
Su Yu had managed to work out the truth because Mo Tianxuan hadn’t mentioned a word about the details of the martial tower. Therefore, the Red Blood Palace had the least knowledge about the martial tower and its hundred stories, thus they could free themselves from the refrain of the Illusory Truth Technique with greatest ease.
Now that he thought about it, Mo Tianxuan hadn’t said much about the martial tower, which they should have regarded as a top priority, possibly to prevent expanding their knowledge on the martial tower. Did that mean she had noticed something?
Su Yu realized that he had perhaps, belittled this woman, who had concealed herself her abilities too well.
However, the black dog seemed so secure and confident, and this gave Su Yu an ominous feeling.
