Chapter Twenty-One: Storming the Tower

“Two million, four hundred thousand?”

Su Yizhao sat cross-legged inside the wooden cabin, staring blankly at the five storage pouches in his hands.

He knew there were a great many spirit stones inside.

But he hadn’t imagined there would be quite so many!

Two million, four hundred thousand!

Since the first time he’d laid eyes on a spirit stone, all the stones he’d ever witnessed combined did not amount to even a fraction of what lay before him now.

How much was his monthly salary?

Three hundred pieces, and even that had once seemed like a fortune to him.

Some of the cultivators he had slain during his time as an enforcer were even more destitute than he.

“Steady now, keep steady—this amount of spirit stones is nothing to lose your head over!” he murmured to himself.

Even so, he hurriedly transferred the spirit stones into his own storage pouch, whispering all the while, “Fourth-grade ‘Flying Sword Technique,’ fourth-grade ‘Leaping Art,’ fourth-grade… No! I should use it to advance my cultivation, at least to the peak of the Fourth Profound Realm!”

“No!”

Su Yizhao tossed the five storage pouches to the floor, his own pouch now bulging with the full two million, four hundred thousand spirit stones.

Yet he uttered those words with absolute resolve.

By now, perhaps, the Grand Elder and those three families had already caught wind of his existence. If he were to suddenly advance his cultivation without any warning…?

“Unless I can find a shortcut to increase my cultivation and reveal my advancement openly before they arrive!”

Having reached this conclusion, he rose to his feet and strode straight out the door.

“A shortcut to increase cultivation?” A cultivator garbed in a purple Daoist robe regarded him, “Indeed! I really don’t know how you slipped into the inner sect. With your cultivation, you shouldn’t even have been able to enter the main sect! Even if such a place exists, it’s useless to you—no point in asking!”

Su Yizhao could only smile wryly in his heart.

Such a vast sect—everywhere, cultivation was the measure of all things!

With inadequate strength, even as a fellow disciple of the Inner Sect’s Enforcement Hall, he was treated as invisible.

Of course, he would never reveal his true capabilities!

Because he had spirit stones!

He probed, “Five hundred spirit stones—how about that?”

“What?” The purple-robed cultivator’s eyes lit up. “What do you mean?”

“As payment!”

“Deal!”

So straightforward!

A short while later, Su Yizhao left the great hall with a smile, hurrying deep into the mountain.

Any problem that could be solved with spirit stones was no problem at all—this was the hard-won lesson of his years as an enforcer.

After a cup of tea’s time, he stood before a tower, lost in thought.

“The Nine-Tiered Cultivation Tower?”

This was the best place for disciples of the Profound Qi Sect to advance their cultivation.

Inside, not only was the spiritual energy dense, but there were also rewards to be gained!

However, entering the tower for cultivation required spirit stones as well—a hefty price.

Su Yizhao stood in place, pondering whether he should wait a little longer, when a lazy voice sounded from inside the tower, “Those below the Third Profound Realm should stay out. All you’ll do is waste spirit stones—and you might even die in there!”

A faint smile crossed his lips as he stepped forward and asked, “Two thousand spirit stones for one attempt?”

“Foolish!”

“Catch!”

Su Yizhao had no wish to waste words. With a quick flick of his right hand, a string of spirit stones flew from his storage pouch.

In a flash, he darted into the first level.

His vision blurred, and when he could see again, he found himself standing in a cramped spirit stone mine.

A mine as the setting was hardly surprising.

Across the Central Continent, spirit stone mines were everywhere, and most cultivator battles occurred within them.

He watched the darkness ahead warily.

From the dimness, a lone cultivator approached.

“A soul cultivator!”

His heart tightened. Ten yards off, a scrawny figure was sizing him up.

That gaze was deep, almost magnetic, holding his eyes fast.

There were three major cultivation systems on the Central Continent: those who refined energy, those who strengthened the body, and those who cultivated the soul.

Among them, soul cultivators’ attacks were the hardest to defend against—and the most troublesome.

“Third Profound Realm? Die!”

The chilling voice had barely sounded before Su Yizhao felt all the hairs on his body stand on end.

There was soul force woven into the words?

A sonic soul attack!

With a thought, an ice shield materialized before him.

“Pfft! Pfft! Pfft... Crack!”

The shield had barely appeared before it shattered into shards of ice.

Su Yizhao’s right hand swiftly formed a seal.

His perfected ice shield could block the flying swords of a mid-Fourth Profound Realm cultivator, but not the six-syllable soul attack unleashed by this man. Clearly, this opponent was at least at the mid Soul Law Realm.

He knew a little of the soul cultivation system.

The Soul Opening Realm was equivalent to the Second Profound Realm of energy cultivation; the Soul Refining Realm, the Third Profound Realm; and the Soul Law Realm, the Fourth Profound Realm.

“Not bad! Again!”

Four syllables rang out, and the entire mine filled with a mournful wind.

“Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft! Crack!”

Su Yizhao staggered back two steps, locking his gaze on the other’s lips.

In the Soul Law Realm, words became law.

At this level, soul attacks manifested as sound, which could be traced if one was vigilant.

Between the fingers of his right hand, a white light spun rapidly.

“It’s impressive you can even block that, and you think you can strike back?”

The scrawny cultivator enunciated each word, and ripples appeared in the void.

Su Yizhao swept his left hand forward.

A rush of icy shields surged up around him.

“Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft! Crack, crack...!”

Ice splinters flew.

“Whish!”

A flash of white light streaked through the air.

“Break!”

The scrawny cultivator’s throat quivered. With a crisp tinkling sound, a spark flared in the dim void.

The white light scattered, and a three-foot flying sword tumbled from the air.

A grave look crept into the scrawny cultivator’s face.

Su Yizhao slowly gathered all the profound energy in his dantian.

“Cleave! Clang! Break! Force! Like! Bamboo!”

The soul cultivator snapped his mouth open, spitting out six syllables.

Su Yizhao’s form seemed to blur and flicker in place.

In the scrawny cultivator’s eyes, six identical figures appeared, and he smiled.

Boom! Boom...!

All six figures shattered instantly.

Suddenly, his smile froze. As he turned to flee, a beam of white light pierced straight through his forehead.

No blood spilled. The scrawny cultivator’s body dissolved into pure energy, streaming backward.

Behind him, a figure stood steady, white light spinning rapidly between the fingers of his right hand, quietly awaiting the surge of dense spiritual energy.

Su Yizhao gazed at the dissipating opponent, a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

The soul cultivator he’d just slain had been real.

The Profound Qi Sect, with its supreme techniques, spawned such illusions with spiritual energy for disciples to use as trials.

He himself had entered in the flesh—an injury or death would be real.

The opponent, being an illusion, could not be harmed or killed, but would still know defeat.

At that very moment, thousands of miles away, in a stone hut, a scrawny cultivator sitting in meditation snapped his eyes open.

“The number one Soul Law cultivator of the Profound Soul Sect—defeated?” He turned his head toward the Profound Qi Sect, “And defeated by a mid-Third Profound Realm disciple? No, that last sword was definitely at mid-Fourth Profound Realm!”

“But even that’s no excuse for losing. Remember this, I, Hun Jinglong, will never lose to a peer in my realm!”

Back in the Profound Qi Sect, a sudden radiance flickered on the first floor of the cultivation tower.

“He actually… actually passed?” The lazy voice from before now sounded shocked.

Su Yizhao, of course, knew nothing of this.

At that moment, he was desperately absorbing the surge of spiritual energy flooding into his body.

This was equivalent to the full reserve of a mid-Fourth Profound Realm cultivator!

As the dense energy poured in, he sat down cross-legged, eyes shining as he set the Profound Qi Art in motion.

Sure enough, the Creation Art, once activated, instantly drove the Profound Qi Art to operate at ten times its normal pace.

Waves of energy constantly washed over the square-shaped energy pool in his dantian.

Painful, yes, but it was the pain of joy!

Once the square pool in his dantian expanded to its limit, it would mean he had reached the peak of the Fourth Profound Realm.

Then, all he would need was to master a technique of the Five Divine Realms, and he could shape the square into a pentagon.

A pentagonal energy pool—this was the sign of entering the Divine Realm, the domain of sect leaders and the like!

To ascend from the Profound Realm to the Divine Realm was truly a tremendous leap.

Suddenly, a strange expression appeared on his face.

“What’s happening? Why did it stop?”

The Creation Art, which had been whirling at top speed, abruptly ground to a halt without warning.

His face turned instantly pale…