The Tower of Mortal Dao
In his battle against the Xuqi Sect Elder, Yaan acted swiftly and decisively. The temptation of the abyssal blood sword was too much to resist - it was worth revealing his strength if he could gain this treasure by doing so.
Even so, Yaan did not want to showcase the full extent of his abilities. He could have possibly avoided revealing the second step of his Agile Illusion Art, but if he were to fight with other means, he would not be able to defeat the elder in a single move.
Winning with one move revealed his shocking level of strength to a certain degree, but at the same time, it allowed Yaan to keep his other methods, and his general fighting style, hidden from others. In fact, he acted so quickly and with such overwhelming might, that the onlookers were actually unable to discern much about his strength from just this, nor could they think of a way to fight against him when they understood so little about his abilities.
Trying to assess his true battle power left some of those wisened elders with a cold sweat. They realised now that this person had concealed himself too well! He had obviously surpassed the level of Late Origin Soul Realm battle power, but aside from that, they really couldn't discern anything of value!
How would he compare to a peak stage powerhouse? Did he have other comparable moves to that shocking sword art, or was that sword art his ultimate trump card? Perhaps his battle prowess was much lower than it seemed and they were only caught off guard by that one move…or perhaps he was still hiding the full extent of his power…
In this entire examination, only Yaan had been able to conceal himself so thoroughly. When those wiser, more experienced elders realised this, they immediately became on guard against this new prodigy of the Fragment Sect.
A single, young, previously unknown cultivator, had suddenly caught the attention of the Southern Continent's entire cultivation world!
Everyone, both Foundation Step and Immortal Step cultivators, stared at Yaan as he flew back towards the three immortals calmly.
Yaan could feel the thousands of gazes landing on him. Frankly, this sort of attention was not something that he was accustomed to, it was quite uncomfortable. Despite him naturally raising his guard as he felt himself being watched by so many people, everyone watching him only saw an indifferent expression.
"Hmm…it seems that you might finally have someone whom you can consider a rival, Laila." Xuqi Lian, the grand protector of the Xuqi Sect, stroked his beard and chuckled after recovering from his surprise as he spoke to his clan's greatest prodigy by his side.
Xuqi Laila remained silent, simply staring at Yaan without blinking. Eventually, Yaan returned to the immortals' side. He was too far away and concealed by immortal methods now, so Xuqi Laila was no longer able to see him.
The feeling began to fade away as she calmed down, but for a brief moment, Xuqi Laila felt a sense of anticipation.
In the end though, regardless of what others showcased around her, she still believed that nobody could even come close to matching her talent. Even so, it was a fact that, for the first time in her life, someone from her generation had caught her attention.
Back on the giant flying sword, Yaan took his place calmly beside the Immortal Ancestor. He did not immediately ask for his reward for defeating the Xuqi Sect Elder, he knew that it would be inappropriate to bring this up right now. Besides, it would be better if others didn't know that he possessed such a shocking treasure.
"Yaan that technique of yours, what is it called?" The Hukon Clan Ancestor was clearly paying more attention to Yaan now. He even smiled and looked at him directly, something that he had not done until now. Aside from him briefly apologising half-heartedly after pressuring Yaan with his aura earlier, the Hukon Clan Ancestor had not said anything else to Yaan until this moment.
His performance was too much to simply overlook. The Foundation Step spectators were awed by Yaan's battle prowess, and whilst this did intrigue the immortals, they were more curious about his technique…
His technique, and the shocking level of dao comprehension behind it.
"It is my self created sword art, the Agile Illusion Art." Yaan replied politely.
He saw no reason to hide the name of his sword art, but neither did he intend to reveal that this was the second move in this art which currently possessed two moves.
"As I thought, the core dao comprehension behind this art is the dao of illusions!" The Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord exclaimed, looking at Yaan with unhidden praise in her eyes. "Your dao comprehension is truly incredible, to see through such complexities at such a young age, you are indeed worthy of being an immortal's disicple."
"Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord is too kind." Yaan smiled politely, but did not say anything more than this.
'Like master like disciple, neither of this pair is the talkative type…' The Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord thought.
Yaan's performance was shocking, but after he disappeared, there wasn't much else to say. The examination continued, with those participants who were defeated in the first round now getting a second chance to show their worth.
Yaan watched these battles, but he didn't place much importance on these people. All of these cultivators were weaker than him by a significant margin, and besides, it's not as if he would need to compete against them directly in the second stage, in the Tower of Mortal Dao.
There would be some degree of competition in the Tower of Mortal Dao, but there would be no battles or anything of the sort. The participating cultivators would compete against one another, seeing how far they could ascend up the tower, or perhaps racing against their rivals and enemies, trying to ascend with a faster pace.
The reason that Yaan paid some attention to the other participants such as Xuqi Laila, was because he might also need to compete against these individuals. Whilst he did not care at all for the prestige and reputation of reaching the highest floor in the tower, he had never forgotten the Immortal Ancestor's requirement for him to pass his third test…
This requirement was completely unknown!
The immortal merely stated that he must reach a 'sufficient level' in order to pass, but what did that mean exactly? Yaan believed that at the very least, he needed to achieve a high ranking position against the other participants in this stage of the examination.
The first stage soon came to an end. Only one of the participants who fought in the second round of battles managed to come to a draw with his opponent, the rest were defeated once again. Even so, amongst those who were defeated, around one third of them still passed the first stage.
This was normal. The standard for entering the Xuqi Sect was Mid Origin Soul Realm battle power, yet they were put up against late stage opponents. The majority of people who passed the first stage actually lost their battles, but they sufficiently showcased their prowess.
Going into the second stage, there were 95 individuals.
Rumble…
The three podiums sank back down into the lake, oddly enough creating no ripples as they plummeted below the water surface and disappeared into the unseen depths.
"Now then, for the second stage." Xuqi Lian once again flew towards the centre of the crowd, looking around with a smile.
"As everyone is well aware, the second stage of the examination always takes place in the Tower of Mortal Dao. In the Tower of Mortal Dao, all cultivation is suppressed to the level of mortality, whilst the tower itself directly exerts pressure on a person's dao heart. Each floor will result in a pressure twice as powerful as the last, making it extremely difficult to climb the tower beyond a few floors, even for experienced cultivators."
After saying this, Xuqi Lian turned around and pointed towards the tower.
"Open!" He shouted out with a thunderous voice.
When he shouted, one of the many rings on his fingers lit up with a golden light, quickly transforming into a beam and shooting at an untraceable speed into the tower. The beam only appeared for an instant before vanishing. It travelled so quickly that nobody was able to pinpoint exactly where it landed. However, after the beam made contact with the tower, the tower underwent a shocking change.
RUMBLE!
Turbulent waves were thrust outwards across the lake. At the same time, the terrific golden glow emanating from the tower began to fade away, slowly becoming more transparent, until finally, it was actually possible to see inside the tower from the outside!
Only one small region remained glowing with golden light; a small oval doorway on the bottom floor. This was clearly the one and only entrance into the tower.
Yaan blinked in surprise. He had heard about the Tower of Mortal Dao's wondrous elements, but seeing it for himself was certainly something. Honestly, it was a bit different than his expectations…
'The inside of this tower looks quite boring, I thought there might be some obstacles, but it's just a tower with 100 floors and 100 spiral stairways…'
He thought this, but there was no way that he would say this aloud with the Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord standing right next to him.
"There is nothing much else to say about the second stage…" Xuqi Lian spoke again. He paused briefly and looked around at the audience, before showing a light smile and finally saying:
"Ascend to the 10th floor to enter the Xuqi Sect, ascend to the highest floor to attain prestige and glory!"
Reverent cheers of excitement echoed throughout the audience following these words, but Yaan had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. When his life was on the line here, all this talk of prestige and glory was getting quite tiresome.
"All participants, please head down to the tower's entrance and enter one by one. There is no need to rush to enter first, your speed of ascension will not affect your result…" Xuqi Lian trailed off slightly as many individuals shot down towards the entrance immediately, before he had even finished speaking. He could only smile wryly at this.
'It's the same every year. Those people who have no confidence in achieving a high position, instead hope to attain glory by reaching the 10th level first. However, anyone lacking this sort of self-confidence will never reach the 10th floor…'
As for those individuals with greater confidence in their abilities, or perhaps with no interest in showing off to others, they entered more calmly.
Yaan made his way towards the golden gate unhurriedly.
"Good luck, Yaan, I look forwards to seeing your performance." The Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord called out with a smile.
"As do I." The Hukon Clan Ancestor nodded.
"Perform well." The Immortal Ancestor's words were less encouraging, and sounded more like a threat when they landed in Yaan's ears.
Yaan didn't pause or respond to the immortals, he simply continued flying down towards the tower. By the time he reached the golden gate, he found himself roughly in the middle of crowd of challengers. Coincidentally, Xuqi Laila was stood directly in front of him. She briefly glanced back, but she did not say anything.
After Xuqi Laila entered silently, Yaan followed soon after.
The second stage of the Xuqi Sect entrance exam, but more importantly the Immortal Ancestor's final trial, had finally begun!