The 1st Level Pagoda

The 1st level was enormous, spanning tens of miles in all directions with large cliffs on either side, forming an enormous canyon throughout the trial realm. However, there was a unique method of travel available in this place - teleportation formations. But, as expected, these formations required Astral Crystals to operate.

"We really need to get some money…" Zue Yin grumbled. Yaan nodded in agreement.

"That's why we're heading to the pagoda after all."

As they walked across the barren land, Yaan started to read the more complete version of the Fiend Transformation Technique which was provided to him by the devil spirit.

He started by reading the incomplete version of the technique, which was identical to the technique that had been obtained by the Ghu Clan in the past. He did this because he had a suspicion that Rui might have been withholding some critical information from him…

It took two hours to reach the pagoda on foot. By the time of their arrival, both Yaan and Zue Yin could confirm that their first opponents had rejected their proposed time of fight. Since that was the case, they would instead be fighting 24 hours later.

Either way, their opponents couldn't escape the battle unless they declined the challenge. But of course, if they chose to decline the challenge, they would lose by default and their possessions and abodes would be forfeit.

Finally, after a tedious walk through these empty, barren lands, they arrived at their destination.

The pagoda looked old, but rather than decrepit, it looked ancient and mysterious. It really was 18,000 years old, the vestiges of time could be seen clearly in the cracks across the unidentifiable wood..

Walking in through the swinging gate doors, they were met with an old man. He was dressed in plain grey robes, which seemed to reflect the colour of his hair and beard. Although his clothing was simple, it gave him a certain elegance that was difficult to describe.

The old man seemed to be cleaning off some strange looking statues around the room, but he stopped this task and turned to face his customers as they entered.

"What can I do for you two newbies today?" He asked with an amicable smile.

"Is it that obvious that we only just arrived?" Yaan responded wryly.

"Well, there's no reason for cultivators with your strength to be hanging around on the 1st level. That said, my pagoda is no less useful than the other eight pagodas on the higher levels…"

Seeing Yaan and Zue Yin's looks of doubts, the old man coughed and added:

"Because I'm the only one willing to buy basic resources in exchange for Astral Crystals."

"That's…exactly why we're here." Zue Yin nodded with a forced smile.

Whilst Zue Yin spoke with the shopkeeper and asked about his various unique products, Yaan poked around the store on his own. He saw many items that peaked his interest, but his gaze was soon drawn towards a staircase to the side of the store. Although there was nothing restricting access onto this staircase, it was oddly dark, to the extent that even Yaan couldn't see past more than five stairs.

"Hey, what's upstairs?" He asked the old man curiously.

"A restricted area used for Astral Crystal storage. The crystals are stored in a time stasis chamber, so don't go up there, or else you'll explode."

"Right…" Yaan quickly pulled away from the unguarded staircase.

After looking around some more, he pulled out a few items from the wooden shelves that peaked his interest.

"How much do these things cost?"

"In Astral Crystals, or other means?"

"Uh, Astral Crystals I suppose so." Yaan replied, wanting to get a feel for this new currency.

"Hmm…this book, 12 1-Star Astral Crystals. This book, 70 1-Star Astral Crystals. This book, four 2-Star Astral Crystals." The old man paused, then stared at a thin dusty manual that Yaan was pointing to. As he stroked his beard with a faint smile, he said:

"This book, 25 3-Star Astral Crystals."

"Why does this dusty little manual cost so much?!" Zue Yin cried out. Yaan remained silent, not saying anything as he stared at the old man.

"I'm surprised you recognise an item such as this." The old man chuckled.

"I don't recognise it." Yaan shook his head. "But…I can tell when a treasure is going to transmit something into my soul."

Ever since his encounter with the mysterious woman during his battle against the Third Celestial Demon General, Yaan's soul had undergone a slight change. His experience in that place, combined with his introduction into the cultivation world, when Rui forcefully taught him the Fiend Transformation Technique, made him able to identify that something about this manual was strange.

"Not the soul!" The old man shook his head, his tone serious. "Whilst there are indeed items like that, this manual is different. It doesn't affect the soul, but the mind! And using it with your current mind…will destroy you a thousand times over."

"I see…then, do you have anything similar, but a bit less fatal?"

The old man sorted through some boxes, eventually pulling out three booklets, a stone, and a metal plate with an inscription carved into its surface.

"Together, five 3-Star Astral Crystals."

Yaan nodded slowly, but Zue Yin finally couldn't take it anymore.

"We have no idea how much Astral Crystals are worth! How much is an Astral Crystal worth compared to recovery pills?"

The old man smiled, then stuck out all ten fingers.

"…"

Seeing Zue Yin's blank, slightly irate expression, the old man realised that he needed to expand.

"Ahem. A 1-Star Astral Crystal can be exchanged for ten Rank 2 Vital Recovery Pills."

Zue Yin became even more enraged upon hearing this, and even Yaan's eye twitched. This exchange rate seemed a bit ridiculous, didn't it? The 4th Trial Realm's lowest denomination of currency could only be exchanged for ten Rank 2 Vital Recovery Pills!

"What about Qi Recovery Pills?" Yaan immediately asked.

Zue Yin's eyes lit up when she understood why he was asking this. In the outside world, Vital Recovery Pills and Qi Recovery Pills were identical in value, but here, it might be different. Whilst Qi refining was difficult in this realm, it was still the major path pursued by most cultivators on the 1st level, because it was much easier for those people compared to body tempering cultivation!

However, Qi refiners needed the sorts of resources that couldn't be found in this realm….

As Yaan pulled out Rank 1, Rank 2, Rank 3 and Rank 4 Qi Recovery Pills, the old man's eyes shone brilliantly and he leaned in. After examining the pills and confirming their legitimacy, he nodded several times, clearly pleased to see these pills coming into his store.

"I will accept ten Rank 1 Qi Recovery Pills in exchange for a 1-Star Astral Crystal."

Yaan and Zue Yin both stared blankly, before sharing a look between themselves.

That was 100 times cheaper! Their eyes filled with greed, then without hesitation, they both poured out their wealth in Qi Recovery Pills…

"Tch, I rarely keep any Qi Recovery Pills on me since I have no use for them…" Yaan grumbled.

Zue Yin, on the other hand, was beaming with joy.

"Hehe, well, this young miss doesn't want to flaunt her wealth too much, but I'll spare you this poultry sum in exchange for some local currency!"

She took out 100 Rank 1, Rank 2 and Rank 3 Qi Recovery Pills. The old man's eyes lit up, but then Zue Yin brought out her actual funds…or at least a portion of them.

Ten Rank 4 and a Rank 5 Qi Recovery Pill.

Yaan swallowed slightly. For a moment, he honestly considered robbing this rich girl on the spot. Remembering the trial's rules, he held back, but watched curiously as the old man calculated the exchange rate.

"What sorts of Astral Crystal do you want? 1-Star and 2-Star crystals are the most useful, 3-Star crystals can buy you some rare things, and 4-Star Astral Crystals are not to be used as currency!"

"Hmm? Do you not sell 4-Star Astral Crystals then?" Yaan frowned.

"I do, but…I won't exchange them for ordinary items!"

"Old man, hurry up and get me my crystals! I want some of each, some of each!" Zue Yin shouted impatiently. In this situation where she was able to flaunt her net worth like an arrogant young miss, her personality was starting to show traces of how she usually acted when she was living under the safety of her clan.

As Zue Yin counted through her new Astral Crystals, she furrowed her brows, thinking that there was a problem with the exchange rate. Like with recovery pills, she had expected each higher rank of crystal to be worth one hundred times as much as the lower ranked versions, but that was not the case.

"2-Star Astral Crystals are actually worth 1,000 times more than 1-Star Astral Crystals. Likewise, 3-Star Astral Crystals are worth 1,000 times more than 2-Star crystals, and so on. This is why typically, only 1-Star and 2-Star crystals are used as standard currency."

Next came Yaan's turn. Zue Yin peered over his shoulder as he started to take out his treasures…she knew that he had gained some seriously valuable items during the last couple of trials.

"Do you offer an identification service?" Yaan suddenly asked.

"No, but you can find this service in the 2nd level pagoda. I'm just a humble shopkeeper." The old man responded. The way he spoke really made him sound like an ordinary shopkeeper, but somehow, Yaan doubted it.

"Humble shopkeeper, huh…" Yaan looked around, still feeling dazed by many of these items which were openly displayed on the simple wooden shelves. Many things in this store were covered by formations which suppressed the items' auras, yet he had the feeling that there were some seriously formidable treasures in this small, ancient shop.

"Anyway, I have some things to sell, but…could you open these spatial rings for me?" After saying this, Yaan retrieved multiple handfuls of spatial rings from his pockets. He dropped them all onto the counter, leaving both Zue Yin and the old man staring with weird expressions.

"I see, you can't open them, can you? Hahaha!" The old man laughed.

Yaan smiled wryly and waited silently. Whilst he now possessed his own spatial bag universe treasure, he was unable to open these countless spatial rings which he had picked up throughout the 1st and 3rd trials.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…

One by one, the old man emptied the rings onto the front desk. Some contained only a few items due to their limited capacity, but others were stuffed with enough items to fill an entire palace.

Yaan kept a close eye on the items, taking anything even remotely related to body tempering cultivation for himself, before the others could even touch those things. He also took the vast majority of techniques for himself, he had no intention of selling those scriptures.

He sold everything that was useless to him, but kept everything that he might find useful, as well as anything that he wasn't able to identify right now. The old man was willing to buy anything that he was presented with, but he refused to identify the items first, for whatever reason.

He sold many items, both to Zue Yin and to the old shopkeeper. Because they had to sort through so many storage treasures, this took almost all day. Zue Yin only hung around because Yaan paid her to assist with identifying the treasures.

Yaan also tipped the old man in the hope that he might be more helpful.

Even though the old shopkeeper still refused to properly identify anything, he kept coughing and muttering to himself, pointing out 'random' things by 'chance'.

"Ah, this might be a metal ore, but if you devour it, it'll strengthen your bones."

"Ah, this pill is pretty good, it can help you to gather blood essence no matter your cultivation."

"Ah, this is pretty good, it's one of the seven- oh look, the other six! Wow, all seven elemental body tempering pills, what good luck you have kiddo!"

…

The old man's mutterings made Yaan feel dubious. This wasn't the first time he had thought this, but it felt like the trial spirits were actively trying to find loopholes in the trial's rules…

As for those books, manuals and scrolls sold within this pagoda, which were all pricey to say the least, Yaan bought them all. The old man, after seeing the collection he bought, seemed to hesitate, before throwing Yaan an ordinary looking scroll as a bonus, free of charge.

Throughout the day, others came in and out of the pagoda, though it wasn't nearly as busy as you would expect given the number of residents on the 1st level.

By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted, but also thoroughly satisfied. Yaan and Zue Yin returned to the Battle Temple, whereby they immediately issued another battle each, before even going into their first.

It had unknowingly slipped past midnight at this point, meaning that Yaan had only challenged a single person on his first day here. But anyway, given that it was now a new day, he immediately issued four more challenges.

Whenever he issued a challenge, he gave his opponents one hour, but since this was a very short period of time to prepare for a fight, they were more likely to reject this time, choosing to fight him one day later.

Yaan challenged the third highest ranked cultivator on the 1st level. The two ranked above that individual had temporary immunity right now, or else he would have targeted them instead.

Now that he had accumulated an absolute surplus of Astral Crystals by selling off an entire sect's worth of wares, he paid to have another challenge issued in a couple of hours.

He also challenged the fifth highest ranking contender on the lower 1st level, along with one other 1st level person.

Now that Yaan better understood the strength of those on the 1st and 2nd levels after reading through the leaderboards and listening in on the conversations around him in the Battle Temple, he had no issue with challenging a high ranker on the lower 2nd level.

Lastly, he issued a challenge that stirred up a bit of a local storm; he challenged three individuals at once! One came from the lower 1st level, one from the upper 1st level and the last from the lower 2nd level.

Since these challenges needed to be delayed to avoid an overlapping of the 24 hour deadlines, Yaan paid a small sum of Astral Crystals to the Battle Temple receptionist, who, like the old man in the pagoda, was actually an inheritance spirit.

Yaan took out a mat from his spatial bag and sat down within the Battle Temple. Whilst there was no rule against this, it was a bit unusual…whenever people entered, they noticed him, just sitting there whilst reading.

Actually, Yaan had wanted to sit down and relax for quite some time now. Ever since he emerged from the spatial vortex, he had been consciously restraining the chaotic vitality within every cell of his body. He could have easily refined it and further increased his Vital Energy, but Yaan had always felt that improvements to the fleshly body were more valuable and difficult to come by.

So, he sat down, he read his book, and he used his own Vital Energy to pressure the bloody spatial vortex's vitality inwards, forcibly absorbing it into his flesh, bones, organs, tendons and blood!

Even stranger than Yaan's current actions of sitting on the floor silently, was that he gave the receptionist explicit permission to provide details about him to those who enquired about him, free of charge. He also requested that she inform those people that he would be accepting any and all eligible challenges.

Many people who heard these details thought that he was crazy and suicidal, but truthfully, Yaan didn't put this lower level in his eyes. In the 1st and 2nd levels, there were barely any Rank 3 cultivators.

What he wanted was to rise up the rankings, so that he could claim an abode on a higher level for himself, with plentiful resources and a perfect cultivation environment.

He wasn't being hasty or overconfident here, despite having already challenged individuals on the 2nd level, before even facing those on the 1st.

It was simply a fact that Yaan's strength surpassed those around him on this level.

Truthfully, most of his caution stemmed from the fact that recently, he had been forced to face the consequences of his overconfidence, when he was betrayed by the Ghu Clan. Yaan had taken this lesson to heart, but at the same time, he refused to let this setback break down his belief in himself.