As Tang Jie followed Wu Xiuqian into the Spiral Flame, he found that the tower contained its own dimension. A tower that seemed to be only several dozen feet in circumference contained a hall that had a circumference of a thousand feet, within which were numerous howling and roaring fiends. In addition to them was a basin in which a fire blazed.
Wu Xiuqian explained, “Sir, please don’t be concerned. These are all guardian fiend beasts of the Spiral Flame. According to the rules of my Great Sun Sect, there are two methods to enter the Spiral Flame. The first method is to push through all the fiends until you reach the top, where you can see the sect master. If you do not believe you can do this, you can choose the second method and have me personally guide Sir to the top.”
“Oh?” Tang Jie grew excited. “What does it mean if I choose the first method?”
Wu Xiuqian replied, “While the Spiral Flame seems to rise to the heavens, it is actually only thirteen floors. Besides the thirteenth floor, which is the residence of the sect master, the twelve other floors all hold fiends which the disciples of this lowly sect use to train, available to anyone below Violet Palace. Those who choose to use force can get a reward after overcoming each floor, but each disciple only gets one opportunity in their lifetime, and no matter which floor they stop at, they cannot attempt it again.”
“I see. In other words, this method is actually a way to reward disciples,” Tang Jie said.
Correct,” Wu Xiuqian replied. “Although Sir is not a disciple of my Great Sun Sect, you are a guest from afar and have come to contribute to the future of humanity, so the sect master gave special permission for you to attempt the tower, and you will be rewarded the same as any disciple. Of course, if Sir does not care about such trifling rewards, I can take Sir to the top floor.”
Tang Jie realized Wu Xiuqian’s intention.
This was another way for the Great Sun Sect to test Tang Jie’s strength.
A Spirit Ring cultivator who could kill a thousand-year-old tree sprite in one blow was extremely strong, which had drawn intense interest from Yuan Tianzhong.
As expected, Tang Jie was very interested. “Are the rewards very valuable?”
Wu Xiuqian chuckled. “You can’t call them valuable. Each floor’s reward is the equivalent of an upper-grade art relic, and the reward doubles every floor.”
His humble words were spoken with pride.
An upper-grade art relic couldn’t be considered expensive, but they would cost at least two hundred thousand spirit coins. This reward doubled with every floor, so the reward of the twelfth floor was at least two million, enough to buy a decent lower-grade divine treasure.
Most importantly, since there was a reward every floor, if one passed all twelve floors, the total reward value was ten million.
Although one could challenge the tower only once in a lifetime, which necessarily meant that the reward couldn’t be too low, it was still an impressive reward.
There were only two explanations for the Great Sun Sect to have this kind of reward. The first was that they were too rich, and the second was that the trial was too hard.
After some thought, Tang Jie asked Wu Xiuqian, “Which floor has Hunter Captain Wu Xiuqian reached?”
Wu Xiuqian laughed and said, “This incompetent one only managed to reach the eleventh floor, failing to pass the twelfth.”
A chief-level peak Celestial Heart had failed to pass the twelfth floor?
Tang Jie got a rough understanding of the Spiral Flame’s difficulty and also realized why Yuan Tianzhong was being so generous.
Although it was said that anyone under Violet Palace could challenge the Spiral Flame, its difficulty was such that a low-level cultivator would never waste their once-in-a-lifetime chance. They had to at least reach Heart Demon, or even Soul Transformation, before they made their attempt, which would maximize their chances of reaching higher floors and getting more rewards.
Wu Xiuqian’s eleventh-floor feat had only been done after he had reached Soul Transformation. If he had been at Heart Demon, he wouldn’t have even passed the eleventh floor.
Yuan Tianzhong was being so generous because Tang Jie was only at Spirit Ring, so no matter how strong he was, he couldn’t be stronger than Wu Xiuqian. Thus, he was happy to give Tang Jie the opportunity so that he could know just what Tang Jie was capable of. Not only was he not offending Tang Jie in this way, he was actually doing Tang Jie a favor.
Now that he understood the Great Sun Sect’s motivation, Tang Jie pondered the proposition before finally saying, “It sounds rather interesting. This Tang is willing to try. Right, if I can’t get through, can I call for Sir to take me out?”
Wu Xiuqian smiled. “Of course. If Sir cannot get through, there is no need to force yourself. You simply need to call out my name, upon which I will come to your rescue.”
Behind the kind intentions of these words was an attempt to wear away at Tang Jie’s will to fight so that he wouldn’t be too desperate. The Great Sun Sect simply wanted to see what Tang Jie was capable of, not have him fight to the death, which would benefit no one.
Tang Jie asked, “Can I kill the fiends on my attempt?”
“Of course, you have to kill them. Sir Tang does not need to hold back. The fiends and ghosts held in the tower are all ones we captured from outside and placed here for disciples to kill. If you kill them, we will just go out and capture more.”
“Then if I get fiend pellets from the fiends I kill…”
“They belong to you.” Wu Xiuqian hadn’t expected such specific questions from Tang Jie. He chuckled and said, “If Sir wishes to challenge the tower, then you may start when you wish. All you obtain on the way will be yours. With each successful trial, you can obtain the reward of that floor. If Sir does not like the reward, you can request a trade, but the value of the replacement reward can never exceed the value of the original reward.”
“I understand. If that’s the case, this one will start his challenge of the Spiral Flame.”
Wu Xiuqian smiled. “Then Sir may set off. This one will go on ahead.”
He walked to the central fire basin, stepped into the flame, and vanished.
It turned out that the central fire basin served as the stairs, though he didn’t know exactly how it worked.
Tang Jie wanted to try, but the seal on the fiends in the hall had already been undone, and they were all getting up, their bodies radiating fiend energy. They were led by a lower-grade Transformation fiend, and behind it were five Mind Opening fiends.
The average Spirit Ring cultivator would have found this array to be quite the headache, but it was far too easy for Tang Jie.
He challenged the Transformation fiend, “Come at me.”
The fiend made a very human smile and then roared, upon which all the fiends charged…
A few moments later, the battle was over.
Tang Jie took in all the corpses around him and smiled. “I just happened to be missing resources, so this is perfect.”
He began to dismantle the fiend corpses, taking everything that was useful to him, whether it was the hide, bones, pellets, or marrow.
Most valuable were naturally the fiend pellets, and Tang Jie had been very careful when killing the fiends so that the fiend pellets could be preserved intact, which meant that he managed to get quite a few.
Tang Jie crushed the fiend pellets, and their contents spilled out, but instead of randomly splattering all over the place, every drop fell onto his face or hands, after which they burrowed inside and evenly distributed themselves across his entire body. A white fog began to rise, which was Tang Jie using spell arts to summon water that he sent into his pores to mix with the pellet liquid. At the same time, Tang Jie began to circulate the Parting Classic so that he could absorb the power of the fiend pellets.
This was the abbreviated method of cultivating the Parting Classic. Now that he had a perfect body, he could freely cast spell arts, so he could simply use purification or cleaning spell arts and mix them with the medicinal liquid to achieve the effect of a bath, after which he circulated the Parting Classic. No longer did he need to heat up a giant basin of water, let alone something as ridiculous as a lake.
Tang Jie soon absorbed all of the power of the fiend pellets. The perfect body made it so that he received boosts in both blood energy and spiritual energy, but this also meant that the increases were limited.
Of course, Tang Jie was in no rush, since this was only the beginning.
Rather than resting, he stepped into the fire basin, which whisked him to the next floor in a flicker of flame.
“So it’s a kind of fire movement spell.” Tang Jie identified the principle of the spell, but he determined that only a master could use a fire movement spell so exquisitely. At the very least, he judged that he wouldn’t be able to manifest a fire movement spell in a formation through just a single fire basin.
The vastness of the Great Chiliocosm and all the talents it contained meant that there was always something to learn.
Upon arriving at the second floor, Tang Jie saw a table.
A sword was placed on the table. Just as Wu Xiuqian had said, it was an upper-grade art relic.
But Tang Jie naturally cared nothing about such things and called out, “I would like to trade this reward.”
“What sort of reward would Sir like?”
A voice drifted out.
“A medicine that can increase cultivation—even better if it’s an unprocessed herb,” Tang Jie immediately said.
“Please wait.”
A few moments later, in a flash of fire, some herbs appeared before Tang Jie, sorted according to their amount.
“You may choose one.”
Tang Jie looked them over and pointed. “I want this Trileaf Berry.”
Trileaf Berries were a spirit plant rich in spiritual energy and were often used to produce medicines that could increase cultivation. Their preference for hot and arid environments made them difficult to grow, and they were quite expensive in the Rosecloud Domain. But the special environment of the Flame Yang Domain made them relatively common and their value lower. Thus, this was the herb of the greatest quantity.
The Great Sun Sect provided based on value, but Tang Jie’s standard was total spiritual energy.
This made the large pile of Trileaf Berries the perfect choice.
The thirteenth floor of the Spiral Flame.
A blazing flame reflected Tang Jie’s image.
Yuan Tianzhong sat in front of the flame, examining Tang Jie’s choice. “It seems that he wasn’t lying. He really isn’t from the Flame Yang Domain, or else he wouldn’t have chosen Trileaf Berries.”
On the side, Wu Xiuqian said, “Master is correct. While Trileaf Berries provide the most spirituality, the effects weaken as more are used. If this man were a cultivator of the Flame Yang Domain who had reached Spirit Master, he should have already taken large numbers of Trileaf Berries. Given the reduced efficacy, it clearly would have been better to pick some of the other options.”
Another voice rang out, “This method of directly absorbing the power of fiend pellets and spirit plants is unheard of, so we can’t say what the effects will be.”
There were other methods in the Great Stellar Chiliocosm besides the Parting Classic that could directly absorb the power of spirit plants and fiend pellets. The key was how efficient they were. If it could only absorb twenty percent of the energy, then it was better to not learn such methods.
On the other hand, being able to absorb eighty percent made it an Immortal Art.
Alas, the people in the tower could only see Tang Jie absorb power, not how efficient it was.