Tang Jie’s earth-shattering punch seemed to shatter Chang Xiran’s heart as well.
His heart sank to rock bottom.
The destructive blast unleashed by the fist callously swept through the fiends, wiping them away.
The elite and regular fiends alike were all as fragile as glass under this fist, their flesh shriveling away under the storm of energy. As the blast slammed into the walls of the tower, even this tower made of rare metals and reinforced by a formation shuddered a few times.
But Tang Jie wasn’t done with just one punch. He threw out punch after punch that obliterated all in their path.
These fiends that were so proud of the toughness of their bodies might as well have been made of tofu.
He unleashed ten-some punches in the blink of an eye, obliterating the five fiends such that there was not a single piece of flesh left intact.
“How could he be this strong?”
The cultivators on the thirteenth floor were aghast.
All of them were dumbfounded.
Only Fairy Hong Luan was laughing, and she grew much more favorable to Tang Jie. She said to Chang Xiran, “Hand it over.”
Grimacing, Chang Xiran reluctantly handed over his Windchase Sword Pellet.
Meanwhile, Tang Jie finished recovering and headed to the ninth floor, where he found one Primal Astral Burst Pill waiting for him, along with some other medicines that could assist his cultivation.
Tang Jie took it all and then challenged the ninth floor.
From the ninth floor, upper-grade Transformation fiends would start appearing.
Having revealed his body cultivation, Tang Jie made no further attempts to hide and fully displayed its power. As the upper-grade Transformation fiend attacked, he made no attempt to protect himself, letting his tough body take the attacks as he launched his own thunderous assault.
His left hand hammered away as if he was striking an anvil while his right hand cast arts, the dual attacks throwing the world into turmoil!
The Spiral Flame’s hall was once more ridden with powerful shockwaves, this tower that could endure the attacks of Violet Palace Titans seeming to tremble in pain, alarming the cultivators.
Ninth floor, passed!
Tenth floor, passed!
Tang Jie used everything he had and pushed unstoppably through, and his strength grew with each trial. As he ascended floor after floor, the cultivators upstairs reeled in shock.
But even Tang Jie was feeling exhaustion by now.
While he could rest after every battle, recovering his spiritual energy did nothing to resolve the deep-rooted sense of fatigue in his body. The effects of consecutive battles on his body and soul were not something that a short stint of meditation could resolve, particularly when the battles were so demanding.
His steps were growing heavier and heavier.
Even so, Tang Jie had no intentions of adjusting his goal.
Although it was just a small trial, in his mind, this was a way to challenge himself.
The eleventh floor.
The successive rewards had raised Tang Jie’s cultivation level almost to late-phase Spirit Ring, but for three upper-grade Transformation fiends and fifteen middle-grade Transformation fiends, such cultivation was clearly a little too lacking.
Once the restraints on them were removed, the fiends charged at Tang Jie, and he fearlessly charged to meet them.
Explosions and cries of fiends filled the hall as lightning flashed and winds howled, the Spiral Flame hall experiencing a miniature doomsday.
Amid all these calamitous fiends, a human figure could be seen. Occasionally, he was a three-headed, six-armed giant, and occasionally, he took on the form of an eagle, dog, or insect to nimbly evade the fiends. And at other times, he blinked in and out, his hands suffused with lightning and flames. Taking place in this hall was both a battle of strength and spiritual energy, and also a battle of wits.
A Transformation fiend spat out a poisonous cloud at Tang Jie, upon which he rolled and transformed into a streak of light that flew to the other end of the hall. A fiend was waiting for him there, flapping its wings and sending countless wind blades at him. Tang Jie chose to take the blades with his body while he summoned the Nine Heavens Calamity Blades. The three upper-grade Transformation fiends immediately opened their mouths and spat out clouds of red miasma that formed a barrier that held off the rain of blades. Although the barrier was ultimately shattered, there wasn’t much power left in Tang Jie’s attack.
His attack having failed, Tang Jie was barraged by wind blades, and at the same time, a bee fiend flew over and unleashed a salvo of venomous needles. Even with his body-cultivator constitution, Tang Jie was unwilling to risk this poison, so he quickly transformed into a small bird and flew away. Still, two of the needles managed to make contact, forcing Tang Jie back into his original form. He let out a roar and punched, shattering the head of the bee fiend. He swayed, his left arm hanging limply at his side, rendered numb by the poison.
As the two sides battled, the number of fiends dwindled while Tang Jie’s wounds worsened. After numerous attacks, his steps were becoming unsteady, his reactions slow.
The fiends weren’t faring much better. Six of the middle-grade Transformation fiends were dead, the rest wounded. But the three upper-grade Transformation fiends were all alive, which meant that the balance was slowly tipping in their direction.
The spectating cultivators were getting nervous, and Wu Xiuqian was once more preparing to go to his rescue.
At this moment, a turtle-headed bull used its head like a battering ram and slammed into Tang Jie’s belly. Tang Jie staggered backward, blood erupting from his mouth.
This wasn’t his first time throwing up blood, but this time, after falling to the ground, he didn’t get back up.
“Hurry and get up!” The normally aloof Fairy Hong Luan couldn’t help but cheer for him.
At this moment, all of them were united in their thoughts.
At the same time, the fiends lunged at Tang Jie.
“Hurry and call for help!” Wu Xiuqian was so anxious that he was about to jump up.
A moment later, Tang Jie cracked a smile. “It’s still not the end… Rise!”
He raised his hands, and blood surged upward.
Red ribbons danced through the air, forming a thick red fog, and then Tang Jie formed a Yin Yang sign and thrust his hands forward, yelling, “Turn!”
The red fog began to rotate, and all the fiends engulfed in the blood mist began to cry out in pain.
As if something was pressing on them, their bodies deformed, the fog kneading them into various bizarre forms.
This forceful transformation caused the blood to erupt from their bodies.
The Flesh Millstone!
It was Tang Jie’s first Divine Connection, the Flesh Millstone.
One needed to be at least at Soul Transformation to use Divine Connections, and Tang Jie had only been free of this requirement because of the special properties of the Black Tortoise blood. Thus, after he was reborn, even though he had a perfect body, he could no longer use it.
But he had used it just now.
The fiends wailed under the turning of the Flesh Millstone, but there was no escaping its crushing power within the confines of the hall. Despite drifting about like gentle clouds, this blood fog exerted as much pressure as mountains.
As the blood of the fiends merged with the Flesh Millstone, it only grew stronger.
Even the upper-grade Transformation fiends were unable to endure this immense power, and as they were deformed, they lost blood, weakened, and then died…
The turning of the Flesh Millstone obliterated the fiends, one by one.
There were no survivors.
Tang Jie drew back his hands and kneeled on the ground, gasping for breath.
“A Divine Connection… I can’t believe it! How did he do it?” the cultivators above cried out in shock.
Even Yuan Tianzhong’s heart was beating rapidly.
This young man had many secrets!
But what confused him was: if he had so many secrets, why was he willing to use them all? Did he not fear that anyone here would covet them?
Or did he simply think that with the Flame Yang Domain’s doom approaching, nobody would be greedy anymore? But what about after the Nether Domain had been fended off?
Or perhaps he never even thought that far? But from how he fought, he seemed to possess a clear and sharp mind.
Yuan Tianzhong couldn’t find the answer and simply found the whole thing very suspicious. The other cultivators weren’t thinking that far either and were simply wondering how Tang Jie had managed to use a Divine Connection.
Meanwhile, Tang Jie stood up and started to gather up the corpses and recover.
Yuan Tianzhong raised an eyebrow and asked, “You want to keep going?”
“Of course. Why not?” Tang Jie asked.
“That Divine Connection is most likely your ultimate trump card, no? This old man is sure that there must be some limitation for you to be able to use a Divine Connection while at Spirit Ring, and you shouldn’t be able to use it in quick succession. Since you are exhausted and can no longer use the Divine Connection, there is no way you can get past the twelfth floor. Young man, I think that you should stop. For you to get this far while only at Spirit Ring is already a glorious feat.”
Tang Jie chuckled. “I’m guessing that the one speaking is Great Sun Sect Master Yuan Tianzhong? Tang Jie thanks Sect Master for his kind intentions, but I’m not taking this challenge for glory or to set some new record. Such empty titles mean nothing to me. Just because I can boast about doing such-and-such while only at Spirit Ring is no reason for me to stop.”
Yuan Tianzhong was puzzled. “Then why are you so steadfastly taking on these challenges?”
“‘Why’?” Tang Jie blinked. “Why else?
“For the reward!”