Another hour after Min Li reached the 75th floor, a golden light emitted from the 77th floor, indicating that she had passed that floor as well.
"Wow! 77 floors on her first try! As expected of Fairy Min!"
"She has taken first place in the rankings! Fairy Min is currently the highest climber out of all Outer Court disciples!"
"I find it crazy how she'd decided to challenge the Carp Leaping Over Dragon's Gate Tower only two days after she'd become a disciple! Only someone from one of the Seven Legacy Families would dare to be so bold and confident in their abilities!"
However, little did these disciples know that the reason Min Li challenged the tower was not because of the tower itself but because of a certain Outer Court disciple! Furthermore, this Outer Court disciple had left midway through her challenge to eat food and play the zither!
If Min Li knew that Yuan had cared so little about her performance, it would definitely deal a lot of damage to her confidence and pride.
About another half an hour later, the 78th floor glowed a bright light. However, it was not a golden color like everyone had expected but a bright red color instead.
"Oh no! Fairy Min could not pass the 78th floor!"
All of the disciples there released a saddened noise after seeing this red light.
'Does this mean she's finally finished?' Yuan thought to himself.
A few minutes later, the door to the tower opened, and Min Li slowly walked out with messy hair and shabby clothes, looking very similar to the disciple that had challenged the tower before her.
When the disciples there saw her rough appearance, they immediately approached her with medicines and recovery pills in their hands.
"Congratulations on passing the 77th floor and reaching 1st place, Fairy Min! You are now guaranteed to become a Core disciple once your cultivation base reaches the Spirit Warrior realm!"
"You can have this high-quality recovery pill, Fairy Min! It'll instantly heal all of your injuries and restore your spiritual energy!"
"Do you want some water, Fairy Min? I happen to have some right here…"
"Give me a break!" Min Li suddenly shouted, causing the disciples around her to scramble away after staring at her for a good two seconds.
Once she finally had some room to breathe, Min Li retrieved a white pill from her Spatial Ring and tossed it into her mouth before she drank some water.
A few moments later, the small injuries on her face and limbs began disappearing, and even her breathing gradually became calm again.
After she'd made a complete recovery, Min Li searched the crowd for a certain individual. Once she saw Yuan's face, a prideful smile appeared on her face.
'Let's see if you can beat me and how long it'll take you!' she said to herself inwardly.
Seeing Min Li smiling at him, Yuan thought to himself, 'It should be my turn to challenge the tower now, right? After all, I did register my name after Disciple Min…'
After pondering for a moment, he decided to enter the tower while everyone else was still focused on Min Li, sneaking into the tower without attracting anyone's attention— except Min Li who had kept her gaze on him the entire time.
"Eh? Did someone just enter the Carp Leaping Over Dragon's Gate Tower just now? Who was it?" One of the disciples there suddenly said when he noticed the door close behind him.
"Who cares, honestly. I'd only come here for Fairy Min and nobody else!"
'He went inside!' Min Li thought to herself after seeing Yuan enter the tower.
"How about a celebration at the Dragon Pavilion, Fairy Min? It'll be my treat, of course."
A few handsome-looking Inner Court disciples approached Min Li and offered her free food at the Dragon Pavilion, yet Min Li didn't even bother to glance at them and said, "No thank you, I am busy right now."
"Busy, you say?"
The Inner Court disciples were dumbfounded by her response. Other than standing there and staring at the tower, she didn't look 'busy' at all.
Meanwhile, inside the tower, Yuan had just arrived on the first floor that was more spacious than it appeared from the outside, resembling an empty dojo.
«Welcome to Carp Leaping Over Dragon's Gate Tower!»
A notification appeared before Yuan a few moments after he entered the tower.
«Initializing Character Evaluation»
«Character Evaluation Completed»
«The Tower's difficulty has been adjusted to 'Dragon'»
"Dragon?" Yuan raised his eyebrows when he saw the difficulty. He wondered how difficult 'Dragon' was, how many difficulties existed in this challenge, and what difficulty Min Li had to deal with.
A few moments later, a list of rules appeared before Yuan.
«Dragon Difficulty»
«Challenger has 10 minutes to pass each floor or the Challenger will automatically fail»
«Challenger is limited to 15 minutes of rest for every 10 floors»
«Magical Beasts will start from '1st level Spirit Warrior'»
«Magical Beasts are extra study»
«Magical Beasts are extra powerful»
«Magical Beasts will have significantly increased strength, speed, and defense»
«A powerful Magical Beast will appear every ten floors»
«All medicine, pills, and resources that affect the Challenger's body or cultivation will be restricted»
A few moments later, Yuan could feel his suppressed aura returning to normal, most likely because the tower had sealed the Pill of Concealment— not that it affected Yuan in any way because his cultivation didn't change.
«Trial will begin in 30 seconds»
In those thirty seconds, Yuan prepared himself by retrieving both of his Soul Weapons, wielding the Empyrean Overlord with his hands, and controlling the Starry Abyss with the Flying Dagger technique, allowing him to use both Soul Weapons simultaneously.
Once the thirty seconds were up, an ape-like magical beast suddenly appeared in the middle of the and roared, emitting an aura that was equivalent to a Cultivator at the 1st level Spirit Warrior realm.
However, Yuan didn't even blink from the pressure it emitted and immediately controlled his Starry Abyss to strike the magical beast like it was a Training Puppet.
Whoosh!
Boom!
A gaping space appeared in the magical beast's head as the Starry Abyss ripped a clean hole in its face with ease, clearly the first floor in less than three seconds!