Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Nine hours later, Lu Ye had completed around twenty tests and overcome the eleventh floor of the Hundred Wards Tower with flying colors once more. World Spiritual Qi so condensed that it was fog-like filled the room, and a palm-sized ball of light appeared in front of Lu Ye.
Lu Ye raised his eyebrows when he saw the floating ball of light. Up until this point, every ball of light he absorbed was only the size of a fist, and each time he had felt like his head would physically explode. This one was bigger, so he had no doubt that the experience could only be worse.
In fact, he had a feeling that he was going to hit his limit if he absorbed and digested this one. His Divine Soul might be tougher than your conventional Spirit Creek Realm cultivator, but there was only so much abuse it could withstand.
He couldn’t ditch his reward though. He had worked nine whole hours for this. So, he gritted his teeth, grabbed the ball of light, and pressed it into his forehead again. ．
The next instant, Lu Ye stiffened like a statue, and the world darkened before his eyes. The impact was so terrible that he went from okay to a hair’s breadth away from fainting outright. Clinging desperately to the vestiges of his consciousness, Lu Ye digested the information as quickly as he was able.
The pressure subsided over time, and he was able to absorb all the information many hours later. However, the task left him so exhausted that he just collapsed on the floor and stayed there, unwilling to move even a single finger.
[I’m at my limit.]
Every time he absorbed the reward of the Hundred Wards Tower, his mind became a little more fatigued than before. It wasn’t too obvious the first couple times, but eleven in a row was too much even for him. To put it simply, his mind was numb and blank even after the pressure was gone, and he was unable to form a coherent thought.
He didn’t want to think about anything. The room was filled with condensed World Spiritual Qi, but he couldn’t even muster the energy to move, much less cultivate. He just wanted to lie on the floor forever.
His instinct told him that he was forgetting something, but he just could not be bothered to pursue that line of thought right now.
An unknown amount of time later, a bitter taste suddenly spread inside his mouth. At the same time, cool clarity slowly returned to his mind. Initially, it was just a trickle not unlike a cool breeze in a hot summer. Then, it grew into a rush that washed over his mind. Not only did the sensation jolt his jumbled mind back to reality, it chased away his mental fatigue and filled him with energy.
Lu Ye immediately regained consciousness and blinked. He then realized that he was holding something to his mouth.
When he got up in a hurry and looked down, he discovered that he was a jade bottle. Yes, it was none other than the jade bottle holding the Soul Cleansing Water. The reason the inside of his mouth tasted bitter was because he had drunk from it. He tried recalling what happened earlier and realized that that was indeed the case.
Shui Yuan had mentioned that it was possible to consume the Soul Cleansing Water directly. She also mentioned that the effects would be better if it was combined with some medicinal herbs and made into a pill. Frankly, it was a waste to consume it directly.
The reward of the Hundred Wards Tower impacted the mind and depleted the energy of one’s Divine Soul. That was why the Soul Cleansing Water had rejuvenated him.
In fact, he had realized the solution earlier. He was just too tired to care at the time. However, his body instinctively sought out the one thing that could relieve its stress, and the next thing he knew, he was back on his feet. Even now, the Soul Cleansing Water was still eliminating the fatigue and restoring his Divine Soul to full strength.
The sky is clear, the rain has stopped, and this little man is ready to go for another round!
That said, it wasn’t all good news. Lu Ye’s heart ached a little when he looked into the jade bottle and discovered that he had swallowed at least seven or eight drops of Soul Cleansing Water to recover himself.
He immediately put it back into his Storage Bag before building Gathering Spirits in his Spiritual Points once more. As the Glyphs devoured the Spiritual Qi inside the room to replenish his strength, he took out some jerkies and began chowing down earnestly.
It was true that he had returned to full strength, but his stamina wasn’t something that the Soul Cleansing Water could recover. If he wished to continue the challenge, then he needed to restore his stamina as quickly as possible.
Time passed bit by bit. When he had returned to peak form, he finally started tackling a new Spiritual Point barrier once more.
So far, Lu Ye had unlocked at least one Spiritual Point after he fully digested the Hundred Wards Tower’s reward on each floor. He entered the next floor only when his time was up. Thanks to this, he was able to unlock over a dozen of Spiritual Points across eleven floors.
It was a pleasant surprise he hadn’t anticipated but more than welcomed. He was aware that clearing a floor with flying colors would reward him with World Spiritual Qi, but he had no idea that it would be this condensed. In a sense, it was the fastest he had ever cultivated.
Another hour passed, and Lu Ye’s time was finally up. He proceeded to the next floor.
…
Right now, Yu Xiao and Bai Qian felt like they were going to lose their minds.
Up until this point, Lu Ye had overcome ten floors in five days and achieved a resonance each time he cleared a floor. At the time, they were sure that the young man was nearing his limit, and that he would exit the tower at any moment.
However, what happened next caused them to lose their composure completely. Lu Ye continued to overcome two floors every day without pause, and just like before he was able to trigger a resonance each time.
Before the fifteenth floor, Bai Qian had contacted Zhao Li at least once every hour to check if Lu Ye was still alive. After the fifteenth floor, they were so numb that they couldn’t even be arsed to care anymore. It wasn’t like they could do anything anyway.
In contrast, the ward cultivators of the Heavenly Derivative Sect were absolutely ecstatic right now. It was because they were witnessing the birth of an unprecedented miracle. They still didn’t know who the challenger was, but it no longer mattered. No matter who they were, they had ascended to god status in their hearts.
And how could they not? Not only had the mysterious challenger overcome twenty floors in ten days, they also triggered a resonance on every floor. How could they be anything else but a god?
At this point, there wasn’t a single Heavenly Derivative Sect ward cultivator who hadn’t benefited from the repeated resonances. One could even say that Lu Ye had unknowingly improved the level of every ward cultivator in the sect.
On the twenty first floor, Lu Ye was currently trapped inside a murderous ward and being attacked by it. He was forced to see through its disguises and identify its flaws while dodging its attacks.
At this point, Lu Ye could confirm that there was a difficulty spike every ten floors. None of the wards he faced earlier had been nearly as troublesome.
He was glad he spent some time eating to restore his stamina every time he entered a rest period. He might not have had the strength to continue his climb otherwise.
The attacks weren’t particularly powerful, but they were frequent enough that Lu Ye had to dodge as much as possible. He could block with Protection, but it would cost him a not insignificant amount of Spiritual Power.
Once again, he laid down his ward flags in every direction. This time, he had to use sixteen ward flags before he finally managed to locate a single flaw in the ward. He began breaching the ward after he activated Insight and confirmed that his “answer” was correct. An incense stick later, the ward abruptly froze and crumbled into nothing.
There was no time to catch a breath though. The second test appeared almost immediately after the first time.
Countless ward cultivators had challenged the Hundred Wards Tower, and a good number of them were far stronger than Lu Ye in terms of cultivation level. However, no one had ever managed to trigger ten resonances in a row, much less twenty. It was because its reward put a huge burden on one’s mind. The better the reward, the greater the impact. Only a Divine Ocean Realm cultivator could withstand the mental burden of the rewards continuously, but this was just the first portion of the Hundred Wards Tower, meaning that the tests were meant for Spirit Creek Realm and Cloud River Realm cultivators. Naturally, they wouldn’t deign to challenge the tower.
Lu Ye possessed several unique advantages compared to other ward cultivators. First things first, Spiritual Power. Most ward cultivators had to spend most of their rest period digesting the rewards of the Hundred Wards Tower before they could start replenishing their Spiritual Power. The slower ones even had to stop the absorption mid-way to replenish their strength. After all, they would not be able to tackle the next floor without sufficient Spiritual Power.
However, this was not a problem for Lu Ye. He could digest the reward bestowed by the Hundred Wards Tower and replenish his Spiritual Power at the same time thanks to the Gathering Spirits he built within his Spiritual Points. He even had the time to unlock new Spiritual Points. This was an advantage no other ward cultivator possessed.
The second unique advantage he possessed was of course, the Soul Cleansing Water. Lu Ye was the first person ever to challenge the Hundred Wards Tower with the Soul Cleansing Water in his possession because the treasure was priceless and mainly used to improve the strength of one’s Divine Soul. It was so precious that even Divine Ocean Realm cultivators desperately desired the treasure. No one in their right mind would use it just to wash away their fatigue.
But Lu Ye did, and not just one time. Since he discovered its function, he began consuming it as soon as he felt fatigued. It quickly washed away the fatigue and returned him to full mental strength.
Since neither Spiritual Power nor mental strength was a problem to Lu Ye, he was able to give his all on every floor, achieve the best results, and obtain the best rewards of the Hundred Wards Tower. He would then ascend to the next floor after he absorbed the reward and improved his attainment.
To put it simply, it was a virtuous circle.
Of course, the price he paid was pretty huge so to speak. The Divine Ocean Realm cultivators would probably kill him if they knew what he was doing. The Soul Cleansing Water was a rare treasure even they desired, and he was chugging it down like it was an energy tonic!
Lu Ye thought it was worth it though. No matter how valuable a treasure was, it was useless if it couldn’t benefit its owner. To use it wastefully was still better than not using it at all. It wasn’t like it would multiply if he left it in his Storage Bag untouched, so why not?
Furthermore, he still had two and a half bottles of Soul Cleansing Water in his Storage Bag. He thought it would be worth it to use half a bottle to clear the Hundred Wards Tower in one go. As the one who got it fair and square from the Lost City of Xianyuan, it was his right to use it however he wished.
Five days later, Lu Ye had overcome the thirtieth floor and triggered a resonance once more.
Having learned from his experience and knowing that another difficulty spike awaited him on the thirty-first floor, he did not try to unlock a new Spiritual Point and focused completely on recovering this time. In fact, he even took a small nap to ensure that he would be at peak form.
Outside the Hundred Wards Tower, the cultivators of the Heavenly Derivative Sect had gone completely insane. The number of cultivators in the valley had more than doubled during this time.
Before this, everyone in the valley was a ward cultivator. After all, only ward cultivators could be inspired by the resonances. However, even those who didn’t cultivate the Way of Wards had joined their brethren. It was because they wished to know who was the god who triggered thirty resonances in a row, and if they could maintain their streak and leave an unprecedented mark in the history books.