Chapter 188

Chapter 188: Reunion with the Goldenwing Eagle

With a crowd of curious onlookers around her, Li Shuang arrived at Skyreach Tower.

She was about to ask Su Mu about the tower in her mind, but before she could, someone beside her spoke first: “It’s your first time here, right? You probably don’t know how Skyreach Tower works. The tower has ninety nine floors. The highest record in Myriad Arts City is the ninetieth floor, and no one has ever been beyond that. The tower places no limits on methods. You can use artifacts or secret arts. Skyreach Tower cares only about the final result. Win and you enter the next floor. Lose and you are sent back here.”

Staring up at the cloud piercing tower, Li Shuang’s eyes flashed with awe.

She could not help asking: “If the record is only the ninetieth floor, then who built this tower?”

Someone answered: “That is an unsolved riddle. Skyreach Tower, Great Dao Mountain, and the Sea of Stillness make up the Three Grand Secret Grounds, and no one has ever fully cleared any of them. No one knows how they appeared. It is as if the moment Myriad Arts City came into being, the Three Grand Secret Grounds were already here.”

Another person added: “Myriad Arts City itself is a miracle. Many people guess it is not a creation of the Mortal Realm, but a gift from the Immortals.”

“Other than a gift from the Immortals, there is no other explanation,” someone else said.

Li Shuang listened in silence, a strange feeling rising in her heart. [Immortals…]

A thousand years ago, the Nanlan Continent still had a few who reached Ascension. The Sword Sect’s founding Ancestor also ascended to the Upper Realm. In the past thousand years, though, the Nanlan Continent has produced no one who ascended. She wondered how things were in the Central Continent. [I am in Myriad Arts City now. I should find a chance to ask about it.]

The guard at the base of Skyreach Tower looked at her with a thoughtful gaze and asked: “Li? Are you challenging the tower?”

“Yes,” Li Shuang answered at once.

“Then go straight in,” the guard said.

She nodded and stepped inside without hesitation.

The crowd outside did not leave. They waited at the entrance, still curious.

“The tower’s scenes are hidden even from me,” the guard said. “You will not see anything by waiting here.”

Someone chuckled and said: “We know. For privacy, only Skyreach Tower keeps every detail completely secret among the Three Grand Secret Grounds. We are just curious.”

The Sea of Stillness tests spiritual power.

Great Dao Mountain tests Great Dao insight.

Skyreach Tower tests only one thing, true strength.

Some people may have weak spiritual power, but deep Great Dao understanding.

Some may lack Great Dao insight, but have amazing bones and body.

Some may be average in both, but carry a shocking artifact.

Some may lack all of that, yet have great wealth and break through by pouring out talismans.

Skyreach Tower does not look at the process. It only looks at the result. If you can win, you pass.

Some may say using artifacts and talismans is not real strength. But in a true life and death fight, no one will be foolish enough to refuse powerful artifacts and talismans. Those things are part of your strength.

So, the Skyreach Tower ranking is, to a great extent, a ranking of real strength.

As soon as she entered, Li Shuang was told the tower’s images would be fully hidden. Only the final result would be made public, with no specific details.

She nodded, thoughtful. Outside the Sea of Stillness she had watched Su Yun’s run. But in Skyreach Tower, everyone uses their strongest artifacts and even hidden trump cards. Most people do not want to expose those to others. That is why this rule exists.

With that, Li Shuang had no more worries. [Other than the secret of the Heaven and Earth Furnace, which I must hide at all costs, nothing else on me must be kept from sight.]

In this world, only by showing strength can you gain more attention and more resources. The simplest proof is what happened back at the Sword Sect. If she had not shown enough value, how could the sect have opened the Heart-Inquiry Platform for her, or had the Sect Master punish the people of Ling Xu Peak?

[Maybe that is not fair, but this world has never been truly fair. If I want something, I have to fight for it, take it, and show it. It was like that in the Sword Sect. It was like that in the Nanlan Continent. It is the same here in Myriad Arts City. Merit Points are not just for a list.]

“Come on, let’s break through this Skyreach Tower together,” she said. The Black Abyss Sword appeared silently in her hand, and Li Li’s figure floated above Black Abyss, wearing the same eager look as Li Shuang.

The instant her fingers closed around the sword, a Third Tier Beast appeared.

Her pupils tightened slightly. The first floor of Skyreach Tower fielded a Third Tier Beast, which was equal to a Golden Core Stage cultivator.

Not long ago, she had taken on a task outside. In the outside world, a Golden Core Stage cultivator is already a rare and powerful figure. Inside a sect, a Golden Core Stage counts as an Elite Disciple.

But here, Golden Core Stage was only the level of the first floor.

The difference felt like heaven and earth.

She murmured as she drew her sword: “Third Tier Beast…”

Outside the tower, they could not see what was happening inside, but the Trial Stele at the door showed the names of those currently challenging.

Over a hundred people were inside. Li Shuang’s alias, “Li,” sat at the very bottom.

Floors cleared: 0.

The moment people found her name, the number behind it jumped.

Floors cleared: 1.

“She herself is only around the Golden Core Stage, right? Clearing the first floor is not surprising, but that speed is a bit fast.”

“She might be fast only for the first three floors. The fourth floor fields a Demon Clan Golden Core Stage Super Demon Beast. I think she will stop at the fourth.”

“Sounds right. She has talent in Great Dao insight, but her realm is low, and her physique is probably not great. The fourth floor is a wall for her.”

They had barely finished talking when the number jumped twice more and landed on four.

On the fourth floor, her opponent was a Golden Core Stage Super Demon Beast.

Li Shuang could not help smiling a little at the demonic beast across from her. The guardian she faced was a Goldenwing Eagle, the same kind she had met before.

Only this time, her strength had risen to the Golden Core Stage, and the Goldenwing Eagle’s strength had also reached the Golden Core Stage.

Back then, she had needed to borrow Ye Zhao Zhao’s talismans and fight together with Yan Fan to barely kill the Goldenwing Eagle.

This time, she faced the Goldenwing Eagle alone.