Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Terminus Tower? Primeval relic? Ultimate test? Eradicate all the carbon-based intelligent creatures in the Pangu Universe?”

Ding Lingdang, Long Yangjun, Boss Bai, Li Jialing… All the experts were greatly shocked.

“There’s no time to explain. In short, I need your help. I may not be able to figure out all the directions to pass the test by myself.

Li Yao continued writing. “Next, I’m going to enter the ‘Heaven’s Path’, but before that, I will clear the obstacles and guide you. You must catch up with me in time!

“Remember, don’t underestimate yourself. Don’t think that you are insignificant. Although the Pangu civilization is much stronger than us, we are all equal in the ‘ultimate test’.

“In the past, dozens of ancient civilizations that were stronger than the Pangu civilization had conducted the same test, only to fail and lose their civilization. It was evident that the capability and wisdom of the civilization were not necessary to pass the test. “Maybe, the ultimate test is not about the development of a civilization and its absolute combat ability, but about our trust in each other, our peace and contempt for death, our hope for the future, and our unwavering will no matter what the circumstances are… Things like that are used to define a civilization and contain endless potential for it.

“Or maybe, a hundred ancient civilizations have walked all the logical paths under normal circumstances. Therefore, we must pass the test in a weird, crazy, and sordid way.

“All in all, we cannot predict what kind of challenges we will be faced with in the unknown darkness, but we can clearly and firmly know what kind of person we are. We can cultivate our true self and face the unknown with our true self. Even if we are destroyed and obliterated, we can still leave our most distinctive mark in the vast universe.

“This might be the answer.

“Now, open your eyes and look at every ripple clearly!”

Li Yao finished writing the last sentence.

Everyone’s eyes were wide open, too.

The golden flames that were dancing in the sky suddenly shrank and retreated to the left arm of the ‘sun catastrophe’. Then, they flooded out and swept the entire world like a torrent that was ready to be unleashed.

Everyone’s vision was drowned by the golden ocean.

The barrage was even fiercer than the raging waves. It swept over the heads of countless ferocious beasts as if they were dry weeds and thousands of soldiers were being wiped out, causing the heads of the ferocious beasts to burn furiously. A blood-stained pathway was cleared between Li Yao, Ding Lingdang, and the rest of them.

After the golden flames that covered every inch of space passed by, the invisible ‘space discontinuities’ were exposed clearly, too. They were like giant swirls that seemed to be real. They were scattered around the ‘heavenly towers’ and constituted a complicated 3D maze. With the amazing computational ability of Ding Lingdang, Long Yangjun, Boss Bai, and the Fist King, as long as the space maze was revealed, there would be a zigzagging exit no matter how complicated and twisted the route was. “Li Yao…”

Bathed in the golden flames of war, Ding Lingdang could barely keep her eyes open. Her eyes were filled with burning torrents. She clenched her fists and mumbled, “Rest assured. We will catch up to you!”

Beside the ‘heavenly tower’.

After releasing endless golden flames, the entire left arm of the ‘sun catastrophe’ was almost melted into dazzling orange. Huchi! Huchi! Huchi!

Li Yao breathed heavily and gazed at the golden ocean that he had created as well as the countless ferocious beasts that had been scared out of their wits and were lying on the ground, not daring to move at all. “That should be enough. Ding Lingdang and the rest of them should be able to find their way here. I… believe in her.”

“Now, let’s go ahead and develop a new direction for Ding Lingdang and the rest of the Cultivators!”

“Hooooo!”

Although most of the ferocious beasts had been intimidated by Li Yao’s flames, exposing the target in such a way still attracted the attention of several high-level beasts on the same level as the Armored Storm Dragon. They roared crazily and flapped their enormous wings, charging at Li Yao.

“Good timing!”

Li Yao smiled and clutched the saber behind his shield again.

He had tested it just now.

The ugly black spots that covered the bottom half of the ‘heavenly tower’ seemed to be a special one-way channel that had its own genetic examination function. Only the creatures that carried the genes of ferocious beasts could crawl in smoothly. But the bullets and flying swords that Li Yao shot at the black spots were all blocked.

Therefore, he needed a shell to cover the metal structure of the ‘sun catastrophe’ so that he could pass through the black spots and enter the ‘heavenly tower’.

The first ferocious beast lunged at him. It looked like a deformed hybrid of a lion, a vulture, and a scorpion. It had an immeasurable bloody mouth and three tails that were as sharp as sickles. It was as large as the Armored Storm Dragon, and when it opened its bloody mouth to the maximum, it could even swallow the ‘sunburst’.

It was exactly what Li Yao needed.

The ‘sun catastrophe’ once again displayed the speed of lightning and the agility of a meteorite fragment. It was sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Sometimes it was left and sometimes it was right. It turned into a fuzzy ball of light. At first, it dodged the fatal entanglement of the griffin’s three weird tails. Then it shrank into a ball and crashed into the enemy’s bloody mouth. When the upper half of its body was buried in the bloody mouth, the high-frequency vibration of the shield was activated, grinding the tusks and the circular grinding teeth inside the throat of the beast into powder. When the beast was roaring miserably, it unsheathed the Anti-Ship Saber unhurriedly and slashed at the internal organs of the beast along its throat. The golden flames of war surged out and burnt all the internal organs of the beast.

The griffin died before it had the chance to struggle.

The ‘sun catastrophe’ took the opportunity to crawl into the stomach of the ferocious beast and stab into the nearest black spot with the dead body of the beast.

The feeling of passing through the black spots was completely different from the feeling when one was using ordinary teleportation arrays or even space jumps.

It was like the ‘sun catastrophe’ was sealed in a piece of sticky candy that was about to be solidified. One had to exert all their strength to slowly move forward.

Thankfully, the ‘sticky candy’ was not very thick. The suffocating feeling only lasted three seconds before Li Yao felt that his entire body was relaxed. The resistance was gone, and the world around him was magnified by ten thousand times.

The dead body of the griffin beast was torn apart and burnt to ashes by the golden flames of the ‘sun catastrophe’, turning into bloody mist and dispersing.

Riding the ‘sun catastrophe’, Li Yao successfully broke into the ‘heavenly tower’.

However, what he saw inside the ‘heavenly tower’ was truly shocking and unbelievable.

Li Yao had thought that, since it was called ‘tower’, the space inside must be very limited. At best, it would be a complicated 3D maze that was designed to create visual obstacles.

eve

Judging from the outside of the ‘heavenly tower’, however large it was, it could not be more than twenty kilometers in diameter. Besides, the higher it was, the smaller its diameter should be.

However, what appeared in front of Li Yao’s eyes right now was a vast world. As far as his eyes could reach, he could see nothing but steep, mirror-like crags that seemed to have been carved out by the ancient gods and devils. They constituted interconnecting ravines, and billions of bolts of lightning were crashing down from the purple-red sky with earsplitting noises, making everybody panic. Yes. The sky. Li Yao saw a brand-new sky inside the ‘heavenly tower’.

It was as if he had not broken into the ‘heavenly tower’ but was teleported to a new planet named ‘Thunder Valley’, a chaotic, dangerous world fragment.

However, the ferocious beasts and guardians that were fighting in the middle of the lightning and thunder deep inside the wrinkles told Li Yao clearly that he was inside the ‘heavenly tower’.

“I understand now. The ‘Tower Tower’ is not a real tower but a corner of countless Sectors just like the ancient relics!

Li Yao thought quickly. “Right. If it were an ordinary tower, no matter how high it was, what materials it was made of, and what traps it had, the ancient civilization, the Pangu civilization, and even the technology of the human civilization could break it down into the most basic bricks, cement, rebars, and screws. There would be no ‘testing’ at all.

“It is not a ‘tower’ in the conventional sense at all. Instead, it is the amalgamation of countless world fragments. Besides, judging from the high-energy reactions in this place, it is different from the stable and peaceful ‘livable planets’ in the periphery of the primeval relics that are perfect for the survival of human beings. The world fragments that make up the ‘heavenly towers’ all come from dangerous, violent planets.

“As I move upwards along the Tower Tower’, every world fragment will become more and more violent, more and more unstable, and more and more dangerous. I’m afraid this is the first test left by the ‘Black Wall Maker’.

“Very soon, I can’t wait any longer. Let’s begin!”

Li Yao extended his telepathic thoughts to the maximum and scanned the ‘Thunder Valley’ in front of him carefully, trying to find the exit, or rather, the ‘stairs’ that was even higher.

He looked at the sky first.

It was an unpredictable, ever-changing, mysterious world surrounded by purple clouds. Amid the collisions and turbulences of the purple clouds, the lightning was getting denser and denser, as if a storm was coming.

It seemed that he would be able to reach the upper level by breaking through the thunder-filled sky. It was only natural.

Many ferocious beasts flapped their enormous wings and flew toward the place where the lightning was densest. Then, they were pierced through by the sharp blades condensed by the lightning and fell into the endless darkness deep inside the valley.