Chapter 1161: Zhou Tian Divine Tower
The Zhou Tian Divine Tower was located at the very center of the Zhou Tian God Realm. It was not a real existence but rather a projection manifested by the Zhou Tian Pearl.
Before the Xuan God Convention, it had already been rumored that one of the battlefields might be inside the Zhou Tian Divine Tower. However, hearing Quhui Zunzhe's words, the "Chosen Ones" still found it difficult to suppress their excitement.
Although it was merely a phantom tower, it was the highest and most sacred existence in the entire Eastern Divine Region.
"...Does this count as having dodged a bullet?" In the Yin Xue Realm seating area, Mu Huanzhi and the others had no mind left to focus on the upcoming Xuan God Convention. They had thought they were walking a dead end with no way out, and then suddenly everything turned calm. Mu Huanzhi was still dazed for quite a while.
Mu Bingyun shook her head and sighed quietly, "My elder sister's worries were indeed correct... He's like a cursed star has possessed him. It was like that when he first faced my sister back then, and it's still like that now in the Zhou Tian God Realm... I'm afraid he will never truly restrain himself for his entire life."
"No need to worry. Since Shitian Shen Di has seized on that point and with the Dragon Emperor's words, at least the Zhou Tian Realm won't do anything to Yun Che anymore. However..." Yan Juehai shook his head. "I'm afraid Yun Che will have a hard time in the Eastern Divine Region from now on. After the Xuan God Convention results are announced, we should take him back to Yin Xue Realm as quickly as possible. It would be best if he doesn't leave Yin Xue Realm again until his Xuan Dao achieves great success."
Mu Huanzhi thought for a moment, then nodded with a sigh.
"For the third round of preliminaries, what will be sent into the battlefield are still your complete projections."
No one was surprised by Quhui Zunzhe's words. The true body of the Zhou Tian Divine Tower was within the Zhou Tian Divine Realm, and what was manifested externally was already a massive projection. Therefore, naturally, only projections could enter it.
"You will be sent to the lowest floor of the Zhou Tian Divine Tower, and your goal is the three hundredth floor!"
"On each floor, there will be powerful profound beasts and shadow guards. As you ascend each floor, the guarding profound beasts and shadows will either increase greatly in number or become more powerful, making your progress extremely difficult."
"The rule for victory is very simple: the first thirty-two profound practitioners to reach the three hundredth floor of the Zhou Tian Divine Tower will enter the final 'Divine Seal Battle'!"
Deciding victory or defeat by being the first to reach the three hundredth floor—the rules were indeed simple and clear. However, this was the Zhou Tian Divine Tower, and a thousand "Chosen Ones" were entering it. Without even needing to think, it was obvious that this seemingly simple "three hundredth floor" would be incredibly difficult.
"Hold on," no sooner had Quhui Zunzhe's voice fallen than a lazy voice suddenly rang out rather impolitely. Shitian Shen Di drawled slowly, "Regarding this third round of preliminaries, I have a reminder. It would be best if you listed in detail all the methods that can be used and those that cannot. Otherwise, if someone wins according to the rules but then gets attacked or even killed by some ignorant people, that would be quite an ugly sight, wouldn't it?"
Zhou Tian Shen Di's face showed anger, but he did not flare up.
Quhui Zunzhe's brow furrowed slightly. He did not respond to Shitian Shen Di, but his tone suddenly grew heavier: "The battle in the Zhou Tian Divine Tower still uses complete projections! Inside the Zhou Tian Divine Tower, the only rule is that the first thirty-two people to reach the three hundredth floor are the victors. Beyond that..."
"THERE ARE NO RULES WHATSOEVER!!"
The last six words were spoken with great emphasis by Quhui Zunzhe, clearly directed at Shitian Shen Di.
"Any item you carry on your person, any weapon, profound armor, profound tool, profound formation, you may use freely without any restrictions. Or, if you want to use any underhanded methods, that is also completely fine!"
"However, there are a few things this venerable one must remind you of!"
Quhui Zunzhe furrowed his brow and spoke slowly: "First, the space within the Zhou Tian Divine Tower is extremely special. Even the highest-level space profound artifacts cannot pierce through its space. With your own profound strength, it is even more impossible! I advise you to abandon any ideas of using space profound artifacts to skip several floors at once!"
"Second, I advise you not to try to forcefully ascend the tower by avoiding profound beasts and shadows! Because once your aura is detected by the profound beasts and shadows, they will pursue you until you die! Forcibly avoiding the profound beasts will only leave you caught between two fires and digging your own grave!"
"And once you die, although you will be resurrected, the place where you revive will be ten floors behind! Moreover, all the profound beasts and shadows on those ten floors will also be completely revived!"
"As for avoiding the detection of profound beasts and shadows, hmph! It is indeed a good idea... Unfortunately, the terrain of each floor of the Zhou Tian Divine Tower is different and extremely complex. Wanting to find the exit to the next floor without being detected is basically a pipe dream!"
"Third..." Quhui Zunzhe's icy gaze distinctly stabbed at Yun Che. "Do not dream of relying on the help of others. Each of your projections will be sent to the Zhou Tian Divine Tower, and each will be in a completely independent space!"
"That is to say, your battlefields are all completely independent! No one can interfere with anyone else! The only one you can rely on is yourself!"
The Divine Seal Platform erupted in commotion, with discussions buzzing everywhere. Some were greatly surprised, while others nodded quietly.
In the first and second rounds of preliminaries, due to the special nature of the battlefields and rules, there were many elements of luck and randomness—even Yun Che's form of cheating had ended up not truly violating the rules.
But in this third round of preliminaries, Quhui Zunzhe's words had made it crystal clear. This was a true test of hard strength!
During the process of ascending the Zhou Tian Divine Tower, faced with profound beasts, they had to kill them all. Forcibly running away essentially meant seeking death. No space tools could be used, and each person's "battlefield" was completely independent—no one could interfere with or help anyone else.
Obviously, to reach the three hundredth floor, the safest, or perhaps the only method, was to kill all the profound beasts and shadows on every floor... and do so as quickly as possible.
Only absolute hard strength could accomplish this.
There was simply no possibility of cheating at all!
That was why Quhui Zunzhe had not hesitated to directly shout out "no rules at all."
Even if you could use any means, what could you do?
Numerous gazes intentionally or unintentionally swept over Yun Che, thinking of his mere Divine Tribulation Realm Level 1 profound strength. They all snickered inwardly... Three hundred whole floors, with difficulty increasing each floor. The first few floors should be the simplest, basically freebies.
But with Yun Che's mere Divine Tribulation Realm Level 1 profound strength, whether he could even pass these freebie floors was unknown. The result was also obvious—he would completely end up dead last in this third round of preliminaries, and by an extremely wide margin...
Even if others failed to enter the Divine Seal Battle, they would at least gain a fierce battle and a rare training experience. But Yun Che would only gain ridicule.
After all, only true, powerful strength qualified one to enter the final Divine Seal Battle.
In the Zhou Tian Divine Tower battle, Yun Che was destined to become a complete laughingstock. But the people from Yin Xue Realm and others no longer cared about these things. Mu Bingyun in particular only wished for it to end as quickly as possible, after which she would immediately take Yun Che away from the Zhou Tian Realm and return to Yin Xue... As for the highly anticipated Divine Seal Battle that would follow, she had no mind to pay it any attention.
She could already imagine Mu Xuanyin's fury.
Furious that Yun Che had forcibly passed through two rounds of preliminaries, exposing himself before the top experts of the Eastern Divine Region, and furious that she had not kept a good watch on Yun Che.
Before leaving Yin Xue Realm, Mu Xuanyin had repeatedly instructed her to keep a close watch on Yun Che after he was eliminated, not letting him out of her sight, in order to minimize the attention drawn to him... because Yun Che carried secrets that absolutely could not be exposed.
But no one could have imagined that Yun Che, under the pressure of "the loser is expelled from the Zhou Tian Realm," would actually pass through two rounds of preliminaries to become a "Chosen One," causing a big commotion, not only exposing himself before everyone but almost becoming the biggest focal point.
Mu Bingyun could only pray fervently that the worst outcome would never happen.
"Do you have any questions?" Quhui Zunzhe looked at the crowd. When no one responded, he waved his hand, and a white light suddenly descended from the sky, enveloping all the "Chosen Ones."
"Your true bodies will remain here. Your consciousness and everything you carry will be projected into the Zhou Tian Divine Tower. The victors will enter the Divine Seal Battle, and the losers will remain at the Divine Seal Platform to watch."
"And everything you do inside the Zhou Tian Divine Tower will also be completely projected here!"
"Go! Chosen Ones, fully display your ultimate strength! Prove that you are worthy of being deified!"
Zheng!!
The white light enveloping the "Chosen Ones" suddenly intensified several times over, completely swallowing everyone's figures, making them impossible to see clearly. At the same time, a thousand rays of starlight shot into the sky, carrying the projections of the "Chosen Ones" into the Zhou Tian Divine Tower.
The Zhou Tian Divine Tower flickered with light. In an instant, a thousand residual lights suddenly descended from the sky like falling meteors, evenly landing on the Divine Seal Platform, transforming into images.
The backgrounds of these images were all identical, the only difference being the figures standing at the center of each image... and these figures were the thousand Chosen Ones. Where they stood was already inside the Zhou Tian Divine Tower.
The starting point of the Zhou Tian Divine Tower, Floor Zero.
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The Zhou Tian Divine Tower battle had begun. At this moment, Mo Li's gaze also shifted away, and she even quietly turned her back.
"Cai Zhi, come with me."
Coldly leaving behind this sentence, her figure had already gone far away. Cai Zhi bit her lips and followed nervously behind.
Mo Li led, Cai Zhi followed. They left the Zhou Tian Realm area and flew a great distance before Mo Li finally stopped, her back to Cai Zhi, motionless.
"Sister..." Cai Zhi stood behind Mo Li, nervously twisting the hem of her skirt.
Chi la!!
With a sharp sound, a huge soundproof barrier descended. Mo Li finally turned around, facing Cai Zhi with a deep, unmistakable fury... Her scarlet eyes trembled faintly, releasing a coldness completely unfamiliar to Cai Zhi.
"Sis... sister..." Cai Zhi subconsciously took a small step back, her nose wrinkling, almost about to cry. She couldn't understand at all why her sister was so angry.
"Cai Zhi..." Mo Li's chest heaved as she tried desperately to suppress her emotions, but her voice still trembled slightly: "Tell me honestly... when exactly... did you meet him!"
"I... I... more than two years ago... when sister suddenly went into seclusion last time... I was bored alone... went out to play... and... accidentally... ran into him..."
Cai Zhi had never feared anyone or anything, but her sister was her only family in her heart. She had never seen her like this.
Last time she went into seclusion... two years ago...
Countless turbulent currents surged within her heart. For a moment, Mo Li was unable to speak. After a long time, she spoke heavily: "Tell me everything... how you met him... everything you know about him... without hiding a single word!"
Cai Zhi nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice: "I'll tell you everything. I'll tell sister everything."
Facing Mo Li as she was now, Cai Zhi dared not hide anything. She recounted everything from when she had happened to go to Heiya Realm, being "rescued" by Yun Che's meddling, then noticing him because of his "Celestial Wolf Strike" and his ability to simultaneously control ice and fire, to gradually confirming his identity, to learning a little about his purpose... witnessing the feud between Yun Che and the Black Soul Divine Sect... extorting Wu Guike's Nine-Star Buddha God Jade... following him to obtain the Royal Immortal Herb...
And so on and so forth...
She told everything to Mo Li in full detail.
Mo Li listened quietly, not saying a word, until Cai Zhi, filled with anxiety, had finished telling everything she knew about Yun Che. Then her emotions finally exploded fully: "Cai Zhi, you... you clearly knew... why did you... keep it from me all this time!"
"I... I didn't mean to." Cai Zhi's voice was already tinged with tears. "Because... because sister said she would never see him again in this lifetime, and even if he came to the God Realm one day, she definitely wouldn't meet him, so I... I just..."
"Since you knew I would never see him no matter what, why did you help him come to the Zhou Tian Realm? Why did you bring me here!"
"Because... because I always knew that sister actually misses him very, very much, and wants to see him again." Cai Zhi lifted her head, her eyes glistening with tears. "When sister is sleeping, she always calls his name!"
Mo Li's eyes instantly grew misty, but she shook her head in pain: "Then do you know why I decided I would never see him again no matter what... Do you know what a huge disaster you have caused!"