The Divine Nine-Dragon Cauldron

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

After his concise analysis, Su Yu came to the conclusion that the Mo Tianxuan puppet wasn’t exactly difficult to deal with. It was unable to initiate an attack and possessed weak defensive strength

Adequate time was available for well-prepared challengers to get the upper hand by striking first, destroying it in one shot before it sprang into action.

The problem was that there were 99 more stories to go. Even the four great starry sky elites weren’t guaranteed to be able to seize the right opportunity every single time.

Worse still, the time constraint for defeating the story master would become increasingly pressing and stringent for every story unlocked! The requirement for prevailing at the 30th, 60th and 90th stories was to kill within seconds!

Hence, despite seeming like a place with sufficient opportunities in store for the challengers, hardly anyone could, in fact, succeed in negotiating all hundred levels of the martial tower.

…..

What Su Yu didn’t know was that the instant he struck with the silver sword, all the challengers in the martial tower felt a vigorous tremor through the space, as though the neighboring space power was tremendous enough to spread the vibration there.

Much to their astonishment, the challengers who had given up on the martial tower but hadn’t been gone for long noticed a crack appearing somewhere on the first story of the martial tower which was renowned for its impregnability.

After a brief respite, Su Yu entered the second story. Apart from the wording that proclaimed “Second Story” inside the room, it basically had no difference from the first story.

The same Mo Tianxuan puppet, the same extent of time deceleration. The only difference was that Su Yu was required to defeat the puppet in half an hour this time.

And this time, Su Yu wasn’t planning on testing it.

After setting the Meteor Light Stream Great Formation beforehand, Su Yu added in the ninth round pearl this time, the Underworld Pearl. Distancing himself, Su Yu yelled, “Up!”

Almost at the exact same moment, Mo Tianxuan opened her eyes, and demonic beasts transformed from turbulent demonic energy dashed out with a raise of her hand. However, they were wiped out in a fleeting moment by the formation that was propelled into action.

In the meantime, Mo Tianxuan brandished the mysterious blade of black broken sword again, in an attempt to block off a round pearl. As long as one pearl stopped working, errors would arise in the formation.

Coincidentally, the pearl which she attacked happened to be the one that shouldn’t be touched at all.

Pow!

The Underworld Pearl shattered Mo Tianxuan into nothingness. It was as if the pearl had struck a piece of tofu, leaving behind a two-star crystal ball and a piece of bone.

Su Yu was deep in thought as he stood on his spot.

Initially, he had thought that Mo Tianxuan was merely a plain puppet, which would attack according to the programmed course. However, her move of dodging the round pearl with her sword just now clearly wasn’t a programmed move.

A gleam of shrewdness flickered in Su Yu’s pupils.

At the third story, Su Yu adjusted the method of the Meteor Light Stream Formation by placing the Underworld Pearl at the center. As a consequence, Mo Tianxuan was killed just seconds after the formation was opened, before she even got a chance to respond.

Su Yu managed to traverse to the 30th story using that method and accomplished the speedy kill based on the relevant time limit of the 30th story. He completed the first 30 stories successfully.

With a smile on his face, Su Yu strode into the 31st story. The moment he stepped into this story, Su Yu sensed that his motions had become even slower. In contrast to the outside world, time had slowed down by more than 60 percent.

Under normal conditions, there could be no doubt that Su Yu would succeed in setting up the formation and defeating Mo Tianxuan. The problem was though that the operating speed of the Meteor Light Stream Great Formation was slower here than it had been in the 30 previous stories. Now, the killing time was two breaths. However, the Mo Tianxuan puppet was unaffected in comparison to the 30 previous stories!

This was rather time-consuming, and it was a strenuous challenge to kill within seconds at the 60th story. And once he failed, elimination would be inevitable.

Anyone else would be helpless in such a situation and would be racking their brains to figure out a way to succeed. This was not the case for Su Yu: he had the Power of Time!

At the 60th story, Su Yu’s left eye was a patch of dark violet as the Power of Time was activated!

The passing of the Power of Time around him accelerated his movements by three times! Not only was the mere factor of time being slowed down by 60 percent offset, but time was also sped up by more than nine times.

Without a doubt, Su Yu passed the level successfully.

Su Yu worked out what he needed to do. Last 40 stories to go, got to kill within seconds at the 90th story. Based on my calculation, from the 93rd story onwards, time will be twice as slow, and thrice as slow on the 94th story!

Starting from the 95th level, it will be four times slower. At such a degree of deceleration, the objective conditions of killing within seconds don’t exist! For the ten final stories, I’m only required to pass the level. All I’ll have to do is use the Time Acceleration once at the 90th story.

Su Yu’s magical power of Time Acceleration could only be used once a day.

Therefore, when he reached the 89th story, Su Yu had no choice but to stop and rest for a day. The following day, when he had recovered, Su Yu ascended to the 90th story.

However, the puppet at the 90th story wasn’t Mo Tianxuan, but a gorgeous, elegant woman with a tall, slender build, who carried a long sword on her back.

The young woman had a fascinating air about her, and there wasn’t a hint of harshness to be seen. That made her seem enigmatic and unpredictable.

As he gazed at the woman, Su Yu thought to himself, “The Mo Tianxuan puppet doesn’t show up at this story, which means that she failed at the 90th story.”

“As for this woman, she must have been that blessed, talented one who had arrived at this story before Mo Tianxuan did. Mo Tianxuan did not break her record, so she is still the one who remains at this story.”

After giving it some thought, Su Yu copied his previous technique mechanically and performed the Meteor Light Stream Great Formation to achieve a rapid kill.

However, the moment the puppet opened its eyes, Su Yu felt cold chills cascading through his body. He felt as though ten thousand blades of swords were piercing through his body, and he was now faced with eternal damnation.

That look that the puppet gave him contained the supremacy of the Path of Swords. That level was something resembling the Imperishable Sword Body, yet more profound and accomplished.

Who is this? Su Yu was petrified. In terms of sword techniques only, this woman was peerless and out of this world!

A hundred years had passed. If this woman hadn’t passed away, she must be someone he had heard of.

With the appearance of the woman deeply imprinted in his memory, Su Yu stepped into the 91st story. He had made it to the final ten stories!

At the 91st story, the woman with the sword was still present.

She was killed within seconds by the Meteor Light Stream Great Formation and was given no chance to strike with her sword.

Once he reached the 95th story, the Time Acceleration was unable to resist the slowed time any longer, and Su Yu had no choice but to fight the plain, hard way with his might.

Fortunately, the Heavenly Orchid Silver Bamboo was invincible and was capable of destroying anything. Before the woman could display her amazing techniques, she was destroyed by Su Yu.

Even so, Su Yu sustained a few whiffs of sword energy. Despite appearing unscathed on the surface, his body was filled with vast sword energy, devastating the vitality in him.

Su Yu was left with no options but to consume the Fountain of Life to replenish his vitality. Otherwise, before he could get out of the martial tower, he would have died of the termination of vitality.

After a moment of respite, the sword energy within him was dissolved. As he looked up at the 96th story, Su Yu began contemplating.

Starting from the next story, the Time Acceleration wouldn’t be able to counteract the slowing of time inside the martial tower anymore. According to the record, time would be four times slower than in the outside world, which far exceeded Su Yu’s limit of tolerance.

Once the woman with sword got a chance to strike, who in the world could fend off her sword techniques?

However, Su Yu was still confident he could pass the level.

With a shift of his thoughts, he was automatically transported to the 96th story. However, his visual field wasn’t greeted with the woman with groundbreaking sword techniques, but… emptiness!

There was absolutely nothing in the arena!

Having been mentally prepared, Su Yu was taken aback. “Where is the story master?”

“What you shouting for? The story master has gone home for dinner. Come again tomorrow.” a fairly familiar voice floated from the Void.

Su Yu narrowed his eyes as he glanced at the surroundings. “Does it mean I pass the level by default?”

“Dream on! How can you pass the level without even meeting the story master?” The voice sounded from the bleakness again.

Su Yu replied, “The challenger has arrived by abiding the rules, yet the story master isn’t around, so of course the story master has to take responsibility for it and let the challenger pass unconditionally!”

“Your words don’t count. Now cut the nonsense, and go back.”

Su Yu laughed coldly. “The Glittering Jewel Mortal Fairy has been deceased for an eternity. Have the rules that she set become invalid, that you can even amend them at will?”

The air was filled with silence.

A while later, there was a sigh. “Alright, you can pass!”

“Where are the rewards?” Su Yu looked under his feet.

“Rewards? How can there be rewards without the story master? Stop fooling around, and go home for dinner!” the voice retorted from the emptiness.

Su Yu did not budge at all; he only kept sneering. “The absence of story master is considered a dereliction of duty by the martial tower. What does that have to do with me? Since I passed the level, don’t think of cheating me out of my crystal and bone!”

“Hey! How dare you talk back to me? I, I…” The voice in the bleakness heaved a sigh of helplessness.

“Without the story master, there’s nothing I can do either. How about you go up there and do some free-of-charge sightseeing? It’s the rule of the martial tower to give out rewards only when the story master is present. But there isn’t any here, and I can’t give out the rewards.”

“Why don’t you just call the story master back?”

“Umm, they are off for a long holiday. No one would have thought that someone would actually venture up to the 96th story, would they?”

“If they can’t be here, why don’t you just replace them?”

All the while, Su Yu had not enquired about the identity of the speaker.

“I am the tower spirit of the martial tower, a trace of illusory spiritual intelligence. The story master has to be a concrete body; how can I become the story master?”

“Spiritual intelligence? Hehe, you can fool others with that, but do you think it works on me?” Su Yu stomped his feet. “How could I not know that a spiritual intelligence could simply manipulate the great formation, place all challengers in a hallucinatory great formation, and toy with them?”

“Ahh! How did you know…Ugh! What nonsense are you talking about? Why can’t I understand anything that you say?” The voice in the empty space sounded a little frantic.

Su Yu glanced at the surroundings, and said indifferently, “I have made it very clear. Do you need me to clarify still further? This so-called negotiation of the hundred stories is fake!. In fact, all of the challengers, including me, still remain in the first story. No one has actually gone up to the second story! Am I correct?”

“Along the way, the only difference on every story was the number of the story level and the time limit, and the change in the compressed time! And all of these were only altered by some illusory technique!” Su Yu divulged his knowledge.

From the emptiness, the voice sounded angry, “What a joke. Even if the illusory technique can keep one person in the dark, how could it keep 20,000 people in the dark? It might work once, but how could it work for a few hundred times?”

“There must have been geniuses who had attained the upper class of visual techniques in the past. If there really was any illusory technique in action, it would have been seen through already.”

Su Yu was nonchalant. “When did I ever say that this illusory technique only tempts the sight?”

The entity in the bleakness panicked slightly. “Nonsense! Aren’t illusory techniques used to only tempt the sight?”

The so-called illusory techniques worked by deceiving the mind through the sense of sight, resulting in erroneous judgments.

“That is only the common conception of the people. In ancient times, illusory techniques were propagated to a great extent and widely used. There were innumerable illusory techniques which focused on the senses of hearing, smell, and touch. But very few have been passed down to the present era, so they aren’t widely known of!”

In the past, Su Yu had read a vast amount of ancient works in Tianya City and had amassed an enormous amount of knowledge.

The presence in the emptiness argued with great effort. “Haha, you can touch it, hear it and smell it, so how can it be an illusory technique?”

Su Yu said sardonically, “That’s because this is a kind of more mysterious illusory technique! The Illusory Truth Technique! Do you need an explanation? Once explained, the Illusory Truth Technique will fall apart in the light of facts. I’d like to find out the interesting things that are going to happen.”

The empty space fell silent. A moment later, an indignant, frustrated yet helpless sigh resonated. “God da*n it! You’ve won! Here you go!”

With a soft thud, a round pearl and a piece of bone fell onto the ground. They were the rewards for passing the 96th story.

“Is it enough?” The being was annoyed.

Su Yu flashed a gentle, amiable smile. “These two happen to be the things that I want, but of course it’s not enough! I want to continue venturing to the 97th story and then go all the way to the 100th!”

The being in the bleak space hit the roof. “Da*n the challenge! What are you still taking the trouble for now that you know it’s the Illusory Truth Technique?!”

“Pack your stuff and get lost, I still have to entertain a big bunch of idiots! My meals for the next hundred years depend on this bunch of fools.”