Chapter 306: Chapter 305, Level 5
"Another person has ascended?"
Zhang Silou, still immersed in joy, stared in astonishment, but exhibited no other emotions.
Including himself and the other participant, Great Cold State had already seen nine people climb to the fourth tier of the Silver Bull Horn. No matter how shocking each new ascension had been, they were beginning to lose their thrill.
In the Martial World, that’s the way it is. When many people manage to accomplish the same difficult feat, it ceases to be so difficult.
Unless, someone could ascend to the fifth tier, then their glory would swiftly overshadow everyone else.
However, that was impossible.
The third tier already required the fighting prowess to pass the Fourth Band of strength. Zhang Silou doubted seriously that the fifth tier didn’t demand the strength of the Fifth Band.
Even the Sunset Little Sword Marquis, Little Fist King, and the Divine Wind Young Master might not possess such power.
The strength of a warrior could gradually increase over time due to consistent training. A person within the same strength band is definitely stronger one year later than a year before.
But for most prodigies, they had already utilized their potential from the outset. At the same level, in terms of mental state, fighting skills, and other factors, they had basically reached their limit. Short term progress was hard to achieve.
After a few years, their cultivation would have already improved, and the difficulty of the trials given by the Silver Bull Horn would likewise increase.
It should be known that, for anyone from the Third Tier of Xuan Qi to the Eighth Tier or from the Fourth Tier to the Ninth Tier, the latter scenario is significantly more challenging than the former, even though both involved passing the Fifth Band.
At the level of the Spiritual-Passage Realm, the disparity is even more exaggerated, where the Third Tier equals the Fifth Tier.
So, despite the Wind and Cloud Young Sword Marquis being only an inch away from ascending to the fifth tier, in the eyes of many discerning people, that inch might as well be an insurmountable chasm.
Of course, you can also forcefully suppress your cultivation, wait until all aspects have been perfected, and then challenge the tower. Regrettably, even implementing this method, no one managed to accomplish it before the age of thirty in the past millennia.
Perhaps in other states this was possible, but one cannot ignore the fact that the Flying Horse Dynasty was enormous.
Many talented youngsters, who hadn’t reached the Spiritual-Passage Realm, were not allowed by the influential powers behind them to venture out of their state to get experience, for fear of mishaps.
Even if they reluctantly agreed, they would at most dispatch someone to protect them and let them wander around in the neighboring states.
Those who had no school affiliation, or lacked a powerful backing, wouldn’t dare to come to Great Cold State before they had achieved martial proficiency.
Combined with the fact that the talents in a few adjacent states were inferior to Great Cold State’s, a mythical span of a thousand years remained unfilled.
In Zhang Silou’s view, within Great Cold State, perhaps only the three great prodigies had a slim and obscure chance to accomplish this miracle before the age of thirty.
The fourth tier of the Silver Bull Horn was as silent as a tomb. The flicker of the flames from the wooden torches on the walls cast a boundary of light and shadow on Shi Xiaole’s face.
In the darkness, a glint of light flashed.
Clang!
Sparks flew. As Shi Xiaole was retreating, a tip of a sword stabbed quickly from behind. The speed and power far surpassed those of ordinary Xuan Qi ninths.
His body abruptly stopped in an unnatural fashion, ignoring the sword tip behind him, Shi Xiaole gathered his grip and swung his Qingyang Sword, unleashing a wave of Sword Qi.
Whump, whump, whump.
The Qingyang Sword Qi instantly shattered, and an inkstone-like Sword Qi surged forth, grazing past Shi Xiaole’s body and disappearing into the invisible void.
There was no one around, only the occasional sound of the candle flames crackling.
"Impressive."
Shi Xiaole finally understood.
No wonder no one had been able to conquer this fourth tier.
During the brief exchange that just occurred, had Shi Xiaole’s reflexes not been fast enough, he would have been hit on the first strike.
If his sense of perception wasn’t strong enough, and judgement wasn’t accurate, he would have lost focus on the second strike. Preoccupied with the sneak attack from behind, he would have overlooked the lethal attack from the front.
If he didn’t have an inherent strength, he naturally wouldn’t be able to block the frontal attack on the third count.
It could be said that to pass this stage, a warrior’s overall ability must reach an elite level. The slightest flaw would be immediately magnified.
The sword tip reappeared, forming a vividly cold light for the kill.
Having realized the ineffectiveness of the Eclipse Eight Forms, Shi Xiaole executed the Death Claiming Thirteen Swords instead. Instantaneously, bone-chilling coldness spread along with the Sword Qi to every corner of the room. It wasn’t a physiological coldness, but a psychological one from suppression.
Thump, Thump, Thump...
With swift shifts and echoing sounds, Shi Xiaole’s sword speed grew faster and faster. Eventually, it transformed into a white light protecting him - meeting each strike of the unseen assailant.
As his mind expanded like ripples in water, Shi Xiaole found his opponent’s flaw on the thirty-fifth move, unmercilessly thrusting out the thirteenth sword.
Swish!
The sword tip touched a hard energy entity. The entity seemed to want to evade and fight again, but Shi Xiaole shook his arm, and the sword energy directly shattered the enemy.
The gang’s strength was a touch stronger than an ordinary Xuan Qi ninth, but as Shi Xiaole’s skill was higher, even without using his ace, he still won with the standard technique.
In the silence, a thunderous boom echoed. The heavy stone gates slowly opened on both sides, revealing dust-laden and time-worn stone steps that had not been trodden for nearly a thousand years.
Confirming that there was no danger, Shi Xiaole stepped onto the fifth tier.
The space on the fifth tier was abruptly halved. Moreover, the distances between the top and bottom were irregular. In the tallest parts, there was a height of almost ten meters, and in the shorter sections, Shi Xiaole even had to crawl to get through.
More terrifyingly, there were no transitions between the high and low sections. You’d move one step, and if you weren’t careful, you’d hit your head on the stone ceiling above.
Shi Xiaole was unaware that as soon as he reached the fifth tier, dazzlingly bright golden rays of light bloomed from the Silver Bull Horn’s fifth tier. The rays were so radiant that they instantly stole the sight of the onlookers in the surroundings, even illuminating the surrounding five hundred meters as if in broad daylight.
Even those standing on the high floors within White Mountain City had seen this spectacle.
"What happened?"
"It seems, it seems to be coming from the direction of Silver Bull Horn. Oh heavens, has something unexpected happened?"
Many people were puzzled. Nothing so extraordinary had ever happened in the past thousand years.
The assorted martial art prodigies standing on the outskirts of the Silver Bull Horn, at this moment, all felt as if they had been harshly struck in the head with a hammer. They were dazed, their minds blank, with stars dancing before their eyes.
For a whole ten breaths’ time, the gold light finally began to contract, but did not disperse. It settled on the fifth tier of the Silver Bull Horn. From afar, it looked like an eternal halo embedded on the silver horn.
Absolute silence filled the air.
Whistle!
Immediately after, the sight in front of them caused ninety-nine percent of people to gasp in cold air. Their hearts almost jumped out of their throats. The remaining few were left tongue-tied, their pores all opening in reaction to a certain guess, alternating between feeling hot and cold.
"Did the Silver Bull Horn malfunction?"
After a long while, someone finally managed to ask, his throat dry.
"Hmm, it must have, perhaps, there’s something wrong with the Array system."
Someone agreed immediately.
However, a majority of people were simply silent, looking blankly at the golden haze covering the fifth layer of the Silver Bull Horn, as if they’d lost all ability to think.
No one is a fool.
Everyone could guess what these events implied. But it was precisely because of this that it all seemed so incredible, as if they were in a dream.
Someone had ascended to the fifth layer that no one had dared to approach for nearly a thousand years!
A miracle occurred before their very eyes, catching them off guard, battering everyone both emotionally and physically, leaving them in a state of indescribable shock.
"Who, who is it? Can anyone see clearly who were the ten people that entered just now?"
Someone shouted, looking around.
Of the ten people who had entered the tower, eight had already exited, all shaking their heads. Before entering the tower, everyone was focused on their own thing; who had the time to pay attention to the others?
Just then, the entrance to the Silver Bull Horn flashed, and a round-faced young man walked out, looking crestfallen. He had just missed passing the second level by a hair’s width. Why was he always just a hair’s width away?
The young man looked up, only to find countless gazes on him; he was even more popular than Zhang Silou had been a while ago.
What does this mean?
"Brother Wang Yuan, do you know who ascended to the fifth layer?"
A young man familiar with the round-faced young man asked.
He knew Wang Yuan through and through, knew the young man’s limits, so he immediately dismissed the possibility of Wang Yuan reaching the fifth layer.
"The fifth layer...what...what fifth layer?"
Wang Yuan was taken aback, subconsciously turning to look upwards. And, indeed, he saw that the Silver Bull Horn’s ancient, always-dim fifth layer was lit brightly, nearly blinding him with its brilliance.
An intense curiosity wrestled him out of his shock, and then he began asking around. When he found out that nine people had already exited the tower, he suddenly staggered.
That’s not right, where is that young man?
Could it be, could it be?
Wang Yuan certainly wasn’t the first person to guess the truth.
In fact, Zheng Dan had already jumped up from his seated position. As someone whose demeanor seldom changed, he had never lost his composure like this.
The oval-faced girl with her cherry lips wide open, was muttering, recalling the scene at the inn, "I just knew it, I just knew it..."
The fifth layer of the Silver Bull Horn was so oppressive it made one feel faint and nauseous.
But soon after, a piece of parchment gently fell from a groove at the top. Shi Xiaole reached out to catch it, but as he unfurled it and read its contents, he was dumbfounded.
There was a rumor in the Great Cold State that whoever could ascend to the fifth layer of the Silver Bull Horn would receive a special reward.
It turns out it was true.
But, Shi Xiaole didn’t anticipate that not only was this reward special, it was literally priceless.
Because, recorded on the parchment was the method of forging a spiritual weapon!
Everyone knew that the method of forging spiritual weapons was lost thousands of years ago. Most of the spiritual weapons that now exist were excavated from ancient relics.
Shi Xiaole once read in a book that among the Spiritual-Passage Realm masters, less than one in ten owned spiritual weapons. However, he later realized how wrong these numbers were. The truth was, even if you took a hundred masters in the Spiritual-Passage Realm, you’d still struggle to find one who possessed a spiritual weapon.
Even those who had one dared not expose it, as doing so would bring about mortal danger.
Perhaps there were some reclusive families in the world that still preserved the ancient spiritual weapon forging methods, but their numbers were too sparse.
What was recorded on the parchment was the method to forge a lower-grade spiritual weapon. But even so, in Great Cold Martial World, its worth was higher than that of any second-rate peak martial arts skill.
After all, no matter how skilled in martial arts one is, it requires both talent and time to realize its full potential. Unlike the spiritual weapon forging method, which, once mastered, can lead to a large-scale, predictable increase in one’s abilities.
"It’s not right, it’s only half the method."
After reading until the end, Shi Xiaole couldn’t help but feel disappointed. It turned out that the forging method was only half-completed and not a complete method.
"Do I have to ascend to sixth layer?"
Previously, Shi Xiaole only wanted to reach his limit and wasn’t bothered about which layer he would reach. But now, he desired to rush to the sixth layer.
With a lower-grade spiritual sword, his abilities could be enhanced by at least thirty percent over his current level. It could play a crucial role when he encounters an evenly matched opponent.
Moreover, the existence of the system space naturally eliminates the inconvenience of carrying it and the trouble caused by others discovering it.
