Lin Xiao watched them expressionlessly, his gaze making them even more uneasy before he finally spoke:
"You can choose to stay."
"Big Brother!"
"Hear me out."
Lin Xiao waved his hand to interrupt them, saying:
"Leaving here will be very dangerous this time. Taking two ordinary people with us, no one can confidently say they could protect them. Rather than taking a risk, it would be better for you two to stay. The lecture building probably won’t hold out for long before collapsing, but there is an underground laboratory behind the school that is very sturdy; you could move there. If things really go south, you can merge with Class 3. They have a few Evolvers, and together you’ll have enough people to protect yourselves."
What a joke, bringing you two along is already generous, but to bring a bunch of burdensome people?
He doesn’t mind looking for women; he already has Zhuo Jing, but at least like the other men in the team who found women from the team, they’re all Evolvers, so there’s no issue of being a burden.
Without any hesitation or doubt, he decisively advised the two of them to stay behind, taking the remaining two men and three women to leave the school and head towards the Sky-reaching Light Pillar, even in daylight, which was very conspicuous.
There’s nothing in the Novice Area worth lingering for. These past few days wandering around the forest, although they hadn’t been to every place, he had a good idea of the strength of the monsters there. The giant beasts he had killed before were some of the strongest in the forest, providing a decent increase in Evolution Degree, but they were too few in number. It would take forever to accumulate enough Evolution Points to advance to Rank 3.
For him, naturally, the best way forward was to leave this place and enter the larger map, where only powerful enough monsters could provide him the evolutionary drive to grow rapidly.
The Novice Forest wasn’t too large, and the Sky-reaching Light Pillar should be at the center of the map, not too far away from them. Along the way, as they cut down monsters, by the time darkness was about to fall, they could already see a tower as white as jade under the pillar of light, bathed in its glow.
The Sky Tower!
Seamless and with no indication of how many floors there were, more a stele than a tower, there were three characters carved upon it, incomprehensible yet understandable, and instinctively everyone knew the purpose of this Sky Tower.
It’s simple, as long as you enter the Sky Tower and pass three challenges, you can leave the Novice Village and enter the larger map of the Main World.
Such Sky Towers are not only found here; in countless other Novice Areas for Humans and Other Races, they stand.
The Sky Tower rises amidst the wilderness, as though it had dropped from nowhere, and you can even see the crushed trees and underbrush at the base of the tower. The surrounding area doesn’t forbid monsters from entering, and before their arrival, other Evolvers had already been there, with leftover corpses and bloodstains still on the ground.
A group of six and another group of four were resting near the tower, and on the other side of the tower, a solitary, cold-faced man with a sword was sitting on the corpse of a giant beast. He paid no mind to their arrival; those talking continued, those resting with closed eyes carried on as they were.
Lin Xiao glanced over at the man sitting on top of the giant beast’s corpse, noting that someone who dared to travel alone and could take down a giant beast must be quite powerful, at least Rank 2 or higher.
The team settled down to rest by felling a tree near the tower. From his group, someone named Wu Ziqi and another named Ruan Wan took the initiative to approach the two teams to ask about the situation.
Lin Xiao walked up to the Sky Tower, examining the seamless, gapless jade tower, paused for a moment, and then placed his hand on it. Instantly, information emerged in his mind.
According to the information, all you had to do was place your hand on the tower and think, and you could enter and accept the challenge.
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The challenge must be done solo, and the difficulty is adjusted according to individual strength.
For example, if the Evolver is at Rank 1, the difficulty will start from Rank 1.
If the Evolver is at Rank 2, the base difficulty starts from Rank 2. The stronger your initial strength, the higher the initial difficulty.
Moreover, once the challenge starts, you cannot quit before the third round; meaning if you can’t beat it, you will die inside.
It’s worth mentioning that the Sky Tower has a total of 36 floors. You only need to pass three to enter the Main Cities of various races on Earth.
Besides, after passing three rounds, you can decide to continue challenging. Following challenges can be quit midway, and continuous challenges yield extra benefits. Plus, the final number of floors you pass will affect your final reward.
This was not a surprise to Lin Xiao; not just here, in the Main World there are many similar things. Some powerful beings set up similar challenges within their Divine Realm, some even simply called it Sky Tower, allowing those who are favored to attempt the challenge, and select the elite among them for cultivation.
He was very interested in this and told Zhuo Jing:
"When we start the challenge, try to tackle more rounds than the minimum,
At this point, Ruan Wan and Wu Ziqi returned. The other teams had just arrived not long ago, and before them, a few people had already entered the Sky Tower.
He said to them:
"The Sky Tower can only be entered one at a time. Since you lack strength, after passing three rounds, you can try to challenge more rounds. But you must know your limits—if the difficulty becomes overwhelming, immediately quit the challenge to avoid dying inside."
The two men and three women in his team had average talents; unless something unexpected occurred, they wouldn’t achieve anything remarkable, but with one step at a time, they wouldn’t have to sink to the bottom.
After taking a short rest, he grasped Zhuo Jing’s hand and then headed towards the Sky Tower.
By coincidence, the aloof man who was by himself also stood up and walked toward the Sky Tower, giving him a glance without any expression. He reached out his hand, pressed it on the Sky Tower, and his figure turned into a streak of flowing light, entering inside the tower.
Lin Xiao didn’t pay attention to him and pressed his hand on the Sky Tower. With a thought, space and time shifted before his eyes.
Once the space stabilized, he found himself in a hundred-meter diameter room. The top and sides were made of white stone, and despite the absence of any visible light sources, it was as clear as day inside.
A prompt voice echoed in his ear, and a hundred-second countdown emerged in the center of the space.
The countdown quickly reached zero and vanished. A beam of white light descended from above, casting down an ugly Bat Monster with wingspan close to four meters as it hung in the air, not pausing for even a second before lunging at him.
Lin Xiao didn’t even dodge, confronting the oncoming Bat Monster head-on.
"Bang!"
He took a step back, unscathed, while the Bat Monster was sent flying backward, a gaping wound in its chest and abdomen revealing its innards and splattering blood everywhere.
Soon a white light fell, the Bat Monster’s corpse and the pool of blood quickly dissolved, and his nearly unspent strength swiftly recovered under the light. A hundred-second countdown reappeared.
The second round came quickly, still Bat Monsters, but this time two appeared at once.
Relying on his Damage Absorption Talent to be completely immune to all damage, he stood firm and chopped them down one by one, quickly entering the third round.
These large Bat Monsters were actually quite formidable and posed a threat to typical Rank 2 Evolvers, but it was unfortunate for them that Lin Xiao’s Talent was incredibly strong. Aside from the strength granted by his evolution, he had additional inherent strength; with the two combined, his near strength far exceeded that of other Evolvers of the same rank.
Just like in games, it was as if a level 20 boss from a dungeon was fighting level 20 common monsters—a complete one-sided crush.
In the third round, it was still Bat Monsters, but the number increased to four at once.
For a normal Evolver, this might be troublesome, but to Lin Xiao, as long as his defenses remained unbroken, the quantity didn’t matter.
After three rounds, two prompts appeared before Lin Xiao. One to enter the Human Main City and the other to continue the challenge. He naturally chose to continue the challenge.
After the hundred-second countdown, the fourth challenge appeared. This time it wasn’t a Bat Monster, but a Bull Monster standing three meters tall in half-body armor and wielding a Wagon-wheel Axe. Its muscular build and ferocious aura suggested it was at least a level stronger than the Bat Monsters.
The Bull Monster roared as it appeared, creating a shockwave around itself. It visibly increased in size, then it charged at him with its axe raised.
Lin Xiao wanted to test its strength and didn’t dodge; he lifted his sword to parry it instead.
"Clang!"
A great force came at him, and he braced himself, immediately gauging its power.
The creature was stronger than him, but not overwhelmingly so, and the excess force from the impact was easily dealt with due to his Absorption Talent; what made this challenge more difficult than the previous was the Bull Monster’s relative intelligence, its weaponry and combat experience. Like comparing a new recruit to a veteran of many battles—there’s a world of difference between their combat powers.
But this so-called combat experience was vastly inferior to that of Lin Xiao. After a series of clanging exchanges, Lin Xiao’s faster reaction times and more extensive combat experience allowed him to oppress the Bull Monster head-on, inflicting wound upon wound until it grew weaker and was eventually slain.
The fifth challenge brought another Bull Monster, better equipped and with even stronger combat experience.
Especially noteworthy was its Wagon-wheel Axe made of fine steel, which sent sparks flying with each strike, instantly chipping a hole the size of a fingertip in his plain broadsword.
He had to change his tactics, more often using the thick back of his blade to block and parry, lest his weapon break mid-fight.
Even so, the broadsword didn’t last long, and by the time he found an opening to end the battle with a throat slash, the sword had more than a dozen notches and a crack running through it.
But when the elite Bull Monster fell, a white light emerged, dropping a fine steel longsword as loot.
He guessed this was the Sky Tower automatically offering loot based on his situation, given that the purpose of the tower was to test and select elites. After all, if challengers didn’t even have a weapon to handle those tough-skinned monsters, their combat power would surely suffer.
The sixth challenge saw a steep increase in difficulty; three elite Bull Monsters appeared at the same time.
However, now that Lin Xiao held a better weapon, his combat power also surged. Many combat maneuvers previously restricted by the strength of his weapon could now be employed. Using his Damage Absorption Talent for a damage-trading strategy, he forcefully killed all three elite Bull Monsters.
After all, any injuries would heal after passing the level, greatly increasing his flexibility in combat.
It’s worth mentioning that killing monsters in the levels also added to his Evolution Points. These powerful monsters, unable to be found in Novice Village, provided considerable Evolution Points. Just in a while, his Evolution Degree increased by several percentage points. Considering that the monsters would get stronger the further he progressed, if he could make it through to the 20th or 30th rounds, he might directly ascend to Rank 3.
The seventh challenge brought ten elite Bull Monsters, one of which was even larger, wearing exquisite chainmail, wielding two large axes, and with several hand axes on its belt—a Bull Monster warrior.