"I can only hold out for three seconds!"
Without hesitation, Lin Xiao’s thoughts moved and he returned to his peak condition. He time-roamed to the top of the Phoenix’s head, searching unsuccessfully for the Phoenix Core.
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Without hesitation, he blinked to the back of the Phoenix. Lin Xiao’s gaze shifted, and instead of searching, he time-roamed instantly to a spot he had just swept past on the Phoenix’s back, stopping time for all flames within a ten-meter radius. Also frozen was a round spherical entity.
It was clear that this was the Phoenix Core, which had been moving back and forth inside the Phoenix. He cut it down with his sword and the massive Phoenix quivered so violently it nearly fell apart.
But he had already found the Phoenix Core. With three cuts per second, when the ten-second duration within the time bubble ended, the massive Phoenix collapsed, turning into a sky full of fierce flames that surged in all directions.
Lin Xiao heaved a sigh of relief as he fell from the sky, but before he could catch his second breath, a strong suction force emanated from the center of the widespread flames, attracting all the flames toward the center, forming a Phoenix egg wrapped in intense flames. A heart-palpitating wave of energy emanated from within the Phoenix egg.
"Nirvana!"
"Rebirth from the ashes!"
Lin Xiao’s immediate reaction was to time-roam again, searching back and forth. He quickly found the irregularly moving Phoenix egg inside the Phoenix, moved above the Phoenix egg, and chopped down hard with his sword. Instantly, a number 99/100 appeared in front of him along with a ten-second countdown.
Clearly, the countdown was the time required for the Phoenix’s rebirth from the ashes, and one hundred was the number of attacks needed to break the Phoenix egg.
"That’s quite easy!"
Lin Xiao smiled confidently and swung his Continuous Chop.
With just two applications of Time Lock combined with mental stasis, he had completed the final blow with five seconds left on the countdown. With one strike, he cracked the Phoenix shell, unleashing uncontrollable, gushing flames, which were rapidly sucked into an invisible force at the center to form a new Phoenix egg.
This wasn’t another rebirth from nirvana, rather it was dropping loot.
Light of Nirvana (Light Orange): The first light birthed from the Phoenix’s Nirvana.
Attribute: Nirvana, forcibly elevates a piece of equipment by one level, with specific enhancement values depending on the equipment.
"Too bad it’s a tool and not other equipment."
Lin Xiao had only two pieces of equipment on him, a blue longsword and another piece was the deep purple quality Eternal Tree Heart. Using this...
He paused for a moment, took off the Eternal Tree Heart, held the dazzlingly bright white fireball in his right hand, then thoughtfully pressed it gently on top of the Eternal Tree Heart.
The next challenge was Rank 36, and he wouldn’t be able to acquire other weapons for a while, so he had to fortify his existing weapons to boost his strength.
The weapon was just of ordinary blue quality, and an elevation by one major level would only reach purple quality, which seemed a considerable waste.
The Eternal Tree Heart was of deep purple quality, the next rank was orange, and it was unlikely that a light orange tool could forcibly be enhanced to deep orange, but elevating deep purple to orange should be no problem.
The higher the quality in the later stages, the greater the gap between levels. The Eternal Tree Heart, once enhanced to orange, should see a substantial increase in power.
As the bright white Light of Nirvana fused into the Eternal Tree Heart, the entire heart began to burn with bright white light. It quickly integrated, and the heart turned into a clear crystal, resembling a diamond, with faint streaks of light moving within it.
Eternal Heart (Orange): The heart of the Tree of Miracles fused with the first light birthed from the Phoenix’s Nirvana, reactivating the power of the Tree of Miracles.
Attribute: Vitality limit +300%, Endurance limit +300%, Life regeneration speed +700%, Endurance regeneration speed +700%.
Skills: Eternal Fire, each attack deals additional fire damage equivalent to 30% of one’s own strength, and converts up to 30% of the damage dealt into life and stamina recovery.
Skills: Fire of Nirvana, reduces fire damage by 70% and is immune to all fire-related negative statuses.
Evaluation: The Eternal Tree Heart, fused with the Fire of Nirvana, reawakens a trace of the Tree of Miracles’ majesty.
The effects are incredibly powerful. Whether it’s the massive boost to life, endurance, and restorative abilities, attack bloodsucking, or the significant reduction in fire damage, it’s all very handy.
If one piece of divine equipment is this impressive, what if you were to equip six? Wouldn’t that be overwhelmingly powerful?
It’s worth mentioning that in this world, equipment is not categorized by body part but rather there are only six equipment slots, allowing the equipping of any six types of gear. If you wish, you could even equip six weapons at once and all would be effective simultaneously.
Lin Xiao had essentially landed a significant piece from the start, but he still had four slots empty. Whenever he managed to combine a few pieces of equipment as mighty as the Eternal Heart, he believed he would become incredibly powerful.
The countdown quickly ended, and as the sky was engulfed in white light that vanished, a blue beam descended from the heavens to the ground, instantly forming a layer of ice upon contact and rapidly spreading outward.
"Is this not my illusion?"
He had thought the final challenge of the Sky Tower was to face a phantom with the same strength and equipment as himself, but that wasn’t the case.
As the blue column of light grew brighter, the temperature within the fighting space dropped lower, a stark contrast to the previous challenge with the Phoenix—it was a clash of ice and fire.
Lin Xiao focused intently on the central blue column, hoping to spot his opponent for this challenge, to see if he could interrupt the increasingly cold temperatures, but aside from the ever-brightening, ever-colder blue column, there were no other figures in the void.
"What’s the meaning of this challenge? To see how long I can last?"
He looked around in confusion, finding nothing.
Unable to do anything, he could only wait.
As the blue column of light shone brighter and the freezing speed increased, it soon affected the entire fighting space. Even the surrounding walls and ceiling were encased in ice, transforming the space into a world of ice. Only then did a faint figure emerge, hovering in the air within the dazzling column.
"Crack!"
Tiny icicles appeared in the void, signifying the freezing of the scant moisture in the air.
Seeing the environment deteriorate rapidly, Lin Xiao couldn’t afford to wait any longer. As soon as the phantom figure was about to fully descend, he immediately turned into a stream of light and passed through it...
A terrorizing extreme cold that took Lin Xiao’s breath away descended the moment he crossed the phantom with Time Roaming, much like the Lightning Ghost’s passive skill that bounced back lightning. Time Roaming flowed through, and the ghastly cold instantly froze him behind the icy figure formed from the condensed ice.
Ancient Ice Soul Kard, a silhouette of icy cold beyond time, hailed from the deep dark chilly Chaotic Void Sea. Kard witnessed the birth of the universe and oversaw its end.
Kard existed in the past, is present now, and will always be the supreme force. To Kard, all things in the world are as ephemeral as nothingness, ready to be obliterated at any moment.
With the aging and decay of the universe, Kard’s projection becomes younger and stronger. His control over frost has the power to freeze all things. His projection emits an extraordinarily bright light, and in time, he will no longer be just a projection but a magnificent rebirth!
An unimaginable freezing effect that not even the invincible state of Time Roaming could exempt and, to be exact, while Time Roaming does render one invincible, the real freeze inflicted when passing through the Ancient Ice Soul could not be avoided and was merely delayed until the state of Time Roaming ceased.
Therefore, Lin Xiao’s Time Lock had locked Kard’s projection, but he himself was also frozen.
What was even more frustrating was that he remained frozen for a duration longer than the Time Lock. When the time bubble finally collapsed, he was still trapped in the frozen state.
The full three seconds of freezing time wore off, and even the suspended state of thought during Time Roaming had passed for two seconds.
And in those two seconds... he was still in a slowed state, and the reduction was extremely exaggerated, his speed dropping by ninety percent. Although the slowing effect was decreasing as time went on and the distance increased, the mental stasis from Time Roaming had long since passed.
Lin Xiao was dumbfounded. How could he possibly fight like this?
He had encountered many who wielded ice powers, but he had never seen anything so preposterous.
Without using Time Roaming, it goes without saying, he couldn’t even get close; the closer he got, the lower the temperature and the slower his movements became. Meanwhile, his life restoration speed also rapidly decreased. If he didn’t use Time Roaming to enter an invincible state and pass through, getting close would be difficult.
There was absolutely no way to fight!
He was completely unable to do anything to the projection of the Ancient Ice Soul, Kard, but he didn’t know whether to feel grateful or what, because it seemed that Kard couldn’t do anything to him either.
Its Frost Power, although surpassing normal frost rules and freezing everything with Extreme Cold Power, did not have high destructive power. Whether it was various freezing attacks, frost strikes, or converting frost properties into physical or other attributes, they were all absorbed by Lin Xiao’s Bloodsucking Talent.
Which is to say, after battling for so long, neither side had lost much blood.
This was extremely awkward!
Lin Xiao exhausted all of his Time Roaming charges, trying over a dozen different methods without any success.
Stepping directly inside the body of the Ancient Ice Soul, he was frozen solid before he could react. If it weren’t for the Ancient Ice Soul actively expelling him, he might have remained frozen until the end of time.
If he appeared a little farther away, though not directly frozen, he still couldn’t do anything from such a distance.
He even tried hurling his weapon from afar—the longsword hit the Ancient Ice Soul with a ’ding’ of a crisp sound, chipping a tiny white spot that disappeared the next second, then got frozen in place by an exploding burst of frost from Kard.
There was no way to follow through.
The battle fell into a deadlock.
This stalemate lasted for several hours. Lin Xiao even wanted to give up, but according to the Sky Tower challenge rules, conceding and exiting during the challenge was not allowed.
Either exit before the countdown of the 35th challenge is up, or finish this challenge to exit. It’s impossible to drop out during the challenge; once begun, it must end with one party’s failure.
Ten hours went by.
Twenty hours passed, and Lin Xiao was bombarded into a painful cycle of freezing, slowdown, freezing, slowdown, unable to do anything.
He was in despair.
But it must be said, the thirty-sixth level of Sky Tower was indeed outrageous, just like his Damage Absorption from the black hole, which could absorb all kinds of damage, including true damage. Had it been any other Damage Absorption Skill, there would always be some attributes it couldn’t absorb. But this Ancient Ice freezing was not just frost; it had switched between dozens of attributes to bombard him continuously without even scratching him.
Lin Xiao had no idea when this excruciating pain of being continuously frozen would end. He just hoped that the Sky Tower challenge would have a time limit, ending automatically when it was reached.
Initially, he thought it would be twenty-four hours.
But when twenty-four hours elapsed and nothing happened...
He then hoped it was thirty-six hours.
After enduring thirty-six hours, again, nothing happened.
He then pinned his hopes on forty-eight hours.
Quietly enduring until forty-eight hours, still nothing happened.
Lin Xiao fell silent.
It took him over ten minutes to raise his head, then more than ten hours to take a mere dozen steps to approach the Ancient Ice Soul, several hours more to raise his arm, a few hours to make the thrust, and an unknown amount of time for the blade tip to finally touch the chest of the Ancient Ice Soul, Kard.
"Ding!"
The entire Fighting Space was solidified by an indescribable force, and the Extreme Cold that covered the whole area quickly vanished, the temperature rapidly rising.
The omnipresent Frost Power converged towards Kard, the Ancient Ice Soul at the center, turning into a thick, deep blue column of light.
As the temperature in the air rapidly increased, the frozen Lin Xiao slowly recovered, blinking in confusion.
"Crack!"
The longsword in his hand shattered like brittle ice into countless pieces that scattered on the ground.
He didn’t care about that in the least. His gaze, as if in a trance, focused on the message displayed before him:
"Congratulations, for defeating the projection of the Ancient Ice Soul, Kard, and becoming the new defender of the Sky Tower!"
"I defeated the projection of the Ancient Ice Soul, Kard? How did I defeat it?"
From start to finish, aside from passing through with Time Roaming, he only touched Ancient Ice Soul, Kard, twice and hadn’t even scratched the surface. How could that be considered a victory?
Lin Xiao was very puzzled, but the Sky Tower couldn’t be communicated with, so naturally, there was no answer to be had.
He could only guess, perhaps like in a contest, in the end, if neither side could overcome the other, the victor would be decided by the number of hits or the loss of life. He wasn’t clear on the criteria used by Sky Tower, but in the end, they judged him the winner.
Although bewildered, victory was always a good thing. Lin Xiao collected his emotions and reached for a slowly rotating rhombus-shaped crystal suspending in the air, exuding an intense chill.
Ancient Treasure of Kard: A legacy crystal left by the projection of the Ancient Ice Soul, Kard.
Attributes: Inheritance left to challengers by the Ancient Ice Soul, Kard. It randomly draws one of the treasures that Kard’s projection left for the successors who triumphed in their journey of evolution, randomly selecting from Talents, Skills, or Equipment.
"There’s such a good thing!"
Lin Xiao was pleasantly surprised, but the next moment, as he reread the attributes, a thought struck him, and he guessed why he was considered the victor.
If he wasn’t mistaken, the thirty-sixth level of the Sky Tower didn’t require him to win; merely enduring until the end was considered victory.
After all, the guardian of this level was the great Incarnation of a Great Existence. The Ancient Ice Soul, Kard itself, a being from the depths of the Chaotic Void Sea, was comparable to Divine Power, a supreme life form that won the last journey of evolution and ascended to a status comparable to Divine Power.
As is known, once one ascends to Great Divine Power or an equivalent high existence, all past relevant matters elevate dimensionally, including Kard’s projection in the Sky Tower.
This meant that Lin Xiao was facing a mere projection of a Great Existence, with no real chance of defeating it under normal circumstances, thus the Sky Tower’s rule was set that enduring to a draw was considered a pass.
Reflecting on the battle, the Frost Power that froze everything far exceeded the limits of normal ice rules. It was entirely a higher-dimensional frost that could transform its rules on a whim, turning from frost into Flame Lightning and the like in an instant. This clearly wasn’t something a Rank 3 Evolver could normally accomplish.