Chapter 319: The Sky Cleared, The Rain Stopped

**The Rise of Kyushu**

Three hours later, Lu Ye completed nearly twenty trials and passed the eleventh level of the Hundred Array Pagoda. The spiritual energy in the room once again became as dense as mist, and then a palm-sized ball of luminescence appeared before his eyes.

Gazing at the floating luminescence, Lu Ye's eyebrows twitched.

The luminescence he had received before was only fist-sized, and each experience was incredibly unpleasant. Now that it was palm-sized, the experience was bound to be even worse.

Lu Ye faintly felt that if he truly absorbed and digested the information contained within this luminescence, he would probably reach his limit.

Even though his spiritual consciousness was more resilient than that of ordinary Spirit Stream Realm cultivators, he couldn't endure such torment indefinitely.

Yet the benefits were right before him; he couldn't ignore them. After all, this was the reward for his three hours of hard work.

Gritting his teeth, he raised his hand, grabbed the ball of luminescence, and pressed it into his forehead.

The next instant, Lu Ye's body stiffened, his vision went black, and he nearly fainted. Forcing himself to stay upright, Lu Ye quickly absorbed and digested the information.

Slowly, he recovered.

Several hours later, he collapsed, exhausted, onto the ground, without the strength to even move a single finger.

"No more," he thought, "I've truly reached my limit."

Each time he absorbed a reward from the Hundred Array Pagoda, it impacted his mental state. One or two times weren't too noticeable, but after eleven consecutive times, his mind felt numb, his head was blank, his thoughts chaotic, and he didn't want to think about anything.

Even though the spiritual energy around him was dense, and it was a good time for cultivation, Lu Ye wasn't in the mood to move.

He just wanted to lie there, forever.

Instinctively, he felt he had forgotten something, but he couldn't bring himself to ponder it deeply.

He didn't know how much time had passed when a bitter taste spread in his mouth. Then, a refreshing coolness arose in his mind, quickly spreading. Stimulated by this coolness, his chaotic and stagnant thoughts began to stir, and even the fatigue in his mental state rapidly dissipated, replaced by renewed vitality.

Lu Ye instantly snapped back to awareness. He blinked, belatedly realizing he was holding something to his mouth.

He quickly sat up and looked down, finding, just as he suspected, that he was holding the jade bottle containing Soul Cleansing Water. The bitter taste in his mouth was also because he had drunk the Soul Cleansing Water.

Only then did he remember what he had forgotten before his mind became chaotic: taking the Soul Cleansing Water.

This substance could be consumed directly, as Shui Yuan had mentioned before. However, if refined into a pill with other medicinal herbs, its effects would be even better, and direct consumption was somewhat wasteful.

The Hundred Array Pagoda's rewards impacted the mental state, consuming spiritual consciousness power. Given this, the Soul Cleansing Water should be useful.

This thought had surfaced before his mind became chaotic, but at that moment, he had no inclination to ponder it further.

Although he hadn't consciously thought about it, his body's instincts had reacted.

The Soul Cleansing Water continued to work, sweeping away all mental fatigue.

The sky was clear, the rain had stopped. He was good to go!

Lu Ye glanced at the Soul Cleansing Water in the jade bottle, feeling a pang of regret. With that one gulp, he had probably consumed seven or eight drops.

He quickly put the jade bottle away. While activating his spiritual power to construct Spirit Gathering Patterns in his spirit apertures, absorbing the room's spiritual energy to replenish his consumption, he also took out some dried meat from his storage bag and chewed it vigorously.

While his mind was indeed invigorated, the physical exhaustion couldn't be restored by the Soul Cleansing Water. To continue challenging the Hundred Array Pagoda, he needed to replenish his physical strength as quickly as possible.

Slowly, he fully recovered, and only then did he begin to channel his spiritual power to assault the barriers of his spirit apertures.

Generally speaking, each time Lu Ye passed a trial in the Hundred Array Pagoda, after digesting and absorbing the benefits bestowed by the pagoda, he could activate a new spirit aperture, only then reaching the time limit for that level and entering the next.

After completing these eleven levels, Lu Ye had already opened more than ten apertures consecutively.

This was an unexpected bonus. Although he knew there were such benefits after challenging the pagoda, he hadn't anticipated the spiritual energy would be so concentrated. This was even faster than his usual cultivation method for opening apertures.

Approximately half an hour later, the time limit was up, and Lu Ye entered the twelfth level.

Yu Xiao and Bai Qian felt like they were going crazy.

When Lu Ye spent five days challenging ten levels in one go and triggering the Hundred Array Pagoda's resonance, both thought the young man must have reached his limit and would likely come out soon.

However, what happened next completely shattered their composure.

Lu Ye continued his momentum of clearing two levels a day, pressing ever upwards, and each level triggered the Hundred Array Pagoda's resonance.

Before the fifteenth level, Bai Qian contacted Zhao Li almost every half hour, asking him to use the imprint in the battle imprint to confirm Lu Ye's well-being.

After the fifteenth level, both of them became completely numb.

"At this point, who cares!" they thought. "That kid from the Jadeblood Sect has already caused so much commotion; how much worse could it get?"

In contrast to the two of them, the array masters of the Heavenly Mystery Sect went wild.

Because they had personally witnessed a miracle, an unprecedented one. The identity of the challenger remained unknown, but that no longer mattered. Regardless of who the challenger was, in the minds of the Heavenly Mystery Sect's array masters, they were already a god-like existence.

In just ten days, clearing twenty levels consecutively without stopping, and each level triggering the Hundred Array Pagoda's resonance—how could this be achieved by human power alone?

Each resonance provided some benefit to the Heavenly Mystery Sect's array masters. It could be said that within these ten days, the array mastery of the Heavenly Mystery Sect's cultivators had generally improved.

On the twenty-first level, within a grand array radiating killing intent, Lu Ye dodged the various attacks generated by the array, while simultaneously probing its intricacies and searching for weaknesses.

He had come to realize that in the Hundred Array Pagoda, the difficulty significantly increased every ten levels. The arrays he had encountered before weren't nearly this troublesome.

He secretly congratulated himself for taking time to eat and replenish his physical strength during previous breaks; otherwise, he truly wouldn't have been able to endure.

The various attacks generated by this grand array weren't too powerful, but their frequency was very high. This forced Lu Ye to find ways to dodge, because relying solely on activating his Defensive Spirit Patterns to resist them would be a burden on his spiritual power.

He deployed array flags in all directions, using a full sixteen flags before Lu Ye found a weak point in the array. He activated his Insight Spirit Patterns to verify it, and once confirmed, he truly began to dismantle the array.

After another incense stick's time, the grand array stagnated and then crumbled with a roar.

The second trial immediately followed.

Throughout history, countless array masters had challenged the Hundred Array Pagoda, but even those much stronger than Lu Ye couldn't consecutively trigger the Hundred Array Pagoda's resonance for twenty levels. Let alone twenty consecutive levels, there hadn't even been ten consecutive ones.

This was because the rewards bestowed by the Hundred Array Pagoda had a significant impact on a cultivator's mental state. The better the reward, the greater the impact. Only cultivators of the Divine Sea Realm, who had already formed a Divine Sea, could withstand the continuous impact of the rewards.

But why would a Divine Sea Realm grandmaster come here to challenge the Hundred Array Pagoda?

After all, the Heavenly Mystery Sect's Hundred Array Pagoda was just the first section; it was suitable for array masters of the Spirit Stream Realm and Cloud River Realm to challenge.

Compared to other array masters who challenged the pagoda, Lu Ye had his own advantages.

First, spiritual power. After completing a challenge, array masters needed to spend a lot of time digesting and comprehending the benefits bestowed by the Hundred Array Pagoda. Only then could they quickly recover their expended spiritual power.

Sometimes, array masters were even forced to pause their comprehension, prioritizing the recovery of their spiritual power, because without enough spiritual power, it would certainly be difficult to continue.

Lu Ye didn't need to. While he was digesting and absorbing the benefits bestowed by the Hundred Array Pagoda, his consumed spiritual power was already fully replenished with the help of the Spirit Gathering Patterns, and he even had extra time to cultivate and open apertures.

This was an advantage that no other cultivator challenging the pagoda could match.

His other advantage was, naturally, the Soul Cleansing Water.

No one had ever challenged the pagoda with Soul Cleansing Water like Lu Ye. This substance was primarily used to enhance spiritual consciousness, and it was an extremely rare treasure throughout the entire Nine Provinces. Even Divine Sea Realm grandmasters greatly coveted it.

No one used it to recover from mental fatigue.

Yet Lu Ye did exactly that, and not just once. As soon as he felt his mind becoming fatigued, he would immediately take a drop of Soul Cleansing Water, cleansing his mind, and quickly become invigorated.

Spiritual power replenishment wasn't an issue, and his mind wouldn't tire. For each level, Lu Ye could exert his maximum effort, achieve the best results, thereby receiving rewards from the Hundred Array Pagoda, improving his array mastery, and then entering the next level.

This was an excellent cycle.

Undeniably, the cost was considerable. If Divine Sea Realm grandmasters knew Lu Ye was doing this, they would surely be furious enough to kill him. For a treasure they coveted to be used so wastefully by Lu Ye was simply utterly extravagant.

But for Lu Ye, it was worth it.

No matter how good a treasure was, its true usefulness lay in its application. It wouldn't reproduce by just sitting there.

Moreover, as for Soul Cleansing Water, Lu Ye still had two and a half bottles. What was the big deal about using half a bottle to challenge the Hundred Array Pagoda?

He had brought this very item out of Xian Yuan City.

Five more days later, Lu Ye had cleared the thirtieth level, once again triggering the Hundred Array Pagoda's resonance.

With previous experience, Lu Ye knew that the difficulty of the thirty-first level would certainly increase significantly again. So, within the thirtieth level, he didn't rush to cultivate or open apertures. Instead, he focused on his recovery, even taking a short nap to fully restore his energy.

Outside the Hundred Array Pagoda, the cultivators of the Heavenly Mystery Sect were truly going wild. More than double the usual number of cultivators had gathered in the valley.

Previously, only array masters came here, as only they could gain enlightenment from the repeated resonances. But after the news spread, even cultivators who didn't practice array mastery came to witness the spectacle. Everyone wanted to know who this formidable individual was, who had caused the Hundred Array Pagoda to resonate thirty times consecutively. Even more, they wanted to know if he could continue his glorious streak, as only three levels of the Heavenly Mystery Sect's Hundred Array Pagoda remained.