Chapter 447: Heaven Star Tower, Real Men Reach the 300th Floor

One of them was given to Yingu, and Wang Yu used one, leaving him with two. This item is most effective when used to break through the bottleneck of the late Nascent Soul stage.

This is because the power of Sky Yin it contains allows cultivators of the Yin, Water, and Ice paths to comprehend their own Dharmic Intent. Merely enhancing demonic essence, however, is a lesser benefit.

Yingu valued its "Yin" aspect, and the Thunder Lotus he had found could complement the "Thunder" aspect.

At that point, comprehending the Yin-Thunder Dharmic Intent would be a natural progression. This was also the true reason he was confident in breaking through to the late stage.

If he hadn't been held back by the Ghost Fiendess, he would have long since left East Pole Capital for secluded cultivation.

Which just goes to show what misfortune befell him.

Wang Yu possessed abundant resources, so wasting some was inconsequential. Furthermore, the comprehension related to "Sky Yin" was not entirely useless.

This chilling water essence would help him comprehend the Vast Cold Dharmic Intent!

This was ultimately unavoidable.

In the future, as his strength increased and his Vast Cold Divine Ability reached perfection, he would naturally comprehend this Dharmic Intent. The growth brought by dual Dharmic Intents would undoubtedly strengthen his Nascent Soul significantly.

Meeting the requirements for the late-stage realm would certainly not be a problem.

He felt that breaking through to the mid-Nascent Soul stage might happen within the next few years, perhaps even while still in East Pole Capital.

After half a year of refining, his strength surged considerably.

He then utilized the convenience of the underground river to reach the bottom of the Celestial Star Pagoda, directly teleporting out with the Water Ancestor Token. The first thing he saw was the group from Yellow Springs Temple.

He secretly lamented that they had arrived too quickly.

If he continued alone, his disadvantage would be too great. It was opportune to appear and join the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect's faction; Old Demon Blazing Sun would almost certainly protect him.

After the dispute between the two Zhuos concluded, his cooperation with Young Master Zhuo seemed to be over, and Zhuo Shouyun was the victor, but the personal connection still remained.

He personally held a good impression of both the Zhuo and Zuoqiu families, so it was natural for him to participate in the Celestial Star Pagoda opportunity.

After greeting them, Wang Yu approached Old Demon Blazing Sun.

He bowed respectfully, saying,

"Junior Wang Yu greets Ancestor Lie."

Blazing Sun was momentarily stunned. His deeply lined old face showed surprise at Wang Yu's audacious remark, but he quickly recovered.

"Since you call my descendant brother, I will unashamedly accept this address of Ancestor Lie."

"It was presumptuous of me, junior."

Having successfully joined the sect's ranks, Wang Yu subtly signaled to Yingu, Youmo, and Minghu. They naturally gravitated towards him.

His controllable power instantly surged.

This was the benefit of being a good person: Wang Yu always paid close attention to his collaborators' gains. While these individuals had contributed a lot in their various collaborations, their rewards had also significantly exceeded expectations.

Following Wang Yu was a sure way to obtain good items, which had become a common understanding among the three. Naturally, they didn't mind supporting him.

Therefore, even though he joined the group latest, his influence among cultivators below the Grand Cultivator level was among the highest.

Immediately, Wang Yu continued his greetings.

First, he paid his respects to Immortal Ice Soul. Both hailed from Cold Blood Peak and cultivated the same inherited technique. She knew his background and trump cards best.

Furthermore, Immortal Ice Soul was a Zuoqiu clan descendant, naturally placing her in the same sub-faction within their overall alliance as Wang Yu. Hence, she was his first target for a courtesy visit.

He had, in fact, heard her name for a long time.

This was their first meeting. Her reputation as an "Immortal" in Scarlet Kite attested to her extraordinary ability.

Dressed in a crescent moon-embroidered phoenix-tail skirt, two ice-crystal-studded sashes at her waist accentuated her slender figure, making it seem graspable. Though her bust was average, it was notably firm and perfectly shaped.

For some reason, the words "little squab" flashed through Wang Yu's mind.

Looking further up,

Her long black hair was styled into a lily bun, adorned with a frosty green hair ornament. A chain hung with teardrop-shaped jewels dangled at her forehead, likely a magical artifact.

Her skin was like solidified cream, and her eyes were as cold and indifferent as an iceberg.

Unfortunately, everything below her exquisite nose was covered by a veil, concealing her full appearance. Even so, it was evident she was a beauty of unparalleled charm.

Wang Yu had met many ice-cold beauties; Yan Ling was initially like this, but became more human-like after they grew familiar.

Immortal Ice Soul was a woman of few words. After a brief show of friendliness towards Wang Yu, she said no more.

Wang Yu then moved closer to Lord Lei Hou, looking around.

He seemed to be searching for something.

This made Lord Lei Hou chuckle. "Wang Yu, I didn't expect you to become a pillar of the sect in just two hundred years. Do you still resent me for what happened back then?"

This was purely a joke; both of them knew it.

Under those circumstances, placing the favor of giving away the Thunder Spirit Corpse on him was the best solution. Otherwise, it would have been a pure loss, taken by Old Man Xuanyan for free.

Wang Yu was indeed looking for that Thunder Spirit Corpse.

Lord Lei Hou's cultivation method was unique: he refined his own body into a zombie, specifically a thunder zombie, combined with human's innate spiritual intelligence.

In a way, he and the Thunder Spirit Corpse were "monsters" of the same kind.

He had innate spiritual intelligence, while the latter developed spiritual intelligence after becoming a zombie. This unique cultivation method shared similarities with the *Corpse Demon Secret Art*.

It was very likely also a legacy of Old Man Tiancan.

In other words, they could even be considered fellow disciples. This might have been an underlying factor back in Gui Ling, especially since Wang Yu's body was also extremely similar to a zombie's at the time.

Knowing what Wang Yu was looking for, Lord Lei Hou said directly:

"That Thunder Spirit Corpse has been refined by me into a clone. You will see it if the opportunity arises."

Wang Yu's mouth twitched. He had thought...

Never mind, it's not important.

The casual, public exchange of greetings left the people from Yellow Springs Temple with sour expressions, as if they had been completely ignored.

Suddenly, Old Demon Leng Gu, who had a past conflict with Wang Yu, spoke up: "Ji Fa, don't think that just because you have the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect backing you, we can't do anything to you. All your ghostly tricks are useless inside the Celestial Star Pagoda."

Wang Yu glanced back, disdainfully saying:

"You? A defeated foe!"

"—You!"

Nether Son suddenly stopped Leng Gu, calmly saying,

"That's enough. Let's settle this with our skills. Core Formation disciples... enter the pagoda!"

The Celestial Star Pagoda opportunity opens once every hundred years.

It had lain dormant underground for countless years and could be activated at any time. While Scarlet Kite demonic cultivators were domineering, they wouldn't completely deny opportunities to rogue cultivators and affiliated forces.

Such opportunities could be shared; it was merely a matter of priority.

The direct disciples of the various mountain lords and Yellow Springs Temple entered the pagoda first.

It's worth noting that,

Even when entering the Celestial Star Pagoda simultaneously, each person is in a different mirrored space and cannot interfere with one another. The competition is ultimately about the final ranking.

The higher one climbs, the better. At the very least, one can obtain authority-related items connected to East Pole Capital, which can even be effective in the other three capitals.

Core Formation cultivators were given half an incense stick of time.

Soon, it was the Nascent Soul cultivators' turn. Wang Yu took the lead, directly entering the portal of the Celestial Star Pagoda. He had a strong premonition.

This pagoda challenge might bring the opportunity to break through to the mid-Nascent Soul stage, especially his body cultivation. If not for the rapid short-term improvement making his foundation slightly unstable, he could attempt the breakthrough at any time.

The spine and skull of his Immortal Spirit Bone had been successfully forged, and it was now spreading towards his hands, maintaining a respectable efficiency.

Inside the Celestial Star Pagoda, on the first floor.

As the dark vision receded, Wang Yu appeared on a vast plain. The cold voice of the Pagoda Spirit echoed in his ears:

"Cultivation level assessment in progress... Identified as Nascent Soul Stage Three. The first trial is – Land of Slaughter. Cultivator, please eliminate one hundred peak third-rank demon beasts within one incense stick of time."

The unusual prompt gave Wang Yu a faint sense of familiarity, like playing a game a long time ago.

"Is this like, 'A real man climbs 300 levels'?"

As the sounds faded, one hundred demon beasts called "Savage Elephants," each over ten zhang tall, suddenly appeared on the vast plain and thundered towards him.

Wang Yu took a deep breath and exhaled his Ice Dragon Core Flame.

The fourth-rank core flame, combined with extremely pure Frozen Demonic Essence, instantly transformed into a sea of ice, wind, and fire. In less than a breath, all the elephants were frozen into ice sculptures and shattered.

"Congratulations, Cultivator, you have successfully passed the first floor. Please choose one reward from the following options:"

"1. Restore status.""2. Get early information about the next trial.""3. Gain one day of rest, and be teleported to the second floor after twelve hours.""4. Accumulate rewards for the next floor."

Wang Yu directly chose option four.

Every ten floors in the Celestial Star Pagoda, the rewards would undergo a qualitative leap, offering tangible items like heavenly materials, earthly treasures, rare spiritual medicines, as well as cultivation empowerment or inheritance of cultivation techniques and divine abilities.

Frankly, if Wang Yu had entered as a Core Formation cultivator, he would have had a high chance of reaching the latter fifty floors. Now, at the early Nascent Soul stage, it would become increasingly difficult as he progressed.

After all, his trial was set at Nascent Soul difficulty. Judging by the trend, it was normal for challenges of the Nascent Soul Grand Perfection level to eventually appear.

It couldn't be avoided; cultivating too fast had this drawback, making it easy to miss the peak achievements only attainable at lower realms. However, with trials of different difficulties, his gains would also correspond to the Nascent Soul level.

It was hard to say whether it was a net gain or loss.

The Celestial Star Pagoda's second floor was still a Land of Slaughter. This time, there were one hundred fifty peak third-rank demon beasts, still posing no challenge to Wang Yu.

He advanced quickly through the early stages, soon reaching the tenth floor!

"The Land of Slaughter's periodic trial: The enemy is a Nascent Soul cultivator of the same realm. Combat begins in three breaths!"

As the Pagoda Spirit's cold voice faded, a brawny man wielding a glaive appeared in the center of the plain. He immediately brought his glaive down, and the blade energy transformed into a fierce azure dragon that charged forward.

Wang Yu transformed into a streak of light, narrowly dodging the attack.

He extended his hand, forming the Yellow Springs Great Hand Seal. The brawny man's combat intelligence seemed to be rather ordinary; he chose to break the technique with blade energy, resulting in his weapon being eroded into scrap metal by the Yellow Springs Turbid Flow.

The spiritual light of his magical artifact disappeared so quickly that it caused a momentary daze in the opponent. At that moment, Wang Yu drew his Blood Flesh Demonic Sword and unleashed a fierce Blood Slaughter Heart Sword strike.

Coupled with the Void Moon technique from his Grand Yin Nether Pupils, he briefly froze the opponent.

A blood-red line swept across, and the brawny man was directly split in half.

This was Wang Yu's current combat strength. Ordinary early Nascent Soul cultivators were no match for him, provided they didn't have intelligence on him.

With a slight strategic move, if the opponent lacked spiritual defenses, they would be severely wounded. Unfortunately, this was an illusion manifested by the Pagoda Spirit, so there was no actual Nascent Soul for him to capture.

"Congratulations, Cultivator, you have passed the tenth floor of the Celestial Star Pagoda. Please choose one of the following options as a periodic reward."

"1. Random fourth-rank spiritual item.""2. Three hundred drops of demonic essence empowerment.""3. Azure Dragon Blade Art (Fourth-rank close-combat blade technique)""4. Accumulate rewards for the next floor (gain three hours of rest time)."

After pondering for a moment, Wang Yu chose the second option. The so-called cultivation empowerment meant a ray of spiritual light descending from the sky.

The demonic essence in his Qi Sea visibly increased by three hundred drops, officially surpassing the ten thousand mark. He was only about eighteen hundred drops away from reaching the peak of the early Nascent Soul realm.

"Comfortable~"

With an involuntary soft moan, Wang Yu recovered to full strength after half an hour of rest and entered the eleventh floor.

"This trial is... Land of Skills. Please choose one of the following items to begin the trial."

"1. Alchemy.""2. Artifact Forging.""108. Puppetry."

There were many options, but Wang Yu was only truly proficient in alchemy, so he naturally chose that and began the alchemy trial.

These ten floors presented almost no difficulty for him. After all, he had mastered two fourth-rank grandmaster-level alchemy techniques, already qualifying him to refine fifth-rank low-grade precious pills.

He simply lacked the materials. Perhaps he could use the illusory spiritual items manifested by the Pagoda Spirit to practice and lay a foundation for the future.

The Celestial Star Pagoda trials were diverse. With good luck, one might encounter a skill they excelled at, but with bad luck, there was a high probability of being stopped midway.

However, the most frequent trial remained the Land of Slaughter.

The ancient immortal dynasty greatly valued combat prowess, which was fundamental for cultivators to protect their Dao. Regardless of the era, combat talent was also a type of innate ability.

Wang Yu excelled in this aspect; when he was weak, he pushed his combat intelligence to the limit, allowing him to survive numerous life-or-death crises.

After reaching higher realms, divine ability offense and defense became much simpler, usually involving countering moves. If one wasn't careful, they could be taken out in a single wave, which was equally perilous.

For the twentieth floor's reward, Wang Yu still chose demonic essence empowerment.

He wanted to increase his strength first and break through to the mid-Nascent Soul stage.

Then, by choosing spiritual item rewards, he could elevate his gains to another level, a small calculated move on his part.

Outside.

As Core Formation cultivators and Nascent Soul cultivators (below the Grand Cultivator level) entered, the area around the Celestial Star Pagoda became noticeably less crowded. When it was time for the Grand Cultivators to enter,

Nether Son and Old Demon Blazing Sun entered first. The Celestial Star Pagoda had a chance to reward opportunities for Soul Transformation, just as the Immortal Official Medicine Repository contained fifth-rank spirit pills.

During the peak of the ancient immortal dynasty, it possessed more Soul Transformation Venerables than the righteous and demonic paths combined, and the number of those who reached the Void Refinement stage was countless.

As long as there was even a slim possibility, they would choose to enter.

Although the two factions had temporarily ceased hostilities, entering was easy. However, if a time difference occurred upon exit, and too many strong cultivators from one side emerged first, there was an eighty percent chance a fight would immediately break out.

Therefore, external arrangements were also crucial.

Monitoring each other's entry times, it was most appropriate for individuals to enter one by one. After all, with similar strengths, their exit times should also be roughly similar.

No one would willingly give up an opportunity and exit early.

This was dictated by human nature.

Asking demonic cultivators to abandon an opportunity within their grasp was tantamount to dreaming.