Night came and went, the day rolled around once again. Yaan had been sitting still all night, reading. After finishing the incomplete Fiend Transformation technique, he came to an understanding.

Rui had certainly withheld information from him. This was not complex information that his mind couldn’t handle, nor was it knowledge that was irrelevant to him…no, she had deliberately withheld fundamental knowledge. As for her reasoning, Yaan did not know. Before drawing any conclusions, he first needed to learn more.

And so, he moved onto the complete Fiend Transformation technique. This was an exceedingly thick book which would take days to read properly, even for Yaan.

As he read, Yaan continued to absorb the powerful vitality from the spatial vortex. He forced as much as he could to remain within his flesh, whilst some was naturally refined into his vital energy, increasing his cultivation slightly.

As time passed by, the pressure within his body declined. With the decrease in the bloody vitality remaining in his body, Yaan no longer needed to consciously focus in order to absorb the rest. However, he was also unable to properly estimate the improvements to his body until all of the energy was absorbed, and for that, he would need to wait a bit longer.

Whoosh!

With a blink, Yaan looked up. He was still sitting down, his book in hand, but he had somehow been transported to a totally different region.

As he slowly stood up and looked around, Yaan put the book away, replacing the item in his hand with a sword.

He was currently standing atop a pillar of dirt, though the dirt felt strangely hard and durable to the touch, as if breaking it apart was an impossibility. After looking up and scouring his gaze across the region, Yaan noticed that there were some people sitting on seats around this elevated, circular pillar.

There were in fact 99 pillars in total, each around half a mile in diameter, and each space a couple miles apart in a grid formation. Some pillars had people standing upon them, on others people were battling, but most were empty.

“So this is the battlefield, huh…when the time comes, you just show up here.” Yaan smiled and shook his head.

This reminded him of his days in the bloody arena in North Ghu City, only back then, he had hidden his identity, whilst the battles were arduous and dangerous.

Now…

“Newbie Yaan, I know all about you! Arriving just one day ago yet already issuing five separate challenges. You’re either incredibly courageous, or simply suicidal!”

When he heard this, Yaan immediately understood that the native residents of the 1st layer massively underestimated the power of those who could enter this place from the outside world.

As Yaan stared forwards at the skinny but oddly tall man, this person with a dark hood and a pale face, bright green eyes and white eyebrows…a face that should have been extremely recognisable…

‘Ah, I lost track of time whilst reading, which opponent is this…?’

He wasn’t sure if someone had accepted the time he offered, or if this was the first battle he issued and it had already been a full day.

He didn’t say anything since he felt like that would be a bit rude, especially given that he was about to kill this person. Saying something so disregarding in their final moments didn’t feel right somehow.

“As always, the battle will begin with the bell…this battle will only end once one party is slain. The victor shall receive the loser’s residence, their ranking, and all of their possessions as collected by the realm.”

A voice boomed down from above. Yaan looked up, but couldn’t locate the source of the voice.

DONG!

A loud bell chime sounded out, prompting the lanky man to rush forwards. He grinned crazily, then showed an eery smile as he suddenly stopped abruptly.

Yaan was a bit startled, he really thought this person was planning to take him head on. Whilst logically, he should have struck in this opportune moment, he was actually quite curious to see what his opponent would do next…

BAM!

The tall man’s palm slammed into the ground, creating two enormous black runes which spread out tens of feet in width. As the man slowly stood back up, now with a hunch back, Yaan watched in surprise as 4, 8, 12…18 skeletons emerged from the black runes! Nine skeletons appeared from each rune, armed with black steel plate armour along with swords and shields. They looked powerful, and they were surprisingly fast.

CHI!

The audience had to rub their eyes, as they couldn’t quite understand what had just happened. In one moment, it looked like Yaan was being overwhelmed by the undead soldiers…then in the next, his blade was pierced through his opponent’s brain!

Yaan twisted the blade, pulled out savagely, then stabbed the stunned man through the heart for good measure. He paused, then after some thought, swung with his blade once again. As he walked away, the lanky man’s head rolled down to the floor.

As Yaan walked away, his eye twitched. He awkwardly realised that he had no idea where the exit was, or how to get down from here.

Whoosh!

Luckily, it seemed that the realm had him covered. A bright light covered both Yaan and the corpse, taking the corpse to an unknown location, whilst returning Yaan to the position he had just been in, sitting down within the battle temple. The receptionist blinked, before smiling towards him gently.

“How was it, your first fight?”

“Too easy.” Yaan replied honestly. “But at least I saw an interesting spell.”

“Oh, you must mean necromancy! Indeed, when Qi refining is so difficult in this realm, many resort to absorbing death qi from corpses, leading them into necromancy! Unfortunately, they often end up becoming an undead themselves.”

Following on from Yaan’s battle, he sat back down in the battle hall and continued to read. After an hour though, he suddenly remembered something important.

“Hey, wasn’t I supposed to win a prize and a house?”

The receptionist paused, then giggled as she nodded.

“Indeed. The residence is now yours, whilst the possessions of the defeated party can be found within.”

“Alright, I suppose I’ll check it out…on that point, what should I do if I end up accumulating a bunch of residences?”

“Sell them.” She replied simply and with a smile. “The pagoda of estates is on the 3rd level, but you’re only allowed to visit the 3rd level once you own a residence on the 3rd level abode.

“Mm, I know.” Yaan nodded dismissively, then for the first time, entered the side room of the battle hall. In this room. There was a single spirit attending to the teleportation device.

“Where to?” The spirit, a flying child, a boy looking about 5 years old, hung upside down as he asked Yaan. Ignoring his strange demeanour, Yaan replied:

“I don’t know, I just won a residence somewhere.”

“Sigh…go ask the receptionist for the address.”

After doing as he was instructed, Yaan returned to the teleportation rune with a place in mind.

“I need to go to 1st level, 615 east lake district.”

“Ok. East Lake District is 9 miles, cost is two 1-Star astral crystals.”

Whilst sighing at the exorbitant price just to travel a short distance, Yaan still stepped onto the portal. He dropped the two pitch black crystals down, landing on the teleportation pad. Everything flashed black, then when he blinked and regained his vision, Yaan looked around and found himself in a whole new world.

No more barren dirt…well, the grass was sparse and dry, but it was definitely much better! Also, his temple was located within a temple village to the east of the 1st level’s largest lake. After looking around for a while and finding nothing interesting, he went to the nearest local market stall and bought a map.

These local markets were ran by the residents of the level, it had nothing to do with the trial spirits. Since this was still the 1st level, there was nothing in particular that caught Yaan’s eye.

With a map in hand, he was able to locate his residence within ten minutes.

Yaan smiled as he stepped inside. It was clean, free from dust and had a wooden floor with a nice mat to sit on. Sure it was a bit small, but it was large enough to train sword arts, barely. Anyway, he wouldn’t be staying for too long, as he planned to ascend to the 2nd layer soon enough.

After looking around, Yaan found what he was looking for on a plate in the centre of the room.

“…Another spatial ring.” With a sigh, Yaan gave up on looking inside for now. No, right now, he had more pressing matters.

Reading!

Whilst he had many resources, accumulating knowledge was no less important than cultivating itself. It was better to build up a better understanding of cultivation, before diving headfirst into the endeavour itself. Yaan especially felt this way after remembering how the devilish trial spirit had recommended that he properly study the Fiend Transformation technique before doing anything else.

He earned many books during the trials, but also bought some excellent books from that old man from before. Yaan continued reading the Fiend Transformation for now of course, as this was certainly the knowledge that was most valuable to him right now.

There wasn’t much to say about Yaan reading…he read the book, memorised the words, tried to picture the diagrams in his mind and so on. Perhaps because he had an incomplete version partially imprinted in his mind, but he found it quite easy to understand.

The book was too long to read in one go, and as expected, he was interrupted by the call to battle.

It was another fellow from the 1st level. He had bright red hair and grinned at Yaan whilst licking his dry lips.

Ding!

The match began.

The red haired man opened his mouth to taunt his opponent, only to find a blade sticking through his open jaw, before slicing up and through his brain. He died before even realising that he had lost.

After this battle, Yaan again collected his loot at his new residence. It was worse than the last temple, so he left after grabbing the spatial ring.

Yaan continued to read. And then he fought yet again.

Finally, he fought against three individuals, all grouped together! Since one of those individuals lived in the 2nd level, he would be able to move there right after winning!

Battle and killing had become second nature to Yaan. Perhaps he was pushed further by this place, where killing and stealing was encouraged, as if it were something only natural.

Still, the audience, which had grown alongside Yaan’s recent spike in popularity thanks to his shocking win against the 3rd ranked fighter in the 1st level, shivered when they saw the crimson robed child standing above the pile of three corpses. Yaan seemed oblivious to the stifling atmosphere he had created, flicking the blood from his sword and walking away without so much as a change to his expression.

Honestly, why would he feel any sort of accomplishment after killing three True Yuan Qi realm Qi masters? He killed them so quickly and so easily that not one of them was even able to display their abilities.

After learning of Yaan’s recent exploit in defeating those three, the previous lower 2nd level cultivator that he challenged directly declined the challenge. His punishment? He lost his home, which was given to Yaan. He lost all of his possessions, now also Yaan’s. He dropped to the 1st level, becoming the lowest ranking member of the upper 1st level.

As Yaan wandering through the 2nd level, he marvelled at how much superior it was compared to the level below. Although only 333 feet higher, situated on an enormous ledge which was part of the inner canyon, the grass was greener, animals and birds could be seen, there were some flowers and ponds…Yaan’s temples here even had back gardens. The difference between here and the level below was already like of night and day.

There was also a more powerful spiritual pressure on this 2nd level compared to the 1st, but it was nothing much to Yaan.

For a moment, Yaan stood alone, near to the edge of the 2nd level. He stood there for some time in silence, simply looking out at the world. As he reflected upon the events that had occurred in the 3rd trial, Yaan struck a lonely image…even if there were others in this area, they would find themselves unable to approach him right now.

As Yaan’s thoughts returned to the present, the melancholy in his heart was compressed into a cold determination.

He stared down at the barren 1st level below, then slowly raised his gaze towards the levels above. It was as if there was an illusion preventing him from properly seeing the above levels, making anything from 333 foot up and above look blurred and unfocussed. When he thought about it, Yaan was sure that it was some sort of formation, perhaps the same formation that prevented them from simply flying up to the 9th level directly.

“The 9th level…I wonder what I will find when I reach it?”