129: Chapter 129 Climbing the Tower, Encountering Ji Guyan Again

Zhang Zhenheng waved his hand.

"Alright, that's enough excitement for now. Those who need to enter the tower, go ahead; those who need to test, get to it."

The old man's voice wasn't loud, but it was like a bucket of cold water poured over the heads of the freshmen who were still whispering and discussing.

The crowd gathered around the arena slowly dispersed, though they couldn't help but look back at the arena every few steps.

Gu Yu had already left the side of the arena with a gloomy face, his clothes in tatters...

The entrance to the Simulation Tower was to the north of the training area. The silver-gray tower stood eighteen stories tall, its surface covered in dense, intricate runic patterns.

Zhang Zhenheng walked to the control console next to the tower gate and pulled up the test list.

"We will continue the test. Line up by student ID to enter the tower. The task requirements for each floor will automatically appear after you enter. Once completed, you can move to the next floor. If you can't complete it, exit on your own; don't push yourself."

After speaking, he scanned the area.

"Are the rules and point system of the Simulation Tower clear to everyone?"

The freshmen nodded in unison.

The people at the front of the line walked into the blue light gate one by one. Every time someone entered, the runes on the door frame would flicker. Before long, it was Lu Cheng's turn.

Xia Xi patted his shoulder from behind: "Good luck!"

Qian Shuying also nodded at him.

Lu Cheng waved his hand casually and stepped into the light gate.

For a split second, he felt his feet lose contact with the ground.

It wasn't a sensation of falling; rather, it felt as if his entire body had been smoothed over by a gentle force from front to back. The light before his eyes faded from blue to white, then dispersed...

Then, he was standing on a grassland.

Lu Cheng froze for half a second.

Beneath his feet was real grass; he could feel the softness of the soil and the sensation of grass blades brushing against his boots.

Overhead was a pale blue sky. There was no sun, but the light was uniform. In the distance, there were rolling hills with a few solitary, crooked trees growing on the slopes.

The surroundings were filled with an absurdly dense amount of Source Power.

Lu Cheng took a deep breath and could feel the Source Power pouring directly into his Source Core along with his breath.

The concentration of Source Power here was several times higher than in the academy's training area. Just standing here without moving, the dual cores in his body automatically began to rotate and absorb it.

"What the hell is this Simulation Tower..."

He looked around.

There was no boundary in sight on the grassland. Can spatial folding technology really achieve this level?

The foundation of Navigator Academy is truly profound.

Before he could observe more, a light screen popped up out of thin air in front of him.

[Floor 1 · Grassland Hunting Ground]

[Task: Slay fifteen Body Refining Realm exotic beasts]

[Current Progress: 0 / 15]

As the light screen vanished, rustling sounds came from the distance of the grassland.

Three gray shadows darted out from the grass. They were twice the size of normal wolves, with iron-gray fur and eyes glowing with a dark red light.

Iron-Spine Wolves of the Body Refining Realm were not considered weak in the real world outside the tower, but here, they were just low-level mobs on the first floor.

Lu Cheng didn't even draw a weapon.

When the first one lunged at him, he dodged to the side, grabbed the wolf's head with his right hand, and pressed it down. He struck the wolf's chin with his knee, shattering the iron-spine wolf's entire spine, causing it to dissipate into a cluster of light points on the spot.

[Progress: 1 / 15]

Before the remaining two landed, Lu Cheng had already taken a step and struck both wolves in the ribs with both fists. The sound of bones shattering rang out almost simultaneously, and two more clusters of light points exploded.

[Progress: 3 / 15]

The progress bar rose rapidly.

Three minutes later, after he crushed the spine of the last Iron-Spine Wolf with his foot, the light screen popped up again.

[First floor completed. Proceed to the second floor?]

Lu Cheng chose yes.

A light screen appeared in front of him. After he walked into it, the surrounding grassland seemed to be rolled up by an invisible hand from the edges, rapidly shrinking, folding, and being replaced.

The scene transition took only about two seconds. After the colors before his eyes were rearranged, he was standing in a swamp.

Beneath his feet was wet, soft mud, and a thin layer of mist floated on the water's surface.

The air was stuffy and humid, and he could smell the mixture of humus and stagnant water. A low hissing sound came from the depths of the swamp.

[Floor 2 · Poison Swamp Hunting Zone]

[Task: Slay ten Source Gathering Realm early-stage exotic beasts]

[Current Progress: 0 / 10]

Source Gathering Realm early-stage.

For most freshmen, this floor was where the pressure truly began.

Second-stage exotic beasts already possessed Source Power fluctuations, had thick skin and high health, and their attacks carried a Source Power erosion effect. Moreover, their numbers were not small, which was a significant test of physical stamina.

When Lu Cheng saw the first Poison-Scaled Python poke its head out of the swamp, he pushed off the ground and rushed over, stepping on the water.

Before the Poison-Scaled Python could fully emerge from the water, Lu Cheng's right fist had already smashed into its vital spot. The lightning arcs of the Electric Thunder Fist exploded through the gaps in its scales, causing the snake's body to stiffen instantly, and then the entire thing exploded into light points.

[Progress: 1 / 10]

He didn't stop and turned to rush into the depths of the swamp.

Two Mud-Textured Crocodiles attacked from both sides, their wide-open mouths full of hook-like sharp teeth.

Lu Cheng slashed at the eye socket of the left crocodile with his left hand, and with his right hand, he forcefully pried open the upper jaw of the right crocodile and pulled it down, driving his knee into its lower jaw. With a crack, the jaw joint dislocated. Both crocodiles turned into light points simultaneously.

[Progress: 3 / 10]

The Source Gathering Realm exotic beasts in the swamp posed no threat to Lu Cheng; he could sweep through them with brute force alone.

The third floor was a rocky cave nest.

[Task: Slay eight Source Gathering Realm mid-stage exotic beasts]

[Current Progress: 0 / 8]

In the cave, electric light, blood, and gravel exploded in a chaotic mix, and he cleared it again in less than three minutes.

The scene of the fourth floor was an abandoned arena.

Broken stone pillars lay crookedly on the sand, surrounded by half-collapsed stands on all four sides.

In the center of the arena crouched five pitch-black Shadow Leopards, their bodies wreathed in faint black Source Power mist.

[Floor 4 · Shadow Arena]

[Task: Slay six Source Gathering Realm peak-stage exotic beasts]

[Current Progress: 0 / 6]

99% of the freshmen were beaten back at this stage...

If it were a one-on-two or one-on-three situation, these selected geniuses would have no problem...

But the number was too high, and combined with the gap in cultivation realms, they simply couldn't handle it...

The Shadow Leopard's speed was extremely fast, appearing as almost a black shadow when moving in the arena.

Lu Cheng took a breath.

"Save some time."

Dragon Rage!

Gold-white dragon scale armor instantly covered his entire body.

The entire arena was illuminated by the golden-white light, and the black Source Power mist on the Shadow Leopards sizzled under the holy light.

The five Shadow Leopards launched their attacks simultaneously.

They were indeed fast, lunging from five directions at once, their black shadows crossing to cover all of Lu Cheng's retreat paths.

But they weren't faster than the Thunder Step Boots.

Lightning flashed beneath Lu Cheng's feet, and his entire body turned into a gold-white afterimage, passing directly out of the encirclement. He appeared beside the nearest Shadow Leopard, his right fist wrapped in electric light—Three Styles of Crushing Fist!

Boom!

The fist struck the side of the Shadow Leopard's waist, and the power of both holy light and lightning exploded simultaneously. That Shadow Leopard didn't even have time to let out a scream before it was blasted into light points.

[Progress: 1 / 6]

The formation of the remaining six was instantly thrown into chaos.

Lu Cheng didn't wait for them to reorganize and rushed into the beast pack.

He grabbed a Shadow Leopard with one hand and crushed its head with brute strength alone.

The remaining four had no ability to resist and quickly turned into particle data and died.

For Lu Cheng, monsters that appeared in such concentrations were actually a good thing that saved time.

Lu Cheng stood in the center of the arena, took one look at the rubble and sand scattered everywhere, and let out a breath.

The light screen popped up.

[Floor 4 completed. Proceed to the fifth floor?]

"Yes."

Walking into the light screen, four light effects of scene switching lit up and went out at his feet, and the surrounding scenery began to re-weave itself.

The spatial transition time this time was longer than the previous few floors, clearly indicating that the spatial scale of the fifth floor far exceeded the previous ones.

Meanwhile, outside the Simulation Tower.

Zhang Zhenheng stood in front of the control console, staring at the real-time data updating on the light screen.

He was surrounded by a circle of freshmen who hadn't entered the tower yet, all of them looking up at the huge ranking light screen on the tower body.

Each floor of the Simulation Tower had a corresponding halo. Whichever floor a contestant reached, the halo would light up. At this moment, the halo for the fourth floor lit up for several people, all of whom were top-tier freshmen.

Then, the halo for the fifth floor suddenly lit up for one person.

Zhang Zhenheng glanced at the name and raised an eyebrow.

"Lu Cheng has entered the fifth floor."

The crowd exploded instantly.

"Holy crap?! How long has he been in there?"

"I calculated... it doesn't seem to have been more than twelve minutes."

"Cleared four floors in twelve minutes?!"

"The fourth floor had Source Gathering Realm peak-stage exotic beasts! Six of them! I was taken out in one minute after entering..."

Zhang Zhenheng didn't join their discussion but just stared at Lu Cheng's name on the light screen, tapping his fingers lightly on the edge of the console twice.

The old man didn't have much expression on his face, but seeing the rhythm of his finger tapping, the few teaching assistants nearby knew that Director Zhang was in a very good mood.

The outside of the Simulation Tower was in an uproar, but inside the tower, Lu Cheng was completely unaware.

He stood on the land of the fifth floor, which was more desolate than the previous few floors.

It was a ruin of an ancient city.

Broken walls and ruins stretched for at least several kilometers, with collapsed stone towers, shattered streets, and rusted metal signs half-buried under the rubble.

A dark red moon hung in the sky, dyeing the entire ruin in an eerie, dark red tone.

The air was filled with a stale smell of rust and a faint scent of blood.

The stone road beneath his feet was bumpy, with moss emitting a faint blue fluorescent light growing in the cracks.

Sounds came from the depths of the ruins, not the roars of one or two exotic beasts, but a large, chaotic, low, and continuous hissing.

The light screen popped up in front of his eyes.

[Floor 5 · Ruin Battlefield]

[Task: Clear all exotic beasts in the ruins, defeat the area boss]

[Exotic Beast Count: Forty-two Source Gathering Realm peak-stage, one Meridian Opening Realm boss]

[Current Progress: 0 / 43]

Lu Cheng took a step forward.

A pillar of scorching white light suddenly exploded in the southeast corner of the ruins.

Lu Cheng paused his steps and looked up.

That was a Source Power fluctuation of the Holy Light attribute, with extremely high purity. After the light pillar shot into mid-air, it turned into countless tiny light feathers that splashed in all directions. Each light feather accurately hit an exotic beast that was lunging.

Immediately after, six holy radiance feather blades flew out from the ruins, crossing each other and drawing six silver-white light trails in the air. When the feather blades cut through the exotic beasts, there was almost no resistance. After penetrating, they turned in the air and flew back, killing three or four exotic beasts back and forth.

Lu Cheng narrowed his eyes.

He had seen this move before.

Following that, a figure wearing a holy white combat uniform flashed out from behind a broken wall on the side of the ruins, stepping on the Heavenly Gap Flowing Light Step, with his figure drawing a refracted light trail under the moonlight.

The long sword in his hand slashed horizontally, leaving Holy Marks on the wounds of three exotic beasts, burning continuously and forcing them to retreat repeatedly.

After landing, the person turned his head and saw Lu Cheng standing at the entrance of the ruins.

There was some surprise on President Ji Guyan's face...

"Your student ID should be a dozen places behind mine, right? You came up so fast?"

Lu Cheng nodded.

"Ah~ I really gave it my all to catch up."

Seeing how perfunctory he was, President Ji Guyan retracted his long sword, dodged a lunge from an exotic beast by sidestepping, and casually nailed a feather blade into the back of the exotic beast's heart.