Chapter 141: Draining All the Spiritual Energy

Aside from the first floor, the floors above were like enormous temptations, luring those who climbed the tower into staying behind. Disciples who had only one month needed to make proper plans and clearly define their goals.

Ten days had already passed since they entered the Reincarnation Tower. Only twenty days remained. If they wanted to continue climbing, they could not waste too much time on the fifth floor.

Choosing a secret manual suitable for oneself was not that simple, especially since there were so many books on the fifth floor and they could only take one out with them. Thus, it took them two days to finish choosing.

"Which of these saber manuals do you think is better?" Yi Xuan held the two selected saber manuals in his hands and turned to ask Chongming.

Ever since Chongming had transformed into a spirit, Yi Xuan had been somewhat curious about his form. Unlike the Seven Absolutes, Chongming had naturally been left with certain deficiencies because, when the weapon was being forged, the final weapon refiner had wanted the Chongming Saber to conceal its edge and have its tail broken off.

Although he possessed consciousness as a sword spirit—or, more accurately, a saber spirit—he had never been able to transform into a spiritual body.

The path of cultivation was long and arduous. The Chongming Saber had once encountered the Seven Absolutes Sword, and at that time, the Seven Absolutes Sword had already been able to transform into a spiritual body at an early stage. Chongming still remembered the regret of his master at the time.

Now that he had suddenly gained the ability to transform into a spiritual body, Chongming was curious about everything in the outside world and wanted to touch everything with his hands.

After the gentle and refined young man reached out and touched one of the saber manuals, he honestly admitted, "I... can't read."

You Fushi, who happened to be passing by, heard this and immediately found someone with whom he could compare his former self. He tugged at Ye Su, who was flipping through a book, and announced, "He can't read!" His tone carried a hint of pride.

Chongming turned his head toward You Fushi and smiled gently at him. After all, it was You Fushi who had allowed him to transform into a spiritual body.

"He just transformed into a spiritual body. It's normal that he can't read." Yi Xuan couldn't stand seeing someone mock his saber spirit, especially when You Fushi himself was only half-competent. "Unlike you."

Upon hearing this, You Fushi frowned and turned around to complain, "Ye Su, he's insulting me."

Ye Su closed her book and looked toward Yi Xuan. "Don't be sarcastic."

Yi Xuan remained expressionless. "He started it."

"He's your junior brother." Ye Su spoke seriously.

Yi Xuan: "...I used to be the junior brother too." She was obviously playing favorites.

Ye Su spread her hands helplessly. "You never complained about anyone before."

Yi Xuan fell silent for a moment before saying, "After we get out, I'll complain about Second Senior Brother."

Ming Liusha, who was tens of thousands of miles away and had suddenly been caught in the crossfire, inexplicably sneezed. "Who... is... thinking... of... me?"

"Maybe someone's cursing you," Xi Yu guessed.

In the end, Yi Xuan chose the saber manual Chongming had just touched and put the other one back.

Because Chongming couldn't read, You Fushi developed a little more fondness for this saber spirit. Whenever he saw him, his own confidence as a junior brother immediately soared.

Only after everyone else had also chosen the books they wanted to take out did they begin climbing upward.

The pressure on the sixth floor was extremely unfriendly to Nascent Soul cultivators. Lü Jiu, Lian Lian, and Zhou Yun had only climbed a few steps before they had already begun bleeding.

Because the pressure on Ye Su was doubled, she could barely lift her head. The excessive pressure ruptured her meridians, but as spiritual power circulated throughout her body, she suddenly discovered that her recovery speed was much faster than before.

When spiritual power could no longer repair the meridians faster than the speed at which the meridians and bones shattered, the final result would be like Mei Youren's: every meridian and bone in the entire body completely broken.

Ye Su, however, possessed an excessive amount of vitality within her body. Her circulation and recovery speed far exceeded the damage caused by the pressure. This was... an additional effect brought by the Nine-Turn Soul-Returning Pill.

"Can you keep going?" Yi Xuan turned around to look at Ye Su. He could still withstand the pressure on the sixth floor, but the pressure weighing on Eldest Senior Sister was twice as heavy.

"Yes." Ye Su quickened her pace and actually managed to catch up with Yi Xuan.

You Fushi walked behind Ye Su. His face showed little emotion, as though he had not been affected by the pressure at all.

As for Lian Lian and the others, halfway up, they had already begun crawling with their hands.

"We absolutely have to reach the sixth floor." Zhou Yun gasped for breath behind them, trying to distract herself from the pain by talking. "The spiritual energy on the sixth floor is the densest in the entire cultivation world. Staying there for twenty days is equivalent to spending twenty years cultivating elsewhere."

"Really?" Lü Jiu turned around and asked.

"Of course. It's said that the spiritual energy on the sixth floor is closest to the concentration that existed before the Divine Fall Era." Even as Zhou Yun spoke, she could clearly taste the metallic tang of blood in her mouth.

"I've heard that in previous generations, some geniuses managed to reach the eighth floor, but the highest cultivation level among the disciples back then was only the Nascent Soul stage." Lü Jiu voiced the question that had puzzled her for a long time. "Why can't we even reach the sixth floor?"

Lian Lian turned around to rest for a moment, conveniently repairing her hand, which had been crushed to pieces by the pressure inside the tower. "Because someone at the Deity Transformation stage entered with us. The Reincarnation Tower adjusts the level of pressure according to the cultivation levels of the disciples who enter."

Lü Jiu understood.

Outside the tower, everyone could piece together an entire dramatic scene just by watching the points of light. In particular, after the people on the fifth floor met up, they seemed to have started fighting. Yet, as they fought, several more points of light suddenly appeared.

"One, two, three... nine... ten?" Ma Congqiu looked at the points of light and suddenly realized that one of them did not add up. Sensing something was wrong, he counted again. "Why is there an extra point of light?"

After finishing his count, he suspected that he had stared for too long and was seeing things. He lowered his head, rubbed his eyes, and prepared to count again. The result was—"Twelve? Why are there even more?!"

Three points of light had suddenly appeared, and everyone noticed. Even the sect masters of the major sects looked solemnly toward the fifth floor.

"How could three more points of light appear? Did someone force their way in?" the Five Elements Sect Master asked in shock.

No one else spoke. They stared at the three points of light on the fifth floor for a long time, and it was easy to distinguish which side those three additional points were on.

"Sword spirits?" Zhou Qi, the Sect Master of the My Sword Sect, asked uncertainly. "Those three points of light are fainter than the others."

"Can the Chongming Saber transform into a spirit?" Wu Yue, the Sect Master of the Hehuan Sect, asked. She remembered that the Chongming Saber had been unable to transform into a spirit.

"Without a jade token, anyone who trespasses into the Reincarnation Tower will only be killed by the tower," Daoist Fengchen said indifferently. His gaze fell on those points of light. Besides, the three additional points of light clearly belonged to one side. Even just by looking, it was obvious that Lu Chenhan was at a disadvantage.

The three extra points of light left everyone outside the tower stunned for quite some time. Then they saw one of the points of light move from the fifth floor down to the fourth floor, immediately provoking a wave of exclamations.

This was the third disciple of this generation to descend to a lower floor.

Not long afterward, the others noticed that another point of light had disappeared.

"It disappeared. Could that really have been a sword spirit?" Ma Congqiu asked curiously. "I've never seen a sword spirit before."

Yan Hao frowned as she watched the point of light that had descended to the fourth floor. If it encountered her senior brother, she wondered whether they would end up fighting.

In reality, they did not run into each other.

Mei Youren was wandering around in front of the pill cabinets, rummaging through them left and right. Whenever he recognized a good medicinal pill, as long as it benefited cultivation, he would eat it and begin circulating his cultivation. These past few days, even when he burped, pill energy would come out.

When Ning Qianyao came down, he was still meditating in the farthest corner.

Ning Qianyao had little interest in the pill floor. She had seen good medicinal pills before and looked down on most of the pills here.

She remained near the stairs, trying to listen to the sounds coming from above, even though she could not hear anything.

Her biggest secret, the one she had kept buried in her heart, had almost been exposed. When she first came down, her hands were still trembling, but Ning Qianyao still wanted to go back up.

This was her fortuitous opportunity. It was impossible for her to simply cower on the fourth floor.

......

"This place..." The moment Yi Xuan stepped onto the floor, he felt spiritual energy so dense it had almost become tangible.

You Fushi was the second to come up. He turned around and reached out to take Ye Su's hand while she was still on the stairs. He waited until she came up before letting go.

"The cultivation floor." Ye Su opened her hand and loosely grasped a handful of spiritual energy so dense that it could be seen with the naked eye.

The temptation of this floor was simply too great. Staying on the cultivation floor and being constantly immersed in such dense spiritual energy made it possible to advance unconsciously.

"I want to go up." Yi Xuan turned to Ye Su and spoke. He had no intention of staying here.

Ye Su looked at You Fushi, who had his eyes slightly closed as he absorbed spiritual energy. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Go on ahead. We'll stay here for a while."

Yi Xuan nodded. "All right."

"Junior Brother." Ye Su called out to stop Yi Xuan. "Be careful of the two people above."

"I know." Yi Xuan glanced sideways at Chongming, who was silently following beside him. "I'm not alone."

Yi Xuan resolutely headed toward the seventh floor. This time, he could clearly feel the pressure imposed on him by the tower growing heavier. Looking down at the steps, he could even make out old marks left by someone's knees. Someone had once knelt here for a long time.

You Fushi and Ye Su remained on the sixth floor, sitting down to meditate and absorb spiritual energy. The moment the two of them sat down, they began absorbing spiritual power like crazy, completely avoiding the situation other people experienced when their spiritual palaces could no longer withstand the influx.

Ye Su even vaguely felt that her spiritual palace had expanded to twice its previous size.

She had originally thought they would stay on the sixth floor for some time. Unexpectedly, after ten days, the spiritual energy on the cultivation floor had been completely drained by the two of them.

Of course, the greater share had been absorbed by You Fushi.