Chapter 143: Golden Sea of Thunderclouds

The higher they went, the greater the pressure became. Now, as they headed toward the eighth floor, even moving a single step required an enormous amount of mental effort. Yet You Fushi had kicked Lu Chenhan so effortlessly, as though the pressure had no effect on him at all.

Even though Lu Chenhan had noticed, he could not react quickly enough. He could only watch helplessly as You Fushi kicked him and he fell down the stairs.

At the moment he fell, what he felt was not so much anger as bewilderment, unable to accept this possibility.

Perhaps the others were not as clear about it, but Lu Chenhan had already learned about the Rotating Tower before the sect competition.

According to the rules, the major sects were forbidden from revealing too much information about the Rotating Tower to disciples participating in the sect competition. However, Kunlun's library alone occupied an entire mountain peak, and the information Lu Chenhan had read in books did not count as a violation.

The higher a cultivator's cultivation level, the more they needed to strengthen their divine sense. His goal in coming to the Rotating Tower this time was to temper his divine sense in the Sea of Thunder on the eighth floor. If possible, he would then ascend to the ninth floor and see what lay inside the ninth floor of the tower, which no one had ever reached.

However, now that Lu Chenhan had fallen from the stairs to the eighth floor, the pressure had doubled, and the possibility of climbing back up had plummeted, becoming almost zero.

A demonic beast pounced toward him. Lu Chenhan knelt on one knee on the ground, his head lowered and his expressionless face unchanged as he tightened his grip on the Seven Absolutes Sword and slashed backward. His sword intent was violent, and the surrounding sixth-tier demonic beasts were actually cleaved in half.

He slowly stood up and looked at Ye Su and You Fushi, who were continuing upward. A trace of gloom flashed through his cold eyes as he swung his sword toward the stairs.

Yi Xuan, who was fighting demonic beasts, was startled when he saw this, but he could not get over there in time.

"Bang—"

What no one could have anticipated was that Lu Chenhan's full-force strike at the early Deity Transformation stage could not damage the stairs in the slightest. The instant the Seven Absolutes Sword touched the stairs, a dazzling white light erupted and sent him flying.

Ye Su had just reached the corner. She raised her hand to wipe away the blood flowing from beneath her nose, then turned her head to look at Lu Chenhan flying into the midst of the demonic beasts. "Once or twice is enough for this kind of thing."

She had already examined the formation on the stairs before. Only those who had successfully climbed the stairs could stand above and attack them. Anyone who had not successfully climbed up but tried to destroy the stairs from below would only suffer a backlash.

Ye Su had never seen Lu Chenhan use this kind of method against others in the original novel. After all, no one had ever surpassed him.

Some people could maintain an honorable and noble demeanor only when standing in a position of power. Once they fell into a disadvantageous position, they began resorting to any means necessary.

All the sword intent Lu Chenhan had unleashed rebounded onto him. He fell into the midst of the demonic beasts and spat out a large mouthful of blood. The Seven Absolutes emerged from the sword to shield him from the demonic beasts.

On the other side, Gu Liang Tian quietly moved away from the stairs. Seeing that Lu Chenhan was having a hard time, some of the resentment in his heart seemed to fade.

Having someone else fail alongside him greatly reduced the frustration and psychological burden of his own failure.

With no one obstructing her, Ye Su devoted herself entirely to climbing the tower. Every step was taken extremely slowly. She occasionally turned around to look at You Fushi, and seeing that he was not pushing himself too hard, she was not surprised. After all, her little junior brother had once been a mighty being capable of opening up a world of his own.

It was only a section of winding stairs, with fewer than twenty steps in total, yet it took Ye Su an entire day to truly climb them. Her daoist robe became soaked, dried, dried and soaked again. When she finally stepped onto the last step, the immense pressure immediately forced her to her knees.

Ye Su's knees slammed heavily onto the final step, and she braced both hands against the ground. Sweat dripped from her temples. On closer inspection, one could see a faint red tint in the sweat. The pressure had been too great, and her body had not been able to repair itself quickly enough, causing blood to seep through her skin.

Seeing Ye Su kneel, You Fushi instinctively reached out toward her. Before his hand could land on her shoulder, however, he quietly withdrew it and stood silently behind her.

No one knew how long she remained kneeling. Ye Su opened her bloodshot eyes and lowered her head to look at the final step. There was a five-finger handprint on it, with five marks that looked as though someone had forcibly dug them into the stone with their bare hand.

Inside Ye Su's body, not only was her spiritual power circulating, but her divine sense had also begun protecting her internal meridians. Gritting her teeth, she slowly straightened her back. Finally, she released both hands and gradually stood up.

Her body swayed, and her legs trembled, but she firmly stepped onto the eighth floor of the tower.

Outside the Rotating Tower.

"She made it up!" Xu Chengyu stared at the two points of light inside the tower. Even gripping his sword tightly could not contain his excitement, and he involuntarily shouted aloud.

The eighth floor!

Only a handful of people could reach this floor.

Anyone with eyes could tell that those two points of light belonged to Ye Su and You Fushi.

"What are you doing?" Cheng Huaian walked over from behind Ma Congqiu and asked.

Previously, Ma Congqiu had been extremely excited, and his voice had been so loud that he had repeatedly drawn sidelong glances from the sect masters. Now, at the most crucial moment, he had suddenly fallen silent, lowering his head and seemingly doing something.

"I'm sending messages to Ming Liusha and the others." Ma Congqiu raised his head, and his eyes were actually red. "It hasn't been easy for them to make it this far."

Cheng Huaian: "..." Anyone who didn't know better would think Ma Congqiu was a member of the Qianji Sect.

"Have some shame!" Xin Shenzi slapped Ma Congqiu on the head. After speaking, however, he raised his head to look at those two points of light. As long as Ye Su and the others grew up safely, the rise of the Qianji Sect would be unstoppable.

……

The instant Ye Su stepped onto the eighth floor, a dazzling golden light filled her vision. She instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes. Only after a moment, when she had gradually adjusted, did she look at this floor.

——It was a Sea of Thunder for the divine sense.

The entire eighth floor was shrouded in golden light and spiritual mist, with waves surging and churning. Richer golden lightning continuously flashed through the air. The Sea of Thunder, composed of lightning and mist, was both breathtaking and awe-inspiring, yet also filled people with fear.

The sea of consciousness within Ye Su's spiritual residence surged and boiled, almost as violently as the Sea of Thunder on the eighth floor.

However, her attention was not on that. Instead, she gazed at the entire golden Sea of Thunder.

There... was no staircase leading to the ninth floor. It seemed that the eighth floor was the top of the tower.

Clearly, from the outside, the Rotating Tower had nine floors.

Yet inside the tower, no matter how many times Ye Su looked, there were still only eight floors.

Unable to figure it out, she could only remain on the eighth floor for the time being. Ye Su and You Fushi walked into the golden Sea of Thunder, and the moment they entered, they were struck by lightning.

These bolts of lightning were slightly different from tribulation lightning. They specifically targeted the divine sense within one's spiritual residence. After being struck once, she remained dazed for a long time.

Ye Su searched through the Sea of Thunder for a while but never found the ninth floor. In the end, she decided to stay and cultivate for the time being.

She entered a meditative state in the golden sea, floating as she sat cross-legged. Those bolts of lightning were like sharks that had caught the scent of blood, all striking toward Ye Su.

Ye Su's spiritual residence was scorched black in patches, while her sea of consciousness was thrown into chaos by the lightning that periodically struck it. Her divine sense fled in every direction, yet she could not escape the fate of being struck by lightning.

In contrast, You Fushi was not struck by any of these golden bolts of lightning targeting the sea of consciousness. He had originally imitated Ye Su and floated in the air while sitting cross-legged, but this posture was uncomfortable.

Her little junior brother persisted for two days before simply lying down. He lay amid a mass of golden thunderclouds, using Ye Su's legs as a pillow as he fell asleep.

Meanwhile, the unattended Blood-Weeping Sword was chasing lightning all over the Sea of Thunder for the divine sense on the eighth floor.

The lightning felt pleasantly tingly as it struck the sword's body. It loved it!

……

When the one-month period ended, everyone except the top three automatically returned to the first floor.

Ning Qianyao stood at the very back with her lips pressed together. She had managed to climb back up to the seventh floor and encountered Lu Chenhan, and the two had reunited without either of them offering an explanation.

Both wanted to reach the eighth floor, but they were subjected to the tower's double pressure. Lu Chenhan stubbornly insisted on climbing higher, while Ning Qianyao had tried once and then retreated. She did not have much time left, so she stayed on the seventh floor to fight the demonic beasts.

She had used up nearly all her magical treasures. Ning Qianyao could not produce new magical treasures whenever she wanted, either. Even though she had advanced to the Deity Transformation stage, she still struggled somewhat against sixth-tier demonic beasts.

When she encountered seventh-tier demonic beasts, she was completely unable to resist them. Yi Xuan had stepped in several times to shield her from the beasts.

As everyone waited inside the tower for the main gate to open, Ning Qianyao took a few steps forward and stood beside Yi Xuan. She said softly, "Senior Brother, thank you for helping me these past few days."

Yi Xuan held the Chongming Saber and looked toward the tower gate. "Eldest Senior Sister should still have something to settle with you."

Ning Qianyao's face turned pale. "..."

"You seem to look better than before," Lian Lian said after looking Mei Chouren up and down.

"I think I ate a Beauty Pill." Mei Chouren rolled up his sleeves and showed her his smooth, hairless arm, as white as an egg. "This area used to be corroded by the venom of an eighth-tier toad beast, but now it's gone."

"Eighth-tier?" Lian Lian frowned. A demonic beast of that level was not something an ordinary cultivator could deal with.

Likewise, its venom was not something ordinary medicinal pills could eliminate.

"It was raised by our own sect. I was feeding it and accidentally got injured," Mei Chouren said smugly. "I haven't been able to find a way to get rid of it for so many years. The pill floor really is great."

Lian Lian shook her head. The importance the Hehuan Sect placed on beauty was practically bone-deep.

While everyone was talking, the tower gate suddenly opened.

"They're coming out!"

Sunlight shone inside, and the seven people on the first floor heard several shouts.

As they left the tower, the sect masters stared at them, clearly wanting to know what had happened inside. However, out of consideration for their status as sect masters, they did not speak immediately.

"What did you bring out?" Daoist Fengchen asked.

Items taken from the Rotating Tower were subject to a sensing mechanism. The moment the gate opened, if anyone had secretly taken extra items, everything on their person would automatically return to its original place.

The seven people took out their respective items one by one.

The gazes of several sect masters fell on what Mei Chouren held in his hand. He had taken out a supreme-grade Recovery Pill. This pill was certainly good, but it was not particularly useful to cultivators and was mostly used by demons.

"The Hehuan Sect's disciple certainly knows how to consider the interests of his sect," said Leji, the sect master of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect.

Everyone knew that Jian Hu was the Fox King and was injured. Even the Pill Sect could not produce this supreme-grade Recovery Pill. If the Hehuan Sect gave it to him, it would be a favor to him.

"This belongs to Ye Su," Gu Liang Tian said.

Upon hearing this, Leji, the sect master of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect, instinctively frowned.

Although Gu Liang Tian had sworn an oath not to disclose anything about You Fushi, he had not been forbidden from talking about Ye Su.

He looked at the points of light inside the tower. "Ye Su took the Nine-Turn Soul-Reviving Pill."

As expected, all the sect masters were stunned.

"She found the Nine-Turn Soul-Reviving Pill?!" The Pill Sect's sect master stepped forward and asked Gu Liang Tian, "Where did Ye Su find it?"

No one had found the Nine-Turn Soul-Reviving Pill in all these years. Some people had even believed that the passage about the Nine-Turn Soul-Reviving Pill in the Pill Sect's ancestral canon was incorrect.

"Inside the handle of a pill cabinet." Gu Liang Tian lowered his eyes. "An ordinary person naturally wouldn't have discovered it."

Who would have thought that a medicinal pill was hidden inside a handle? Yet that handle was shaped like a pill furnace, making the pill's presence inside both unexpected and perfectly reasonable.

Several sect masters, not just those from the Pill Sect but even Daoist Fengchen, were momentarily dazed. The Nine-Turn Soul-Reviving Pill actually existed.

Standing at the back, Ning Qianyao saw their expressions and could not help biting her lip. Ye Su must have consumed an extremely precious medicinal pill.

She had actually failed to discover that there was an even better pill on the fourth floor.

"She's already taken it." Wu Yue, the sect master of the Hehuan Sect, let out a long breath. "At least this proves that the record in the Pill Sect's ancestral canon was correct."

It was also fortunate that she had taken it inside. If she had brought this kind of medicinal pill out, even they would have been unable to resist coveting it—