Ninth Floor

"Now that I had obtained the Qi-level Mental Secret Technique and the whereabouts of the Ancestral Symbol, it was time to get down to business. I had lingered at the Four Seal Talisman Master stage for far too long."

Lin Dong sat down cross-legged. The four Life Spirit Talismans within his Niwan Palace swiftly transformed into four rapidly spinning Spirit Talisman Vortices. The instant they formed, waves of suction burst forth.

Buzz! Buzz!

The dense Mental Energy fluctuations on the Ninth Floor, nearly tangible in substance, immediately poured into the four Spirit Talisman Vortices like an endless tide. The faint sound of surging waves even arose.

"Sigh, that training maniac had started cultivating again. How boring."

Little Marten sighed in midair, then flashed away and vanished.

Outside.

The Tower Battle had already been underway for more than half a day. One Talisman Master after another stared unblinkingly at the points of light on the surface of the Symbol Master Tower, each one marking a Talisman Master's location.

The lower floors of the Symbol Master Tower were steadily occupied by the swarms of Talisman Masters entering it—the First Floor, Second Floor, Third Floor...

It was not until points of light appeared on the Sixth Floor that the Talisman Masters finally grew tense. After all, during the last Tower Battle, someone from Skyfire City had held out on the Sixth Floor for eight days and successfully cleared the tower in one go.

"Strange. To enter the Sixth Floor, one needed Mental Energy at least at the Two Seal Peak Talisman Master level, or one had to be a Three Seal Talisman Master outright. Ziyue, Lin Dong, and Zhou Tong should all be able to enter."

"But why had only two people entered the Sixth Floor so far? Who had fallen behind? Could it be Ziyue? Her cultivation was the lowest, after all, and she was not yet a Three Seal Talisman Master. That would be bad."

Watching two points of light rush into the Sixth Floor at the same time, Master Yan raised his brows, deepening the wrinkles on his aged face.

Barely half an hour later, one of the points on the Sixth Floor entered the Seventh Floor. At once, the Talisman Masters from Yan City and Skyfire City could no longer sit still. Had the winner already been decided?

"Yan Xuan, the one who entered the Seventh Floor must be Zhou Tong from our Skyfire City. He is not merely a Two Seal Peak Talisman Master—he is a Three Seal Talisman Master."

On Skyfire City's side, the expressionless Grey-robed Old Man finally revealed a satisfied smile at the sight.

"What a coincidence. We Yan City also have a Three Seal Talisman Master."

Master Yan forcefully suppressed the irritation in his heart and calmly shot back at his old opponent.

"You also have a Three Seal Talisman Master? Could it be Ziyue?"

Han Yun's expression changed in surprise. Had their intelligence been wrong?

"Hehe, just keep watching."

Master Yan smiled enigmatically.

"Look! One of the points is moving rapidly!"

A startled cry from the crowd made the two Four Seal Talisman Masters instantly stop arguing and turn toward the Symbol Master Tower.

On the tower's surface, a previously unremarkable point of light suddenly accelerated. It swiftly moved from the Third Floor to the Fourth Floor, then the Fifth Floor, Sixth Floor, and Seventh Floor.

"The Seventh Floor! The Seventh Floor that only Three Seal Talisman Masters can enter! Yan City had indeed hidden a Three Seal Talisman Master as well."

The smile on Han Yun's face quickly faded. He had miscalculated.

"Then the point on the Sixth Floor was most likely Ziyue. The earlier point on the Seventh Floor was either Lin Dong or Zhou Tong, while this one was simply the other catching up."

"Now it depended on which of them could last longer on the Seventh Floor. Do your best, Young Friend Lin Dong."

Master Yan studied the two points of light on the Seventh Floor thoughtfully.

Why had he not considered the possibility that the two might enter the Eighth Floor? Because the Eighth Floor was simply not a place Three Seal Talisman Masters could enter. The minimum requirement there was a Four Seal Talisman Master. Even he found it quite difficult to enter it even once.

As for the Ninth Floor, the highest level of the Symbol Master Tower, only Spirit Talisman Masters had a chance of entering it. Yet not only had Yan City produced no Spirit Talisman Masters in nearly a century, even Tiandu County had not produced one. Throughout the entire Great Yan Dynasty, Spirit Talisman Masters were few enough to count on one's fingers.

Thus, no one knew what the Ninth Floor was truly like.

"The Eighth Floor! Look, someone entered the Eighth Floor!"

"It should be Senior Disciple Brother Zhou Tong, right? Senior Disciple Brother Zhou Tong is the strongest, after all."

"But I heard that Yan City also had a Three Seal Talisman Master."

Just as Master Yan was lost in thought, the crowd suddenly erupted.

"Someone entered the Eighth Floor? How was that possible? Lin Dong had only just become a Three Seal Talisman Master."

"Could Zhou Tong have entered the Eighth Floor? That should not be possible either. Zhou Tong was only an Early Three Seal Talisman Master."

Master Yan and Han Yun both froze. Then they instinctively turned to look at each other, their faces filled with disbelief.

"Holy shit, the Ninth Floor! That guy actually sped up and entered the Ninth Floor—the highest floor that no one had reached in a hundred years!"

"Damn it, was that person Zhou Tong or Lin Dong? My heart feels like it's being clawed by a cat!!"

Before the Talisman Masters in the plaza could fully calm down, the point of light that had only recently entered the Eighth Floor took another step and entered the Ninth Floor.

The plaza erupted into an uproar. The dense crowd buzzed endlessly like a boiling cauldron.

At that point, no matter how confident Master Yan and Han Yun were in their own people, neither dared claim that it was one of theirs who had entered the Ninth Floor. That was a place only Spirit Talisman Masters had a chance to enter—even they could not do so.

Master Yan and Han Yun exchanged a silent glance before falling quiet together. They both thought, I, Yan Xuan/Han Yun, really didn't dare make such a boast. Just wait!

One day, two days, three days...

On the third day, people finally began emerging from the tower one after another, immediately causing a commotion. Every Talisman Master from Skyfire City who came out was bruised and battered, and empty-handed.

Han Yun secretly felt that something was wrong. Had Yan City's Talisman Masters become that strong today? Skyfire City's Talisman Masters had all been injured, and not a single one had escaped unscathed.

Just as Han Yun was about to speak and soothe them, the Talisman Masters had already rushed over to complain tearfully. A Three Seal Talisman Master from Yan City named Lin Dong had not properly climbed the tower during the Tower Battle. Instead, he had robbed every Skyfire City Talisman Master he encountered like a man driven mad by poverty, robbing people all the way through the tower.

Every Talisman Master from Skyfire City had suffered at the hands of that Three Seal Talisman Master. Most infuriatingly, that bastard was incredibly ruthless when stripping people clean—he had not even left them their Cosmic Bags.

They were truly miserable!

"..."

Not only Han Yun, even Master Yan was left dumbfounded.

"I understand now. The point of light that went up later had to be Lin Dong. I was wondering what he had gone off to do—so he had been busy looting valuables. Young Friend Lin Dong was truly... truly absurd. He really did not take the Tower Battle seriously at all."

Master Yan could not help complaining to the middle-aged Talisman Master beside him.

The middle-aged Talisman Master smiled awkwardly and said nothing.

He was already over forty and only a Three Seal Talisman Master, while this sixteen-year-old was already at the same level as him. Lin Dong was not someone he could possibly judge.