Trial Tower Assessment

Li Qi stood suspended in the air above the grasslands. A screen of light appeared before him, filled with text.

"Zhaoguang Academy's Trial Tower assessment is about to begin. Your current assessment route is Controller.

"Please select the type and quantity of your telekinetic weapons, as well as a flight device."

As the voice fell silent, various basic telekinetic weapons appeared before him.

Without giving it much thought, Li Qi selected the bone awls he had used for a long time. The quantity was twenty-three times his newly measured telekinetic amplitude, corresponding to twenty-three bone awls.

After selecting his telekinetic weapons, various flight devices appeared before him, including shields, flying shuttles, greatswords, and more.

Looking at the flight devices before him, Li Qi fell into brief thought.

Among these flight devices, flying shuttles had the greatest speed, shields offered the best defense, and greatswords naturally had the strongest offensive power.

Of these flight devices, I'm most proficient with the shield. It's also suited for defense, allowing me to withstand a demon beast's attacks in a critical moment and make up for the flaw in my movement technique not yet reaching perfection.

After a brief consideration, Li Qi chose the shield as his flight device.

If he had practiced his movement technique longer and attained a higher realm, his first choice would have been a flying shuttle.

But at present, the shield was the optimal choice.

Once Li Qi made his selection, the screen of light closed from above and below before vanishing. Then, a new screen of light unfolded from above and below.

"Trial Tower, first floor: kill one Apprentice Level Ninth-Rank flying demon beast—Corpse-Eating Bird—within one minute."

"Click Confirm. The assessment will begin in ten seconds."

Below the text were the large red characters: 'Confirm.'

Li Qi clicked 'Confirm,' and a ten-second countdown appeared.

"Ten, nine, eight..."

When the countdown ended, a Corpse-Eating Bird flew in from the horizon, then swooped down.

Trying to disrupt my mindset?

Looking at the diving Corpse-Eating Bird, flames seemed to burn in Li Qi's eyes. "I'll make you despair, Marcel!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Twenty-three bone awls shot out from Li Qi's side, their target the diving Corpse-Eating Bird.

The bone awls traced beautiful arcs through the air as they charged head-on into the diving Corpse-Eating Bird.

Apprentice Level Ninth-Rank bone awls were only slightly stronger than the Corpse-Eating Bird's tough feathers, barely enough to break through its defenses.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Amid sounds like metal clashing, the Corpse-Eating Bird was struck by bone awls one after another, its body sent tumbling backward into the sky.

Pfft! Pfft...

After the metallic collisions came a string of sounds as bone awls pierced flesh. The Corpse-Eating Bird was impaled and killed!

Trial Tower, first floor: passed!

The Corpse-Eating Bird, which had just been torn apart in a spray of blood and flesh, vanished. The second floor's assessment was about to begin.

The target was to kill three Corpse-Eating Birds within three minutes.

Without pausing, Li Qi directly clicked 'Confirm,' and the assessment began.

In less than a minute, the three Corpse-Eating Birds were killed by the enraged Li Qi, at the cost of minor injuries.

Trial Tower, second floor: passed!

The Corpse-Eating Birds' corpses vanished, along with Li Qi's minor injuries. The telekinetic power he had previously expended was also restored.

Trial Tower, third floor: kill ten Corpse-Eating Birds within ten minutes.

In three minutes and twenty-seven seconds, all ten Corpse-Eating Birds were killed. The price Li Qi paid was one arm.

Trial Tower, third floor: passed!

After clearing three floors in a row, Li Qi's anger had been fully vented, and he regained his calm.

"Trial Tower, fourth floor: kill thirty Apprentice Level Ninth-Rank demon beasts—Corpse-Eating Birds—within thirty minutes."

Looking at the text on the screen before him, he knew the real Trial Tower assessment was about to begin. The first three floors had merely been a warm-up.

To clear the fourth floor of the Trial Tower, I can't clash head-on with such a large number of demon beasts. I need to fully exploit my small size and maneuver around them.

I also need to use my telekinetic power to observe the environment, then use my movement technique and the demon beasts themselves to block one another. I should reserve several bone awls for critical moments. That should be enough to clear the fourth floor.

Having settled on a strategy, Li Qi clicked 'Confirm.'

The countdown began, and dozens of black dots appeared on the horizon.

"Ten, nine, eight..."

By the time it ended, the black dots on the horizon had reached directly above Li Qi. There were thirty Corpse-Eating Birds.

At Li Qi's sudden appearance, several Corpse-Eating Birds in the sky began diving down, clearly intending to tear him apart.

Yet he did not fear them. Standing on the shield, he flew toward the sky, aiming for the diving Corpse-Eating Birds.

In the movement technique teachings of his third father, Ivanko, it had been mentioned that one had to learn to use the environment to maneuver against enemies.

And this so-called environment did not consist only of inanimate objects. Living beings could also be considered part of the environment.

He had realized this when clearing the third floor of the Warrior Path Trial Tower before, but without the assistance of telekinetic power, it had been difficult for him to execute a movement technique of that realm.

Charging into the flock of diving Corpse-Eating Birds, Li Qi controlled five bone awls to guard his side while the remaining eighteen attacked the Corpse-Eating Birds.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

The sound of bone awls cutting through the air rang out. The eighteen bone awls split into two groups and attacked the vital areas of the nearest two Corpse-Eating Birds.

The two targeted Corpse-Eating Birds lowered their heads and shielded them with their wings, using non-vital parts of their bodies to block the attacks.

But before the faster and numerous bone awls, such actions were useless!

The bone awls carved arcs through the air, bypassing the Corpse-Eating Birds' broad wings. Working in pairs, they successively struck their necks and heads before piercing into them.

Screech!

Blood splattered as the Corpse-Eating Birds cried out miserably.

As he killed the two Corpse-Eating Birds, the other five bone awls flew out in succession, forcing the three Corpse-Eating Birds behind them to pull in their wings in self-defense.

At that moment, Li Qi recalled the bone awls and swept past the three Corpse-Eating Birds, slipping into the massive flock.

Corpse-Eating Birds were not small. Their wingspans reached ten meters.

Li Qi, meanwhile, was now less than two meters tall. He was a little fellow among these enormous Corpse-Eating Birds, and only three or four of them could attack him at once.

As he weaved through the flock, Li Qi spread out his telekinetic power, covering the surrounding sky.

Within the range of his telekinetic power, he could detect any movement from the Corpse-Eating Birds immediately.

That range was seven meters, with no blind spots in all three hundred and sixty degrees.

Naturally, the cost of doing this was terrifying. It consumed a great deal of his energy and dramatically increased the drain on his telekinetic power. The number of bone awls he could control at full capacity dropped from twenty-three to twelve.

If he expanded the coverage of his telekinetic power, the number of bone awls he could control would decrease further. He might even lack the energy to control any bone awls at all.

I need to end this quickly. The telekinetic power drain is too great—I can hold on for four minutes at most. Covering seven meters around me is the minimum; I can't reduce it.

If it falls below seven meters, then if a Corpse-Eating Bird attacks, I may not react in time or be able to evade it.

Faced with the rapid depletion of his telekinetic power, Li Qi had to end the battle quickly.

Fortunately, he had figured out the Corpse-Eating Birds' attack habits. This type of demon beast had limited methods of attack: pecking, wing strikes, and clawing.

Of those, pecking and clawing usually exposed the Corpse-Eating Birds' vital areas, undoubtedly giving him an opportunity.

When facing those two attack methods, as long as he counterattacked when the Corpse-Eating Birds launched their attacks, he could often achieve good results.

The bone awls could strike the Corpse-Eating Birds' necks and heads. Those struck were injured at best and killed at worst!

If the telekinetic weapons provided by the Trial Tower had been stronger, the Corpse-Eating Birds struck in their vital areas would have been killed outright.

Even with the limited power of the basic telekinetic weapons, Li Qi still killed twelve Corpse-Eating Birds within one minute. With the telekinetic power he had left, it was enough to clear the fourth floor of the Trial Tower.

The battle continued. Li Qi controlled the shield to descend and retreated toward the rear right, passing between two Corpse-Eating Birds.

Bang!

The two Corpse-Eating Birds pursuing Li Qi crashed into each other, while a third Corpse-Eating Bird above them also missed with its wing strike.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two bone awls slammed into the skulls of the two Corpse-Eating Birds, leaving them dazed.

One of them fell from the sky, while the other had to flap its wings repeatedly before stabilizing itself. Blood poured from the area where it had been struck.

Taking advantage of the two injured Corpse-Eating Birds, Li Qi sent out four bone awls in pairs, attacking the vital areas of the two birds from the front and back.

Screech! Screech!

Two miserable cries rang out as the two Corpse-Eating Birds were killed.

Successfully killing two Corpse-Eating Birds did nothing to dispel Li Qi's frustration.

The telekinetic weapons provided by the Trial Tower are too weak. They need to work together to kill demon beasts quickly. Otherwise, I can only attack again and again, slowly wearing the demon beasts to death.

In the time that followed, Li Qi repeatedly dodged and attacked. By the time he had killed all the Corpse-Eating Birds, he had little telekinetic power left.

Feeling the telekinetic power remaining, Li Qi thought, Killing demon beasts through attrition alone takes too much time. The first two floors of the Trial Tower are fine, since there aren't many demon beasts and there's enough time and psychic energy to wear them down.

But by the third floor, without some skill, it's impossible to pass through attrition alone. The increased number of demon beasts places certain demands on one's movement technique.

As for this fourth floor, its difficulty is more than five times that of the third floor. It is an enormous test of movement technique.

Those with weak movement techniques aren't even qualified to wear the demon beasts down. They can only die under the siege of countless demon beasts.

The fourth floor of the Trial Tower had been cleared. The Corpse-Eating Bird corpses on the ground vanished, and a screen of light appeared before Li Qi.

At first, he did not understand why the opponents in the Controller route's Trial Tower were always Corpse-Eating Birds. It had never said the demon beasts would be random.

After challenging the Trial Tower several times, he understood. This was to reduce the difficulty for candidates taking the Trial Tower assessment.

The habits of a single type of demon beast were easy to figure out, allowing candidates to respond better in battle. This was fair to all candidates.

Otherwise, if they faced randomly generated demon beasts they were unfamiliar with, then with only Apprentice Level Ninth-Rank telekinetic power and the most basic telekinetic weapons, even clearing the fourth floor of the Trial Tower would not be easy, much less the fifth floor.

One had to know that the number of demon beasts required to be killed on the fifth floor was one hundred!

"Trial Tower, fifth floor: kill one hundred Apprentice Level Ninth-Rank demon beasts—Corpse-Eating Birds—within one hundred minutes."

Looking at the words on the screen before him, Li Qi shook his head. "With my current strength, I can't clear the fifth floor of the Trial Tower."

"Clearing the fifth floor is impossible, but my current goal is to achieve a good result. Continuing with the combat method from the fourth floor is the best choice. I'll kill as many Corpse-Eating Birds as possible before my telekinetic power is exhausted."

Muttering softly to himself, Li Qi clicked 'Confirm.'