Ye Xuan had first trounced the three Danyang freshmen, then charged into the tower.
Now he had reached the fifty-second floor of the Hundred Refinements Tower!?
In other words, it had not even been a day!?
"This—this is impossible!"
"He has the Forbidden Body and cannot advance to the Myriad Manifestation Realm. How could he reach the fifty-second floor!?"
For a moment, everyone beneath Danyang's Hundred Refinements Tower was dumbfounded.
At the same time, within Tinglei Academy, cultivators had gathered in droves. The scene was even grander than at Danyang Academy!
Today was the third day since Xuan Zheng entered the Hundred Refinements Tower, and it would also be the crucial moment when he created a record on the fifty-fifth floor!
The Xuan Clan was the foremost clan, so they had all come to witness this important moment.
Yet at that moment, in the enormous plaza before the Hundred Refinements Tower, everyone's eyes were fixed on a single name.
It was neither Xuan Zheng nor Xie Hongyi!
It was Ye Xuan!
Although Ye Xuan's name was still on the fifty-second floor, he had appeared out of nowhere.
The stage that originally belonged to Xuan Zheng and Xie Hongyi had actually been barged into by someone else!?
At the same time, within the fifty-second-floor space of the Hundred Refinements Tower, Ye Xuan stepped out of the teleportation array and looked toward the vicious beast puppet standing in the center of the space. He could not help frowning slightly.
He had swept his way through every floor to reach the fifty-second.
Although killing-array restrictions had appeared after the forty-third floor, formations of that level were no more than a sham before Ye Xuan.
But upon reaching the fifty-second floor, the puppet had changed from human-shaped into a vicious beast!
It was a scorpion-shaped puppet, its tail held high, its body fully a hundred zhang tall!
Scarlet flames coiled all over it, and its terrifying aura had clearly reached the peak of the Myriad Manifestation Realm!
A vicious beast puppet like this was terrifying enough on its own. Yet now, the space was also filled with the fluctuations of a killing array.
The killing array had transformed into streaks of Sword Qi that hovered in the air. The instant anyone stepped inside, the Sword Qi would move at the slightest sign!
With the vicious beast puppet combined with this terrifying killing formation, even a late-Myriad Manifestation cultivator would be skinned alive if he came here without dying!
The fact that Xie Hongyi and Xuan Zheng could fight their way to the fifty-third floor showed that they truly were not weak.
However, none of this counted as a difficult problem for Ye Xuan.
At the very least, the killing-array restriction was no more than a sham before him.
Buzz!
Ye Xuan merely raised a hand, and a formation seal condensed at his fingertip. It then shot out and struck the killing array.
Boom!
Before the sword shadows formed by the killing array could even react, they dispersed into the space.
Using one formation to break another!
That was the secret behind Ye Xuan's rapid progress through the tower.
Once the restriction was broken, the scorpion puppet was instantly activated. It let out a roar, and the hook at the end of its tail became as sharp as a blade, shooting straight toward Ye Xuan!
Buzz!
The scorpion tail shattered the void and stabbed toward Ye Xuan almost in the blink of an eye.
The thunder tide of astral qi surging before Ye Xuan was instantly shattered by the impact.
A single strike from the scorpion tail was already comparable to the full-power attack of a peak-Myriad Manifestation cultivator!
Ye Xuan narrowed his eyes, then raised his hand and thrust out one finger to meet it head-on!
Tianshu Thunder Tribulation Finger!
This was likewise Ye Xuan's full-power strike.
Boom!
The thunder finger clashed with the vermilion flames!
The terrifying scorpion tail exploded into pieces the instant it touched the thunder finger. Thunder roared as the surging qi swept wildly through the space.
Under Ye Xuan's astonishing thunder finger, the scorpion puppet's venomous tail was utterly destroyed.
Yet the formation's instincts still controlled the wounded scorpion puppet, driving it to attack Ye Xuan.
Although it had lost its tail, the puppet's body was extraordinarily tough. Its enormous pincers could crush any Myriad Manifestation body cultivator!
A single finger had failed to destroy the scorpion puppet, and anger suddenly flared in Ye Xuan's heart.
This fifty-second floor had already wasted far too much of his time!
Buzz!
Thus, driven by his anger, Ye Xuan no longer wished to dawdle. He swept up his broad sleeve, and a thunderous sword light gathered from thin air.
The thunderous force surged mightily, instantly swallowing the scorpion puppet.
Crack, crack!
Only after Ye Xuan unleashed the thunder of the Sword Dao was the scorpion puppet finally destroyed in midair. Golden stone fragments rained down, and it completely lost the ability to move.
Only then did Ye Xuan step into the central area, activate the teleportation array, and enter the fifty-third floor!
Ye Xuan still could not see the results of the others, so he did not know whether Xie Hongyi and Xuan Zheng had passed this floor.
But when he saw the two layers of killing arrays on the fifty-third floor, along with the giant bear puppet occupying the center, its aura comparable to the Half-step Nirvana Realm, the corner of Ye Xuan's mouth twitched.
It was only the fifty-third floor, yet the puppet had already reached such a level. No wonder the two of them had set their targets on the fifty-fifth floor.
One could guess that the puppet on the fifty-fifth floor would surely possess true Nirvana-level battle power!
Ye Xuan was only slightly surprised. His hands did not pause as he raised them to form seals and blasted apart the first killing array.
But as the first killing array dissipated, the second was directly activated. Formation light suddenly flashed in the giant bear puppet's eyes. With a stiff roar, it abruptly swung the enormous staff in its hand and smashed it toward Ye Xuan!
The edge of the staff was as heavy as a mountain. It crashed down, sending vast ripples through the void!
The puppet's attack combined with the killing array, leaving almost no room to evade within the fifty-third-floor space!
To fight the bear puppet fairly, one would have to find a way to break through both layers of the killing array at once.
But Ye Xuan had no patience for that. He raised his hand, and thunderous sword intent appeared in the air like strings of a zither.
As Ye Xuan slapped his palm down, the Yuheng Melody suddenly rang out. The zither notes boomed like thunder, and vast arcs of lightning intertwined, keeping all the killing array's sharp attacks outside the zither notes.
This was the Yuheng Melody, one of the Seven Mysteries of the Heavenly Defile.
Ye Xuan had no ancient zither in hand, but he used lightning arcs as strings and sword intent as the zither!
Although the thunderous zither notes could block the killing array's attacks for only a few breaths, that was enough!
The instant the zither notes rang out, Ye Xuan had already raised his hand and unleashed the Thunder Tribulation Finger.
Boom!
The Thunder Tribulation Finger shook against the mountain-like edge of the staff. Amid the explosion, the enormous staff in the giant bear puppet's hands was blasted away.
Yet although Ye Xuan's Thunder Tribulation Finger was terrifyingly powerful, the giant bear puppet not only possessed battle power comparable to the Half-step Nirvana Realm, its defenses were also extraordinarily strong!
The force of thunder swept along its arm and through its entire body, but the giant bear was only a puppet. Cracks appeared all over its body, yet it was not completely destroyed.
But after the Thunder Tribulation Finger, Ye Xuan's Annihilation Thunder Fist had already arrived first despite being launched later, instantly swallowing the giant bear puppet that had not yet steadied itself!
Crack!
Boom!
After suffering successive heavy blows, the giant bear's mountain-like body finally collapsed with a thunderous crash.
At that moment, the killing array that had broken through the thunderous zither notes finally surged forward, coming to annihilate Ye Xuan!
But Ye Xuan's figure had already reached the center of the space.
Before the killing array could reach him, he vanished into the teleportation array.
At the same time, Xie Hongyi, who was on the same floor, also pierced straight through the giant bear puppet with a single spear strike, Flaming Phoenix Soar, and entered the teleportation array.
On another level, the instant Xuan Zheng broke through both formations at once, his blade suddenly rose. His saber was like a rainbow sword, and before the staff in the giant bear puppet's hands could fall, the golden blade had already cleaved it in two!
"Hmph. Pathetic."
Xuan Zheng returned his saber to its sheath. "Xie Hongyi, it's still me first this time. On the fifty-fourth floor, you'd better not disappoint me!"
Then Xuan Zheng also stepped into the teleportation array.
But at that moment, beneath Tinglei Academy's Hundred Refinements Tower, none of the cultivators cried out in surprise or celebrated wildly just because Xuan Zheng had entered the fifty-fourth floor.
Because although Xuan Zheng had entered the fifty-fourth floor ahead of Xie Hongyi, before either of them, Ye Xuan of Cloud Palace Academy had already entered the fifty-fourth floor!
Moreover, Ye Xuan had achieved this from the fifty-second floor in less than the time it took to burn half an incense stick.
Xuan Zheng and Xie Hongyi had fought for three days, only for this sudden Ye Xuan to pluck the fruit!?
What kind of absurdity was this!?
Before you continue