A resonant hum rang out as Lu Xiaotian reached the third level and suddenly touched a soft barrier. Though it felt yielding, it was extraordinarily powerful, like a springy curtain that bounced him backward.
"Where do you think you're going?" The square-faced monk raised both hands, and a brown demon-subduing staff appeared in his grasp. He swung it down at Lu Xiaotian.
Lu Xiaotian neither dodged nor retreated. His body twisted rapidly and strangely. He had seemed about to be bounced away, but now he was embedded in the barrier—and in the blink of an eye, he had passed through it.
"This man knows the tower's barriers so well!" The square-faced monk's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. He soon bellowed again, "That worthless disciple! Just how much information about Qianyin Temple did he give this man?"
The square-faced monk casually pulled back the staff that had nearly struck the barrier. He was extremely familiar with the barrier as well, and passed through it in the blink of an eye. The two fought in fits and starts along the way, yet the monk could not stop Lu Xiaotian from climbing ever higher through the tower. He trailed behind, shocked and furious. He prided himself on having blood-essence strength no weaker than his opponent's, and the other man had not even used any powerful supernatural ability. Yet every time, he avoided the monk's killing blows, yielding where the attacks were strongest and striking where they were weakest. He moved with complete ease, advancing or retreating as he pleased. If his cultivation were higher than the monk's, that would have been one thing. But he didn't seem much stronger at all.
The square-faced monk had no way of knowing that although Lu Xiaotian's cultivation was the same as his—both were early-stage Body