The Thirteenth Floor

The email from the Virtual Universe Company made Ye Muxuan's eyes narrow slightly.

For billions of eras, the Five Great Powers had been the five pillars of the Human Race, holding up the sky above them. Over endless eras, they had seen far too many geniuses, and so they looked down on the average people hailed as "geniuses."

The World Lords and Immortals who had entered the Initial Universe had been given a set period to study a Chaos Stele and challenge the Heavenly Bridge. That was clearly a chance for them to demonstrate their talent. Only the very best might receive an invitation to become official members of one of the Five Great Powers. In return for successfully recruiting them, the powers would award them the appropriate points, along with bonuses and a free point allowance for redeeming Secret Techniques—and that allowance was extremely generous.

So when they encountered a true genius, they never skimped on the resources they invested in them! The free point allowance was so high that, just by challenging the Heavenly Bridge, hardly anyone in this group would ever earn that much in their lifetime!

As he thought this over, Ye Muxuan reached the end of the first floor.

"Choose your opponent. You may choose a Fighter, a Spirit Controller, or a Spirit Illusionist. Choose any one opponent. Defeat them to pass the first floor of the Heavenly Bridge." At the end of the first floor stood a vast mass of clouds, and a voice rang out from within.

Ye Muxuan stopped. The Heavenly Bridge wouldn't let him skip the first few floors just because he was a World Lord. He had to defeat his opponent and disperse the clouds before he could enter the next floor.

"I choose... a Fighter!" Ye Muxuan called out, his voice echoing across the Heavenly Bridge.

With a whoosh, a mass of black liquid flew out of the clouds. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a figure wearing a black mask and pitch-black armor, with a long War Blade strapped to its back—the very same kind Ye Muxuan used.

The figure beneath the black mask spoke. "Let the fight begin."

"Defeat him to enter the second floor," the voice came from the clouds.

Ye Muxuan studied the Gatekeeper, whose outfit was identical to his own. A War Blade appeared in his hand: the Wind Shadow Blade he used in reality.

Its blade was long and straight, with a slight curve at the tip.

Their eyes met. Ye Muxuan's gaze was cool and indifferent; the Gatekeeper's was cold and utterly emotionless.

Suddenly, the Gatekeeper lunged forward, slashing at him with blinding speed.

Ye Muxuan's eyes narrowed.

The Gatekeeper, like Ye Muxuan, was at the Peak World Lord level. But its Law Comprehension was limited to the first faint, interwoven trace of light and shadow in the first image of the Jinghong Chaos Stele.

A Peak World Lord with a comprehension of the Law of Time suppressed to the very threshold of understanding could exist nowhere but here on the Heavenly Bridge.

Clang! A low, shivering ring echoed as Ye Muxuan blocked the blow.

The mysterious figure's wrist quivered, and it immediately followed with a second slash.

Ye Muxuan lifted his hand, turned his blade, and blocked the second strike!

Then the third, the fourth, all the way to the ninth!

"Wind... air currents... disturbance... time... So the first image also contains this kind of insight into the Origin Law of Wind!" After blocking the Gatekeeper's ninth strike, Ye Muxuan's eyes suddenly lit up.

With his current strength, he could have cleaved through the first floor in a single strike. But there was no need. He had chosen the Jinghong Chaos Stele, and the Gatekeepers on the Jinghong Heavenly Bridge naturally used the insights and Secret Techniques found on that stele. So he had treated this Gatekeeper as the finest instructor he could ask for.

"Thank you for the lesson!" Ye Muxuan suddenly cried, his voice like thunder. He twisted his wrist, and the Wind Shadow Blade in his hand became a streak as it struck the War Blade in the Gatekeeper's grasp.

Straight through the center!

His strike broke through the Gatekeeper's guard, and the tip of his blade landed lightly on the Origin Bead inside its body, where its heart would be.

The Origin Bead cracked. The World Lord died!

"First floor cleared. Please proceed to the second floor." The clouds parted, revealing the entrance to the second floor.

Ye Muxuan drew a deep breath and stepped onto the second floor.

The second floor, the third floor...

On the island, Bafen's eyes suddenly lit up. Looking at the group before him, he said, "Not bad. To reach the thirteenth floor on your first attempt at the Heavenly Bridge means Muxuan's Law Comprehension is very high, and his foundations are solid, too. It looks like the Core Layer of the Five Great Powers is about to gain another Core Member!"

"Muxuan made it to the thirteenth floor?"

"He actually reached the thirteenth floor?"

"Good heavens!"

The people waiting on the island weren't only the World Lords from the Jinghong Heavenly Bridge's branch and an Immortal who had arrived later. Powerful figures from the other Heavenly Bridge ports were waiting there as well. Hearing Bafen's words, they all gasped.

What did the thirteenth floor mean? It meant that even among Immortals, Ye Muxuan's Law Comprehension would rank in the upper-middle tier of the Military Lord Immortals.

"Who's next to challenge the Jinghong Heavenly Bridge?" Bafen glanced over the twelve people present: eleven World Lords and one Immortal.

"I'll go!" The only Immortal Military Lord among the seventeen people who had chosen the Jinghong Chaos Stele stepped forward and spoke.

On a rooftop in a gray building in Chaos City, a young man sat cross-legged. He abruptly opened his eyes and looked up at the Law Secret Patterns visible in the sky!

The thirteenth floor of the Heavenly Bridge!

That was what he had expected.

After all, he had already defeated Blade Maniac Li Zheng with a single strike. Many Immortals and World Lords knew his Law Comprehension was exceptionally high, and that his self-created Secret Technique had reached the Marquis Level!

But creating a Secret Technique and comprehending the Laws weren't the same thing. Many powerful figures could have a sudden flash of inspiration after years of accumulated experience and create a Secret Technique of a higher level, even if their Law Comprehension hadn't caught up. Of course, there were also powerful figures whose Law Comprehension was extremely high but who, due to a temporary impasse, couldn't create a Secret Technique to match.

So if he went all out, he should be able to reach the fifteenth floor.

That was the threshold for becoming a Marquis!

But his Law Comprehension had only increased rapidly in the past few years—especially after the strike he had unleashed from deep within his consciousness! Before that, his strength had been about the same as Kong Yan and Zhendan's. Even if he had been slightly superior, the gap wouldn't have been large. He estimated that the two of them could reach the twelfth floor, or perhaps even the thirteenth.

So...

All he needed to do now was devote himself to studying the Chaos Stele during the more than three thousand years he would spend in Chaos City, then see how far he could get before he left.

If he managed to pass the fifteenth floor—or even the sixteenth or seventeenth—others would only be amazed by his visible rate of progress, not suspect that he had stumbled upon some other opportunity!

At the very least, it would lower the likelihood of that suspicion. After all, he was alone now, with no powerful figure behind him to keep others in check!

Oh, right. The Immortal Altar and the Illusion Sea could also earn him points, as could another important treasure in Chaos City: the Chaos True Spirit.