Braving the Sky Bridge

A month later, Gulanxiu slowly opened his eyes and murmured to himself, "I've more or less sorted out the insights gained from comprehending the Chaos Tablet. It's time to try the Sky Bridge."

With a thought, Gulanxiu logged into the virtual universe through his optical computer and teleported to the Sky Bridge dimension via his authority.

The Sky Bridge dimension was an endless ocean... with surging waves.

On the ocean sat a single beautiful island, at whose edge were forty-five harbors... each extending an endless long bridge, stretching toward the horizon as if trying to connect to the distant sky. These forty-five bridges were completely shrouded above the entire ocean.

Above the ocean waves, faint mist lingered, making it impossible to see what lay within the sea. The mist coiled around the long bridges... everything was dreamlike and illusory.

Gulanxiu suddenly appeared on the central plaza of the island.

Looking around, he saw a few people on the island, but he didn't really recognize any of them, so no one came forward to greet him after seeing him.

Just then, a man in a black starry robe with four ears walked over and smiled at Gulanxiu. "Hello! Gulanxiu! I am Bafen, the Sky Bridge Warden. You can call me Warden."

Gulanxiu nodded and said, "Greetings, Lord Warden."

"Let me introduce you," Warden Bafen said with a nod. "This Sky Bridge dimension was created for the forty-five Chaos Tablets in Chaos City."

"Because our cosmic human race... over billions of years, through comprehending the forty-five Chaos Tablets... has formed forty-five schools within Chaos City."

Warden Bafen sighed emotionally. "For example, if you comprehend the 'Giant Axe Chaos Tablet,' you naturally belong to the Giant Axe school. Those who comprehend the same Chaos Tablet have varying levels of insight. Only those with higher strength will be granted another opportunity by Chaos City to comprehend the Chaos Tablet. The division of strength is determined by clearing the Sky Bridge. The Giant Axe Sky Bridge has a total of thirty-two levels. Each level you clear earns you one chance to comprehend the Chaos Tablet, so work hard!"

Gulanxiu nodded to show he understood. He already knew all this from the original text and didn't need Bafen to explain further.

Bafen continued, "Since you understand, go ahead and challenge it! The Giant Axe Sky Bridge happens to be empty right now!"

Gulanxiu nodded, then flew toward the Giant Axe Sky Bridge. Moments later, he arrived at the end of the first level of the Giant Axe Sky Bridge.

"Choose your opponent. You may select a Warrior, a Spiritual Controller, or a Spiritual Illusionist. Defeat your opponent to pass the first level of the Sky Bridge." Before Gulanxiu was a massive cloud of mist, from which a voice emerged.

"I choose Warrior!" Gulanxiu said firmly. As his words fell, a man in a black robe wearing a mask instantly appeared before him.

The man held a giant axe in his hand, just like Gulanxiu, and said in a cold tone, "Begin!"

As the man's words fell, Gulanxiu, wielding his giant axe, had already swung it horizontally toward the man's waist.

The man used the same starting stance and the same horizontal axe slash to meet him!

"Boom!" A tremendous sound came from where their axe blades clashed. The massive recoil sent both of them flying backward.

This head-on collision, without any tricks, made Gulanxiu's blood boil with excitement.

After flipping half a turn in the air, Gulanxiu firmly stabilized himself. Seizing the moment when his opponent was off-balance, he charged forward again.

The giant axe in his hand spun like a windmill as Gulanxiu swung it wildly, hacking furiously at the black-robed man.

Though at a disadvantage, the black-robed man remained unflappable, blocking and parrying with his giant axe, his defense watertight.

However, in terms of law comprehension, the black-robed man on this first level still lagged behind Gulanxiu. Though he barely blocked all of Gulanxiu's attacks, he was steadily pushed back!

At this point, Gulanxiu was fighting more and more smoothly. The evenly matched battle made his blood feel like it was burning.

Although his opponent was inferior in law comprehension, his application was more refined.

Through the fight, Gulanxiu continuously refined his own shortcomings in secret technique application, growing stronger as the battle progressed, his overall strength rising by about a tier.

Already inferior to Gulanxiu, and with Gulanxiu growing stronger by the moment, the black-robed man gradually couldn't hold on.

Gulanxiu said, "This ends here!" As he spoke, he twisted his waist, raised his axe, and struck fiercely.

The black-robed man could no longer withstand Gulanxiu's attack. He was cut in half at the waist and vanished from the first level.

Gulanxiu, holding his giant axe, headed toward the second level of the Sky Bridge. Soon, he reached the second level. Again, he chose a Warrior to fight, since as a fellow Warrior, he could more easily absorb nourishment from his opponent.

But this opponent was far superior to Gulanxiu, both in law comprehension and in axe technique application.

Facing him, Gulanxiu lost the composure he had on the first level. After barely blocking five axe strikes, he was cut in half at the waist and ejected from the Sky Bridge.

Inside his residence, Gulanxiu slowly opened his eyes and murmured, "I only passed the first level. The opponent on the second level is already this strong. How monstrous must the later opponents be?"

To be honest, he wasn't very satisfied with only clearing the first level. In the original story, Luo Feng hadn't even passed the first level on his first attempt. Among their batch, only Wild Man Rong Jun and Death God Bolan had cleared the first level on their first try.

From that perspective, Gulanxiu's performance seemed decent. But one must remember that Luo Feng and the others had just finished the Universe Genius Top Talent Battle! Most of them were still at the Star level. Even if some had broken through to the Universe level, it was only in the three years after the talent battle ended.

Gulanxiu, on the other hand, had broken through to the Universe level over a hundred years ago. So comparing his strength to Luo Feng and the others at that time was meaningless.

Just then, Gulanxiu received an email in the virtual universe.

He glanced at it. It was a notification of points credited. Since Gulanxiu had cleared the first level of the Sky Bridge, he should have received one hundred points. But because it was his first time in Chaos City, the points were multiplied tenfold, so Gulanxiu received a total of one thousand points. Adding the initial points rewarded for joining the Fourth Secret Realm of the Axe Fighting Arena, Gulanxiu's account now had a total of 1,100 points.

Feeling suddenly wealthy, Gulanxiu thought about buying some equipment to arm himself, just in case something unexpected happened while hunting Chaos Beasts.