Breaking Through the Third Layer

Gulanxiu never would have guessed that several King-level Experts would be watching him attempt the trial!

He had just chosen his opponent on the Third Layer. As expected, he chose the Warrior again.

As before, the best defense was a good offense. Gulanxiu gripped his great axe and charged at the Gatekeeper.

The Gatekeeper was no less aggressive, swinging his axe to meet Gulanxiu's blow.

With a thunderous BOOM!, they were both sent flying backward. Their first clash had ended in a perfect stalemate.

Midair, Gulanxiu twisted his body and barely managed to steady himself before charging at the Gatekeeper again.

The Gatekeeper refused to back down and swung back at him. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Thunderous crashes rang out one after another!

A moment later, they separated again, standing dozens of meters apart and panting heavily.

The Gatekeeper spoke in a low, hoarse voice. "I admit you're strong. You actually managed to fight me to a draw, but that still isn't enough. Go back and train for a few more years before you try this layer again!"

Gulanxiu shook his head. "I have one more axe strike for you to judge! If you can withstand it, I'll turn around and leave!"

The Gatekeeper nodded. "Use whatever trump card you have! I hope you can make it through this layer!"

Gulanxiu nodded, held his great axe horizontally, and spun toward the Gatekeeper as he swung.

As he spun, the space around the blade of his axe began to warp slightly.

The Gatekeeper's expression changed at the sight of the move. He started moving at high speed, leaving dozens of afterimages in his wake. He knew he couldn't withstand Gulanxiu's strike, so he planned to rely on his speed and kill Gulanxiu before Gulanxiu could kill him.

But Gulanxiu turned his wrist. With a sharp CLANG!, he somehow blocked the Gatekeeper's rapid attack.

The terrifying axe blade, which could cleave through space, severed the Gatekeeper's great axe in an instant. It swept up his arm and quickly shredded him into a bloody pulp.

Gulanxiu panted heavily and muttered to himself, "What a tough opponent! Luckily, his speed was still within what I could handle, so I managed to get through the Third Layer without a scratch! Now let's see how strong the Fourth Layer is!"

With that, he left the Third Layer and headed for the Fourth. A moment later, the Gatekeeper of the Fourth Layer appeared before him.

This time, Gulanxiu wasn't so lucky. Facing nearly a hundred Gatekeeper afterimages, he could only struggle to defend himself. After withstanding just three attacks, he was killed and ejected from the Virtual Universe.

On the Sky Bridge, Gulanxiu had finished his attempt, and the several King-level Experts all said their farewells to Barbarian Hammer King.

Light Sword King said to Barbarian Hammer King, "Barbarian Hammer, we'll be going now! If you host a banquet later, don't forget to invite us!"

Barbarian Hammer King laughed. "Don't worry! I'll be sure to share a few drinks with you, Light Sword!"

The other two King-level Experts nodded to Barbarian Hammer King before vanishing from the Sky Bridge.

Barbarian Hammer King said to Bafen, "Bafen, give me my disciple's Virtual Universe account number. I want to send him an email!"

Bafen nodded. "Don't worry, I've already sent it to you!"

Barbarian Hammer King nodded. "Good! I'll be off, then!" With that, he vanished too.

Now, the vast Sky Bridge Plane was left with only Guardian Bafen. Bafen muttered to himself, "He made it through the Third Layer of the Sky Bridge after just ten years in Chaos City. This young fellow really is impressive! Of the young people from the Virtual Universe Company's Strongman Battle twenty years ago, only ten have made it through the Third Layer so far. I'll send them a message and see if it can motivate them!"

With that, he sent the news of Gulanxiu's breakthrough to the more than nine hundred Cosmic Level cultivators from the same cohort.

That's right. After twenty years of hard training in Chaos City, ten of the Cosmic Level talents from this cycle of the Virtual Universe Company's Strongman Battle had made it through the Third Layer of the Sky Bridge.

That seemed like a pretty good result. After all, when the talents from Luo Feng's Genius Battle left Chaos City, only seven of them had made it through the Third Layer. This cycle's Strongman Battle had ten make it through after only twenty years.

But one shouldn't forget that the Genius Battle and the Strongman Battle had different starting cultivation levels. Neither group had undergone systematic training, but the Genius Battle contestants had all been at Star Level. Even if they later broke through to Cosmic Level, they hadn't had enough time to build a solid foundation.

Some of the Strongman Battle contestants, on the other hand, had already spent tens of thousands of years at Cosmic Level. Even without systematic training, their foundations were much stronger than those of the Genius Battle contestants.

For one thing, just after entering Chaos City, more than three hundred of the one thousand Strongman Battle contestants had made it through the First Layer of the Sky Bridge, and seven had made it through the Second. With such a strong foundation, their progress in training was naturally much faster than that of the Genius Battle contestants.

In an elegant room, a woman as beautiful as a celestial immortal suddenly opened her eyes and said, "A message from Lord Bafen?"

"Gulanxiu, a Cosmic Level member of the Giant Axe Fighting Arena's Fourth Secret Realm, made it through the Third Layer of the Giant Axe Sky Bridge after ten years in Chaos City!"

After glancing over the message, surprise flickered in the woman's eyes. In her melodious voice, she said, "Gulanxiu? He made it through the Third Layer in only ten years, yet he's merely in the Giant Axe Fighting Arena's Fourth Secret Realm. If he enters the Universe Peak Powerhouse Battle, could he make it into the Original Secret Realm?"

Because she was competing in this cycle's Virtual Universe Company Peak Powerhouse Battle, the company had opened up an additional spot in the Original Secret Realm. The other genius who had entered the Original Secret Realm alongside her had made it through the Third Layer of the Sky Bridge in his ninth year in Chaos City. His performance was about on par with Gulanxiu's.

But the woman was only surprised for a moment before she dismissed the matter. For one thing, she was naturally detached and rarely got caught up in external matters. For another, although Gulanxiu's performance was impressive, he was still far behind her.

Her arrival had drawn the attention of Humanity's upper echelons. Although her cultivation speed was slower than that of the once-in-a-million-eras geniuses, her talent for cultivating both space and time, along with a will far stronger than others at her level, made her even more valuable in their eyes.

And she hadn't let them down. She had made it through the Fifth Layer of the Cosmic Sky Bridge as soon as she entered Chaos City, and a supreme being from the Virtual Universe Company had taken her as a disciple. By her fifteenth year in Chaos City, she had made it through the Seventh Layer of the Sky Bridge, and she had a chance of making it through the Eighth before leaving Chaos City.

It could be said that all the Human Race's geniuses of her generation paled in comparison to her. Her only rivals were the peerless geniuses throughout the history of the Human Race.

In a courtyard not far from Gulanxiu's, a human with two antennae growing from his head exclaimed in shock, "What? He made it through the Third Layer in ten years? That's about the same as me! Good thing he didn't participate in this cycle's Strongman Battle, or I might not have been able to take second place."

This was Xiusite, the second-place finisher in this cycle's Strongman Battle. Because an unparalleled genius had emerged from this cycle, the Virtual Universe Company had opened an additional spot in the Original Secret Realm, allowing Xiusite to enter it.

Nine years after entering the Initial Universe, Xiusite had made it through the Third Layer of the Sky Bridge and earned the chance to apprentice under a Grandmaster. He had always believed himself to be the second-greatest genius of his generation, but now Gulanxiu had appeared. Although Gulanxiu wasn't a member of the Virtual Universe Company, he had entered Chaos City at around the same time as Xiusite. That had stirred in Xiusite a desire to compete with him from afar.

Xiusite muttered to himself, "I've given up on surpassing Yunmiao, but Gulanxiu, I absolutely won't let you surpass me!!!"