Breaching the Second Level

At this moment, Chen Fan stood inside the Challenge Pavilion of the Heavenly Court Hall, facing two ancient bronze doors. The doors looked identical, their material almost exactly the same as the Heavenly Court Token, seemingly mostly cast from bronze, with strange Monster Beasts carved above them that Chen Fan couldn't identify. One of the doors bore the words "Immortal Qi" above it, while the other read "Realm." Without overthinking, Chen Fan pushed open the "Immortal Qi" door.

It wasn't hard to guess that this was the Challenge Pavilion based on Immortal Qi standards, but when Chen Fan pushed open the bronze door, he was slightly taken aback. Behind such a massive door lay dozens of Teleportation Arrays. In some of the arrays stood cultivators who had just arrived, pulling out their Heavenly Court Tokens and placing them into the array's slot. The formation activated instantly, and after a flash of white light, the cultivator vanished from his sight.

"Heavenly Court Token..." Chen Fan frowned slightly. His token had long since shattered, and he had heard that each Divine Soul could only bind one token. That meant even if he found a new token, he might not be able to bind it. He slowly walked toward an empty array. If being without a Heavenly Court Token restricted him everywhere in this realm, it would be a loss not worth taking, especially since the Green-feathered Bird had mentioned that most of the precious resources in the Heavenly Court came from various assessments or missions.

"I should give it a try!" Chen Fan stepped into the Teleportation Array, extended his Divine Sense slightly, and let it surge into the slot... "Whoosh..." The sound of the formation activating rang out, followed by a sharp pull on his body, and the next moment, he appeared on a Martial Arts Arena.

"It actually worked." Chen Fan was startled inwardly. This would make things much more convenient in the Heavenly Court. He glanced around briefly; the surroundings were still dominated by darkness and silence, making him feel as if he were floating in a void. It reminded him of his first time clearing a Heavenly Court floor—almost exactly the same scene. Only this time, his opponent didn't appear as quickly as before.

"It seems 110 Immortal Qi is still too little." Chen Fan muttered to himself. Most One-Star Heavenly Soldiers with little Immortal Qi rarely participated in challenges, as it was too easy to encounter opponents of similar strength. Once defeated, they would lose all their Immortal Qi—a brutal rule. But no matter how harsh, people still joined, because the flip side of that cruelty was generous benefits: victory doubled one's Immortal Qi.

"Swish!" A white light flashed from the array on the Martial Arts Arena, and a burly figure appeared before Chen Fan. "Qi Refining Layer 4? Haha, lucky me." The man had immediately assumed a defensive stance upon being teleported, but after seeing Chen Fan, he paused, then burst into laughter, relaxing his guard slightly.

"Has it started?" Chen Fan asked calmly. "Huh? Of course, it started long ago. You can make the first move." The Burly Man, a Qi Refining Layer 6 cultivator, looked at Chen Fan like prey already caught or a cooked duck about to be eaten. Chen Fan's figure flickered slightly, and suddenly he blurred. "Whoosh!" A sound of air splitting rang by the Burly Man's ear, and a streak of white light flashed before his eyes, like a meteor vanishing in an instant—just a single moment. "Uh..." The Burly Man froze in shock and confusion. What just happened? "Swish!" The formation activated again, and two beams of white light flashed across the arena as Chen Fan and the Burly Man both disappeared.

Chen Fan was teleported back to the Challenge Pavilion, but the Burly Man was nowhere to be seen—likely not from the same city. A Qi Refining Layer 6 opponent? One sword was enough for him. Seeing the number on his jade pendant change to "240," Chen Fan pushed open the "Immortal Qi" bronze door again. The Burly Man's defeat had brought him 130 points of Immortal Qi. This time, if he got lucky and faced an opponent with more Immortal Qi than himself, he might reach over 500 in one go.

He activated the array with his Divine Sense again, and a pulling force instantly yanked him out of the Challenge Pavilion. But this time, someone was already waiting on the Martial Arts Arena. "Swish!" A figure flashed before Chen Fan's eyes, followed closely by a streak of Sword Qi. Chen Fan's expression turned cold as he raised his sword to block. A sharp "clang" rang out in the silent arena as the two blades collided, sparking brightly against the dim light.

"Oh? A fine blade." The opponent, failing his surprise attack, quickly retreated, impressed by the toughness of Chen Fan's sword. "A Sword Cultivator?" Chen Fan sneered coldly. In the current cultivation world, most cultivators turned to Dao Cultivation. After Foundation Establishment, Dao Cultivators wielded countless spells and Magic Tools of immense power, making Sword Cultivators far rarer. But this young opponent before him showed considerable skill in sword techniques, sparking Chen Fan's interest.

"Qi Refining Layer 4?" Similarly, the young man was startled by Chen Fan's realm but didn't let his guard down. He knew well that a Qi Refining Layer 4 cultivator with over two hundred Immortal Qi hadn't gotten there by luck alone. The brief exchange of probing strikes made his expression turn serious. "Qi Refining Seventh Layer? No wonder." Chen Fan also noted the young Sword Cultivator's realm. If his current body were at Qi Refining Layer 6 like his Earthly one, this man wouldn't be worth mentioning. But now, at Qi Refining Layer 4, this opponent was a decent challenge.

"Underworld Sword Slash." The young man gripped his sword, took two steps forward, and leaped lightly. His longsword, wreathed in cyan Sword Qi, carved an X-shaped slash through the air. Facing such a violent Sword Qi, Chen Fan's own sword began to tremble softly. "Hum—" A light sword hum sounded as his blade, trailing a long white glow, swept out. "Boom!" A dull impact rang out, and the two stood sword to sword before flickering and charging at each other. "Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!"

The moment they met, three sword energies collided.

A cold glint flashed in the young sword cultivator's eyes. He sensed that Chen Fan's swordsmanship surpassed his own—dragging this out would do him no good.

"Azure Underworld Sword Qi!" With a shout, a surge of vast True Qi poured into his sharp sword. The cyan sword light instantly blazed to life, like a single spark in the darkness that now set the entire shadowed expanse ablaze.

"Hah!" He roared, his blade hurtling forward with overwhelming, violent energy.

Chen Fan's gaze sharpened. True Qi surged within him like a bursting river, flooding into the sword in his hand.

"Hum..." As the True Qi arrived, the sword blade began to tremble uncontrollably at high speed, emitting a piercing metallic ring.

"Blazing Heaven Sword Qi." Chen Fan's cold voice rang out as he stepped into the Formless Step, his sword tracing an arc through the air.

Boom!!!

Dazzling yellow sword light erupted from the blade. The radiance of the Blazing Heaven Sword Qi instantly swallowed the young sword cultivator's cyan glow.

"Swish"

A yellow lightning bolt flashed before the young sword cultivator's eyes!

No!

That wasn't lightning!

"So fast!" A bloodstain appeared on the young sword cultivator's neck. He saw it clearly—that lightning was sword qi, swift as thunder.

Swoosh!

The Teleportation Array hummed again, and the two vanished from the Martial Arts Arena in an instant.

"Crack!"

A crisp sound rang out as a fissure split the arena floor.

"510 points of Immortal Qi." A faint smile tugged at Chen Fan's lips. His opponent had 270 Immortal Qi, now all his, enough to let him breach the second layer of the Heavenly Court.

This time, he moved with practiced ease toward another passage in the Heavenly Court Hall, no longer needing to seek out the celestial soldiers stationed there. He recalled that beside the passage he'd taken on his first attempt stood a bronze door marked with two copper stars.

Following the same method, Chen Fan's divine sense flowed into the groove of the Teleportation Array. A flash of white light, and he was whisked away.

Nearby, a cultivator at the array blinked in confusion, muttering to himself, "Strange—how did the array activate without me seeing him insert his Heavenly Court Token? Am I seeing things? Guess I'm not in the right state for this challenge today!"

With that, the cultivator withdrew the hand holding his Heavenly Court Token, turned, and walked out of the passage.

"Swoosh!"

The array's activation sound faded in his ears, and the scene before Chen Fan transformed entirely. No longer the oppressive, dark Martial Arts Arena, nor the dizzying Teleportation Array.

"A forest?" Chen Fan was taken aback. The terrain resembled the Demon King Valley, and in his hand, he now held a jade token—several times larger than the one hanging at his waist. It was about the size of a palm, with two rows of numbers on it.

The first line, in red, read: 3000.

The second line, in green, read: 500.

Chen Fan was puzzled. He'd received no explanation. What did these numbers mean?

But what surprised him more was that not far away, beneath a large tree, stood five cultivators—three men and two women. All of them stared wide-eyed, fixated on him.

"It's over!" A woman in green robes sighed in disappointment, shaking her head.

"Qi Refining Layer 4? Is this a joke? Did the Teleportation Array malfunction?" A bald male cultivator exclaimed in shock, barely hiding his anger.

"Nothing's going right today. We get stuck with the hardest challenge, and on top of that, we're saddled with this useless waste. Looks like this attempt is doomed to fail." The bald man slapped his own head in frustration, cursing under his breath.

"Maybe not. He's only at Qi Refining Layer 4, but if he managed to get 500 Immortal Qi to enter this challenge, he must have some skill." The Yellow-Robed Woman spoke calmly, clearly the most composed of the five.

Hearing this, the other four seemed to find some sense in her words. Their complaints died down as they slowly approached Chen Fan.

"Listen. I don't care what your goal is. Just guard your own jade token, run for your life, and don't drag us down." The bald cultivator stopped in front of Chen Fan and said coldly.

Chen Fan noticed he carried no blade or sword—he seemed to be a Dao cultivator, his cultivation at Qi Refining Seventh Layer.

"Run? Why would I run?" Chen Fan's face was expressionless, his tone flat. The last phrase, "why would I run," carried no hint of a question. To the others, it sounded like he'd said, "Running is impossible."

"Ha. Forget it. Let's just call it our bad luck." The woman in green turned her shock into a bitter, disappointed smile. She didn't spare Chen Fan another glance, facing the other four instead. "Now we have six people and 3000 Immortal Qi. His 500 is as good as lost. That leaves the five of us. Over the next three days, no more than two of us can fall, or it's a failure."

"One hour left. So now, we scatter and flee. Do everything possible to survive these three days."