Heaven-Reaching Tower Assessment

His attack amplitude had reached around seventy times. Yes, after ten years of training, Yin Congyang's attack amplitude had already surpassed seventyfold.

The cultivation of the Heaven-Opening Axe technique had never ceased. The deeper he trained, the more profound and exquisite the axe art became. Every stage brought new discoveries—it was truly a treasure of an axe technique.

Thanks to the strength of his soul power, both the offensive and defensive aspects of the [Shake God] secret technique had reached the second level of major accomplishment. It was said that the second level of this technique could only be cultivated when one's soul power reached the Star Level, but Yin Congyang's powerful soul allowed him to break through the bottleneck directly.

Unfortunately, back then his points had only been enough to exchange for the first two levels of the technique. He still hadn't saved up enough for the third level. Otherwise, he would have liked to try whether he could cultivate that level as well.

Time passed, and soon the assessment arrived.

The previous combat assessments and the Virtual Universe theory exams were all very familiar to the trainees. The entire process took only a few days to complete.

"Tomorrow morning will be the Heaven-Reaching Tower assessment. All trainees are to log into the Virtual Universe on time from their own residences," the Purple-Robed Dragon Lady's cold voice rang out. "Return now. Remember, once the Heaven-Reaching Tower assessment is finished, everyone will undergo the decade's Life-and-Death Trial. I hope you all come back alive."

Some of the trainees looked worried, some appeared indifferent, and others seemed lost in thought as they all headed back to their residences.

"Hey, Old Yin, do you know where the Life-and-Death Trial is?" Trainee A8, named Obledy, walked beside Yin Congyang and asked, tilting his head.

"How many times have I told you? Don't call me Old Yin," Yin Congyang replied irritably. "How would I know? I looked it up before—it seems to be different every time. Sometimes it's a secret realm, sometimes a manhunt, sometimes survival, sometimes treasure hunting. Who knows what form it'll take this time? What, do you know something?"

Obledy shook his head. "I don't know, but I thought you were on pretty good terms with Instructor Iceberg. I figured you might have some inside info..."

Instructor Iceberg was the nickname the trainees had given the Purple-Robed Dragon Lady. It had two meanings: one was her icy, aloof personality that kept people at a distance, and the other was her strength. On the surface, she was just a Universe Level Nine, but rumor had it that the other three instructors were all somewhat afraid of this iceberg beauty. The trainees guessed those three had suffered losses at her hands, which was why the four of them followed her lead and ran the entire Training Camp.

Yin Congyang looked at him seriously. "Old Ao, I really don't have any inside info. But I think no matter what form the trial takes, strength is always the most important thing. As long as you're strong enough, you can breeze through any trial, right?"

Obledy nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly reacted. "Hey! You won't let me call you Old Yin, but you call me Old Ao? And you keep saying my A8 number sounds like a car brand called Audi from your hometown. My name is Obledy, not Audi!"

"Who told you to have such a long name?" Yin Congyang rolled his eyes. "Take your pick: Old Ao or Audi. Which one?"

"...I'll go with Old Ao. Calling me Audi feels weird," Old Ao muttered resentfully. "It's not like I named myself—what can I do about it? Anyway, how many floors of the Heaven-Reaching Tower do you think you can clear?"

Yin Congyang shook his head. "None of us in this batch have tried the tower yet. No idea how far we'll get. Since it's in the Virtual Universe, we can't die anyway. Just do our best. But this Training Camp is pretty stingy—only one chance to challenge the tower every ten years... I remember during the Genius Tournament a few years ago, the Virtual Universe Company directly carved out a plane with a trial tower that let over a million people fight at the same time..."

"You wouldn't know this," Old Ao said, lowering his voice mysteriously. "Setting up trial-type things in the Virtual Universe takes energy too. The Virtual Universe Company is loaded, but they only hold the Genius Tournament once every ten thousand years. This Training Camp runs the Heaven-Reaching Tower once every ten years. Even though there are fewer people here than in the Genius Tournament, the camp's budget is limited. Why else would we have to spend points just to train in the Virtual Universe normally? Besides, there are fewer Planetary Level trainees here, but the Star Level ones are numerous. And the Planetary Level is just laying the foundation—the Star Level is where true talent really shows. It makes sense that the higher-ups pay more attention to the Star Level..."

"Is that so? Guess I was ignorant," Yin Congyang stopped walking. "I'm here. Get ready well—clear as many floors as you can tomorrow!"

He waved at Old Ao and flew into his villa. This Obledy was one of the few friends Yin Congyang had made over the past ten years. He was strong and consistently ranked in Class A.

The others were just casual acquaintances. Everyone was too busy training and studying to waste time building relationships. After all, with a Life-and-Death Trial every hundred years at the Planetary Level, who knew if you'd still be around in another decade? Real relationship-building only happened at the late Star Level, when graduation was near and future paths were decided.

The next morning, in the Virtual Universe Training Camp.

The four instructors teleported all the trainees to a special plane in the Virtual Universe. There stood a towering octagonal pagoda that reached into the sky. Each floor was extremely high. Standing at the base of the hundred-story tower, you couldn't even see the top.

All eight gates of the tower were open.

The Purple-Robed Dragon Lady's icy voice echoed across the scene: "Eight gates, each can hold thirty people. Based on your numbers, A1-A30 enter Gate 1, A31-A60 enter Gate 2, and so on. Enter one by one. Once inside, choose your weapons first, then begin the challenge... You, first in!"

Her slender finger pointed at Yin Congyang.

Since ranking first in the initial assessment, Yin Congyang's number had been changed to A1. He was the first to walk toward Gate 1 and stepped inside.

The space shifted. He appeared on a platform twenty kilometers long and twenty kilometers wide.

"Please select your battle suit and weapons."

Yin Congyang quickly chose his battle suit, the Heaven-Opening Axe, the Xinling Disk, and other equipment.

"Shwoosh!"

A human figure in a full-coverage battle suit appeared on the opposite side of the platform. He also wielded an axe and carried a Xinling Disk on his back.

Once his body was fully formed, the opponent said nothing. Over a dozen flying blades shot out from the Xinling Disk on his back, streaking toward Yin Congyang, while he himself charged forward with his giant axe like lightning.

Yin Congyang assessed the Planetary Level Nine physical attributes in the Virtual Universe, curled his lip, and muttered, "So weak." Nine flying blades flew from his own Xinling Disk. Eight of them clanged against the incoming blades, knocking them away, while the remaining blade traced a graceful S-shaped arc and pierced the forehead of the opponent, who couldn't dodge in time. First floor cleared.

The opponent on this first floor didn't even have a domain. His attack amplitude was probably only around ten times. Even the Yin Congyang from ten years ago could have easily cut him in two with one axe.

Second floor, same opponent, but this time with a first-level domain. Cleared just as easily.

Third floor, second-level domain, attack amplitude five times. Cleared.

Fourth floor, second-level domain, attack amplitude eight times. Cleared.

Twentieth floor, seventh-level domain, attack amplitude thirty times. Cleared.

Thirtieth floor, ninth-level domain, attack amplitude forty times. Cleared.

Thirty-first floor.

The opponent on this floor immediately unleashed a ninth-level domain as soon as he appeared. Countless flying blades shot out from his Xinling Disk, forming nine flying blade formations that all converged on Yin Congyang.

The opponent himself charged with his giant axe, his speed clearly much faster than the opponent on the thirtieth floor. When he closed in, his axe technique carried a faint trace of the Law of Gold, making it extremely powerful.

Yin Congyang spread his own domain. His eightfold Five Elements Domain directly crushed the opponent's domain, causing it to collapse. The speed and power of the flying blade formations were suppressed to near stagnation, and even the opponent's movement was severely hindered.

"Impossible! How can your domain have such power?" the opponent on the thirty-first floor shouted in shock.

The previous thirty opponents had all been silent, making Yin Congyang think they had no language function. This opponent's sudden speech surprised him pleasantly. "Oh, so you can talk? I thought you were all mutes. I was actually curious—what kind of existence are you, exactly?"

The opponent let out an angry roar but didn't answer Yin Congyang. Seeing that his telekinetic weapon was useless, he focused entirely on his axe technique. His strikes were grand and sweeping, the axe art profound and unpredictable.

Seeing that the opponent wouldn't talk anymore, Yin Congyang felt a bit disappointed. After briefly appreciating the opponent's axe technique, he sent him away with a single axe stroke.

Starting from the thirty-first floor, each opponent was significantly stronger than the last. But Yin Congyang's eightfold Five Elements Domain was far too powerful, and his own attack amplitude was nothing to scoff at. Without even using his own insights into the laws, he charged all the way to the thirty-eighth floor.

The opponent on the thirty-ninth floor was already on par with Yin Congyang in terms of law comprehension, but relying on his domain's might and law insights, Yin Congyang still killed his opponent and successfully passed.

The opponent on the fortieth floor surpassed Yin Congyang in law comprehension, and his body's force-amplitude reached sixty times, with axe techniques so exquisite they matched Yin Congyang's current insights into the Heaven-Opening Axe technique.

Yin Congyang unleashed his eightfold domain and law comprehension together, and without using the [Shake God] attack, he barely managed to win with extreme difficulty.

From the opponents he had faced, Yin Congyang deduced that the difficulty of the Heaven-Reaching Tower would spike every ten floors. With his current domain and law comprehension, excluding soul attack secret techniques, he could barely pass the fortieth floor.

Sure enough, when he ascended to the forty-first floor, the opponent's domain and law comprehension skyrocketed. His domain could no longer fully suppress the opponent's domain, his law comprehension was completely outmatched, and even the opponent's axe techniques were more refined than those of the fortieth-floor opponent. After a grueling battle of over a hundred exchanges, Yin Congyang finally killed the opponent using the [Shake God] secret technique.

On the forty-second floor, Yin Congyang was utterly outclassed in close combat and could only defend with difficulty. After withstanding the opponent's attacks, he used [Shake God] to affect the opponent's spirit, then closed in and killed him with his axe techniques.