The Virtual Universe, above Gulun Continent, on a suspended island.
Inside an ancient palace, Marquis Huanming glared darkly at the tall figure before him, clad in crimson battle armor and wearing a helmet.
"Blood Demon King! This isn't a place where you can run wild!" Marquis Huanming's eyes narrowed. "And I'm not one of your subordinates."
Flames seemed to burn in Blood Demon King's eyes. "So you took the treasure from Flint Star World?"
Marquis Huanming laughed in fury. "What would I want with a treasure left behind by a World Lord?"
Blood Demon King stared at Marquis Huanming, seemingly judging whether he was telling the truth. "So you don't know the identity of the person who obtained the treasure from Flint Star World either?"
Marquis Huanming seemed to have reached the end of his patience. His gaze turned icy. "Get out!"
A beam of light that seemed capable of tearing apart the void shot from the red mark between his brows, shattering Blood Demon King's figure!
Inside his own palace in the Virtual Universe, he had almost absolute control.
After driving Blood Demon King away, Marquis Huanming regained his composure. "Flint Star Sector Lord... What exactly was in the treasure he left behind?"
He had also been keeping an eye on the opening of the World within a World in Flint Star World.
After all, if Flint Star Sector Lord had broken through, he would have become at least a Marquis Immortal—not someone an ordinary World Lord could compare to.
Otherwise, the top powers of Huanming Star Sector wouldn't have coveted his treasure so fiercely.
But now Marquis Huanming realized that things weren't so simple.
Gulun Secret Realm.
"So this is the Immortal Sacred Mountain?"
Jiang Luo looked in surprise at the mountain before him. It wasn't especially tall, and ten stairways ran up its four sides to the summit.
Ji Chen smiled. "That's right. This is the Immortal Sacred Mountain—or, to be precise, the Mountain of Laws."
Eloise added, "There are three Immortal Sacred Mountains in all: the Mountain of Laws, the Mountain of Souls, and the Mountain of Power!
"The Mountain of Laws tests your comprehension of the laws.
"There are ten Law Ladders on the mountain, each corresponding to one of the ten Origin Laws. Every ladder has ten levels.
"If you can climb the Law Ladder to the summit—to the Tenth Layer—it means your law comprehension is on par with an Immortal God's."
"I see..." Jiang Luo looked up and spotted a figure carrying a giant axe, standing on the ninth level of one of the stairways and struggling to reach the tenth.
In the end, he still couldn't make it to the summit. He glanced down at Jiang Luo and the other two, then gave a slight nod.
With a single step, he seemed to tear through space and disappeared.
Jiang Luo couldn't help shivering at that one glance.
Ji Chen explained, "He's a World Lord Level powerhouse from the royal family's Sacred Hall.
"Be respectful if you meet them in the future. Our status may be no lower than a World Lord's, but that's only in comparison to World Lords from the outside.
"The World Lords of the Sacred Hall are much stronger than those outside. Many of them can climb to the Tenth Layer and become Immortal whenever they want.
"But I've heard that after becoming Immortal, your perception of Origin Laws that haven't acknowledged you becomes much weaker. Cultivating the higher laws becomes even more difficult.
"So any Peak World Lord with ambition won't rush into becoming Immortal.
"That's how Flint Star Sector Lord in our Huanming Star Sector is, though my teacher says his ambitions are even greater..."
Eloise smiled. "It's right to show respect to Domain Lord and World Lord Level seniors, but in the end, it still depends on our own strength.
"That royal World Lord nodded to us just now because of Senior Brother Ji.
"With Senior Brother Ji's strength, he's sure to enter the Core Layer of the Giant Axe Arena in the Peak Warrior Battle eleven years from now.
"Without him here, that man might not have given either of us a second glance."
Jiang Luo nodded.
Ji Chen was a Universe Level disciple of the Ancient Wheel Hall. He had reached the seventh level of the fifth Trial Tower.
Jiang Luo didn't know whether the Universe Level Trial Towers were divided the same way as the Star Level ones.
If the difficulty was similar, then reaching the seventh level of the fifth Trial Tower should put him among the top Universe Level geniuses in the 1008 Universe Kingdoms.
"Is there any benefit to climbing the Immortal Ladder?" Jiang Luo asked.
Eloise sighed. "Of course there is, especially for Star Level and Universe Level cultivators like us.
"Take Star Level cultivators, for example. Climb the Law Ladder to the first level, and you'll receive a reward of 100,000 Hunyuan Units!
"The second level gives you 200,000 Hunyuan Units, doubling each time. If you reach the tenth level at the summit, you'll receive 51.2 million Hunyuan Units!"
Jiang Luo sucked in a breath.
Fifty million Hunyuan Units—more than the entire fortune of many Marquis Immortals.
Even the 100,000 Hunyuan Unit reward for reaching just the first level was more than the fortune of many Immortal Gods.
He'd thought the rewards for the Trial Towers were extravagant, but there were even more outrageous ones!
The Gulun Kingdom Lord not only placed great importance on cultivating geniuses, but was also unimaginably wealthy.
Was this the foundation of the oldest Universe Country Lord?
Ji Chen shook his head. "Do you think those rewards are easy to earn? Only Star Level cultivators can receive rewards that large. Universe Level cultivators get only one-tenth as much.
"The rewards are even smaller for Domain Lord and World Lord Level elites in the secret realm.
"Even if that World Lord Level senior just now climbed to the tenth level, he'd only receive 50,000 Hunyuan Units... Of course, that's still more than the fortune of an ordinary Immortal God.
"This is also the Country Lord's support for members of the Sacred Hall. Cultivation always consumes resources.
"The Country Lord has set all kinds of goals. If you're capable of meeting them, you'll never have to worry about Universe Coins. The higher the goal you reach, the more resources you'll receive!"
Eloise smiled ruefully. "The problem is that the goals the Country Lord set are far too high.
"Junior Brother Jiang, do you know how many of the more than six hundred Star Level disciples in the Ancient Wheel Hall can reach the first level of the Law Ladder?"
Before Jiang Luo could answer, Eloise sighed. "Not a single one! There isn't one!
"Even Blood Demon 'Thanses,' who reached the first level of the sixth Trial Tower, is strong enough to rank among the top ten Star Level cultivators in the 1008 Universe Kingdoms.
"But he still can't even stand on the first level of the Law Ladder!"
Jiang Luo clicked his tongue. "That's incredible..."
Ji Chen looked just as frustrated. "She's right. Among the Universe Level disciples, only Kunmo and I have reached the first level of the Law Ladder. I still can't make it to the second!
"My teacher once said that if I can stand firm on the second level, I'll have a shot at ranking in the top ten among the 1008 Universe Kingdoms in the Peak Warrior Battle."
Jiang Luo furrowed his brow as he studied the stairways on the Mountain of Laws. A thought suddenly struck him.
According to Ji Chen, reaching the Tenth Layer—the summit—meant that one's law comprehension was on par with an Immortal God's.
He remembered that passing the tenth level of the Heaven-Reaching Bridge also meant reaching the Immortal level of law comprehension.
And considering how absurdly difficult it was to climb the Law Ladder...
Could it be that its difficulty was divided according to the Heaven-Reaching Bridge's levels?
Except the Heaven-Reaching Bridge tested overall combat strength, while the Law Ladder tested only pure law comprehension?
Before you continue