The next second, a curtain of light enveloped him.
Light and shadow swirled, and the scene changed in an instant.
The Trial Tower's ninth floor officially began.
The moment he stepped onto the ninth floor, the surroundings changed abruptly.
The damp swamp was gone, replaced by a desolate, rock-strewn wasteland.
Jagged boulders covered the ground, broken cliffs lay piled atop one another, and the weeds were scorched and withered. A gloomy wind howled through the cracks in the rocks, sending pebbles rattling across the ground.
The entire space felt bleak and murderous, its oppressive force far beyond that of the first eight floors.
Every three floors of the Trial Tower marked a major tier.
The ninth floor was the ultimate battlefield for first-tier monsters—and the place where 99 percent of gifted disciples had stopped for a thousand years.
Low growls overlapped, erupting from the shadows of the boulders in every direction.
Thirty agile figures darted out one after another, landed, and spread out, fixing their gaze on Su Yun at the center.
They were Rock-Splitting Beasts at the peak of the first tier.
Their entire bodies were covered in gray stone-like hide, their skin as hard as layers of refined iron. They had thick, powerful limbs, black, razor-sharp claws, flat heads, and mouths full of tiny, jagged teeth like shards of stone.
Every Rock-Splitting Beast was at the peak of the first tier, with combat strength on par with a Qi Refining cultivator at the ninth layer, perfected.
Not only were they top-grade monsters, they were more vicious and cunning than the Black Water Crocodiles on the eighth floor.
They excelled at lying in wait among the rocks, surrounding and flanking their prey, and striking from blind spots.
That was what made the Trial Tower's ninth floor truly terrifying.