"Great work, Wan Jiang!" the captain of Squad Five exclaimed excitedly.
After Wan Jiang killed a Ghost Child with Armybreaker, the remaining two Ghost Children were also intimidated by its effects, becoming lambs waiting for slaughter.
That made killing the Evil Demons much faster.
The squad members grew excited. If they kept up this pace, they might rank among the top vanguard squads in merit!
During every demonic tide, the Vanguard Regiment's reserve squads received merit rewards and rankings based on the number of Evil Demons they killed. High-ranking squads also received extra rewards and opportunities for promotion!
No one had expected a recruit to be such a ferocious fighter!
But their excitement didn't last long...
The next instant, the ring on Wan Jiang's hand flashed with a deep blue glow that enveloped his entire body.
Then Wan Jiang vanished on the spot!
"Holy shit! Where'd he go?" "What the hell happened?!"
Everyone in the squad froze. They looked all around but couldn't find any trace of Wan Jiang... He had really disappeared!
In a deep, dark-red space, gray-white stone blocks engraved with formation patterns covered the floor, while dimness stretched in every direction.
A path emitting a faint runic glow led toward a cage-like space in the center.
"Where am I?"
Wan Jiang looked bewildered. One moment, he had been killing Evil Demons on the battlefield; the next, he was in this strange place.
Suddenly, a cold voice came from overhead, echoing in Wan Jiang's ears:
[You have met the condition for unlocking the first floor of the Demon-Sealing Tower: kill an Evil Spirit Tier Evil Demon!] [The first-floor trial of the Demon-Sealing Tower will begin automatically.]
Wan Jiang instinctively looked up and saw the faint image of a ring hovering at the very top of the space.
It looked exactly like the ring on his hand.
"It's the ring Dad left me?!"
"Wait, wasn't this just an ordinary ring?"
Putting the notifications together with his current situation, Wan Jiang thought of a possibility:
"Could I be inside the ring right now?"
"Demon... Sealing... Tower..."
Wan Jiang carefully recalled the notifications he had just heard, his emotions surging wildly.
The ring had always looked ordinary, and he had only regarded it as a simple keepsake from his father. He had never imagined it contained an entire hidden world...
After he killed an Evil Spirit Tier Ghost Child, it had transformed into this miraculous space!
"Begin the first-floor trial."
Once he realized this was something his father had left him, much of Wan Jiang's confusion and fear faded.
He picked up his spear and headed straight down the faintly glowing path.
Then, at the center of the space, he saw a gloomy altar-
[Demon-Sealing Tower, first-floor trial: kill 10 Ghost Children.] [You have three attempts at each floor's trial. If you fail all three, the Demon-Sealing Tower will close permanently!]
"Take on ten Ghost Children alone!"
The difficulty of this task was outrageous!
During military training, making a recruit face even three Ghost Children alone would count as abusing a newcomer.
Ghost Children inflicted powerful debuffs with their attacks-slowing, bleeding, and corrosion. Without a shield guard up front, anyone struck and caught up in their attacks would struggle to escape.
Even veterans dared not take them lightly, let alone Wan Jiang, who was only level nine.
Now, one Ghost Child after another crawled out of the gloomy altar, creating a scene straight out of a horror movie.
"It's only a trial..."
"Compared to the misery of being powerless, this is far easier!"
Wan Jiang took a deep breath.
The next instant, he resolutely cut wound after wound into his own body, driving his health below 40%!
At the same time, his agility and physique attributes soared!
[Dragon Gallantry: immune to fear; for every 1% decrease in health, agility and physique each increase by 1%; for each enemy nearby, strength increases by 2%!]
By now, his agility had increased by 60%, and his strength by 20%!
Combined with the Tactical Meeting buff, Wan Jiang's attributes far surpassed those of the Ghost Children.
Since the Ghost Children's attacks inflicted such powerful debuffs, he simply couldn't let them hit him.
"Kill!"
Wan Jiang raised his spear and leaped, thrusting like a striking dragon!
Outside, all the members of Squad Five exchanged looks, their expressions growing grave.
Casualties were inevitable when facing a demonic tide, but this sudden disappearance was far too strange.
For a moment, even the squad captain, who had served in the military for years, was bewildered.
"We can't wait any longer. Report this!"
In unit 502 of Green Mountain Apartments, Yi Tian was browsing the class-user forums at home when he suddenly received a call from Wei Yuan.
"What?! Wan Jiang disappeared?"
Three minutes earlier, Squad Five had reported the situation to the commander of the Vanguard Regiment.
Wei Yuan had already informed the commander that Wan Jiang had a legendary class. The disappearance of someone with a legendary class was a major incident, so after his investigation yielded nothing, the commander immediately reported it to Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan was equally puzzled. If anyone might know the reason, the only person he could think of was Wan Jiang's boss... Yi Tian.
That was why Wei Yuan called. "That's right. Do you have any idea what happened?"
"If not, I'll send people to search the front lines!"
"Don't rush. Let me take a look first..." Yi Tian hung up, a strange look on his face.
Could Wan Jiang's disappearance have something to do with the ring his father had left him?
Having often read webnovels during college in his previous life, he immediately thought of a possibility.
He opened the employee panel.
Unless he checked the details, his employees' work results would only be tallied at midnight each night, but he could also check them manually.
Soon, he found Wan Jiang's status-
[Currently challenging a Demon-Sealing Tower trial. Unable to leave this space.]
"Demon-Sealing Tower?" Yi Tian was almost ninety percent certain this was some sort of cheat!
That made Yi Tian rather eager as well. After all, when his employees grew stronger, he shared in their gains.
At the same time, several kill notifications popped up:
[Employee-Wan Jiang has killed an Evil Spirit Tier Evil Demon-Ghost Child. Your shared experience +400!] [...]
When the tenth kill notification appeared, Wan Jiang's status finally changed:
[Employee Wan Jiang has cleared the first-floor trial of the Demon-Sealing Tower. You receive Profit Sharing: funds +5!] [Wan Jiang has received a trial reward: talent advancement. You share in his talent advancement: Dragon Gallantry → Peerless!] [Wan Jiang has received a trial reward: thousand-jun body tempering. Body tempering is currently in progress...]
"Body tempering?!"
After reading its effects, Yi Tian was stunned.
He had never imagined that the very first floor of the Demon-Sealing Tower would offer something that existed only in legends!
[Thousand-jun body tempering: tempers the flesh under gravity reaching a maximum of one thousand jun, strengthening the body at a deep level and laying the foundation for developing a transcendent physique.]
This meant there would be a chance to develop a transcendent physique in the future!
What was a transcendent physique?
It was a constitution that naturally possessed extraordinarily powerful attributes and special abilities, but such constitutions appeared almost exclusively among other races: the Dragon Race's dragon physique, the Spirit Race's elemental spirit physique, and so on...
Some were born with formidable bodies and immense strength, while others were born with mastery over a particular special ability.
The Yagu Dynasty's royal dragonkin were powerful precisely because of their innate dragon physique. Their starting attributes were dozens, even hundreds, of times those of the Human Race!
But a transcendent physique had never appeared among the Human Race. They had only heard of them in the legends of certain other races.
And now, a chance to develop a transcendent physique had actually appeared!
Although body tempering merely laid the foundation for a transcendent physique, it undoubtedly offered hope!
Before you continue