The Three-Step Tower.
"I'll take you this far. From now on, you'll come here on your own."
"All right. Thank you, Dean Xiao."
After they entered the depths, the two senior students escorting him had headed back the way they came. Lu Ling slowly climbed the stairs suspended in the void alone.
"This must be the place inside the Three-Step Tower where the elements are concentrated."
"These stairs really are dreamlike."
The great sage who built the Three-Step Tower in ancient times must have been a mighty Space Element mage.
The steps beneath Lu Ling's feet were like floating wooden planks. They had no supports, yet were exceptionally sturdy. Perhaps a wall constructed from spatial power lay beneath them.
Below the steps was a void-or perhaps a starry sky.
The interior of the Three-Step Tower was like a starry sky. This was a tower surrounded by stars.
In every direction, darkness was dotted with faint glimmers. Those were the various elements! Highly concentrated elements had gathered into stars!
After climbing only a few steps, Lu Ling felt his magical energy being consumed.
It really was a strange sensation. He clearly had not used any magic; he was simply walking.
So those two older students on guard duty really were a little jealous of me. Did they deliberately keep this newcomer in the dark? All they seemed to do on the way here was flatter me. They actually didn't say a single word about the Three-Step Tower!
Never mind. He already knew about these properties anyway. If he had the chance later, he could trample on them in passing. Gathering his thoughts, Lu Ling concentrated on calculating the rate at which his magical energy was being consumed.
At first, it was as easy as climbing ordinary stairs. But after Lu Ling had climbed about a hundred steps, the pressure on his mind suddenly increased, and his magical energy began draining much faster.
He reached the first floor of the Three-Step Tower. Instantly, he felt an elemental concentration twenty times higher than outside. Even without entering a meditative state, the nourishment of the Vermilion Bird Vessel alone allowed him to cultivate far faster than normal meditation outside.
More importantly...
He had only been consuming the magical energy of a single element so far!
At present, his Fire Element, Shadow Element, Space Element, and Ice Element were all at the Intermediate Level.
With his other five elements at Basic Level Three... perhaps he could challenge the fourth floor.
And so, racing against the clock, Lu Ling did not linger on the first floor.
Facing the increasingly heavy mental pressure, he instead quickened his pace.
Half an hour later.
The fourth floor! One hundred and sixty times the elemental concentration!
Combined with the Vermilion Bird Vessel's sixfold acceleration, the first day would be nearly equivalent to three years of arduous cultivation! Lu Ling immediately sat cross-legged, preparing to enter meditation.
"I can't waste time... Which one should I cultivate first?"
"The Summoning System!"
"Oh!!?!"
Long Zhanye's voice came from within his spiritual world, giving Lu Ling quite a fright.
"Could you please not talk while I'm thinking seriously!?"
"Oh. Hurry up and cultivate the Summoning System." Long Zhanye's voice was emotionless. There was no telling whether she had taken Lu Ling's words in.
"All right, all right."
The stronger the Summoning System, the faster a Summoned Beast would grow.
Back then, he had persuaded Long Zhanye to follow him precisely by promising that he could help increase her growth rate.
Lu Ling swiftly entered a state of cultivation. The Fire Burst mark between his brows appeared, flickering continuously like a crimson fire lotus burning.
A day later, his Summoning System successfully broke through its Stardust, transforming it into a Nebula. It advanced three levels in succession, directly becoming the magic system with the highest cultivation he currently possessed.
In fact, all of that was the result of just over half a day of cultivation. For the remaining portion of the day, he had been trying to break through to the Advanced Level.
However, all the magical energy he cultivated sank like stones into the sea. Perhaps he really would need a Star River Vein to break through to the Advanced Level.
Still, Lu Ling was in no hurry.
He had no urgent need to reach the Advanced Level, because he did not need to raise his cultivation realm to increase his number of awakenings at all. When the time came, he would naturally awaken new magic.
Over the next four days, his other five magic systems at Basic Level Three broke through their barriers one after another, reaching the Intermediate Level. They were even progressing toward Intermediate Level Two!
At this very moment.
The final day.
Light Element energy hundreds of times denser than outside swirled around Lu Ling, setting off his snow-white hair and making him look like a fairy beyond the mortal dust.
The Light Element was his last magic system yet to reach Intermediate Level Two. Lu Ling was giving it his all, striving to achieve his goal of bringing every element to Intermediate Level Two during this cultivation session!
The final two hours before the five-day limit.
Boom!
The golden Nebula abruptly swelled, and its forty-nine stars underwent another transformation along with it!
"I did it!"
Every element at Intermediate Level Two!
I really do have the aptitude of a heavenly immortal. Under the effects of the Three-Step Tower, his magic systems had achieved almost twenty breakthroughs in total.
Within his mental world, nine great Nebulas divided his mental cosmos into nine regions.
Just as Lu Ling was admiring his handiwork, his mental cosmos suddenly shook, like a high-rise deep within an earthquake zone, teetering on the brink of collapse.
"What's happening?!"
A bad premonition rose in Lu Ling's heart. His master's shackles had long since been removed, and he was now inside the Three-Step Tower, in the center of Magic City.
If things really spiraled out of control...
A cry suddenly rang throughout his mental cosmos. Infinitely far away, streaks of flowing light slowly traced out an array depicting a mystic bird with crimson, fiery feathers.
The Vermilion Bird!
The Vermilion Bird formed from flowing light cried out again, then beat its wings and dove toward the Fire Element Nebula among the nine great regions!
Before he could think about where the Vermilion Bird had come from, a bone-piercing chill erupted from the other end of his mental cosmos.
Cold, murderous, soul-devouring...
Lu Ling could not have been more familiar with this aura.
It was the Ice Crystal Bow!
Sure enough, a similar energy traced out an array depicting the Ice Bow, drawn to its fullest. An arrow shot forth, landing in the trembling Ice Element Nebula.
There was yet another presence. This aura was exceptionally gentle and warm. Simply sharing the same space with her made his mind feel incomparably at ease.
When a figure radiating sacred majesty appeared, Lu Ling had already guessed.
The Parthenon Divine Soul!
Athena's soul was not as murderous as the Vermilion Bird and the Ice Bow. She merely drifted slowly toward the area between the Blessing Element and the Psychic Element.
The upheaval finally stopped. By now, his mental world was as different from before as heaven was from earth.
The other six elements had also undergone certain changes. For instance, a trace of red as dense as ink had appeared within the Shadow Element, while the Light Element shone a little brighter... What they all had in common was that they had grown stronger!
The only difference was that things he had encountered before had manifested within the Ice Element, Fire Element, and White Magic.
"Am I... a shelter?" Lu Ling gave a wry smile. After carefully sensing them, he did not find any magic system outside his control.
"This feels like I've... equipped a Soul Seed, along with the Soul Seed's accompanying..."
"Li Fire Domain."
In the real world, the Vermilion Bird Fire Burst mark flickered. The white-haired youth abruptly opened his eyes, which blazed with crimson-gold firelight.
A ring of flame burst outward with Lu Ling at its center, and the fire elements within the Three-Step Tower gradually became clear to his eyes.