Martial Cultivator

Chen Chao continued climbing the tower.

After the 2000th floor, the difficulty of each level exceeded Chen Chao’s expectations.

It was not just the physical torment, there were mental trials as well.

At one point, a sheer cliff appeared before his eyes, with a person hanging by a thread before it. Cracks began to spread across the cliff, and that person was about to fall into a bottomless abyss. Not far away, there was another cliff, with several people hanging there. That cliff too began to collapse.

It seemed to be a test of which side Chen Chao would choose to save.

The first time, Chen Chao chose the person in front of him. After pulling the person up, he suddenly found himself back at the same starting point. This time, he thought for a moment, but still chose to save the person in front of him.

And then it happened again.

Chen Chao’s choice remained unchanged, even on the third attempt.

After the third time, the illusion shattered.

He was already drenched in sweat.

In truth, he vaguely understood, this kind of choice had no right or wrong. No matter whom he saved, others were bound to criticize him. Since that was the case, he might as well stay true to his heart, no need to think too much.

After that, each floor presented a different trial, a different scene, but one thing remained the same - the sound of Great Dao rang endlessly, echoing throughout, never ceasing.

Bathed in the sound of Great Dao, Chen Chao felt as if his entire body grew light, as if he were floating among the clouds.

Just like that, he climbed another hundred-plus floors.

He had already reached over 2300 floors in the Three Thousand Storeys. Going higher became increasingly arduous.

Strangely, Chen Chao did not feel any pressure on his body. Instead, his mind was deeply fatigued. Every step forward felt nearly impossible.

He said nothing, letting white mist curl around his body. The mist slowly seeped from his pores, and in a moment, it enveloped him completely.

In that moment, he seemed to become a pure white cloud.

Then he let go of his weariness just a little, and continued forward.

It was several hundred more floors.

At last, upon reaching the 2900th floor, Chen Chao did not choose to continue climbing. Instead, he pushed open a window with great effort and looked out at the sea of white clouds beyond.

He recalled the scene he had seen within the Moon’s Reflection in Water.

That vision had indeed included that little girl.

If what was shown in the Moon’s Reflection in Water was his past life, then in that past life, he and that girl had been deeply entangled.

He had already made up his mind, after he left the Myriad Heaven Palace, he would bring that little girl back to the Divine Capital.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Chao collected himself, closed the window, and continued climbing.

After that, the climb unexpectedly became much smoother. Chen Chao climbed another 99 floors in one go, finally standing still and looking up at the wooden staircase.

Above was the final floor.

That familiar feeling was growing stronger and stronger. He was incomparably certain that on that top floor, there was something he needed.

But that last floor, though seemingly calm, was not truly calm.

Chen Chao took a deep breath and stepped onto it.

A thunderous sound.

Darkness fell before Chen Chao’s eyes. When he opened them again, the scene before him had reverted to the first floor.

In other words, in that instant, he had fallen from the 2999th floor all the way down?

Chen Chao looked at the surrounding Myriad Heaven Palace cultivators and remained silent for a long time, then finally decided to climb again.

So he walked for a long time once more and reached this place again.

Chen Chao took a step forward.

The scene changed and then reverted to the first floor once more.

Chen Chao glanced at the stairs, feeling utterly exhausted.

But he still chose to climb again, only for the result to remain unchanged.

The third time, he returned once more to the beginning.

Chen Chao said nothing. He did not give up and walk away from the Three Thousand Storeys, but instead slowly drew the Cloud Mud at his waist.

“Lord Warden Commander Chen, what are you doing?!”

Exclamations of shock rang out.

The Myriad Heaven Palace cultivators within the Three Thousand Floors all opened their mouths to speak, faces filled with fear.

But Chen Chao remained unmoved. He merely drew his saber, gathered his qi onto the blade, and then swung down heavily. The surging saber qi instantly tore apart row after row of bookshelves before him. Countless daoist texts turned into scraps of paper and filled the air, as if a heavy snowfall had suddenly descended.

Chen Chao stood in the midst of it all, relentless as he delivered several more strikes.

A terrifying aura swept continuously through the Myriad Heaven Palace’s Three Thousand Storeys.

Countless cultivators perished before his eyes. Some were cleaved by his saber qi, some were split clean in half, but no matter what, they were all dead.

Chen Chao was expressionless.

After countless saber strikes.

The qi within his body was completely spent, and all before him was in utter ruin.

Countless bookshelves had collapsed, countless texts flew through the air, as if this Three Thousand Storeys of the Myriad Heaven Palace had been thoroughly destroyed by this young martial artist.

Chen Chao returned his saber to its sheath, then reached out both hands and pulled to either side before him.

It was as if he had lifted a curtain.

An aged voice sounded out, “Why is your killing intent so heavy?”

The scene before his eyes changed again.

Chen Chao finally arrived at the top of the Three Thousand Storeys.

There were no bookshelves here. On this vast floor, there was only a thin old daoist seated cross-legged at the very center. His voluminous daoist robe pooled onto the ground, appearing quite excessive. He looked at Chen Chao, his murky eyes full of doubt. “If your judgment was mistaken, wouldn’t it have been a wrongful killing?”

Chen Chao shook his head. “Since I dared to draw my saber, I naturally wouldn’t be wrong.”

The old daoist asked, “Why?”

Chen Chao said, “Since I’ve reached the door, then opening it means going past it. How could there be any logic of returning to the entrance again?”

The old daoist smiled. The wrinkles on his face all trembled. “Indeed. Such a simple truth, yet no one seems to understand it.”

Chen Chao looked at the old daoist and did not speak.

The old daoist said, “Before you, a total of three others came to the doorstep. All of them were extraordinary figures of the current era, yet none could figure out how to enter. I had thought I’d eventually wait until a daoist descendant arrived. But to think it turned out to be a martial artist. What a strange thing.”

Chen Chao said, “This junior hadn’t thought I would make it this far either.”

The old daoist looked at him and smiled. “To have reached this place, you’re fated to be here. It doesn’t matter who you are anymore.”

He looked at Chen Chao again, then suddenly extended his palm. A pristine jade lotus bloomed in the center of his palm, delicate and exquisite, carrying a sense of profoundness.

Though the aura it gave off was not oppressive, it was clearly far from ordinary.

Chen Chao was shocked. “Senior, you’ve already stepped above Nepenthe?!”

The old daoist did not look at him. He simply stared at the jade lotus in his palm and murmured, “That realm? I did catch a glimpse of it.”

As he finished speaking, his fingertip suddenly cracked open, and a drop of blood fell onto the snow-white lotus.

The lotus turned entirely blood-red.

Then it transformed into a blood-colored jade talisman, floating in the center of his palm.

“A gift for you. Consider it the Dao-fruit of my lifetime.”

The old daoist muttered, then blew gently at the talisman. It rapidly shrank, then shot forward and slammed into Chen Chao’s forehead.

Chen Chao had no time to dodge. He could only watch as the jade talisman collided with his glabella.

Though Chen Chao’s glabella split open, no blood flowed. Rather, it was instantly drawn into the talisman as it seeped into his body.

Chen Chao looked at the old daoist, about to speak, when he sensed the old man’s aura rapidly dissipating. In mere moments, the daoist’s flesh shriveled away, and soon, only a skeleton remained within the oversized daoist robe.

Turns out that the old daoist had long already died.

This was just a remnant thought.

It seemed this lingering will was originally meant to wait for a daoist descendant to deliver this item. But by sheer coincidence, it was Chen Chao who ended up here.

And so, by sheer coincidence, he obtained the jade talisman.

Chen Chao could not help but smile bitterly. This so-called lifetime Dao-fruit of the daoist, if it had been passed on to a daoist disciple, it would surely have been of much greater use. Giving it to a martial artist like him, what sense did that make?

Chen Chao could not understand it, but there was no point thinking about it now.

He introspected within his body he saw the jade talisman quietly suspended in an acupoint, unmoving.

Only a faint trace of Dao rhythm flowed through his body, gradually blending with the white mist. Strangely enough, the two did not reject each other.

For the moment, Chen Chao could not tell what benefits there might be, but a legacy from such a great daoist sage certainly would not be a bad thing.

He took a few steps and arrived before the daoist’s remains.

From within the folds of the robe, he found a daoist scroll, it was none other than the Jade Court Scripture that Zhu Xia’s junior martial uncle had asked him to find.

Chen Chao put the scroll away, then turned to examine the daoist’s skeleton.

There was no telling how many years the old daoist had been dead, there was no way of knowing the answer from the bones. But it was clear that before death, he had at least set half a foot into that realm above Nepenthe. Otherwise, he would not have said those words.

The closer Chen Chao got to the old daoist’s remains, the more he could feel that aura.

“My apologies.”

Chen Chao apologized softly, then moved the body aside. Beneath the worn and tattered meditation cushion, he lifted it to reveal a single sheet of paper.

As expected!

Chen Chao narrowed his eyes and picked it up. The aura it carried was identical to the one from the sheet he already had in his possession - they shared the same origin!

Chen Chao took out the sheet he had tucked in his robes and compared the two. The handwriting was clearly from the same hand.

In that case, the relic from the Fuyun Sect was not just a single sheet of paper. Now that he had found two pages, perhaps there was a third, and a fourth...

Perhaps only once he had gathered all the pages would he obtain the full story.

Perhaps it concerned the cause of the Fuyun Sect’s destruction, or maybe something else entirely.

Chen Chao thought for a moment, then slowly extended his aura onto the second page. Since the first page had reacted with qi to resist probing and disturbance, what about this second one?

Unfortunately, the result was not what Chen Chao had anticipated.

That page showed no reaction at all.

So Chen Chao tried looking at the content on the page.

But it was the same, his eyes throbbed with pain.

He could not see clearly.

Other than that, nothing else happened.

Still, he put the sheet of paper away.

Then he returned the old daoist’s remains to the meditation cushion and offered a respectful bow.

After that, Chen Chao turned and made his way downstairs.

He soon reached the level where he had previously encountered Zhu Xia’s junior martial uncle. The daoist was still seated in meditation. Upon seeing Chen Chao, the daoist smiled and said, “I presume you made it to the top floor.”

Chen Chao nodded and took out the Jade Court Scripture from his robes.

The daoist took it, glanced at it, and sighed. “It seems that after three hundred years, this item can finally see the light of day again.”

Chen Chao opened his mouth.

The daoist shook his head with a smile. “If the opportunity is yours, then it is yours. So what if you obtained it within the Myriad Heaven Palace?”

Chen Chao said, “It still belongs to the mountain.”

“All things under heaven are born of the earth and sky. If you can take it, then take it. Are we going to dictate ownership?”

The daoist shook his head. “That logic doesn’t hold.”

So Chen Chao said nothing more.

The daoist opened the Jade Court Scripture and smiled. “Let me explain a passage to you. I may not explain it well.”

Chen Chao nodded and sat down cross-legged.

The daoist began to speak slowly, explaining the contents of the Jade Court Scripture.

At the same time, the jade talisman within Chen Chao’s body began to hum.

The daoist looked at Chen Chao in surprise, somewhat shocked and confused “How is this possible?!”