At the very top floor of one of the towering black towers of the Black Dragon Pavilion, an elderly man with long white hair and a beard sat casually at a tea table. While leisurely sipping tea, he read a freshly received piece of intelligence.
"The one from the Martial Arena was actually assassinated by an enemy?" the old man shook his head quietly. "That's way too careless. With his strength, if he had spent a few more years refining himself, he probably could have cleared the first floor of the Dragon-Seeking Tower. What a pity, what a pity!"
The Black Dragon Pavilion gathered the finest talents from across the land but did not interfere in their growth.
In other words, no matter what happened to these talents— even if they knew one was about to be secretly killed— the Pavilion would not intervene.
The "one from the Martial Arena" the old man mentioned was considered a genius. He had even cleared the tenth floor of the True Martial Tower while still at the True Martial Realm. The Black Dragon Pavilion had been monitoring his progress closely. Unfortunately, before this talent's power had fully matured, he was assassinated.
Thump, thump, thump!
Hurried footsteps sounded, and a black-clad steward appeared before the old man.
"Supervisor, the person currently challenging the True Martial Tower has already passed the eighth floor," the steward reported.
"What?" The old man frowned.
The eighth floor wasn't worth notifying him about. The steward had followed him for years and should know his temper.
"Supervisor, the overseer stationed at the True Martial Tower says there's a strong possibility this person will clear the twelfth floor!" the steward continued.
"What did you say?" The old man was shocked.
Clearing the tenth floor of the True Martial Tower already marked someone as a first-class genius, qualifying them for the Pavilion's Tier-Yellow Token.
The twelfth floor?
That kind of skill meant their talent was among the absolute top in the Maple Empire. There were barely a handful of such geniuses in an entire province, and none in their own Bright Moon County had ever passed the twelfth floor.
And this information came from the overseer stationed inside the True Martial Tower.
Though the overseer's status and strength were slightly below his, the old man respected his keen insight. If he said someone had a strong chance of clearing the twelfth floor, then it was likely true.
"Go check it out." The old man immediately rose and departed.
Below the True Martial Tower tower, a crowd of True Martial Realm cultivators still gathered.
"That person just passed the eighth floor too?"
Wan'er stood among the crowd, looking up at the eight glowing tower lights. Each floor of the True Martial Tower had a tower light; when the light was lit, it meant the floor was cleared.
"But he clearly took longer than I did on the eighth floor. It looks like that was his limit. As for the ninth floor, he probably doesn't stand a chance," Wan'er thought quietly.
At that moment... whoosh!
A figure suddenly streaked from the top of another tower and then hovered in midair, looking down on the entire True Martial Tower from above.
"Walking on air— a Void Breaking Realm expert!"
"That's Sun, the Supervisor of the Black Dragon Pavilion."
"What's happening inside the True Martial Tower to draw the attention of Sun?"
The crowd below immediately stirred in commotion.
"What's going on?" Wan'er frowned deeply.
In the Maple Empire, the Supervisor of the Black Dragon Pavilion in a single county held a status comparable to that of a county magistrate. Within Bright Moon County, he was definitely one of the top-tier big shots.
Such a high-ranking figure rarely made public appearances. Even if someone managed to clear the tenth floor of the True Martial Tower, it wasn't guaranteed that this Lord Sun would personally come to meet them.
But now...
"Lord Sun is obviously here because of the True Martial Tower. Could it be because of the person currently challenging it? No way—that person hasn't even cleared the ninth floor yet," Wan'er thought, her expression puzzled.
Meanwhile, hovering in midair, Sun, his white hair flowing, stood with his hands behind his back, overlooking the tower below. Everything inside the tower was fully within his sight.
Inside the ninth floor of the True Martial Tower, a young man dressed in black and wearing a bamboo hat was battling his opponents—ten battle puppets wielding silver long spears.
The opponents in the True Martial Tower's challenge were these battle puppets, ten on each floor. As the floors climbed higher, their spear techniques became increasingly sophisticated, and their coordination improved.
As for their strength, starting from the first floor, the power of these battle puppets always matched that of the challenger.
By the ninth floor, their spear techniques had become exceptional. Under the combined assault of ten battle puppets, many experts at Sea Transformation Realm found it extremely difficult to break through by skill alone.
Yet now, facing the joint attack of ten battle puppets, Zihua's movements were like a phantom, appearing in all corners of the battlefield.
His seemingly casual sword strikes were extremely precise and sharp—accurate to the point of perfection!
He effortlessly countered the battle puppets' deadly spear techniques.
"Too... too easy!" Sun's eyes widened, his heart full of shock.
Now he understood why the overseer of the True Martial Tower was so sure Zihua had a strong chance to clear the twelfth floor.
It was because Zihua's footwork and swordsmanship combined too perfectly, with almost no flaws.
Those ten battle puppets, already capable of impressive spear techniques, were like babies wielding little sticks in Zihua's hands.
"He is basically toying with these puppets," Sun thought.
It truly was toying. In fact, starting from the sixth floor, Zihua had already begun "playing" with these battle puppets. He never really used serious sword techniques; he just casually swung his sword and still easily defeated the puppets.
Before long, he passed the ninth floor, then the tenth and eleventh.
Although the spear techniques of the battle puppets improved significantly on these floors—especially on the eleventh, where each puppet's skill rivaled that of experts at the peak of Sea Transformation Realm—the combined assault of ten puppets was even more terrifying. Yet Zihua still handled it with ease, passing the eleventh floor effortlessly.
"Lifting heavy things as if they were light—has his understanding of swordsmanship really reached this level?" Sun marveled repeatedly.
On the twelfth floor of the True Martial Tower, the battle puppets' strength rose again. Zihua was no longer as casual and relaxed as before; he finally began to display his swordsmanship.
Once he unleashed his sword techniques, he swept through the ten puppets like a destructive force, clearing the twelfth floor.
On the thirteenth floor, each battle puppet's spear skill surpassed 99% of the experts at the Sea Transformation Realm, reaching the peak of that realm. The ten puppets attacked simultaneously, their spear techniques astonishingly fast, even completely restricting Zihua's movement, leaving no chance to escape.
It was at this moment that Zihua finally went all out.
He swung the long sword in his hand, and his whole body seemed to merge with the blade. Waves of sword shadows swept across like towering, heavy mountains, blocking the incoming spears.
"The Myriad Sword Technique!" Sun, watching intently, immediately raised his eyebrows. "Among the many sword techniques of the Bai family, the Myriad Sword Technique is known as the top defensive style. Could he be a member of the Bai family?"
Just as Sun entertained the thought, he quickly dismissed it the next moment.
"No, that can't be!"
He fixed his gaze on Zihua as he battled the battle puppets. The sword technique Zihua had just used did indeed resemble the Bai family's Myriad Sword Technique perfectly. The sword moves, once unleashed, looked like an immovable, towering mountain—no matter how fierce the surrounding attacks, it stood firm and unyielding.
It was a sword technique focused on defense.
But now, as Zihua executed his swordplay, that "mountain" was clearly no mountain at all; it was more like a massive grinding wheel, ruthlessly rolling right over those battle puppets.
He cleared the thirteenth floor.
On the fourteenth floor of the True Martial Tower, Zihua completely erupted.
His swordsmanship no longer clung to fixed forms or moves. Instead, it became bizarre and unpredictable—sometimes a lightning-fast strike like thunder, sometimes a sly, assassin-like fatal stab, and sometimes a terrifyingly swift slash that made the sword's movement impossible to track.
The ten battle puppets unleashed their spear techniques in a frantic attempt to surround and kill him, but even they couldn't withstand Zihua's terrifying sword skills.
After a fierce battle, he cleared the fourteenth floor!
"Could it be that he has already taken that next step?" Sun's shock was beyond words. He looked at Zihua as if staring at a monster.
"The battle puppets on the fourteenth floor have spear skills comparable to ordinary masters at the Void Breaking Realm. Ten of them working together is enough to block many experts at the Void Breaking Realm relying purely on skill. And yet this guy—he's only at the True Martial Eighth Realm and has cleared the fourteenth floor!!"
"True Martial Eighth Realm, surpassing ordinary masters at the Void Breaking Realm in skill? Which old freak could have trained such a terrifying prodigy?"
"He still has to clear the fifteenth floor, the final floor of the True Martial Tower. Could it be..." Sun watched eagerly.