Chapter 1601 - Consecutive Breakthrough

Liu Wuxie kept his pace steady and believable. When he unlocked the second light barrier, another box materialized, and a strange fruit lay inside. The fruit looked ugly in shape, yet the instant he saw it, his eyes brightened.

"The Scarlet-Crowned Ugly King Fruit," Liu Wuxie murmured.

"The Immortal Slaughter Palace has really gone all-out. With rewards like these, even someone at the Origin Conversion Realm would fight for them."

To raise their seedlings as fast as possible, they had cracked open the treasury and started pouring out resources in bulk.

"Not bad. The more treasure the Immortal Slaughter Palace takes out, the more I benefit." Liu Wuxie smirked, swallowing the fruit.

He hadn't infiltrated the Immortal Slaughter Palace solely to split it apart from within; he also intended to push his cultivation to the Heaven Gaze Realm with their treasures. Only after he reached the Heaven Gaze Realm would he have a real chance to kill cultivators at the Quasi-Immortal Realm.

Liu Wuxie's cultivation continued to climb, and with the Scarlet-Crowned Ugly King Fruit's support, he smoothly completed his "breakthrough" to the sixth-level Transcendent Realm.

The first-place reward would obviously overshadow the second-place reward by a wide margin.

After his "breakthrough," Liu Wuxie launched forward and reached the third light barrier in a few leaps. Another question waited for him, but it posed no challenge. The moment he solved it and stepped onto the fourth floor, another box dropped from the sky.

"The True Azure Phoenix Pill!" Liu Wuxie exclaimed with a wide grin when he saw the pill inside. He swallowed it without hesitation and completed his "breakthrough" to the seventh-level Transcendent Realm.

In the main hall, the elders fell into stunned silence. When placing these treasures inside the pagoda, they had never anticipated a single person would monopolize them.

Each floor's question differed, and very few people could answer correctly. A heartbeat of hesitation was enough for someone else to move ahead. Yet Liu Wuxie had already taken three treasures.

An elder rose to his feet. "Should we change the rules a little? If all the treasures end up in Meng An's hands, it won't be advantageous for the other disciples."

Niu Yichang snorted. "Why should we change the rules? The treasures naturally go to those who are capable. If the others can't obtain the treasures, it'll only mean that they're undeserving."

“Meng Hong likely spent the last three days drilling his nephew relentlessly. These questions may be difficult for miscellaneous disciples, but for Void Realm cultivators, they’re nothing.”

Their investigation had already shown that Meng Hong had sent many books to his nephew over the past three days and even guided him for an entire day.

After Liu Wuxie completed his "breakthrough," he kept climbing, and the fourth light barrier appeared in front of him. Another question waited there, but this time Liu Wuxie deliberately slowed his pace, taking longer to answer to avoid raising suspicion.

Once he cleared the fourth barrier, another box appeared.

"A sword comparable to the Origin Conversion Realm!" Liu Wuxie said as he found a longsword instead of a rare treasure.

He stored the longsword and pressed onward. Once he activated Ghost Pupil, the restrictions in the Myriad Profound Pagoda couldn't block his sight.

The other disciples fell farther and farther behind, and only the three youths who had fought him earlier managed to stay within one floor of him.

On the fifth floor, Liu Wuxie obtained a pill that let him reach the eighth-level Transcendent Realm. He gained a cultivation manual on the sixth level, then picked up a thousand-year fruit on the seventh floor that allowed him to reach the ninth-level Transcendent Realm smoothly.

The elders in the hall went numb as they watched Liu Wuxie rise from the fourth-level Transcendent Realm to the ninth-level Transcendent Realm. Only two floors remained now, and if he reached the peak, he could smoothly complete his "breakthrough" to the Origin Conversion Realm.

"His foundation is firm. If it had been anyone else, making so many breakthroughs in a row would cause instability," Sima An concluded, visibly shaken.

Liu Wuxie had pulled off several consecutive "breakthroughs" without showing any sign of collapse, and that alone felt alarming.

"If nobody had sidelined Meng Hong, his nephew wouldn't have rotted away as a miscellaneous disciple."

Many elders sighed, as Meng Hong's failed mission had dragged his nephew down with him.

When Liu Wuxie stepped onto the eighth floor, a crushing suppression slammed down from above and made him stagger, nearly collapsing to the ground.

What terrifying soul energy!

Liu Wuxie thought. Ordinary Transcendent Realm cultivators couldn't withstand this suppression.

There was a box in the central region, and soul energy seeped from it. When he opened it, a black stone lay inside.

"This is a Soul Stone," Liu Wuxie murmured. The grade of this Soul Stone far surpassed the Grand Unity Sect's and the Heavenly Dragon Sect's Wisdom Stone.

If he refined this Soul Stone, it would greatly strengthen his primordial spirit. He immediately absorbed it without hesitation, and his soul energy surged upward as it hardened and expanded, even though his cultivation barely changed.

As Liu Wuxie's soul sea began to roar, the expressions of the Heaven Gaze Realm elders in the main hall shifted sharply.

"What terrifying fluctuation of soul energy! Meng An's soul sea is abnormal, and he can actually accommodate a Soul Stone this large?!" Gong Yangbo's eyes gleamed with joy, and a fierce urge rose in him to drag Liu Wuxie out at once and take him as a disciple.

If they properly nurtured a prodigy like this, he could become a pillar of the sect when he matured. The only remaining question was his state of mind.

"Meng Hong greets all elders."

Because Meng An's performance had grown too heaven-defying, Sima An had summoned Meng Hong over. He wanted to hear more about Meng An directly from his uncle.

Sima An invited Meng Hong. "Elder Meng Hong, there's no need for such formalities. Come, have a seat."

Meng Hong was only at the Void Realm, which placed him in the intermediate ranks of the sect. The elders present, however, all belonged to the upper echelons.

"Elders, may I know why you have called me over?" Meng Hong asked nervously. Over the past two years, he had lived cautiously, terrified of making another mistake.

"Is Meng An your nephew?" Sima An asked as he shut down the projection.

"Yes," Meng Hong replied without hesitation.

"How well do you understand Meng An?" The elders wanted finer details on Meng An.

After the recent catastrophic blow, everyone in the Immortal Slaughter Palace had become wary and weighed every decision again and again.

"This child lost his parents at a young age, and I raised him myself. His personality is a little strange, as he doesn't like cultivating. If I haven't been pushing him, he might not even agree to take part in the assessment," Meng Hong explained.

In truth, the sect had already dug up Meng An's entire background even without Meng Hong's help. As Meng Hong said, Meng An had a twisted temperament. He relied on his uncle's identity as an inner sect elder to bully others on Miscellaneous Peak, and his reputation there was terrible. Even with talent, someone like that would hit a ceiling.

Everything Meng Hong said followed the plan Liu Wuxie had prepared in advance.

"Elder Meng Hong, it has been tough on you in the past two years. Starting tomorrow, someone else will manage Miscellaneous Peak, and you will regain your former post in the inner sect," Sima An said, restoring Meng Hong's status.

"Thank you, elders!" Meng Hong sprang to his feet at once, excitement blazing across his face.

"That's all. You may leave now," Sima An said, waving him away.

Meng Hong bowed deeply to every elder present, then left the main hall.

"It matches our investigation, and Meng An has a decent talent. Meng Hong has taught him a lot since he was young, but he doesn't like cultivating his personality. What changed him all of a sudden to train with such desperation?" Sima An asked with a frown.

"My investigation shows that Meng An liked an outer disciple, but his low cultivation earned him rejection again and again. A month ago, that disciple advanced to the inner sect. He harassed her multiple times, but that disciple tolerated him because he was Meng Hong's nephew. But when another inner disciple found out, that inner disciple gave him a beating and nearly killed him. That's probably what sparked the desire in him to cultivate," Fan Gaojie explained.

They had investigated everything about Meng An in just two hours, down to trivial details like how many times he visited the toilet each day.

The Immortal Slaughter Palace had raised its alert level to the extreme, fearing Liu Wuxie might slip in.

Liu Wuxie understood that perfectly. After refining the Soul Stone, his soul energy had doubled. Reaching the Origin Conversion Realm now lay within his grasp. Still, he quietly summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, absorbed a portion of the Soul Stone's energy, and hid it in the depths of his soul sea.

Once he finished, he headed straight for the final light barrier.

"All our preparation went to a single person," Sima An said with a bitter smile.

They had prepared so many treasures, yet the best ones had all fallen into Liu Wuxie's hands. He took fifteen minutes to answer the final question, and the moment he cleared the ninth floor, a large box dropped from above, containing an exquisite bead.

"This is..." Liu Wuxie said as he lifted the bead and examined it closely, recognition stirring.

It's the Spirit Converging Bead! They even brought out a treasure like this?!

Liu Wuxie thought, watching the bead spin lightly while massive energy churned inside it.

Even someone at the Primal Origin Realm would benefit greatly from consuming it, yet they had offered it as a reward to a miscellaneous disciple.

"This is a treasure! With the Spirit Converging Bead, I'll be able to make a breakthrough to the Origin Conversion Realm!" Liu Wuxie spoke aloud, deliberately letting the elders in the main hall hear him.

He swallowed the bead in a single gulp, then secretly summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron and siphoned off part of the energy to nourish the desolate world.

Even if he couldn't immediately break through to the ninth-level Earth Immortal Realm, he could store the power for later. Since the Immortal Slaughter Palace wanted to be generous, he naturally had to perform well and squeeze every last treasure out of them.

He could picture the rage of the Immortal Slaughter Palace’s leadership once they realized their own treasures had strengthened Liu Wuxie, who would then use that power to butcher them.

Liu Wuxie's aura began to climb, and he followed the familiar path, quickly grasping the method to break into the Origin Conversion Realm. If anyone questioned him later, he could push the explanation onto Meng Hong and claim that Meng Hong had guided him.

As long as he didn't release his true essence or immortal energy, the plan remained airtight, and no one could identify him.

With a loud rumble, he shattered the gateway to the Origin Conversion Realm by force, and Liu Wuxie smoothly completed his “breakthrough” into the first-level Origin Conversion Realm.

At the same time, three figures stepped onto the ninth floor. They had also obtained a few treasures along the way, but nothing compared to the Spirit Converging Bead.

The moment the three disciples entered the ninth floor and spotted Liu Wuxie, their faces turned cold as murderous intent surged.

"It's that brat! Kill him!"