"Su Yu!"

"How many levels has he climbed?"

"I think he's on the 20th level now. There is no rush. People like them can climb quickly, but they will also stop for a long time every 10 levels. If you have something to do, don't hesitate to deal with it first."

While a festival was happening outside.

20th level.

Su Yu had indeed encountered a first-stage Skysoar beast. This was a trial for character masters. To clear the level, he had to kill the beast. Instead of killing the beast, he sank into thought.

He had been killing beasts non-stop after the 10th level. The pagoda had probably defined him as a character master good at combat. But that wasn't the main point here. The main point was the essence of these illusions.

The beast was bearing its fangs and roaring at him, but Su Yu appeared completely indifferent. He reached out and pressed its head onto the ground. The beast struggled, but Su Yu was able to easily suppress the beast with his physical strength.

After grabbing the beast's head, he started studying the beast. This was a gorgeous tiger. More importantly, how was this fellow formed? These beasts would dissipate each time they were destroyed. They clearly weren't real. They were either pure illusions or something constructed with some unique materials.

"It's formed of source qi and willpower. That was why some source qi and willpower would be released each time I killed one. That is a form of reward."

Su Yu was able to reach a quick conclusion.

"No, some pure illusions must be mixed inside as well. These beasts have been using their racial abilities. Someone has branded these beasts with memory imprints. This is similar to the process of memory extraction. After I kill the beast, the memory imprint will leave and be reused for the next challenger."

Su Yu's eyes flickered. What would happen if he grabbed the memory imprint after killing the beast? Would a new beast appear before him?

Killing the beast would mean that he had successfully cleared the level.

After the clearance, the 20th level would reward him with a decent amount of willpower. What if he reformed the beast after absorbing the willpower? Could he redo the level?

Not everyone was capable of extracting memory imprints. But Su Yu was capable of that. Of course, he was not as well-practiced at doing this. Bai Feng was much better at it. But with the increase of his strength and willpower, the entire process would also pose less challenge to him.

With the beast under his control, he continued studying the beast. There must be some sort of way the pagoda was determining whether one had cleared the level or not. What was that? How did it decide if one had failed?

At this moment, Su Yu recalled the words of the old man at the entrance. The old man had said that he shouldn't clear the levels for the sake of clearing them. These levels should instead be cleared for the benefits they could provide.

Taking advantage of his complete domination over the beast, Su Yu studied it inch by inch. Before long, he discovered something unusual. He sank into thought while rubbing his chin. Interesting.

He needed to give this a try. There was no rush anyway.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

He punched the beast's head apart. Instantly, a streak of light shot out. Su Yu was already waiting. His willpower erupted as the hammer appeared. With a rumble, the hammer struck the streak of light.

Next, a tiny crystal fragment dropped onto the ground. With the death of the beast, its willpower and source qi leaked, filling the entire room with source qi and willpower. Su Yu hurriedly absorbed the source qi and willpower.

At the same time, strands of willpower started coming out as well. Ignoring the strands of willpower, Su Yu picked up the crystal fragment and studied it. A short while later, he took out a few drops of source qi liquid. As he immersed the fragment within the liquid, a gorgeous tiger slowly took form. But it seemed to lack some life to it. It was lacking willpower.

Su Yu's eyes flickered as he waved his hand and compressed the willpower in the air before sending it into the fragment. Immediately after, the tiger roared. The same ferocious tiger had reappeared.

Su Yu's eyes lit up. Sure enough, these crystals were basically the memory imprints. With this imprint, he could reconstruct the beasts repeatedly as long as he had enough source qi and willpower. And the crystal was tough enough that not even Su Yu could break it.

"I don't even need to extract it. I only need to catch it when it attempts to flee...I can use the source qi it leaves after death and use a part of the rewarded willpower to reconstruct it."

The amount of willpower required for the reconstruction was basically the equivalent of what he would receive from the pagoda in a five-minute interval. Meanwhile, he could stay here for two hours and receive twenty intervals of willpower reward.

"Will the pagoda kick me out after two hours? Or perhaps I will be able to stay for two more hours after killing another beast?"

While Su Yu was contemplating, another tiger appeared. So if he kept doing this, would the pagoda consider the level cleared? After waiting for five minutes without killing the tiger, no new willpower strands were released.

Su Yu smiled.

Nope.

As long as the tiger remained, the pagoda would not consider the level cleared.

In that case, when the time was almost up, he could reconstruct the tiger and kill it to reset the level? Was this a bug? Or was this intentionally left behind for those capable of discovering it?

Su Yu was more inclined to believe that it was the second case. Opportunities were always meant for those with enough preparation. The Hundred Dao Pagoda was truly an interesting place. What one could obtain from it would depend on one's ability, luck, and wisdom.

Evidently, Su Yu was quite good in terms of wisdom. And he naturally had enough strength as well. Not even regular Skysoars would be able to strike that fragment down. Yet Su Yu was capable of doing so.

Once again, he repeated the process. Source qi and willpower leaked out of the tiger. This time, he did not absorb the source qi. He only absorbed the willpower. After waiting for five minutes, a strand of willpower appeared. He absorbed it.

After another five minutes, the third strand appeared. He absorbed it as well.

Just like that, Su Yu waited leisurely for the strands to appear. When the time limit was almost up, Su Yu sealed a strand of willpower, compressed it, and stuffed it into the fragment. Next, the tiger reappeared.

Right after that, Su Yu slapped the tiger. The tiger was dead immediately after it reappeared. Source qi and willpower leaked out from the fading tiger.

Su Yu grinned. Sure enough, his theory was right. Did this not mean that he could stay here forever?

At the same time.

Outside, Su Yu's name had appeared on the 20th level. But it then vanished before reappearing after a while.

Noticing that, someone cursed, "Holy shit! Are they giving preferential treatment to all geniuses? This isn't the first time this is happening. A few other fellows have the habit of resetting the level as well. They must be cheating!"

Su Yu wasn't the first person to do this.

Elder Yun was leisurely sipping on tea as he said, "Why are you shouting? He's doing that because he's capable. Do you think everyone can reset levels? Don't worry. He won't be able to stay there for long. There are appropriate mechanisms to deal with a situation like this. That kid won't last more than three rounds..."

The students started murmuring among themselves. One of them asked, "Teacher, you did the same before. Can you tell us the secret?"

Director Hou's son, Hou Liang, was also amid the crowd. Hearing the question, he smiled, "Discover it yourself. Why should I tell you? You might not be able to do it even if you know the way. Elder Yun is right. Su Yu will regret it after three rounds. Perhaps he will end his climb on the 20th level."

"Why?"

"Not telling you. Feel free to experience it for yourself if you can."

Hou Liang grinned. Why? It was simple. After three rounds, the pagoda's emergency mechanism would activate. Two tigers would appear at the same time. In the fifth round, one more tiger would be added. Next, there would be one additional tiger per round. Nobody would be able to last forever. Toward the end, one would be faced with a terrifying number of beasts. That would naturally be the end of the challenge.

Someone gloomily said, "But how long will this take? Will this fellow be staying inside for a few days?"

"Each round takes two hours on the 20th level. If he resets the level three times, he will only spend six hours there. Why are you so impatient?" Elder Yun said indifferently. However, he personally believed that Su Yu might be able to last longer than that.

The kid wasn't weak at all.

***

At the moment, Su Yu was frowning. The willpower was still pure even after staying here for so long. However, the time between intervals was too long. And the willpower was only at the level of a first-stage Skysoar. It was too weak for Su Yu.

"If I can do this on the 20th level, can I do this on the 30th and 40th levels as well? Maybe it won't work on the 30th level. How about the 40th level?"

Su Yu wasn't sure, but he believed that it might not work on the 30th floor. As for the 40th level, would he be getting Cloudbreach willpower there? He would be able to gain more there.

"But every little bit matters. Let's clear this place first."

Some time passed. Su Yu had just killed a tiger when he blanked out. A second tiger had appeared before him.

"What's going on?"

Did he trigger a hidden mechanism? He did not hesitate and killed the second tiger before capturing its crystal fragment. He continued absorbing the willpower leisurely. After some time, a third tiger appeared.

"Three Skysoar beasts..."

Su Yu smiled. Sure enough, the pagoda had relevant mechanisms in place to deal with situations such as this. Those fragments were basically something left deliberately for the challengers to challenge their limit while the increased difficulty was a mean to warn the challengers to know their limit. At the moment, he had opened a total of 118 apertures.

"I can keep doing this here, but at the 40th level, I'll need to face Cloudbreach beasts. How am I supposed to kill two or three of them? Forget it. I'll stay here longer."

When milking something, he naturally has to milk it dry. As for whether others would have the ability to do something similar, Su Yu was sure there were some out there. But those were probably people with higher cultivation levels, such as Sunmoons. They were unlikely to do something as shameless as staying in this Mental Tempering Stage level.

Forget Sunmoons. Even Cloudbreaches would probably feel ashamed of doing that. But Su Yu had no such worry. After all, he was still at the Mental Tempering Stage. It was perfectly normal for him to stay here longer. Furthermore, he was never going to get as much from this level anymore as the rewards for one's first visit would be higher than normal.

***

Eight hours, ten hours...

Outside, the students were starting a bonfire party. One should not be surprised at this. One only needed to get used to this.

It wasn't like these students had anything else to do. Festivals and parties were frequent occurrences in the academy. In fact, the students had the habit of celebrating every little thing, hoping that one of these celebrations would be turned into yet another annual festival.

At this point, even Elder Yun was starting to feel surprised. It had been twelve hours. Su Yu had cleared at least six rounds. He was probably facing around four or five Skysoars beasts by now. That kid couldn't even use his ability blood essence in the pagoda. How was he beating so many Skysoar beasts?

Even if he was strong enough to do that, he must be stuffed full with willpower already, right? That kid wasn't even a Skysoar yet!

Suddenly, someone appeared beside Elder Yun. It was Niu Baidao. He casually picked up a bottle of liquor and started drinking from it. After gulping down a mouthful of liquor, he grumbled, "That damn shameless kid! Why is he milking even something like this dry? The biggest reward the pagoda can offer is the pure strands of willpower. This is what makes the pagoda comparable to Great Xia's Willpower Grotto. Is the kid planning to stay there forever?"

Elder Yuan laughed, "Why so impatient? He's only a Mental Tempering Stage kid. And it's only the 20th level. How much can he absorb there? He might be able to face several Skysoars. But what about a few dozen Skysoars? Don't worry too much."

After thinking about it, Niu Baidao nodded. "True. But I'm worried that the kid would do the same at the 40th level. That would place a heavy burden on the pagoda."

"40th level? He will face Cloudbreach beasts there. Can he still capture the fragments of that level? Even if he can, he will need to face two Cloudbreaches after three rounds. How can he win? Ability blood essence probably won't work inside the pagoda. Even if it works, the cost of using it is not worth the reward. What are you worried about?

"Old Niu, at your age, you should learn to relax. The Hundred Dao Pagoda still has a large amount of willpower stored. This is a top-tier heaven-grade cultural weapon. It has been absorbing the ambient willpower in the air for hundreds of years. The stockpile is more than enough."

"But it will still be a huge drain." Niu Baidao sighed, "It's not like you don't know what happened when Ye Batian visited back then. That bastard almost milked the pagoda dry. In fact, he would have done so if Great Ming King hadn't been alarmed by what he was doing."

Elder Yun laughed. That had indeed happened. But that was so long ago. The pagoda had since recovered its reserves.

Suddenly, someone exclaimed, "Look, Su Yu's name is gone!"

Elder Yun smiled, "He must have reached his limit. I guess this isn't too bad."

But next, Su Yu's name appeared on the 21st level. It had appeared almost immediately after his name vanished from the 20th level.

Niu Baidao rolled his eyes, "Is this what you mean by reaching his limit? No. This is him deciding to continue his climb after stuffing himself full. Back then, Great Ming King insisted on leaving this backdoor to the talented challengers. I objected, but he refused. Look at what's happening. People are constantly taking advantage of us."

Did those people not understand how big of a drain this would be? Niu Baidao could only pray that Su Yu wouldn't do the same on the 40th level.

"That fellow won't be able to defeat two Cloudbreaches without ability blood essence, right?"

He might be able to defeat one. Or maybe not. Niu Baidao wasn't too sure.