Inside the Hundred Dao Pagoda.

Su Yu was in a good mood. This took a lot of time, but it allowed him to absorb a decent amount of willpower. Of course, absorption here was nowhere as direct as the Willpower Grotto where one needed to do nothing but absorb willpower.

Here in the pagoda, one would need to kill beasts to absorb willpower. Of course, there was also an advantage to the pagoda. Here, one would not be disturbed by a third party during cultivation. If one wanted to absorb more, one only needed to kill more.

At the 25th level, Su Yu stopped blasting through the levels. The longer he was in the pagoda, the more he felt that this place was not that simple.

On the 25th level.

Su Yu stopped using his physical strength and attacked with only his characters. His opponents were no longer demonic beasts. Rather, they were characters. Yes, he needed to fight characters on this level. This was very interesting.

Multiple characters were battling in midair. This was possible as this level was meant for Skysoars in the first place and Su Yu's characters were already at the second tier.

Numerous characters were flying all over the room.

Lightning, blood, fire, killing intent...

Each of Su Yu's characters was battling independently. With a rumble, a character burst apart. Character intent leaked out and spread all over the room.

Su Yu looked astonished. He suspected that Great Ming King and the other Invincibles had stuffed the pagoda full with characters. Such a large amount of character intent was leaking out of these destroyed characters.

He tried absorbing the intent and it felt exactly the same as the real deal. His characters had indeed grown from the character intent he absorbed.

"What a magical place."

Su Yu was starting to feel regretful. He shouldn't have focused on killing beasts earlier. That would only give him willpower and source qi. How was that comparable to character intent? The pagoda was a place that would grant one different reward depending on the ability one showed. This was the perfect example of teaching in line with one's ability.

"I can't go too fast..."

Su Yu was trying to figure out the rules of this place. He had discovered that resetting regular levels was impossible, but there was a different option: dragging it out.

He could take his time and slowly defeat these characters. The pagoda would be forced to supply the characters with more power the longer the fight dragged on.

Thus, Su Yu could drag it out until the pagoda stopped supplying the characters power before destroying them. That way, he could maximize what he could absorb from these characters. Time was not of the essence here.

As of this moment, he finally understood what the old man had told him earlier. Clearing the levels shouldn't be the goal one aimed for. Instead, one needed to fully exploit every single level and squeeze what one wanted from the pagoda.

Otherwise, even if one was a supreme genius capable of instantly reaching the top floor, what was the point? Then again, such a person would be an Invincible, and no Invincible would waste their time challenging this pagoda.

Boom!

The pagoda had cut the power supply to a different character, allowing Su Yu to destroy it.

Su Yu had a look of regret as he muttered, "Looks like the more characters I show, the more characters will appear to fight me. In that case, I need to show more right from the beginning so that I can get more characters at the start of each level."

The little furball was jumping around in agitation inside the sea of willpower. He also wanted to eat!

"You can't come out! If you show up, the pagoda will treat me as a beast tamer. That would be annoying."

The pagoda might decide to stop sending characters after him anymore. That would be a big loss. As for the rewards the pagoda would offer to beast tamers, he had zero interest. He only knew that he needed character intent and willpower. Both were much more important for him at the moment.

***

Outside, the others could see that Su Yu's speed had dropped significantly. If he was too slow, his name might not even appear in the top 100. He had reached the 25h level, but his name had vanished from the stele. That left a lot of observers curious as they had no way of determining his progress if he wasn't fast enough.

Nevertheless, the bonfire party continued.

One of the students noticed Niu Baidao and hollered, "Principal, which level is Su Yu on? Why does he not feel as freakish as the rumors? Is he bad at practical combat?"

Shouldn't all freaks be climbing the pagoda light a bolt of lightning? Where was Su Yu's name? Why was it gone? Was he still struggling to get through the levels?

Niu Baidao rolled his eyes. He would be more than happy to see Su Yu's name as that would signify that the kid was rapidly clearing the levels before getting too many benefits from the pagoda. But that bastard was dragging it out every single level. That damn kid must have discovered something and was slowly milking the pagoda dry.

Fuck!

The pagoda might suffer a great loss from this! Fortunately, the kid wasn't too strong yet. If the kid was a Sunmoon, he could very well transform into the second coming of the fifth principal, someone who had nearly milked the pagoda dry before.

Niu Baidao looked at Elder Yun without saying anything. With a smile, Elder Yun plucked a mirror out of thin air and said, "25th level."

"25th level?"

One of the students exclaimed, "That's a level for third-stage Skysoars. In that case, Su Yu is really quite strong. But this still isn't strong enough for someone of his fame."

Su Yu should be fighting Cloudbreaches by now. Why was he stuck on the 25th level for so long?

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Elder Yun didn't even deign to say anything. Someone else in the crowd snorted, "Why don't you try climbing to the 25th level?"

Naturally, that person was Wu Lan. She was curious why Su Yu was so slow after she left the pagoda at the 17th level. Just look at how fast she was.

As someone capable of reaching the 17th level, she was not weak at all. She could even be considered one of the best in the Mental Tempering Stage. But she had not bragged about it at all. After all, Zhu Hongliang was ranked higher than her. She was very unhappy with that. How was she weaker than that damn fatty?

Sure, the pagoda did not rate someone based on only combat strength, but there was no denying that he was ranked higher than her. The student who was speaking earlier laughed awkwardly and returned to his food. Whatever. Su Yu wasn't the most important thing here. The bonfire party was more important.

If it was any other person, they would be very impressed. But this was Su Yu. Nobody was even surprised he could reach the 25th level. In fact, him not reaching the 25th level would be the breaking news of the day. They were simply curious about his slow speed.

Elder Yun stroked his beard and softly said, "This little fellow sure is a patient one. Very few youngsters can hold back from fame even if they know about the benefits they can get by taking it slow."

Most people wouldn't be happy if they were too slow to have their names shown on the stele. This mentality would be even stronger among geniuses. Meanwhile, Su Yu was the complete opposite.

Niu Baidao smiled and said, "Forget it. This is the purpose of the Hundred Dao Pagoda. It is meant to benefit the students and teachers here. This is a good thing. The kid can finally properly temper himself. Just wait. On the day the kid reaches the 40th level, he will start displaying the qualities of a future Invincible."

Not even a super genius like Liu Wenyan was lauded as a future Invincible back then. At most, people would say that he was qualified to inherit the fifth principal's legacy. And the fifth principal wasn't even an Invincible, despite his strength.

Most of the time, claiming that a Mental Tempering Stage cultivator was a future Invincible was a claim one would make to mock and ridicule someone. But that wasn't the case here. Niu Baidao was sincere. If Su Yu could reach the 40th level, he could definitely be viewed as a future Invincible. After all, not even Invincibles were as outstanding as him during their youth.

Elder Yun nodded, but he said nothing. Having the potential to be an Invincible did not guarantee that one would be an Invincible. Some people would be outstanding during their youth before declining in old age.