Chapter 252: Trial Tower! Rule Devouring!

As Gu Fan’s figure disappeared into the Trial Tower, the expression on Qingxia Young Master’s face instantly lost its scholarly elegance and instead became filled with violence.

Yin Huishu, standing to the side, for some unknown reason, actually felt a bit gleeful.

“What an arrogant junior. How long has it been, and he already dares to target me!”

Yin Huishu truly didn’t have a good temper as he said:

“Senior Brother, you’d better take this seriously. Xun Bo thought the same back then, but the facts proved that Gu Fan really did what he said.”

After speaking, Yin Huishu also strode into the Trial Tower, leaving Qingxia Young Master alone to coldly snort before turning around and leaving.

This entire scene was overheard by a few ordinary core disciples nearby, and news of it quickly spread throughout the sect.

The newly ranked top ten dark horse disciple, Gu Fan, had once again openly declared he would challenge Qingxia Young Master, ranked third among the top ten!

Although the time had not yet been set, judging from Gu Fan’s personality, everyone felt this was definitely not an empty threat. It was highly likely that Gu Fan had truly set his sights on Qingxia Young Master in third place!

“No way, how does Gu Fan even have the guts? He just finished challenging Xun Bo, and now he’s going after Senior Brother Qingxia? Who gave him this confidence?”

“I think it’s because he mastered the Domain and became overly confident. Keep in mind, although both have mastered the Domain, Xun Bo and Senior Brother Qingxia are on completely different levels.”

“I think this is a great chance to win back what I lost. If someone dares to open betting odds again, I’ll definitely go all in on Senior Brother Qingxia winning!”

“Forget it, what if it ends up like last time…”

“Are you seriously taking this for real? Maybe Gu Fan is just bluffing. A ninth place challenging third? Are all the others in between just decorations?”

“Good point…”

People discussed it heatedly—some hoping to use this chance to win back what they’d lost, others too scared to place bets again.

The most important thing was that no one could be sure whether Gu Fan would really challenge Qingxia. After all, it was just words for now.

No sane person would issue another challenge so quickly. However, none of this affected Gu Fan.

Inside the Trial Tower, Gu Fan looked at the pitch-black space before him and knew he had entered the sixth floor of the Trial Tower.

Because it was restricted to the top ten disciples, there was currently no one else inside.

Gu Fan casually picked a booth, and the door automatically closed once he entered.

He glanced around. The space was not large—aside from a meditation cushion, there was nothing else…

“Senior Sister Nan said it could enhance combat abilities, speed up cultivation, and condense the intensity of Mysterious Power. But from what I see now, there’s also the Power of Rules permeating here… Could this Power of Rules also be used for cultivation?”

Gu Fan wasted no time and immediately sat down to cultivate according to his thoughts.

Very soon, as he sat down to cultivate, an invisible Power of Rules enveloped the single room.

Then Gu Fan felt his Divine Soul being tugged, and when he opened his eyes again, he seemed to be in a wilderness battlefield, littered with corpses of unknown creatures and various tombstones.

Suddenly, a sharp and shrill roar echoed. Gu Fan immediately understood that his opponent had appeared.

“So that’s it. Enhancing combat ability… Isn’t this essentially a virtual illusion world similar to holographic projection?”

He assessed his own condition—no different from normal. Even the phenomenon of the Green Lotus could be activated smoothly.

“It’s truly a one-to-one replica. Seems I can fully utilize my entire combat capability…”

The next moment, a black shadow pounced. Without hesitation, Gu Fan immediately engaged in battle.

It was an unknown black beast-like creature. It looked like a wolf but stood as tall as two men, with six legs.

Its speed during combat was extremely fast, and its realm appeared to be at the Late Stage of the Solar Radiance Realm.

It was clear that the Trial Tower defaulted all challengers entering this level to be no weaker than this realm.

But soon, under Gu Fan’s attacks, the strange wolf was smashed into a cloud of smoke and vanished.

Then, two more auras appeared. Gu Fan didn’t even have time to rest before he was once again facing new opponents.

This time, it was two six-legged wolves. Facing their pincer attack, Gu Fan did feel it was a bit tricky, but he still didn’t activate his Domain and managed to slay them smoothly.

Next came four, then eight…

Until he was besieged by sixteen monsters, at which point Gu Fan had no choice but to activate his Domain.

Just like that, he continued honing his combat techniques within this practical illusion realm.

He kept fighting and killing, until sixty-four wolves appeared.

This time, he had no chance to counterattack. His Domain was instantly torn apart by this group of monsters!

He himself was dismembered shortly after.

“Hiss…”

Gu Fan felt the pain and sensation of near death and involuntarily gasped with lingering fear.

“That was really too real… I almost thought I was truly going to die.”

He checked the time—only a bit more than one hour had passed.

Gu Fan didn’t delay and once again used his Divine Soul to connect with that mysterious Power of Rules, re-entering the practical illusion.

Just like that, for a full three hours, he fought nonstop in the illusion realm.

Finally, on the sixth attempt, he successfully withstood the assault of sixty-four wolf-shaped monsters.

In the end, relying on his immense endurance, he slew them all one by one.

But when he faced the doubled count of one hundred twenty-eight monsters, he didn’t even have time to activate his Domain before being instantly torn apart.

Once his Divine Soul regained clarity, Gu Fan did not enter again.

“Sixty-four is currently my limit. There’s no need to proceed to the next stage for now…”

Then he began regular cultivation. The Mysterious Power here was extremely dense.

His cultivation speed soared. Although Gu Fan’s talent wasn’t particularly exceptional and even his Root Bone had been reshaped using secret techniques, under such concentration of Mysterious Power, even his bottleneck began to show signs of loosening.

At this rate, in two months—or perhaps even a bit faster—he could break through to the Solar Radiance Realm.

By then, after digesting the remaining energy of the Lotus Seed within his body, his Domain mastery would reach an even higher level.

At that time, challenging the top five disciples would become even more secure.

Thus, Gu Fan continued cultivating in the Trial Tower, condensing the strength of his Mysterious Power, and at the same time tempering the density of his Spiritual Power.

Eventually, he discovered that even the Power of Rules within the Trial Tower could be absorbed by his Domain.

This helped enhance his mastery over the Domain.

These discoveries made him completely fall in love with the Trial Tower.

Although he didn’t know why Nan Xuanrou hadn’t mentioned that the Trial Tower could enhance Domain control by devouring the Power of Rules, Gu Fan had already excitedly activated his Domain to continuously devour.

“The Power of Rules in this tower is so dense… if I could devour it all, my Domain might grow to an incredibly terrifying level. Combined with the digestion of the Lotus Seed’s remaining energy, my mastery would increase tremendously!”

Gu Fan thought excitedly, once again diving into cultivation.

Half a day later, Gu Fan ended his session. Not quite satisfied, he left the Trial Tower upon the rune’s reminder.

Moments later, the Elder guarding the tower checked on the Trial Tower’s condition and his expression subtly changed.

“That’s strange! Why has the Power of Rules inside the tower decreased?”

Although it was less than one percent, the Dao Rule Stone at the tower’s peak had just been replaced recently—how could it drop so much all of a sudden?

One must know that to maintain the tower’s Power of Rules, this Dao Rule Stone was an extremely precious treasure—normally, only one was consumed per year.

Now losing almost one percent all at once was no small matter!

“Could it be a problem with the formation, leaking the Power of Rules?”

Thinking of this, the Elder guarding the tower decided to immediately report it to the sect. An inspection and repair must be conducted as soon as possible to prevent further losses.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep