Chapter 699: Ascending the Heavenly Tower

"Zhu Fenghua will come?"

"The Tomb of Heavenly Water opens once every few years. Heavenly One Tower has three spots in total. Zhu Fenghua entered it once over a dozen years ago, and hasn't been back since."

"Then why is he coming this time?"

"I imagine it is because of you, Marquis."

"Oh?"

Li Fei smiled, suddenly feeling a sense of anticipation.

Over two years ago, Zhu Fenghua could already trade a hundred blows with a Martial Arts Grandmaster without being defeated; to what level had his strength reached now?

What interested Li Fei most was that the other party was a dual cultivator of magic and martial arts. He very much wanted to witness it to verify his own cultivation.

"When does the Tomb of Heavenly Water open?"

Li Fei asked.

Lu Wenxing said: "It should be quite soon. I believe the Martial Arts University will definitely send someone to inform you of the specific details, Marquis."

Sure enough, early the next morning, a telegram from Wu'an University arrived.

This telegram contained a detailed introduction to the situation of the Tomb of Heavenly Water, and the final paragraph was a message from Shi Caiming to Li Fei:

"The Heavenly Water Beast was the king among water-attribute exotic beasts thousands of years ago. Within the Tomb of Heavenly Water exists the Heavenly Water Soul Bone, which is a type of primordial implant that can be absorbed directly. If you can obtain it, using it as your fifth implant will be more suitable than your existing ones."

After reading it, Li Fei felt a warmth in his heart, understanding why Shi Caiming insisted on having him represent the university to enter the Tomb of Heavenly Water this time.

Besides helping the university gain benefits, he also wanted Li Fei to obtain a stroke of fortune.

A so-called primordial implant is the body tissue of an exotic beast that has not undergone artificial processing.

This type of implant was used by early martial artists. At that time, the development of martial arts was not as advanced as it is now, and martial artists could only absorb the body tissues of exotic beasts directly.

This would lead to very serious rejection reactions, causing the mortality rate of martial artists to be extremely high.

Shi Caiming let Li Fei absorb such an implant because he knew Li Fei's talent.

The 【Green Bone】 Li Fei incorporated is a wood-attribute implant; next, he needs to incorporate a water-attribute implant, because water generates wood.

And since metal generates water, this implant will also establish a connection with his initial 【Steel Armor】.

After incorporating the final water-attribute implant, Li Fei's five implants will all be connected, forming a complete Five Elements cycle.

Then, the 【Primordial Heavenly Gold】 will undergo its second transformation!

Originally, the fifth implant Li Fei needed to incorporate had already been prepared for him by the university.

But now, Shi Caiming told him that the Heavenly Water Soul Bone in the Tomb of Heavenly Water would be a more suitable water-attribute implant for him.

Li Fei naturally would not doubt him.

Therefore, entering the Tomb of Heavenly Water this time, besides fighting Zhu Fenghua and witnessing true dual cultivation of magic and martial arts, Li Fei had gained another goal—to obtain the Heavenly Water Soul Bone.

The telegram sent by the university stated that the Tomb of Heavenly Water is located within the territory of Yanbo Prefecture in Gan Province, and is expected to open in one week.

It would take Li Fei five days to travel there by train from the provincial capital, so he could almost prepare to set off.

Before leaving, Li Fei first made a trip to the Cease-Arms Department and chatted with Chi Chengyu for a while.

On March 14th, Li Fei, along with Shentu Yue and four Dao Foundation stage martial artists from the Red Dust Pavilion, took the train to Yanbo Prefecture.

Shangyu Province, Mount Yu.

Mount Yu is the highest peak in the entire province, but if its height were placed on a national scale, it wouldn't even rank in the top ten.

Yet, such a mountain peak is the most famous in the Great Lan Dynasty, and even the entire world.

Because atop the peak stands Heavenly One Tower!

Heavenly One Tower was not originally a sect. It was built by Lin Tianyi on Mount Yu after he had fought across the world without a single rival and was publicly acknowledged as the world's number one. The tower is nine stories high.

Subsequently, he recorded the nine types of dual cultivation techniques for magic and martial arts he had created, from low to high, in order on the stone walls inside the tower, and declared to the outside world:

"Enter the tower to break the law; break one law to ascend one floor. If you cannot break the law after ascending, you shall guard the tower for life and be at my beck and call."

The so-called "breaking the law" is to decipher the techniques Lin Tianyi wrote on the stone walls inside the tower.

Lin Tianyi left a clone on each of the bottom eight floors. Those who ascend the tower can first learn the techniques on the stone walls, then think about how to break them, and finally fight the clone.

It is worth mentioning that "breaking the law" does not have strict restrictions on one's realm, because the requirement is to decipher, not to defeat.

If one wants to rely on strength and realm to directly crush the clone, the clone's combat power will also rise accordingly.

Once the news spread, it immediately attracted many experts to go.

Even knowing that once they failed to break the law they would have to stay and guard the tower, losing their freedom forever, many people still held onto a fluke mentality:

I will just break the techniques of the first few floors and then choose to leave, without continuing to ascend; that would be equivalent to getting Lin Tianyi's techniques for free!

But the final result was that out of ten people who went, seven couldn't even decipher the technique of the first floor, and the remaining three who broke the first floor's technique couldn't resist the temptation and chose to continue ascending, eventually all being trapped on different floors.

For over sixty years, very few people who ascended Heavenly One Tower have been able to come out, and not a single one has been able to ascend to the ninth floor.

The highest record is the seventh floor.

Of course, this is because no peak experts have ever gone to ascend the tower.

Regarding this, people feel it is because these peak experts would certainly be embarrassed to stop at the first few floors and leave, but they have no way to defeat Lin Tianyi who guards the ninth floor.

If they went and ended up having to stay forever, that would be the end of it, so no peak experts have ever gone to ascend the tower.

Over the sixty-plus years, many people have ascended the tower. Lin Tianyi selected some whom he felt had good aptitude to take as disciples, while the rest who guarded the tower for life became guest elders.

Eventually, the sect of Heavenly One Tower was established.

In terms of comprehensive strength, Heavenly One Tower certainly cannot compare to the three Daoist sects and the Buddhist sect.

But because they have Lin Tianyi, the world's number one, sitting in command, Heavenly One Tower's status in the pugilistic world is in no way inferior to the Great Luo Sect or Pudu Temple.

Over several decades, many buildings have been added around the tower that Lin Tianyi originally built, together forming the sect's headquarters of Heavenly One Tower.

To distinguish the tower from the sect, the people of Heavenly One Tower are accustomed to calling that legendary tower the Heavenly Tower.

The disciples of Heavenly One Tower also like to ascend the Heavenly Tower, but they must also abide by the rules set by Lin Tianyi: one must break a law to ascend a floor.

Over these years, Lin Tianyi has successively taken seven personal disciples, the one with the highest cultivation among them being at the Grandmaster realm in martial arts and the True Spirit realm in magic.

But this person is not the one who has ascended the highest in the Heavenly Tower among the disciples of Heavenly One Tower.

Heavenly Tower, seventh floor.

A middle-aged man with a resolute face and dark skin is sitting in front of a stone wall, eyes closed in deep thought.

Suddenly, the man opened his eyes and stood up to look behind him.

An old man wearing a black robe walked toward him.

"Guest Elder Zhao."

The man bowed first.

"Fenghua, the Tower Master wants you to make a trip to Gan Province and enter the Tomb of Heavenly Water."

Guest Elder Zhao said with a gentle expression.

This dark-skinned man, who did not look like "Fenghua" (splendor) at all, was none other than Zhu Fenghua, the number one on the overall Wind and Cloud Ranking.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Fenghua did not hesitate: "Yes, Fenghua accepts the order."

Then he asked: "Guest Elder Zhao, did Master say why he wants me to go?"

Among the Dao Foundation stage martial artists of Heavenly One Tower, he was certainly the strongest, but Lin Tianyi had only sent him to the Tomb of Heavenly Water once, and never again after that.

The reason was that going once was enough, and going again would be of no benefit to Zhu Fenghua's cultivation.

Heavenly One Tower did not need to delay Zhu Fenghua's cultivation to compete for treasures.

After many years, Lin Tianyi had once again asked Zhu Fenghua to go to the Tomb of Heavenly Water; Zhu Fenghua believed there must be a reason.

Guest Elder Zhao looked at him with a strange expression: "Have you not been following the latest Wind and Cloud Ranking?"

Zhu Fenghua shook his head: "I haven't paid attention to it for a long time."

Guest Elder Zhao smiled: "That's true, the previous Wind and Cloud Rankings were indeed not worth your attention."

Zhu Fenghua understood the implication: "Who is worth paying attention to now?"

So Guest Elder Zhao told him about Li Fei's ranking and recent deeds.

After hearing this, Zhu Fenghua's expression remained unchanged: "I understand. I will depart tomorrow."

Having said that, he nodded to Guest Elder Zhao and turned back to sit facing the stone wall.

At this moment, he seemed to have turned into a stone wall himself.

Without the slightest ripple or change.

Guest Elder Zhao looked at Zhu Fenghua's back, feeling somewhat moved.

Within Heavenly One Tower, the disciple who has ascended the highest in the Heavenly Tower is not one of those with the highest cultivation, but Zhu Fenghua!

Guest Elder Zhao, whose original name was Zhao Xin, was formerly a deputy commander of the Great Lan Dynasty's Imperial Guard.

Over sixty years ago, he was one of the first batch of martial artists who chose to ascend the tower, ascending the first five floors in one go, and then getting trapped on the sixth floor.

After being trapped for half a year, the previous Son of Heaven personally wrote a letter to Lin Tianyi, wanting Lin Tianyi to let Zhao Xin go.

Because Zhao Xin was actually following the imperial court's orders to ascend the tower and try to obtain Lin Tianyi's techniques, only he couldn't resist the temptation and overestimated himself, which is why he got trapped.

But Lin Tianyi did not give that Son of Heaven any face; he neither replied to the letter nor released the person.

Later, it was that Son of Heaven who found a way out for himself, publicly announcing the removal of Zhao Xin's position to fulfill the other's heart set on martial arts.

Thus, Zhao Xin stayed at Heavenly One Tower, and he has been there for over sixty years.

In fact, he successfully deciphered the technique of the sixth floor over forty years ago, but he did not choose to leave then, because he had found the opportunity to break through his realm!

Anyway, his position in the imperial court was gone, and a new Son of Heaven had already ascended the throne, so he might as well stay at Heavenly One Tower as a guest elder and devote himself to studying martial arts.

So Zhao Xin continued to ascend to the seventh floor, taking nine years to successfully break through his realm and become a Grandmaster.

But after becoming a Grandmaster, he spent over thirty years without being able to decipher the technique Lin Tianyi left on the seventh floor.

Zhu Fenghua is only a Dao Foundation stage martial artist and an Apparition stage Great Mage, yet he can meet him inside the Heavenly Tower; it truly made him feel the gap between people!

Although ascending the Heavenly Tower has no direct relationship with one's cultivation realm, the higher the cultivation realm, the lower the difficulty of breaking the law must be.

When Zhao Xin broke through the sixth floor of the Law-Breaking Tower back then, he was already a martial arts master with four supernatural powers, just one step away from condensing a martial arts domain.

Even so, it still took him over a dozen years to break through the sixth floor.

Yet Zhu Fenghua broke through the sixth floor not long after just reaching the Dao Foundation realm!

Accounting for the gap in realms, the difficulty for Zhu Fenghua to break through the sixth floor was far greater than it was for Zhao Xin!

A Grandmaster once evaluated Zhu Fenghua: the strongest martial artist in the Dao Foundation realm in history, unprecedented, and unlikely to be surpassed by anyone in the future.

The implication was that Zhu Fenghua was even stronger at this stage than Lin Tian was back in his day!

Regarding this, Lin Tian gave his affirmation:

"If the disciples I teach are inferior to me in every realm, wouldn't that be a joke?"

Zhao Xin suddenly felt a strong urge to request Lin Tian to let him leave Tianyi Tower and go to Gansu Province with Zhu Fenghua.

He really wanted to witness the battle between Zhu Fenghua and Li Fei with his own eyes.

Would Li Fei be able to create a new history, or would Zhu Fenghua continue to maintain his dominance?

On March 15th, Zhu Fenghua left Tianyi Tower and descended from Mount Yu.

In an instant, countless people from the pugilistic world rushed toward Gansu Province.

(End of chapter)