Rihai and Aotian, who had entered hand in hand, suddenly vanished as they crossed the tower's entrance.
When they came to their senses, they realized they were in completely different biomes—and the companion who had been beside them was gone.
Finding himself alone in a barren, sandy desert, Aotian remained calm. After all, he was the one who had designed the tower.
As for the reason they suddenly appeared elsewhere, it was merely a short-range teleportation.
Though he lacked neither formation knowledge—thanks to Lei Yun's feedback—nor energy, due to the abundance of spirit stones he possessed, there was still something essential missing for creating long-distance teleportation arrays: Void-Tier materials.
However, for short teleports within the range of a single spiritual vein, Aotian could still force the functionality to exist using the few Formation-Tier materials he had.
Unfortunately, after constructing the tower and forging the ancestral robes, he no longer had a single piece of such material left—he had spent everything he had stolen from the Beiyan Continent.
'Another reason to head to the Central Continent. I need higher-tier materials…' he thought as he walked forward.
He clenched his fist and felt a heavy energy envelop his body. Under that terrifying pressure, he realized that even if he used all his strength, his spiritual power would not surpass the Qi Refining Realm.
That was the restriction of the first floor. Trying to use energy above that level would cause it to be dispersed by the suppression arrays. In the end, it would only tire him out and waste energy—so it was best to respect the rules.
Unbothered—since he already knew this would happen—his gaze fell upon a blue screen that appeared before him.
[Guardian Unlock Missions – 1st Floor]
[Difficulty: Requirement]
[Easy: Defeat 1 Spirit Beast
Medium: Defeat 10 Spirit Beasts
Hard: Defeat 100 Spirit Beasts
Extreme: Immobilize 1 Spirit Beast without injuring it
Saint: Immobilize 10 Spirit Beasts without injuring them
Immortal: Immobilize 100 Spirit Beasts without injuring them]
[Disciple: Long Aotian
Beasts defeated: 0
Beasts immobilized: 0]
[Notes:
1 - The number of defeated beasts will reset upon each re-entry into the tower. Each entry can last a maximum of 24 hours.
2 - Missions unlocked once do not need to be repeated when re-entering the tower.
3 - Difficulties grant 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 points respectively in the Holy Son/Daughter competition.
4 - It is possible to hide your name from the leaderboard, but doing so disqualifies you from the competition. The name can be made public again to restore qualification.
5 - Once the guardian's reward has been claimed, it cannot be obtained again; however, winning on higher difficulties grants additional competition points.
6 - Say "Help" aloud to open the option panel. Say "Close" to minimize it.]
Aotian quickly skimmed through the panel, checking for grammatical errors, and nodded in satisfaction upon finding none.
That wasn't his system's interface, but rather a light projection created by the tower's arrays—which he himself had established—and every disciple inside the tower had their own version.
"Close," he commanded, and the blue screen immediately vanished.
Observing his surroundings, Aotian calmly analyzed the sea of sand around him. In the sky, a scorching sun—actually an illusion created by the array—shone intensely above his head.
Although the sun and sky were illusions, the heat radiating from them, the dry air, and the wind-driven sand whipping against his skin all felt real—because, in truth, they were. Creating such an environment with an array was child's play for Aotian.
Without hesitation, he chose a random direction and began walking.
He didn't know where he was going, nor did he try to use his abilities to cheat. He simply walked calmly, without any defined goal.
The reason was simple: nothing inside the tower was fixed. The places where guardians or beasts would appear were random, determined by the array itself.
The only constant was that the realm of the beasts would always match or exceed that of the disciple who encountered them.
He hadn't walked for long when the sand beneath his feet began to stir.
A giant scorpion claw burst out from the ground toward him, attempting to slice him in half.
Aotian kept walking, not even reacting, as the claw struck and split him in two.
His body fell to the ground in pieces, blood gushing out—until the light in his eyes faded away.
The fierce, murderous scorpion froze at the sight.
Soon, its small black eyes filled with confusion, doubt, and then… terror.
Its previously brown body suddenly turned pale.
Placing its pincers over its head in panic, it looked almost human in its despair.
"NO, NO, NO, NO!! This can't be happening!!" the beast exclaimed, nearly in tears.
Its tiny brain couldn't comprehend the situation.
It had been told it could attack freely since the tower would protect both itself and the disciples. But upon witnessing what had just happened, it realized its good life in the sect had come to an end—and despair consumed the poor scorpion.
The sect had been a paradise for it, and its strength had skyrocketed since arriving there. It had enjoyed a peaceful and comfortable environment, even managing to break through its innate limits.
But now… it felt like it was about to lose everything because of a simple lapse in judgment.
As the poor beast nearly died from panic and sorrow, a playful voice echoed above it, freezing the scene.
"You should trust the sect more than your own eyes and senses from now on. If they say we can't die, then your limited ability certainly isn't enough to kill us."
Standing atop its carapace was the very person it had just sliced in half.
The scorpion froze completely upon seeing him.
Dazed, its eyes slowly turned to where the previous corpse had been, only to see a pile of sand crumbling in the shape of a human. That was when it realized it had been deceived.
Despite the wild joy that surged in his heart upon realizing he wouldn't be punished or killed for taking a life, his black eyes also turned red, filled with rage and shame as he glared at the bastard who had almost made him cry.
His tail began to drip venom, making the desert sizzle wherever the drops fell, and his temperament returned even fiercer than before.
But just as he was about to attack, his brain suddenly shut down, and the beast collapsed to the ground, motionless, raising a cloud of dust with its fall.
Aotian calmly descended from the scorpion with a gentle smile at the corner of his lips, waving his hand before his face to dispel the dust.
The reason for the beast's fall was that he had simply and harmlessly disrupted the creature's chaotic brain, turning it off.
His control over energy was so precise that, even while being restricted to the same power level as the scorpion by the tower, he could still silently invade the creature's body with his energy without being noticed.
Taking advantage of the scorpion's confusion and anger, invading it and temporarily disabling its brain was even easier.
When he stepped down from the beast's body, a golden light enveloped the poor creature, and it disappeared from sight.
The floating screen reappeared before Aotian.
[Congratulations! You can now search for the floor guardian.]
[Unlocked missions: Easy, Extreme.]
[Disciple: Long Aotian
Beasts defeated: 1
Beasts immobilized: 1]
Looking at the panel, Aotian nodded in satisfaction.
He thought it fair that immobilizing a beast counted as defeating it too. Of course, for most disciples, that wouldn't make any difference — after all, immobilizing a beast without injuring it could only be done so easily by him. Most of the others would probably do the missions in stages, defeating the beasts first, and only later attempt to immobilize them without harm.
The disciples would face immense difficulty and headaches trying such a thing — if they could at all. Most would barely reach the hard level, let alone the extreme one.
If the beasts were from outside the sect, it would be simple, but the sect's beasts were anything but ordinary. Even more so because Aotian had been rigorously training them for over five months for this day, ever since he sent Snake to capture them from the other side of the ocean.
And with the arrival of the Beast Pavilion's Ancestress, the lineage of these creatures had become even stronger, their power more terrifying.
Even the weakest beasts on the first floor had already reached Third Level. That wasn't unfair to the current disciples, all of whom were in the Golden Core stage, but when new disciples arrived, they might have to suffer a bit — or Aotian would have to replace them with weaker ones.
'Well, let's continue…' Aotian shrugged and resumed walking aimlessly through the tower.
As he advanced, the tower occasionally released one or more beasts in his path, and Aotian dealt with them all calmly.
Some he trapped in spheres of water, others he restrained with roots of trees, chains of earth, or chains of metal.
The only element he didn't use was fire, as it was far too offensive. Even though he could control the ferocity of the flames to avoid injuring, it would be like castrating the element itself.
Therefore, he judged it more efficient and logical to use the other elements, which didn't present such issues.
Thus, his points accumulated. And quickly, eight hours passed, and even Aotian began to tire of dealing with beasts.
Holding back from causing harm was countless times more exhausting and boring than simply swinging a sword to kill. Due to the difficulty and the one-day time limit to remain in the tower, he didn't know how many people would be able to unlock this mission in the end, but he was sure it wouldn't be many.
Although the first time he defeated the scorpion had been easy — since he had tricked it — from then on, no other beast fell for the same trick. Whether because the scorpion revealed what happened to its companions, or because the others already knew no one could die in the tower, all of them began to face him cautiously and with everything they had.
Restricted to the same level of power, Aotian had to put in a bit more effort each time to subdue them without causing harm.
But fortunately, his effort was rewarded.
[Unlocked missions: All.]
[Disciple: Long Aotian
Beasts defeated: 100
Beasts immobilized: 100]
Seeing the last beast disappear into golden light, Aotian stretched his back and let out a satisfied groan.
Then, he began walking calmly in a specific direction.
The guardian was there. He had seen it earlier.
Although no one knew, Aotian, as the creator of the tower, was well aware of its internal workings. The guardian only changed places every three hours, so if he saw it once, he simply needed to return and check — it might still be there.
And as expected, after flying for a few minutes, he reached the destination.
Before him, in the middle of the scorching desert, a figure slowly took shape.
It was a simple wooden puppet, dressed in black combat garments that swayed in the wind, while the doll itself remained completely still, silently awaiting the next challenger to arrive.