Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 276
Kunlun Tower Trial: Battling the Ancient Will
Cold wind howled through the steep rock crevices atop the Kunlun Sacred Mountain, whipping up swirling vortexes of pure white snow mid-air.
Looking down from the precipice thousands of feet high, the entire Kunlun mountain range coiled like a dormant white colossal dragon amidst the mortal realm. Year-round, thick mists shrouded this domain, completely isolating it from the bustling, prosperous magic metropolises far below. Yet right at the heart of this divine dragon vein stood an ancient architectural marvel, piercing directly through the gray, overcast clouds and radiating an ancient, desolate aura so stifling it took one’s breath away.
That was a nine-story ancient tower constructed entirely of primordial black stone, soaring high enough to touch the firmament—the Kunlun Ancient Tower!
Its surface was covered in greenish-gray moss, crisscrossed by countless deep claw marks left by primeval magical beasts. Every single pitch-black stone block was deeply carved with archaic magical runic scripts, and despite enduring tens of thousands of years of wind, frost, and blizzard, they still faintly emitted an ethereal fluorescent glow, continuously absorbing the essence of heaven and earth to suppress the soul veins of the sacred mountain.
At the base of the tower, two Sacred Mountain Guardian Elders dressed in simple gray linen robes stood quietly with folded hands. The fierce gale roared wildly around their bodies, yet it could not even brush against the hems of their garments; it automatically parted around these two Peak Super-level powerhouses.
Beside them, Lin Feng stood as straight as a spear thrust deep into the earth.
Having undergone the “Ice and Fire Dual Refining,” fully absorbing the essence of the Kunlun Ice Marrow, and successfully breaking through and weaving all six magic systems into the Advanced realm, Lin Feng’s temperament had completely transformed. His skin faintly gleamed with the subtle metallic luster of a Dragon God’s physical body, and his deep, dark eyes were as calm as an autumn lake, yet deep within them lay the universe-destroying might of six great Star Seas operating in endless, rolling harmony.
The gray-robed elder on the left gently stroked his long, chest-length white beard, gazing thoughtfully at Lin Feng as he spoke in a hoarse voice that sounded like grinding stones:
“Lin Feng, you have simultaneously broken through both the Space and Chaos systems to the Advanced realm, while forging a legendary Dragon God Physique rarely seen in history. Such an achievement is unprecedented for someone of your age.”
Pausing slightly, the elder’s gaze turned somewhat solemn:
“However, such a meteoric rise in realm invariably brings unpredictable hazards. Six magic systems coexisting within a single spiritual sea—if you cannot thoroughly harmonize them in actual combat, then when facing true formidable enemies, the magical energy clashes between systems will become a fatal blade piercing back into your own body. This Kunlun Ancient Tower is the most rigorous trial the Divine Land offers to those who wish to step upon the peak.”
The elder on the right also nodded, pointing toward the heavy thousand-jin stone gate closed tightly at the base of the tower:
“This tower was built back in the immemorial era. The nine floors preserve phantoms imprinted with the battle wills of senior Forbidden Curse Mages and founding war gods across the eras. Every single floor is an independent battlefield, with difficulty and pressure escalating exponentially.”
“Floors one through three are basic trials meant for early Advanced-level mages; floors four through six are thresholds that only Peak Super-level powerhouses dare to tread; and from floor seven upward...” The elder’s gaze grew exceptionally grave: “That place preserves the remnant wills of ancient Forbidden Curses in their youth or war gods possessing Half-Step Super-level might! Over the past hundred years, the supreme prodigies of the great ancient clans coming here to test themselves could at best hold their ground on the sixth floor before being miserably defeated and driven out, their meridians shattered.”
“If you feel your magical energy depleting or your soul coming under overwhelming pressure, immediately crush this jade talisman; the formation will safely transport you outside. Never force yourself blindly, understand?”
Lin Feng reached out to receive the protective jade talisman, the corners of his lips curving into a calm smile:
“Many thanks to both seniors for the reminder. This junior knows my limits.”
He tightened his grip slightly, feeling the berserk power roaring through every fiber and tendon, alongside the six brilliant Star Seas blazing within his spiritual sea. A surge of exhilaration and an intense craving for battle ignited fiercely. He needed a truly brutal battlefield to temper himself, to test just what terrifying extreme his combat power had reached now that all six systems had achieved complete Advanced mastery!
Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Feng strode straight ahead.
“Rumble, rumble, rumble...”
The millennial black stone gate slowly rose, emitting a heavy, rumbling sound like subterranean thunder. Deep darkness and a desolate aura instantly swallowed the youth’s back.
“Crash!”
The stone gate lowered, completely sealing off the exit.
Inside the Kunlun Ancient Tower.
The interior space was vastly more expansive than its outward appearance suggested; primordial mighty figures had evidently used spatial prohibition arts to expand it into a boundless, vast plain of black stone.
“Whoosh!”
The moment Lin Feng’s foot touched the center of the first floor’s grand hall, bluish ghost-fire suddenly flared all around. Ancient magical aura condensed, transforming into dozens of heavily armored warriors grasping great swords, alongside primordial magical beasts baring their fangs and brandishing claws as they charged straight toward him!
“Roar!”
The roar tore through space, a ferocious momentum rolling forth like a tsunami.
“Floors one to three... mere appetizers, are they?”
Lin Feng stood motionless in place, his black robes with purple borders fluttering gently. He didn’t even bother to blink; raising his right hand slightly, he spread his fingers wide.
Within his spiritual sea, the purple-black Lightning System Star Sea suddenly burst into blinding brilliance!
Forty-nine lightning stars linked together at the speed of light, forming a Star Diagram so intricate and flawless it defied belief. Lin Feng’s casting time for Advanced magic was now reduced to a mere blink of an eye!
“Nirvana—Lightning Storm Torrent!”
“BOOM!”
Hundreds of purple-black lightning bolts as thick as temple pillars descended straight from the void onto the stone floor! Wild thunder carrying the absolute destructive nature of Dragon Lightning swept across the black stone paving. Wherever the lightning passed, the air burned with an acrid stench, and the ground split open into deep chasms.
More than thirty ancient warriors and magical beasts on the first floor didn’t even manage to close within thirty meters before being pulverized into energy dust by the purple-black lightning torrent, vanishing without a trace!
Cleared in a single strike!
The vortex of light leading to the second floor instantly opened up.
Lin Feng didn’t pause for even half a beat, his figure transforming into a blur as he charged straight up to the upper level.
Second floor: A pack of primordial magic wolves with terrifying speed, coordinating with magical archer phantoms that fired volleys of icy arrows. Lin Feng didn’t bother defending, directly activating the Advanced Fire System.
Smoldering Dragon Flames—Nine Palaces Fire Refining!
Golden-yellow flames blazed to the skies, nine gigantic pillars of fire shooting straight toward the tower ceiling, turning the entire second floor into a brilliant sea of lava fire. Every single ice arrow vaporized into nothingness the moment it touched the thousands-of-degrees heat of the Dragon Flames. Amidst despairing howls, the pack of magic wolves was completely incinerated!
Third floor: Hundreds of soul-attribute warrior phantoms, invisible and intangible, lunged forward attempting to devour the intruder’s soul.
Lin Feng let out a cold snort as the Shadow System’s aura erupted:
“Dark Night Return to Ghost Domain—Demon Shadow Slaughter!”
A region of absolute darkness blanketed the entire tower hall, swallowing all light. Lin Feng merged flawlessly into the darkness like an underworld lord. Countless razor-sharp shadow blades stabbed upward from the floor, tearing every single remnant soul phantom apart in the blink of an eye.
From floor one to floor three, the total time Lin Feng consumed was less than thirty seconds!
Outside the Kunlun Ancient Tower.
The two Sacred Mountain Guardian Elders were still standing side by side, holding wine gourds in hand, preparing to take a sip.
“Whoosh!”
The magical precious pearl representing the first floor on the tower body suddenly blazed with dazzling brilliance!
Before the two elders could even open their mouths to comment, the pearl of the second floor continued to shine brilliantly!
And right after that, separated by barely a single breath, the pearl of the third floor also emitted a soul-shaking radiance!
“Pfft!”
The gray-robed elder on the right nearly spat out the mouthful of wine he had just swallowed, his eyes bulging as he stared fixedly at the ancient tower:
“What... what is this?! The first three floors... wiped clean in just a few breaths?!”
The elder on the left was likewise stunned, his hand stroking his beard freezing mid-air, ripping out several strands of white beard without even realizing it:
“Such speed... even a Super-level mage using overwhelming magic couldn’t clear stages this fast! Doesn’t he even need time to rest and recover magical energy?!”
Inside the tower, Lin Feng’s footsteps had already stepped onto the fourth floor.
From the fourth floor onward, the atmosphere was completely different. The magical pressure weighed down like tens of thousands of catties of lead upon one’s shoulders, and the air grew so dense that even breathing became laborious.
Before Lin Feng stood six gigantic statues clad in state-guarding battle armor. These were phantoms of six founding Grand Mages from previous generations, each proficient in an elemental system pushed to the Advanced peak!
“Intruder, withdraw!”
The majestic, thunderous shout echoed throughout the tower floor. The six Grand Mages simultaneously formed hand seals, six Advanced Star Palas simultaneously erupting in brilliant light, weaving into a comprehensive offensive-defensive interconnected barrier: frost locking the earth, fierce winds tearing the sky, massive boulders plunging down like meteorites, alongside countless fireballs and lightning strikes weaving an inescapable net of destruction!
This pressure was enough to cause any Peak Super-level mage to despair and collapse.
Yet facing such a terrifying formation, the corners of Lin Feng’s lips curled into an arrogant smile.
“Time to test the two new systems.”
“Whoosh!”
Lin Feng’s spiritual sea trembled. The silver and ash-gray Star Seas that had been resting peacefully suddenly awakened!
Seven hundred and twenty Space and Chaos stars revolved in esoteric orbits, generating exquisite spatial ripples around his body.
“Space System—Inch of Land!”
Lin Feng’s figure abruptly blurred and vanished entirely right in front of those destructive magical strikes. The coordinated combo attack of the six phantoms struck empty air, exploding into violent shockwaves that tore the stone floor apart.
When Lin Feng reappeared, he was already standing towering right at the epicenter of the enemy’s formation!
“Advanced Chaos System—Chaos Refraction!”
Lin Feng swept his sleeve, and a mysterious ash-gray vortex expanded outward, engulfing the entire hundred-meter radius. Physical and magical rules were instantly bent out of shape completely!
The auxiliary ice and fire magic unleashed by the phantoms, upon touching the Chaos mist domain, had their trajectories inverted by 180 degrees, snapping backward to blast straight into the very people who had cast them!
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
Heaven-shaking explosions rang out. The six Grand Mage phantoms completely failed to anticipate the bizarre mutability of the Chaos System, their defensive formation instantly plunging into severe chaos.
“Space—Stellar Cleaver!”
Lin Feng raised his hand and slashed horizontally into the void.
A transparent silver spatial blade over ten zhang long, formed from spatial fissures compressed to their absolute limit, swept across the battlefield carrying the might to slice all things apart!
“Crack! Crack! Crack!”
No magical shield or heavy armor could withstand the executioner’s slash of spatial rules. All six founding Grand Mage phantoms were cleaved off at the waist by the spatial blade, shattering into countless glittering crystalline fragments that dissolved into nothingness.
Floor four, cleared!
Without catching his breath, Lin Feng strode forward, charging straight into the fifth and sixth floors.
On the fifth floor, the opponents were a pack of ancient Commander-level summoned beasts summoned from an ancient spatial gate. Lin Feng summoned the dimensional gate, releasing Dragon God majesty alongside Nirvana Lightning, coordinating with the Shadow demon blade’s sweeping strikes to overwhelm the entire beast pack in under two minutes.
Ascending to the sixth floor, he confronted the phantoms of three ancient Grand Generals whose tactical magical coordination reached supernatural heights. Yet under the smooth, infinitely mutable circulation of Lin Feng’s six Advanced magic systems—using Space to evade, Chaos to disperse damage, and then combining Lightning and Fire in a devastating combo—the three ancient generals were ultimately smashed to pieces!
Outside the Kunlun Ancient Tower.
The entire Kunlun Sacred Mountain fell into a deathly silence.
The fourth-floor pearl lit up...
The fifth-floor pearl blazed with light...
And at this moment, the sixth-floor pearl also radiated a dazzling emerald glow, illuminating an entire corner of the snowy white heavens!
The time elapsed since Lin Feng stepped into the tower... was barely a single cup of tea’s duration!
“Good heavens...”
The gray-robed elder on the left staggered back half a step, his gaze fixed upward on the sixth floor of the ancient tower filled with extreme shock:
“A cup of tea’s duration... He cleared six floors in a single cup of tea?! This is an unprecedented record in the thousand-year history of the Kunlun Tower!”
The gray-robed elder on the right turned pale, his voice trembling:
“Not just speed... Can you feel it? The magical energy fluctuations emanating from inside the tower possess six completely distinct element types! He hasn’t merely advanced all six systems to the Advanced level, but he circulates them as smoothly as an arm directing a finger! This monster... exactly what kind of freak of nature is he?!”
The two Peak Super-level powerhouses looked at each other, mountainous waves of shock surging uncontrollably within their hearts. They had originally brought Lin Feng here to trim down the young man’s arrogance, to make him understand the vastness of heaven and earth. Yet the reality unfolding before them felt like a resounding slap to the pride of these aged guardians!
“However... the seventh and eighth floors are the true deathly forbidden grounds.” The elder on the left took a deep breath, staring fixedly at the seventh-floor pearl: “That place holds the wills of primordial Forbidden Curses when they possessed Half-Step Super-level strength. No matter how peerless a genius, facing Half-Step Super-level rules leaves only the fate of being crushed...”
Floor seven of the Kunlun Ancient Tower.
The temperature here abruptly plummeted to absolute freezing, yet the space brimmed with rumbling thunder and dazzling golden light tearing through the hazy mist.
The seventh floor’s space was no longer a conventional stone hall, but a desolate lightning arena amidst a sea of clouds.
At the center of the arena stood an extraordinarily tall figure clad in ancient golden battle robes with arms crossed. In that person’s hand was a golden spear measuring over a zhang and two feet long, its entire shaft intertwined with thousands of berserk golden lightning bolts, emitting heart-shaking crackling sounds.
The aura radiating from this figure was as massive and tyrannical as an immovable Mount Tai—Half-Step Super-level!
That was the will phantom of the “Heaven-Destroying War God”—a legendary double-system Lightning and Gold Forbidden Curse Mage renowned across the world since the immemorial era!
“Junior, being able to reach the seventh floor makes you worthy of pride.” The Heaven-Destroying War God’s phantom slowly raised its head, its golden eyes condensing sharp, piercing light as they locked onto Lin Feng: “Yet stepping into this place leaves only two outcomes: defeated and driven out, or soul pulverized!”
“Whoosh!”
Before the words even faded, the Heaven-Destroying War God’s figure vanished abruptly!
This wasn’t ordinary movement speed, but a lightning burst tearing through space!
The golden lightning spear thrust straight toward Lin Feng’s chest, its tip spiraling to form a gigantic electrical drill over ten meters long, its sharpness and berserk force so extreme that black vacuum cracks appeared in the surrounding space!
The might of this single strike far exceeded ordinary Advanced magic, touching the threshold of Super-level destruction.
Facing that earth-shattering executioner’s strike, Lin Feng did not retreat. Standing towering in place, his eyes blazed with soaring battle intent!
“So what if it’s Half-Step Super-level?!”
“Space Star Palas—Falling Void Domain!”
Lin Feng roared, his Advanced Space System magical energy erupting to the absolute limit!
Countless layers of invisible spatial barriers materialized right before the golden lightning spear tip. Every single inch the spear advanced encountered the thousand-jin resistance of compressed space. The Heaven-Destroying War God’s terrifying speed was immediately slowed down noticeably!
Simultaneously, Lin Feng’s right hand condensed all his purple-black Nirvana Dragon Lightning, his Dragon God physique exerting force as muscles bulged like a sacred dragon stretching its form. Dispensing with his magic staff, he directly hurled his lightning-wrapped fist in a brutal strike against the spear shaft!
“CLANG—BOOM!”
The metallic impact sounded like a thousand-jin bronze bell shattering!
The shockwave from the collision blew away all the mist surrounding the seventh floor, splitting the black stone ground into a deep crater a hundred meters in diameter.
The Heaven-Destroying War God staggered back three steps, golden eyes revealing undisguised disbelief. He never expected an Advanced-level human to possess a physical body terrifying enough to dare intercept the full-power strike of the golden lightning spear bare-handed!
“My turn!”
Lin Feng roared, transforming into a lightning flash to close the distance in a blink. The Six Great Magics circulated to their peak: Shadow clones deceived vision, Chaos bent defensive trajectories, and the Primordial Dragon Flame combined with Nirvana Lightning to unleash a heaven-shaking “Lightning-Fire Dragon Fist”!
“BOOM!”
Lin Feng’s fist pierced right through the Heaven-Destroying War God’s golden breastplate! The destructive eruptive power exploded from within, shattering the Half-Step Super-level phantom into millions of brilliant rays of light!
Floor seven... broken!
The stone stairway leading to the eighth floor descended, and Lin Feng stepped upon the smoke-and-fire-scorched stone steps, proudly marching up to the next level!
Floor eight of the Kunlun Ancient Tower.
There was no lightning here, no crimson fire, only an endless expanse of white as howling winds and blizzards raged.
An elegant figure clad in pale blue robes stood amidst the snowstorm, long hair fluttering wildly in the cold wind. Around that person, countless swirling currents of water and razor-sharp snowflakes slowly rotated according to an esoteric law.
“Kunlun Mystic Venerable!”
Lin Feng recognized this person’s title from the stone tablet erected at the corner of the hall. This was the primordial Forbidden Curse Mage who had once single-handedly guarded Kunlun, cultivating the dual Wind-Water systems to heaven-reaching heights, standing half a step away from touching Super-level rules!
The Kunlun Mystic Venerable phantom did not utter a single superfluous word. The moment Lin Feng stepped up, the senior’s hands slowly raised.
“Rumble, rumble, rumble!”
The entire space of the eighth floor abruptly turned upside down! Gale-force winds tearing the canopy of heaven combined with a great tidal wave of ice and snow to condense into nine gigantic white snow dragons hundreds of meters long. Each ice dragon carried the power to freeze souls and crush mortal bodies!
Immemorial forbidden art—”Ice Dragon Snowstorm Tidal Wave”!
The nine ice dragons roared, sealing off all of Lin Feng’s escape routes from nine different directions, madly lunging down to bury him in eternal death.
The suffocating, crushing pressure enveloped Lin Feng. The magical defense barrier surrounding him began developing fractures under the rule pressure of the Half-Step Super-level crushing down.
At that split second of life and death, Lin Feng’s mind attained absolute stillness.
He closed his eyes.
The surrounding space seemed to freeze in time. The Space Star Sea and Chaos Star Sea within his spiritual sea began resonating with one another at an unprecedented frequency!
“Space is the measure of all things...”
“Chaos is the origin of order and reversal...”
Lin Feng snapped his eyes open, his pupils suddenly transforming into one side of pure silver and the other of mysterious ash-gray!
“Chaos Refraction—Ultimate Reversal!”
Space Annihilation—Myriad Realms Backlash!
“BOOM!”
An invisible shockwave carrying combined Chaos and Space rules erupted from Lin Feng’s body, sweeping across all nine snow dragon tides!
A miraculous sight unfolded!
The space surrounding the nine ice dragons abruptly warped, fracturing into countless bizarre angles. Under the influence of the ultimate Chaos rules, the massive magical energy current controlling the beast pack was entirely inverted!
The nine ice dragons roared in agony, their colossal bodies abruptly spinning 180 degrees, carrying the full destructive might of the immemorial forbidden art... charging backward to attack the Kunlun Mystic Venerable phantom itself!
“What?!”
The expressionless face of the Kunlun Mystic Venerable phantom revealed utter shock for the very first time. Rushing to form hand seals, it erected layers upon layers of defensive water-veil barriers, yet how could it possibly withstand the full-power might of a forbidden spell it had cast itself?
“CRACK—BOOM!”
The nine snow dragon tides crashed into the water-veil barriers, exploding into a terrifying energy storm that tore the eighth floor’s space apart!
Right at the epicenter of the chaotic snowstorm, a dark figure tore through the wind like lightning!
Lin Feng appeared right above the Kunlun Mystic Venerable’s head, his right fist condensing Primordial Dragon Flame blazing to its absolute limit, smashing straight down from above!
“Break for me!”
“BOOM—!”
A heaven-shaking explosion!
The phantom of the Half-Step Super-level primordial Forbidden Curse failed to evade in time, directly pulverized into ashes by the punch containing Dragon God might and destructive flames!
The blizzard subsided, and the eighth-floor stone hall returned to its pristine silence.
Lin Feng stood upright in the center of the battlefield, his chest heaving as he panted, yet his eyes shone as bright as night stars, his overwhelming momentum completely uncontainable!
Floor eight... completely conquered!
“BONG—!”
Suddenly, from atop the Kunlun Ancient Tower, an ancient, sonorous bell rang out, tearing through ten thousand miles of cloudy mist!
“BONG—!”
“BONG—!”
The bell did not stop, continuing to ring out in endless succession!
Four rings... five rings... six rings... seven rings... eight rings...
And then...
“BONG— — —!”
The ninth bell peal reverberated thunderously, like the genesis thunder of creation shaking ten thousand miles of the Kunlun snow mountains! Visible sound waves radiating from the tower top swept across the snowy peaks, causing countless primordial magical beasts hidden deep within the mountain crevices to cower upon the ground in terror and tremble!
At the base of the tower.
The two Sacred Mountain Guardian Elders stood frozen like two stone statues, the wine gourd in the gray-robed elder’s hand dropping with a thud onto the white snow long ago.
“Nine... nine peals of the ninefold heavens...”
The gray-robed elder on the left stammered in a tremble, bloodshot eyes staring upward at the tower summit, his voice choked in his throat:
“Nine peals of the Kunlun Bell converging! Absolute flawless clearance rating... He... a youth not yet twenty years old, has single-handedly conquered the eighth floor of the Kunlun Ancient Tower?!”
The gray-robed elder on the right looked up toward the heavens, bursting into a laugh that was both bitter and fanatical:
“Heaven has eyes! My Divine Land has ultimately birthed a true colossal dragon! For a hundred years, not a single soul could ever ascend to the ninth floor... Yet today...”
Inside the Kunlun Ancient Tower.
Right at the center of the eighth floor, the black stone floor suddenly split apart into two halves.
A stone stairway emitting brilliant golden light slowly rose, leading straight up to the supreme ninth floor—a place where no living soul had ever set foot for a full thousand years!
From the top of the stairway, a primordial, mystical, and majestic aura far surpassing anything Lin Feng had ever witnessed slowly cascaded downward, accompanied by primeval whispers echoing from the chaotic dawn of time...
Lin Feng took a deep breath, wiping the sweat from his forehead, his gaze fixed straight ahead upon the golden stairway.
The ninth floor... what heaven-shaking secret of the Kunlun Sacred Mountain was ultimately concealed within?