Chapter 28: The Trial Tower (I)

Both Jiang Qian and Qin Tian were entering the Trial Tower for the first time, meaning they were both required to start from the first floor. For both of them, however, every floor below the four-thousandth could be cleared with a single strike. Once the monsters on each level were slain, that floor would illuminate, though the color of the light varied from person to person.

Soon, the siblings reached the four-thousandth floor. For Jiang Qian, whose cultivation had reached the peak of the Profound King Realm, this level had little impact on her. She turned to Qin Tian and said, "Junior brother, keep it up! Big sister will be waiting for you ahead."

With that, she brandished her precious sword and charged forward. The space within each level of the Trial Tower was vast, and the monsters on each floor possessed different strengths—the higher one climbed, the more formidable they became. Initially, Jiang Qian could dispatch these beasts with a single stroke of her blade, but after passing the four-thousand-five-hundredth floor, the monsters' defensive capabilities became astonishing, making one-hit kills nearly impossible.

She realized she had to use the Heavenly Dao Array to suppress the monsters' strength to achieve a single-strike victory. As the monsters grew even stronger, even with her sword techniques combined with arrays, she could no longer kill them instantly. Only then did she understand why her master had taught her the Heavenly Dao Array. As an Array Dao Body, practicing swordsmanship was essentially a detour, so she was forced to further comprehend the Heavenly Dao Array.

Liao Chen’s teachings on the Heavenly Dao Array were divided into twelve major realms: Array Initiation, Array Minor Mastery, Array Great Mastery, Array Grandmaster, Array Great Grandmaster, Array Spirit Immortal, Array True Immortal, Array Golden Immortal, Array Daluo Golden Immortal, Array Emperor Immortal, Array Heavenly Emperor, and Array Dharma God.

At present, Jiang Qian’s mastery was only at the Minor Mastery stage. The Heaven and Earth arrays she cast could only mobilize a small range of spiritual energy, sufficient for slaying ordinary beasts but ineffective against those above the Divine Ability Realm, which had already condensed demonic cores. Standard arrays simply could not kill such beasts in one blow.

Fortunately, Jiang Qian found the Heavenly Dao Array intuitive. She quickly identified the problem: her arrays lacked power because her deployment speed was too slow to construct complex formations. From then on, she spent every moment carving array seals so they could be deployed instantly. However, storing these seals became a new challenge. After much thought, she realized her Qi Sea was the perfect vessel, and her experiments proved her correct. With a stockpile of seals, she could construct complex arrays in an instant, and under the power of these formations, she could once again slay powerful Divine Ability Realm beasts with a single strike.

Jiang Qian was overjoyed, never imagining arrays could be used in such a way. She soon reached the five-thousandth floor. However, the Profound King Realm beasts were even more resilient, and her previous arrays failed once more, plunging her into frustration. By her estimation, she had reached the Great Mastery realm, yet she felt it shameful that she could not instantly kill beasts of her own cultivation level.

Of course, this was only her own standard; if others knew her thoughts, they would have been tempted to beat her, as few cultivators ever reach the Great Mastery of Arrays in their lifetime. Jiang Qian was not yet twenty, and such an expert was a rare sight even across the entire Qianyuan Continent.

She stopped to further contemplate the Heavenly Dao Array. The teachings revealed that to become an Array Grandmaster, one had to master at least ten mature arrays and integrate them into a composite formation. In short, she no longer needed to store just seals, but entire arrays. This was a challenge, as storing an array in one's Qi Sea was usually seen as madness—a single mistake would see the array crushed by the vast, black-hole-like pressure of the Qi Sea.

She realized the only potential vessel was her Sea of Consciousness. Initially, the space rejected her attempts, but after hundreds of failures, she discovered that while spiritual seals could not be formed there, "soul seals" could be constructed with ease. By creating arrays of soul seals in her Sea of Consciousness and then substituting them with spiritual seals upon deployment, she succeeded.

System: "Ding! Congratulations to host’s disciple Jiang Qian for reaching the Array Grandmaster realm. Awarding the host fifty million cultivation experience points, one hundred top-grade Linglong Array Towers, one million top-grade Sixth-Rank Soul-Replenishing Pills, and one million top-grade Sixth-Rank Soul-Condensing Pills. Rewards have been distributed; please check your inventory."

Liao Chen was delighted that his disciple’s breakthrough had brought him such rewards. He examined the Linglong Array Tower and realized it was a defensive and offensive artifact that could greatly amplify Jiang Qian's arrays. As for the pills, they were perfect for repairing and strengthening the soul.

Meanwhile, Qin Tian had fewer worries. As a Peerless Sword Body, his path was one of slaughter. Though his cultivation was at the completion of the Divine Ability Realm, his sword path had stalled at the Minor Mastery stage, creating a mismatch in his strength. To overcome this, he began to study his Heavenly Dao Sword Art.

The Heavenly Dao Sword Art also consisted of twelve layers, beginning with Initiation and progressing through Sword Minor Mastery, Great Mastery, Grandmaster, Great Grandmaster, Spirit Immortal, True Immortal, Golden Immortal, Daluo Golden Immortal, Emperor Immortal, Heavenly Emperor, and Sword God.

After refining his understanding, Qin Tian realized that sword energy was merely the control of spiritual power. When he unleashed thirty-six streaks of sword energy, they formed a spiritual field—a Sword Domain. To expand this domain without exhausting his energy, he followed the guidance of the Heavenly Dao Sword Art: to cultivate a "Sword Sea" within his Qi Sea. By filling his entire Qi Sea with sword energy, he transformed it into a vast ocean of blades. With his keen intellect, Qin Tian accomplished this, and his sword path naturally reached the realm of Great Mastery.