Wu Yu soon had a taste of the challenges he would have to overcome to reach the eighth level of the Ancient Soul Tower.
The higher he went, the stronger the light was. Towards the end, he was no different from moving blind despite having his Eyes of Fire and Gold. He couldn"t see anything at all!
What was intercepting, stopping, and attacking him was a type of "light thorn." It was something that was formed from white light and had a range of sizes. The largest could be as thick as a pillar, rumbling as it went by Wu Yu. As for the smallest, it would just be the size of a needle, not making any sound when moving.
Regardless of whether it was the large light pillars or the minuscule light needles, they were formed from highly concentrated light rays. Above Wu Yu, they were densely packed and shot down towards another direction.
The distances between these light thorns was diminutive.
When one was. .h.i.t by the light thorn, it would disintegrate. The larger the size, the greater the number of divisions. Immediately after, they would penetrate one"s five organs, six viscerals, and even bones. Eventually, they would dissipate as pure light. Nonetheless, the damage to one"s physical body, Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy, and even Primordial Spirit were immense.
This challenge was way harder to defend against compared to the earlier levels. In this place, only eighth tier Dao Querying cultivators could possibly make it through the challenge. Furthermore, it was unlikely that they could bring outsiders along.
It was indeed an uphill task for Wu Yu to successfully complete the challenge and reach the eighth level.
The light thorns couldn"t be seen or felt. Although one could still judge from the sounds they made, the environment of this place was filled with such sounds. It was hard to tell if one was about to be hit, and the s.p.a.ce for them to dodge was extremely limited. In fact, one might be in the situation where they would still be hit by light thorns regardless of the direction they chose to dodge in.
If an ordinary seventh tier Dao Querying cultivator dared to approach this area, they would likely become a beehive within five breaths of time.
After all, it was harder to see ahead in this place than in the sixth level of the Ancient Soul Tower.
Wu Yu wasn"t intimidated. After all, he could shrink his body with the Lawful Embodiment of Heaven and Earth and increase his speed. This was a huge advantage for him. At the same time, he had the Swift Art. Although he couldn"t see clearly, his Eyes of Fire and Gold enabled him to see a little clearer than others within a short distance ahead of him. Therefore, while moving between the light thorns, he was still able to move pretty freely. There was only one occasion where he couldn"t dodge in time and was. .h.i.t by a needle-sized light thorn on his arm.
Even with his Vairocana Vajra Buddha Body, the light thorn almost made it through. Fortunately, Wu Yu successfully suppressed the explosion of the light thorn. Even so, he was gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth in pain and a blood stain could be seen on his arm.
He knew that other eighth tier Dao Querying cultivators were definitely relying on their Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy to cast dao techniques or were using it to steer their seraphic dao treasures as they charged upwards. Wu Yu"s Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy was a far cry from theirs, so he could only rely on his advantage in the toughness of his physical body to mitigate the number of times he was. .h.i.t.
Initially, Wu Yu"s confidence was growing as he was only hit occasionally. Although it was painful and the situation was perilous, he didn"t feel like it would be a big issue.
However, unexpected to him, the higher he went, the quicker the light thorns were and the stronger they were. He didn"t know how much further he had to fly up. As he continued, the number of times he was. .h.i.t was also increasing rapidly. Often, Wu Yu was. .h.i.t consecutively, and the number of wounds on him grew larger and larger.
"It won"t do if this goes on!" He felt trapped.
"Why don"t you just give up? I don"t think you will make it, so don’t push yourself over the top. There"s nothing to gain from this. Let"s just escape from this place with the Somersault Cloud." Ming Long was fond of such disheartening words and wasn"t showing any mercy at this point....
"No." Wu Yu was indifferent. He endured the pain and focused fully to dodge. At the same time, he accelerated to his quickest speed while travelling between the light thorns, sometimes moving up and quickly dropping down to dodge. Within a breath of time, his position would change countless times. An ordinary man wouldn"t be able to see his trail.
His will was outstanding, and whenever faced with something that seemed impossible, he would think of other alternatives.
Although the light thorns that shrouded the sky were frightening, he wasn"t impaled to the point of death yet. As long as he didn"t die, he would probably continue charging upwards.
Obviously, he also suffered from his obstinacy. As he reached a higher height, he was getting slower. The key was that he was getting hit more and more frequently. At his height, he still didn"t know how far he was from the eighth level. However, other than his eyes, almost all parts of his body had been hit by the light thorns. His recovery speed couldn"t match up to the speed his body was getting ripped apart.
The burning sensation throughout his body was undoubtedly a terrifying stimulation.
"You still aren"t giving up? Are you really courting your death? I have raised you to this level, you better not die on me here!" Ming Long was still concerned about her rebirth.
Wu Yu didn"t answer her and didn"t have the time to do so. In his world, there were only sharp thorns and dodging. He had almost forgotten about everything while he focused solely on going against these sharp thorns. Dodging successfully would be a success, while being hit would be failure. Now he was in a constant state of successes and failures.
"You are just like a puppet when you get obstinate, not fearing death at all. Alright, I"ll give you a reminder. Why don"t you think about why you constantly failed to reach the third tier of the Somersault Cloud? Perhaps this could help you?" said Ming Long.
Her words were like a loud boom to the fully focused Wu Yu that was battling the increasingly denser light thorns. The truth was, he had lots of areas where he couldn"t understand the third tier. Nonetheless, he was at a crucial stage. He felt like he was just separated by a layer of paper and was exceptionally close to it. In other words, his inability to understand the final point was causing him not to reach the new tier.
His current situation, the whole sky of light thorns, him avoiding them desperately, and the words from Ming Long jolted Wu Yu"s memories about the Somersault Cloud.
"Oh, right.... So that"s how it is...."
This sudden enlightenment with the gloom dispersing pushed Wu Yu to the verge of tears. The feeling of having all his doubts resolved was like experiencing a sunny day after several dozen days of thunderstorms. It was refres.h.i.+ng and he was on cloud nine.
"Fulgurating Shadows could be like this as well."
The third tier of the Somersault Cloud was also known as Fulgurating Shadows.
Previously, Wu Yu only knew it would be an extension of the second tier of the Somersault Cloud. The unfamiliar words gave him a mysterious feeling, but he was lacking the most basic understanding of it and didn"t know how to take a step forward. Now, recollecting the previous events, he knew where he should be heading towards for the Fulgurating Shadows under the dense sky of light thorns. When he thought this through, all the doubts from before started vanis.h.i.+ng rapidly. His understanding of the third tier of Somersault Cloud became exceptionally clear.
Just like the sky of a sunny day!
Once he grasped this, he wasn"t too far from the third tier. Now Wu Yu just had to execute it.
If the second tier was to cross a dimension once, Fulgurating Shadows would be to do so countless times. Moreover, they were done consecutively within a very short timeframe. When these changes were controlled within a small area, Wu Yu"s body would be moving in and out of different dimensions around him before returning to the Jambu Realm. He would constantly leave and return as he moved ahead, sometimes moving just a foot. However, as he was doing these so rapidly, it would be like him leaving numerous clones behind.
Obviously, most of them were just afterimages. Therefore, everyone knew that these weren"t his clones, but countless shadows. The more times he jumped, the more shadows he would create. When he formed countless shadows within a small area, it would look just like he was phasing in and out.
When he was practicing the martial way in the past, there was a movement technique that shared the same name. However, the difference between it and the profound dao and mystique was like the difference between heaven and earth.
Wu Yu looked like he was trembling, constantly appearing in multiple locations. It was hard to tell where he truly was and therefore hard to really land an attack on him.
He had fused the Somersault Cloud into every corner of his body, was separately steering the Somersault Cloud, and fusing it back into one. He was using the Somersault Cloud to constantly move between alternate dimensions and reality, phasing through dimensions countless times.
The truth was that the first tier, second tier, and third tier of the Somersault Cloud were all built on the same dao while constantly improving. The first tier was about steering it to escape but also involved momentary dimensional phasing. The second tier was about swiftly making a large leap, while the third tier was more profound and consisted of constant short distance phases. The Somersault Cloud had many other tiers ahead, and Wu Yu was looking forward to them.
Even now, Wu Yu was benefitting extensively. While using Fulgurating Shadows, the light thorns barely hit him. He had the time to choose where he would want to appear next. Although it was still step-wise, the number of times he was. .h.i.t had decreased to less than one-thirtieth.
Now Wu Yu was confident he could make it to the eighth level of the Ancient Soul Tower. Perhaps he was using a different method to reach the eighth level of the Ancient Soul Tower. He wasn"t just enduring the challenge directly, but it didn"t matter. What mattered was the outcome!
Moreover, the light thorns were hugely useful for him to hone the third tier of the Somersault Cloud. As Wu Yu made his way up, the bombardment of light thorns became denser, quicker, more powerful, and more ferocious. However, as Wu Yu constantly improved, the number of times he was. .h.i.t didn"t increase. Instead, it was decreasing. When he was finally in tune, he suddenly realized that the light thorns had dropped drastically at a single moment.
"Stinky brat, I just helped you. Shouldn"t you be thanking me?" Ming Long laughed sheepishly.
"Why don"t I offer my body to you?"
"Nonsense. You don"t even have the guts to screw that little phoenix. I, your old mother, am not interested in you. However, it would be fun to play around with you. I wouldn"t like it if you were too proactive."
Wu Yu realized he couldn"t win against her in teasing.
Nonetheless, he knew that he had arrived on the eighth level of Ancient Soul Tower when he saw a huge change to the well-lit environment.
The moment he arrived, he was dumbfounded by what he saw.