Chương 10: Defy the heaven

Ch 10: Defy the heaven

"This old man is trying to kill me," I muttered, folding the map and tucking it into my robe. Complaining wasn't going to change the destination. If the Vortexian Patriarch believed I could reach the third floor of the Magic Tower in five days, there had to be a reason for it. I didn't waste time finding out, I ran.. Baskerville valued results over attendance, fortunately.

Skipping lectures wasn't against the rules as long as a student kept getting stronger, and for the better part of an hour I cut across the grounds at a dead sprint, trees blurring past on either side while students glanced my way and went back to their business. Then a shadow the size of a small mountain fell across the ground ahead of me, and I slowed to look up at it.

"Magnificent." The Magic Tower stood there in silver, ancient runes flowing across its walls like living rivers. Whatever towers Earth had built looked crude next to it. This wasn't a building. It felt like something breathing. I stepped toward the entrance, and pain tore through my chest before I'd even crossed the threshold.

"Urgh—" Sweat broke across my forehead as decades of memory surged up all at once the Tower back on Earth, friends who never made it home, the screaming, the betrayal, the dark.

"So," I said, letting out a bitter laugh once it passed.

"More traumatized than I thought." I clenched my fists.

"No. This isn't the Tower that killed me. This is a different world. This time, I don't lose." I walked inside. The interior was entirely white no walls, no ceiling, no visible end to it anywhere. A mechanical voice echoed through the emptiness.

"Choose your challenge difficulty: Easy. Medium. Hard. Nightgrave." Each tier raised the danger and the reward together. Most students chose Easy. The bold chose Hard, where death simply sent you back to try again. Nightgrave was different almost no one touched it, because whoever entered it died in real time, no second chances offered. I looked at the last option and smiled.

"Nightgrave." The white space shattered around me. When my vision cleared, I stood inside a vast stone labyrinth, cold air sweeping down endless corridors.

"First Floor Challenge: Destroy the Labyrinth Core."

"So all I need is the core," I said. Simple enough, or so I thought. Twenty minutes in, I hadn't found a single clue. The walls themselves were moving the maze was alive. Then something pulsed behind my eyes, and gold light flooded my vision so suddenly I had to cover my face. The feeling was familiar. The Eyes of Apex had reacted like this once before, back in the courtyard the day Father died. This time the light came on brighter than ever.

"System." Eyes of Apex has evolved: Divine God's Eye Abilities: - Detect an enemy's vital points. - Analyze the cultivation of targets up to three realms higher. - Reveal hidden paths and fortunate opportunities. My breath caught.

"Three realms higher?" That alone was heaven-defying. Before I could process it further, golden mist rose through the labyrinth, forming a narrow trail ahead of me.

"It's guiding me." I followed without hesitation. Strangely, not a single monster crossed my path the entire way, as if fate itself had cleared the road ahead of me. A few minutes later, the trail stopped at a cracked stone wall, thin rays of light bleeding through the gaps.

"This is it." I drew my sword. BOOM. The wall came apart, shaking the whole labyrinth. Rocks fell from somewhere above as a massive iron gate ground open, and a notification unfolded in front of me. Hidden Boss Encounter: Defeat the Orc Commodore Cultivation: Immortal Realm Third Leaf Rewards: Synchronization +0. 5%, Lucky Draw"Immortal Realm?" I nearly laughed.

"Are they serious?" The gate opened fully onto a battlefield stretching out beyond sight, nearly a hundred armored Orc soldiers standing in perfect formation. At their center sat a green giant nearly four meters tall, a colossal battle axe resting across his shoulders. His crimson eyes opened.

"Guess there's no turning back," I said, and raised my sword.

"Let's hunt." The next several minutes blurred together into pure motion. My cultivation was still pitiful by this world's standards, but my swordsmanship belonged to the Sword God, decades deep, and it showed with every stroke. One Orc fell. Then another. Then another thirty, forty, fifty bodies piling across the battlefield before my legs finally gave out from under me.

"Damn." Every drop of mana in me was gone. Even breathing hurt. The remaining Orcs closed in, and for a moment death felt close enough to touch. I forced myself back to my feet anyway.

"I didn't come this far to die." Mother. The sect. Ellia. Everyone who'd already accepted me in this life.

"I'll protect all of it. I'll kill anyone who stands in the way." Crimson aura erupted from my body without warning. Legacy Skill Activated: Berserk State Strength flooded through every muscle at once, exhaustion and pain simply gone. Only the fight remained. I smiled, and disappeared. Blood rained across the battlefield after that. One Orc. Ten. Twenty. Fifty. None survived. When the crimson mist finally cleared, only the Orc Commodore was left standing, and I was drenched in blood that mostly wasn't mine.

The giant raised his axe. I smiled.

"Come." He charged with a roar, and I drank the recovery potion I'd bought from the academy's alchemy lab, warm mana trickling back into me not much, but enough. The axe fell. BOOM. I barely blocked it, the ground shattering beneath my feet from the impact alone. Every clash pushed me a little closer to death; his raw strength outmatched mine completely.

"Can't win like this," I realized, the Berserk State already fading. An idea surfaced through the haze. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Dragon Slayer." I poured every remaining drop of mana into the blade until it trembled.

"First Verse." A dragon's roar tore across the battlefield as the crimson slash cut through the air. SHING. The Orc's arm flew loose, and he screamed in agony Dragon Slayer inflicted true fear along with the wound, and for five seconds he froze exactly as I needed him to. The Divine God's Eye activated on instinct. Golden lines spread across his body until one point burned brighter than every other his heart.

"Found you." I vanished, one final slash ending it. Silence. His body split apart and collapsed. Congratulations. Hidden Boss defeated. Rewards Obtained: - Synchronization increased to 13. 55% - Berserk Legacy restored For five minutes, all physical abilities increase by 30%. After expiration, the user enters extreme fatigue. - Lucky Draw ×1 The battlefield dissolved around me.

"I actually survived," I said weakly, before the dark took me. When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on the first floor of the Magic Tower, sunlight spilling through the entrance behind me.

"Morning?" The System answered before I finished the thought. Elapsed Time: 10 Hours"Ten hours?!" I shot upright, every muscle screaming.

"Only four days left." Ignoring the pain, I opened the Lucky Draw straight away. The wheel spun through Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythic, refusing to slow down.

"Come on." BING. The wheel exploded into gold. JACKPOT!! Reward Obtained: Defy the Heaven Pill Grade: Mythic++ My pupils shrank.

"Mythic... plus plus?" I'd seen Mythic-grade treasures before the kind emperors fought wars over. There wasn't even an official rank above that in the System's known classification, and here it was anyway. With trembling hands, I opened the description. Defy the Heaven Pill Grade: Mythic++ A pill that defies the natural laws of cultivation. Upon consumption, the user's Avatar will evolve by one complete Realm, ignoring all cultivation requirements and restrictions. Silence. I read it once. Twice.

A third time, in case I'd misunderstood something. I hadn't.

"One entire Realm," I said. Not a single Leaf. Not a temporary boost. A direct evolution to the next Realm entirely something no cultivator in either of my lives had ever heard of, let alone held in their hand. Kingdoms would go to war over a treasure like this. Ancient clans would break centuries of peace for it. I closed my fist around the jade bottle.

"No. I'll take it once I've calmed down." Before I could get further than that thought, a notification rippled out through the Tower, and far beyond its walls, the entire academy erupted. In the Headmaster's office, a crystal screen displaying every student's Magic Tower progress had frozen on a single line.

"Did I read that correctly?" the First Elder said. Another elder rubbed his eyes.

"Nightgrave? That can't be right." Student: Len Fan Difficulty Selected: Nightgrave Status: First Floor Cleared"Impossible," someone whispered. The Headmaster rose from his seat, his usual calm gone.

"How long?"

"Approximately ten hours," an instructor answered. Another elder went pale.

"Elite disciples from past generations needed days for that floor. Most of them never came back at all." Elsewhere, in one of the academy's private residences, the Vortexian Patriarch sat with a cup of tea halfway to his lips when the notification reached him.

"That foolish child," he murmured.

"Attempting Nightgrave in the Mortal Realm even an Immortal Realm cultivator would think twice." Then the second announcement arrived, and the teacup slipped from his fingers and shattered on the floor.

"What?" His composure vanished entirely.

"Nightgrave —> cleared? By that child?" He knew that floor personally. The Orc Commodore guarding it carried strength comparable to a peak Immortal Realm expert. Elders wouldn't challenge it alone. How had a mere Mortal Realm disciple survived it, let alone won? Behind him, an old butler in black robes only smiled.

"I told you, Patriarch. The First Headmaster's judgment has never been wrong. If he chose that boy himself, there was a reason for it." The Patriarch stared at the glowing notification a while longer before a slow smile crossed his face.

"Interesting," he said.

"Very interesting." Across the rest of the academy, the reaction was less composed. Students abandoned lessons to argue about whether the announcement could possibly be real; teachers gave up trying to hold anyone's attention. Every conversation on campus circled back to one name. In the private training courtyard of the Nightsky Sect, Kalio lowered the sword he'd been practicing with as a servant knelt in front of him, delivering the news. He said nothing at first.

"Nightgrave?" he finally asked.

"Yes, Young Master. The entire academy's received the notification." A faint smile crossed his face.

"So. I underestimated him." He picked his sword back up.

"Good. I was starting to think our duel would be boring." A single swing split the training boulder in front of him clean in half.

"Five days, Len Fan. Don't disappoint me." None of it reached me. Inside the Magic Tower, there was only silence, and the jade bottle resting in my palm. A single golden pill sat inside it, no larger than the tip of my thumb, strange runes flowing across its surface like living rivers, a faint heavenly aura leaking steadily off it. Just holding it made the Qi in my body restless.

"So this is a Mythic++ treasure." I laughed bitterly.

"In my previous life, I climbed the Tower for forty years. Fought countless battles. Found ruins that hadn't seen daylight in a thousand years. Never once did I find anything this absurd." I tossed it into my mouth without waiting any longer. It melted the moment it touched my tongue. No overwhelming energy. No violent explosion. No burning. Nothing at all. I blinked.

"That's it?" I waited a full thirty seconds. Nothing happened.

"Did the System scam me?" CRACK. Unbearable pain erupted from somewhere far deeper than muscle or bone or Qi, something closer to the foundation of my own existence, tearing itself apart.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" I collapsed to my knees. Blood ran from the corners of my eyes. Veins bulged along both arms. WARNING: Host does not satisfy the requirements for Avatar Evolution. WARNING: Evolution process has exceeded current cultivation limits. Evolution cannot proceed.

"What?" I choked out. Golden light flickered violently around me as the pain climbed further.

"No! if the process stops now, my Avatar—" The entire System froze. Lines of text rewrote themselves violently across the screen, glitching for the first time since I'd woken up in this world. Unknown Authority Detected. Overriding Cultivation Restrictions... An invisible force swept through the Tower, strong enough that several elders outside turned instinctively toward it, wondering what had just moved through the mountain. Recalculating Evolution Requirements... Requirements Successfully Adjusted.

Evolution Authorized.

"The System changed its own rules." I stared at the screen, stunned. The System had never once adapted itself to anyone it dictated cultivation's laws, full stop. And yet it had just rewritten its own conditions in front of me. Whoever, or whatever, had the authority to do that, it wasn't something I understood yet. I didn't get time to think about it further. A pillar of golden light tore out of my body. BOOOOOOOM.

The whole first floor shook, cracks spreading across the stone beneath me as Qi from every direction rushed in like a tide, pouring into my meridians, remaking my cultivation base at a speed that shouldn't have been possible. Behind me, the mist that had always represented my Avatar — vague, formless, a blurred silhouette without presence — finally began to condense. Legs. Arms. A torso. Long silver-white hair spilling like moonlight, golden armor forming across its shoulders.

Its fingers twitched, and for the first time, it moved on its own. Two radiant golden eyes opened and looked into the distance, and the pressure that came off it multiplied several times over even I found it hard to breathe near it.

"So this is an Heaven-Reaching Realm Avatar." It wasn't an illusion anymore. It had form, presence, weight. The figure looked down at me for a single moment before dissolving into golden particles and folding itself back into my body. Warmth spread through me, the pain gone as completely as it had arrived, replaced by a strength I hadn't felt since long before this body was ever mine. Status Updated Name: Len Fan Cultivation: Mortal Realm Third Leaf Avatar: Heaven-Reaching realm First Leaf Synchronization: 13.

05% Avatar Evolution Benefits: - Physical Strength Increased - Qi Absorption Speed Greatly Increased - Avatar Manifestation Efficiency Enhanced - Synchronization Growth Rate Increased I exhaled slowly.

"Unbelievable." The gap between a Mortal Avatar and an Heaven-Reaching one wasn't a matter of a single Realm's difference it was closer to standing in a different category of existence entirely. No wonder the Vortexian Patriarch had valued Avatar evolution so highly above cultivation itself. I flexed my fist, feeling the power move through me without resistance, and for the first time since stepping into this Tower, real confidence settled into my chest. Four days remained before the duel.

The treasure waiting on the third floor was still out there. A faint smile crossed my face.

"Looks like I'm just getting started." I turned toward the staircase and began the climb toward the second floor.