Chapter 119: The Struggle Within the Tower

“Whoosh!”

Blazing flames surged forward, catching Lei Xiang off guard just as the Crystal Jade Tower’s shield enveloped him. His spiritual energy was nearly depleted, leaving him barely able to leap aside by three meters, yet he still couldn’t evade the fiery assault. Countless serpents of flame coiled around his entire body. The outermost layer of the azure gauze veil, a shimmering blue shield, shattered upon first contact with the fire snakes.

The azure veil was a treasured artifact of the Blue Elf tribe’s Zhen Clan. At this moment, it radiated a brilliant azure light, barely holding back the onslaught of fire serpents. Lei Xiang felt a slight relief; this was the first floor of the Crystal Jade Tower. Being trapped and attacked so fiercely was unexpected. After a series of crackling explosions, fine hairline cracks appeared on the surface of the azure veil.

“Not good.” Lei Xiang pressed hard on his feet. With a thunderous “boom,” the Wind and Thunder Boots ejected four spinning rollers, swiftly propelling him up the stairs to the second floor. Staying on the first floor was impossible; he had to ascend. Yet, the second floor presented a starkly contrasting world—pure white as far as the eye could see.

A realm of ice and snow.

Surrounded by dazzling whiteness, the temperature plummeted to at most minus fifty degrees Celsius. Lei Xiang truly felt his breath freezing, a chill seeping through the fine cracks in the azure veil, directly assaulting his beast-hide armor. To his dismay, the armor proved ineffective, quickly riddled with holes. Helpless, he discarded the beast-hide defense and released a pink gluttonous pig spirit from a certain spirit beast pouch. Its three sharp tail needles quivered as it shivered violently.

This was a last resort. Lei Xiang’s spiritual energy was less than ten percent—insufficient to resist the cold. He hoped to buy time by letting the voracious pig consume the chill, allowing him to recover his spiritual energy. The millennia-old spiritual energy sealed within the Beauty Spirit Smoke Bottle was precious, and he dared not use it frivolously; instead, he relied on spirit stones for replenishment.

The gluttonous pig hesitated briefly before opening its scarlet mouth. Its large green-yellow teeth ground against each other as it ravenously swallowed the surrounding cold air. This act did raise the local temperature by at least twenty degrees, buying Lei Xiang precious moments to recover. But the reprieve was short-lived. Farther away, an endless wave of icy elements surged forward, overwhelming the pig’s consumption rate.

Seeing the pig trembling and frost forming on its lips and teeth, Lei Xiang sighed and focused his divine will. The pig gratefully glanced at him before vanishing back into the spirit pouch. By now, Lei Xiang had restored two layers of spiritual energy. He summoned the fifth level of the Refining Spirit Treasure Mirror, his body radiating furnace-like heat, eyes fixed on the shattered azure veil as he slowly advanced toward the third floor’s stairway.

The Crystal Jade Tower contained no living beings, yet it actively attacked. Evidently, it was a rare artifact. Before Lei Xiang could ponder further, hundreds of half-meter square apertures suddenly opened on the second floor’s walls, unleashing countless ice spears. Each spear measured three meters in length and was as thick as an arm, all aimed directly at Lei Xiang on the stairs.

Just as he neared the third floor, he was completely halted. Moving upward was impossible. An invisible icy pressure forced him to retreat three steps, shattering the azure veil artifact instantly. The treasured Blue Elf heirloom vanished into dust. Helpless, Lei Xiang summoned the Blue Lotus Disc, enlarging it to the size of a table and holding it in front of him against the wind. The ice spears struck the disc, which effortlessly blocked them. Cracking sounds rang out as the spears shattered into icy shards, piling up before the disc.

No sooner had Lei Xiang relaxed than more ice spears shot from all directions, swelling to lengths of nine meters. Most were stopped by the Blue Lotus Disc, but some bypassed it, striking close to him. Reluctantly, Lei Xiang drew the Nine Treasures Lotus Staff from his chest, activated a spell, and the staff floated overhead, sweeping aside the thick ice spears.

After a short while, ice shards littered the ground around him. Holding two supreme spirit stones, Lei Xiang’s spiritual energy had only recovered to thirty percent. Supporting the Blue Lotus Disc and Nine Treasures Lotus Staff consumed half his energy restoration, so this approach was unsustainable.

He couldn’t risk using the millennia-old spiritual energy—not knowing what other threats lurked inside the tower. Reckoning this, Lei Xiang infused his remaining spiritual energy into the Blue Lotus Disc. It blazed with blue light, rapidly enlarging to fill the room’s size and barreling forward, smashing away ice spears. Grasping the Nine Treasures Lotus Staff, he followed swiftly behind.

After clearing another wave of ice spear attacks, Lei Xiang leapt onto the third floor. The Blue Lotus Disc shielded his back as he ascended. Once on the third floor, he retracted the disc and froze.

This floor was completely different from the previous ones—no ice, no fire, just silence, a deathly stillness. Around the four walls lay a circle of meditation cushions. At a round table in the center sat a person clad in monk’s robes.

Someone was actually here?

Lei Xiang held the Nine Treasures Lotus Staff horizontally, cautiously observing the person’s back. The figure remained motionless. Scanning with his divine sense, Lei Xiang judged the man’s cultivation level to be late Foundation Establishment. Summoning courage, he stepped forward, but the figure suddenly turned. A flash of silver light brought him before Lei Xiang, who was struck in the chest.

Prepared, Lei Xiang parried with his spirit staff. The man’s wrist shattered with a crack, revealing gleaming crystal jade beneath.

Stunned, Lei Xiang barely reacted before the man’s other hand struck his shoulder. Fortunately, Lei Xiang’s body had been tempered by lightning and trained in Dragon Phase Divine Arts since childhood, granting him far superior strength. He took the blow solidly. The attacker’s arm broke, but Lei Xiang staggered back, nearly falling down the stairs as the man’s legs lunged forward.

“This isn’t human!”

Both the attacker’s arms were broken, yet no pain was shown, nor did any blood flow from the fractures. Lei Xiang immediately concluded this was a puppet, similar to the crystal golems Blue Xi had gifted him, but more advanced and lifelike. The broken wrists confirmed it was made of crystal jade.

With this realization, Blue Xi effortlessly swung the Nine Treasures Lotus Staff, breaking the puppet’s legs. No crystal jade, no matter how solid, could withstand the force of this staff.

No longer holding back, Lei Xiang swept the staff in a wide arc. The crystal jade puppet turned to white powder instantly. Suddenly, a silver light burst from its heart, exploding in midair and scattering silver flakes. The floor beneath cracked with a thunderous roar.

From the meditation cushions, dozens of monks appeared, sitting cross-legged. Their vacant eyes glowed faintly under the silver light. All sprang up at once, surrounding Lei Xiang in an instant.

Blue light flickered in Lei Xiang’s eyes. These, too, were crystal jade puppets, their cultivation comparable to late Foundation Establishment human cultivators. No matter—he swept the Nine Treasures Lotus Staff like an autumn wind clearing fallen leaves. One by one, the puppets fell, incapacitated.

Lei Xiang tossed out a storage pouch, gathering the shattered crystal puppets. He planned to study and improve his own crystal golems when time allowed.

Looking again, he was astonished to see more puppets materializing on the cushions—this time dark black in color. Rather than alarmed, Lei Xiang was pleased. These black crystal jade puppets were made from premium jade, likely even higher quality than those Zhang Liao had seized. This was a windfall.

With a mighty strike, the Nine Treasures Lotus Staff smashed the puppets to pieces, storing them away once more. But when Lei Xiang looked up again, twice as many black puppets had appeared.

Was there no end to them?

If he were at his peak, Lei Xiang wouldn’t mind these puppets. But after relentless battle, his spiritual energy was below twenty percent. Though the puppets’ cultivation was low, their sheer numbers could wear him down to death. After repelling the eighth wave, he made a decision—to retreat!

His energy barely ten percent now, staying meant exhaustion and death on the third floor. But where to retreat?

The first three floors were already formidable; the higher floors might be even more terrifying. Better to break downward. Lei Xiang pointed the Nine Treasures Lotus Staff downward. It suddenly extended to ten meters in length. Summoning his last reserves of spiritual energy, he hammered it into the floor below.

The staff pierced through the second floor’s floorboard and cracked the first floor below. The staff plunged deeply underground.

Seizing the opportunity, Lei Xiang summoned the Blue Lotus Disc again and leapt down. Massive ice spears shot at him but were all blocked by the disc. The roaring sea of fire had already been breached, leaving a tunnel over three meters wide. Lei Xiang slipped through the hole, descending deeper underground.

“Boom!”

It felt as if the staff had punctured some barrier, and his descent accelerated uncontrollably. The suction beneath him increased tenfold, as if he’d fallen into that monk’s trap. Below was surely the molten lava pool. Lei Xiang’s blue light glimmered as he peered ahead. The far end glowed red—a molten lake indeed.

What now?

His spiritual energy was nearly spent. It seemed time to draw on the millennia-old spiritual energy.

He solemnly retrieved the Beauty Spirit Smoke Bottle, stroking the smooth surface of the figure on its chest. Just as he prepared to inhale, a fierce wind blew. The suction beneath intensified tenfold again. Lei Xiang felt utterly powerless, his only option to press his nose to the mouth of the Beauty Spirit Smoke Bottle.

At this moment, Lei Xiang plunged into the sea of molten lava, inhaling a surge of millennia-old spiritual energy. A refreshing coolness instantly spread through his body as his spiritual power replenished fully. Now at full strength, Lei Xiang wielded the Nine Treasures Lotus Staff with one hand, his divine sense scanning the surroundings.

Strangely, the molten lava’s temperature was not high—only about forty degrees Celsius.

He cautiously advanced through this natural lava cavern, seemingly endless, the molten flow suppressing divine senses. Suddenly, his spiritual energy surged through his feet, and the Wind and Thunder Boots activated, propelling him backward over ten meters.

“Ah!”

A surprised exclamation rose from the glowing red lava.