Sky-Reaching Mountain

A moment later, at the entrance of Taichu District.

“Your Highness Luo Feng, this is the secret technique manual we just received, the one Your Highness purchased.” Madam Fusi’s furry tail wagged slightly as she handed over a briefcase.

“Thank you.” Luo Feng took the silver briefcase.

The item was in hand!

This was the third volume of “Essays on Space-Time,” worth 100,000 points! (Since Luo Feng already possessed the first and second volumes, the Virtual Universe Company only sent the third.)

Carrying the briefcase, Luo Feng turned to soar into the sky.

“Luo Feng, you lunatic, stop!” A loud voice rang out.

Luo Feng turned to look. In the distance, a silver streak of light flew over and landed on the grass. It was the black-haired youth, Wuka, clad in silver battle armor. The Prince of Manka Star’s growth was indeed very slow; even after all this time, he had not truly reached adulthood.

“Why are you calling me?” Luo Feng walked over with a smile.

“We’ve had several small gatherings on the Star Continent, and even a large one for Taichu District members, and you haven’t shown up to a single one. Seriously, you’ve even been disappearing from the ‘Virtual Universe’ lately!” Wuka grumbled, delivering a disgruntled ‘thump’ to Luo Feng’s chest.

Luo Feng’s chest vibrated slightly, the force dissipating.

“The past few months have been very busy, so I haven’t been to the Virtual Universe,” Luo Feng explained. Indeed, in recent months, first, he had obtained the Beast God Statue, and second, he had an encounter in the Sky Eclipse Palace, so he truly hadn’t visited the Virtual Universe for several months.

“Hey, Luo Feng.” Wuka leaned in, his voice dropping to a mysterious whisper. “I’ll tell you a secret.”

“What secret?” Luo Feng asked, puzzled.

“I just came from the combat arena and got some news. Just today, Bolan went to challenge the Sky-Reaching Bridge again,” Wuka chuckled softly.

“He went to challenge it again?” Luo Feng was surprised.

The third level of the Sky-Reaching Bridge was considered a threshold, and the further one progressed, the harder it became!

Levels 1-3, 4-6, 7-9...

During his 80 years in the Xueluo World, Bolan, Longyun, Rongjun, Wuka, Qianshui, Jialaixi, and the others had all chosen their own paths, progressing at varying speeds. Yet, they all occasionally challenged the Sky-Reaching Bridge, and the vast majority of these geniuses had made advancements.

However!

Bolan had already reached the sixth level in Chaos City, and for these 80 years, this peerless genius, Bolan, had been striving, yet he had never successfully passed the seventh level of the Sky-Reaching Bridge! This clearly demonstrated the immense difficulty of the seventh level!

Currently, among his peers...

Only three people had reached the sixth level of the Sky-Reaching Bridge: Bolan, Rongjun, and himself! Bolan and he had both reached the sixth level early. Rongjun had only just broken through in the later part of these 80 years.

And there were now also four people at the fifth level of the Sky-Reaching Bridge.

“He challenged it again, did he pass?” Luo Feng quickly asked.

“Hehe.” Wuka gave a strange laugh, whispering, “That arrogant fellow failed once two years ago, and went to challenge it again today. But, he still failed, haha... Is the seventh level really that easy to pass? The difficulty from the sixth to the seventh level is comparable to the combined difficulty of the first to sixth levels!”

“He failed?” Luo Feng nodded slightly.

That made sense.

His own experiences over these 80 years had been extraordinary, with all three avatars cultivating simultaneously, and he had the power of Xueluo to enhance his comprehension and compatibility. Yet, he wasn’t confident he could pass the seventh level either.

“Keep it up!” Wuka quickly added, “That savage Rongjun just reached the sixth level not long ago. To reach the seventh level, it’ll take him at least a few hundred more years... Among our current batch, only you and Bolan have hope of being the fastest to reach the seventh level! Luo Feng, you have to bring honor to us, the Taichu Three Heroes!”

“Scram,” Luo Feng couldn’t help but laugh and curse.

The Taichu Three Heroes?

Hearing that name gave him goosebumps. Because among this new batch of geniuses, he, Rongjun, and Wuka had a good relationship, and each of them performed exceptionally well, others naturally regarded the three of them as a small group. This Prince Wuka, however, was quite pleased to proclaim himself as one of the ‘Taichu Three Heroes.’

Luo Feng was very unaccustomed to it, and Rongjun also frowned in displeasure, but Wuka was very satisfied.

“I’m done talking to you, I’m heading back first,” Luo Feng said.

“Hey, what did you buy?” Wuka looked curiously at the briefcase Luo Feng was carrying.

“‘Essays on Space-Time’,” Luo Feng said.

“You bought the third volume? That’s 100,000 points!” Wuka’s eyes widened as he quickly exclaimed, “You’re ruthless, you’re truly rich!”

Luo Feng didn’t say much more and immediately soared into the sky.

Swish!

Streaking across the sky, he quickly returned to his manor.

...In the study, Luo Feng sat at his desk, holding his breath as he opened the briefcase.

Inside the case, there was only a thick metal book, approximately 50 centimeters long, 40 centimeters wide, and an astonishing 50 centimeters thick. Imagine that—a half-meter thick book, much thicker than the previous first and second volumes. The entire book still featured golden metal pages, totaling several thousand.

“The third volume!”

Luo Feng’s eyes shone like a wolf spotting its prey. Disregarding everything else, he immediately opened this third volume of secret technique manual and began to greedily read and comprehend it.

...This third volume of “Essays on Space-Time” happened to correspond to the third illustration, the ‘Torrential Rain Diagram.’ As his comprehension and study progressed, coupled with the Golden Horned Beast’s daily contemplation of the Beast God Statue to comprehend “Tearing the Sky and Splitting the Earth” and primarily cultivate the ‘Sky-Rending Claw,’ these elements mutually verified each other, causing Luo Feng’s realm advancement speed to noticeably increase.

As the saying goes, ‘easy to learn, difficult to master.’ The superficial aspects were easy to grasp, mastery was harder, but truly comprehending the 108 profound fundamentals was the most difficult.

Luo Feng was currently striving to gain a superficial understanding of the ‘Torrential Rain Diagram.’

...“Luo Feng, you have mail. It’s from the Virtual Universe Company.” In the training ground, Luo Feng was sitting cross-legged on the alloy floor, with the thick “Essays on Space-Time” open before him. He occasionally manipulated the ‘Yan Shen Weapon’ for practice, countless dark golden small swords flying in mid-air.

“Oh?”

Luo Feng’s mind stirred.

Swish!

The countless golden small swords immediately flew back like birds returning to their nest, all entering the dark golden long staff carried on his back.

“Mail?” Luo Feng directly tapped the void, and a screen appeared out of thin air, displaying a newly received email.

“Secret Realm Qualification Battle?” Luo Feng saw the title, his heart stirred, and he quickly clicked to open the email and began reading.

Virtual Universe Company core members, from highest to lowest, were divided into Original Secret Realm, Taichu Secret Realm, Tiandi Secret Realm, and End-Time Secret Realm.

It didn’t mean that being initially selected into the ‘Taichu Secret Realm’ guaranteed a permanent stay there! Within the core layer, there was extremely fierce competition. The weak were relegated to a lower-tier secret realm, the strong remained in their current secret realm, and only the even stronger could ascend to a higher-tier secret realm! Competition was constant!

If you didn’t work hard...

During the Genius Battle, perhaps you were the number one genius, selected into the ‘Original Secret Realm.’ But if you didn’t work hard, one Secret Realm Qualification Battle might see you eliminated to the Taichu Secret Realm. A second Secret Realm Qualification Battle might even see you eliminated to the Tiandi Secret Realm!

Resources are limited!

Talent is infinite!

As time passed, batches of geniuses would always emerge. If your strength didn’t meet the ‘Taichu Secret Realm’ standard, you would naturally be demoted to the ‘Tiandi Secret Realm.’

...Original Secret Realm members of Yuxiang Mountain were divided by strength into ‘Sector Lord level,’ ‘Domain Lord level,’ and ‘Universe level.’

In the Original Secret Realm, there were 100 Sector Lords, 10 Domain Lords, and 3 Universe-level members!

In the Taichu Secret Realm, there were 1,000 Sector Lords, 100 Domain Lords, and 30 Universe-level members!

In the Tiandi Secret Realm, there were 10,000 Sector Lords, 1,000 Domain Lords, and 300 Universe-level members!

End-Time Secret Realm... core members who failed in competition were all swept into the End-Time Secret Realm, which was considered the lowest tier of the core layer.

Among them...

Universe-level members had a qualification battle once every 100 years!

Domain Lords had a qualification battle once every 1,000 years!

Sector Lords had a qualification battle once every 100,000 years! Because most Sector Lords were stuck at their peak for a very long time, and the Virtual Universe Company held a Genius Battle and a Hero Battle once every 10,000 years respectively, in addition to specially recruiting some geniuses and those Sector Lord geniuses who emerged later, there were the most Sector Lord-level genius experts. Even with 100 Original Secret Realm slots, the competition remained incredibly fierce.

100 slots...

...for hundreds of Genius Battles, Hero Battles, and numerous rising experts to contend for.

...Luo Feng looked at the screen before him, thinking to himself, “Qualification Battle?”

“I am currently Universe-level, with a qualification battle once every hundred years, and it’s starting in just over 6 years?” Luo Feng thought to himself. “According to the email, the Original Secret Realm slots are incredibly fiercely contested, not only competing with peers but also with previous generations of seniors.”

“The Qualification Battle will be brutal!”

“However, to enter the ‘Original Secret Realm,’ besides the Qualification Battle, there’s actually another method?” Luo Feng smiled as he looked at the email.

End-Time Secret Realm members wanted to enter the Tiandi Secret Realm.

Tiandi Secret Realm members wanted to enter the Taichu Secret Realm.

Taichu Secret Realm members wanted to enter the Original Secret Realm!

What to do?

Two methods: one was the Qualification Battle, the second was the Sky-Reaching Mountain!

The Qualification Battle was a large-scale elimination selection battle where Universe-level members competed and were ultimately selected. A qualification battle occurred once every 100 years. And for Sector Lords... it was only once every 100,000 years!

But the ‘Sky-Reaching Mountain’ was different.

Core members could challenge the Sky-Reaching Mountain at any time. There were three Sky-Reaching Mountains in total: the Original Sky-Reaching Mountain, the Taichu Sky-Reaching Mountain, and the Tiandi Sky-Reaching Mountain. If an ‘End-Time Secret Realm member’ successfully passed all three Sky-Reaching Mountains in one go, they could directly be promoted to an ‘Original Secret Realm member’!

“According to the email, if I just pass the ‘Original Sky-Reaching Mountain,’ I can directly enter the Original Secret Realm?” Luo Feng’s eyes lit up.

“Let’s try it!”

“After comprehending the third volume of ‘Essays on Space-Time’ for one or two months, I’ve gained a superficial understanding of the ‘Torrential Rain Diagram.’ When I use ‘Sword World,’ I can now maintain it for 30 seconds! In a battle between experts, 30 seconds is enough,” Luo Feng thought to himself. “I’ll try challenging this Original Sky-Reaching Mountain.”

...In the Virtual Universe, a planar space had been specifically opened.

Within the space was a vast, desolate land, on which stood three majestic mountains, each taller than the last!

“This is the Sky-Reaching Mountain Plane?” Luo Feng, with the dark golden long staff on his back, looked up at the three majestic mountains. On the mid-slopes of the three mountains were two characters each, emitting golden light: Tiandi, Taichu, Original! Among them, the Original Sky-Reaching Mountain was even more magnificent and towering!

Swish!

Luo Feng transformed into a streak of light and flew directly towards the Original Sky-Reaching Mountain.