Chapter 0580: The 81st Level
As Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness swept out, he confirmed that there indeed was no 81st floor above. Moreover, he also had no idea where the void above would lead him. Ning Cheng already had thoughts about entering the Immortal Jade Star and, as such, naturally did not want to step into the void.
However, Ning Cheng also understood that he had no choice but to head up. After searching around the 80th floor for a full day, apart from going up, the 80th floor contained no exit.
Ning Cheng did not want to get sent out to the public square; therefore, he finally decided to fly and rush up.
Just when Ning Cheng’s feet left the ground, the void that his Spiritual Consciousness had discovered immediately disappeared. Even the entrance through which he stepped into the 80th floor had also vanished. However, Ning Cheng still found himself within the tower.
Ning Cheng felt surprised, was there a problem with his Spiritual Consciousness? When he had swept out with his Spiritual Consciousness, it had clearly detected a void. However, after flying up towards it, Ning Cheng could not figure out why such a thing was inside the tower? Since he came up from the 80th floor, then this obviously was the 81st floor. Moreover, his Spiritual Consciousness had found no sign of the 81st floor previously. But the moment when Ning Cheng decided to fly up, he entered the 81st floor. What is going on?
This floor also lacked attacks and had no perceivable abnormalities. Moreover, just ten steps ahead of Ning Cheng was another door. Above this door were the words: Celestial Scryer Tower’s 81st Floor Entrance.
Ning Cheng looked around in confusion. In addition to the 81st floor’s entrance, he found no way out.
Ning Cheng took a few steps forward and wanted to open the 81st floor’s entrance before moving to the real 81st floor.
However, something even more bizarre happened. No matter how many steps Ning Cheng took, no matter how fast Ning Cheng walked, the distance to the 81st floor’s entrance remained unchanged.
The distance between them was only ten steps, but Ning Cheng had taken tens of thousands of steps already. However, looking ahead, the gap remained unchanged: ten steps.
Ning Cheng’s heart sank, he stimulated his Celestial Essence and immediately flew up. However, when he landed, the 81st floor’s entrance remained ten steps in front of him.
If it went on like this, then he could never reach the entrance to the 81st floor. Ning Cheng finally came to a halt and did not continue with such useless activities. At this moment, he felt like a monkey who could only dance to the tune of others and could not jump out.
Such a feeling made Ning Cheng very uncomfortable in his heart.
Ning Cheng stood rooted in his spot for more than an hour. He kept looking at the 81st floor’s entrance that seemed so near yet so far in complete silence. He had already tried ambling, running, flying, and even using teleport-like speed, yet he still could not advance even half a step.
However, at this moment, he suddenly understood why his Spiritual Consciousness had perceived a void at that time. The void had no end, so maybe he was inside of it without even realising it. The tower’s floor only had limited space within it; however, this void space felt huge; large yet small, how could he not realise it? He had the Mysterious Yellow Bead, which was only a tiny bead; however, it contained an entire world inside of it.
Although it looked like the distance between him and the 81st floor’s entrance was only ten steps, who knew how many void spaces did this distance contain? He had not yet grasped even a hint of the Laws of Space, which also meant that unless he understood the Laws of Space, Ning Cheng could never push open the entrance to the 81st floor. Stuck in this place, as long as he could not comprehend the Laws of Space, he would remain trapped inside.
Ning Cheng took in a deep breath. He could not stay inside forever.
Although he had not comprehended the Laws of Space, Ning Cheng had understood and touched upon the surface of the Laws of Time. Moreover, he had also realised the embryonic form of his Dao using the Returning to One and came to an understanding that everything shared the same origins. Winds and clouds could condense into thunderstorms, icebergs could transform into a sea of flames. Although this distance felt like ten steps, he could not use the Laws of Space to cross through this distance. However, who could stop him from using his understandings about the surface of the Laws of Time?
Ning Cheng was a man who would act immediately after coming to a conclusion. Just when he thought of the Laws of Time, he immediately cast his Sunset’s Twilight Spirit Technique.
The moment Ning Cheng used the Sunset’s Twilight Spirit Technique, everything around him seemed to have come to a stop, as if everything had turned into sculptures. At this moment, only one person had complete dominance within this space, and that was Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng lifted his feet and took a step forward, and his Dusk Spirit Technique disappeared. At the same time, the flow of time once again resumed. Ning Cheng looked at the 81st floor’s entrance, which was now right in front of him. He felt that he could push it open and felt extremely calm within his heart.
Previously, no matter what method he tried, Ning Cheng could not move forward. However, after he cast the Sunset’s Twilight, he only took one-step and reached the entrance to the 81st floor.
This was a law that existed between heaven and earth; moreover, he only understood the surface of the Laws of Time. In the future, he could use it as a base to create a grand spirit technique to move across the world; however, for that to happen, he had to take complete control of this worldly law.
Ning Cheng, who was not in a hurry to push open the entrance to the 81st floor, stood there and found that his Spiritual Consciousness could now sweep through the entire Culmination Public Square unhindered and undetected. At this time, he saw countless more people standing in the Culmination Public Square than when he had entered, the crowd had grown so large that it almost covered the entirety of the public square.
Culmination Public Square, as one of the top ten public squares within Eternal Heaven Starry Sky City, naturally occupied a vast area. Yet such a huge area looked almost full to the brim with people. From this, one could only imagine how many people had come here at this time.
Ning Cheng, on seeing this, felt secretly frightened within his heart. However, he was also fortunate that the tower had not sent him out. Looking at the crowd outside, he, of course, knew that many among them would have taken a keen interest in him.
Perhaps he was the first person to push open the entrance to the 81st floor of the Celestial Scryer Tower. Feeling that, Ning Cheng stood rooted in his place for a long time. Only after calming his mind did he push open the entrance to the 81st floor.
In front of Ning Cheng then appeared the real 81st floor. However, it only contained a ladder. This ladder extended from under his feet and all the way to the exit on the ground floor, which was covered by the mist surrounding the Celestial Scryer Tower.
The entrance to the 81st floor was a staircase leading to the ground floor; on realising this, Ning Cheng, who stood on top of the ladder, felt slightly surprised and exasperated. Looks like apart from him no one knew that the so-called 81st floor was nothing but a ladder, a ladder that led to the bottom.
Because of the large crowd on the public square, some cultivators had already reached the periphery of the mist. Through his Spiritual Consciousness, Ning Cheng could also tell that some people could enter the perimeter of the ladder as long as they took a few steps forward. He felt sure that if he could manage to escape through this way, he could then slowly melt into the crowd of cultivators standing on the public square without anyone realising. At this moment, everyone had their attention focusses on the Celestial Scryer Tower’s ranking display; as such, who would willingly care about an extra person showing up in the crowd?
Ning Cheng’s Spiritual Consciousness continued to sweep out undetected and soon found the person he was looking for. The female cultivator who looked like Shi Qionghua also stood on the public square amidst the crowd, talking to a female cultivator beside her. Ning Cheng, who had initially planned to go out with his current appearance, immediately removed his mask and quickly rushed down from the 81st floor.
Coming down from the ladder, Ning Cheng then reached the bottom of the Celestial Scryer Tower in a short time and blended into the crowd near to the fog. Just as Ning Cheng speculated, no one knew that Ning Cheng had already descended and had even entered the public square.
……
“That’s not right, that Jiangzhou’s Wanderer seems to have stopped at the 80th floor.”
“What’s so strange about that? He stayed on the previous floor for eight or nine days. Not much time has passed anyway, maybe in just a little while he’ll reach the 81st floor.”
“I’m afraid not, you see, the time stamp behind his name has already disappeared.”
“Oh, that’s really the case…… Ah, he entered the 81st floor, he really entered the 81st floor…..” The cultivator had only spoken a few words when he immediately screamed.
However, at this time, no one cared about this cultivator’s screams. At the people collectively stared at the Celestial Scryer Tower’s ranking screen. Behind the name of Jiangzhou’s Wanderer, the words ‘81st floor’ had suddenly appeared.
“That’s right, he really reached the 81st floor; however, it does not show any time stamp behind it……”
After Ning Cheng entered the 81st floor, the entire public square erupted with heated discussions. No matter the background, everyone felt amazed that someone had finally set foot on the highest level within the Celestial Scryer Tower. This was a landmark moment for Grand Culmination Starry Skies, and nothing felt more sensational.
Even the Heavenly Emperor of Grand Culmination Starry Skies had not reached the 81st floor of the Celestial Scryer Tower.
“But why does he not have a time stamp behind his name? By all accounts, as long as he did not come out and stayed inside the Celestial Scryer Tower, the time stamp would continue to run, right? Wait, he didn’t die, did he?”
“Since he managed to reach the 81st floor, how could he die?”
Countless people cheered for such a performance, while many others felt surprised. Jiangzhou’s Wanderer had the words ‘81st floor’ behind his name, but lacked any time stamp. Rather, even his previous time stamp had disappeared.
“His name went up a bit.”
With an exclamation, all the people noticed that the name of the first ranked Jiangzhou’s Wanderer had grown further apart from the second-ranked name, Spiritual Heaven’s Xiao Yu. At the same time, the name of Jiangzhou’s Wanderer changed from pale gold to purple gold. Even the font had grown several times more massive.
Looking from afar, the words ‘Jiangzhou’s Wanderer’ looked incomparably dazzling.
Ning Cheng stood among the crowd and felt a similar shock within this heart. Because he stood at the entrance to the 81st floor, his Spiritual Consciousness could sweep through the entire public square, which had allowed him to understand the situation outside a bit.
When he pushed open the 81st floor’s entrance and walked down the ladder, his name still appeared on the ranking screen at the 1st place but with words ‘80th floor’ behind it. However, when he finally came down from the ladder and out of the mist before blending into the crowd on the public square, those words behind his name changed to ‘81st floor’. Not only had that changed, but even the timestamp behind his name also disappeared.
That implied that only after opening the entrance to the 81st floor of the Celestial Scryer Tower and coming out of the Celestial Scryer Tower would the tower consider that he had set foot on the 81st floor.
If that really was the case, then except for him, probably no one among the crowd knew that the person they were looking for on the 81st floor stood right amidst them. Ning Cheng also realised that he probably was the only one who knew that it was just one complete process to climb from the first floor to the 81st floor and then coming back down.
A complete process? Ning Cheng once again looked at the crowd around him and suddenly felt a kind of enlightenment within his heart.
In fact, many of the people standing here also most likely felt a similar sensation when they went through the tower. However, some people cherished it while some complained about it. Moreover, what they admired more was that this position was something that he had created personally through his own hard work and not because of his wealth or his background; rather, it was through a systematic process, as he toiled from the first floor to the 81st floor.
However, Ning Cheng quickly put aside these distractions and rushed to the place he saw Shi Qionghua standing.