Chapter 233 - 232: First Floor (2)

The Immortal Cloud Step had carried Lin Yuan across the fifty-pace distance during the duration of her descent. He materialized directly in front of her, entirely inside the defensive radius of her whip.

"The Steadfast Stage implies an unyielding defense," Lin Yuan murmured softly, his deep purple eyes locking onto her bottomless, pitch-black gaze. "But against absolute force, everything yields."

Lin Yuan did not swing the sword. He merely thrust the pommel of the Primordial Sovereign Sword forward, striking the Phantom Guardian squarely in the center of her chest.

He used the raw monstrous physical strength of a Rank 10 Ancient Beast Body.

The impact sounded like a siege ram shattering a fortress gate.

The Phantom Guardian’s ribs caved in instantly. The sheer kinetic force of the blow bypassed her Qi barrier completely, violently disrupting the internal array matrix that sustained her physical form.

She was launched backward, flying through the air like a discarded ragdoll. She hit the dark-grey spatial mist bounding the arena and slid to the floor, completely immobilized.

For a second, she tried to rise, her martial programming fighting against the catastrophic structural failure of her simulated body. But the damage was absolute.

With a soft, melodic chime, the Phantom Guardian dissolved into a shower of brilliant azure light, fading back into the foundational matrix of the Nine-Tiered Sky.

Lin Yuan stood alone in the vast arena, lowering his sword. He wasn’t breathing heavily. He hadn’t broken a sweat. The flawless Dao laws of the artifact instantly scrubbed away the minimal Spiritual Energy he had expended, returning him to absolute peak condition.

"Well, that was entirely anticlimactic," Ling Xi sighed dramatically within his spiritual sea. "If the second floor is this boring, I am going back to sleep."

Do not rest yet, Lin Yuan replied, a cold, anticipating smile touching his lips. The staircase has just begun.

Above him, the ceiling of the arena began to warp. A staircase forged from pure, glowing starlight materialized, leading upward into a swirling vortex of emerald energy.

Lin Yuan sheathed the Primordial Sovereign Sword and began to walk up the stairs, ascending to the second floor of the crucible.

Outside, in the absolute center of the Central Continent’s Grand Court, the atmosphere was filled with whispered paranoia.

Tens of thousands of cultivators stared unblinkingly at the colossal monolith. The names of the nominees were etched in deep crimson, static and unmoving. It had only been a few minutes since the teleportation array had swept the combatants into the Nine-Tiered Sky.

In the Chu pavilion, Chu Kuang sat on the edge of his stone seat, his Half-Step Transcendent aura violently churning. He was gnawing on his thumbnail, his bloodshot eyes locked onto the bottom of the rankings where his name sat in humiliating disgrace.

"Any moment now," A Chu elder muttered feverishly. "Chu Kuang will clear the first floor. He will take his thousand merits. He will begin the climb back to the top."

In the eastern royal pavilion, Lord Zhao Shenming and Bai Chen stood rigidly at the stone railing, their fists clenched, staring at the sixth slot.

"The first floor is probably a Steadfast Stage guardian," Lord Zhao murmured, his intellect recalling the records of the tournament. "It is a brutal filter. Many of the Lower Division cultivatiors will be expelled immediately. But for Daoist Lin... it should be a mere formality."

Bai Qingyue sat calmly in her wheelchair, her hands folded neatly in her lap. She did not look worried. She simply watched the monolith, waiting for the inevitable confirmation of her husband’s might.

Suddenly, a resonant, crystal-clear chime rang out across the amphitheater.

It was the distinct sound of a floor being conquered.

Every single head in the arena snapped toward the jade monolith. The crowd held its collective breath, waiting to see which of the Six Peerless Geniuses had drawn first blood. Would it be Xuan Mingzhe? Would it be Jiang Wan’s flawless sword?

The crimson script on the monolith flared with a blinding, incandescent light.

The name occupying the sixth slot violently shimmered, the numbers beside it spinning with dizzying speed before locking into place with a heavy thud.

MERIT RANKINGS (CURRENT)

1. Lin Yuan (Zhao Province) - 1610 Merits

2. Xuan Mingzhe (Xuan Province) - 1100 Merits

3. Jiang Wan (Jiang Province) - 830 Merits

4. Ye Ao (Ye Province) - 800 Merits

5. Feng Yao (Feng Province) - 700 Merits

6. Ling Chuan (Ling Province) - 660 Merits

...

For three agonizing seconds, the Grand Court was plunged into a silence so profound it felt as though the very concept of sound had been erased from the world.

And then, the arena exploded.

"He took first blood!"

"Sixteen hundred and ten merits! He vaulted Xuan Mingzhe!"

"How is he so fast?! The trial just started!"

"An Early-Stage cultivator just cleared a phantom guardian in less than three minutes!"

The roars of disbelief, shock, and outrage were deafening. The Upper Division elites were screaming, pointing frantically at the monolith, entirely unable to process the reality that the Zhao Province cultivator had not only survived the first encounter but had executed it with a speed that humiliated the established Peerless Geniuses.

In the Chu pavilion, a Chu elder stared at the monolith, his jaw dropping open, the sheer rage completely short-circuiting his higher brain functions. He let out a primal, animalistic roar of fury, violently kicking his stone chair across the terrace.

In the Zhao pavilion, Bai Chen leaped into the air, pumping his fist and screaming in absolute triumph. Lord Zhao let out a booming laugh that echoed with the deep, resonant joy of a man whose faith had been flawlessly validated.

Bai Qingyue remained perfectly still, her beautiful face illuminated by the crimson light of the monolith. A soft, knowing smile touched her lips as she looked at the name sitting alone at the absolute apex of the board.

The second preliminary round had begun, and her husband was already standing exactly where he belonged.

At the top of it all.