Around the pagodas, the challenge's cost became increasingly apparent.
Participants emerged one after another—limping, supported, or dragging themselves forward. Clothes were torn. Skin smeared with blood. Hands trembled from exhaustion. Pride and frustration mixed freely in their eyes.
From the Azure Rank Pagoda, Ji Xin stepped out.
Her breathing was uneven, hair plastered to her sweat-dampened brow. She straightened, walked toward her grandfather, and bowed respectfully.
"Grandfather… I failed to make the top sixty-four. My cultivation wasn't enough."
Ji Hong, seated among the elders, smiled gently and waved the matter aside.
"You did well, Xin'er. Your foundation is stable, and you showed resolve. That experience will serve you far better than rankings ever could."
Near the White Rank Pagoda, another wave of participants exited.
Among them was Zhong Li, one of the disciples who had entered the sect alongside Li Yan. His breathing was shallow, his legs trembling, but there was unmistakable satisfaction in his eyes.
A friend beside him nudged his arm, grinning despite his own exhaustion. "Brother Zhong Li! You made it—top sixty-four!"
Zhong Li lifted his head and looked at the leaderboard hovering above. His name rested at 63rd, just beneath another familiar one.
"Ming Bo…" Zhong Li said, managing a tired smile. "Looks like we both made it."
The two exchanged a nod—no words needed.
____
Inside the Pagoda
Li Yan moved like a phantom.
His steps barely marked the ground. His sword cut through beasts as silently as breath through mist.
Darkness Qi veiled the blade as he unleashed Nightfall Slash, a sweeping crescent that tore through seven Shadow Panthers in a single, fluid motion. Their bodies disintegrated before they could hit the ground.
Another panther lunged from behind.
Li Yan didn't turn.
The reverse thrust was precise, cold, and final.
The moment the beast dissolved into light, Li Yan dropped into a low crouch and seized the white flag shimmering against the sand.
Ding.
Warm light enveloped him. Space folded.
[Level: 8
Points: 2,045
Time Remaining: 0:45:18]
Cold struck instantly.
Li Yan opened his eyes to a frozen plain, snow whipping sideways under a cutting wind. Frost bloomed across the ground in jagged patterns.
His expression remained calm.
"The hidden level is within reach," he calculated. "I can't slow down."
Before him, twenty Ice Claw Tigers appeared, arranged deliberately. Each beast was massive—over three meters tall. Crystalline frost coated their fur. Curved claws gleamed like forged steel.
Behind them, another white flag pulsed faintly.
"Twenty in the first wave," Li Yan murmured, eyes sharpening. "They're accelerating. Interesting."
He raised a hand and retrieved a pill from his storage ring, swallowing it without hesitation. Warmth spread through his meridians as Qi replenished rapidly.
A Tier-4 Qi Replenishment Pill—specifically prepared for this competition.
Then he tightened his grip on the sword.
Black Qi surged along the blade like liquid smoke.
With a single breath, he exploded forward.
The tigers roared and charged.
Then a new battle began.
Each swing was an execution, no wasted motion. No hesitation. Days of silent training and relentless combat in Hunting Ground expressed themselves in clean arcs of death.
____
Back in the Arena
The leaderboard flickered again.
White Rank Leaderboard
[Rank 1 — Li Yan Tian — Level 8 — 2,155 Points]
[Rank 2 — Mu Fan — Level 6 — 1,370 Points]
[Rank 3 — Wen Hai — Level 6 — 1,195 Points]
The murmurs erupted.
"He's already on Level 8!"
"He's opened a huge gap on Mu Fan!"
"This has never happened!"
Even the most stoic elders leaned forward now.
Elder Shen Tao, normally unflappable, allowed a trace of emotion into his voice. "At this pace… he may reach the hidden level before the timer expires."
Ji Hong smiled faintly, eyes gleaming with certainty. "Li Yan is full of surprises. Let's see how far he pushes himself."
Beside him, Cao Lian folded her arms, incredulous yet openly impressed. "He's fighting as if he were born for this."
Around them, elders exchanged stunned glances.
The name Li Yan Tian was no longer being spoken as that of a promising disciple—but as something rarer.
A phenomenon.
Even Shen Tao, whose expression rarely shifted, now watched the white-ranked pagoda's leaderboard with unmistakable anticipation.
With thirty-one minutes remaining, the leaderboard flickered once more.
White Rank Leaderboard
[Rank 1 — Li Yan Tian — Level 9 — 2,685 Points]
[Rank 2 — Mu Fan — Level 7 — 1,680 Points]
[Rank 3 — Wen Hai — Level 7 — 1,545 Points]
____
Inside the pagoda, a soft chime echoed as Li Yan crossed into Level 9.
His gaze dropped briefly to the glowing bracelet on his wrist.
[Level: 9
Points: 2,685
Time Remaining: 0:31:07]
He stood upon a vast frozen expanse, the horizon swallowed by flurrying snow. Jagged ice formations rose like broken teeth from the ground, and the wind howled through them with bestial fury. Each breath left his lips as pale mist.
Li Yan consumed another Tier-4 Qi Replenishment Pill, the familiar warmth spreading through his meridians as his focus sharpened.
"Level eight had a hundred," he murmured evenly. "Let's see how many welcome me this time."
The frozen earth shimmered.
Without warning, ethereal light rippled across the plain.
In a blink, fifty ice-type beasts materialized—Frost Wolves with crystalline fangs, towering Glacier Bears wrapped in armor-like fur, and serpentine Ice Wing Serpents that hissed through the skies, wings carving trails of frost through the air.
They formed a loose encirclement, standing squarely between Li Yan and the distant white flag, placed deliberately beyond their line like bait.
Li Yan's lips curved into a thin smile, a glint of anticipation flashing through his eyes.
"Fifty at once?" he said quietly. "Perfect. Saves time."
This time, he did not charge.
He raised his left hand.
Darkness gathered in his palm, condensing into a pulsing sphere. Shadows coiled and writhed around it like living tendrils, dense and heavy with intent.
"Let's see how well you handle this…" His eyes sharpened. "Phantom Mirage."
With a flick of his wrist, the orb flew into the heart of the formation.
It detonated on impact.
A dome of thick, rolling black mist erupted outward, swallowing the icy plain in a thirty-meter radius. The fog churned violently, blotting out sight, sound, and orientation alike.
Within seconds, one-third of the beasts staggered.
Their eyes widened. Movements faltered.
The frozen land beneath their feet vanished within the illusion, replaced by endless darkness and shifting phantoms—depth, distance, direction—gone.
And within that veil—Li Yan vanished.
The next few seconds passed in suffocating silence.
Then—
Steel sang.
Short, sharp bursts of sound rang out as a blade flashed through the fog. A growl cut off mid-breath. Another flick of steel, and a serpent's neck went slack before its body dissolved into motes of light.
Li Yan moved through the mist like a wraith—elegant, efficient, merciless.
The beasts died before they could even scream.
Outside the fog, the remaining creatures hesitated, breath steaming, muscles coiled. Instinct warred with agitation.
Then one Glacier Bear stepped forward.
The others followed.
They entered the dark.
Their mistake.
More sounds followed—ripping flesh, hurried footsteps, the faintest gasps—then silence.
Three minutes later, the mist unraveled like a curtain being drawn aside.
Li Yan stood alone.
Unmarked. Untouched.
His sword rested calmly at his side as the icy plain lay silent around him.
He walked forward without a word and claimed the white flag. Its soft glow dissolved into the bracelet with a pleasant chime.
Ding.
[+10 Points Added]
The waves did not stop.
They came again—and again.
The second, third, and fourth waves surged forward with increasing ferocity. The beasts grew larger, faster, and more cunning. As their numbers increased within the mist, Phantom Mirage's effectiveness waned.
A limitation.
Li Yan noted it instantly.
When the beasts began resisting the illusion, he moved faster.
When brute force proved inefficient, he layered shadow feints. When illusions faltered, he invoked Umbral Density Suppression, crushing their momentum mid-lunge, and slowing their muscles and joints with oppressive shadow pressure.
Every exchange was precise. Every strike was decisive.
There was no waste. No hesitation.
And when the final Glacier Bear from the fifth and last wave of fifty beasts crumbled into dust, the frozen plain fell silent once more.
Li Yan exhaled slowly, breath steaming in the frigid air as he picked up the last flag—this one was golden.
Ding.
[+25 Points Added]
He checked his bracelet.
[Level: 9
Points: 4,000
Time Remaining: 0:15:53]
Ding.
Golden light engulfed him.
The icy plain vanished.
When his vision returned, he stood in a realm unlike any before.
The cold was gone.
The plain was gone.
Instead, shifting colors rippled through the air, quiet winds brushing against his senses as strange energy crackled faintly around him. A towering gate loomed in the distance, its surface inscribed with ancient glyphs that pulsed with subdued authority.
The bracelet chimed again.
[Level: ???
Points: 5,000
Time Remaining: 0:12:51 (Paused)]
____
Outside the Pagodas
The atmosphere in the arena turned electric.
Disciples and elders alike fixed their gazes on the four shimmering leaderboards suspended above. Even the wind seemed to be still, as though the world itself waited.
Then—
Something changed.
A brilliant flash surged through the White Rank Pagoda's leaderboard. Runes spun violently, numbers rolling like storm clouds and erased until only a single name was enlarged, displaying an impossible result on the whole leaderboard.
[White Rank Pagoda — Li Yan Tian
Current Level: Hidden Level
Points: 5,000
Time Remaining: 12:51 (Paused)]
The head referee, standing atop the central platform in green robes, stared in stunned silence. Then he raised his voice, Qi amplifying it across the arena.
"Li Yan Tian of the White Rank… has reached the Hidden Level!"
The declaration struck like a hammer.
For a heartbeat, the arena froze.
Then chaos erupted.
Cries of disbelief and awe flooded the stands. Disciples leaned forward, eyes wide, fingers pointing toward the glowing screen.
There—
Li Yan's name hovered alone.
Highlighted in soft gold.
The sole disciple to have ever entered the Hidden Level.
The number beside it glowed like molten metal—unchallenged, unapproachable.
"He reached a hidden level?" someone whispered, breathless.
"I thought the hidden level was out of reach," murmured a sect elder, brows drawn tight with disbelief.
"No one has ever passed the final level of any Pagoda," another elder muttered, voice hoarse.
Near the Azure Pagoda, a small group of Azure Rank disciples gathered, their expressions unreadable. One of them—tall, broad-shouldered—clicked his tongue in irritation.
"That name… Li Yan Tian," he said coldly. "I remember him. He stormed the Tier-1 Hunting Ground leaderboard not long ago. Everyone thought it was a coincidence."
"It wasn't," a girl beside him replied, her gaze sharp as she stared at the glowing board. "Look again."
The discussion rippled outward.
Even Purple and Black Rank disciples—those who usually carried themselves with unshakable composure—were drawn into the storm. Conversations overlapped. Speculation spread. Calculations were made in silence.
In one corner of the audience, a woman in purple robes clutched the fabric at her chest, her voice low with curiosity.
"What kind of reward lies in a hidden level…?" she murmured.
Whispers turned into conjecture. Awe mixed with envy. Respect tangled with unease.
And through it all, one name pulsed at the center of every thought, every breath.
Li Yan Tian.
____
Within the White Rank Pagoda—far beyond the final array—Li Yan stood alone.
The world around him was unlike anything he had known.
The air shimmered with a silvery haze, dense with pure Qi that vibrated softly beneath his skin. He could feel it threading through every pore, whispering of time and stillness—of things long forgotten, deliberately sealed away.
The ground beneath his feet was translucent crystal, cold and smooth, yet humming with warmth beneath the surface. Ethereal winds drifted through the space, carrying golden motes that danced lazily in the air, catching the light and reflecting soft hues of violet and white.
Above him stretched an endless sky—not blue, but luminous silver, streaked with faint trails of light, as though ancient stars had passed through and left their marks behind.
Li Yan stood still.
His breathing was steady. His posture relaxed.
His gaze was sharp, alert, and controlled.
This was not merely a higher level.
It felt like a realm hidden outside of time—sealed not by force, but by intention.
Then, a voice emerged. It came from everywhere at once—deep, clear, ancient.
"Welcome to the Hidden Space of the White Rank Pagoda."