Chapter 236

“There are many unstable factors within the Demon Refining Tower, so everyone, please be careful.”

The second round of the Ten Methods Assembly’s trials began at noon the day after the Lantern Festival, in front of the renowned Demon Refining Tower.

Tian Xianzi, as the elder representative, stood at the entrance of the towering white giant tower and gave a speech like a mobilization meeting for the final exams.

While listening to his explanation of the rules, Ning Ning looked up at the imposing white silhouette in the distance and felt a sense of awe.

The Demon Refining Tower is located at the peak of Lingtian on Kunshan Mountain. The summit is enveloped in a misty, colorful cloudscape, with occasional cries of cranes passing by, casting fleeting shadows across the sky.

The sunlight pierced through layers of mist, like thousands of golden swords tearing through the haze, gradually revealing the majestic form of the tower.

The tower, built from snow-white marble, is tall and slender, reaching straight into the clouds like a giant sword standing atop the mountain, reflecting specks of golden light in the sun.

The eaves of the white tower have six corners, engraved with various talismans and spells. Each corner rises like the wings of a bird, seemingly soaring straight into the blue sky like a broken bamboo.

According to Tian Xianzi, the Demon Refining Tower was originally a perilous demon realm, infested with evil demons and monsters that often descended to the human world to wreak havoc.

Fortunately, the founder of Kunshan intervened, subduing the demons with all his might and creating a secret realm to suppress them all. The secret realm’s exterior took the form of a pure white tower.

Later, perhaps out of habit, combined with the tower’s strong suppressive power, the successors of Kunshan often imprisoned subdued demons in the tower, naming it the “Demon Refining Tower.”

Essentially, it serves as a prison for evil spirits.

“The Demon Refining Tower has a hundred floors, and the higher you go, the stronger the demons imprisoned.”

Sobered up, Tian Xianzi stood straight in front of the tower. He looked quite high-spirited, and it was hard to associate him with the drunk dog galloping on horseback that day: “You will be randomly teleported to various tower floors, and the floor number will be indicated at the entrance of the secret realm. If you feel overwhelmed and cannot defeat the demons on that floor, you can choose to exit that floor and move on to the next round of random selection.”

“Doesn’t that mean there’s a lot of freedom?”

Zheng Weiqi rubbed her hands in anticipation, her eyes shining with eagerness: “I thought we had to climb floor by floor, but since that’s not the case, there’s no need to waste time on the lower floors.”

If we’re going to fight, we should fight the strongest opponents. The senior sister truly embodies the spirit of a Nascent Soul stage sword cultivator.

Ning Ning sighed inwardly and suddenly heard a disciple ask, “Elder Tian Xianzi, won’t the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stage disciples be separated this time?”

“Correct.”

Tian Xianzi smiled slightly: “When you enter the true world of cultivation and fight against evil, do they care about your cultivation stage? That being said, this trial differs from the first round; there’s another rule—”

“In the Demon Refining Tower, no one is allowed to harm other disciples. You’ve learned how to compete before, but in this round, you should try to cooperate.”

Someone asked in confusion, “If that’s the case, can’t fellow disciples collude, with the Nascent Soul carrying the Golden Core around to kill everything?”

“That brings up another interesting rule.”

Tian Xianzi smiled mysteriously, his eyes curving in a playful smirk.

“The tower floors you enter are completely random. If you fight alongside fellow disciples on one floor, you will be separated when you enter the next.”

He explained patiently, “Moreover, each floor has a limited capacity, and the number of times each person can exit a floor to re-select is also limited. If you’re thinking of using random selection to reunite with your fellow disciples, you might as well give up on that idea.”

In other words, this trial has a high degree of randomness.

Teammates and opponents are not chosen by you; the only way to gain more points is to constantly work with disciples from various sects to defeat the demons in the white tower through cooperation.

“Each tower floor is a completely different illusion, and there’s more than one demon inside.”

Tian Xianzi, evidently eager to watch the proceedings through a mystic mirror, sped up his speech: “When the demons die, everyone on the floor will receive corresponding points. The higher the tower floor and the stronger the demons, the more points you can earn.”

He raised his eyebrows, glancing around at everyone present: “Does everyone understand? Any other questions?”

Silence.

After a brief pause, someone finally mustered the courage to raise their hand and ask: “Elder Tian Xianzi, I heard that last night you and a monk danced a beautiful sword dance together. What was the name of that dance?”

Tian Xianzi squinted, the veins on his forehead bulging like a “井” character.

(T/N: the character “井” (pronounced as “jǐng”) is metaphorically used to describe the bulging veins on Tian Xianzi’s forehead.)

Tian Xianzi: “It’s called ‘Ask again and I’ll kill you.’”

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To be honest, Ning Ning still felt a bit nervous about entering the Demon Refining Tower.

This tower has always existed only in tales meant to frighten people, unlike the Floating Tower of Xuanxu Sect; it is not an illusion. The demons imprisoned inside are all real, and any one of them could cause children to cry at night.

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