Chapter 368: Real Challenge

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After pushing the door open to the room on the fifth floor, Yan Liqiang took a look and noticed that it was mostly empty and clean. Neither any spirit talismans nor anyone was in there; nothing irksome was in there at all. In the room, there was only a table, and on it was a metal box and a letter.

Yan Liqiang calmed down, walked up to the table, and looked at the letter.

There were densely packed words written all over it.

——People who can come to the fifth floor are all remarkable figures amongst the Divine Sword Sect’s disciples. They can be said to be geniuses that are hard to come by out of every 10,000 people. In the metal box at the side, there is a ‘Great Solar Big Dipper Sword Technique’. This sword technique has remarkable prowess and contains the secret arts of the Divine Sword Sect’s Tiangang Peak. In the past 500 or so years, a large group of people who had the great fortune to learn this sword technique eventually joined Tiangang Peak and became Elders there. Other than the ‘Great Solar Big Dipper Sword Technique’, there are also silver promissory notes which amount to 300,000 taels of silver. If you stop here and don’t continue to head up to the sixth floor, this sword technique and all the silver promissory notes will belong to you. You can bring the silver promissory notes out of the Sword Cavern and use them as you wish. No one in the Divine Sword Sect can interfere.

300,000 silver taels was a great fortune. After reading the letter, Yan Liqiang’s heart could not help but throb and he smacked his lips. If one were to take the huge amount of 300,000 silver taels and then obtain the great technique from Tiangang Peak’s, there was a 50% chance that the person could become an Elder. As long as the person was willing, they could immediately become a winner in the Divine Sword Sect. Who could resist such temptation?

However, this was not all that was written on the letter. Yan Liqiang calmed down and continued reading on.

——If you give up the reward on the fifth floor and head to the sixth floor, you will discover that there are neither secret manuals nor monetary rewards. There will only be a trial and the difficulty of the trial is so high that there might not even be one out of 100 Divine Sword Sect disciples who can pass it. Should you fail to pass the trial on the sixth floor, you can no longer choose to take the secret manual and silver promissory notes from the fifth floor. You will have to leave the Sword Cavern empty-handed.

——This choice is one that concerns your prospects and future in the Divine Sword Sect. Please consider it carefully.

It was only after reading the letter did Yan Liqiang understand what the test on the fifth floor was. This test was really too cruel. One option was the secret manual and a huge sum of money — leaving with the reward available on the fifth floor would allow one to become a winner in life in many people’s eyes. The person would enjoy a carefree life, be respected, and enjoy beauties, great wine, great scenery, and great food as they wished. And if the person were to give up on this option, the other option would be to continue heading upward. 99% of the people who took this option would fail and end up with nothing. They would feel as if they had fallen from heaven to hell, becoming losers in other people’s eyes. They would have to start all over from the beginning.

These two options concerned a person’s view on life, the selection of their life values, as well as their beliefs in life.

The two options would bring about consequences that were very different. Each person would have to assess their own hearts. There was no way to hide anything, and there was no way to leave things to chance.

How many people would choose to give up at this stage and choose to take the great rewards on the fifth level, not daring to challenge the unknown future upstairs?

Yan Liqiang admitted that his heart swayed for one moment. He could not help but wish to stop at this stage, take the secret manual and the huge sum of money, then leave this mysterious crystal pagoda. He could then become the Sect Lord’s disciple and he would enjoy great glory.

However, the words of the old man from the fourth floor suddenly rang out in his heart.

What on earth was on the highest level of this crystal pagoda?

What was the thing that could be more precious than the 300,000 taels of silver worth of promissory notes which could instantly make one become very rich, in addition to having the ‘Great Solar Big Dipper Sword Technique’? So much so that they had to put a person through so many trials before giving them the rights to have it…

Yan Liqiang did not lack money. If he liked money, he would not have chosen the path of cultivation in this lifetime. Instead, he would have chosen to go into trading and business. With his capabilities and knowledge, even if he didn’t gain the riches that was comparable to that of an entire country, it would not be a problem for him to become a person of great wealth and be able to realize several targets.

The ‘Great Solar Big Dipper Sword Technique’ might be very amazing and precious, but so what if that was the case…

Slowly, Yan Liqiang’s gaze became determined and his heart no longer wavered. He merely stayed in the room quietly for a short moment before walking up to the stairs leading to the sixth floor. Then he pushed open the crystal door that lead to the stairs.

——Those who are unwavered by fame and wealth are permitted to proceed to the sixth floor.

After he opened the door, Yan Liqiang saw that line at the back of the door. Simultaneously, the metal table in the room on the fifth floor quietly sank into the ground — there was no turning back.

With a hint of solemnness — the feeling as if he had stepped into a wrestling ring — Yan Liqiang headed up the stairs to the sixth floor of the pagoda. He stood before the crystal door on the sixth floor for a very long time, then took in a deep breath, pushed open the door, and stepped in.

The crystal door closed after Yan Liqiang entered.

After seeing the setup in the spacious room on the sixth floor, Yan Liqiang could not help but gasp.

This spacious place was like a museum, and yet it was also like an extremely high-class jewelry exhibition hall. The entire stretch of the floor on this level was densely packed with 108 round tables that looked exactly the same. And on each of the tables, there laid a rare beast core crystal that looked exactly the same, both in appearance and size, emitting a faint red light.

In the center of the 108 round tables, there was still that familiar metal table, and there was a letter on it like usual.

Yan Liqiang first walked up to the metal table and read the letter on it.

——On the 108 tables in this room, there are 108 rare beast core crystals. Amongst these 108 rare beast core crystals is one that is different from the others. Find the core crystal that is different from the others and place it into the indentation on this metal table. If your choice is correct, the passageway leading to the seventh floor will open and you can head upstairs. But if your choice is wrong, you’ll have to leave this place. Remember, you only have one chance!

There was really no reward in this room.

After reading the words on the letter, Yan Liqiang started to check the rare beast core crystals in the room one by one.

He first looked through all of the rare beast core crystals and discovered they all were almost exactly the same in terms of size, color, and appearance. Therefore, the core crystal that was different from the other 107 was definitely not different in terms of appearance, but in terms of its inner traits.

After observing the exterior, Yan Liqiang then placed each of the 108 rare beast core crystals on his hand to weigh them. With his sharp senses, he was able to detect that the weight of the rare beast core crystals was around 80 grams each, with a possible variance of 3 grams. In terms of texture and weight, these core crystals were not that different from each other either.

Then, Yan Liqiang used his third move — channeling his inner Qi into each of the rare beast core crystals to sense the type of creature they had come from.

After he had channeled his inner Qi into the first rare beast core crystal, its red light suddenly became very bright. And in that red light, there was the image of a monstrous fish that was swimming about. Its entire body was covered in red scales and it appeared to be very ferocious, like a supersized piranha.

Yan Liqiang put down the first rare beast core crystal and picked up the second one. The image projected on the second one was also the red monstrous fish. The same went for the third and subsequently fourth core crystals…

Yan Liqiang had no idea how long it took before he completed the inner Qi test on all 108 rare beast core crystals. He was stunned by the results. It was because all 108 rare beast core crystals displayed the same image after he channeled in his inner Qi — the red monstrous fish.

With this, Yan Liqiang finally understood why only one out of 100 Divine Sword Sect’s disciples would be able to pass this stage.

Damn it. If all these rare beast core crystals are the same, then what’s the difference between them…

From the point he entered the crystal pagoda till now, this was the first time Yan Liqiang was stumped. It seemed as if there was no way that he could solve this predicament…

After testing all the possible methods he could think of, Yan Liqiang was still unable to find the rare beast core crystal that was different from the rest. Yan Liqiang looked at the many core crystals that looked exactly the same displayed like a precious treasure in the vast room, feeling very bitter. It felt as if he was searching for a needle in the ocean and he felt as if his head was swimming. He did not know how to tackle this challenge…

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