Chapter 232: Making a Legend
Chapter 232: Making a Legend
Outside the Heavenly Ascendent Tower, Every single pair of eyes was glued to the colossal, ancient stone monolith erected beside the tower.
RUMBLE—!
The golden text flashed one more time.
[Floor 57]
Myrielle sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
Six hundred years ago.
The greatest prodigy in the history of Stormveil Academy had shattered his mind and crippled his cultivation just to reach this exact floor.
It was a record that had stood as an insurmountable monument since then.
"High Preceptor," Krell asked in an absent- minded whisper, "When that prodigy set the record six hundred years ago... how long did it take him to reach the fiftieth floor?"
Aldren swallowed hard, his throat completely dry.
"Three days," he replied, his eyes locked unblinkingly on the tower, "It took him three full days and nights just to reach Floor 50. He had to rest for hours between floors just to recover his strength."
His voice slightly trembled as he continued.
"Rhain... Rhain has been inside for exactly thirty minutes."
The words dropped like a nuclear bomb upon the gathered Preceptors.
Half an hour!
What took the greatest genius of the previous era three days of life-and-death struggle, Rhain had casually strolled through in thirty minutes.
But before the High Preceptors could even begin to digest the sheer magnitude of this historical moment—
RUMBLE—!
The golden light erupted again, shining brighter than it ever had in the past millennium.
Floor 58]
A collective gasp sucked all the air out of the atmosphere.
The historic, thousand-year record of the Stormveil Academy had officially been shattered.
Carmilla’s bright eyes sparkled with an unprecedented intensity.
"Our founder’s prophecy..." She whispered softly, "It is him. It is truly him."
Beside her, Seris watched the glowing number with a radiant, heart-melting smile.
Her pale purple eyes held not a single trace of surprise.
Breaking the record?
It wasn’t new for her husband.
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Inside the Heavenly Ascendent Tower, Rhain was completely oblivious to the historic milestone he had just crushed.
[Floor 60]
[Floor 65]
[Floor 70]
He ascended higher and higher, his speed showing no signs of slowing down whatsoever.
The opponents spawning before him had fully transitioned into the Core Formation Realm.
Their speed, their weapons, and the mental suppression of their attacks would have turned any ordinary Spirit Manifestation prodigy into a mindless husk.
But before Rhain, they were nothing.
No matter the realm or number of opponents, nothing could force him to use more than one attack.
"Too slow," Rhain muttered, his dark grey eyes placid as a Level 3 Core Formation beast lunged at him on the 75th floor.
He simply jumped up, sweeping his right foot in a beautiful arc.
BANG!
The beast’s armored skull caved in, and its massive body exploded into dissipating essence.
[Floor 80]
[Floor 85]
Rhain was practically making a mockery of the tower’s escalating difficulty.
Whether it was a weapon-master or a soul-attacker, a single punch infused with his dense, pitch-black essence was enough to obliterate them on contact.
Soon, the dark space warped, depositing him into a significantly larger, more oppressive chamber.
[Floor 90]
Rhain halted his footsteps.
Across the vast metallic arena, spiritual light coalesced into ten distinct figures.
They materialized in a perfect combat formation—heavy beasts taking the vanguard, weapon-masters flanking the sides, and soul-attackers hovering safely in the rear.
The auras rolling off their bodies were uniformly terrifying.
Level 4 Core Formation Realm!
Ten perfectly coordinated experts, all sitting at the mid-stage of the Core Formation Realm.
The combined pressure they exerted would have been enough to crush any ordinary Spirit Manifestation Realm without even them needing to lift a finger.
As soon as they appeared, Rhain instantly felt the mental assault strike his spiritual sea, only for it to be swallowed instantly by his vast, Domain-Master-equivalent soul power without leaving so much as a ripple.
"Ten Level 4 Core Formation puppets,"
Rhain evaluated calmly. "Punching them one by one would be a waste of time."
He casually raised his right hand.
BOOM!
A majestic, blood-red fire erupted from his palm.
"Empyrean Purgatory Bloom. First Form."
The blood-red fire rapidly condensed, forming a terrifyingly beautiful lotus of pure destruction in the palm of his hand.
Rhain casually tossed the blazing lotus directly into the center of the horde.
The moment the fiery petals bloomed in mid-air—
BOOM—!!!
A cataclysmic explosion of blood-red fire swallowed the entire arena.
The sheer thermal devastation instantly vaporized the front-line beasts and incinerated the weapon-masters before they could even raise their weapons.
The soul-attackers in the rear were reduced to ash a millisecond later.
The entire Level 4 Core Formation horde was wiped out in a single strike.
The glowing staircase appeared at the far end of the scorched room.
Rhain lowered his hand, the blood-red flames dissipating, and calmly walked up.
[Floor 91]
A single opponent materialized before him, its aura noticeably denser than the horde he had just incinerated.
Level 5 Core Formation Realm.
"Back to one," Rhain murmured. He gathered dark essence around his fist, stepped into the puppet’s guard, and shattered its core with a clean strike.
He ascended the stairs, fully expecting the tower’s established logic to spawn two Level 5 Core Formation opponents on the next floor.
[Floor 92]
Rhain stepped into the arena.
The spiritual light gathered, but to his slight surprise, it did not split into two figures.
Only a single opponent materialized.
However, the moment the figure fully solidified, the oppressive weight bearing down on the surrounding area intensified drastically.
Level 6 Core Formation Realm.
Rhain’s eyebrows rose a fraction.
"So the mechanics shift again in the final ten floors," Rhain deduced. "Instead of multiplying the numbers, it simply forced a realm ascension."
The Level 6 puppet attacked, a blazing spear of condensed essence aimed directly at his heart.
Rhain sidestepped the thrust, his palm coated in Heavenly Flame, and crushed the puppet’s head.
For the first time, Rhain had to use two strikes this time, rather than one.
[Floor 93]
A single opponent.
Level 7 Core Formation Realm.
[Floor 94]
A single opponent.
Level 8 Core Formation Realm.
[Floor 95]
Rhain stepped into the ninety-fifth floor.
The spiritual light coalesced into a towering, heavily armored knight wielding a massive greatsword.
The aura that exploded from the knight’s body was overwhelmingly heavy.
Level 9 Core Formation Realm!
Peak of the Core Formation Realm.
The knight immediately attacked.
It raised its greatsword, and a mighty wave of sword aura, came crashing down toward Rhain.
Rhain’s relaxed posture had vanished since he had stepped onto the ninetieth floor.
Even for him, facing high level Core Formation was not as easy slapping them with one move like a fly.
With a flash of spatial light, a long spear materialized in his grasp.
"Finally," Rhain’s dark grey eyes flashed with a sharp, dangerous light. "An actual warmup."
The massive wave of sword aura tore through the air, carrying the crushing power of a peak Core Formation Realm expert.
Rhain tightened his grip on the long spear, channeling the pitch-black essence of his Abyssal Sovereign Physique directly into the shaft.
He swung the spear upward in a devastating arc to meet the descending greatsword.
CLANG—!!!
A deafening shockwave erupted from the collision, sending ripples of destructive energy crashing against the dark metallic walls of the arena.
Rhain’s boots dug half an inch into the indestructible stone floor under the immense pressure.
A Level 9 Core Formation opponent was fundamentally different from anything he had faced so far; its raw physical power and essence density were astronomical.
"Good," Rhain’s lips curled into an excited smirk. "Let’s see if you can face this move."
He didn’t bother using the Epic-Grade arts he had relied on during the tournament. Instead, his mind instantly accessed the profound truths of one of the ten scrolls he had memorized from the fifth floor of the Grand Library.
He hadn’t comprehended the Law of the Spear, so he couldn’t push this technique to the legendary Perfection Stage.
But with his monstrous foundation and monstrous physical strength, he could push it to the absolute limit beneath it.
Mystic-Grade Martial Art: Great Destruction Spear Art