The news that Li Yun had cleared the second floor of the Everlasting Pagoda after only eight months on Chronospace Island spread quickly across the whole island, and its effect was far greater than Li Yun himself realized.
Many of the cultivators trapped there had already given up hope. Some had been on the island for hundreds of years, and others had endured thousands or even tens of thousands. They could not leave, and they could not truly die.
After struggling for so long without seeing even the slightest chance of freedom, many of them had eventually stopped caring. They cultivated now and then when the mood took them, and they spent the rest of their time drinking, wandering, sleeping, or simply letting the years slip by.
Among the several thousand cultivators living on Chronospace Island, nearly thirty percent had fallen into this state.
Li Yun’s rise shook them awake. A newcomer had arrived only eight months ago, and in that short time he had already done something that almost none of them had managed after centuries of cultivation.
If Li Yun could do it, they asked themselves, why couldn’t they at least try again? Why should they give up without making one last effort?
For a while, the mood across Chronospace Island changed dramatically. Cultivators who had done almost nothing for decades went back into secluded cultivation, and ancient experts who had long ago stopped challenging the Everlasting Pagoda began studying their techniques again.
The island, which had slowly grown stagnant over countless years, suddenly seemed alive once more.
Three months passed. The renewed determination of the island’s cultivators did bring some results, but reality was still cruel, and hard work alone could not overcome every barrier. In those three months, only two more cultivators managed to clear the first floor of the Everlasting Pagoda, and no one else passed the second.
Meanwhile, another battle had just ended inside the Astral Battle Realm. A vast sword formation had swept across the battlefield at terrifying speed, filling the space with Sword Qi until it completely swallowed a tall figure.
The next moment, Yuan Zhenhai vanished from the battlefield and reappeared outside the Astral Battle Realm with a bitter smile on his face.
“Li Yun, the speed you’re improving at is getting ridiculous.”
Li Yun appeared beside him a moment later, and Yuan Zhenhai shook his head helplessly.
“Three months ago, I could still keep you down without much trouble. Now, even with my cultivation suppressed only to the 8th level of Spirit Manifestation Realm, you can beat me decisively.” He sighed. “Everyone else on Chronospace Island measures progress in years, decades, or centuries, but somehow you get better every few days. How are the rest of us supposed to keep up?”
Li Yun smiled faintly. “I’ve just been lucky.”
That answer was naturally a modest one. His strength really had risen a great deal over the past three months. Part of the reason was his cultivation, since he had broken through to the 7th level of Heavenly Core Realm.
More importantly, however, he had finally achieved something he had been chasing for a long time. Fast Sword and Slow Sword had begun to fuse.
The fusion was still only in its early stages and far from complete. Even so, the resulting Fast and Slow Sword Technique had already gone through a qualitative change.
In pure speed, it even surpassed the Void Severing Sword Style, and it had become the fastest sword technique Li Yun had.
Its weakness was power. Because the fusion was incomplete, the offensive force of the Fast and Slow Sword Technique still had plenty of room to grow, so for now, the Myriad Sword Spirit Command Art remained his strongest overall method.
Yuan Zhenhai looked at him. “Li Yun, I take it you’re planning to challenge the third floor of the Everlasting Pagoda again.”
“That’s right,” Li Yun said with a nod.
Yuan Zhenhai smiled. “Then I think you’ll succeed this time.”
Over these three months, the two of them had fought more than a hundred times, and those constant exchanges had turned their competitive relationship into a real friendship. Yuan Zhenhai sincerely hoped that Li Yun could clear the third floor.
There was another reason as well. He had suggested earlier that, short of comprehending the Temporal Dao, the only realistic way to defeat the Verdant Sword Sage was overwhelming speed. If Li Yun succeeded that way, it would prove that Yuan Zhenhai’s conclusion had been right.
Li Yun smiled. “Then I’ll borrow some of your good luck, Brother Yuan.”
He turned and headed for the Everlasting Pagoda.
By the time Li Yun arrived, more than two thousand cultivators had already gathered nearby, which was nearly eighty percent of everyone living on Chronospace Island.
His repeated battles with Yuan Zhenhai over the past three months had been open to public view, and everyone had watched him grow stronger. They all understood why he had come today. He was going to challenge the third floor.
For many of the people there, this battle meant far more than Li Yun’s personal success or failure. Most of them had never seen anyone leave Chronospace Island, and some had lived here for tens of thousands of years without seeing even one person clear the Everlasting Pagoda.
Li Yun had become proof that escape might actually be possible. If he cleared the third floor, only he would earn the right to leave, yet his success would still mean something to everyone else.
It would prove that the path was real and that freedom was possible, and it would show that the Everlasting Pagoda was difficult rather than truly impossible.
Under thousands of hopeful eyes, Li Yun calmly walked into the pagoda. The familiar spatial power wrapped around him and his surroundings shifted, and when his vision cleared, he had arrived directly on the third floor.
The strange mountain range appeared once more, with countless peaks standing across the land like enormous black and white chess pieces.
The Verdant Sword Sage was sitting at ease on top of one of the mountains, and he glanced at Li Yun.
“So you’ve come back, little fellow.”
Only three months had passed, yet the guardian sensed the change in Li Yun at once.
“You seem much more confident this time.”

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