The Verdant Sword Sage looked down. The sword wound across his chest had not faded. The crimson Slaughter Sword Intent kept eating away at it, the pale Immortal Sword Intent kept the sword force from dissipating, and the black Destruction Sword Intent kept disrupting the energy that was trying to heal the damage.
For the first time, genuine shock appeared on the guardian’s face, and then that shock slowly turned into laughter.
"Hahahaha!"
His laughter echoed through the mountain range.
"Incredible. Truly incredible." He looked at Li Yun with completely different eyes. "Two months ago, you could barely do anything once my Temporal Domain appeared. Now..."
He glanced at the wound on his chest. "You broke through it, and you wounded me."
Li Yun said nothing, and the Verdant Sword Sage shook his head in amazement.
"A Dragon Bloodline and Dragon Blood Transformation. A physical cultivation technique that can give your body such a horrifying weight. Xiantian Stage Wind Intent and Lightning Intent fused into a movement technique." His gaze settled on the Profound Origin Sword. "And three Sword Intents compressed into a single strike."
He slowly let out a breath.
"Horizon Sword Light is already dangerous on its own. When you pair it with Gale Flash and use the three Sword Intents specifically to tear open whatever defense stands in front of it..." A bitter smile appeared on his face. "By the time your opponent understands what you’re doing, your sword is already there."
Li Yun finally relaxed a little. "Senior, did I pass?"
The Verdant Sword Sage stared at him and then laughed again.
"Pass? You went far beyond what was required."
Li Yun raised an eyebrow, and the guardian explained.
"The real requirement of the third floor was never to defeat me. As long as you could force me to activate the Temporal Domain, you would have passed."
Li Yun froze. "What?"
The Verdant Sword Sage smiled. "During your last challenge, you had already shown enough strength to meet the normal requirement. But I saw your potential." His eyes flashed. "So I kept going. I wanted to see what you would come up with if I put an obstacle in front of you that seemed impossible."
Li Yun fell silent. Only now did he understand why the gap between the second and third floors had seemed so unreasonable. The third floor had never been meant to require a challenger to defeat someone who could use a Temporal Domain. The Verdant Sword Sage had deliberately raised Li Yun’s trial above the normal standard.
The guardian looked at the enormous sword scar running through the distant mountains.
"Even so, I never expected you to come back after only two months with an answer like this. You didn’t just force me to activate the Temporal Domain. You cracked it, you passed through it, and then you wounded me." He turned back to Li Yun. "The third floor is yours."
Li Yun glanced at the Profound Origin Sword as the three Sword Intents slowly withdrew. The golden dragon scales gradually faded as Dragon Blood Transformation ended, and the ancient pressure of the Golden Ancient Dragon Bloodline receded. Finally, the wind and lightning around him vanished, and his appearance returned to normal.
He cupped his hands. "Thank you for your guidance, Senior."
The Verdant Sword Sage shook his head. "There’s no need to thank me. You created Horizon Sword Light and Gale Flash, and you cultivated those Sword Intents. You developed your bloodline transformation and strengthened your body until it could support that attack. All I did was put an obstacle in front of you. You were the one who found a way through it."
He raised a hand and waved it.
With a boom, a brilliant pillar of light erupted from the peak of the Everlasting Pagoda and shot straight into the sky, lighting up all of Chronospace Island. Countless cultivators looked up.
"What is that?"
Several ancient experts froze, and their expressions changed.
"The Everlasting Pagoda! That phenomenon only appears when someone clears all three floors."
"Someone has cleared the pagoda!"
The news spread almost instantly, and the same name came to everyone’s mind.
"It has to be Li Yun."
"He’s only been on Chronospace Island for about a year. He cleared the whole Everlasting Pagoda in one year?"
"What kind of monster does that?"
Elsewhere, Yuan Zhenhai stood under the glowing sky and stared at the pillar of light. A smile slowly appeared on his face.
"Li Yun..." Battle intent burned in his eyes. "So you crossed that barrier first."
There was no jealousy in his expression. Instead, his fighting spirit grew even stronger.
"Good. Then I can’t keep standing still either."
Deep within Chronospace Island stood an ancient crimson palace. Inside it, Lord Crimson Rift suddenly opened his eyes. His scarlet pupils seemed able to see straight through the palace and across the whole island, and he looked toward the pillar of light. For the first time in a very long while, genuine surprise showed on his face.
"Someone cleared the Everlasting Pagoda?"
His first thought was the obvious one. "Yuan Zhenhai?"
Then he checked the records, and his expression changed at once.
"No." Crimson Rift straightened up. "It’s the newcomer."
He kept reading, and the more he saw, the stranger his expression became.
"One year. He entered Chronospace Island barely a year ago. He cleared the first floor almost immediately, the second floor after eight months, and now the third."
For several breaths, Lord Crimson Rift said nothing. Then he abruptly stood up.
"To clear the Everlasting Pagoda in a single year..." His scarlet eyes shone. "What kind of monster has come to my Chronospace Island?"
He waved a hand, and space split open with a ripping sound, revealing a spatial passage in front of him. Lord Crimson Rift stepped inside.
"I need to see this fellow for myself."
Inside the Everlasting Pagoda, Li Yun quietly watched the brilliant light slowly fade, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
His Golden Ancient Dragon Bloodline, Dragon Blood Transformation, the seventh layer of the World Bearing Devil Suppressing Physique with its ten-millionfold body weight, Gale Flash, Horizon Sword Light, and the combined power of three Sword Intents had finally been linked into a single combat strategy for this one battle.
Gale Flash had let him seize the initiative, and Horizon Sword Light had automatically chased the smallest opening.
Slaughter Sword Intent had torn into the resistance directly in front of him, Immortal Sword Intent had preserved the edge long enough for the strike to keep going through the Temporal Domain, and Destruction Sword Intent had cracked the unstable temporal structure itself. Meanwhile, his bloodline, his transformation, and his physical cultivation had supplied the raw force needed to drive everything forward.
For the first time, Li Yun had not simply stacked his abilities on top of one another. He had made them work together, and that difference mattered far more.

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