After roughly an hour, the Full Moon of Nanshan and Ye Xixi had recovered.

During this time, Prince Le asked Wu Yu if he was confident in making it to the fifth level directly. He naturally wanted to go to a higher level. Ever since they left the Ancient Emperor Dao Palace, his ambition had grown. Perhaps he might not have harbored high hopes in the past, he now had the deepest resolve to obtain the Yan Huang Golden Bead and become the emperor.

"I'm not certain, but we can give it a try. If it doesn't work out, we can give up and thinking of a solution," answered Wu Yu.

After all, the Seven Stars Iron Winged Bug was a puppet equivalent to a fourth tier Dao Querying cultivator. On the fourth level of the Ancient Soul Tower, most people had strength similar to the Seven Stars Iron Winged Bug and yet couldn't make it to the fifth level. As such, it would be harder for the Seven Stars Iron Winged Bug to do so while having to protect Prince Le and the rest.

Prince Le and the rest had reached the Dao Querying Realm. However, with their current strength, they might not even make it to the second level on their own. Reaching this place was entirely because of Wu Yu.

Now Prince Le had basically left every decision and action in the Ancient Soul Tower to Wu Yu. Qu Fengyu was the most timid among them. She asked, "Would it be too risky? If the Seven Stars Fortifying Design were destroyed by that sea of lightning, wouldn't we be in danger when we are up there?"

Wu Yu glanced at her plainly and said, "Rest assured. Even if we can't get through, I won't let you guys get injured." Wu Yu was thinking about the Yan Huang Golden Bead. Although it contained numerous treasures, and even seraphic dao treasures weren't few, there were lots of competitors. Therefore, he had to maintain a clear state of mind. Even though his strength had improved by leaps and bounds, he knew himself well. He didn't find a need to rush. Instead, he should wait for the right opportunity to arrive.

As for Prince Le, he had saw this as helping him inherit the throne. He was Kingmaker Le. If Prince Le could become the emperor, it would definitely be beneficial for himself. Prince Le was already really grateful towards Wu Yu.

"If you guys are ready, let's give it a try."

"Alright."

Wu Yu went back to his old tricks and the group soared into the sky together. When they were roughly halfway to the golden vortex, Wu Yu sensed danger.

He looked to the south and saw a large, jade-green cloud speeding towards him. It was fast and he could vaguely hear sharp cries from it. As the cloud approached, he could hear the shrill squawks.

He switched to surveying with his Eyes of Fire and Gold and instantly frowned upon realizing that it wasn't a patch of green cloud, but thousands upon thousands of Spirits of the Universe. These Spirits of the Universe had the form of birds and had feathers that resembled jade-green daggers. Their beaks were sharp and long like swords, had four eyes, and three razor-sharp wings on each side of their bodies. The front and back pairs of wings were small, while the middle pair was larger. When the largest pair of wings extended fully, they were roughly five zhang long.

This wasn't considered huge, but when thousands upon thousands of them gathered in close proximity, they looked humongous. At this juncture, they were like starved wild beasts that had seen their prey. They had locked on to Wu Yu's group and had gone berserk, charging over. After a short period, the green cloud was about to cover Wu Yu's head.

"Just as I thought! How could the fourth level of the Ancient Soul Tower be completely riskless? Perhaps we would be fine on the field, but once we fly up, we will be held back by these Spirits of the Universe!"

They were in the fourth level of the Ancient Soul Tower and therefore these Spirits of the Universe would definitely be stronger than the Burnished Golden Ant at the first level and the giant trees on the third level. The key was that their numbers were too great. Even Wu Yu couldn't help but want to descend to the ground immediately. However, before he could do so, the Spirits of the Universe had reached them.

Wu Yu summoned his two other puppets, the Silver Moon Mantis and the Elusive Firefly, immediately. The Silver Moon Mantis would be responsible for protecting the Seven Stars Fortifying Design, while the Elusive Firefly would focus on killing enemies. Wu Yu's main body and Heaven Devouring Avatar also joined the fight. As for Prince Le and the rest, they went with the same distribution and were responsible for spectating.

The direct clash occurred expeditiously and Wu Yu charged into them instantly. In terms of individual battle strength, these Emerald Birds might be even weaker than the Burnished Golden Ant. However, they had the advantage in numbers. Every single one of them was unafraid of death and their razor-sharp wings and beaks were like advanced dao treasures that constantly lunged towards Wu Yu, giving him severe problems.

Under Wu Yu's group's combined resistance, the corpses of the birds were plunging from the skies. However, they were facing immense pressure. It was especially so for the Silver Moon Mantis, who was responsible for defense. Therefore, Wu Yu had the Elusive Firefly help protect the Seven Stars Fortifying Design as well.

Basically, they were surrounded in all directions by the green cloud. Wu Yu thought that if they were on the ground, they wouldn't have to face attacks from the bottom at the very least. Therefore, he instructed everyone to dive down swiftly while he focused on clearing the Emerald Birds below them. The Heaven Devouring Avatar was also reaping swatches of Emerald Birds with each swing of the Dark Sea Ghostly Tempest. Immediately after, their team dove towards the ground rapidly. With this, they could focus on the attacks coming from the top and around them.

"Leave the ones above to me!" Wu Yu and his Heaven Devouring Avatar were both above the group, while the Full Moon of Nanshan and the puppets separated into a triangle with the Seven Stars Fortifying Design in the middle. The killing became rapid and ferocious. When they descended onto the ground and Wu Yu was prepared to go on a killing spree, he was surprised to see those Emerald Birds turning around and escaping the moment they landed.

All of a sudden, they were safe again.

"This is strange!" Wu Yu conjectured that this might have something to do with them landing on the ground. To verify his hypothesis, he soared into the high skies as the large group of Emerald Birds was about to fly away. All of a sudden, the Emerald Birds became restless and started making sharp cries as though Wu Yu had murdered their entire line of ancestors. They swarmed him again and Wu Yu was forced back to the ground. Their shrill caws sounded like threats to Wu Yu's group before they left the place openly.

There were too many of them, and this was what made them so difficult to deal with. Wu Yu was a little dejected. He had not expected himself to still be suppressed by Spirits of the Universe after reaching this cultivation level. The truth was, he could have used his Unshackled Doppelgangers. However, he had finished his God's Way Pills. Wu Yu had managed to snatch a large number of God's Way Pills from the Floating Souls Titanic Beast and others. After giving some to Ye Xixi and the Full Moon of Nanshan, he still had over 10,000 left. However, he used all of them on his Unshackled Doppelgangers the next moment. At this point, Wu Yu had too many doppelgangers. Each one could only get one God's Way Pill; therefore, Wu Yu was still lacking. He required more God's Way Pills for his Unshackled Doppelgangers to reach their limits. After all, Wu Yu had made four consecutive breakthroughs this time, and his Unshackled Doppelgangers could do so as well.

When they landed on the ground, the corpses of the birds were everywhere. They exchanged glances. The Full Moon of Nanshan said with annoyance, "What's wrong with those silly birds? If we aren't in the air, they won't attack us. Are they just going to stop others from flying?"

"That's most likely the case."

"Let's see if they can see me in this." the Full Moon of Nanshan casted Gone from the Skies to conceal himself. When he reached his initial height, he didn't see any attacks coming from the Spirits of the Universe. Obviously, this was because the Full Moon of Nanshan's mystique was incredible. The key was that others didn't have the same mystique as him.

Therefore, he still had to return to the ground.

"What should we do?" The group exchanged glances.

"If we charge upwards at the fastest speed, these Spirits of the Universe might not catch up to us. However, they might start hovering below us and we would be in danger should we need to retreat." Wu Yu thought about it before saying, "Let me go take a look at the strength of the lightning around the golden vortex before we make a decision."

"Alright." Prince Le nodded. After all, Wu Yu would get a better grasp of the situation if they could proceed upwards after he had been there first.

Wu Yu's Heaven Devouring Avatar stayed behind so he would be aware if there was an emergency. This time, Wu Yu steered his Somersault Cloud to charge up the sky like a rocket at his fastest speed. When he reached three-quarters of the way into the sky, the thousands of Emerald Birds were once again alarmed. They swarmed over and were quicker this time. However, their speed still couldn't match Wu Yu's. In the blink of an eye, Wu Yu charged into the golden vortex, while they were only at where Wu Yu was initially.

Just as Wu Yu had expected, the large patch of green cloud made up of thousands upon thousands of ferocious Emerald Bird Spirits of the Universe were squawking constantly towards the sky, as though extremely annoyed by Wu Yu's actions. They hovered below Wu Yu, covering a large region, waiting patiently for Wu Yu to be knocked down by the lightning.

Wu Yu's focus was now within the golden vortex. Lightning of five different colors could be seen within the vortex - red, purple, blue, black, and yellow. The frequency of the lightning was six times that of the first level. As Wu Yu continued moving upwards, the lightning was even more frequent. Wu Yu estimated that it could reach up to ten times that of the first level in terms of frequency. His current speed was frightening and his body was small; he was even more agile than the lightning. Therefore, it wouldn't be an issue for him to reach the fifth level himself.

However, it still wouldn't do if he had to bring Prince Le and the others along and he lacked a mystique or elite dao treasure that could withstand the might of these lightning bolts. Prince Yu's Soul Restraining Ancient Cauldron might be possible. As for the Infernal Sky Pillar, it wouldn't do even if it turned into its crucible form. With so many bolts of lightning coming down on it, the Infernal Sky Pillar would be decimated.

Therefore, after hovering for a while, he came to a conclusion. Considering the density of lightning within the golden vortex, it would be easy for the three to get up. However, it wouldn't be possible if he had to bring along Prince Le and the rest. Therefore, he had to think of another solution on the fourth level or find ways to strengthen himself.

"Now that my Violet Kingdom Primordial Energy has caught up, I'm facing bottlenecks in other aspects. These are the harder aspects to improve on." Wu Yu realized that he was now facing a lot of bottlenecks. For example, the third tier of the Somersault Cloud looked simple. He had been deciphering it for a long time but to no avail. Otherwise, he might have a way to get through the Ancient Soul Tower.

As he dove down, he knew that the large green cloud below him was made up of numerous Emerald Birds. He swooped down the moment he appeared. With his speed and size of less than a foot, he was just like a mudskipper. Before the Emerald Birds had seen him, Wu Yu landed on the ground.

He was about to explain to Prince Le when he suddenly heard voices behind him. There were people conversing.