Yaan was yet to fully recover from his battle against the astral spirits, yet he was now battling again! No, his opponent…they definitely knew this! Almost everyone waited for the full 24 hours in order to adequately prepare themselves, but this person accepted the proposed challenge time, which was 4 hours after the challenge was issued.

Yaan appeared upon a podium, opposite from a woman whom’s face was entirely covered by a plain white mask. She also wore a pristine white robe, hiding her figure, and whatever else may lay beneath.

Just after she rushed forwards, so did Yaan. He felt a hint of surprise in his opponent’s aura when they clashed on very equal terms…Yaan smirked at her, causing her to leap back.

Clearly she knew about his affliction with the astral spirits, but she didn’t expect that he could have subdued them by over 90% within 3 hours.

Whoosh!

A white blur shot towards him again. Yaan was relaxed, swinging out his sword seemingly randomly like a child, yet somehow perfectly deflecting each and ever one of her attacks. He even threw her off balance every 10-15 exchanges, and yet, every time she lost her balance, he casually held his sword down by his side whilst waiting for her to get back up and turn around!

The woman became increasingly ferocious, but she also made more mistakes. Yaan suffered from some cuts and bruises thanks to her feisty attacking style, but he had succeeded in his goal.

To fight without overexerting himself.

He did this by playing with her mind. He acted as if everything was within his control. Truthfully, if he attacked whenever she fell off balance, she was fast enough that she would be able to get back on her feet, deflect, and probably counter attack thanks to her burst of confidence.

So, Yaan acted like he wasn’t even trying. He easily made her stumble now and then, in exchange receiving many cuts, but hiding them all and recovering so rapidly that the bloody wounds went unnoticed.

The pair stood opposite one another. As the woman was beginning to panic in the face of Yaan’s amused smirk, Yaan was just trying to subdue the astral spirits properly, so that he could fight like usual.

But alas, life never went to plan. The woman became increasingly ferocious, at one point drawing a second sword, giving Yaan twice the trouble to evade. He adapted his style to suit his current condition; slow, calculated, with extreme foresight.

Somehow, by using this style, he ended up developing it further and further, until it almost seemed like a true sword art! Yaan found himself putting as little energy and effort into every single movement as possible. His steps; small. His strikes; lacking strength. His pierce; casually twisting his body and leaning forwards was enough to cut through a Qi master’s body anyway.

The woman grew faster, Yaan became calmer. Eventually, he managed to cut in half her mask. And when he saw her face…she looked very ordinary, it wasn’t anyone he knew, that would be way too unlikely. She did seem flustered that her appeared had been seen though, and so with his new style, Yaan struck the damsel whilst she was in distress.

His blade effortlessly pierced her eye, then he leaned forwards with his body, pushing the blade all the way through. Following this, he stepped forwards with his right foot, then back and to the right with his left foot….before just simply leaning backwards, putting half an ounce of effort in creating the momentum.

The girl had barely survived the stab wound through her eye due to a life saving talisman, but when the blade completely sliced her head in half horizontally, she was very much dead.

“Yaan…I shall remember your name…” Within the audience, a woman entirely hidden by a grey cloak muttered this one line to herself, before slipping away into the shadows, unnoticed.

“Huu…” Yaan exhaled deeply as he found himself returned to his residence in the 3rd level. He closed his eyes, planning to rest peacefully, without any thoughts, any distractions, any-

“Yaan! Ah, Yaan, you, you’re alive, you’re really alive! But how?! You were still battling against the astral spirits - and 18 of them at that - then you were thrust into a battle against an unknown character of the 4th level! What happened, how did you survive, what did you-”

“Zue Yin.” Yaan half turned his head towards her, sighing and barely opening his eyes. She immediately became silent, waiting for his explanation.

“Please be quiet. I need to rest.”

“You…! Ah, right, I, I guess you would be tired, wouldn’t you…” Her anger at being told to shut up was quickly quelled when she thought about the ordeal Yaan had just endured, and how utterly exhausted he must be feeling after such a thing! However, just as Yaan was closing his eyes, Zue Yin quickly asked:

“Did you sign up to any other challenges?”

“…Ah.”

“You did?” She stared at him as Yaan now sat up, rubbing his head as he sighed deeply.

“What’s the time?” He asked with a groan.

“I-it’s 10pm right now.”

“Ugh…” Yaan grimaced again, sighing as he stood up and directly walked off.

“Hey, wait, where are you going? How can you have another fight since you fought three today already…?

“Ok, let’s try to remember this…” Yaan rubbed his temples and sighed. “I made 4 challenges yesterday, and fought 2 of them already, whilst the third was a triple which I’m not not eligible for now, leaving just one more. I made 4 more challenges today and I’ve fought in one of those just now, so…

As Zue Yin could feel the direction this was heading, she groaned, but continued to follow Yaan. She was curious, since he seemed to have some sort of a plan.

“So of the ones you challenged today, you defeated a lower 4th level, whilst you have one more to battle. What rank and when?” She asked directly.

“Lower 4th…ahem, by 11pm…”

“Huh, that’s in one hour though?!”

“Yeah, I’d really better hurry.”

“Gah, whatever, and what about the other challenges that you made today? They can’t be quite so ridiculous…right?”

Yaan remained silent for a while, until Zue Yin had glared for far too long and he finally sighed.

“As you know, I defeated a lower 4th…”

“Right…but?”

“But today I challenged a trio, a higher 4th, and a lower 5th” As Yaan said this, he sped up his walking pace. Finally he turned a corner, arriving at the teleportation portal.

“You…even if you weren’t recovering from injury, that would still be beyond stupid!” Zue Yin shouted.

Ignoring her, Yaan pushed through the que for the teleportation portal. People scowled at him and were about to speak out, until he handed them each a 1-Star astral crystal. With that, their frowns flipped into smiles and they actively parted way to allow him passage.

Waiting for nothing, Yaan jumped onto the portal and instructed the spirit manning the formation to send him directly to the 4th level pagoda. As Zue Yin heard this, her eyes finally lit up! She stepped forwards to follow him, but Yaan lightly shoved her away, before reminding her that she hadn’t yet achieved the 4th level abode, she was physically incapable of reaching it.

Besides, anyone without the power to reach a higher level abode, would be unable to endure the increasingly powerful gravity and spiritual pressure at each higher level. The first three levels weren't so bad, but the 4th was ten fold worse! However, Yaan was too distracted right now, so he didn’t even notice the various unique features of this level…his mind was only on the pagoda!

By paying the exorbitant sum of 40 1-Star astral crystals to teleport to that pagoda, Yaan impatiently jumped out as soon as the lights faded.

He was met with the entrance staff, who annoyingly, required a refundable deposit of a certain number of 4-Star astral crystals in order to enter! The cost was 1 crystal times the floor number they intended to use…it seemed these chambers were seriously expensive and they wanted assurance in case the occupants damaged the chambers during their training.

Yaan was loaded after selling so much stuff so frequently, but 4-Star astral crystals were incredibly expensive! He followed the guide whilst quickly explaining that he had little time and needed a place to train for a few hours in, but he needed to condense this training into a period of 40-50 minutes.

“Oho, it seems someone issued a few too many challenges!” The attendant giggled, making Yaan smile wryly. Still, he waited for her to explain, which she did promptly and professionally.

“The 4th level abode pagoda is known as the temporal acceleration chamber. This chamber is highly costly to run, so the cost of use is also quite high. There are nine floors, with each higher floor providing a greater acceleration on the time within compared to the outside world. For instance, on the first floor, time passes by three times faster within the chamber compared to the outside 4th trial realm!

“And the others?” Yaan quickly urged.

“2nd floor, 6 times. 3rd floor, 9 times. 4th floor 18 times. 5th floor, 27 times. 6th floor, 36 times. 7th floor, 51 times. 8th floor, 66 times. 9th floor, 81 times. There is also the possibility to link all floors together and to use the pagoda as one, but such a thing is far beyond sir’s expenses.” The woman smiled, her brunette hair swaying as she titled her head amicably.

“Great, and the prices?!” Yaan asked urgently.

“1st floor, one 1-Star astral crystal every hour. 2nd floor 2 crystals. Third floor 3 crystals. 4th floor is one 2-Star astral crystal per hour, 5th floor 2 crystals, 6th floor 3 crystals. 7th floor is one 3-Star astral crystal per hour. 8th floor 2 crystals. 9th floor 3 crystals.”

“So expensive!” Yaan gawped. He then immediately showed three 2-Star astral crystals as well as six 4-Star astral crystals for the refundable deposit.

“The money and the deposit, I need the sixth floor, I have a fight in 45 minutes!”

Seeing his money, the happy go lucky attendant’s expression immediately changed and became extremely serious.

“Of course, sir, right this way, let us not waste a single second longer.” With that, she walked at a brisk pace towards a spiral staircase. Yaan blinked when she actually jumped up 3 stairs at a time without a trace off elegance in her movement, but he smiled and followed after, copying her actions.

By the time they arrived on the 6th floor, the lady already had the key in the door. As she turned the lock and opened the door, Yaan stepped in. As he entered, she mentioned one final important point:

“When it’s time for your fight, you will be transported directly from the chamber to the battle arena. Following your battle’s conclusion, you will return to this chamber should you win. If you have time remaining on your purchase, the door will remain locked until your time is over. If your time has already ran out, then the door will be open and the chamber will be ineffective. If you wish to buy more time, just tap the formation on the door three times.”

Thud!

The door shut behind him and Yaan immediately felt a strange sensation, as if everything had slowed down and distorted, before rapidly speeding back up and returning to normal.

Yaan stood up, then walked around the room whilst inspecting every wall, floor, ceiling and crevice. In the end, he concluded that it was just a plain and simple training hall, 50 by 50 feet in size.

“45 minutes until my battle….but I have 36 times accelerated time here.” Yaan smiled, finally relaxing slightly now that he had achieved what he set out to do. With a quick and rough calculation, he worked out that he had 25-30 hours.

“Honestly, that’s crazy…turning a rushed 45 minute period, into a day long training session.” Yaan shook his head with a sigh, before turning his attention towards…everything.

Truthfully, he simply possessed too much stuff. He had accumulated a shocking quantity of cultivation resources, as well as other pills, medicines and ingredients. He had dozens of treasures, a book shelf filled only with the most valuable of books…

For a while now, Yaan had wanted to just settle down and devour the countless body tempering pills in his possession. He had developed in unforeseen ways since then and knew that multiple paths had been opened up for him going forwards.

Honestly, he still hadn’t fully examined the benefits that his body received after absorbing the vitality from the blood vortex.

Still, right now, he needed to build up his strength as much as possible in a short period of time. If he assumed that he had 24 hours to fit in all of the work and recovery, that gave him plenty of time to spare.

It was time to start training properly.