Although it hadn’t been long since he’d been forced to fight for his life via cultivation, by now all of the other people on the floor had flown to their feet, even the most stoic and disinterested. If his earlier movements had sprouted confusion and interest, then the amount of energy that was disappearing into his body left them reeling in shock. It was the furthest thing from what he wanted, but this was an extremely rare opportunity and he didn't hesitate to take it.

“How is he not dying?”

“That much energy…”

Several disciples exchanged urgent expressions, and one of them promptly left the scene. This development was inconvenient and unwanted, but Nolan had no room for such thoughts, so dire was his situation.

As he took up the 198th stance, an excruciating jolt ran throughout his body and left him tingling as if he'd been electrocuted while swimming in a pool. He cried out and faltered, sprinkling the floor with an unnerving amount of bloody sweat. He also spat out a mouthful of blood. Within moments, the strain of housing the rampant energy was slightly reduced, and the pain that stabbed at his body was mercifully lessened. This also happened the second time that he finished running through the sets of stances, and went on to take place every time that he completed a cultivation cycle. As time passed within the quiet chamber, his movements gradually became more bearable.

The fact that the burden continued to lessen didn't mean that it was an enjoyable process by any means. Every time he finished another cycle, the jolt that ran through him became more intense. His inner essence channels, his dantian, and the borders of his spiritual space; all of these aspects were under constant attack from the endless influx of external energies. Every time his cells were broken down, they were quickly recreated using the very energy that continuously destroyed them, always returning stronger and more durable than before.

The energies on the fifth floor were several times more potent than those within the Divine Spirit Fountain, but much less tame. Of the thousands of people that had participated in the tower climb this time around, less than thirty people had ascended so high, and only one had progressed farther. Energy concentrations aside, the aura on this floor was equal to that of somebody that was about to break through to the Genesis stage, so it could already be considered a miracle that someone in the Profound Entry stage had progressed so far.

It only took thirty hours for Nolan to become completely acclimated to the oppressive aura, at which point he was free to focus on cultivating without any worry. Unfortunately, this didn’t last for long. Two days after the commencement of the tower climb, his cells no longer tore apart from the effects of cultivation. While this might have seemed like a blessing on the surface, it severely reduced the speed of his training, and left him feeling impatient and wanting. Things might have been incredibly painful, even torturous, but the constant destruction and reconstruction of his cells had tempered his body in ways that he wasn’t likely to see again in the near future.

Who would have thought that there would be more to your technique?

Nyla and Avril had left Nolan to his own devices once it had become clear that he had the situation under control. By now they were used to all of the blood that stained the spot where he’d been training, and weren't worried by the sight of his purplish, sodden robes, which had almost entirely changed colour as most of the green fabric was stained red.

I did, actually. I just didn't know when I'd learn it.

I bet you didn't think it would be that type of technique, huh?

Yeah, right. I didn't even know methods like that existed.

Deconstruction, then reconstruction. It turned out that the main function of the Ancestral Body Technique was to use violent energies to destroy the body on a microscopic scale for the sake of building it back stronger. By destroying cells in localized areas, he could dismantle and reconstruct his body without fully killing off his organs, arteries, or other appendages. The only way to acquire a true ancestral body was to repeat this procedure millions of times, though this was a feat that would take an incomprehensible amount of time and physical torment. With how much he improved after each cycle of cultivation, he had no point of reference for how powerful somebody would become once they arrived at this seemingly impossible goal.

After hundreds of excruciating cultivation cycles, Nolan had finally broken through to the seventh level of the Profound Entry stage just a few hours back. It had come at a painful cost, but his dantian’s stores of inner essence had grown by around twenty percent. Breakthrough aside, Nolan had also consumed and condensed a remarkable amount of spiritual energy during this time, and his spiritual space had nearly doubled in size. The energy within had condensed to the extent that the floor of the inner space was now covered in a finger-deep layer of liquefied spiritual energy, iridescent like a huge puddle of glowing gasoline.

The liquid energy was far more potent than its gas-like form, of which there was still a heavy supply. From where his mental projection floated around, it seemed as if he were standing in a flooded field on a foggy day. Just as a small amount of water could become a large cloud of steam, it wouldn't take much of this new energy to power his arrayment diagrams in comparison to its misty form. This effectively meant that his spiritual space's content capacity increased by dozens of times. So long as Nolan was inside of the Desolate Spirit Tower—or anywhere else with large concentrations of natural energy—he’d be able to increase his strength without having to rely on achieving a breakthrough in his cultivation.

You should try to go up to the next level, said his master, voice thoughtful. You're barely advancing compared to a short while ago.

Barely advancing? This speed’s better than when I’m on your end. He stopped cultivating for a bit and sat down by the girls for a short break. I've only just gotten to the point where I can handle the energies on this floor. Won't I die instantly if I head up to the next one? Not even, I'll probably get mangled on the stairs.

It shouldn't be too much worse than it was when you first showed up on this floor.

I can't handle any worse than that. You saw me, man. I was sweating blood. Besides, look what happened to those guys that tried to go up yesterday.

Two middle-aged men at the peak of Integration had attempted to ascend to the sixth floor after a day of silent meditation. These two had given off the air of high nobility, but their cockiness and pride had been the death of them. After six steps up the stairs, they had simultaneously crumpled to the floor with sprays of scarlet mist. Their bodies had since been compressed into a bloody pile of warped flesh and grinded bones, mixed in with the tattered remains of their clothes.

Just look at that as an example of how your cultivation doesn’t matter in this tower. Those two were hopeless greenhorns, what you’ve referred to as a noob.

Hahaha, hearing you say that is great. Alright, I’ll see what the girls are saying.

After he confirmed that neither Nyla nor Avril were at a critical junction in their training, he prodded at their arms to get their attention.

“You want to go higher?” said Avril once he’d explained his intentions. “Could it be that you’ve come to this tower to end your life?”

“Stop saying things like that. I’m not some moron. If I say I can go up, then I can go up.”

“You’ll be worse off than you were here.”

“Well, Mama didn’t raise no bitch.” He turned to Nyla, who had recently broken through to the second level of the Integration stage, now at the middle phase. “What about you? If I’m up for it then you’re definitely down, right?”

“Are you sure?” She stood up as she spoke, rocking on the balls of her feet in an impatient motion.

“Yep.” He followed suit, as did the surprised Avril. “If our teacher were here, he’d probably tell us to go as high as possible. So that’s what I plan on doing.”

It wasn’t long before he stood before the next flight of steps, his eyes lighting up as he spotted a couple of spatial bags amidst two piles of flattened flesh and bone.

“I’ll take that.” He casually strolled up with an outstretched hand, or at least he tried to. He was immediately forced down to his knees, where he remained stuck on the second step. “I—I’ll stick around here for a bit.”

Avril grit her teeth and stepped past him, raising her legs with rough motions as if she were knee-deep in mud. “Humph, I guess this is as far as I go.” Very slowly and with cautious care, she reached down to retrieve the spatial bags but stayed her hand as they both flew past her and landed comfortably in Nyla’s palm.