Chapter 6: Breaking Through to the Second Step

"Not bad, that girl has some basic martial arts skills. But more important than the basics is the ability to remain calm in such a terrifying situation. In the end, there's no use in martial arts if you can't use them at all."

Shun scoffed as she watched Feng Yan through a three-dimensional projection. She had observed Feng Yan's fight from beginning to end, which lasted for about two minutes. Shun was satisfied with Feng Yan's performance:

"Her spiritual core is of average quality, and her physical strength is also average. But what's remarkable about her is her immense willpower, which could be one in a thousand men and one in ten thousand women.

Across the entire continent, there are thousands like Feng Yan everywhere. So, she isn't exceptionally unique, but that doesn't matter. The purpose of the Eternal Tower is not to find rare talents that are one in a million or one in a billion.

The Eternal Tower was built to produce exceptional individuals, not to find them!

The philosophy of the Eternal Tower is that talent is a random gift given to people by fate. It's like everyone in this world wants to climb to the sky, and each person has their own column. The length of these columns varies—some are tens of thousands of feet long, others millions of feet.

Some unfortunate people get columns just a few dozen feet long. From the beginning, these people must learn how to explore their tower and also how to cultivate their tower to make it longer to reach the sky.

Exceptional talent is rare and special, giving a person a strong boost. But when someone reaches the peak of their talent, they must then pay the price and learn how to build their talent into something strong and complex.

As for an ordinary person who reached the same place through hard work and deep wisdom instead of exceptional talent, there would be no obstacles for them at all. They would continue to develop because that's normal for them!

This is the true talent the Eternal Tower seeks—a person who can forge their path by relying on humanity's greatest trait: wisdom."

Shun immersed herself in her thoughts as she recalled the philosophy of the Eternal Tower. She also remembered how difficult it was to produce such genuine talent. The tower had been operational for over ten million years and had produced dozens of exceptional individuals, but without any significant results. Finding this true talent was almost impossible.

True talent, a talent with no limits!

Shun looked at Feng Yan through the three-dimensional projection and wondered if it was possible to find true talent that knows no bounds. She scoffed at herself the next moment, thinking it was too early to tell. She sighed, her eyes reflecting conflicting emotions—dreaming of the day she would see true talent emerge while also fearing that day.

...

"This hurts. I didn't realize I had sustained all these injuries. It seems that thinking about survival made me forget the pain from all these wounds. The good thing is that all my injuries are completely superficial. The worst thing that could happen is that they might leave scars on my skin, which would be a huge disaster," Feng Yan complained aloud as she tried to bandage her wounds. Unfortunately, she didn't have any medicine with her. What she did have around her was the debris of the clay dolls.

Just as she was about to shout at Shun to give her some medicine, something unexpected happened right before Feng Yan's eyes.

Suddenly, the debris of the clay dolls began to glow a light green. The pieces started to disintegrate before Feng Yan's eyes, turning into a shimmering green dust that floated in the air. Feng Yan took a step back, astonished by the sight. As the green dust gathered into a large cloud, it swiftly moved towards Feng Yan!

"Damn it!"

Feng Yan shouted as she tried to dodge the green cloud. But unfortunately, the cloud was too fast for her. It struck her and enveloped her in an instant. Inside, Feng Yan felt the green dust entering her body through her wounds and the seven orifices of her head.

She collapsed to the ground, feeling a strange force clashing with the green dust inside her. As the green dust began to disintegrate within her body, the mysterious force started to absorb it. In that moment, Feng Yan felt her body heating up, and the strange power began to swirl wildly inside her.

"What is this strange power?"

Feng Yan screamed in her mind. Before she could think further, she felt her spiritual core pulsing oddly. She was shocked by the sensation and realized that her spiritual core had fully formed. The pulsations of the mysterious power and her spiritual core were synchronized, indicating that the mysterious power was under the control of her spiritual core. Feng Yan was ecstatic as she deduced what was happening:

"My God, I didn't even realize that my spiritual core had completed its formation. This is incredible!

So this strange power that's making me stronger must be the spiritual energy produced by my spiritual core.

Unbelievable, I read in a book that cultivating spiritual energy requires a lot of training, time, and resources to complete the first step of the first stage of the first level in the martial realm!"

Thoughts flowed through Feng Yan's mind as she recalled what she had read. She remembered that the levels of warriors were divided into nine levels, from the weakest to the strongest. Each level had four stages: condensation, accumulation, formation, and explosion. Each of these four stages had seven steps. To take even one step required great mastery and valuable resources to progress from one step to another. It was known that with each step, the difficulty, resources, and time required increased. But Feng Yan had just completed forming her spiritual core and now had taken the first step as well.

Feng Yan didn't need anyone to tell her that this was extraordinary. Forming a spiritual core and taking the first step on the same night was unheard of, even in the Pure Sword Temple, where all kinds of talents from the entire continent gathered.

"It must be the effect of the green dust. Who would have thought that such a valuable treasure would be found so easily by defeating ten clay dolls?

Now I realize how valuable this tower is. If these are the rewards for defeating some clay dolls, what kind of rewards will I get when I defeat stronger enemies or complete more difficult tasks? The rewards will surely exceed my wildest imagination."

"This tower is truly crafted by individuals beyond my comprehension. Just the introductory rewards are enough to make me faint from their value, hahaha!"

Feng Yan laughed inwardly, but she also focused on her spiritual core, which was pulsating and spinning in her internal world. Suddenly, a wave of spiritual energy mixed with the shimmering green dust surged into her inner world like a massive tsunami, destroying everything in its path.

Crack!

Her spiritual core shattered upon impact with the destructive tsunami. Feng Yan felt a violent backlash, but she endured it, biting her lip to avoid losing consciousness. Losing consciousness would mean losing her spiritual core and all her cultivation.

Feng Yan controlled the destructive tsunami wave to calm it down. After some time, she began to reshape her spiritual core. Due to her previous experience in creating her spiritual core and with the help of a large amount of spiritual energy and the green shimmering dust, forming a new spiritual core was surprisingly easy.

"I have rebuilt my spiritual core. I can't believe how easy it was. Now, I just need to rebuild my spiritual core six more times to advance from the Condensation Stage.

I, Feng Yan, am now a Warrior Condensation Stage in Step Two at the First Level !!!"