Chapter 145: Breaking Through Barriers Like a Bamboo Splitter

"Is this the second floor of the tower?"

When Lin Fan arrived at the second floor, he saw a massive dark iron puppet standing ahead. It was over two meters tall, with two red crystals embedded in its eyes. The moment he stepped onto the second floor, those two crystals lit up.

Boom!

The dark iron puppet charged at Lin Fan.

Crack!

With a single punch, Lin Fan shattered the dark iron puppet's chest, sending it flying backward before it crashed to the ground, its two crystals dimming into darkness.

"So weak!"

Following the stairs behind the dark iron puppet, Lin Fan entered the third floor of the tower, where five dark iron puppets awaited.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

All five dark iron puppets were sent flying, and Lin Fan strode onward toward the fourth floor!

"My goodness, Little Uncle's speed is insane! It took you only three breaths, and you've already started clearing the trials?" Outside the Trial Tower, Jiang Xuesheng's eyes widened as he stared at the lit-up light of the second floor, shouting in amazement.

"More than just fast, his trial-clearing speed is terrifying! Look, it's only been a few breaths, and he's already on the sixth floor!"

Pointing at the now-illuminated sixth floor of the tower, Yang Xiao was equally shocked. Such speed was something even an ordinary late-stage Pulse-Connecting realm cultivator could not match! Lin Fan was strong, sure, but didn't defeating puppets take time?

Could it be that he was slaughtering them all in seconds?

Just as he was pointing, the light on the seventh floor of the tower lit up, followed immediately by the eighth, the ninth, the tenth...!

"This guy is a hidden freak of nature," Yang Xiao concluded. He knew that the ninth floor already contained ten mid-stage Pulse-Connecting realm puppets, which would require some effort for him to defeat, yet Lin Fan cleared it in a single breath, proving it was an instant kill.

"Of course my Little Uncle is a freak, otherwise how could he become sworn brothers with my old man? Think about how arrogant my old man is—a genuine Stream-Condensing realm existence! If my Little Uncle didn't have the aptitude, even if we begged him, my old man would never have agreed!"

Hearing this, Jiang Xuesheng curled his lips. Though he was also shocked, he could accept it. After all, having been batted away by Lin Fan's palm a dozen times, combined with the guidance Lin Fan had given him, he held a blind, absolute confidence in Lin Fan.

As the two chatted, the lights on the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth floors of the tower lit up one after another.

Seeing this, Jiang Xuesheng remarked, "With Little Uncle's cultivation at the Qi-Pulse realm, possessing such overwhelming strength, he can totally crush all the geniuses of the Gods and Demons Alliance. Haha, once his cultivation gets a bit higher, wouldn't he be able to walk sideways across the Heavenly Book Academy?"

"My old man even told me to look after Little Uncle. It looks like when I run into trouble in the future, Little Uncle will be the one looking after me instead!"

Hearing Jiang Xuesheng's words, Yang Xiao retorted, "Can you have some ambition? You're supposed to be the number one expert in the early stage of the Pulse-Connecting realm at the Heavenly Book Academy. Do you still need to drop other people's names?"

"Why shouldn't I? Being number one in the early stage of the Pulse-Connecting realm doesn't make me number one in other realms. Forget about the Heavenly Book Academy; just look at our Gods and Demons Alliance—which member at the mid-stage Pulse-Connecting realm or above couldn't crush me?"

Jiang Xuesheng argued back, "You're one of them! Including the new recruits, our Gods and Demons Alliance has a hundred and one members, and over fifty of them are at the mid-stage Pulse-Connecting realm or higher. My actual combat power doesn't even rank in the top fifty of the alliance. Don't you guys beat me up all the time? Now someone can finally stand up for me."

"My ass! The reason you get beaten up is because you go around proactively challenging us for no reason twenty-eight days out of the month, and on the remaining two days, you're still looking for fights! You're just asking for a beating!"

Yang Xiao's face darkened as he said, "You're just like a Tier 3 savage beast, the fearless honey badger—you're either picking a fight or on your way to pick one. If you don't get beaten up, who will?"

Jiang Xuesheng: "......"

"Whatever, I'm not arguing with you. At least someone has my back now!"

Realizing he couldn't win the argument against Yang Xiao, Jiang Xuesheng haughtily turned his head away and looked toward the Trial Tower. At that moment, a loud crack echoed, and he almost wrenched his own neck around, his eyes going wide as saucers in an instant.

"What's wrong with you?!"

Seeing Jiang Xuesheng's expression, Yang Xiao stopped bickering with him and looked toward the Trial Tower as well. The result was even worse than Jiang Xuesheng; he was so startled he nearly fell flat on his face.

Because the light on the sixteenth floor of the Trial Tower had just lit up!

"Why hasn't his speed slowed down yet? He's already cleared up to the sixteenth floor?!"

Yang Xiao's face was blank with utter astonishment. Earlier, when Lin Fan blazed through the trials, though shocked, he could still wrap his head around it. But by the fifteenth floor, there were already ten late-stage Pulse-Connecting realm opponents, yet Lin Fan's speed hadn't dropped at all! Just how formidable was his true strength?

Even with his current abilities, he could only barely clear the seventeenth floor. As a late-stage Pulse-Connecting cultivator, he could defeat thirty late-stage Pulse-Connecting puppets.

Yet when he first took the trial as an early-stage Pulse-Connecting cultivator, he had only managed to reach the eleventh floor, and even that had shocked many people.

However, Lin Fan was only at the late-stage Qi-Pulse realm, and yet he was cutting through the ranks like a hot knife through butter all the way to the sixteenth floor. Such prowess was nothing short of astonishing.

This meant that Lin Fan's late-stage Qi-Pulse strength was no less inferior to his own—an elite of the Gods and Demons Alliance who could fight peers of the same realm at the late Pulse-Connecting stage.

If Lin Fan could break through to the seventeenth floor, his power would be on par with his own!

However, there was one key difference: the Trial Tower dispensed different rewards depending on one's cultivation realm and the floor reached.

Take Liu Qi back then, for instance. His cultivation was only at the peak of the early Pulse-Connecting realm. When he crossed two tiers to challenge late-stage Pulse-Connecting strength, he earned five thousand merit points. When he advanced to fighting five late-stage Pulse-Connecting opponents, he received ten thousand merit points.

Ten late-stage opponents: twenty thousand merit points.

Twenty late-stage opponents: forty thousand merit points.

Thirty late-stage opponents: sixty thousand merit points. And if he cleared that and faced the next major realm disparity, he would receive a hundred thousand merit points.

Liu Qi had managed to reach the eighteenth floor back then, successfully clearing seventeen floors, which was why he had secured that hundred thousand merit points.

But looking at Lin Fan right now, his merit points were going to be astronomical!

He was at the late-stage Qi-Pulse realm. The peak of the Qi-Pulse realm counted as one tier, and the early stage of the Pulse-Connecting realm counted as another. This meant he started accumulating merit points right from the very beginning.

Even though his base cultivation was relatively low within the Trial Tower, keeping individual merit gains modest, the Trial Tower had a strict rule: the minimum starting reward could not be less than one thousand.

In other words, Lin Fan earned one thousand merit points starting from the second floor.

Third floor: two thousand!

Fourth floor: four thousand!

Fifth floor: six thousand!

Seventh floor: eight thousand!

By the time he cleared the twelfth floor, he had already amassed eighteen thousand merit points.

Furthermore, upon reaching the thirteenth floor, the late-stage Pulse-Connecting puppets Lin Fan faced were four tiers higher than his own realm. Therefore, the base reward assigned by the Trial Tower for each of those floors had to start at a minimum of forty thousand.

Thirteenth floor: forty thousand!

Fourteenth floor: eighty thousand!

Fifteenth floor: one hundred and twenty thousand!

Sixteenth floor: one hundred and sixty thousand!

This meant that by this point, Lin Fan already possessed one hundred and sixty thousand merit points. When he subsequently broke through the seventeenth floor, he reaped two hundred thousand contribution points—literally double what Liu Qi had obtained back in the day.

And most terrifying of all, if he could successfully clear the seventeenth floor and bridge the major realm gap....!

There was no doubt the Trial Tower would grant him the cross-realm bonus it once gave Liu Qi. Back then, Liu Qi's tier jumps were worth twenty thousand each, yielding an extra forty thousand. Since Lin Fan's tier jumps were worth forty thousand each, his bonus would amount to at least eighty thousand merit points.

In other words, the moment Lin Fan crossed the seventeenth floor, he would secure a staggering total of two hundred and eighty thousand merit points!

"Too slow, far too slow!"

Inside the seventeenth-floor chamber, Lin Fan's figure flickered like lightning as he dodged the relentless onslaught of countless puppets, muttering critiques under his breath. With every punch he threw, the opposing puppets were sent hurtling backward.

"I can suppress even peak Pulse-Connecting realm fighters—what are a mere thirty late-stage Pulse-Connecting puppets supposed to amount to?"

Gazing at the remaining puppets, Lin Fan unleashed a flurry of countless fist imprints in a single instant.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack!

The remaining dark iron puppets were blasted away, some exploding directly mid-air and scattering debris across the floor.

"Finally got those hundred thousand merit points in the bag!"

Lin Fan dusted off his palms, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately strode toward the eighteenth floor. "Even if Stream-Condensing realm strength is too much to clear, it won't hurt to go up and take a look!"

Boom!

Lin Fan stepped onto the eighteenth floor.

Outside, Yang Xiao's mouth twitched. Lin Fan's entry into the eighteenth floor proved that his combat power surpassed his own by a margin; he just wondered if Lin Fan would be able to clear it.

He never expected that although he had invited Lin Fan to join the Gods and Demons Alliance purely based on his personality and talent, the fellow's actual strength would turn out to be even greater than his own.

Barring any unforeseen accidents, it was very likely that another figure comparable to their guild master was about to emerge!

A peak late-stage Pulse-Connecting cultivator defying the heavens to battle Stream-Condensing realm experts!