Chapter 829: The Pagoda of Strength
Li Yu sat quietly among the Galeheart Academy supporters. He channeled his Qi into the small crystal orb resting in his palm. The orb flared to life and displayed five distinct projections floating in the air before him. Li Yu enlarged the central projection showing Daiki and settled in to watch.
Daiki stood in a wide circular room paved with heavy dark stone. The air inside the first level was stale and smelled of ancient dust. A dozen stone sentinels animated from the walls and charged at him. They were roughly the size of normal men and wielded crude stone swords.
Daiki did not bother with intricate martial techniques or evasive footwork. He simply stepped forward and swung his massive crimson fists. He shattered the first stone construct into fine dust with a single blow of his raw physical power. He moved through the remaining sentinels like a walking fist of death. He broke their weapons, crushed their chests and found the stairs leading upward in just a few moments. He marched up to the second level without breaking a sweat.
Speed was important here because that’s how the tie breakers were determined. If the 5th level was as far as you could go, when you arrived at the 5th level compared to others determined your placement.
Daiki repeated this brutal efficiency on the second and third levels. The wooden and iron golems stationed there were significantly faster and stronger but they could not withstand the Blood Iron Clan's physical tempering. Daiki simply walked through their attacks and pulverized their cores.
Li Yu glanced at the other projections floating above his orb to check on the rest of the team.
Trak was performing exceptionally well. The lizard-kin used his heavy spear to great effect. He channeled lightning Qi through the weapon and pierced the thick armor of the iron golems. The lightning detonated inside their mechanical bodies and shattered them from the inside out. He was keeping pace with Daiki perfectly.
Zephyra took a completely different approach. The elemental spirit did not engage in physical brawling at all. She dissolved her physical body into a dense cloud of swirling mist. The mindless sentinels swung their weapons through her vaporous form harmlessly.
She simply floated over their heads, bypassed the entire fight and reformed her body only to activate the mechanisms required to open the stairs. She was currently the fastest among the Galeheart candidates. This was a valid method to advance and evened out the playing field for those that were better at more delicate arts such as stealth than combat.
However, the trial was already exposing the weaknesses of the others. Mora and Kylo were struggling heavily.
Mora was a master of entanglement and area control. Her flexible vines were incredibly strong when dealing with living opponents. The golems of the pagoda felt absolutely nothing. They were relentless mechanical constructs programmed only to destroy. They marched directly through her thorny barricades and ripped her vines apart through force. Mora experienced severe physical feedback from the torn vines and her progress slowed to a crawl. No one said the trails were completely fair and some were unlucky.
Kylo was facing a different problem. The cultivator kept his distance from the enemies and finally opened the third eye in the center of his forehead. A brilliant golden iris was revealed. The eye allowed him to perfectly see the structural weak points and the hidden Qi nodes within the golems.
It was an incredibly effective combat strategy but it consumed a massive amount of time. He had to perfectly position himself to strike the exact nodes with his sword. In a test where speed was the ultimate tie breaker, his meticulous approach was dragging him down to the bottom of the rankings.
Across the stadium, the supporters of Primal Fang Academy roared with pride. They held their own viewing orbs and watched their lead Domain King fighter dominate the trial.
His name was Goro and he was a terrifying Behemoth kin. He was a mountain of muscle possessing thick armor plating fused directly to his dark skin. Goro did not use any weapons and he did not employ any subtle techniques. He used his massive head and broad shoulders as literal battering rams.
The Primal Fang elders nodded in deep approval as Goro tore through the fourth and fifth levels in record time. He simply ignored the heavy attacks of the guardian beasts and trampled them into the stone floor. The unyielding brute force of the earth was fully displayed for their entire section to see.
The atmosphere in the Shadow Step Academy section was entirely different. It was incredibly tense and filled with anxious whispers. They were ranked fifth overall but this specific test was an absolute nightmare for their candidates.
Assassins thrived on stealth, misdirection and one strike kills against living targets. The Pagoda of Strength threw mindless, incredibly durable constructs at them in a brightly lit and enclosed space. There were no shadows to hide in and poison did not affect bronze.
One of their Domain King fighters, a shadowy figure wielding twin daggers, was currently trapped in a corner on the fourth level. His blades could not pierce the thick bronze armor of the guardians. He was forced into a prolonged and desperate physical brawl.
He tried to use his signature shadow step technique to teleport across the room but the dense arrays of the pagoda heavily restricted spatial movement as they moved further up. It got harder and harder to just sneak by. The guardians battered him endlessly and his stamina was dropping at an alarming rate.
The Solar Flare Academy section was experiencing a similar rapid decline in morale. A hot headed fire cultivator named Pyra had completely exhausted himself. He had used massive and explosive Yang fire blasts to clear the first three levels instantly. He looked incredibly impressive at first but by the fifth level, his Qi reserves were nearly empty. The bronze guardians simply walked right through his weakened, flickering flames and pummeled him mercilessly.
Li Yu focused his attention fully back to Daiki after looking around for a bit. The giant demon had reached the sixth level.
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The difficulty of the pagoda spiked dramatically here. The opponents were no longer mindless golems made of common materials. They were spectral warriors radiating authentic Domain King auras. They wielded weapons forged from highly condensed Qi and they used actual martial techniques to coordinate their attacks.
Daiki threw a heavy punch at the closest warrior. The warrior raised a condensed Qi shield and deflected the blow while a second warrior stepped in and delivered a heavy slash to Daiki's shoulder.
Daiki grunted and stepped back. A thin line of crimson blood appeared on his thick skin. He realized instantly that raw physical brawling was draining him too fast against skilled opponents. He needed to adapt and use his full foundation.
Daiki planted his feet and waited for the spectral warriors to charge forward again. He bypassed his physical strength entirely and channeled his deep spiritual reserves. He unleashed a sweeping Soul Tremor exactly as he had practiced countless times.
The invisible wave of pressure hit the front line of warriors. Their condensed Qi forms flickered violently and destabilized as the soul attack disrupted their core arrays. Daiki followed up immediately with a massive physical sweep of his arm.
He shattered three of the destabilized warriors at once. He used this combination of soul suppression and physical execution to systematically clear the room. He breathed heavily as he climbed the glowing stairs to the seventh level. The fights were taking a tow on him as well.
Li Yu checked the other orbs briefly. Galeheart was taking casualties.
Mora was completely overwhelmed on the fifth level. A group of heavy bronze guardians had pinned her thickest vines to the floor and were bludgeoning her without mercy. A brilliant flash of white light suddenly surrounded her. The pagoda arrays forcibly ejected her from the trial to prevent lethal injury. She was officially out.
A few minutes later, Kylo met the exact same fate on the sixth level. The spectral warriors simply moved too fast for him to exploit their hidden weaknesses. He was surrounded, overwhelmed and instantly expelled by the safety arrays. Galeheart Academy had just lost two of its five fighters. It would have to be seen at the end if they got far enough to stay within the contest.
Daiki breached the eighth level. The environment inside the pagoda changed completely.
It was no longer a circular stone room. It was a massive open plain simulating a desolate battlefield under a grey sky. A single, towering guardian stood in the very center of the plain. It wore heavy golden armor and wielded a massive halberd. It radiated a peak Domain King aura that bordered closely on the Paragon realm.
Daiki let out a challenging roar and charged across the plain. The golden guardian swung its halberd with terrifying speed and precision. Daiki caught the thick shaft of the weapon with his bare hands. The resulting impact created a massive shockwave that tore the simulated ground apart and kicked up clouds of dust.
Daiki and the golden guardian engaged in a brutal and desperate struggle. Daiki attempted to use his Soul Binding Shackle to paralyze the construct. However, the golden armor possessed incredibly powerful spiritual defenses. It absorbed and dampened the soul attack significantly. Daiki was forced to rely entirely on his Kurogane tempering to survive.
He traded devastating blows with the giant construct. He took deep, bleeding gashes to his torso and arms. In return, he delivered crushing, armor shattering punches directly to the golden armor. The metal dented and groaned under his relentless assault.
The fight dragged on and was a test of continuous exertion. Daiki was bleeding heavily and his muscles burned with exhaustion. He finally saw an opening when the guardian overcommitted to a downward strike.
Daiki stepped inside the reach of the halberd. He channeled all of his remaining physical strength into his right hand and gripped the guardian's golden helmet. He ripped the helmet completely off the construct with a sickening screech of tearing metal. He drove his heavy knee directly into an exposed core beneath the neck and shattered it into pieces.
The golden guardian collapsed into a pile of lifeless armor.
Daiki fell to his knees on the simulated dirt. He was gasping for air and his Qi reserves were practically completely empty. He looked up and saw the glowing stairs leading to the ninth and final level.
He forced himself to stand up on trembling legs. He stumbled toward the stairs and began the slow climb. He reached the heavy wooden doors of the final level and pressed his massive hands against the wood. He pushed with everything he had left.
The doors did not budge a single inch.
He poured his remaining strength into his arms but the doors remained completely sealed. A gentle and ancient voice echoed softly in his mind. The voice told him that his strength was impressive but it was not enough in his current state to even open the doors. He slid down against the heavy doors and closed his eyes. He could not go any further. He had hit his limit.
In the Primal Fang section of the stadium, the crowd groaned in collective disappointment. Goro had also cleared the eighth level through pure attrition. However, the Behemoth kin was similarly stopped dead at the doors of the ninth level. He too lacked the strength needed to unlock the final floor.
A sword cultivator from Lunar Crest Academy also reached the doors of the ninth level but he collapsed into unconsciousness from sheer exhaustion before he could even attempt to push them open.
No one was going to clear the pagoda today in the Domain King bracket. After a while, a massive and resonant gong rang out across the Eye of the Storm. The first test was officially over.
Flashes of bright light illuminated the entire stadium as the remaining candidates were forcibly expelled from the pagodas. They appeared simultaneously on the central floating platform. Daiki landed heavily on his feet and swayed slightly.
The Organizer stepped forward onto his high podium. He projected the final rankings onto the massive screen of light floating above the stadium.
Daiki looked up and saw his name near the very top of the list in his bracket. He had reached the ninth level doors. The array had calculated his placement and he was officially ranked third overall in the Domain King bracket. Goro took the first place spot.
The Organizer's voice echoed loudly through the silent stadium.
"The first test is concluded," the Organizer announced. "No one breached the final level across any of the brackets. Rankings are determined first by the highest floor reached and then by the speed of completion."
The bottom section of the massive list suddenly flashed a brilliant red. Seven names were aggressively crossed out.
"The bottom seven candidates in each bracket are eliminated from the tournament," the Organizer declared coldly.
Li Yu looked at the board to confirm the results. Mora and Kylo were sitting firmly at the bottom of the list. They were officially eliminated.
They were joined by two assassins from Shadow Step Academy. One physical fighter from Consuming Tide Academy was eliminated. One defender from Iron Root Academy failed the speed requirements on the fifth level. Finally, the arrogant fire cultivator named Pyra from Solar Flare Academy who had exhausted his Qi too early rounded out the bottom seven.
The thirty five candidates in the Domain King bracket were instantly reduced to twenty eight. The reality of the brutal elimination format settled heavily over the stadium. The weak were purged without hesitation. Candidates would be given time between each test to recover as much as possible but stamina and Qi management was also part of the tests.