Chapter 68 – Clearing the Fourth Level: Ranked First

Demonic monsters are always indifferent; when their subordinates die tragically, the Yaksha before them feels no heartache, only contempt for their underlings’ incompetence.

When encountering unfortunate or solitary individuals, the Yaksha harbors no desire to help, instead thinking of kicking them while they’re down and killing them all.

Such behavior is undoubtedly cold-hearted.

And the Little Girl Selling Matches—her first match uses the emotion of indifference as its fuel.

Now, it appears the effect is extremely potent.

The drifting heavy snow seems to transport people to the New Year’s Eve when the little girl died.

Along with the snow comes an extreme, bone-chilling cold.

“Crack, crack…”

Protected by the Blackwater Profound Serpent, Mu Lin could clearly sense that this cold was not ordinary. It not only chilled the body but could also freeze the Divine Soul.

The residual waves of cold left Mu Lin’s body and Divine Soul feeling stiff and frozen, while the main body of the Yaksha—its swift, wind-like speed—visibly slowed.

Even frost began to cling to its body.

“Roar!”

As its body and Divine Soul gradually grew stiff and cold, the Yaksha sensed danger.

Immediately, it let out a howl, and thick black Demonic Qi erupted from its body.

It sought to use the Demonic Qi to resist the invasion of the cold.

Unfortunately, such resistance was not very effective.

The Heart Lamp burns like fire, while indifference is akin to ice. Thus, Mu Lin could use flames to melt the frost.

But the nature of Demonic Qi, in relation to the power of the anomalous little girl, is like water.

Using water to resist ice naturally yields poor results.

And the Yaksha’s troubles did not end there.

—While summoning the Blackwater Profound Serpent for protection and having the Little Girl Selling Matches disrupt the enemy, Mu Lin’s main body was not idle either.

Having folded a Yaksha Paper Figure and materialized a Coffin Nail, he picked up another Coffin Nail and drove it fiercely into the Yaksha Paper Figure.

“Thud!”

As the Coffin Nail pierced through, the Yaksha let out a shrill, agonized cry.

What further enraged it was that this time, Mu Lin had attacked its right hand—the hand gripping the Steel Fork.

The heart-piercing pain nearly made it drop the Steel Fork.

However, the Yaksha was truly ferocious. In the end, it endured the pain and launched a frenzied assault on Mu Lin.

This was a fight to the death. The Yaksha was cruel but not foolish; it knew that today, only one of them would survive.

If it didn’t kill Mu Lin, it would never escape.

Driven by a desperate resolve, the Yaksha’s attacks surged like raging waves and flashed like wind and thunder.

“Kill!”

Yet, though the Yaksha was strong, the Blackwater Profound Serpent summoned with Mu Lin’s full effort was no weakling either.

“Hiss!”

“Bang!”

The Steel Fork swung, and the serpent tore and bit.

Centered around Mu Lin, the flying Yaksha and the Blackwater Profound Serpent engaged in a fierce battle.

As both could control elements, their clash was accompanied by howling winds and surging waters.

The force of wind blades and flowing water left the surrounding ground in disarray.

The ferocious battle made Mu Lin understand why the Gushing Spring Realm is called the Feathered Scholar.

This realm has transcended ordinary mortals; a thousand common soldiers would struggle to match it.

At the same time, Mu Lin frowned as he noticed that in the duel between the Yaksha and the black serpent, the Blackwater Profound Serpent was at a disadvantage.

After all, it was a Paper Figure serpent, not the true Blackwater Profound Serpent. Its inferiority was only to be expected.

Fortunately, this wasn’t a one-on-one duel but a group brawl.

While the two were locked in combat, the Little Girl Who Sells Matches also lit her second and third matches.

“Hiss…”

Drawing upon the Yaksha’s inner greed and arrogance, the little girl summoned a large dog and a python.

Then, these monsters conjured from the flames also lunged toward the Flying Yaksha, tearing at it.

“Woof!”

“Hiss…”

While his summoned creatures fought fiercely, Mu Lin continuously drove the Coffin Nails into the paper Yaksha’s body.

Head, heart, spine, hands, feet…

“Thud!” “Thud!” “Thud!”

With each Coffin Nail driven in, a part of the Yaksha’s body was severely wounded.

In the end, all vital parts of the Flying Yaksha’s body were pinned down by Coffin Nails.

Sustaining continuous heavy blows, the Yaksha’s aura inevitably weakened.

At one point, as its head was pierced by another Coffin Nail, its consciousness wavered.

And in that moment of confusion, Mu Lin’s Blackwater Profound Serpent shot toward the Yaksha like Lightning, wrapping its body tightly around it.

“Whew, I can finally finish you off.”

Constriction was the python’s strongest attack method. Entangled by the Blackwater Profound Serpent and flanked by the greedy dog and arrogant python, the Yaksha, which possessed a trace of Flying lineage, ultimately met a gruesome end at Mu Lin’s hands.

However, after all this, Mu Lin was utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally.

At this moment, his Mana was completely depleted.

His vital essence was also somewhat depleted from manifesting a Gushing Spring Realm demonic monster.

As for his strongest Divine Soul power, it had become extremely weak due to the continuous curses.

“Whew… So, my current strength is only enough to deal with one Gushing Spring Realm demonic monster at most?”

…

The death of the Flying Yaksha signaled the end of the battle. Since most of the enemies had been eliminated, Mu Lin and his team’s mission was naturally considered complete.

“Hum…”

As a flash of white light passed, Mu Lin and Chu Lingluo gradually vanished from the Tower of Illusory Heavens.

Just before disappearing, he heard the sound of galloping hooves. Turning to look, Mu Lin was astonished to see human soldiers riding Dragonblood Warhorses, charging rapidly toward the battlefield.

Clearly, they were reinforcements from the human side.

Their arrival made Mu Lin realize why this brutal encounter was the fourth-floor trial of the Tower of Illusory Heavens.

“So, this trial didn’t require us to annihilate all enemies. As long as we held out against the demonic monsters’ attacks until reinforcements arrived, the mission was accomplished?”

That made the trial’s difficulty much more reasonable.

Expecting Mu Lin and his team to turn the tide and wipe out all enemies would have been an unreasonable demand.

“Never mind, in any case, we completed the mission.”

…

“Hum…”

In a flash of white light, Mu Lin and Chu Lingluo returned outside the tower.

To Mu Lin’s surprise, although Ji Xue, Yan Yunyu, and his team had entered the fourth floor of the Tower of Illusory Heavens at different times, they all emerged at exactly the same moment.

What shocked those outside even more was that all three teams had cleared the fourth floor of the Tower of Illusory Heavens.

“They all passed.”

“Ji Xue is powerful, and Yan Yunyu has numbers on her side. It’s normal for them to pass. But why did Mu Lin also clear it?”

Mu Lin’s success caused many to sigh in disappointment.

Zhou Liang, from Yan Yunyu’s team, even snorted coldly.

“To think you actually passed…”

The fact that Mu Lin, with his Third-Class Spirit Root, was now on the same level as him left Zhou Liang feeling rather displeased, and he wanted to say something more.

However, before he could finish speaking, an unexpected change occurred in the Tower of Illusory Heavens.

What followed next left many stunned.

Unlike the first three levels, starting from the fourth level, the Tower of Illusory Heavens not only determined whether one passed or failed but also provided a performance rating.

The rating standards were Excellent, Good, Average, and Poor.

Among these, Excellent represented perfect completion of the task, Good indicated satisfactory completion, Average meant meeting the minimum standard, and Poor signified barely scraping through.

The ratings for Yan Yunyu, Ji Xue, and Mu Lin, among others, spanned across Average, Good, and Excellent.

But what truly left many unable to hold back was this: Yan Yunyu, with her large and powerful team, received an Average rating, while Ji Xue, who ventured alone, earned a Good rating.

As for Mu Lin, whom they least favored and least expected to succeed, his rating was—Excellent.

(End of Chapter)