After some searching, Lin Yun stood before the grand portal to the eighth floor.
“What kind of test awaits me now?” he asked, gazing at the massive glowing gate.
The earlier floors had tested raw strength, but starting from the sixth to seventh, the challenges shifted, becoming more than just physical and shrouded in unknowns.
The four alliance leaders had all reached the seventh floor, meaning they’d failed the test he now faced.
Lin Yun took a deep breath. “Here goes.”
He stepped into the radiant portal.
No matter what lay ahead, he had to confront it.
The scene shifted as he entered, revealing a dim, small room that felt unsettlingly eerie.
Before him was a bucket, beside it a table.
Lin Yun approached the table.
Carved into it were the words: *“Enter the bucket to begin the test. Leave early, and you fail.”*
“That’s it?” Lin Yun frowned, puzzled.
The test’s specifics were frustratingly vague.
He examined the bucket.
It was small, barely fitting one person, filled not with water but with countless black spheres, each the size of a fingertip.
After a moment’s thought, Lin Yun climbed in and sat down.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Suddenly, the black spheres emitted a piercing “crack” and transformed into tiny insects!
The spheres had been insects, curled up and motionless, disguised as balls.
As they unfurled, Lin Yun saw their true form: dark brown with glossy black shells, serrated pincers on their heads, and jagged edges on their eight legs.
“Damn it!”
Surrounded by swarming, grotesque insects, Lin Yun’s face paled, instinctively moving to leap out.
But he recalled the table’s warning.
*Leave early, and you fail!*
Gritting his teeth, he stayed seated.
The insects buried him, leaving only his head exposed.
Then, they began to bite.
Despite his formidable physical body, their bites inflicted excruciating pain.
It was as if their serrated pincers carried a toxin that amplified agony.
“Hiss…”
The sudden, intense pain made Lin Yun gasp.
“Endure!”
He closed his eyes, silently bearing the torment.
The insects gnawed every inch of his body, each bite a stab of searing pain.
Five minutes, ten minutes…
Time crawled, yet Lin Yun remained still as a mountain.
He had to admit, the pain was intense—few could withstand it.
But compared to the agony of the Soul-Breaking Poison’s full outbreak, this was lesser.
The initial shock had caught him off guard, but now, adjusted, it was manageable.
Had he not endured twenty years of the Soul-Breaking Poison, this test might have broken him, even with his prior resilience.
While waiting at the Western Alliance headquarters, he’d taken a pill, and with the poison currently stable, it didn’t interfere much.
About four hours later, the insects stopped biting, curling back into motionless black spheres.
“Looks like the test is over. That was pretty easy,” Lin Yun said, smiling as he stood.
If the four alliance leaders heard this, they’d think he was bragging.
They’d faced this test and fled after mere moments.
Even the test’s creator might accuse Lin Yun of boasting.
But he was sincere—this test *was* easy for him.
He owed that to the Soul-Breaking Poison.
As he stepped out, a light pierced the darkness ahead.
A door appeared.
Lin Yun strode toward it.
Crossing the threshold, he entered the eighth floor of the Wuji Heavenly Palace!
The eighth floor was bright, the ground like clouds, with faint mist drifting. The air felt sweet.
It was like an immortal palace.
Lin Yun scanned the vast floor, spotting a large pool at its center—nothing else stood out.
He approached the pool.
“What a strange pool,” he remarked, eyeing the square structure.
As large as a swimming pool, it was cloaked in a thin layer of mist.
“Master, this pool holds a unique power. Try it,” the artifact spirit suggested.
“Alright.”
Lin Yun nodded and stepped into the pool.
“What… incredible energy!”
The water contained an extraordinary force, like primal qi but condensed into liquid, far purer.
“Haha, excellent! Absorb it!”
Lin Yun began drawing the water’s energy into his body.
It surged into him, processed by his *Withered Silence* technique, rapidly strengthening his physical form!
“It’s enhancing my body!”
His flesh, skin, muscles, bones, and organs underwent a remarkable evolution.
“Wait, another approach!”
Lin Yun recalled the seventh floor’s vision of the body breaking into particles and reassembling.
He opened every particle of his body to absorb the pool’s energy, using *Withered Silence* to refine and evolve each one!
“The efficiency’s much higher!”
“Haha, perfect!” Lin Yun’s heart surged with joy.
The seventh floor’s vision hadn’t directly boosted him, but it was proving invaluable for his physical cultivation!
Combined with the eighth floor’s pool, it was a game-changer!
“This pool’s energy not only strengthens but also evolves. Could it purge the Soul-Breaking Poison?” Lin Yun’s eyes gleamed with hope.
The poison’s strength lay in infiltrating every particle, causing agony when active.
Now, he was channeling the pool’s energy into each particle.
Could this unique water flush out the poison?
