The three siblings looked at each other blankly at the entrance to the fourth floor.
Lu Wenxing asked, "What should we do? Should we wait for them or leave first?"
“We can’t wait any longer,” Shi Xuan said. “Illusions are unpredictable, and we can’t help with that. If it’s like those two we saw when we came, they might not be able to get out for several days.”
Lu Shenzhi nodded in agreement, "That's right, let's continue."
This nine-story tower was originally built on individual abilities. The six of them had already traversed the first two floors together, laying a solid foundation for the tower. Therefore, it was inevitable that they would split up at this point.
Outside the nine-story tower, those who had been very pessimistic about the best six-person team were now somewhat surprised.
They're really strange. They struggled so much on the first floor (three days), the second floor (five days), but now they're moving faster on the third floor? It's truly baffling.
Putting everything else aside, just look at those three little red dots that have already entered the fourth floor—their speed is definitely faster than everyone who went up before them. What's the reason behind this?
The appearance of the fourth floor is quite different from that of the first and second floors.
The once expansive hall, which seemed to stretch endlessly to the horizon, was gone. In its place stood a door before them, and no one knew what lay behind it.
There was also no teleportation array leading to the fifth floor.
Shi Xuan deduced the logic from the previous steps.
The first level refines one's spiritual power and consolidates the foundation; the second level improves the quality of spiritual power, allowing one to make further progress on the existing foundation; the third level is supposedly an illusion that tests one's character, so the fourth level should be a time for improvement in cultivation.
The three exchanged glances, and Lu Shenzhi, as the eldest brother, took the lead in stepping through the door and entering the fourth floor.
Entering that door on the fourth floor is like entering another world, a frozen world.
This fourth level was extremely cold, even colder than the floating ice islands they had visited before.
It seems they are not indoors, but rather in the dead of winter outdoors.
In the vast wilderness, there grew trees with sharp, pointed leaves. But now, those trees were completely covered by ice and snow, and their original colors were no longer visible.
The moment the three stepped inside, a sudden gust of wind arose, and the snowflakes from the icy plain swirled and blew toward them. Even before the eye of the storm reached them, the three were already unsteady on their feet.
Shi Xuan was a little curious whether everyone's experience was the same, because in this situation, it was already very difficult for the three of them to avoid the wind, so how did the others get through this tornado?
You should know that the powerful suction of the nine-story pagoda still exists here. Shi Xuan felt that those who had not carefully practiced on the first and second floors would definitely have a hard time moving around, and how could they possibly avoid such a strong wind?
She wasn't wrong; the trials offered by the nine-story tower were completely different for those who obtained stars and those who didn't.
Shi Xuan and the other two obtained the difficult version of this document.
At this moment, the center of the tornado was rapidly approaching.
Without a second thought, the three quickly separated, allowing the powerful tornado to pass them by.
What's frightening is that this tornado wasn't the end of the story; many more were waiting for them.
Normally, cold weather wouldn't bother cultivators at their level, but the most terrifying thing here is that the cold they feel isn't just physical, but a cold perceived through their divine sense.
They weren't freezing their bodies, but their spirits!
Based on his experience from the first two levels, Shi Xuan came to a conclusion: "Senior Brother, do you think this place might be for us to train our spiritual senses?"
Now that you mention it, it's actually quite possible.
The longer they stay in this nine-story tower, the more they can appreciate the tower's reward mechanism for visitors.
Solidify the foundation, strengthen the basics, test your character, and now it's time to hone your spiritual awareness.
While dodging the center of the tornado, Shi Xuan tentatively released a wisp of his divine sense to touch the tornado and explore what the center of the wind was like.
When Xuan's wisp of divine consciousness peeked out, she shivered from the cold and felt a stinging pain all over her head.
Shi Xuan sighed, "This place truly freezes one's divine consciousness."
After that wisp of divine consciousness was released, it braved the extreme cold and approached a hurricane.
Shi Xuan felt that the closer he got to the wind, the stronger the bone-chilling cold became. When he came into contact with the tornado, even Shi Xuan couldn't help but grit his teeth in pain.
Those tornadoes swept over her consciousness as if they were trying to shred it, tearing her flesh apart piece by piece, making it unbearable.
This was a situation that Shi Xuan had never encountered before when using his divine sense.
She mustered her strength, gritted her teeth, and released her spiritual sense to carefully perceive the patterns within the hurricane.
Gradually, her consciousness unconsciously began to rotate in the swirling ring of the tornado, aligning itself with the tornado's trajectory.
At this moment, Shi Xuan felt that the pain he was experiencing in his consciousness had lessened.
It seems to be a pattern...
If you imagine a tornado as a series of concentric blades, going against the direction of the blades, or remaining stationary, you will certainly be severely cut.
With this in mind, Shi Xuan tried his best to control his divine sense to form long, thread-like strands, following the direction of the tornado, imagining that this wisp of divine sense was part of the tornado, merging into it along the patterns of the wind.
Just as she expected, when her consciousness followed the direction of the wind and merged into it, the pain of being cut was greatly reduced, leaving only the feeling of cold.
For tornadoes, the gaps between winds are extremely small. Only by finding such a tiny gap and fitting one's consciousness precisely into it can Shi Xuan experience less pain in his mind.
Therefore, at this moment, Shi Xuan had ignored the feeling of extreme cold, and only dodged the waves of tornadoes outside while hiding his divine sense in the gaps between the winds.
When Xuan finally mastered merging her divine consciousness with the wind, she could no longer feel the pain of her divine consciousness being severed.
In extremely cold temperatures, the mind is already less sensitive due to freezing. To be able to conjure up the shape of the wind in such a situation, and to dance along with the rapidly rotating wind while weaving through the gaps in the wind, is an incredibly difficult feat.
After practicing in this way, Xuan finally mastered the way of interacting with the wind and her own consciousness, and she clearly felt the difference in her own consciousness.
In addition to reaching a new level of control over his divine sense, the tornadoes also "trimmed" his divine sense during their collision with it.
Just like refining spiritual power in a layer, the divine sense was also polished to the finest detail, removing some useless edges and corners, making the released wisp of divine sense more condensed.
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