The Sky-Piercing Bridge space.
The vast plaza was even more crowded than before.
In the area where the powerful experts stood, several more Venerables had gathered.
Among them were multiple Venerables from the Icepeak lineage.
There was even one man with white hair, dressed entirely in white, young in appearance, a sword strapped to his back, his temperament icy and aloof.
Everyone stood behind him without daring to step past him.
From time to time, King-level Immortals and Venerables cast glances in his direction.
In every one of their eyes was a trace of respect and apprehension.
This man was one of the Universe Overlords of the Icepeak lineage, Venerable Xuan Ice.
Because of his presence, the powerful experts barely dared to breathe.
Only a few particularly strong Venerables dared to transmit messages to one another.
Even the Tidal Blade King standing not far from Venerable Xuan Ice didn't dare speak, his expression stern and proper.
At that moment, Venerable Xuan Ice's brow shifted slightly as another person arrived.
"Tidal, I hear you've taken a remarkable disciple."
"I'm here to take a look!"
"Hahahaha!"
A burly man with a massive blade on his back suddenly appeared beside the Tidal Blade King, pulling him into a rough embrace.
The Tidal Blade King looked at him with deep respect and bowed.
"Master."
After arriving at the tenth level, Luo Fan once again created a task: clear the tenth level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
Although he knew his chances were slim, he would need this task eventually anyway.
May as well establish it early.
His mechanical race clone had risen to the Domain Lord level, giving him several additional task slots.
With the nutrient solution given by Grandor, the mechanical clone had already reached Domain Lord Level Eight.
Soon, it would break through to World Lord.
At that point, Luo Fan would gain even more task capacity.
"Choose your opponent. You may select Warrior, Spiritual Force Controller, or Spiritual Force Illusionist."
"Choose any one opponent. Defeat them, and you may enter the eleventh level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge."
The familiar voice came from within the mist.
"I choose Warrior."
Luo Fan answered as always.
The mysterious figure appeared again.
His gaze toward Luo Fan carried a trace of regret.
But he said nothing, and immediately launched an attack.
This time, there were no flashy light blades, no tidal beasts, no oceans of blade-light.
The mysterious figure gathered all of the strike's power into the Tidal Blade itself and attacked Luo Fan with full force.
This was a close-combat technique with immense destructive power.
It was the eighth technique of the Tidal Blade's original secret art, Void-Cleaving Tidal Slash.
A perfectly straight black spatial fissure appeared along the path the mysterious figure charged down.
There were no cracks branching off from it.
Even after the mysterious figure passed, the fissure didn't disappear. It remained, silent and ominous.
Luo Fan's expression grew solemn.
He once again unleashed Heaven-Rend, his strongest secret art.
A massive blade-light covered in intricate secret patterns descended out of thin air.
And this time, from the very instant it formed, the secret patterns on the blade-light shone with blinding luminosity.
This was Luo Fan's full strength.
The mysterious figure rushed forward toward the incoming blade-light with a calm expression, face utterly emotionless.
He lifted the Tidal Blade and swung sideways.
Boom.
Crack.
A black spatial fissure appeared across Luo Fan's massive blade-light.
The radiant secret patterns instantly dimmed.
A heartbeat later, the blade-light split cleanly in two.
The bisected blade-light shattered.
The mysterious figure shot through the collapsing energy and appeared right in front of Luo Fan.
The blade fell.
Luo Fan raised his own blade and unleashed another Heaven-Rend to defend.
The blade-light had barely formed when it shattered again.
Luo Fan's right hand, the one holding the Tidal Blade, was cut apart.
As Luo Fan flew backward from the force, the mysterious figure pursued relentlessly, slashing again.
Luo Fan had only just managed to pull his severed Tidal Blade over with his mind power, grabbing it with his left hand.
In this rushed moment, he could only attempt a desperate defense.
But with one strike, the mysterious figure shattered Luo Fan's blade-guard and obliterated his left hand.
The Tidal Blade flew backward from the impact, slamming into Luo Fan's body and splitting him cleanly from the chest downward.
Luo Fan's immense vitality kept him from instantly dying.
The mysterious figure casually swung once more.
Sky-Piercing Bridge, Level Ten.
Failure.
Watching this scene, both the geniuses and the powerful experts let out a strange breath of relief.
If Luo Fan had cleared the tenth level at his current stage, it would have been terrifying.
After all, the tenth level represented comprehension at the Immortal level.
Those who cleared the tenth level could essentially be considered guaranteed to become Immortal.
Among core members of the Virtual Universe Company, many Domain Lords, even some World Masters still had not cleared the tenth level.
In the Original Secret Region, the strongest Domain Lord genius had only cleared the eleventh level so far.
Another had only cleared the ninth.
In the Primal Secret Region, only a single Domain Lord genius had cleared the tenth level.
And all these geniuses had trained for tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years.
Plus, once they became Domain Lords, they could cultivate in Chaos City for three hundred years.
But Luo Fan had trained in Chaos City for only thirty years and reached this level.
At this moment, even Venerables who had comprehended the Space Origin Laws were tempted.
Those who mastered the Time Origin Laws looked at Luo Fan with undisguised regret.
Luo Fan had not comprehended the Law of Time.
Even if they wished to take him as a disciple, the chance he would agree was small.
After Luo Fan's defeat, the powerful experts gradually dispersed.
The only one who remained was the Tidal Blade King.
When Luo Fan reappeared on the Sky-Piercing Bridge plaza, he originally intended to leave immediately.
But he noticed his teacher.
So he walked over and bowed.
"Teacher."
The Tidal Blade King walked to Luo Fan's side, throwing one furry arm around his shoulders.
"Hahahaha!"
"As expected of my disciple!"
"Well done!"
"It has been countless years since someone in their first thirty years in Chaos City cleared the ninth level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge."
Just as the Tidal Blade King said, throughout human history, among the Universe level, first-time Chaos City visitors within their initial thirty years, those who cleared the ninth level could be counted on one hand.
The last genius to achieve this was Kotti.
And what sort of existence was Kotti?
A genius who appears once in tens of millions of eras.
One of the absolute apex geniuses of the human race.
Someone with a faint possibility of breaking through to become a Universe Lord.
And Luo Fan, at the Universe level, was already matching Kotti's achievements.
Moreover, the Tidal Blade King knew an additional fact.
Luo Fan was significantly younger than Kotti had been when he came to Chaos City.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bonus chapters every 200 Power Stone!
10, 20, 30 Advanced chapters in my Patreon!
patreon.com/hollyrisk