Chapter 292: Trial Tower
Dubhe remained seated in the stool, his eyes lowered and silent, with a stony, twisted look on his face.
He didn’t expect Jiang Shuxuan to do this.
He thought back to the words that the other had said previously, and he really wasn’t going to let him go!
As expected of Jiang Shuxuan, he really was a member of the Jiang family.
Dubhe pressed his temples, it didn’t matter to him that Gu Xiqiao participated in the ranking tournaments, it was just that he didn’t want things to deteriorate further than this. He was completely sidelined by Jiang Shuxuan’s stubbornness.
He felt as though he was the most failed Dubhe in history.
“Master Dubhe, we’ll be... leaving first.” The Murong family’s elder looked at Dubhe, bowing to him. The heat radiating from the other made him fearful of getting closer, and it also made it all clearer how terrifying Dubhe’s powers were.
“Hm,” Dubhe responded. There was a distortion in the air, and his entire person disappeared.
Only the elders from the Murong family were left in the room, and they couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief as they wiped the cold sweat on their brows. There was still some lingering fear in their hearts, Jiang Shuxuan had not liked managing the ancient martial arts world a few years back. He only took on small tasks and everyone slowly got used to it, and grew complacent. They had completely forgotten Jiang Shuxuan’s nature!
Wasn’t the Jiang family known for being extremely protective of their own? It was nuts for them to even entertain the thought of asking Gu Xiqiao to back out from entering the ranking tournaments.
The remaining elders glanced at each other with understanding on their faces, and then quietly left the room.
***
Dubhe had not gone far, and he reappeared on the roof of the Elders Association. He sat on the tiles. The jade flute in his hands as his gaze was in the direction of the Jiang family house with a dark look in his eyes.
Suddenly, a wave of energy fluctuated in the air, and Dubhe stood up in surprise. His eyes widened, and he muttered, “Master... But how can that be?”
He wanted to find the source of the energy, but before he could move, it had disappeared in a flash.
***
When Jiang Shuxuan returned home, he saw Yi Bing bringing Jiji and Xixi in.
When he saw Jiji, he was about to ignore it, but then he recalled Gu Xiqiao’s words, and he halted in his steps, lowering his head to look at the robot. “Jiji, go on up and see her. She’s been missing you.”
Jiang Shuxuan’s voice was not warm nor gentle, but it definitely wasn’t cold either. Compared to the cold attitude that he usually had when he dealt with them, it was simply as warm as the spring air.
Jiji had gotten used to being ignored and kicked around by Jiang Shuxuan, and this was the first time it had felt such a loving Master Jiang. Jiji was taken aback, and hurriedly asked, “Master Jiang, you... are you okay?”
Jiang Shuxuan: “...” He spared another glance at Jiji, then turned around and walked away.
Jiji had reacted quickly, as though lightning had struck it!
Xixi looked at it with sympathy in its beady eyes. “How can you be such a fool at such a young age.”
“If I could have a do over,” Jiji said, looking at Xixi. “I would definitely say... baby, don’t you love me anymore?”
Xixi: “...” Seriously, why did it have to talk to Jiji at such a solemn time?
Was there really something wrong in Jiji’s head?
Yi Tong laughed as he followed Jiang Shuxuan. There was a saying ‘A smile will gain you ten more years of life’, and Yi Tong thought that if it were true, he could possibly become a thousand-year-old immortal if he continued to stay by Gu Xiqiao’s side.
Hearing his words, Yi Bing looked at him straight in his eyes. “What happens if you died from laughing instead?”
Yi Tong: “...” Would it kill you to just shut up? Geez!
And then he thought about it, since when did this Yi Bing, who had always been serious and uptight become like this...
Gu Xiqiao walked down the stairs, following behind Shu Chen. “I just found someone to make a few sets of new clothes which are following the popular trends currently. Oh, that’s right, and some matching clothes for mother and daughter. Let’s wear them tomorrow, and I’ll show you around the ancient martial arts world!”
Shu Chen sounded very excited, and as she pulled Gu Xiqiao downstairs with her, she acted as though she didn’t see her son, continuing to babble with Gu Xiqiao. “Doesn’t it look good on the both of us? Shuxuan, don’t you think so too?”
Jiang Shuxuan: “...” So you finally remember that you have a son.
Although that was his thoughts, his gaze turned to Gu Xiqiao. She was wearing a light green dress with a fox fur coat. Even the big coat was unable to hide her thin and slender figure underneath, it was no wonder Mrs. Zhang kept feeding her food whenever she could. It even looked like she had become thinner over the past two days.
She slowly followed Shu Chen downstairs, her steps slightly awkward at the long skirt. The lights from the crystal lamps reflected on her face, and it was hard to tell whether the fox fur coat or her face was paler under the glow.
She usually had a cold expression on her face, but today there was a faint smile on her lips as her eyes shimmered softly. It gave her an exceptionally warm glow, beautiful to the point it was hard to look away from her.
Then he turned his gaze to his mother, who was also wearing the same green dress. Thinking for a while, he finally said, “Like a green caterpillar.”
Having said that, he rushed off to the study, not daring to look at Gu Xiqiao, Yi Tong, and everyone else hot on his heels.
Behind him, Shu Chen had her fist raised in a motion that she was going to beat the crap out of her son for saying that. Why didn’t she know that her son was this sort of person before? Sure enough, it would probably be better to have just grown potted plants!
“Aunt Shu, Brother Jiang may just be jealous of your beauty,” Gu XIqiao said, after being silent for a while.
After being comforted like that, Shu Chen had wanted to say something more to Gu Xiqiao, but the butler came over. “Madam, there is someone here to meet you.”
“I’ll leave first, Qiao Qiao. I’ll be back in a while.” Shu Chen knew that if it wasn’t important, the butler wouldn’t have come personally to inform her. So she bid goodbye to Gu Xiqiao and left.
Only Gu Xiqiao was left in the living room, with Jiji and the others.
“Why is Dog Feed here?” Gu Xiqiao asked, pointing to the plant in Jiji’s arms.
“To make a mess!” Jiji exclaimed excitedly, and proceeded to relate the entire incident that had happened between them and Dubhe.
The corner of Gu Xiqiao’s mouth twitched, and she didn’t comment on Jiji’s story. For Jiji to come back intact, Dubhe really had good self-restrained. “Jiji, I upgraded the virtual trial arena.”
“Upgraded?” Why hadn’t it felt anything?
Oh no, Beauty Gu probably wouldn’t need it in the next second!
“When it was upgrading, I didn’t have control over it. It was projected into reality.” Fortunately, it had only been for a few seconds, and she managed to take it back.
Jiji was silent for a while. “It’s fine, you must have just lost control a little bit. This virtual trial arena will be a big help to you in the future.”
Gu Xiqiao nodded her head, naturally knowing the function of the virtual trial arena.
“Speaking of Dubhe, I still have this feeling that he’s really familiar,” Jiji said suddenly.
This wasn’t the first time Jiji had brought it up and said the same thing, and Gu Xiqiao rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Your lover from your previous life?”
“I’ll break up with you!” Jiji didn’t want to entertain Gu Xiqiao’s line of thought.
Gu Xiqiao ignored Jiji, pulling out her phone to call Mu Zong.
When Gu Xiqiao called, Mu Zong was in Yu Ning’s house. A group of them had gathered to eat hotpot, and he went to a corner to take the call. “Miss Gu.”
“Uncle Mu, please have someone pass the documents from Nine Heavens to Yao Jiamu, I won’t be coming back for a while,” Gu Xiqiao said as she sat down lazily on the sofa.
Mu Zong was used to instructions like this from her, and so he gave her a brief update on the major events that had happened in Nine Heavens for the past few days.
After listening to his recap, she hung up the phone and began to ponder on the things that he had told her. Chu Enterprise’s main business was in food and beverages, now they’ve suddenly decided to enter the net business and they even want to cooperate with Nine Heavens. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, deep in thought.
“Jiji, bring out the computer.”
She reached out, taking out the pocket PC from Jiji’s chest.
She tapped a few keys on the device, hacking into Chu Enterprise with ease. She pulled up Chu Ziheng’s recent schedule, rubbing her chin again as she smiled suddenly.
The next day, there was a group of people gathered outside the Trial Tower, discussing. It seemed that Jiang Tong was undergoing training in the tower.
Murong Miaoxue had just exited the Trial Tower, and she watched as Jiang Tong’s rank jumped from 62 to 63, then 63 to 64, finally stopping at 65.
The people around the tower were just discussing and chatting, but it turned into amazement in the end.
Compared to Gu Xiqiao, no matter how talented you were, you would still look dull next to her. But no one expected Jiang Tong to be able to jump from the 62nd floor to the 65th floor in just less than half a month. It was simply abnormal, everyone thought as they looked at each other.
“This Jiang Tong, why does it feel like she wasn’t this talented in the past?” The young girl beside Murong Miaoxue said.
Regular people would take about half a year just to break through one single floor, and here Jiang Tong was, breaking through three floors in just half a month. That was simply terrifying!
Jiang Tong exited the Trial Tower, the ashen look on her fast a few days back gone, replaced with a renewed confident look.
Murong Miaoxue glanced at her, disinterest in her eyes, and she turned around to leave, but then she spotted two figures in the distance walking in the direction of the tower. “It’s her!”
The crowd around the Trial Tower was also sparked with excitement, anticipation in their eyes when they saw who it was.
Jiang Tong, who had been the center of attention just a few seconds ago, was now completely forgotten. She turned to look at who had stolen her spotlight, and her eyes darkened.
Gu Xiqiao walked to the front of the Trial Tower, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes on her face. “I didn’t finish this last time, let’s see which floor I can reach this time. I can also use this as more reference for the cave.”
Her figure disappeared from the spot in a flash, entering the Trial Tower’s entrance.
News of Gu Xiqiao’s jaunt into the tower had spread throughout the entire ancient martial arts world, and countless people had rushed to the tower to watch her enter.
“I wonder how many floors will she be able to pass?” The elder from the Tang family mused, looking at the ranking. He exclaimed in surprise when he did, “That Jiang Tong has already passed the 65th floor?”
“Even Jiang Tong has passed the 65th floor, I think passing the 60th level shouldn’t be a problem for her then, right?” Another person replied.
“She advanced to Xiantian last time, maybe she can pass the 70th floor?”
“It’s not impossible, even that Nozawa reached level 70, right? What if she’s able to reach the 75th floor?”
“Every tenth floor is the most difficult to break through, the 70th floor should be the maximum she can reach. It’s a little impossible to think that she’d be able to reach the 71st floor.”
The 70th floor was the hurdle between Xiantian and Houtian. Like Nozawa, though he was estimated to be on the 70th floor in terms of strength, if he came and broke through the 69th floor, it would already be considered to be great.
That’s why most of the people here thought that, should Gu Xiqiao be able to reach the 70th floor, it would already be considered an impossible feat.
Because she had just advanced to Xiantian level just half a month ago.
Shu Chen stood beside some of the elders, a faint smile on her lips, but she said nothing.
“She’s at... strange, how can she be on the 20th floor? Could it be that she came here once before?” A young boy who was watching the ranking stone said suddenly.
As soon as he said that, all the elders looked at each other. They saw the horror in each other’s eyes. The mysterious person who had advanced 20 floors in just ten minutes more than a month ago, they had searched long and hard without any results. They hadn’t expected it to be her!
“Look, it’s changing again!”
Gu Xiqiao’s name changed quickly, going from the 30th floor to the 40th floor, taking only half and hour.
“Look, with this speed, she should be reaching the 70th floor soon!” At first, everyone was just teasing and joking about it, but now it was shockingly happening in front of them, and all of their eyes were glued to the stone stable, silently watching.
It took a little longer from the 40th floor to the 50th floor, but it didn’t seem like there was any stopping her!
She soon passed the 60th floor, and approached the 70th floor!
Gu Xiqiao, 70th floor!
When the tablet refreshed again, no one in the crowd spoke a word. Their wide eyes were still glued to the stone, full of disbelief and surprise.
Even the great elder was stunned speechless. He rubbed his face, his voice a bit dry as he said, “She... Is she trying to break through the 70th floor?”
Just as he said that, the ranking refreshed again.
Gu Xiqiao, 71st floor!
When Jiang Shuxuan had broken through 70 floors in one fell swoop, it caused a wave across the entire ancient martial arts world. There hadn’t been a person who surpassed him in the time after.
This was the first time his name had dropped to second place.
Those people in front of the Trial Tower had no words to describe what they were feeling already, it was just crazy. The word ‘genius’ couldn’t even begin to describe this girl, she was just plain terrifying! It had exceeded any kind of expectations all of them had! For Jiang Tong to advance three levels to the 65th floor was already alarming, they didn’t predict that Gu Xiqiao would break through the 70th floor in one fell swoop!
The 70th floor, that was the world of the Houtian level!
Such an almighty existence that they couldn’t even dream about!
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