The three divine envoys had originally come looking for Yue Yang, but after all that commotion, they had no way to speak with him in private. What was more, the quick-witted transmigrator had already grabbed Mingzhu and slipped away at the first opportunity.
The maiden holding the silver grimoire said nothing at the sight, but the tall, valiant maiden gave a faint little snort, as though displeased by Yue Yang’s escape. As for the most endearing, sweet-faced little round-faced one, she found it rather amusing, though she fought hard to suppress her smile.
Before long, the quarterly Life Assessment Ceremony arrived.
Before the final results were announced, the competing students still had one more evaluation to complete. This evaluation didn’t count as a fixed part of a student’s score but served as a reference. If a student failed to do well in it, they could choose to forgo it; conversely, a student could use it to earn “bonus points.” For ordinary students, this last evaluation was optional, but for elite students it was a crucial link — one that absolutely had to be contested.
Before the Assessment began, the various instructors led their students to the Heavenly Pride Academy.
Some cities had a great many students — Gold Leaf City, for instance, sworn to take first place. But some had very few, such as Silver Maple City. To ensure they could devote maximum effort to supporting Yue Yang’s assessment, the Principal and Instructor Oumon brought only the single student Yue Yang to compete.
“This final evaluation is extremely important. You must enter the ‘Tower Beyond the Tower,’ rout the puppet battle constructs there, and earn points. For you, clearing the puppets shouldn’t be a problem. My only worry is that former senior students — elites from past years — may stage an ambush inside, and that could affect your final result.” The Principal hadn’t told Yue Yang about the Tower Beyond the Tower beforehand. He was an instructor who kept faith with the rules. Other instructors and principals might secretly tip off their students about the Tower’s conditions, leaking the secret in advance so the students could prepare ahead of time, creating an unfair competition.
But the Principal would never do such a thing. So long as it was a rule established since ancient times — important or not, whether others violated it or not, whether others’ leaks created unfair competition or not — he would keep faith with it to the very end.
Yue Yang asked, slightly puzzled, “You said the ‘Tower Beyond the Tower’?”
Before the Principal could answer, Mingzhu — who had caught up from behind — replied for him. “The Tower Beyond the Tower is a special battlefield named after Heaven Plain Mountain’s Ancient Pavilion Terrace. Here, we call this place the Ancient Pavilion Terrace. Beyond the Ancient Pavilion Terrace, there’s another place much like Heaven Plain Mountain’s Ancient Pavilion Terrace — so we call that battlefield the ‘Tower Beyond the Tower.'”
“Green hills beyond the green hills, a tower beyond the tower? Rather interesting.” Yue Yang smiled.
“Not rather interesting — terrifying, more like…” Chimu, the Dusk Young Lord who’d been off showing off and coaxing shrieks of admiration out of beautiful women, had finally arrived, panting, just before the Assessment.
“Terrifying?” Yue Yang looked at him with mild surprise.
“All the students get teleported from inside the Heavenly Pride Academy into that special battlefield, the Tower Beyond the Tower, to clear out the puppet battle constructs and puppet beasts there and earn points. On the surface it looks easy, but in fact it’s the place with the highest student fatality rate in the entire evaluation — far higher than even a death duel. The Tower Beyond the Tower resembles Heaven Plain Mountain’s Ancient Pavilion Terrace, but it’s ten times larger. Inside, there’s nothing but puppet battle constructs, and any student who enters comes under attack from constructs and puppet beasts. If you hide inside the puppet academy there, it’s manageable — at most only bronze-tier puppet beasts attack their way in. But if you have the nerve to leave the puppet academy, you’ll find gold-tier puppets blanketing the sky and the ground, as numerous as sardines in the ocean, capable of drowning an intruder in an instant.” Reaching this point, Chimu couldn’t help giving a shiver.
“Why would that be?” Yue Yang didn’t understand. Things like puppet constructs and puppet beasts weren’t living creatures — they couldn’t breed offspring. Destroy one and there’s one fewer. Across tens of thousands of years of attrition, how could there possibly still be so many puppets? Even if the place had originally been packed dense with gold-tier puppets, after tens of thousands of years of attrition there ought to be hardly any left.
“As for the specifics, I’m not entirely clear myself.” The Principal shook his head slightly. “But one thing is certain: inside the Tower Beyond the Tower, there are at least ten puppet manufacturing factories. They can churn out new puppets without cease, so no amount of attrition can ever reduce the numbers.”
“Because the manufacturing rate exceeds the clearing rate, every hundred years a great mass of puppet battle constructs comes squeezing out through the transport gates in the puppet academy.” When Oumon brought up the Tower Beyond the Tower, his expression turned grim as well, as though he’d suffered a hidden loss inside.
The Principal, deeply afraid Yue Yang’s morale might be dampened, hurried to offer comforting words. “Actually, speaking of the Tower Beyond the Tower, several super-elites have accomplished the feat of destroying the puppet factories. Conquering Empress Vivienne, ten thousand years ago, used a vast multitude of puppet beasts to destroy three puppet factories. And a decade or so ago, the master of Star Diamond Castle — little Titan, your mother, whose wisdom runs deep as the sea — used a secret technique we still cannot decipher to this day to destroy five puppet factories at the critical moment of a puppet-tide outbreak, greatly easing the danger of the tide. It was precisely because of that deed that Star Diamond Castle’s fief came afterward. It’s only that the puppet factories are controlled by some mysterious power — no matter how many times they’re destroyed, or to what degree, they can slowly recover. This, perhaps, is the test the ancient deities left for our Human Valley and its students.”
Yue Yang was taken aback. He hadn’t expected the special battlefield of the Tower Beyond the Tower to have such a story behind it. It immediately sparked his intense interest.
Perhaps, among those destroyed puppet factories, he might find some trace of “Mother.”
Most importantly, Yue Yang now had a strange feeling in his heart: the ancient relic the three white-clad maidens had commissioned him to find was certainly connected to this Tower Beyond the Tower. Perhaps the key lay in the very relic now in his hands. With it, he might be able to open some ancient mechanism and draw out an entirely new secret.
After some thought, Yue Yang decided to bring out his real strength and search the Tower Beyond the Tower thoroughly. Perhaps the crux of clearing Human Valley lay right here. As for whether Ji Wuri, Zhonghua, and the others would also enter to explore — there was no managing that much now. And with strong figures like Ren Tiange, the Silver-Eyed Great Sage, the Ghost King Phantom, and Captain Cook drawing attention, Yue Yang felt he could still keep a low profile for the time being.
In any case, let others do as they please, and I’ll pick up the spoils in the middle.
The Assessment formally began.
Over the course of this several-day Assessment, until the final step was reached, the competing students couldn’t determine who the true champion was. Whether it was the puppet battle constructs used to compete, or personal creation, creativity, research, invention, cultivation, etiquette, knowledge, combat, strategy, and so on — all fell within the scope of evaluation. One didn’t have to be all-rounded, but only the person with the finest comprehensive strength would be the final champion.
What could three months of training a newcomer accomplish? That depended on each student’s effort and insight.
A formidable figure like Ji Wuri could take the championship indisputably in three months. Conversely, a fake genius like Jinji could spend ten years retaking the assessment and remain mediocre. Were it not for the Strong Magnetic Battle Construct in his possession, and the fact that Ji Wuri, Zhonghua, and the others had eliminated a great batch of elites last round, even a fool wouldn’t have favored his bid for the championship.
Inside the Heavenly Pride Academy, the competing students gathered together as one. Amid thunderous applause, the Heavenly Pride Chairman took the stage to deliver the Assessment’s congratulatory address and lay out the various conditions and rules of evaluation.
His speech was concise and clear, nothing like the long-winded orations of officials back in Yue Yang’s old world. Yue Yang found that before Chimu and the others had even had time to applaud and cheer, the old man had already finished, leaving him in a mild sweat of surprise.
“The Tower Beyond the Tower evaluation is for reference only — it is not mandatory. Students who feel it necessary to save their strength for the later combat rounds may decline to register. Conversely, students who feel they need to warm up before combat may register to take part. The points earned in the Tower Beyond the Tower do not directly become part of the Assessment score, but serve only as reference ‘bonus points.'” Besides the Heavenly Pride Chairman, another elder took the stage to explain the rules of the Tower Beyond the Tower evaluation.
“I’ve already registered you, and I’m registering to take part too. We’ll cut a bloody path through for you, escort you all the way. Listen — you have to destroy at least one puppet factory, or it counts as a failure!” Chimu, now in possession of gold-tier constructs, would probably itch all over if a day passed without showing them off.
“Will you die if you don’t brag?” Yangping, standing not far off, jeered with cold sarcasm. Ever since Yue Yang first offended him, he’d nursed the grudge, sworn not to rest until they were destroyed.
“I never speak with fools.” Chimu now looked down on a minor character like Yangping. Even Yangping’s elder brother, Young Lord Yangquan, he considered not in the same league as an opponent. Now that Chimu had three gold-tier constructs and seven silver-tier constructs, he could, without exaggeration, raise his own little puppet legion single-handedly — how could he possibly still treat a former rival as a nemesis? Were it not inconvenient to act right now, an opponent of Yangping’s caliber would probably have been blasted skyward by Chimu’s spider bomb constructs.
Bickering was bickering, but on the surface no one dared run wild here at the Heavenly Pride Academy. Everyone played the part of a good student. It was only when the instructors weren’t watching that they privately glared at one another and pulled small stunts, planning to teach each other a lesson once they’d entered the Tower Beyond the Tower.
Yue Yang paid no mind to the provocateurs, and didn’t so much as glance at Ren Tiange, the Silver-Eyed Great Sage, Qingmo, or Hauge. With only a wave of farewell to the Principal, he strode up onto the academy’s ancient platform, passed through the transport gate atop it, and teleported straight into the Tower Beyond the Tower.
Mingzhu followed close behind him. Then came Chimu.
Yangping had meant to chase after them, but before he could even take a step, Hauge — that giant of a man — blocked his way and gave a forceful shove that nearly knocked him over. Yangping cursed the crude, uncouth mercenary furiously, ranting about his ignorance of etiquette. Fortunately, with the Heavenly Pride Academy’s evaluating instructors watching from not far off, the enraged Yangping barely managed to keep from spitting out curses.
He couldn’t catch up, and was then shoved aside by a lean, tall shadow. Close behind, nearly ten more shadows in mercenary garb overtook him one after another, entering the Tower Beyond the Tower.
“Damn it all — where did these bastards crawl out of?” Yangping found these people were all unfamiliar faces, not a single one he’d seen before, all complete strangers.
“Mercenaries going into the Tower Beyond the Tower — that’s just walking into death!” Jinji, for his part, was quite composed now. Though yesterday’s farce had humiliated him deeply, with nearly all of Heaven Plain Mountain laughing at him, he was confident he could turn this round around. With the Strong Magnetic Battle Construct in hand, Jinji felt his time to shine had come. He couldn’t possibly catch up to Ji Wuri’s old points record in the Tower Beyond the Tower, but catching up to Zhonghua and Captain Cook should be no problem.
While the chaos churned before the Heavenly Pride Academy’s transport gate, Yue Yang had already teleported into the Tower Beyond the Tower.
Just as Chimu had said, this place did indeed resemble Heaven Plain Mountain. Only it was far more enormous. By the look of it, Heaven Plain Mountain’s Ancient Pavilion Terrace was more like a miniature of this place.
The region Yue Yang now occupied was inside a great puppet hall near the eastern side. By the reference of the Ancient Pavilion Terrace, this was the position of the Heavenly Pride Academy. There was no Heavenly Pride Academy inside the Tower Beyond the Tower, but there were four great puppet halls — east, south, west, north — and anyone entering was randomly teleported into one of them. But in a case like Mingzhu’s, where one grasped Yue Yang’s hand at the instant the transport gate flickered, the two would be teleported to the same place.
“There are actually five puppet halls in all. The last one, it’s said, lies directly above our heads — only, without a flying battle construct, no one can get up there.” Mingzhu introduced quickly. “The moment a student enters here, the puppet battle constructs of the Tower Beyond the Tower come rushing over at the news.”
“Calling it a puppet tide is no exaggeration at all.” Yue Yang reached the hall’s entrance and looked out, finding that in a distant region, a black tidal wave like a tsunami was sweeping straight toward them, drawing near rapidly.
Those were all puppet beasts. There had to be at least a hundred thousand of them, otherwise they couldn’t have formed such an imposing momentum.
Mingzhu’s expression turned somewhat solemn, and he nodded. “This is still only the beginning. If you stay inside the puppet hall the whole time, only bronze-tier puppet beasts will attack their way in. But if you want to go outside, you’ll come under siege from countless silver-tier constructs. Try to press a little further, attempting to approach a puppet factory, and there’ll be tens of thousands of gold-tier puppets…”
Yue Yang paused, then suddenly asked a very important question. “Has anyone ever been inside a puppet factory? Why don’t we go take a look?”
Mingzhu stared at him, dumbstruck, unable to answer. Even self-preservation was a problem right now, and he wanted to go into a puppet factory for a look? It had to be said — this man’s nerve had already reached an inconceivable level.
Among the students likewise teleported into the eastern puppet hall, the retaking students fared better, knowing the situation, but the newcomer students were in a wretched state, terrified out of their wits at the sight. The puppet beasts surged at them like a tsunami, black and dense, more dreadful than a tide, blotting out the whole of heaven and earth. These puppet beasts, more numerous than ants — how on earth was anyone supposed to fight them?
This battle — could it even be fought?
“I’m Mige of Tall Tower City, known as the Tall Tower War Wolf — you ought to have heard my name. If none of you have a better idea, you’d best follow my command. Listen — we gather together, give up the outer steps and main gate for now, and hold the second gate of the hall. There’s an energy inside the puppet hall that reduces and drains the puppet beasts’ energy. Apart from bronze-tier cannon fodder, or unless someone lures them in, the silver- and gold-tier puppets won’t easily come inside. We must concentrate all our constructs, combine our strength in one place, and hold here. Don’t be afraid — there’s not enough space inside, so it can’t hold many puppet beasts, and most importantly, the large puppet beasts can’t get in. I once set a record of holding out for an hour. As long as you all obey me, we can keep holding until the transport gate reopens in half an hour…” An elite student who’d teleported in took over command without ceremony. With this old hand present, many ashen-faced newcomers managed to steady themselves.
“Let’s go.” Yue Yang had no interest in this kind of holding action. He only wanted to go look at a puppet factory.
“You really are…” Mingzhu was greatly vexed, but if Yue Yang was going, he had no choice but to follow. No matter where Yue Yang went, Mingzhu would follow — there was no way he’d let the man slip off alone.
“Huh? What are you two trying to do? You don’t need to court death like this — get back here!” Mige, the so-called Tall Tower War Wolf, was in the middle of arranging everyone’s defense when he happened to turn his head and saw Yue Yang and Mingzhu throw themselves into the puppet tide. He went cold in his hands and feet with fright. Madmen — absolute madmen. Puppets blanketing the sky and the ground, and they charged straight in like that.
Yue Yang and Mingzhu charged head-on into the puppet tide without stirring up so much as a small disturbance — swallowed directly into the thundering, onrushing flood of puppets. In an instant, they vanished without a trace.
Watching this, Mige the Tall Tower War Wolf swallowed hard and muttered to himself, “An illusion — this has to be an illusion.”
(End of Chapter)