Chapter 168: Ambush in the Passage

As far as the eye could see, the entire mountain was planted with medicinal herbs, though none of them were exceptionally rare. Perhaps the herbs in higher-level pathways would be correspondingly more advanced! With these thoughts in mind, Lin Xiaobao began sprinting toward the peak.

At Lin Xiaobao's speed, this distance could be covered in at most the time it takes to burn an incense stick. A short while later, he had already appeared halfway up the mountain slope.

Suddenly, a fierce gust of wind whistled past his ear. While running at high speed, Lin Xiaobao’s body spun mid-air as a powerful sword qi brushed past his side, crashing into a towering ancient tree ahead.

However, as the immensely powerful sword qi neared the tree, a flash of light flickered in front of the trunk, and the sword qi instantly vanished into nothingness.

Even before ascending the mountain, Lin Xiaobao had sensed that all the vegetation on the mountain was protected by a massive formation. And logically speaking, that made sense; otherwise, according to the rules of Longxiang Academy, the flora covering the mountainside would have long been blasted to dust during successive battles.

Just as Lin Xiaobao halted his momentum, a figure materialized in front of him, blocking his path.

"A freshman?" The newcomer was also clad in the black robes of Longxiang Academy, his face concealed by a mask. His eyes scanned Lin Xiaobao with a hint of perplexity. Ordinarily, no freshman should have been able to enter the Tower of Inquiry, yet Lin Xiaobao was clearly wearing the uniform of a newcomer.

As for the possibility of an outsider sneaking in, that could virtually be ruled out—at least, nothing of the sort had ever happened in the history of Longxiang Academy.

"Yes. May I ask why the Senior is blocking my way?" Although he had already guessed the other's intent, Lin Xiaobao feigned ignorance and asked. At the same time, he projected his spiritual awareness outward, sweeping it toward the mask. Naturally, the attempt yielded nothing; he was utterly unable to capture what kind of face lay hidden behind that mask.

"I was wondering why magpies were chattering at my door first thing this morning. It seems today is my lucky day for a windfall!" Upon hearing Lin Xiaobao admit that he was a newcomer, Wang Jinglong’s mood instantly brightened considerably. "Since you've managed to show up here, you must know the rules of this place, right? Will you hand over half of your credit points yourself, or shall I take them by force?"

The rules concerning plunder within the Tower of Inquiry were explicitly defined: each robbery could only seize half of the opponent's credit points, and once someone entering a pathway was robbed once, others were barred from plundering them again.

This was actually a very decent rule. At least for the weaker individuals, even if they were robbed, as long as they had stored up sufficient credit points before entering, they would still be able to cultivate within the Tower of Inquiry for a period of time.

"I must ask the Senior to take them by force then!" Since he dared to step into this pathway, Lin Xiaobao had naturally anticipated such a scenario. As his voice trailed off, the Seven-Colored Revolving Sword already materialized in his palm.

Initially, seeing that Lin Xiaobao possessed only the eighth stage of the Spirit Realm, Wang Jinglong, who stood at the ninth stage, was in high spirits. But when Lin Xiaobao summoned the Seven-Colored Revolving Sword and Wang Jinglong sensed the fluctuations of spiritual power emanating from the blade, his expression turned somewhat grave.

A medium-grade magical treasure! For battles at their level, a medium-grade magical treasure could, under certain circumstances, bridge the gap between opponents and even alter the outcome of the entire combat.

Wang Jinglong, who had previously been somewhat arrogant, now had to cautiously summon his own Heaven-Shattering Wheel.

However, compared to Lin Xiaobao's medium-grade treasure, this Heaven-Shattering Wheel—which was merely at the upper-grade spirit artifact level—was a full tier lower. This left Wang Jinglong, who had always taken immense pride in owning an upper-grade spirit artifact, feeling deeply aggrieved.

In this world, not everyone was as freakish as Lin Xiaobao, who had Chen Zhong help him forge a medium-grade treasure, and who, after a self-detonation, could independently forge a set of Seven-Colored Revolving Swords of medium-grade quality that even made Kuang Lizhen's mouth water.

To Wang Jinglong, the Heaven-Shattering Wheel was his greatest trump card. Aside from plundering credit points, he had never revealed it—partly out of fear that his identity might be recognized if he displayed the Heaven-Shattering Wheel elsewhere.

Nevertheless, this also showed that the Heaven-Shattering Wheel was Wang Jinglong's pride and joy. Now that it was overshadowed by Lin Xiaobao's Seven-Colored Revolving Sword, a fresh surge of jealousy inevitably welled up within him.

"Since you are so ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth, let me teach you an unwritten rule of the academy: respect your seniors!" Intending to discipline Lin Xiaobao, Wang Jinglong felt he needed to take the moral high ground.

With that, under the infusion of spiritual power, the bright Heaven-Shattering Wheel in his palm flared with intense brilliance, bursting forth with a humming resonance.

The sound was low, yet carried an uncanny rhythm. The moment that discordant noise entered his ears, Lin Xiaobao's mind instantly fell into a brief trance. At the very same instant, saturated with spiritual power, the Heaven-Shattering Wheel slipped from Wang Jinglong's hand. Spinning continuously, it dragged out layers of invisible shockwaves through space, hurtling toward Lin Xiaobao’s chest with lightning speed while incessantly emitting that droning hum.

The Heaven-Shattering Wheel, despite being merely an upper-grade spirit artifact, had been conceived with exceptional ingenuity by its original craftsman. During the forging process, special techniques had been employed to embed a sound-disorientation array within it. Once activated by spiritual power, the hidden array could produce disorienting noise that disrupted a person's mind.

Many people encountering the Heaven-Shattering Wheel for the first time would fall victim to this trick, allowing Wang Jinglong to seize the initiative right from the start.

However, Lin Xiaobao possessed formidable mental strength, and his mental trance lasted only a fleeting instant. Regaining his clarity immediately, he expanded his spiritual awareness outside his body, continuously elevating its fluctuation frequency to block the noise from the exterior.

On the surface, however, Lin Xiaobao still feigned a vacant-eyed expression, as though he were flustered and tormented under the interference of the noise. Watching the oncoming Heaven-Shattering Wheel, Lin Xiaobao mechanically raised his sword to counter. Even so, the speed of his sword strikes remained remarkably swift.

In merely a single instant, Lin Xiaobao slashed out nearly a hundred sword strikes, every single one of which hit the exact same spot on the Heaven-Shattering Wheel. Even though the wheel was spinning at high speed, Lin Xiaobao managed to accomplish this feat.

What a fast sword! Wang Jinglong praised inwardly. At this moment, he didn't even stop to ponder why Lin Xiaobao, under the influence of the noise, could strike the exact same spot of the Heaven-Shattering Wheel with every single blow; instead, he felt a sharp pang of heartache for his own weapon.

As an upper-grade spirit artifact, the Heaven-Shattering Wheel was inferior to Lin Xiaobao's Seven-Colored Revolving Sword in both the raw materials chosen and the techniques applied during forging. Under this direct collision, a rice-grain-sized nick had already appeared on the surface of the Heaven-Shattering Wheel.

Wang Jinglong channeled several incantation seals into the Heaven-Shattering Wheel, accelerating the frequency of the noise it emitted. At the same time, the Heaven-Shattering Wheel shifted to orbit around Lin Xiaobao, restricting his range of movement without pressing the attack too hastily.