Chapter 242 Excellent Sparring Partner
"These are spirit jade marrow, formed over thousands of years after spirit stones liquefy. They are even more precious than spirit stones, with a value equivalent to top-grade spirit stones. If used for cultivation, they are even more powerful than top-grade spirit stones. They are absorbed very quickly and can rapidly replenish spiritual power without any side effects."
Just as Lan Yue was reminiscing, Baili Xingzhou, who was standing next to her, introduced the situation.
In that instant, a flash of inspiration struck Lan Yue.
[Lan Yue: I finally remember! The Puppet Path in the Tower of the Abyss is no simple matter. What we destroyed before were only the most basic puppets. The puppets will gradually upgrade, and our best replenishment is these Spirit Jade Essence!]
That's exactly what the female lead did back then. These puppets, one after another, were just too troublesome and consumed a lot of her spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy on this level of the Tower of the Abyss is extremely thin. When they later fought against those higher-level puppets, they relied on the replenishment of these spiritual jade marrows to gradually bring those puppets down.
"Don't use these spirit jade marrows yet. We'll replenish them all later. Otherwise, the puppets will be very difficult to deal with later on."
Lan Yue gave instructions to the others.
The people around her were all her companions, and the people from the Northern Ridge Holy Land trusted her greatly. So, after they distributed the spirit jade marrow, they held it tightly in their hands, waiting for the next stage of the Puppet Path.
However, before the puppets could rush over, they saw several familiar people walking towards them from behind.
These are disciples of the Taiyun Sect. Back then, because Lan Yue transformed into the red snake on the Xuanwu Stake, she wiped them all out, so much so that the Taiyun Sect disciples couldn't even make it past the preliminary rounds of the inter-domain competition.
This made many people in the Taiyun Sect grit their teeth in hatred, and when they encountered each other again in the same place, they all snorted coldly.
"Some people only know how to use tricks and schemes. If it were a real fight, do you think you, with your Foundation Establishment cultivation, could defeat us, your Golden Core cultivation senior brothers and sisters?" a chubby boy dressed in silver cloud patterns shouted.
Behind him stood two people: a senior brother dressed in a dark cloud-patterned robe and a senior sister dressed in a pomegranate-red skirt. Both of them were at the early stage of the Golden Core realm, and their complexions were not very good.
Although there is only one stage between the Golden Core stage and the Foundation Establishment stage, these two cultivation levels are actually worlds apart.
More than a dozen Foundation Establishment cultivators couldn't defeat a single Golden Core cultivator, so they were both furious about being eliminated like this.
However, Lan Yue and the other little ones were very well protected, with elders from the Southern Spirit Sect following them wherever they went.
Now that they've met at the Tower of the Abyss, they naturally want to show this little guy their true strength.
"Senior Brother Yu, Senior Sister Yan, let's clear the level quickly and try to leave these little girls and boys behind, and teach them a lesson!" The chubby boy tugged at Senior Brother Yu's sleeve angrily.
Lan Yue glanced at the group of people but didn't pay them any attention, because the conflict between them was indeed difficult to resolve.
So what if there are schemes and tricks? Whether it's a black cat or a white cat, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat!
Let alone a competition between two regions, even on a real battlefield, whoever takes it seriously will lose!
The chubby boy was so angry that he almost jumped up when he saw that those guys were completely unmoved.
He didn't even make it past the preliminary rounds this time. Heaven knows what he went through; his butt almost got whipped raw by his dad! This time, he's determined to redeem himself!
"Senior brothers and sisters, let's go!" The chubby boy strode in with great pride, and sure enough, the Puppet Path had changed again, returning to its original state.
The three people from Taiyun Sect quickly started fighting with the puppets. The chubby boy was the first to discover the function of the stones. He happily dug out a stone, panting, and used the spirit jade marrow to replenish his spiritual power. Then he jumped up and fought with the other puppets again.
As Lan Yue and her friends entered other puppet paths, they saw the chubby boy who had just come out not far away glaring at them while absorbing the spirit jade marrow in his hand, looking rather smug.
Seeing that the chubby boy had absorbed all the spiritual jade marrow in his hand, he silently lit a candle for him.
The later levels with the puppets are not so easy to pass. Those puppets are incredibly fast, and even using top-grade spirit stones to restore them doesn't make them that fast.
If I can't recover and can't control those puppets, I'll be collectively beaten up by them.
In the original story, the female protagonist observed that another team was beaten to a pulp in the same way. Not only were all their levels cleared, but they were even sent back to the puppet path where they had just cleared the game, which was quite miserable.
Lan Yue silently put away her spiritual jade marrow and quietly entered the second level, the Puppet Path.
There were five puppet paths in total. They easily passed the first three levels and obtained more and more spirit jade marrow.
The people from the Northern Ridge Holy Land originally wanted to use the Spirit Jade Marrow to recover, but seeing that Lan Yue had not used it, they silently put it away as well.
In any case, Lan Yue possessed a celestial artifact and knew some things about the future, which was definitely more than what these people knew. So even though some people were hammered away by the puppets, they bravely got up and used spirit stones to restore their spiritual power.
In order to enhance the spiritual energy in these caves, Lan Yue even set up several spirit-gathering arrays using high-grade and top-grade spirit stones.
Having received empowerment from the master of the nine-layered array tower, she was adept at most array formations and had already prepared countless spirit-gathering arrays.
Those people from the Northern Ridge Holy Land couldn't use her for free, so they all handed over top-grade spirit stones and obtained their own spirit-gathering arrays.
However, the spiritual energy in this level is scarce, and even the spirit-gathering array is not very effective. Most of the spiritual energy gathered is from high-grade spirit stones and top-grade spirit stones, so the spirit-gathering array consumes a lot of energy.
In just a few days, in order to save spirit stones, they practiced their spells to be more precise, not wanting to waste even the slightest bit of attack, and finally they actually cleared the third level.
When they reached the fourth checkpoint, Lan Yue set up twice as many spirit-gathering arrays, and Yun Xi also prepared a large number of pills to restore spiritual energy. The group walked out, shakily and precariously.
"Hahaha, that's hilarious! I thought these people were so amazing, but they couldn't even pass the fourth level. It's obvious that the first place winner was a bit of a fraud. Otherwise, how could two Foundation Establishment cultivators stand above most Golden Core cultivators?"
When the chubby boy saw their disheveled appearance as they emerged from the puppet cave, he burst into laughter again.
[Lan Yue: Laugh all you want, you'll be crying later!]
Lan Yue sat on the spirit-gathering array cushion she had made herself, trying her best to restore the spiritual power in her body.
In fact, with the points she recently gained from gossiping, and the spiritual treasures stored in her system space, she could easily advance directly to the Golden Core stage.
However, Lan Yue still did not advance, because she knew that in the first few levels of the Tower of the Abyss, the lower one's cultivation level, the more beneficial the final reward would be, after all, the Tower of the Abyss was the inheritance tower of the Central Holy Land.
The lower the cultivation level and age at which a character passes the level, the higher their talent, which the Tower of the Abyss naturally appreciates.
However, the later levels are quite difficult, so it's a good idea to consider advancing to the Golden Core stage at that point.
Lan Yue was deep in thought, completely unaware that the chubby boy opposite her was startled by her inner thoughts and stood there for a long time.
"How could I possibly cry? I've already passed the third level, and I'm even faster than Lan Yue and the others. They must be jealous of me!" The chubby boy murmured quietly after Lan Yue re-entered the game.
His senior brothers and sisters behind him were very wary, but after searching several times, they couldn't find anything unusual about him, so it didn't seem like there was any ambush.
Could those people possibly alter the mechanisms of the puppet system, making those powerful puppets target them? How is that possible?!
So they quickly put that thought aside and began to move on to the fourth level.
Lan Yue finally arrived at the final stage of the Puppet Path, where the difficulty suddenly increased.
Each puppet here is exquisitely crafted, exactly like the real people outside. Lan Yue even saw the figure of the Holy Son of Beiling. Even the small mole on his earlobe was exactly the same.
"I've heard my senior brothers and sisters mention this level before. They said there's a place in the Tower of the Abyss where these puppets look exactly like the most powerful figures from the past generations of the Northern Ridge Holy Land. They even retain the strength those people had when they cleared the level, and even the weapons and martial arts they used are exactly the same."
Seeing these familiar figures in front of him, Baili Xingzhou was filled with emotion.
He thought he would see it on the last floor of the Tower of the Abyss, but he didn't expect to find this mechanism on the first floor.
"Actually, once we get to this level, we don't need to worry anymore, because the puppets of our predecessors won't harm our lives. However, if our strength is insufficient, we will be taught a very bad lesson."
As for how terrible it is, we'll probably see in a bit.
"If these puppets are exactly the same as those powerful figures from the past generations of the Northern Ridge Holy Land, can we use them to practice our skills?"
Lan Yue pinched her chin and suddenly said.
After all, they would never see such a complete group of people again. It is said that some of the puppets are even deceased Tribulation Stage seniors from the Northern Ridge Holy Land.
Where can we find so many brilliant geniuses, whose cultivation levels aren't too high, to spar with?