How annoying, Jun Tianmeng thought. If it weren't for those two bitches and this foolish idiot, his cultivation time would not have been wasted.
The moment Chen Ye's punch touched Jun Tianmeng's body, he was suddenly pushed backwards.
Chen Ye's unconscious body lay against the cracked wall as blood slowly dripped from the corner of his mouth.
The entire first floor had fallen silent.
No one had expected such a result.
"T-This…!"
Chen Ye's eyes widened in shock.
"How is that possible?!"
"I am at the fifth stage of the Qi Foundation Realm… there is no way this brat has higher cultivation than me!"
However, Chen Ye was mistaken.
Jun Tianmeng had been cultivating inside the pagoda for an entire month, yet he had only reached the first stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. Even so, such progress was already considered monstrous, as reaching that level from nothing within a single month was nearly impossible for ordinary cultivators.
However, Jun Tianmeng possessed a divine body.
Because of it, he could absorb spiritual energy far more efficiently than ordinary people. His body was filled with overwhelming vitality and spiritual power.
This same constitution also allowed him to easily deflect Chen Ye's attack.
Within the Golden Spiritual Pagoda, where spiritual energy constantly circulated and entered his body, Jun Tianmeng's physique alone was enough to resist attacks from cultivators below the Spirit Sea Realm.
Chen Ye's punch had never stood a chance.
Seeing Jun Tianmeng's strength, the lust in LiLi and RiRi's eyes only deepened. Both of them licked their lips greedily.
Chen Ye slowly got up from the ground, rage burning in his eyes. Gathering his spiritual power again, he rushed forward to strike back.
Jun Tianmeng raised his palm calmly.
"Since you insist on courting death… I will oblige."
Spiritual energy gathered within it.
With a single motion, he thrust his palm forward.
BOOM!
Chen Ye was sent flying and slammed violently into the wall.
"AAAH!"
Chen Ye screamed as blood burst from his mouth.
"You bastard…! I'll show you who I really am… just wait!"
But before he could say anything more, his vision darkened, and he collapsed, losing consciousness.
"W–We are sorry, Young Master!"
Seeing Chen Ye defeated so easily, LiLi and RiRi instantly lost their courage. Their earlier arrogance vanished as they stepped back in fear.
They clearly weren't strong enough to offend someone like him.
Jun Tianmeng didn't even spare them another glance.
To him, they were no different from insects.
Without saying a word, he calmly walked toward the staircase and ascended to the second floor.
The spiritual pressure increased slightly as he stepped forward, but to Jun Tianmeng it was nothing.
Soon he sat down again and continued cultivating.
Within just a few days, he had already adapted to the spiritual pressure of the second floor.
The moment he stepped onto the second floor, the spiritual pressure increased noticeably.
However, Jun Tianmeng's expression remained calm.
"Hmm… a bit stronger."
He sat down without hesitation and began cultivating.
The spiritual energy of the pagoda flowed toward him rapidly, almost like water rushing into a whirlpool.
Xiao Chu suddenly appeared beside him, floating in the air.
"Master… your absorption speed is terrifying."
Jun Tianmeng ignored her and continued circulating the spiritual energy.
Within a few days, he had already adapted to the pressure of the second floor.
Without wasting time, he moved upward again.
Third Floor
Fourth Floor
Fifth Floor
Each floor contained fewer cultivators than the one below.
By the sixth floor, Jun Tianmeng was the only person present.
Meanwhile, outside the pagoda,
Several disciples noticed something unusual.
"Look!"
"The pressure levels are rising!"
"Someone is climbing the pagoda!"
A disciple pointed toward the glowing formation array outside.
The array showed the movement of people inside.
"First floor… second… third…"
"It's increasing too fast!"
The elders of the sect also noticed the disturbance.
Inside a pavilion not far from the pagoda, Sect Master Shen Qinglan slowly opened her eyes.
Her gaze turned toward the pagoda.
"So… Your Holy Highness has begun cultivating."
A faint smile appeared on her lips.
Ninth Floor
Jun Tianmeng opened his eyes again.
His aura had grown stronger.
A faint layer of spiritual energy wrapped around his body.
Qi Condensation Realm, 4th stage.
"Too slow."
Jun Tianmeng frowned slightly.
If any mortal cultivator heard those words, they would probably vomit blood.
Reaching the third stage within a month was already monstrous talent.
But to him, it was still slow.
"Master… if mortals heard that, they would cry," Xiao Chu muttered, floating around him, astonished by his talent, but it was somewhat expected
Jun Tianmeng ignored her again.
He stood up and continued climbing.
Twelfth Floor
By now, the spiritual pressure had become extremely heavy.
Even the sect's geniuses could rarely reach this level.
Outside the pagoda, disciples had already gathered in large numbers.
"What?!"
"Someone else reached the twelfth floor?!"
"Impossible!"
Even the elders had started arriving.
Fifteenth Floor
Jun Tianmeng finally stepped onto the top floor.
The pressure here was terrifying.
The spiritual energy was so dense that it almost formed a visible mist.
But Jun Tianmeng's divine body absorbed it greedily.
Then,
He noticed something.
Someone else was there.
A girl.
She was sitting quietly in the center of the floor, cultivating.
Her long brown hair flowed down her back like silk, and her delicate face was calm and cold; her body was beautiful. Even for Jun Tianmeng, her beauty could be considered top-tier.
Her cultivation aura was extremely stable.
Jun Tianmeng's golden eyes narrowed slightly.
"Oh?"
Xiao Chu immediately opened a screen.
Name: Su Yao
Age: 19
Realm: Spirit Sea Realm
Talent: Heavenly Grade
Background:Young Lady of the Su Family, one of the most powerful families in the martial world, from which many cultivators have successfully ascended. Su Yao is known as a once-in-a-millennium genius. Because of her extraordinary talent, she was sent to the Azure Cloud Sect to further cultivate and gain experience.
Jun Tianmeng raised an eyebrow.
"A genius of the mortal realm."
"Xiao Chu, is she also a Son of Heaven? Her talent seems quite impressive," Jun Tianming asked calmly.
Xiao Chu appeared beside him and glanced at Su Yao.
"No, Master. She is not a Son of Heaven," Xiao Chu replied. "She is simply a naturally talented cultivator… the kind that appears only once in a million."
At that moment,
Su Yao slowly opened her eyes.
Her gaze met his.
For the first time since entering the pagoda…
Jun Tianmeng saw someone who did not look at him with lust, fear, admiration, or jealousy but with pure curiosity.
"You shouldn't be here," she said calmly.
"This floor isn't for Qi Condensation cultivators."
Jun Tianmeng smiled faintly as he realised she could see his cultivation even when he was hiding it... Almost none in the human realm could do that without their cultivation being high enough, and that too because his real cultivation was sealed.
"Then why are you here?"
Su Yao looked slightly surprised by his response.
Before she could answer,
Suddenly, the entire pagoda trembled.
BOOM!
A pillar of light shot upward from the top of the pagoda.
But it did not stop at the fifteenth floor.
It continued rising above the pagoda itself.
Outside, the entire Azure Cloud Sect fell into chaos.
"The pagoda is shining!"
"Someone surpassed the fifteenth floor?!"
"That's impossible!"
Even the elders were shocked.
Shen Qinglan's eyes widened slightly.
"The pagoda… has never reacted like this before."
On the fifteenth floor, Su Yao stared at Jun Tianmeng in shock.
"You…"
"What did you do?"
Jun Tianmeng simply looked at the rising light calmly.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"It seems this pagoda… likes me."
"Stop this nonsense," Su Yao said coldly. "Who are you? I've never seen someone like you in our sect."
With that, she unsheathed her sword and slowly approached him, her eyes filled with vigilance.
But at that very moment.
The pagoda suddenly trembled again.
The violent shaking caused Su Yao to lose her balance.
Before she could steady herself, her body tilted forward.
And she fell straight into Jun Tianming's arms.
Their faces were only inches apart.
Su Yao's eyes widened in shock, while Jun Tianming merely looked down at her calmly.
She quickly pulled herself out of his arms, her face turning red with embarrassment. It was the first time Su Yao had ever been so close to a man.
"Y–you…!" she gritted through her teeth, her cheeks still flushed.
However, after a moment, she calmed down. She knew the young man had not done it intentionally. Without saying anything further, Su Yao simply turned around and left.
Jun Tianming watched her leave, a faint grin appearing on his face.
Then he turned and continued walking forward.
Toward the sixteenth floor.
By now, his cultivation had already reached the final stage of the Qi Condensation Realm.
As Su Yao descended from the fifteenth floor, the pagoda suddenly fell silent.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then,
Crack.
A faint sound echoed through the empty hall.
Behind where Su Yao had been sitting, the stone wall slowly began to shift. Some runes from inside glowed sliver giving a very mysterious presence.
A narrow, hidden passage quietly revealed itself.
Jun Tianming's golden eyes narrowed slightly.
"Hmm, Interesting."He thought
He walked toward it without hesitation.
The moment he stepped inside, the atmosphere changed completely.
The passage did not look like something belonging to the Mortal Realm at all.
Strange murals covered the walls.
They depicted vast galaxies, countless stars, enormous figures standing among the cosmos, and mysterious beings surrounded by divine light.
Some figures appeared larger than worlds themselves, and some even bigger than constellations.
Jun Tianming stopped for a moment and observed them.
Even with his background as the son of the Holy Emperor, some of the symbols and depictions were unfamiliar to him; it might be because he still didn't know everything about the god realm, but still, it felt very unfamiliar.
"…Cosmic beings?" he muttered quietly.
Xiao Chu appeared beside him, her eyes wide with shock.
"M–Master… these murals… what are they? They feel… strangely familiar."
"Familiar?" Jun Tianming turned his gaze toward her. "Do you know something about them?"
Xiao Chu shook her head quickly.
"No, Master. There is no data about them in my records… but I don't know why… I just feel a strange sense of familiarity when I look at them."
Jun Tianming's curiosity deepened.
Xiao Chu herself was already an existence that defied logic. A mysterious system spirit that had somehow appeared even in the God Realm.
If these murals were somehow related to her…
Then this hidden chamber inside a mere Mortal Realm pagoda might hold secrets far greater than he initially thought.
Jun Tianming slowly turned his gaze back to the cosmic murals on the walls.
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"Interesting…"
It seemed his journey in the Mortal Realm had just become far more entertaining.
Jun Tianming walked deeper into the passage.
The air here was strange, filled with a mysterious aura that felt completely different from normal spiritual energy.
Even his divine body reacted faintly.
"This place… must be really ancient, could it be related to the god realm?" he thought calmly, observing things around him.
Yet despite the strange images, he could not fully understand their meaning.
It was as if they described a world far beyond the four realms.
Eventually, the passage opened into a small hidden chamber.
At the center of the chamber floated a small crystal platform.
Resting upon it was a single ornament.
It was a black ring, carved with tiny silver runes that shimmered faintly like distant stars.
The moment Jun Tianming approached,
The ring trembled slightly.
Xiao Chu gasped.
"M-Master… that treasure contains extremely pure energy!"
Jun Tianming picked up the ring without hesitation. He knew that energy of such extreme purity could drastically speed up his cultivation and make breaking through realms far easier.
The instant it touched his hand, a faint wave of cosmic energy flowed into his body.
A quiet voice echoed inside his mind.
"Those destined… may inherit the path beyond the heavens."
Jun Tianming's eyes flickered.
But the voice vanished before he could understand more.
He looked down at the ring thoughtfully.
"The path beyond the heavens…?"Jun Tianming frowned slightly.
"What does that mean? Is there truly a path that exists beyond the heavens?" he wondered the moment those words echoed in his mind.
Though he could not yet comprehend its full purpose, one thing was certain.
This treasure was far beyond anything found in the Mortal Realm.
Jun Tianming slowly smiled.
"It seems this pagoda holds more secrets than expected, let's see how many more surprises I'm gonna get in this mortal realm."