Doomsday Pillars

Day 120

[Doomsday Pillar 1st floor]

[Initial challenge has been successfully completed]

[Ready to open the staircase gate to the 1st floor?]

[WARNING - This is not a simulation]

[Proceed?]

A week had passed since Christina and the others saw the message regarding the stairs leading to the next floor. They had decided not to proceed and instead prepare themselves to the best they could. All of them had experienced the simulation that was nearly impossible to complete and almost everyone had almost died in the snow forest and the battle against the Alpha Fenrir. That was one of the reasons but their main concern was that they had no information about the next challenge. 

This was the first time the Pillar had issued a warning. That could only mean the new challenge would be more difficult than the last and if they were reckless again going to a battle without information, they all would be dead for real this time. Therefore, Christina, Nam and Inspector Tang had agreed to prepare first and foremost before opening the gates.

The last time they were in the snow forest, they had spent seven days inside. The Hong Kong survivors had somewhat ample food when Inspector Tang had entered but with what Colonel Chan and Li Song Ki had done, they didn't have much food supplies left for the 100,000 people in Hong Kong Island's shelters. Even though the fighters went on expeditions near Hong Kong City every day, it wasn't nearly enough. Each resident was only receiving one ration per day just to make the current stock of food last for a week.

The Firebirds, Triads, Police and Hong Kong army soldiers had indeed gotten stronger after stepping in the earth realm. But they only carried out expeditions in the suburbs since they weren't ready to fight against tens of thousands of zombies simultaneously.

During the past week, these elite fighters took turns in guarding the holes, carrying out expeditions to the city's suburbs, and cultivating in the Doomsday Pillars training hall. 

Christina had received the rank A reward she had obtained for killing the Alpha Fenrir after they had decided not to proceed by accessing the main cube herself. She received the following message from the cube. 

[Congratulations, you are entitled to a prize according to your rank]

[Your success ranking is Rank: A]

[Processing rank A rewards]

[You receive The 9 Suns Book of Power]

[Tier 3 spirit energy book]

[Requirements - Fire spirit talent]

According to the world's legend, the book of 9 suns was one of the books of inner power owned by the Shaolin temple. This book was written by Bodhidharma, one of the founders of Shaolin who came from India in the 5th century. This book had become a Shaolin heirloom, but in the next century, this book was lost. 

The manual appeared on Christina's mind. She noticed the book had been divided into 9 parts. In it, it said that the more parts she mastered, the more her fire spirit would become stronger, but of course, each part was harder than the last. Ever since she had received this manual, Christina began spending all of her time in the training hall. 

Seven days had passed and Christina could vaguely feel she was close to a breakthrough in the Book of 9 Suns first part. Today, she kept still as she cultivated the book's meditative stance. The Book of 9 Suns had a unique form of meditation at each level. The first part showed that one leg was elbowed, the other leg was raised to the shoulder, one hand held the foot on the shoulder and the other hand was rotated behind.

Maybe because it was because she was used to doing Yoga exercises that she found no trouble following the steps in the position.

At this moment, Christina's entire body was sweating. She could feel her blazing energies warming three locations of his body and passing through her 12 meridians. These three spots were exchanging fire energies between them and she had to fully concentrate to be able to balance them.

Not long after, Christina managed to connect the three points of fire energy into one and a slight explosion happened inside her body.

BAAAAMMM!!!

Christina opened her eyes, hurriedly grabbed a sword, and poured out the fire energy into a fiery sword dance.

The bracelet in Christina's wrist showed a message.

[Book of 9 sun stage 3 successfully mastered]

[Fire spirit power increases]

[The energy regeneration ability is faster]

[Proficiency in studying fire spirit science increases]

[Status Update]

[Christina]

[Female - 34 years]

[Earth realm level 1 - initial stage]

[Spirit energy - Fire - middle stage]

[Spirit Talent - level A]

Special Skill

[9 suns energy - level 3]

In the last seven days, Christina had been practicing 3 levels of the sun book simultaneously and finally, she succeeded. She could feel the fire spirit energy circulating in her body getting stronger.

She felt very lucky about this reward. Christina believed that a Tier 3 manual about inner strength was more valuable compared to weapons and armor, gaining inner power was many times better. After all, not everyone had a spiritual energy and spirit talent, even more so in having a spirit talent level A. Only her and Nam had that kind of status.

Christina couldn't wait to master all 9 levels of this book. But of course, after seven days of training, there needed to be a downtime and she had other responsibilities she had to attend to.

She looked over the message she had received and took note of one message in particular. 

[Proficiency in studying fire spirit science increases]

Did this mean she'd be able to comprehend the fire spirit cultivation easier? She thought of something and opened the science library. 

[Power manual in fire spirit - intermediate stage]

[500 spirit stones]

[Early Fire Arts]

[Fire Manipulation] - 50 spirit stones

[Fire Detection] - 50 spirit stones

[Hot Touch] - 50 spirit stones

[Heat Resistance] - 50 spirit stones

[Long Sword Art - intermediate stage]

[100 spirit stone]

It was a total of 800 spirit stones but she went ahead and bought all of them. Soon, they'd face the Pillar's challenge and they didn't know how long they'd be inside. So, she thought of having additional knowledge and increased mastery of her skills would be a big help in the upcoming battle.

Fortunately, thanks to Li Song Ki's suitcase, the Firebirds had quite a number of spirit stones. It was only recently that they had found that the yellow spirit stone was equivalent to 100 white spirit stones. 

In less than a minute, all the manuals she had bought were engraved in her mind. Shen then sheathed her sword and exited the training hall.

As they had discussed a week ago, they would open the gate tomorrow. Christina returned to the base of the Firebirds and decided to rest. After she had broken through from mortal to earth realm, Christina could tell she needed less sleep and less food consumption. Still, practicing all the knowledge she had earned was still mentally exhausting. So, for that night, Christina slept soundly.

-----------

The next morning, in the Doomsday Pillars main hall, right in front of the gate. 300 people had gathered. 

Everyone from the Firebirds were present as well as Nam's Triad members and the Hong Kong elite from the army and police. 

Corrie had spent two weeks in the training hall, but she had only managed to master the early stage spirit energy.

[Corrie]

[Female - 23 years]

[Earth realm level 3 - initial stage]

[Spirit energy - Wind - intermediate stage]

[Spirit Talent - level B]

Meanwhile, Jennie and Maxine spent the last 7 days learning new fighting techniques and honing those techniques with daily expeditions to Hong Kong City.

[Jennie]

[Female - 38 years]

[Earth realm level 6 - initial stage]

[Spirit energy - Psychic - Early stage]

[Spirit Talent - level B]

[Maxine]

[Female - 25 years]

Earth realm level 7 - initial stage]

[Spirit energy - Earth - early stage]

[Spirit Talent - level B]

In another corner, Nam and the Triad members were also ready to fight.

[Nam]

[Male - 34 years]

[Earth realm level 9 - initial stage]

[Spirit energy - Metal - early stage]

[Spirit Talent - level A]

[Chicken]

[Male - 30 years]

[Earth realm level 7 - initial stage]

[Spirit energy - Wind - early stage]

[Spirit Talent - level B]

Christina, Jennie, Maxine, Corrie, as well as 30 firebirds members, Nam, Chicken along with his 100 triad members, and the rest were the combined elite troops of the Hong Kong police and army. All of them had reached earth realm level and on average were already using Tier 1 artifacts as weapons or armor. Most of the army and police were carrying heavy weaponry such as high caliber machine guns and long-range rifles.

This was a collection of the best fighters on Hong Kong Island. Inspector Tang led the way and accessed the cube stone.

[Doomsday Pillar 1st floor]

[Ready to open the staircase gate to the 1st floor?]

"Yes"

A light flashed behind the cube and the engravings behind its wall reconstructed themselves to make a wide gate. The gate opened, showing a row of stairs.

"Let's go! Everyone ready!"

The 300 fighters walk up the stair courageously.