Chapter 243 - 242: Seventh Floor

The spiraling staircase deposited Lin Yuan before a gateway composed entirely of swirling, golden clouds. He did not pause to catch his breath or cycle his Spiritual energy. The dao laws of the Nine-Tiered Sky continued their flawless work, instantly replenishing the spiritual energy he had expended in his execution of the Peerless Guardian on the floor below.

He stepped through the golden gateway and onto the seventh floor.

The environment was a stark, breathtaking contrast to the boiling blood ocean he had just left behind. Lin Yuan stood within the sprawling, magnificent ruins of a celestial palace. Towering pillars of white jade, cracked and overgrown with glowing, ethereal ivy, stretched toward a sky filled with auroras of shifting, prismatic light. The ground was paved with interlocking tiles of starmetal, though many had been shattered by ancient, forgotten wars, the fractured edges still humming faintly with dormant power.

Supreme Stage, Lin Yuan’s Unshaken Divine Sense immediately concluded, feeling the heavy, suffocating blanket of pressure that sought to drive him to his knees. The Ninth Step of Dao Resolve. Even his own Dao Heart, anchored as it was, felt the weight of that pressure settle briefly against his ribs before he forced it aside.

This was the absolute apex of the mortal dust. A cultivator at the Supreme Stage possessed a Dao Heart so dense, so immovably anchored in the foundational laws of the universe, that their mere presence could warp the reality of lesser beings.

Standing at the far end of the ruined courtyard, waiting amidst the shattered jade pillars, was the seventh Phantom Guardian.

It was a towering, four-armed warlord clad in heavy bronze armor that radiated a dull, suffocating golden light. In each of its four hands, the Guardian wielded a distinct, massive weapon: a broadsword, a halberd, a spiked hammer, and a heavy spear. Its pitch-black eyes locked onto Lin Yuan, projecting a domain of absolute, tyrannical suppression that made the surrounding ivy wither and blacken where its shadow fell.

"The heavens demand reverence," the Guardian’s voice echoed, sounding like grinding tectonic plates.

"The heavens demand nothing but what I am willing to give," Lin Yuan replied coldly.

The Guardian did not waste time with further talks. It blurred into motion, its Supreme Stage Qi propelling it across the courtyard with terrifying speed, the impact of each footfall cracking the starmetal tiles beneath it before it had even reached him.

Lin Yuan drew the Primordial Sovereign Sword and met the charge.

CLANG!!!!

The clash was catastrophic.

The Guardian swung all four weapons in a perfectly synchronized, overlapping storm of destruction. The broadsword aimed for Lin Yuan’s neck, the halberd swept toward his legs, the spear thrust at his heart, and the hammer came crashing down from above to crush his skull.

Lin Yuan utilized the Immortal Cloud Step, transforming his physical body into translucent mist for a fraction of a second, slipping through the infinitesimal gap between the broadsword and the spear. He materialized inside the Guardian’s guard, thrusting his sword upward.

CLANG!

The Guardian brought the heavy spiked hammer down to intercept the thrust. The shockwave shattered the starmetal tiles beneath their boots, creating a massive crater that sent chunks of jade flying like shrapnel, several fragments embedding themselves deep into the surrounding ruins.

Lin Yuan was pushed back, his arms vibrating from the sheer, overwhelming physical density of the Supreme Stage, a faint numbness spreading briefly through his fingers before his cultivation base burned it away.

"Push!" Lin Yuan commanded, unleashing his dao intent.

Torrential rain poured from the darkened sky as apocalyptic lightning tore through the heavens, while the profound essence of rebirth flooded the ruined courtyard. The three forces intertwined, creating a chaotic battlefield where every inch of space was filled with destructive energy.

Lin Yuan activated the [Army-Breaking Art], his blade moving in rapid, devastating arcs as he clashed head-on with the Guardian’s relentless four-armed assault. Each swing carried immense force, cutting through the heavy rain and colliding with the Guardian’s weapons in a series of thunderous impacts.

Neither side gave the other a moment to breathe.

It became a brutal battle of high-speed attrition, with Lin Yuan constantly shifting his position while defending against four weapons striking from different directions. Every exchange sent violent shockwaves through the courtyard, tearing apart the ground and reducing ancient structures to rubble. Fresh craters appeared across the marble floor, while already-damaged pillars were cleaved apart and sent crashing to the ground.

The ruined courtyard trembled beneath their feet as the battle continued, each clash growing more violent than the last.

Every time Lin Yuan landed a strike, the Guardian’s dense spiritual energy barrier absorbed the brunt of the damage. Every time the Guardian retaliated, Lin Yuan was forced to rely on the indestructible nature of his Rank 10 physique to weather the glancing blows, his skin bruising and healing again in the same heartbeat.

"Cut the joints!" Ling Xi shrieked in his mind, her sword spirit essence straining to keep up with the blinding speed of the exchange. "Its armor is thickest on the chest, Master! Take its arms!"

Lin Yuan ducked under a lethal horizontal sweep of the halberd, the blade passing so close it sheared a lock of his hair clean away, and activated the [Heaven and Earth Shift].

He caught the descending strike of the spiked hammer in the invisible spatial mirror, redirecting the massive force directly into the Guardian’s own broadsword-wielding arm.

CRUNCH!

The redirected hammer shattered the bronze bracer of the Guardian, completely severing the limb, the severed arm clattering uselessly across the shattered tiles.

Before the entity could recalibrate, Lin Yuan channeled millions of volts of heavenly lightning into his blade and executed the [Heavenly Thunder Break]. He drove the supercharged sword directly through the Guardian’s chest plate, detonating the lightning internally.

The Supreme Stage phantom froze, its remaining three weapons dropping to the floor with a heavy, ringing clatter. With a heavy groan, the giant dissolved into a shower of golden sparks that drifted lazily upward, briefly illuminating the ruined courtyard before fading into nothing.

Lin Yuan exhaled a ragged breath, pulling his sword free. He had conquered the seventh floor, relying entirely on his sword mastery and his physical foundation, without once resorting to the deeper reserves of his Dao insight.

A silver archway materialized, leading to the eighth floor.

Lin Yuan stepped through.