Yan Wei was still blocking the evil entity.
He felt as though all the Body Index and Perception he had accumulated through his two Ascensions were being drained away, as if his blood was being sucked dry. In just over a hundred seconds, the entity had merely raised its hand and directed the Black Aura to strike the barrier he was maintaining three times, and he was already on the verge of collapse.
The Moon Wheel in his palm was trembling, and the entire barrier was exuding a weak aura.
He knelt on one knee, one hand supporting himself on the dirty ground, the other gripping the Moon Wheel, biting his lower lip hard. His lips were already torn, and the blood flowing from the wounds stimulated his senses, keeping him lucid.
The evil entity stood before the barrier, looking Yan Wei up and down through it, and let out a few hearty laughs.
“Friend, who I’m not sure is a mage or a Taoist priest, it seems like one more hit, and you won’t be able to hold on anymore, right?”
Yan Wei just glanced at it, silent.
Why haven’t Song Cheng’an and Geng Liang activated the array yet? By this time, Yan Mingguang and the others should have reached the four directions of Guanyin Town. What’s wrong with the array?
Could it be that the method he thought of wasn’t the way to break the situation?
Is the double array overlay completely useless?
Yan Wei was tired, and for a moment, he couldn’t figure it out.
If the array isn’t completed by the time the evil entity strikes next, he could certainly find a way to temporarily protect himself, even think of a way with Yan Mingguang to delay until the day he becomes immortal to fight this evil entity, but…
But what about the thousands of innocent lives in Guanyin Town, and Yu Feizhou, Lin Zhen, Lin Qing, and the others… what should they do?
Could it be that after all this, in this top-level instance, he still has to face it alone?
Or should he use the Pandora’s Box he retained from his first ascent to make a wish now. But what should he wish for?
If he wishes for the instance to pause, allowing them to start over, then everything from this ascent would be in vain. If they start again, how many Players would die in the Tower World before the next ascent? If he wishes to end everything now, wouldn’t that just bring them back to the outcome of the last ascent, where everyone was happy, except… Yan Mingguang.
He didn’t want to choose either.
He felt he was too greedy, no matter what step he was at, even when there were no other options, he still wanted so much. Yet he also felt he was easily satisfied; he didn’t ask for much for himself, only wishing for the safety of those he wanted to protect in his heart.
They had already come this far.
Everything was ready, why hasn’t the array been completed yet…?
He asked Song Cheng’an through the Black Ring, but received no response.
In the Guanyin Temple.
Song Cheng’an’s heart sank.
Geng Liang urged him again: “What do we do without the array core? What else can serve as the array core? Can a Legendary Item work?”
Song Cheng’an shook his head: “No.”
Geng Liang wasn’t proficient in arrays and couldn’t see it, but at that moment, Song Cheng’an understood completely.
Geng Liang anxiously said: “Then what do we do? Yan Wei is about to collapse; even from here, I can feel that the barrier he erected is very weak. Could it be that his method is flawed? Should we quickly inform them to run away—”
“There’s no problem,” Song Cheng’an said softly. “The method Yan Wei thought of is indeed the way to break this top-level instance.”
The golden statue couldn’t serve as the array core; they indeed needed a new array core.
A Legendary Item couldn’t replace it. The reason the golden statue could stabilize such a grand array was because it had been worshipped day and night, imbued with spiritual energy, not entirely an inanimate object, and carried a merciful aura, thus matching the grandeur of the array.
Where could they find another such inanimate object?
If they couldn’t find an inanimate object… a living one could work.
Any Player with extraordinary strength, as long as they harbored no evil thoughts in their heart, could sacrifice themselves to become the array core, and the array would be completed.
Yan Wei’s method wasn’t wrong; in fact, it precisely found the correct way to break this instance. The issue with the golden statue was the final challenge of this top-level instance where survival was nearly impossible. All these days, they had overcome one challenge after another, reaching this moment, and this last hurdle tested the heart.
Among those still alive, one must voluntarily sacrifice themselves to complete the array and break the situation.
Someone must die.
Someone must, at this moment when they have already seen the hope of reaching the top, extinguish that flame and willingly plunge into the endless cold.
He figured this out, reached this step, in the blink of an eye. The seconds passed both quickly and slowly, the sky still divided into black and white, the cries and pleas for help in Guanyin Town continuing incessantly.
If this were a previous instance Song Cheng’an had experienced, he would have already informed Geng Liang, informed Yan Wei, and asked the remaining—the weaker ones to step forward.
But at this moment, he didn’t do that.
He remembered a few days ago, on the path in the Guanyin Academy, he asked Yan Wei what he sought by ascending to the top again this time.
Yan Wei’s answer was to end it all. Like the V he knew, their desires and thoughts were completely different from his.
He had lived in this world where life and death outweighed the rules for so many years, accustomed to clinging to life, accustomed to seeking survival, enduring until now, even forgetting what the person he liked looked like, only remembering their name, remembering it was a very lovely girl.
He had never had ambitions beyond self-preservation, never had the great love to save others.
But in this world, there are also those who live not just for themselves, who possess admirable beliefs, and are the unwavering faith of others.
Living a life he envied.
Time ticked by.
Song Cheng’an whispered: “I might be bewitched.”
Fortunately, after this bewitchment, he would not have the chance to regret.
He spoke up, loudly telling Geng Liang a name. It seemed like a very ordinary girl’s name, like Zhang San or Li Si, perhaps common in the world outside the tower.
Geng Liang’s anxious expression paused: “What?”
“At first, I wanted to remember what she looked like, but I didn’t bring a photo when I came in, and I’m not good at drawing, so I could only try to remember in my mind. Later, as I went through more instances, saw too many bizarre things, and looked back, I found that at some point, I suddenly couldn’t remember what she looked like.
“But I still remember her name. If you can get out, be kind to any girl with this name. … Maybe one of them is her?”
Geng Liang didn’t understand: “What are you talking about? We either need to find an array core now or quickly go to Yan—”
His words stopped, his entire body trembling.
Geng Liang couldn’t see, but his Perception could still sense—Song Cheng’an had connected the array core to himself!
In the next moment, the array activated, the reversed array flipped the array’s effect, and beams of light shot into the sky from the four directions of Guanyin Town, even the direction where Yan Mingguang was, buried in death energy, emitted light. The Guanyin Temple seemed to resonate with chanting, and the thirty-three Guanyin statues all lit up.
Golden light filled the sky.
At the moment before Yan Wei’s strength gave out, as the evil entity swung its myriad of death energy towards him, the entire Guanyin Town suddenly filled with golden light, and the weight that seemed to press down on him was gently lifted. Before his eyes, the evil entity paused, took several steps back, and let out a deafening wail.
Under the halo, the death energy dissipated in the golden light, the gloom cleared, and the sun shone brightly.
Yan Wei personally watched as the name “Song Cheng’an” on the linked list popped up by his Black Ring silently turned gray.
Just like the friends who had died on his first ascent, it would never light up again.
His nose tingled with sourness, but he knew there were more important things at hand.
The evil entity possessing Jiang Jingyun’s corpse, suddenly without the cover of death energy, was exposed under the golden sky, already fallen to the ground, wailing and rolling. The prompt had not yet appeared; the evil entity needed to lose its body to be suppressed by the golden light.
He stood up, took out a Legendary Item in the shape of a long knife he had made before, walked forward, and plunged the blade into the forehead of “Jiang Jingyun”!
The golden light grew brighter.
The array was complete, and Yan Mingguang, who had somehow returned to his side, dispersed the death energy as a patch of clouds passed over the sky, scattering snowflakes everywhere. The evil entity’s screams suddenly stopped, and as it was pressed back into the unfathomable depths of the sea, Jiang Jingyun’s corpse turned into corpse water, mixing with the snowflakes falling to the ground, disappearing in an instant.
Yan Wei’s hand loosened, and the Legendary Item he had been fighting over was casually thrown to the ground.
“Why didn’t that stupid thing appear to stop me?” Yan Wei said.
Yan Mingguang reached out, touched his hair, and said softly: “I was always stopping him.”
Yan Wei slightly looked up, gazing at him through the falling snow, “Teacher Yan… he was never a match for us. The reason he appeared this time during the ascent was actually because you—”
Even though he seemed to have let it go, there was still a tiny part of you that thought—what if Yan Wei agreed to the evil’s proposal and stayed?
This man, embodying all the wisdom and kindness of the Tower World, after becoming a Player and falling into the instances, the only selfish desire he had, after all these years, was just that little bit.
Yan Wei slowly blinked, watching as the man before him took another step forward, came close, and then embraced him.
The long-awaited prompt finally came to all the living at this moment. This time, Yan Wei recovered all internal and external injuries within the instance, but the black steps no longer appeared—there was no higher place.
[Congratulations to the Player for successfully reaching the top.]
[Since this instance is a special top-level instance, no data summary will be provided. Your final data has been refreshed on your Information Panel and will no longer change or be updated.]
[Players can choose to exchange Points for Items in the exchange shop, or directly leave the Tower World. Note: If the Player chooses to leave while retaining their strength, the percentage of the main storyline progress in the top-level instance will determine the percentage of strength retained.]
[Please make your choice.]
