Reversing the Milky Way

'The speed is too fast. However, judging from the attack just now, this move can't last more than three seconds. But even in three seconds, the distance it covers is enough to move from a distance visible to right in front of me. Judging from the speed, it's at least over three hundred meters per second! In that case, we need to seal off the spirit puppet's movements first.'

With this in mind, Bai Cheng manipulated the spirit sword and then surrounded the spirit puppet without attacking.

At this moment, the soul also sensed the surrounding spiritual swords, but did not react.

With a thought, Bai Cheng unleashed all the spirit swords from different directions towards the spirit puppet. As the spirit swords began their attack, the spirit puppet reacted swiftly, likely realizing it couldn't dodge. It slammed its longsword into the ground, and instantly, a barrier of lightning surrounded it.

Bai Cheng: "This spirit puppet doesn't have eyes, so the thing that can react like this must be something that can detect spiritual energy. We can't keep wasting spiritual energy like this."

The barrier released by the spirit puppet completely blocked Bai Cheng's spirit sword. Upon seeing this, Bai Cheng quickly condensed a golden flying needle in front of his chest.

Xuan Lei Mi Ying's move involves concentrating and compressing all of his spiritual power into a single point and then releasing it. Taking advantage of the moment when the spirit puppet was entangled by his own spiritual sword, Bai Cheng launched an attack. Golden lightning streaked across the air in a precise straight line, striking the lightning barrier in front of the spirit puppet directly.

In less than a second, Bai Cheng's attack pierced through the lightning barrier, along with the spirit puppet behind him. Only after watching the spirit puppet's spiritual power gradually disappear did Bai Cheng withdraw his attack.

Bai Cheng slowly approached the spirit puppet, and the surrounding scenery was simultaneously restored. When Bai Cheng arrived at the spirit puppet's side, the surrounding scenery transformed back into the Trial Tower.

As before, Bai Cheng also took out the spirit stones from the spirit puppet that provided spiritual power.

At that moment, the voice rang out again in the empty hall.

"Congratulations on passing the second level. Please proceed to the teleportation array behind you to proceed to the next level. If you wish to stop the trial, please step into the red teleportation array to return to the first level."

As soon as the voice fell, another teleportation array appeared behind Bai Cheng, and at the same time, he once again felt the fluctuations emanating from his student identity token.

The reward for clearing the second level is twenty cultivation points, which is exactly what Bai Cheng needs at this stage.

Bai Cheng: "These cultivation points rewards are truly rare; the more the better."

After saying that, Bai Cheng took out a Spirit Gathering Pill, swallowed it, and stepped into the teleportation array on the next level.

Upon reaching the third level, Bai Cheng immediately spotted the spirit puppet standing in the center of the hall. Like the spirit puppets on the first two levels, Bai Cheng didn't notice anything particularly special about it upon closer inspection.

Bai Cheng: "According to the level, the third-level spirit puppet should be at the mid-stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. Fortunately, the material of this spirit puppet is not difficult to destroy. I just don't know how powerful the techniques it uses are."

After Bai Cheng activated the button above the spirit puppet, he immediately retreated, and the surrounding scenery changed once again.

The instant the change in terrain ended, the spirit puppet immediately launched an attack on Bai Cheng. A spirit sword materialized in the puppet's hand, and from a distance of a hundred meters, it unleashed a sword aura at Bai Cheng.

The sword energy, carrying lightning, left deep furrows and ravines in its wake.

Bai Cheng, holding a spirit sword, approached while simultaneously unleashing several sword energies with his backhand.

Upon seeing Bai Cheng's counterattack, the spirit puppet stomped its feet, and with a burst of lightning surging from its legs, the spirit puppet's speed exploded instantly. It nimbly dodged Bai Cheng's attacks, its figure moving so fast it became blurry.

Upon seeing this, Bai Cheng was startled.

'This spirit puppet's speed is indeed almost the same as the second level, but its offensive methods are starting to lean towards ranged attacks.'

After quickly dodging the attack, the spirit puppet stomped its foot again.

A violent bolt of lightning pierced the ground along the puppet's foot. Although Bai Cheng couldn't see the attack, he could clearly sense it rapidly moving towards his feet through his divine sense.

Without a second thought, Bai Cheng leaped high into the air, a spirit sword materializing beneath his feet as he flew into the sky.

However, in the next instant, several chains wrapped in lightning rose from the ground and quickly wrapped around Bai Cheng in the air.

The chains extended so quickly that in an instant, several chains sealed off Bai Cheng's surroundings. Then, the chains began to weave back and forth, gradually forming a circular cage in the air.

'Is this... an attempt to trap me?!'

Bai Cheng swiftly swung his longsword, each collision between the sword and the chain generating a surge of spiritual energy from both sides.

Just then, the spirit puppet suddenly waved its hand, releasing several orbs of light filled with lightning. These orbs were not aimed at Bai Cheng, but exploded one after another between the spirit puppet and Bai Cheng.

After the light sphere exploded, streaks of lightning began to appear at the site of the explosion. These streaks disappeared very quickly, within a few seconds of their appearance.

However, within those few short seconds, the spirit puppet leaped rapidly through the air, stepping on these spirit runes. It was as if a bolt of lightning was rapidly refracting within these runes.

As it drew closer, the spirit sword in the puppet's hand began to gather power. With the continuous infusion of spiritual energy, the longsword in the puppet's hand grew larger and larger, and lightning constantly swirled around the sword, spreading outwards like spider silk, as if to fill the surrounding space completely.

After detecting the spirit puppet's movements, Bai Cheng recalled the rules of the Trial Tower.

'This Trial Tower only states that spirit-grade artifacts are not allowed, so pseudo-spiritual artifacts shouldn't count, right?'

Thinking of this, he quickly took out the Thunderclap Flying Knife from his storage bag. Under his control, it instantly tore a large hole in the chains surrounding him.

Bai Cheng seized the opportunity and rushed out of the cave. The next moment, he saw the spirit puppet walking on air, approaching him step by step, and the spirit sword in its hand had grown to about ten meters in size.

Bai Cheng: "Holy crap!"

Bai Cheng swiftly unleashed several sword energies, then manipulated the spirit sword beneath his feet to fly rapidly forward. Facing Bai Cheng's sword energies, the spirit puppet simply swung its massive spirit sword, shattering Bai Cheng's sword energies head-on. As the spirit puppet chased after Bai Cheng, it continuously unleashed countless orbs of light, which exploded in mid-air, becoming footholds.

Bai Cheng was taken aback by the speed at which the spirit puppet was pursuing him. Even though he was flying at full speed on his sword, the spirit puppet behind him was gradually closing in on him.

'Another move I've never seen before! This spirit puppet's sword strike is probably at the full strength level of a mid-stage Qi Condensation Realm cultivator. Fortunately, although both are lightning-attribute spiritual forces, my lightning spirit has the upper hand. Under a full-force attack, I might not be unable to withstand it!'

Thinking of this, Bai Cheng moved forward rapidly while gathering all his spiritual power into the spirit sword in his hand. As he used the Heavenly Origin Qi Technique, the spirit sword in Bai Cheng's hand grew larger and larger.

Just then, Bai Cheng, who was flying rapidly forward, suddenly saw a light barrier filled with spiritual patterns appear not far away, and at the same time, sounds began to echo in the surrounding space.

"Attention, trial participants, the barrier surrounding this trial grounds is located ahead."

Upon hearing this, Bai Cheng's heart tightened.

'What? This doesn't look like the Trial Tower at all, yet there are trial boundaries?! It seems this is to prevent students from constantly running away during the trials. But that's perfect, my attack is ready.'

Thinking of this, Bai Cheng stepped on the spirit sword in mid-air and immediately turned 180 degrees.

He first glanced at the enormous spirit sword in his hand out of the corner of his eye, golden lightning constantly emanating from around him. At this moment, the spirit puppet had already arrived not far in front of Bai Cheng. Upon seeing this, Bai Cheng roared, gripped the spirit sword in both hands, and pressed down with his own aura.

The spirit puppet opposite him made the same move, gripping the sword hilt with both hands and slashing fiercely at Bai Cheng.

In the blink of an eye, the two figures collided, and with their combined spiritual power, the surrounding space began to flicker with lightning. Bai Cheng could clearly feel his spiritual power condensing on the spiritual sword in his hand, and then colliding with the spiritual power from the opponent's sword.

The burst of spiritual energy swept outwards from the two of them, and amidst the rapid interweaving of lightning, the constantly flashing lightning reflected off their bodies in shimmering yellow and blue hues.

Just as the two were locked in a stalemate, at this tense moment, Bai Cheng saw the spiritual energy fluctuations on the spirit puppet in front of him suddenly tremble.

Immediately afterwards, a blue phantom split off from the spirit puppet's body.

"This is... a spiritual clone!?"

The blue phantom in front of him looked exactly like a spirit puppet. As a spirit sword materialized in his hand, the phantom slashed towards Bai Cheng.

Bai Cheng's pupils suddenly contracted.

"Ahhh!!"

He roared and swung the huge spirit sword in his hand with all his might.

Under this powerful attack, the spirit puppet that was locked in a stalemate with him began to retreat. As a burst of lightning exploded in the sky, Bai Cheng swung his sword with all his might and directly cut off the spirit sword that the spirit puppet had condensed in its hand. The huge blade cut into half of the spirit puppet's body and knocked the spirit puppet from the air to the ground.

At the same time, Bai Cheng manipulated the flying sword beneath his feet, causing his figure to retreat quickly and dodge the attack of the phantom.

"boom"

With a loud thud, the spirit puppet slammed into the ground in a spinning motion, raising a cloud of dust.

As the spirit puppet crashed into the ground, the phantom in mid-air disappeared, turning into spiritual light and dissipating into the air.

Bai Cheng landed slowly, and the spirit sword in his hand had returned to its original size.

Seeing that the surrounding scenery had not yet changed back, Bai Cheng knew that the spirit puppet had not been defeated.

As a figure slowly rose from the dust not far away, Bai Cheng, holding a spirit sword, launched an attack with sharp eyes. He could not give the spirit puppet another chance to counterattack, because the spirit puppet's core was driven by spirit stones. To Bai Cheng, the opponent was equivalent to having several times his own accumulated spiritual power.

Under the probing of his divine sense, Bai Cheng saw that he had cut a third of the way open on the side of the spirit puppet, revealing the intricate mechanical mechanism inside, and that even the pelvic structure under its crotch was somewhat damaged.

If this were a human, they would absolutely not be able to stand up, and might even die directly from this fatal injury.

Seemingly sensing Bai Cheng's attack, the spirit puppet's body swayed and began to move, grappling with the charging Bai Cheng once again.

The sound of clashing spirit swords began to echo on the ground, but due to the damage to its side, the spirit puppet's steps and even the movements of its upper body became much slower, but the power of the spirit sword in its hand did not diminish at all.

Bai Cheng seized the opportunity and, taking advantage of the weakening speed of the spirit puppet, directly severed the arm from which the spirit puppet was condensing a spirit sword.

Bai Cheng thought that this would slow down the spirit puppet's attack, but he didn't expect that the spirit puppet's other hand would instantly form a hand seal, and several spirit swords would begin to condense around the spirit puppet, and then quickly launch an attack on Bai Cheng.

Bai Cheng seized the opportunity and swiftly deflected all the incoming spirit swords. Then, the spirit sword in his hand transformed into a golden light, and with a slash, the spirit puppet's head flew off.

As the spirit sword that had just begun to condense in the spirit puppet's last remaining hand slowly disappeared.

With a "thump," the spirit puppet's entire body leaned forward and fell to the ground.

The surrounding scenery began to change back to the interior of the Trial Tower. At this moment, the surroundings became extremely quiet, with only Bai Cheng's heavy breathing and heartbeat remaining.

Bai Cheng: "Huff... puff..."

As the spirit sword in his hand dissipated, Bai Cheng collapsed onto the floor.

"Congratulations on passing the third level. Please proceed to the teleportation array behind you to proceed to the next level. If you wish to stop the trial, please step into the red teleportation array to return to the first level."

Seeing the two teleportation arrays light up again, Bai Cheng took out a Spirit Gathering Pill from his pocket and swallowed it again. At the same time, he also put away the spirit stone core on the spirit puppet.

Bai Cheng: "I didn't expect that this level would consume more than 70% of my spiritual power. If I want to continue fighting, I'm afraid I'll have to use the power of that mysterious fragment in my body. It seems that without the power of the fragment, I can only pass the third level at most."

Bai Cheng took out his academy identity token, on which he had accumulated sixty points.

After a moment's consideration, Bai Cheng's expression turned serious.

'I wasn't sure if pseudo-spiritual artifacts could be used in the tower before, so I didn't dare to operate them. But judging from what just happened, pseudo-spiritual artifacts are indeed not against the rules. In that case, I must pass through another level. Once I pass the fourth level, I will very likely break through to the mid-stage of Qi Condensation directly in the Earth Spirit Tower.'

With this thought in mind, Bai Cheng quickly got up and, without looking back, walked into the teleportation array on the next level.

Outside the Trial Tower, after the spiritual light on the third floor disappeared, the remaining people began to discuss Bai Cheng.

Lu Xuzi: "I never imagined that he could actually challenge a spiritual puppet with lightning attributes!"

Bai Wenzhe: "After all, he is someone the Bai family has their eye on. If he didn't have some tricks up his sleeve, how could Bai Zhentian have specially recruited him into the family?"

Mo Rui: "Being able to pass the third level already proves that he is very capable. You should know that Huo Feng only passed the fourth level."

Lu Xuzi: "How can Huo Feng compare to him? Although they are both lightning-attribute, Huo Feng has infused earth-attribute spiritual power. Although the spirit puppets are at the same level, the difference in spiritual power attributes is like heaven and earth. If Huo Feng had infused lightning-attribute power, I'm afraid it would be a question whether he could even pass the third level, let alone the fourth level."

Huo Feng was among the remaining people present.

In addition to his basic spiritual power attributes, he also possesses a special spiritual power constitution with the lightning attribute.

His reason for staying was simple: to see how far Bai Cheng, with his special lightning-attribute spiritual power, could go.