System Journey to Godhood

Inside the Sword Pagoda, just after the examinees passed through the entrance.

Snowy felt a little bit dizzy and disoriented after being forcefully transported as soon as she entered the Sword Pagoda.

After a moment, she finally felt better and quickly observed her surroundings.

She was now standing in the middle of a spacious hall. Underneath her was unpaved ground, and close to her were several pillars made from white stone.

It seemed that all the examinees were immediately transferred to different places where they will face the trial alone because Snowy couldn't sense any living being other than her in this room.

In between the pillars, she could see around twenty terracotta soldiers lined up while holding a clay sword in their chests, pointing downward toward the earth.

They were clad in imperial armor, and the expression painted on their faces was fierce and menacing, while the air around them seemed to exude heavy bloodlust, giving the impression of someone who was ready to sacrifice their life only to bring the enemies down with them.

Looking at those terracotta soldiers, she could guess what kind of trial she had to face to pass through the first floor.

Just as she was about to use her divine eyes to inspect those dolls, a cold mechanical sound echoed across the room.

"Welcome to the Evil Suppression Pagoda. You've been acknowledged as a challenger; do you want to challenge the first floor's trial?"

'So, the real name of Sword Pagoda is Evil Suppression Pagoda? Why "Evil Suppression", though? " Snowy pondered silently. It seemed the secret of the pagoda might be even more mysterious than she had assumed previously.

"What is the origin of this Evil Suppression Pagoda?" Snowy decided to try her luck and asked.

Unfortunately, the voice didn't seem to have consciousness as it was only repeating the previous question.

"Do you want to challenge the first floor's trial?"

Snowy shook her head and decided to give up asking a question. It seemed that she wouldn't get the answer this time, at least not on this floor. She might have a chance on the higher floor, she hoped.

"Yes," Snowy answered.

"Your task is to defeat all the sword puppets in this room. You can forfeit from the trial by saying "I surrender" but your right to challenge the trial next time will be nulled. The moment you lose consciousness during the trial, you'll be expelled immediately; however, you'll retain the right to challenge the Evil Suppression Pagoda."

"I repeat. Your task is…"

The voice explained the trial three times, and after that it disappeared.

Crack, crack—

As soon as the voices disappeared, the terracotta soldiers that silently stood between the pillars started to move.

Just like someone who had just awoken from a long slumber, cracking sounds could be heard coming from the joints as they tried to move their limbs.

Initially, their movements were rock stiff, but after a few minutes, their movements gradually became smoother and more natural.

Then all of the terracotta turned their heads toward Snowy simultaneously, and suddenly their brown pupils turned red and shone brightly, looking at Snowy with a gaze full of killing intent.

The bloodlust that was lingering around their bodies was now all directed at Snowy.

Thump, thump, thump—

The terracotta soldiers marched with heavy momentum, gathering in a circle with Snowy as the center.

The earth shook with every step. Although their numbers were only around twenty, the pressure exuded from their aura was just like facing a thousand-man army.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the encirclement, Snowy was still not making a move, just watching the terracotta soldiers with curiosity.

'It seems that they move in a certain pattern. Most likely it's a killing formation with them as the component. It's quite interesting…' Snowy thought while letting out a light chuckle.

After all, using formation in front of Snowy was just asking for a beating. She could easily find the flaw and weak point of any formation below Spirit-rank using her Thousand Eyes technique.

Snowy didn't believe that the formation that appeared on the first floor of the pagoda would reach the Spirit-rank, at most, it would only be a Heaven-rank formation.

So instead of interrupting whatever formation they tried to set up, Snowy used her divine eyes to inspect the terracotta soldiers.

Soon, strings of information appeared in her mind, which Snowy carefully read.

---

Name: Sword Puppet x 20

Description: Terracotta soldiers are made from spiritual clay that could contain weak souls, seemingly an unknown grade of killing formation programmed inside them.

Cultivation: Middle Golden Core

Weakness: Despite the toughness of their bodies, which is comparable to upper-Earth rank treasure, the will that controls them is very weak and invulnerable. Any kind of technique that directly attacks the soul will be very effective against them.

---

"So they are weak against soul attack," Snowy nodded in understanding. She immediately summoned the Heaven Inquisitor Pipa and muttered, "They appear just at the right time. I always wanted to try the secret technique within the Pipa but didn't find the right opportunity to use it."

The Heaven Inquisitor Pipa could be used to release a soul attack in the form of an arrow using the secret technique attached to the instrument called Pipa Arrow. The more spiritual qi poured into the instrument, the more powerful the attack would be.

Considering the amount of Snowy's spiritual Qi that exceeded even a Completion Nascent Soul Stage cultivator and the quality of her Primordial Qi that was more than a thousand times purer than the average cultivator, she could easily conjure an attack that could erase a Nascent Soul stage cultivator in one strike, robbing them of their chance to enter the reincarnation circle, let alone someone with a cultivation base only in the Golden Core Stage.

It was only that she had never found someone who could force her to use the attack. Even for such a despicable man like Xian Bu Yu, Snowy felt he didn't deserve such cruelty.

But now, in this trial, there were several puppets waiting to be used as target dummies, Snowy, of course, won't reject such opportunities. With the divine weapon, albeit heavily damaged, in her hand, she was ready to release the attack.

Just before she could take action, the sword puppets beat her by one step. The killing formation had been set up completely. The sword puppet stretched their hand to the sky and raised the sword in their hand.

With a "thump", they pointed their sword at Snowy, and the spiritual Qi around them converged, aggregating the power of heaven and earth into one powerful strike with unparallel might. Snowy could sense that this terrifying strike could easily turn an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator's body to dust.

When they were about to release the blow and launch it at Snowy, 3000 swords intent appeared behind Snowy's back, and a crisp and melodious tone sang from the Heaven Inquisitor Pipa.

"Hmph! It's only this much. Weak."

The air vibrated and the sound qi fused with the sword qi, sending a series of invisible strikes filled with sword intent toward the weak point of the killing formation that was easily found using her Thousand Eyes technique.

Crash!

The killing formation was instantly shattered by the barrage of attacks, and the terracotta soldiers were blown away from the backlash, hurling backward until their bodies were slammed into the wall, causing many parts of their bodies to break or shatter.

If it was a living being, they would've fainted due to the pain of losing body parts, but those sword puppets were only creatures made from spiritual clay. Thus, after a moment, the puppets, whose body was still relatively intact, slowly stood up and once again tried to attack Snowy. Only by turning their body into dust or directly erasing the soul within will they be defeated.

Zheng, zheng—

Once again, a melodious tone resounded across the room. Snowy pumped a considerable amount of spiritual qi into the Heaven Sword Pipa and 20 opaque arrows were slowly being conjured around her.

"Pipa Arrows, strike!"

Snowy shouted.

All of the 20 arrows shot toward each of the sword puppets and…

Pfft—

….in the blink of an eye, the arrow penetrated their bodies, extinguished the weak will that controlled the puppet, and disarmed them.

The sword puppets suddenly went limp and fell to the ground lifelessly.

20 Golden Core stage puppets were done just like that.

"Not bad…"

Snowy nodded in satisfaction as she saw the power of the attack.

At this time, the cold mechanical sound appeared again.

"Congratulation, challenger! You've successfully defeated all the sword puppets with one strike! For such an achievement, you'll be granted a reward!"

A translucent crystal appeared in front of Snowy out of thin air, Snowy quickly grabbed it, and then inspected it with her divine eyes.

---

Name: Dao Fragment Crystal (Sealing Dao)

Grade: ???

Quality: ???

Effect: When all of the fragment crystals are obtained, they will merge together into a complete inheritance.

---

'Sealing Dao? Evil Suppression Pagoda… Sealing Dao…' After reading this information, pieces of the puzzle in Snowy's mind gradually fitted into each other, and she vaguely understood the purpose of this trial. But there were still some questions that baffled her, and the higher she climbed, the more answers she might get.

"Do you want to proceed to the next floor?" the voice asked.

"Yes," Snowy answered without hesitation. And soon, a bright light enveloped her body, and in the blink of an eye, her figure disappeared from the first floor.

***

Author Note: Snowy's fight spans a few minutes, but there are time differences between inside and outside the pagoda. I didn't specify the time differences because I didn't think it was necessary.. The point is that the time flow inside the pagoda is slower than on the outside.