Chapter 173: Fallen Heavens

After crossing the threshold, Yu Xuan and Lingluo arrived in a vast, echoing hall.Unlike the Tower of Trials, where murals of ancient beings locked in eternal combat lined the walls, here the very stone shimmered with shifting constellations. Galaxies spiraled, stars flared and dimmed, planets shimmered as if they were breathing. The entire chamber felt less like a hall and more like the inside of a living cosmos.

Before either could comment, an invisible wave swept over them.

Yu Xuan waited. It wasn’t invasive like the probing pressure of the Tower of Trials — more like a polite glance, a scan just deep enough to recognize who they were.

Then glowing letters formed in midair.

Group detected.

Name: Yu Xuan

Cultivation: Foundation Establishment 1st Layer

Name: Yu Lingluo

Cultivation: 2nd Realm Chaos Peak

Yu Xuan blinked. His gaze slid to his sister, then back to the floating words.

"...Sister," he asked cautiously, "do you think this is malfunctioning? Your cultivation realm is showing up all wrong."

Lingluo folded her arms, utterly calm. "Don’t worry. This is correct. My master told me that because of my physique and bloodline, my cultivation path is... different from ordinary people’s."

"...What!!!" Yu Xuan nearly choked on his own breath.

Physique he knew about that, sure. But bloodline?! And a whole different cultivation path?!

He glanced back at the words, then at his sister, his mouth twitching.

’Don’t tell me... is my sister actually the protagonist? Did I end up as the side character in her story?!’

Before he could spiral any further, another line of text appeared in brilliant gold.

Select Difficulty Level.

Irregular status detected.

Hidden difficulty unlocked.

Earth

Heaven

Hell

Impossible

Yu Xuan stared. His lips twitched harder.

"...Impossible? Who names these things? Is this a tower or a death sentence menu?"

Lingluo’s expression didn’t waver, but her eyes gleamed faintly as she turned toward him.

"Is this irregular because of the medallion you recieved during the selection trials?" she enquired.

Yu Xuan nodded. Thinking she is becoming smart.

"Which one should we choose, Xuan’er?"

Yu Xuan rubbed his temples. He had a bad feeling about this.

’Of course the Tower had to add things because irregular status... and of course it had to tempt us with something insane.’

Still, his blood was stirring. The words themselves seemed to carry a challenge, daring him to reach higher.

"Do you even need to ask that?" he said, his grin sharp and reckless.

Lingluo returned the look, eyes glinting with the same unspoken fire. Without the slightest hesitation, her finger rose and struck the floating word.

Impossible Difficulty selected.

Confirm selection.

She tapped again, unflinching.

The chamber shook as the words flared into a brilliance that swallowed everything else.

Challengers, may the spirit of the cultivator be with you!!!

And then, in a blink, the siblings were gone.

The cosmos mural behind them rippled as though mocking — stars scattering like dice across a gambling table. The Tower itself seemed to whisper:

Let’s see if you survive the Impossible.

***

Challenge: Survive the next week

Here you are the prey, they are the predators, lurking in the dark and even light survive the attack of the various warriors of the Fallen Heavens.

Yu Xuan and Lingluo stood still, their eyes sweeping across the plain as the glowing letters dissolved into nothingness. The silence that followed wasn’t comforting — it was heavy, like the calm before a storm.

"A whole week?" Lingluo’s voice carried a trace of irritation. "Are they insane?"

Yu Xuan didn’t answer. His gaze was fixed on the horizon, where the forest’s edge seemed to stretch forever, shadows shifting unnaturally between the trees. The words still echoed in his mind.

Fallen Heavens.

The phrase itself was a curse, like a scar carved across the sky. He didn’t know what it meant, but instinct screamed it was something dreadful. Something not of this realm.

"Prey and predator, huh?" Yu Xuan finally muttered, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Looks like we’ve just been thrown into someone else’s hunting ground."

As if in response, a howl rose in the distance — not wolf, not beast, but something deeper, raw, and broken. The ground beneath their feet quivered, and even Lingluo’s expression turned serious.

She clenched her fists, violet strands of hair glimmering in the sunlight. "Then let’s show these predators who they’re really dealing with."

Yu Xuan chuckled, examining the terrain. A week of survival, someone from the Fallen Heavens.

"This... might actually be fun."

But the horizon shattered his calm. Shapes emerged, first small, then massive, sprinting across the open field with earth-shaking force.

Monsters.

Each one stood well over ten feet tall, musclebound and grotesque. Some charged upright on two legs, others bounded forward on all fours like feral beasts. Their skin carried a sickly green tint, their eyes burning a solid, hateful red. And every single one of them was barreling straight toward the siblings.

Yu Xuan narrowed his eyes, quickly estimating. "Roughly... a hundred."

Their exact cultivation was hazy, smothered by strange fluctuations. "They feel weak... but numbers like that are never simple."

The ground shook harder with every step. Dust rose in clouds. The air itself seemed to vibrate.

Lingluo rolled her shoulders, violet hair glinting as her fists began to glow purple. "Want me to take this one?"

"No." Yu Xuan’s expression sharpened as he reached into his space ring. His hand closed around a familiar hilt. "Let me give it a try."

With a steady breath, he drew the blade. Instantly, starlight bloomed along its edge, swelling until a radiant sphere formed at the tip, shimmering like a newborn star.

The technique his father had taught him.

Yu Clan Swordsmanship

Modified Form: Starfall.

Yu Xuan hurled the sword like a spear.

Swoosh—!

The weapon tore through the air, streaking silver before striking the charging horde dead-center. It skewered one of the monsters, pinning it to the earth.

And then—

Boom!

A miniature star erupted. The blast swallowed dozens of the creatures in a blinding wave of light and force, shaking the plain as if a meteor had struck.