Ding!
»[Congratulations! You have been invited to the Heavenly Tower.]«
"Heavenly Tower?" Chen Yuan muttered, puzzled by the system display floating before his eyes.
This system display suddenly appeared without warning; it had an unfamiliar frame and front design, so different from the usual Heavenly Domain System display he saw every day.
"System, what does this mean? What is the Heavenly Tower?" He asked the system's spirit.
[...]
The Heavenly Domain System's spirit fell silent. It didn't answer his question immediately as it usually did, and this abnormal reaction from the system made Chen Yuan sense the oddity.
"System?" Chen Yuan said in a low tone.
[Apologies for the delay…]
The system's spirit replied with a robotic voice. It was trying to conceal its sadness about its true origin from the Host.
However, the system's abnormal behavior couldn't be hidden from Chen Yuan's sharp sense. His eyes narrowed.
'Is the system hiding something from me…?' Chen Yuan thought to himself. Before he could question the system about its strange reaction, it continued.
[The Heavenly Tower is a special dimensional world under the Heavenly Dao regime]
[Created and managed by the System Maker to train cultivators from multiple realms across the Heavenly Dao World]
[A trial tower made up of 100 floors, each testing challengers in different aspects and difficulty.]
[Successfully conquering each tower floor grants the challenger a reward, which varies depending on the challenger's actions during the challenge.]
[…]
[…]
The system's spirit continued explaining the details of the Heavenly Tower—its structure, rules, and competitions—ensuring the host didn't miss anything important.
"The System Maker…" Chen Yuan thought deeply.
He had heard the name before, many years ago, when he asked the system about its origin, but it had only told him that it was the name of a mysterious entity who created the system—and nothing more.
He wondered what kind of entity this being was and how powerful the "System Maker" must be to have created such an overwhelmingly powerful system like the Heavenly Domain System, capable of stripping all power from even the Heavenless Immortal who had captured him.
'This System Maker must be countless times stronger than the Heavenless Immortals from the Imperium…' he thought.
Suppressing his wondering thoughts, Chen Yuan carefully listened and read through the information provided by the system.
As he continued, he was amazed to learn about the geniuses from other realms whom he would have to compete with if he decided to accept the invitation.
He knew that other cultivation realms existed, but he hadn't expected to be relevant to this concept so soon.
From the knowledge he had gathered from various sources in this world, he learned that the White Cloud Realm he lived in had been cut off from the Astral Web Network of the Heavenly Dao World millions of years ago.
Since then, traveling to another realm by crossing the infinite void had become impossible for an ordinary cultivator without very special means.
Even cultivators at the highest level of this realm—a Heavenless Immortal, endlessly powerful as they were—could not leave safely.
If they tried, they would be lost in the infinite void and possibly die in the process. The only officially safe way to leave this realm was with permission from its ruler, the Burning Cloud Imperium.
Chen Yuan didn't dwell on this matter, as he was still just a weak Grand Unity Expert and had a mission to focus on.
Besides, when the time came for him to leave the realm, he was confident that the Heavenly Domain System would provide a solution. If not, he would simply take a method of travel to another realm from the Imperium once he defeated them.
"System, can I return home after entering the tower?" Chen Yuan asked.
The system explained that when a challenger entered the tower, they were given 100 years to climb it. When their time was up, the tower would calculate all their actions during the climb and issue a final reward.
The explanation was clear, but he wanted further clarification, since he couldn't leave his home and people for a hundred years just to challenge the tower.
[You cannot return while challenging a floor or participating in other tower activities. You can only temporarily leave the tower when in standby status.]
[Temporarily leaving the tower requires a special item, which can be bought from a certain NPC with Tower Points.]
The system's answer eased Chen Yuan's worries; it seemed he could accept the invitation without it affecting his current situation.
"System, will this invitation disappear if I don't accept it now?" Chen Yuan asked.
[No, you can accept and become a challenger at any time.]
"That's great…" Chen Yuan said with a slight smile.
"Let me prepare before I go…" he said, turning his back and leaving the border, letting the problem of the domain being sieged wait for now.
Chen Yuan returned home and informed his servants and followers about his departure. He also spent a large amount of his Heavenly Points to create a mirror clone to remain in his place and ensure nothing went wrong.
This mirror clone was created from a piece of his soul, allowing it to use the invincibility function of the domain.
After preparing everything, he locked himself in his chamber and informed the system that he wished to accept the Heavenly Tower's invitation.
[Warning!!! The invincibility function of the System will be deactivated inside the Heavenly Tower.]
[Do you wish to proceed?]
"Yes," Chen Yuan said confidently.
Ding!
»[Congratulations! You are now a challenger of the Heavenly Tower.]«
The unfamiliar system display appeared once again, accompanied by a mysterious white circle of light glowing beneath his feet.
The light grew more intense as it enveloped Chen Yuan completely, and then, it burst and disappeared.
The chamber fell silent, with no trace of Chen Yuan left standing there.
The moment after the white light burst, Chen Yuan found himself no longer in his chamber, but in an empty white space.
Before there was a system display that did not belong to his Heavenly Domain System, it told him to create a character, which would be used as an avatar when he was inside the Primordial City.
The character served with two major purposes in the tower.
First, for the challenger, the character would help conceal their true identity if they wished.
Second, to maintain order in the Primordial City. For example, the tower did not want cultivators from races with massive bodies roaming freely and accidentally stepping on other challengers, or causing other problems because of their unique appearance.
This allowed challengers to interact with each other in the safe zone without causing much disturbance.
Chen Yuan spent some time playing and experimenting during the character creation process, feeling as if he were creating a character in the games he used to play as a teenager.
When he was satisfied with the play, he chose to reset all changes and decided to use his own appearance for the character.
He wasn't afraid that his true identity would be revealed, since he had no enemies outside the White Cloud realm, and the system had told him that he was the only one in the Realm to receive the invitation.
That left only one thing before he started the tutorial.
[Please enter a name]
"Heavenly Regulator…" Chen Yuan chose the name that the Heavenly Dao had given him.
When he completed the character creation, the tutorial began immediately.
The demonic cultivator's servant, a short sword in hand, stepped out of the shadows of the dark dungeon and declared that he would kill him for daring to escape from the prison.
When he entered the Heavenly Tower, the system's new function activated, providing hints as he climbed.
And Chen Yuan received guidance the moment the demonic cultivator's servant appeared. The hints gave him an idea of how to proceed in the tutorial to achieve the highest score.
Even without the aid of the Heavenly Domain or cultivation realm, Chen Yuan was confident in his combat skills as a former special forces soldier, especially since the opponent was just a normal human male without cultivation.
An opponent like this couldn't make him feel threatened at all, even though he had a deadly weapon in his hand.
Without hesitation, he immediately struck the demonic cultivator's servant with precise movements, killing the opponent in three breaths with his bare hand.
Chen Yuan picked up the items dropped by "the monster" and continued the tutorial.
Five Hour Later.
Chen Yuan, wielding the iron spear, dashed toward the demonic cultivator who was casting dark flames at him.
The spear pierced through the mass of fire and struck the cultivator's chest, killing him instantly.
[Congratulations, you have completed the mission.]
[Last Chapter — Survive & Escape, Title] [Complete]
[The Hidden Chapter — The Conqueror] [Complete]
—[Tutorial Cleared]—
Evaluation:
Total Score: 44,500
Grade: SSS
Rewards Obtained:
—4,450 Tower Points.
—Colorless Exp Stone x100
—Red Exp Stone x10
—Random Artifact Ticket [Unique] x1
—Cultivation Technique Choice Ticket [Unique] x1
—Title: The Tutorial Graduator — Permanently increases all attributes and talents by 1%.
—Title: The Conqueror Candidate — Grants the aura of dominance.
Bonus Rewards Obtained:
—1,000 Tower Points.
—Colorless Exp Stone x50
—Red Exp Stone x5
*Rewards have been added to your inventory.
…
Chen Yuan stepped out of the portal into the Primordial City. He saw millions of people of various appearances and races.
With a single glance, he knew these were not NPCs, but challengers like him. They had gathered in the city square, most looking puzzled and vigilant as they observed their surroundings.
Unlike Chen Yuan, who had a system to inform him of things, these people had no clue what was going on, and they had to discover everything on their own.
He ignored them and headed straight for the Ranking Boardin the center of the city square to compare his tutorial results with those of the other challengers.
[Heavenly Tower Rankings]
Rank / Name / Highest Floor Reached / Battle Rating / Accumulated Score
1. Chairman / Floor 0
2. Wang Mu / Floor 0
3. Lin Feng / Floor 0
4. Qin Jiayi / Floor 0
5. Wu Meifeng / Floor 0
…
…
896. Ji Wushuang / Floor 0
897. Heavenly Regulator / Floor 0
898. Han Yuexin / Floor 0
Chen Yuan's eyes widened in shock as he saw his own rank. He thought he was doing great already, but it seemed he wasn't as strong as he believed. Across the countless realms of the Heavenly Dao World, there were monstrous genius cultivators as numerous as the stars.
However.
Chen Yuan slightly grinned.
He wasn't discouraged, not even slightly.
Instead of falling into despair from this disappointing result, the flame of competition ignited in his heart.
Since he transmigrated to this world, he had been unrivaled—nobody could stand against him with his Heavenly Domain; he was invincible.
But here, without the Heavenly Domain that served as both his ultimate strength and weakness, the real challenge would begin.
In this place, he would fight against all geniuses in existence with his own strength and prove his worth as heaven's chosen—the Heavenly Regulator.