The Hundred-Meter Tower

On the way down, Lu Yuan passed two more rooms — both already opened. The Kaman from earlier had clearly been through here first. The rooms were empty; whatever had been inside was long gone.

The first-floor lobby was dim. The exit lay just ahead. He walked out onto the street.

The road stretched some thirty meters wide. Lu Yuan set off at a jog.

Mechanical guards appeared at regular intervals. Gene Warriors from other races were everywhere too — some fighting the machines, others fighting each other. Combat broke out every few blocks without fail.

He confirmed what he had suspected: every mechanical guard dropped a single Spirit Power Gene Fluid when killed. In a single stretch of street he had already collected over a hundred of them, absorbing each on the move to keep nudging his tempering forward.

*Truly worthy of a relic world that drives every First-rank Gene Warrior across the White Cloud Continent into a frenzy. The resources here are staggering.*

It was no surprise so many Gene Warriors had flooded in. The White Cloud Continent was home to more than ten races, each with Gene Warrior populations in the billions. Death here only barred you from the Land of Origin for a time, slowing your cultivation somewhat — an acceptable price for most First-rank Warriors. And if fortune smiled on you and you walked away with something genuinely valuable, the payoff could be life-changing.

Over an hour in, the sounds of battle around him had grown noticeably quieter. The initial chaos had done its work, thinning out the weakest entrants. Those still on their feet had either found allies or were strong enough to operate alone. Only a small fraction of the original wave would survive — the rest had been cleared by mechanical guards or hunted down by stronger opponents.

Lu Yuan had added to that thinning himself. He had killed roughly a hundred Gene Warriors across various races, picking up additional Spirit Power Gene Fluid in the process. As for the humans he encountered — in principle, he wouldn't strike first against his own kind. But nearly every one of them had attacked him on sight, and he had sent them on their way accordingly. Running into someone of the same race was no reason for blind trust, not here.

He rounded a corner and froze.

The shadows at the base of a nearby building stirred.

An Elf girl burst from the darkness — black leather armor, twin daggers already drawn, killing intent blazing in her eyes. She drove straight for the unarmored back of his neck in a single fluid lunge.

She had been invisible. His perception had caught nothing until the moment she materialized and committed to the strike.

As the blades closed in, a gleam of anticipation lit her eyes. She had hunted this way all day, emerging from concealment to strike at the gaps in her targets' armor. Her First-rank Combat Technique was Boss Grade. Against any normal Gene Warrior, there was no defending against it.

**Ding!**

The daggers struck his neck and rang out clean and sharp — steel on something harder than steel.

That sensation.

Her smile died on her lips. Every muscle in her body locked up as the full weight of what her blades had just hit traveled up through her hands and into her chest.

*What is this defense?!*

On pure instinct, she snapped her slender waist into an extreme backward arc, her body launching itself away without a moment's hesitation.

She made it less than a meter.

A flash of dark red swept through her.

The Elf girl's world went black.

Her body dissolved into white light, leaving a pile of Spirit Power Gene Fluid on the ground.

Lu Yuan turned, Dark Red Blade still in hand, a trace of surprise in his eyes as he looked down.

*Not bad.* The blow had genuinely hurt — those daggers had found real purchase on his neck. She had likely recorded a Boss Grade gene. Her First-rank Combat Technique was Boss Grade level; against ordinary Gene Warriors, it would have cut straight through their defenses without resistance. She had clearly made good use of it today, racking up kills with her invisibility technique.

*Pity she ran into me.*

He smiled and gathered up the drops.

Besides the Spirit Power Gene Fluid, there was one other item — a red hexagonal metal cylinder.

Information surfaced in his mind.

**X211 Flame Grenade: Blast yield equivalent to a full-force strike from a Second-rank low-level Boss.**

His eyes sharpened.

*Is that real?*

He turned the cylinder over in his hands, genuine interest kindling in his chest. If he took a direct hit from this, even with his current defenses, he would take some damage. That was legitimately dangerous by First-rank standards — for most Gene Warriors here, one of these landing head-on would be a serious problem.

He collected the grenade along with a total of seventy-eight Spirit Power Gene Fluids from this batch, absorbing them all.

*Very nice.*

He kept moving.

His thoughts drifted toward pleasanter speculation. With all this Spirit Power, he might not only temper Seed of Nature to completion but also build up enough reserves to evolve Crimson Copper Light right after his next breakthrough. And if he let himself dream a little bigger — what if he had enough Spirit Power to push Seed of Nature all the way to Lord Grade, then immediately evolve whatever new genes he recorded at that stage?

Mulling over the possibilities, he turned his steps toward Amy's direction.

In the Aier Mechanical Ruins, taller buildings held richer prizes. Lu Yuan had confirmed that much.

As he followed the street toward the hundred-meter tower, he noticed the side alleys gradually feeding into the main boulevard, narrowing the routes until only one broad road remained ahead — over thirty meters wide.

He raised his gaze.

There, rising above a sea of steel buildings standing thirty to forty meters tall, a single jet-black structure dominated the skyline — over a hundred meters high, towering above everything around it like a crane among sparrows.

*The tallest building I've seen anywhere near here.* He intended to go inside and see what it held.

The hundred-meter tower was ringed by shorter steel buildings, and before it stretched a plaza more than two hundred meters across. Ten squads of mechanical guards patrolled the perimeter in a steady rotation — and every one of them was noticeably better armed than the regular patrols out on the streets.

At the tower's entrance, a single mechanical warrior stood guard: over three meters of steel, a massive greataxe strapped across its back. It wasn't moving. It simply stood there. And yet the pressure it radiated was a tangible, physical weight.

On the single street leading into the plaza, three groups of Gene Warriors had squared off.

Six Gnolls. Their leader was enormous — over two meters of muscle and sinew, gripping a black iron club in both hands.

Five Kamans. Their leader was a cold-eyed warrior carrying a greataxe.

Seven Green Demons. Short — barely a meter and a half each — with two curving horns, deep-green skin, and eyes like burning coals. Their leader wielded a glowing green Staff, wisps of green mist coiling constantly around him.

Far behind all three groups, the street was scattered with bodies — Elves, Cat-kin, Gnolls, humans, and more. Those who had discovered the hundred-meter tower before these three teams had not survived the encounter.

All three teams had proved their strength in that culling. All three were watching each other now with cold, calculating eyes, none willing to be the first to move.

The silence had held for some time.

Then the giant Gnoll's fangs showed in a savage grin.

The Kaman leader fixed him with a flat, icy stare, greataxe in hand. "What exactly are you getting at?"

The Gnoll laughed. "Simple. We pool our strength, wipe out all the mechanical guards, take the tower — and then each team fights for the spoils on its own merits. What do you say?"

The Green Demon leader watched the exchange without speaking, his crimson eyes gleaming with sly amusement, a smug smile playing at his lips.

The Kaman swept a suspicious eye across both the Gnolls and the Green Demons. "And who's to say you won't play tricks behind our backs?"

Silence.

Then the giant Gnoll's voice took on the weight of a formal declaration. "I'm Yuwu — third son of the Iron Fang Tribe chieftain. On the Iron Fang Tribe's name: we Gnolls will not betray our allies before this tower falls."

Neither side answered right away.

After a moment, the Green Demon leader's gaze shifted between both groups. A somewhat shrill voice cut through the tension: "Our strength is roughly equal. Standing here in a standoff doesn't solve anything — it only wastes time. Every moment inside the ruins is precious. You don't want to be stuck out here either, do you?"

He pressed on before either side could object. "We don't have much time. Don't forget — this area doesn't belong to just us. There's no guarantee that stronger fighters won't show up. Every second we waste here, the more likely something goes sideways. When that happens, the treasures inside won't necessarily be ours. Are you really going to just keep standing here?"

That was precisely what each of them had been worried about. And behind the unspoken concern lay another: something even more powerful might already be on its way.

The standoff held a moment longer. Then the Kaman leader relented. "The mechanical warrior at the entrance looks formidable — but with three teams working together, storming this tower shouldn't be much trouble."

"No time to waste — let's move!" He tightened his grip on his battle axe. "I'm Bamu."

The Green Demon smiled, a faint green glow kindling at the tip of his Staff. "I'm Ningna. A pleasure working together."

Yuwu exhaled slowly and let himself relax.

Ningna nodded. Just as he was about to speak—

Every face in the group shifted. All three teams turned as one toward the street behind them.

Far down the road, rounding a corner at a steady jog, was a figure in black armor.

A human male. Alone.

Three sets of eyes stared.

"A human?" The disbelief was plain. "Alone? He actually dares come here?"

The Green Demon leader moved first. A green arrow shot from his Staff toward the incoming figure before the man had done anything at all.

"Kill him, then let's get moving before more people show up."

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow. He didn't slow down.

*I hadn't even attacked yet.*

The ground beneath his feet fractured in a spider-web of cracks. His speed surged. Flicker carried him past the arrow mid-stride, body flickering as he drove straight toward all three teams.

*From what he could gauge, these three groups posed no real threat.*

His plan was simple: take out all three teams first, then take the tower for himself.

He tightened his grip on Dark Red Blade. Power detonated from his legs.