The only magic tower Xiao Chen had been to was Suero's Spirit Eye Tower, but the appearance of that tower was completely different from the one in front of him.
There are twenty floors inside the Spirit Refining Tower. Each floor is a circular platform with an empty space in the middle, much like the structure of the world's shopping malls in the past. Connecting these platforms is an extremely long staircase that spirals upward, runs through all floors, and leads directly to the top of the magic tower.
The staircase is divided into two halves, the inner circle handrail is black, and the outer circle walkway is white.
When Xiao Chen entered the hall, it was as if he was inside a huge steel pipe, and the staircase was like the threads inside the "steel pipe". The roof at the end of the "steel pipe" was engraved with lighting runes, and from below, it looked like a small sun hanging on the roof.
"This is the road to refine the spirit." Feng Qi walked to Xiao Chen's side and looked up at the top of the tower with him. "The day I first stepped into this tower as a child, I longed to walk to the source of the white light. However, many years later, I realized that it was just a fantasy."
"Is there any restriction? I can vaguely feel a strange force shrouding this road." Xiao Chen said. When he observed the road, he felt an inexplicable pressure, as if it was a giant snake entwined in the tower.
Feng Qi nodded and said, "Your mental power is very sharp. This is a road of trial and test. People walking on the black side of this staircase will be subjected to various mental attacks. The higher you go, the stronger the mental attacks will be. People who go upstairs must reach a certain level of mental power to reach a certain floor. This is also a unique way for the Spirit Refining Tower to train mages and test apprentices."
"In the confrontation with the outside world, you can exercise your mental strength?"
"That's right. The first five floors are for magic apprentices, the fifth to tenth floors are for low-level magicians, the eleventh to fifteenth floors are for mid-level magicians, the sixteenth to eighteenth floors are for high-level magicians, and the last two floors can only be accessed by great magicians." Feng Qi explained. He paused and whispered, "Maybe someone will tell you about the twenty-first floor, but ignore it."
"Above the Great Magician, it must be the Holy Land, right?" Xiao Chen asked.
"The twenty-first floor does not exist. It's just a joke in the Spirit Refining Tower. If someone says: One day you will climb to the twenty-first floor, it means you can't go anywhere and can only daydream."
"Okay, so which floor can you go to?"
"The eighth floor. I can only accompany you there. Master Kona will be waiting for you on the floor where you stop."
Xiao Chen followed Feng Qi up the stairs. When they reached the second floor, Feng Qi turned around and asked him, "How do you feel?"
"What? Has it already started?" Xiao Chen asked in surprise.
"You didn't feel anything?" Feng Qi was also surprised. "For example, a strong wind?"
"Strong wind?" Xiao Chen only felt a slight breeze brushing across his face at this moment. He felt very comfortable and secretly sighed that the magic tower's fresh air system was very good.
He thought about it and understood that no matter it was a strong wind or a light breeze, it didn't exist. It was just a mental interference on the path of spiritual cultivation. But compared with the strong wind and rainstorm he experienced in the meditation world, what was it? He concentrated his mind, and sure enough, the light breeze disappeared in an instant.
"Ah, there was a little wind, but I didn't want it to appear, so it disappeared."
The two of them continued to walk up.
When Xiao Chen embarked on the path of spiritual cultivation, he found that the humble and polite Feng Qi was a complete outlier. Since there was only one way to go up and down the magic tower, they met many magic apprentices and low-level mages who were active at the bottom. Although their cultivation was not high, most of them had the dual identities of great nobles and mages. For ordinary mages like Feng Qi, arrogance was engraved on their faces.
Feng Qi would greet them one by one, but most people would just hum in response, or... not hum at all.
"I thought the Magic Tower would be a place where strength is paramount." Xiao Chen said.
"You're right, but in the capital, birth is the best strength. This is true outside the magic tower, and it's also true inside the magic tower. As long as there are people, the rules are always the same. Don't you think so?"
"Me?" Xiao Chen smiled. "You are right. In many places, birth represents resources and power, but it does not mean that this is the truth."
“So what is your truth?”
"When you think you are holding the truth, the fallacy has already been in your palm. I don't have the truth, I just think that a society where everyone gets more respect and personal efforts are recognized will be more lovely." Xiao Chen smiled with a hint of deep meaning in his eyes.
The two walked to the seventh floor, and Feng Qi was obviously struggling. From the fifth floor, he began to experience various visible hallucinations, with hail falling from the sky and flames coming out of the ground.
All these realistic scenes came from all directions and enveloped the trial-taker.
These hallucinations cannot be ignored by closing your eyes. As long as you cannot resist this mental invasion, the places hit by hail will hurt, and the places burned by fire will be scorched.
For Xiao Chen, these were all cool VR games, and all these attacks were just faint shadows in his eyes. But for Feng Qi, it was much more difficult. He began to arch his back, protecting his face with his hands, and letting out a muffled groan or two from time to time.
It turned out that this guy had to fight his way up to the eighth floor. Xiao Chen saw that he was getting more and more exhausted, so he slowed down his pace.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Xiao Chen, I'm slowing you down. My teacher said that if you can firmly believe that everything you see is fake, it will be much easier to deal with it. But to me, they are too real."
Xiao Chen thought this guy was good and decided to help him. He thought for a moment and then asked, "Feng Qi, what is the difference between reality and illusion?"
"This..." Feng Qi found it difficult to answer.
"To me, it's logic. As long as it's fake, there will be flaws and impossibilities. Finding this point may help you believe that what you see is an illusion."
Feng Qi looked puzzled: "But this hail and fire are exactly the same as what I have seen. I don't quite understand."
"If you were walking this road alone, it would be a little difficult. But now that we are walking together, it is very obvious. Look at me, this is the flaw." Xiao Chen opened his arms and stretched, "You and I are both in hail, in the raging fire, I can stand comfortably in front of you, while you are having such a hard time, this is what doesn't make sense."
"Eh? Yeah..., this doesn't make sense." Feng Qi slowly lowered his arm that was covering his forehead, his face full of excitement, "Really! This works, the pain is getting less and less."
He took a few steps up and said excitedly, "Your advice has helped me a lot. Maybe, maybe I will have a breakthrough today."
Xiao Chen stepped onto the next step, turned around and waved to him, "Come on, let's see how far you can go if you follow me today."