(OLD/NOT CANON) Immortal Ascension Tower

Chapter 115 - Paradox

From what Cheng Hao knew, they were pretty much the same, weren't they? A Spirit who still held the title and one who had retired didn't seem different at all in his eyes.

The only thing that changed was the addition of the word 'Former' before the title... they even kept their ability, their dogma, after all.

"I have a question..." Cheng Hao asked all of a sudden, interrupting and slightly startling the girl.

Xu Ling raised one of her eyebrows in displeasure, but still nodded:

"Sure. Feel free to ask."

"Why... is the status as an active Spirit so important?" Cheng Hao

"To answer that, I'll need to explain a certain something to you first, I hope that's okay for you? Good. Alright then, listen closely and think about this: what would happen if the current Spirit was to meet a danger to the Mountain he could not defeat?" As the woman spoke, Cheng Hao perked up his ears.

The woman noticed this and thus continued her explanation.

"If that were to be the case, the standard procedure would be to find a successor, to whom one would pass the Mountain's power on... and then that person would be put in charge of defending the Mountain from any danger."

On the screen, the girl drew two stick figures. One had an angry face, the other had the symbol for soul on its head. The Spirit was visibly smaller than its opponent, so the girl crossed it out and drew another one, bigger than the other small Spirit, but still not as big as the angry stick figure.

"If, once trained to his peak, he is still unable to drive away the danger, the Spirit would simply do the same as his predecessor and pass the title on."

Just like that, she crossed out tens, dozens of stick figures, until the last, remaining one was just slightly taller than the angry-faced figurine. When this happened, the girl crossed out the other figurine instead, leaving behind the now massive Spirit of the Mountain.

"This will happen until the danger isn't eradicated. Until then, dozens, maybe even hundreds of Spirits could be nurtured, all to defeat a single enemy. Each of these cycles, we refer to it as a 'Generation'. The one to defeat the danger would then lower the curtain upon the generation that has just passed, and lift them again to welcome the next! He would then immediately pass on his knowledge about the Spirits to his successor and then guide him on his path..."

The girl sighed with feeling as she looked down at her body:

"I have fought with the very person I am using as a vessel now for a long, long time and finally managed to defeat her... however before me, countless Spirits have fallen at her hands. Now, with her defeat, the burden of the next danger has fallen upon the next generation..."

Cheng Hao stared in awe as more pieces began to fall together:

So this is what he meant when he referred to himself as the oldest of this generation... so he has fought this person and... and...

And the almost completed puzzle suddenly fell apart completely!

Uh? What's this? What she said does not make sense!

"Wait a second now! How, and why, are you here? If you defeated this 'Danger to the Mountain' you were talking about, why did you suddenly appear here? Weren't you supposed to lead the next generation? If you were locked in that dimension you said, shouldn't the cycle be interrupted?"

Cheng Hao looked at the girl with suspicion when, suddenly, his face fell. He immediately backed away and smirked as he prepared to use the most powerful abilities he would be able to muster at a moment's notice. His whole body radiated killing intent and the faint outline of a tower began to appear in front of him...