章 185: Resolve

"Teacher?" I turned to Guo, my dread forcing the more dependent honorific out of me. "it's said the depths of this place have nine layers in all. Has anyone ever surpassed the 9th layer?"

"I'm not sure." Elder Guo's lips actually pursed. "Flame Elder Shixin, does your sect have knowledge of this?"

Shixin's lips pursed too. "I cannot say whether it has never happened, but the Abbey does make a point of recording our own results in the Games, not just leaving it to the Earth Ascension Palace's record keepers, including if someone other than us clears a layer we don't.

The only sect on record from which even a single disciple or elder so much as reached the 9th layer in the more than 100,000 years since our sect was founded is the Earth Ascension Palace. The idea that a conspiracy is at work may not be impossible."