The teleportation array to the Heaven-Reaching Tower was unique. Unlike the smaller arrays in city manors, powered by energy crystals and opening a portal for thirty seconds, the Valiant-Adavocating Camp's array required a Tower credential.
Warriors needed to touch their cards to the glowing runes on the crystal pillars. Upon activation, the portal would open, sending each warrior to one of a hundred different landing spots, varying each time.
Before stepping to the pillar, Hessian reminded Eddie repeatedly to find him in the 'Undersea World'.
Pounding his hefty chest, Hessian boasted that his father was an influential figure in the Undersea World's commerce guild, a person of considerable standing in the Tower.
"Brother, don't worry. With me as your boss, I've got your back," Hessian almost shuddered with a self-assumed regal aura.
Eddie was secretly relieved the teleportation points differed, sparing his ears further agony.
When it was time to teleport, Eddie lightly pressed the crystal card given by the buxom woman against the runes on the pillar.
A burst of light enveloped him, feeling almost like a living entity rushing towards him before vanishing into thin air. When he regained his focus, he noticed his own shadowy image on the once-blank card.
The silhouette was unmistakably his, with a pair of wolf-like glowing eyes, but the rest of the face shrouded in darkness.
Around the image were various texts: name 'Titan,' race 'Human,' gender 'Male,' potential 'Unknown.' There was no assessment of strength.
The back of the card featured intricate runic patterns and lines indicating national merit, battle records, and task points.
As all the crystal pillars burst into brilliance, everyone basked in a sea of light. Seconds later, beams of light shot up into the sky from each pillar.
When the light faded, all the warriors touching the pillars had vanished without a trace.
Feeling a slight dizziness, Eddie soon found himself in an ornately decorated hall. Several warriors were sitting inside, initially disdainful of Eddie's plain thief attire.
However, their scornful expressions softened slightly upon seeing Grey, the Bronze Level Iron Ridge Demon Wolf, wagging its tail beside him.
They had seen Iron Ridge Demon Wolves before, but it was quite remarkable for a simple thief to have such a powerful beast as his companion.
"Wow, it's huge!" Eddie exclaimed as he stepped out of the grand hall of the warriors' courtyard and took in the view.
He had heard from his sister, Sophia, about the Heaven-Reaching Tower being surrounded by an ocean, forming a unique spectacle of an island within a sea within an island. However, he had not expected such a breathtaking sight.
Before him lay a vast, boundless ocean. This sea, known as the Stormy Sea, was notorious for its sudden hurricanes, especially when ships ventured upon it. Legends said no one had ever safely sailed away from the Heaven-Reaching Tower through these outer seas.
All who tried became either a feast for sea monsters or a snack for the aquatic golden king beasts. The only way to arrive or leave the Tower was through the large teleportation arrays of various nations.
The inner sea surrounding the island, known as the Forbidden Sky Sea, had ancient prohibitions preventing even flying beasts from taking to the air. Even a feather dropped onto its surface would immediately sink.
To reach the central island of the Tower, one had to cross what was said to be the 'Bridge of Life,' crafted by ancient gods, leading directly to the base of the Tower.
"This Heaven-Reaching Tower is quite a place!" Eddie mused. Despite rumors of its many levels and increasingly powerful monsters the higher one went, he wasn't deterred. In his eyes, the more levels, the better.
After all, training never ends, and there is no strongest, only stronger. If he could keep training in the Tower, constantly improving himself, it would be a joyous journey in life.
As for the legendary creatures from the abyss and mighty beings from the heavens, Eddie saw no difference. As long as they didn't bother him, he would live and let live. But if they crossed him, he would show no mercy, heaven-dweller or not.
Eddie noticed that the island chain surrounding the inner sea was divided into four major areas: East, West, South, and North.
The East area, where he currently was, belonged to the Great Xia Dynasty. It was ten times the size of Bishistone City, with magnificent buildings, wide streets, and towering pavilions exuding the aura of a powerful nation.
Even the open spaces were tastefully arranged with natural beauty, featuring pavilions, corridors, grasslands, black rocks, bamboo groves, bridges over flowing water, and turtle stone lotus ponds. Compared to this, Bishistone City seemed like a poor, rundown village.
"The size of this island chain is probably comparable to Hong Kong," Eddie thought as he walked for half an hour on the Bridge of Life, finally approaching the Heaven-Reaching Tower.
Up close, the Heaven-Reaching Tower appeared even more colossal — a seamless, shimmering white structure adorned with glowing runes.
It was impossibly vast, stretching beyond Eddie's estimate of three kilometers in diameter, and thousands of meters tall, just counting the part below the clouds. The force that built it was beyond human capabilities.
Inside, the Tower was vast and full of secrets yet to be unraveled. The elite who qualified for the second and third levels proceeded deeper into the Tower, while newcomers like Eddie only needed to enter through the first-level portal near the entrance.
"Crystal card? Who's your sponsor?" asked the middle-aged warrior at the first-level portal, surprised to see the card.
"It was a woman in charge of registration at the Valiant-Adavocating Camp," Eddie replied, knowing the card was special but playing dumb.
"What? There's no woman in charge of registration at the Valiant-Adavocating Camp! Isn't it the old man, Lu Lao? You saw a woman instead of a white-haired old man? What did she look like?" the middle-aged warrior asked, confused by Eddie's response.
"She was... well-endowed," Eddie described the voluptuous woman briefly, growing curious about her true identity. Wasn't she the regular registrar? Or was she Lu Lao's granddaughter?
The middle-aged warrior's face changed color upon hearing Eddie's description. He hastily waved him off, saying, "Forget I asked. Just go in."
Eddie, seeing the warrior's terrified reaction, was even more perplexed.
Was the buxom woman some fearsome entity?
His imagination ran wild with thoughts of her languid charm and voluptuous figure, wondering what it would be like to conquer such a woman.
Filled with these thoughts, Eddie stepped through the Tower's first-level portal. A second later, he found himself in a whole new world. "Ha! The Heaven-Reaching Tower, here I am!" he thought excitedly, ready to make his mark.
Before he could reflect further, a pained voice came from underfoot: "Hey, brother, could you get off me?"