Tower of Heaven

\'The entire plan revolves around my ability to accept tasks and disappear fast enough to not alert the assassins.\'

If he stayed in the relative area of the task for too long, they\'d immediately understand what he was doing and ruin his chances.

\'They do not want me to leave the 21st Floor. Truly, they have gone out of their way.\'

Every floor had an upper limit. On the 11th Floor, the highest level of individual was an Earth Sage. Here, however, the upper limit was the Law Sea Realm.

This was beyond Atlas\' abilities, especially because he could sense a stronger qi from some of those assassins.

\'They are above the Law Sea Realm and have suppressed their cultivation to enter this floor.\'

It meant that they were more dangerous than the average Law Sea Realm cultivator, but it also gave Atlas something to exploit.

\'If I am able to break that suppression, will the Tower expel them from this floor?\'

It was definitely an option if he wanted to thin the enemy\'s numbers.

Xiu!

Atlas\' eyes widened as a projectile shot by his face. It skidded across his mask and left a scar before slamming into the tree in front of him and destroying it.

\'I must evacuate.\'

He didn\'t think they\'d find him already. He increased his pace and dashed through the forest, time slowing down in his eyes as he took note of every presence he could possibly sense in the surroundings.

[Lightning Shadow Steps]

Atlas\' body blurred into a streak of lightning. He zig-zagged through the trees incomprehensible. His body turned into multiple shadows that moved in different directions. Each of his steps developed a personality of its own, fooling those who followed him.

The moment Atlas saw a stretch of straight land for him to cross, he changed his movements.

[Astral Steps]

It was said to be a technique that was used to duel between the stars. Each step was meant to take one several hundreds of thousands of kilometers in a single direction.

It didn\'t have such effects for Atlas, but the speed it provided was not a joke.

Whoosh!

Atlas became even faster. His surroundings cleared up, which took away the cover that the assassins were using. Several of them still pursued him into the field, but they could not match his speed.

\'No, they can, but they are not.\'

Which meant that there was a trap that he was being led to.

[Cloud Steps]

Atlas\' movements abruptly stopped in the eyes of others. He turned into a mirage in one place, an ever-changing image of a hazy being that could not be considered completely human.

No, he was an entity without form, a cloud on earth.

This footwork was not necessarily meant to be used in such a way, but Atlas was innovating. He canceled the speed from [Astral Steps] by keeping his steps at a continuous rate but shortening the range in which they occurred to a small area around his body.

It was a risky move. If he missed a step, he was bound to shatter the bones in his legs.

\'But I am more than confident in the body that was created during my breakthrough to Earth Sage.\'

Atlas planted his foot. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the assassins behind him trying to stop and meet him. Their behavior suggested that there were more assassins waiting in the forest on the other side of the clearing, but if that was the case…

\'A majority of their force has been concentrated here.\'

Those behind numbered ten. So far, Atlas had observed twenty-two different body types in the people chasing him.

\'There are an additional fifty people assigned to each Celestial Ladder, but they will not leave those locations.\'

The actual pursuit force was only around thirty people.

\'As long as they are concentrated here, in the northwest, then the rest of the floor is relatively open.\'

Atlas gritted his teeth. He said he was going to save them, but the opportunity was too good.

\'I will have to eat the loss and find a way to gather more teleportation talismans.\'

Atlas pulled another one out of his spatial ring.

"Lay down the formation!"

It was yelled out and people did respond, but they were too late. By the time they\'d made a move, Atlas was gone.

\'Huu…\'

He took a deep breath as he surveyed the area.

\'This foliage…I am in the southeast.\'

If so, then it was better to change his plans. Both Celestial Ladders were in the North, so he didn\'t need to worry about the strongest of forces.

\'And, as I have teleported, it will take at least one hour for them to find my location.\'

The artifacts and methods they used were improved compared to what Atlas knew, however, they were still meant to be used only in the Mortal Realms.

Such artifacts and items had weaknesses and limitations. If these assassins were given the Immortal variants of these same artifacts, Atlas would have already been dead.

Nevertheless, he didn\'t stop to consider the possibilities. Instead, he immediately found a vantage point and located the nearest city, using it to decipher his exact location.

\'This is good.\'

In fact, the nearest Replica was less than half an hour away. If Atlas moved now, he would be able to reach and take the task before the assassins located him.

He didn\'t waste any time. The next twenty-three minutes were spent silently sprinting through the forests. Atlas eventually reached a cave hidden in the wall of a mountain.

This was the defining moment. Here, he would find out the most crucial piece of missing information.

How many contribution points would he receive from a single task?

Atlas entered the cave and faced the woman who was sitting against the wall inside.

"Warrior, are you strong?" She asked the moment she saw him.

"I am strong enough," Atlas responded awkwardly. He couldn\'t get used to it. The Replicas looked and acted so human that it was hard to imagine them as fakes.

"Warrior, please help me get revenge. I will do anything," the woman said.

If there was one thing setting her apart from an ordinary human, it was that she operated on a set of rules like a golem. She could not truly entertain conversation with him.

…or could she?

"Warrior, if you are working as a mercenary, then I can reward you with contribution points. If you are able to kill the Ironblood Hound pack that lives five kilometers to the north and bring me their heads, then I will give you all I have."

"How much is that?" Atlas asked.

"I will give you twenty points per head that you bring me."

Atlas raised an eyebrow. He didn\'t know about the Ironblood Hounds, but most canine species traveled in packs of eight to twelve members. That meant that Atlas was guaranteed somewhere between one hundred and sixty or two hundred and forty contribution points if he slaughtered them.

\'If I\'m lucky, I can reach the halfway point with a single task.\'

Fortune guided him to what truly was the best option in this moment. Taking a moment to check how far the sun had traveled down the horizon, he responded to the woman.

"I will take your task. Expect more Ironblood Hound heads than you can carry to arrive in the next few days."

With that, he left. He disappeared from the cave and took off running in the direction of the Ironblood Hounds.

\'If I kill them in twenty minutes or less, then everything will go smoothly.\'

They didn\'t know it yet, but today was bound to become a nightmare for all Ironblood Hounds going forth.

It was the day that some members of their species met a massacre they were never expecting.

But, to Atlas, it was nothing more than one more step in the plan.