King’s Cage

The **King's Cage** was a comprehensive smelting trial of the 12 Heavenly Demon Towers that tackles a martial artist's foundation. However, in truth, the King's Cage involves one of Empyrean Primordius' inheritance - the Asura martial intent.

One has to go through qualification tests in order to reach that final stage. This involves two main levels:

# **First Level**

The first trial was the qualifiers to the main smelting trial - the special practice area. If one does not reach the standard of a Titled Asura, then one has no hope in comprehending the Asura martial intent.

The contents of the qualification smelting trial vary for every person.

Each person will encounter different scenarios. Basically, this trial was all-encompassing, each cultivation path one excelled at would be completely involved. This also included soul force potency and true essence perseverance.

## Rankings

The King’s Cage has different ranking smelting trial qualifications. There are many factors involved. In short, talent, soul, strength, all of these factors and more are closely linked to the final result. It is a complete and comprehensive evaluation of all young heroic elites.

The smelting trial qualifications are divided into four different grades. The first three grades are also divided into low, medium, and high:

* **Common**
* **Saint**
* **Asura**
* **Titled Asura**

## Overview

This stone chamber was around 200 feet wide, and it contained an indescribably rugged and potent energy. It was like a mystical door to another dimension, leading to an endless ancient and primal wilderness. On the walls of this chamber were doors of light; it was unknown where they went.

### **King Tablet**

Near these doors of light stood a 100 foot high stone tablet. This seemed like stone, but it also seemed like metal. As one stared at it, they could sense a faint Law as well as an origin of energy, causing them to tremble in their feet.

This stone tablet is called the King Tablet. Every time a martial artist enters the King’s Cage smelting trial and obtains a high-grade Saint level qualification ranking, their names will appear on the King Tablet. The name stays for 10,000 years.

### **Titled Asura**

From top to bottom, the stone tablet was entirely covered with countless names. The very top three rows only had one name each:

1. ‘**Sky Ghost Asura, Shentu Hongxi**’
2. ‘**Netherworld Asura, Mo Kun**’
3. ‘**Eightfall Asura, Hao Gan**’
4. ‘**Evil God Asura, Lin Ming**’

As for a Titled Asura, that is an Asura with their own unique title. In the last 10,000 years, there have only been a total of three Titled Asuras in the Polaris Tower.

The other towers had their own Titled Asuras:

* Lian Ku
* Gu Yu - Fascination Skysplit Tower
* Xiao Yu - Heavenly Cloud Skysplit Tower

Those that can become a Titled Asura are surely the proudest sons of heaven in their generation. But even if all 12 Skysplit Towers are added together, these are still extremely rare existences.

The titles that Skysplit Tower bestowed upon certain individuals were not random. It was said that the qualifications smelting trial had a certain ability to predict the future. For instance, Hao Gan was given the title of Eightfall Asura, and after that he really crossed eight stages of Life Destruction before reaching the Divine Sea. Soon after, the world respectfully called him the Eightfall War Emperor

### **Heaven-Step Asura**

Followed right after the three Titled Asura was one rank – heaven-step Asura. A high Asura is amongst the most splendid of all heaven-step Asuras. Underneath this heaven-step Asura were several dozen names, each filled with a strange flavor.

There were a total of 36 heaven-step Asura. This was the total accumulation of 10,000 years, which meant that there was an average of one every 300 years:

* Feng Shen

### **Earth-Step Asura**

Below that were earth-step Asuras. There were a total of 150 people listed here:

* Yan Chi

Then below that were human-step Asuras. There were even more people listed here.

### **Saint**

Finally, below that was the high-grade Saint level. These names filled the rest of the entire stone tablet. Because there were so many of these names, they seemed unremarkable bunched up next to each other. But, in truth these individuals were the peerless geniuses of their eras.

Someone who couldn’t surpass an hour inside could only be ranked as a medium-grade Saint level. This wasn’t even enough to be recorded on the King Tablet.

# **Second Level**

This was the final level of the King’s Cage. By obtaining a high level smelting trial qualification, the benefits were naturally much greater.

If one only obtained normal Saint level qualifications, or even an ordinary qualification, then there wasn’t much meaning in entering.

The qualification one obtained all depended on their own individual ability. A Titled Asura level King’s Cage was a rare experience. It was said that after the Eightfall War Emperor entered the King’s Cage, he was then able to comprehend the Laws of Space and Time. This set down the solid foundation for his future achievement of becoming an unstoppable powerhouse within his level!

Entering the King’s Cage requires 20 slaughter points. In your life, you can only enter the King’s Cage one time, and your skeletal age must be less than 30 years too. There is no time limit inside. Regardless of what rank King’s Cage one entered, it still cost 20 slaughter points.

## Time Limitations

Generally, a heroic young elite from a top fourth-grade sect or a bottom fifth-grade sect would be able to stay in the King’s Cage for around 10 days of time.

On a higher step, those young outstanding youths that were listed as Asuras on the King Tablet could last 15 days to a month.

* For instance, the number one ranked Heavenly Demon Seven Stars and also a heaven-step Asura, **Feng Shen**, was able to stay inside for 28 days.
* As for the worse **Yan Chi**, who was listed as an earth-step Asura, he stayed within for 21 days.

### **Records**

* According to legends, almost 3000 years ago, the person that stayed in the King’s Cage for the longest period of time was the **Eightfall War Emperor**. He stayed inside for an entire two months.
* Beneath the Eightfall War Emperor was the **Netherworld Asura Mo Kun**, who stayed inside for 45 days. The Netherworld Asura went missing afterwards and his achievements became unknown. With all the coinciding evidence, went missing afterwards during a journey, he possibly is the Netherworld Great Emperor.
* As for the first **Sky Ghost Asura Shentu Hongxi**, because those were events from 8000 years ago, the records were unclear and there were several versions of myths. It was unknown how long the real Shentu Hongxi stayed within the King’s Cage.
* Lin Ming had already broken this record with over four months, 100 days, if he had not been stopped by High Lord Heian and Suo Ge then this would have been the end. Later on, he would be the first to complete the entire trial at 108 days and obtain the Asura martial intent.
	+ From the time in Thundercrash Mountain and Demon God Imperial Palace, this was the third time that Lin Ming's destiny greatly affected his martial road.
	+ This was also one of Lin Ming's suicidal moments where he swallowed the extremely hot Demon God Bone and the Nameless Divine Pill in order to reach the Gate of Healing. If he hadn't done so, then he would have already died to the crushing potential of the Heavenly Demon martial intent and the Demon God Bone that complemented it.

## Exit

Upon entering the King’s Cage, it is possible that you will encounter an extremely dangerous or life-threatening situation. If you find that you cannot withstand it, then you can use the given escape talisman to exit.

This could only transmit one to a fixed point within Skysplit Tower, not just that, but it was a very short distance.

Before the creation of the escape talismans, there was an extremely high chance that a martial artist would perish within the King’s cage. A great number of martial artists believed that they could withstand the pressure from the Heavenly Demon force field. At that time, as attacking became more and more difficult, they would finally be unable to break through the cage, resulting in their death within.

After the escape talismans were created, the death rate greatly decreased. But, there were still those who died inside.

## Details

After one entered the special practice area, they would be transported to a vast white plain - this was the true King’s Cage. However, there are even more corresponding levels to it. The King’s Cage smelting trial was divided into multiple levels.

The weak could only make it through a few layers, so they naturally stayed here for a shorter period of time. But a powerhouse could rush past many more, thus they stayed here a longer time.

If this was normal practice, then after someone exhausted all of their true essence they could just sit in meditation for several hour and then take a long sleep to recover all their physical strength.

But in the King’s Cage, they had to resist the pressure of the Heavenly Demon force field even when they were sleeping, constantly consuming true essence. Every 10 days this pressure would rise.

If a martial artist with a poor recovery rate came and his rate of true essence consumption was higher than what he could recover in meditation, how could he persist in the King’s Cage?

### **Rule**

Breaking the King’s Cage didn’t depend on a single strike to reach the standard that could break the cage. Rather, it looked at the total accumulated strike damage to measure whether it achieved the standard.

It was like the cage itself had an invisible life value. Every attack against this barrier would consume a part of this value. When all of this value was depleted, then the cage would naturally break.

At the critical point right before the peak, even a random punch would shatter the cage.

In other words, as long as one had enough time, they could continuously break through these cages.

### **Cage** **Layers**

* **Black Cage**
	+ A completely enclosed black cage that needed to be broken in order to finish. Normally, one would need to have the strength of a weak early Revolving Core in order to break it.
	+ To those Asura-ranked martial artists and above, the martial artist would once again return to that vast white space and destroy the cage once again.
	+ After breaking through the first three cages, that completes the basic test for a Titled Asura and one can choose to leave after.
	+ 1-5 Black Cages

* **Rainbow Cage**
	+ For Titled Asura martial artists, a rainbow light would into a new King’s Cage around them.
	+ This time, one would begin to discover that something suspicious was happening. This rainbow colored cage began to be filled with an invisible energy field. Afterwards, with time, the energy field began to grow increasingly strong, until it reached the point that it affected everything - basically from the flesh to the soul.
	+ If someone was enveloped by this energy field and had to constantly attack with all of their effort, then the load on their muscles, meridians, and organs could be imagined. No wonder some martial artists can only last for several days.
	+ 6-9 Rainbow Cages

* **Black** **Chaos Cage**
	+ This time, the cage was completely different from the usual barriers of light. Everything in front of him turned pitch-black, chaotic. He couldn’t see anything at all.
	+ A thick darkness manifested into reality, fusing together with the Heavenly Demon force field. An overwhelming force enveloped everything, making one feel as if he were suffocating.This chaotic darkness contained a great resistance. Even moving was extremely difficult.
	+ In the last cage, as long as one had enough striking power, they could break through it sooner or later. But now this current cage, no matter how fierce one’s attack was, it would eventually fade away into this regenerating darkness that had manifested into existence.
	+ This was where the Eightfall War Emperor had been defeated.
	+ 10-11 Chaos Cages

* **Twelfth Cage, Dimensional Fragments**
	+ The power of space seemed to warp. Then, space would begin collapsing. This rupturing of space created vast amounts of space fragments, blocking him in every direction.
	+ And in this confined space, there were ominous space cracks everywhere. There were some that once could see, and some that couldn’t be seen, perception not even noticing them. They were like the jaws of a giant beast, waiting for their prey to arrive.

* **Thirteenth Cage, Space-Time Cage**
	+ After breaking the Space Cage, one would face the fused space fragments that formed into a space storm. This was a space storm that contained the Law of Time – it was obviously a new cage. This space storm was the most violent one that he had met up until now!