Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

"Finally free!"

Upon seeing the remnant soul and the familiar scene, Gou An collapsed to the ground.

"After all these years, you're the first one to succeed!"

The remnant soul spoke.

"What do you mean?" Gou An asked, puzzled.

"It means exactly what it says. Since this trial was established, hundreds of people have probably gone in, but only you came out!" the remnant soul replied.

"So the lighthouse on the surface was a trap from the very beginning!" Gou An sighed.

The remnant soul nodded slightly: "That's right. When a person arrives in an unknown place, they will subconsciously move in the direction that provides guidance!"

"So no matter who it is, they will fall into this trap."

"Therefore, this trial tests whether you can remain calm and composed amidst chaos and confusion, and whether you can discover the key to the problem!"

"There are many smart people in the world, but often, smart people die because of their own cleverness."

"In the River of Souls, all living beings chase after the bright lamp, believing it to be the other shore. Little do they know, that light is the prison itself."

"Alright, alright!"

Gou An waved his hand, not wanting to hear any more nonsense, and urged, "Let me rest a bit. Let's start this level of the trial later!"

After finishing his sentence, Gou An simply lay down and fell fast asleep.

During the time he was trapped in Hunjiang, Gou An felt utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally.

When trapped inside, they can still survive by relying on their will to live.

But once I came out, my body relaxed, and all the sleepiness and fatigue rushed over me at once.

Gou An slept exceptionally soundly, not knowing how long he slept, but he woke up naturally.

After Gou An got up, he stretched comfortably with a big yawn, his bones cracking and popping all over.

But when Gou An looked around, he suddenly realized that he was no longer on the ninth floor of the pagoda, but had come to a strange place.

There is a stone platform here, covered with runes, ancient and mysterious.

All around was nothingness, boundless and devoid of any presence.

The remnant soul hovered quietly to the side, motionless. Most importantly, there was a countdown hourglass next to the remnant soul, and the hourglass was almost empty.

"Hey, what's going on?" Gou An asked the remnant soul.

The remnant soul glanced at the hourglass, then replied, "There is less than half an hour left until the end of the ninth level of the trial!"

"Huh?" Gou An exclaimed in surprise, and hurriedly asked, "The trial has already begun?"

The remnant soul nodded slightly and said, "It has been six hours!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Gou An glanced at the hourglass and yelled angrily, "Didn't I say we'd start later?"

"The key is that there's no such rule!" The remnant soul simply shook its head, looking completely innocent.

Gou An knew that saying anything more would be futile, so he could only pounce on the stone table and ask, "Hey! Tell me, what exactly is the trial on this level?"

Gou An didn't want to fail at the last level after passing eight levels in a row.

"Then I'll repeat myself!" the remnant soul slowly spoke: "The trial on the final level is very special; you will transform from a challenger of the previous eight levels into a designer!"

"What do you mean?" Gou An immediately asked.

"The table in front of you is an ancient magical artifact!" the remnant soul continued. "It can create all sorts of formations, items, and so on out of thin air!"

"You will be designing a trial level that another person will then attempt to overcome!"

"If your opponent succeeds in this round, you have failed!"

"If the other party fails this test, then you succeed!"

"Furthermore, the trial you designed will be permanently stored in the Ancient Tower Trials content library."

"The trial design requires that there be a correct route and method to pass the level; there cannot be only dead ends!"

"It must test intelligence, not cultivation level or strength."

After hearing this, Gou An immediately perked up.

I never expected the final trial to be like this.

Suddenly, he seemed to remember something, and questioned the remnant soul, "But now I'm the only one in the ancient tower. Who will challenge the trials I designed?"

The remnant soul smiled slightly and said, "This ancient tower secret realm you are in is just one of countless worlds."

"Hmm?" Gou An was slightly taken aback when he heard this.

"The level you've designed is the challenge that another trial participant who has soloed the eighth level of the ancient tower trials in other worlds will soon face!"

Upon hearing this, Gou An suddenly realized: "So, only one of us can successfully pass this test?"

"That's right!" the remnant soul nodded.

Gou An then asked, "You still haven't told me what the reward will be after I clear all nine levels!"

"Let's get through this first!" The remnant soul glanced at the hourglass. "Your time is running out!"

"I have another question!" Gou An suddenly said.

"You speak!" The remnant soul nodded.

"Was the trial on the eighth level that I experienced also designed by other challengers?" Gou An asked.

The remnant soul nodded: "That's right, a genius!"

"Alright!" Gou An scratched his head, walked back to the stone table, and began to ponder deeply.

Since it's a genius from another world who has reached the eighth level, it can't be designed to be too easy, otherwise the opponent will pass it easily.

However, Gou An doesn't know the other party's identity or expertise, making it difficult to design targeted content.

Therefore, I can only use the most difficult problems I know.

So what is the most difficult thing?

Was that the ferry crossing on the Soul River just now?

But in the end, he still came out. If he had encountered someone smarter and calmer than himself, he would have had a great chance of losing.

Moreover, this time loop design is too complicated, leaving insufficient time for oneself.

After much deliberation, Gou An finally decided to focus on mathematics.

Because if the other party is from another cultivation world, everyone will be relatively weak in terms of mathematics and arithmetic.

This is precisely Gou An's advantage, as Gou An's math scores were always quite excellent in his previous life.

So my first thought was to set a complex math problem.

Just then, a classic math Olympiad problem popped into Gou An's mind, one that had stumped many mathematical geniuses at the time.

That's the invisible rabbit!

However, if this question is to be turned into a test for postgraduate entrance examination, some of the rules need to be changed.

So Gou An placed his hands on the stone table and said to it, "First, give me a huge chessboard with ten thousand squares by ten thousand squares!"

The stone table immediately lit up with a white light, and the ground began to tremble slightly.

In just a short while, Gou An noticed that the surrounding scenery was beginning to change drastically.

The originally dusty ground was instantly transformed into a black and white chessboard pattern, with each square appearing to be approximately one meter by one meter in size.

The entire chessboard was astonishingly large; it seemed to stretch on forever.

Gou An was very surprised. He hadn't expected the stone table to be so magical. All he had to do was tell it what he wanted, and it would generate itself.

They really want to possess it!