Chapter 478: Blazing Stairs
Chapter 478: Blazing Stairs
"The first hundred stairs are engraved with a special array. Once activated, they can even pull an Embodiment Realm cultivator into an inescapable illusion which will make you forget everything about your recent interactions. You wouldn’t even know that you are taking a test... Only your willpower will decide your fate inside it.
There is no limit on how many stairs you should climb to pass the test, but generally thirty is considered the passing point because only after that do the pavilion masters become interested in you and invite you to join their pavilion."
Cui Shuyin mentioned that and looked at Lin Feng keenly.
"So if you are ready, then you can start. We will meet you after you stop climbing..."
Lin Feng gave a slight nod, "Alright..."
He was a little interested in going through this test. Absolute illusions are basically reality for those who enter them, so whatever decision he would make would be a decision he would have made in real life if such a situation arose.
"Then go on..."
Cui Shuyin sent a wisp of her qi into the node beside the entrance, and the stairs began glowing slightly.
Lin Feng looked at the glowing stairs and moved towards them. Without hesitation, he climbed the first step.
His consciousness blurred immediately, and when he was able to perceive anything, he frowned.
"Where am I?"
Lin Feng looked at the blazing stairs floating in the void in front of him with a confused expression. He had a feeling that something was wrong with him. He immediately tried to peer inside his soul but he failed to do so, it was as if some barrier has been put around his soul sea..
He can still feel the roots Eternal Dao Lotus inside his body so it was obvious that his soul sea was still normal..
Suddenly his instincts perceived something, and he looked behind him, and his eyes widened slightly.
The barren ground he was standing on was vanishing as if it was getting erased from existence. His other thoughts of finding out his situation vanished, he had to survive this first.
He looked at the world around him and frowned. It was just a small barren ground floating in the void, and the only way to leave it seemed to be the blazing stairs in front of him, since only at the top could he see a golden gate.
He looked towards the vanishing ground once more, and he chuckled lightly, "Is it some kind of test?"
That was the only conclusion he could come to. He didn’t know what kind of test he had put himself through or what had really happened in the past few days, but he didn’t want to find out what would happen if that vanishing ground reached him.
Maybe this wasn’t some kind of illusion, maybe death here meant real death. He had to tread carefully.
He turned his gaze towards the stairs which were enveloped in faint illusory flames. He could already feel the heat, so it was definitely going to burn him if he set foot on them.
He tried to fly but failed to do so, his cultivation realm was restricted too.
He shook his head and decided to walk. He climbed onto the first step and felt the heat surrounding his legs.
The flames reached his ankles, but they didn’t seem strong enough to burn him. However, he could already see the intensity of the flames rising with every step along with their size, so that was going to change soon. Although, he wasn’t much worried about it, pain was the last thing he had ever feared.
As he was thinking that, unexpectedly the flames on the first step died down, making it a normal stair.
"So taking the step is the only hard part, well it didn’t matter anyway..."
He took the second step.
...
Outside, Sun Xiurong and Cui Shuyin watched Lin Feng take the second step.
"How far will he go?" Cui Shuyin asked with obvious curiosity in her eyes.
"You are trying to compare him to yourself again, aren’t you?" Sun Xiurong sighed in exasperation.
Cui Shuyin smiled, "Not only myself, with yourself too..."
She had seen Lin Feng’s strength, and she wanted to know how an alchemist held such might... Was it some peerless body cultivation technique, or was his strength really beyond his realm?
The guard disciples standing behind Cui Shuyin and Sun Xiurong got shocked hearing that.
They looked at Lin Feng with unbelievable expressions while thinking if he really was someone comparable to their Senior Sister Sun Xiurong.
"S-should we inform our pavilion masters about it?" One of them used spiritual sense to ask the other two.
They were all from different pavilions and had just been assigned to this mission of guarding the entrance randomly since not many disciples wanted these missions.
Who would have thought that they would witness the test of some genius who was comparable to Senior Sister Sun Xiurong here?
If they informed their respective pavilions, then if this new disciple got recruited by them, they might receive some unexpected merits from their pavilion masters.
The other two disciples nodded slightly but with troubled expressions. How should they do it in the presence of Elder Cui?
What if she had brought this disciple for her own pavilion? Wouldn’t informing their pavilions in her presence incur her wrath?
"Tsk... Your little conversation hasn’t gone unnoticed by me... Go on, do it, I don’t care about that" Cui snorted at their crude use of spiritual sense in front of her.
The disciples’ breaths got stuck in their lungs when they heard that. They didn’t have the slightest clue that she would be able to perceive their conversation.
They looked at each other with horrified expressions and engraved it in their hearts to never do something like that again in the presence of such strong seniors.
One by one they flew to inform their respective pavilions. Since she had given permission, they at least didn’t have to worry about her wrath.
As for guarding the entrance, since the array was active, no one could trespass anyway.
Cui Shuyin suddenly thought of something and looked at Sun Xiurong with an amused expression.
Sun Xiurong became bewildered, "What?"