Black Night Witch Comes of Age

"Forty-First Level!"

"Forty-Second Level!"

"Forty-Third Level!"

Amid the enormous gasps of amazement from the onlookers, Bai Jiacao continued upward.

It was clear that each step was becoming more arduous. She no longer had the effortless ease and dancing grace from the beginning.

Beads of sweat the size of soybeans rolled continuously down her flushed cheeks, evaporating from her faintly trembling muscles and turning into a thin veil of white mist.

Mysterious, intricate Spirit Runes, beautiful as feathers, also surfaced across her skin, as though a pair of exquisitely magnificent wings were folded from her shoulder blades down her back.

She began to hesitate, brows knitted as she pondered deeply over the best path upward.

At the Forty-Third Level, she remained for a full thirty seconds, repeatedly adjusting the great cauldron's position.

The angular great cauldron had chafed bloody marks into both shoulders. Her already delicate skin swelled like ripe peaches.

The sight made Meng Chao's eyelids twitch, his heart aching unbearably.

Yet he still clasped his parents' hands tightly and said in a low, steadfast voice, "It's all right. Trust Xiao Cao. If she wants to do something, she'll definitely be able to do it!"

Sure enough, after a full thirty seconds—so long it felt like thirty minutes—just as everyone thought this stubborn little girl was finally about to turn back the way she had come, she carried the great cauldron and took two thudding steps upward, reaching the Forty-Fifth Level, this year's best score among the new students!

By then, she had climbed nearly half the Heaven Ladder and reached a height of four or five stories above the ground.

Everyone craned their necks, staring at her every movement.

Perhaps because she had moved too quickly, she failed to plant her feet firmly and stumbled.

A wave of alarmed