Entering the Eternal Hero's Resting Place (Part One)

In the image, Cai'er, who was clearly already on the verge of collapse, still kept climbing, still scrambling upward without pause. In the unseen darkness, it seemed as though an incomparably powerful force was supporting her increasingly frail body.

Bang— On the one hundred and twelfth step, Cai'er suddenly fell hard, crashing heavily onto the step before her. Yet her right hand dug fiercely into the radiant surface of the stair, while her toes braced against the step below, refusing to let herself slide down.

Blood stained the hem of her long dress red and ran down from her toes. Cai'er's once peerlessly beautiful face was now covered in blood as well.

Her body trembled violently from having endured too much. Only her eyes remained as steadfast and determined as ever.

Gasping harshly, she barely managed to drag herself up another step. With a bang, she kowtowed once more.

"Don't go on any further!" someone in the crowd shouted. At once, all the citizens watching the image cried out together.

Climbing, fainting, climbing again, fainting again...

Cai'er fell time and again, then crawled back up time and again. By the time she climbed to the two hundredth step, she had become a person drenched in blood.

And at that point, she had already fallen unconscious on the Path to Heaven for the seventh time.

There was no longer any intact flesh on Cai'er's knees; stark white bone was directly exposed. Her fair, slender, beautiful legs kept spasming uncontrollably. Having lost too much blood, her entire body had turned a sickly pale. Her life was draining away at an alarming speed. Yet the Path to Heaven still showed no end.

By the time the image reached this point, Cai'er's figure had already been branded as deeply into the hearts of every