When everyone arrived at Heart-Questioning Mountain, they felt nothing. Only Man Gu could clearly feel his strength fading, his physical abilities drawing closer to everyone else's.
The boiling blood of the Ancient Barbarian Tribe within him had settled, no longer providing him with an endless stream of strength.
Everyone looked at one another, then finally turned their eyes to the strongest among them, Man Gu.
"I'll go first." Seeing everyone looking at him, Man Gu didn't stand on ceremony. He simply took the lead.
First step, second step, third step... tenth step.
Man Gu climbed the first ten steps with ease. Starting from the eleventh, the pressure gradually became apparent. He felt as if he were carrying a stone slab on his back, and the higher he climbed, the heavier it became.
Still, it was within what he could bear.
He kept climbing.
Man Gu panted twice, steadied his breathing, and headed for the twentieth step.
When Man Gu reached the twentieth step, his pace grew increasingly labored, and he climbed more and more slowly.
By the twenty-ninth step, sweat had begun to seep from Man Gu's back, soaking through his clothes. He had no choice but to stop, panting heavily, and sit on the steps to rest.
"Even sitting down, there's still pressure." Man Gu gritted his teeth and muttered to himself. He was too tired to speak aloud. All he had done was switch from carrying a stone stele while standing to carrying one while sitting, and his strength was returning very slowly.
Seeing how difficult the climb was for Man Gu, everyone realized this mountain would be no easy ascent. Their hearts sank.
Someone said gravely, "I once heard the elders of my clan talk about a place like this. Heart-Questioning Mountain can test one's Dao-seeking heart. The simpler a person's nature, the more steadfast their will, and the purer their heart in seeking the Dao. Man Gu comes from the Ancient Barbarian Tribe and is famous for being one-track-minded. If even he's struggling this much, we'll probably have an even harder time!"
"Could a meditation mantra settle our minds and help?" someone else suggested.
The third trial required them to reach the fiftieth step. It didn't say that only the first few to arrive would pass, so they weren't competing against one another.
Everyone nodded, all agreeing it was a good idea. Their elders had taught them similar mantras for cultivating their character and calming their minds.
Lu Yang opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn't know any meditation mantras.
"Want me to teach you one?" Meng Jingzhou asked.
Lu Yang shook his head. "Not yet. Let me think of something else."
Seeing that, Meng Jingzhou didn't force the mantra on him.
Meng Jingzhou awoke from meditation, feeling more at peace than ever before.
The meditation mantra worked!
Meng Jingzhou had meditated longer than most. By the time he woke, the others had already reached the steps in the twenties and thirties. They were drenched in sweat, and taking even one more step demanded tremendous willpower.
Big drops of sweat ran down their faces, and they didn't even have the strength to wipe them away.
Someone tried another route, thinking the pressure would only be on the steps. He circled around the mountain beside them, hoping to reach the fiftieth step, but once he made it to the mountainside, he realized the plan wouldn't work. The higher they went, the greater the pressure was across all of Heart-Questioning Mountain.
Others tried using magic treasures, only to discover they'd lost their power. No matter how miraculous the treasures were, they couldn't even be activated. They were nothing but heaps of scrap metal.
No wonder Dai Bufan hadn't worried about them using magic treasures.
Lu Yang lagged behind everyone, standing out the most.
Barefoot on one foot, he crouched on the tenth step, deep in thought as he studied something.
"What are you doing? Everyone else is way ahead," Meng Jingzhou asked curiously.
Lu Yang said nothing. He was holding a shoe.
Lu Yang tossed the shoe, and it landed on the eleventh step. "Try picking it up."
Meng Jingzhou didn't understand what Lu Yang meant, but did as he asked. He discovered that the shoe was heavier than usual, as if something beneath it were pulling it down.
Meng Jingzhou seemed to understand. He tossed the shoe onto the twelfth step and found that it fell at the same speed as it had onto the eleventh. When he picked it up, it was heavier than it had been on the eleventh step.
"Have you noticed any pattern?"
Meng Jingzhou frowned. "If an object doesn't touch the ground, the pressure can't transfer to it. Only once it lands and makes contact with the ground does the extra pressure take effect?"
"Exactly." Lu Yang rapped his fist against his palm, delighted that someone else had thought of the same thing for once.
Meng Jingzhou pondered. In his calm state, his mind worked quickly. "The steps are sloped, and there are so many trees here. We could build a seven-shaped ladder, with one end buried in the ground and the other reaching all the way to the fiftieth step."
"Right," Lu Yang said with certainty. "This third trial must be testing our intelligence. This is the correct answer!"
Meng Jingzhou understood Lu Yang's idea, but quickly raised another question. "How are we supposed to cut down the trees?"
They had no axes or saws. How could they cut down trees to make a ladder?
"Do you have any sharp magic treasures?" Lu Yang had thought of this problem long ago.
He had considered working with someone else, but unfortunately, no one else understood his idea.
Meng Jingzhou took out a dagger. "An elder in my family gave it to me for self-defense. It can be activated with a thought and moves as fast as a Golden Core cultivator, but it can't fly on Heart-Questioning Mountain."
"That's fine. It just needs to be sharp." Lu Yang smiled. The Meng Household was a major clan, and even if their magic treasures couldn't be activated, they were far sharper than any mortal axe or saw.
Perfect for cutting down trees.
"Come take a look. While you were meditating, I already drew up the plans."
Lu Yang led Meng Jingzhou to a patch of soft sand. There, he'd drawn his design: a seven-shaped ladder.
After a brief discussion, the two of them got to work.
The Meng Household's dagger was indeed sharp. Before its edge, thick tree trunks were like paper. The two of them quickly shaved the trees into oddly shaped planks.
Cultivators were no different from mortals within the bounds of Heart-Questioning Mountain. Naturally, the trees growing there were ordinary ones, too.
Meng Jingzhou soon noticed a problem.
"How are we supposed to join these two planks? It's not just that we don't have nails—we couldn't join planks this thick even if we did."
"Have you ever heard of mortise-and-tenon joints?"
"No."
Lu Yang sighed. He took the dagger and carved the joints into the planks as he explained mortal ingenuity to Meng Jingzhou.
"This protruding part is called the tenon, and this recessed part is called the mortise. Together, they form a mortise-and-tenon joint. The best thing about this kind of joint is that it's incredibly sturdy without using a single nail."
Meng Jingzhou listened intently. The Meng Household used spiritual energy and refining techniques to make magic treasures; they had no use for mortise-and-tenon joints.
On the steps, everyone was drenched in sweat, panting with exhaustion as they struggled to reach the fiftieth step and become the first to pass.
Perhaps the first to pass would earn the Ask Dao Sect's favor and receive special cultivation resources.
Everyone also understood why there was no time limit. Climbing the mountain drained too much energy. If they stayed too long, they'd become so hungry they couldn't even stand, let alone climb.
Below the steps, the two of them were also drenched in sweat and panting with exhaustion. After a long, hard effort, they felled a patch of trees and made several mistakes before finally finishing the ladder.
The ladder had an odd shape: narrow at the top, wide at the bottom, with a bend at the end. Rather than a ladder, it looked like a giant "7."
The surrounding ground had been stripped bare, like some enormous pig demon had taken a bite out of it.
One of the Ask Dao Sect disciples stole a glance at Dai Bufan. They remembered how Senior Brother Dai loved showing off Heart-Questioning Mountain's lush greenery.
Dai Bufan's eye twitched. He unconsciously clenched his fist.
A diagram of Lu Yang climbing follows.
Before you continue