I Think the Third Test Examines Wisdom

The group arrived at Heart Questioning Mountain and felt nothing, except for Man Gu, who clearly felt his power decreasing, with all his body's standards converging towards the others.

The boiling blood of the Ancient Barbarian Race within him had calmed down, no longer able to provide him with a continuous stream of power.

The group looked at each other, and finally turned their gazes to the strongest, Man Gu.

"I'll go first." Seeing everyone looking at him, Man Gu didn't stand on ceremony and simply took the lead.

First step, second step, third step... tenth step.

Man Gu walked the first ten steps with ease. Starting from the eleventh step, the pressure gradually became apparent. He felt like he was carrying a stone slab on his back, and the higher he climbed, the heavier the slab became.

But it was still within a tolerable range.

He continued to climb.

Man Gu panted twice, steadied his breathing, and walked towards the twentieth step.

Man Gu ascended the twentieth step, his pace becoming increasingly difficult, and the speed of climbing the steps becoming slower and slower.

By the twenty-ninth step, sweat had begun to seep from Man Gu's back, soaking his clothes. He had to stop, panting heavily, and sit down on the steps to rest.

"Even sitting down, there's still pressure." Man Gu gritted his teeth, muttering to himself, too tired to speak. He had merely changed from standing and carrying a stone tablet to sitting and carrying a stone tablet, and the speed of recovering his strength was very slow.

Seeing how difficult Man Gu was finding it, the others knew that this mountain would not be easy to climb, and their hearts sank.

Someone said in a deep voice, "I've heard the elders in my clan talk about similar places. This Heart Questioning Mountain can test the heart of seeking the Dao. The purer one's heart, the firmer one's will, and the purer one's heart of seeking the Dao. Man Gu comes from the Ancient Barbarian Race and is famous for being single-minded. If even he is finding it so difficult to climb, I'm afraid we'll find it even harder!"

"Can the Calming Heart Incantation calm the heart down? Will it work?" someone else suggested.

The third trial required climbing to the fiftieth step, and it didn't require the top few to pass, so they weren't in a competitive relationship right now.

Everyone nodded, thinking it was a good idea. Their elders had all taught them similar incantations for self-cultivation.

Lu Yang opened his mouth, but he didn't know any Calming Heart Incantation.

"Do you want me to teach you a Calming Heart Incantation?" Meng Jingzhou asked.

Lu Yang shook his head, "Not for now, I want to think of other methods."

Seeing this, Meng Jingzhou didn't insist on teaching Lu Yang the incantation.

Meng Jingzhou woke up from his meditative state, feeling his heart was more peaceful than ever before.

The Calming Heart Incantation works!

Meng Jingzhou's meditation time was longer than most people's. When he woke up, the others were already at the twentieth or thirtieth step, sweating profusely and needing great willpower to move forward.

Large drops of sweat covered their faces, and they didn't even have the strength to wipe them.

Some people wanted to find another way, thinking that there would only be pressure on the steps, so they bypassed the steps and went to the fiftieth step through the mountain terrain next to them. But when they arrived at the mountain terrain next to them, they found that this method didn't work. The higher one went on the entire Heart Questioning Mountain, the greater the pressure.

Some people wanted to use magical treasures, but found that the magical treasures had lost their abilities. No matter how magical the treasures were, they couldn't even be activated, and they became a pile of scrap metal.

No wonder Dai Bufan wasn't worried about them using magical treasures.

Lu Yang, lagging behind everyone else, was the most conspicuous.

He was barefoot on one foot, squatting on the tenth step, lost in thought, wondering what he was observing.

"What are you doing? Everyone else has climbed far ahead." Meng Jingzhou asked curiously.

Lu Yang didn't speak, holding a shoe in his hand.

Lu Yang threw the shoe, and it landed on the eleventh step: "Try picking it up."

Meng Jingzhou didn't understand Lu Yang's meaning, but he did as he was told. Then he found that the shoe was heavier than usual, as if something was pulling it from below.

Meng Jingzhou seemed to understand something. He threw the shoe to the twelfth step and found that the shoe fell at the same speed as on the eleventh step, and it was heavier when he picked it up than on the eleventh step.

"Have you discovered any pattern?"

Meng Jingzhou frowned, "The pressure won't be transmitted to the object if it doesn't touch the ground. Only when the object touches the ground and comes into contact with it will there be extra pressure?"

"That's right." Lu Yang punched his palm with his fist, happy that someone shared his idea.

Meng Jingzhou was thoughtful. In his peaceful state, his mind worked quickly: "The steps are inclined, and there are so many trees here. We can build a '7'-shaped ladder, with one end of the ladder buried in the ground and the other end leading directly to the fiftieth step."

Lu Yang said with certainty, "Yes, this third trial should be testing our wisdom. This is the standard answer!"

Meng Jingzhou understood Lu Yang's idea and quickly raised another question: "How are we going to cut down trees?"

They didn't have axes or saws, so how could they cut down trees to make a ladder?

"Do you have any sharp magical treasures on you?" Lu Yang had already thought of this question.

He had thought about cooperating with others, but unfortunately, no one else could understand his idea.

Meng Jingzhou took out a dagger: "This was given to me by the clan elder for self-defense. It can be activated with intention, and its speed is comparable to the Golden Core Stage, but it can't fly on Heart Questioning Mountain."

"It doesn't matter, as long as it's sharp." Lu Yang smiled. The Meng family was a large clan, and the sharpness of the magical treasures they refined, even if they couldn't be activated, far exceeded that of ordinary axes and saws.

It was perfect for cutting down trees.

"Come and see, I've already designed the blueprints while you were meditating."

Lu Yang led Meng Jingzhou to a soft sandy area, where Lu Yang's blueprints were drawn, which was the "7"-shaped ladder.

After a brief discussion, the two began to act.

The Meng family dagger was indeed sharp. The thick trees were like paper in front of the dagger, and the two quickly whittled the trees into strangely shaped wooden planks.

Within the Heart Questioning Mountain range, cultivators were the same as mortals. The trees that could grow here were naturally the most ordinary kind.

Soon Meng Jingzhou discovered a problem.

"How do we connect these two wooden planks? Don't mention that we don't have nails on hand. Even if we did, we couldn't connect such thick planks."

"Have you ever heard of a Mortise and Tenon Joint?"

"No."

Lu Yang sighed. He took the dagger and began to carve the Mortise and Tenon Joint into the connecting parts of the wooden planks, explaining the wisdom of the mortal world to Meng Jingzhou.

"This protruding part is called the tenon, and this recessed part is called the mortise. Together, it's the Mortise and Tenon Joint. The biggest feature of the Mortise and Tenon Joint is that it's exceptionally sturdy without using nails on the object."

Meng Jingzhou listened carefully. The Meng family's Artifact Refining used spiritual energy, which was the art of Artifact Refining, and didn't require Mortise and Tenon Joints.

On the steps, everyone was sweating profusely, panting from exhaustion, just to climb the fiftieth step and become the first to pass.

Perhaps the first to pass would gain the Dao Seeking Sect's appreciation and receive key cultivation.

Everyone also understood why there was no time limit. Climbing the mountain consumed too much stamina. If they stayed for too long, they would be too hungry to even stand, let alone climb the mountain.

At the foot of the steps, the two were also sweating profusely, panting from exhaustion. After a lot of effort, they chopped down a patch of trees and, after several trials and errors, finally made a ladder.

The ladder had a strange shape, thin at the top and thick at the bottom, with a bend at the end. It was more like a giant "7" than a ladder.

The surrounding bare ground, bald and empty, looked like it had been gnawed on by a giant boar demon.

A Dao Seeking Sect disciple secretly glanced at Dai Bufan. They remembered that Senior Brother Dai Bufan liked to show off his lush Heart Questioning Mountain the most.

Dai Bufan's eyes twitched, and he clenched his fist unconsciously.

Attached is Lu Yang's climbing diagram.