Jiang Hao used Earth-Traversing Golden Light to race upward.
With every stretch he crossed, the pressure on his blood energy and the mental impacts from the Sky-Reaching Stairway grew stronger.
The impacts struck one after another, yet failed to slow the golden streak Jiang Hao had become. He sped along the Sky-Reaching Stairway, drawing ever closer to the Martial God Palace.
Behind him, Wang Teng and Li Chengyu had already increased their speed.
The blue and purple streaks pursued him relentlessly, but neither could catch Jiang Hao up ahead.
The gap between them did not shrink. Instead, it gradually widened as Jiang Hao continued upward, while Jiang Daoyi and Ji Mingyue fell even farther behind.
A dozen breaths later.
Jiang Hao crossed the final step, emerged from the golden light, and landed firmly before the Martial God Palace.
The pressure on his blood energy and the mental impacts from the Sky-Reaching Stairway faded away. He looked up at the palace before him, his gaze settling on its thousand-foot-tall doors.
The doors were tightly shut, their surfaces marked by the passage of time. An imposing aura washed over him.
Jiang Hao studied them for a moment, then turned to look down. Two streaks of light were still rapidly approaching along the Sky-Reaching Stairway.
Wang Teng and Li Chengyu were also extremely fast. They would reach him in just a few breaths.
But the stair-climbing contest already had its winner.
Jiang Hao had reached the Martial God Palace first. In the end, Wang Teng and Li Chengyu had fallen a step behind.
Watching the two pursuing streaks, Jiang Hao's lips curved slightly. Then he withdrew his gaze and looked back at the tightly shut palace doors.
Below, the martial artists who had not attempted the climb had been watching them with their