Take the Crown in the First Parkour Competition, Recruit Top Players, Establish a Sect, Grow Stronger, and Make a Glorious Comeback!

After immobilizing Jiang Liu, Wang Hui had already started imagining himself standing out among millions of competitors. Riding on Yao Xiang's back, he couldn't help bursting into laughter.

So what if Jiang Liu was at Qi Refining Layer 8? So what if he had eight magical artifacts?

Wang Hui had stocked up on a pile of Immobilization Talismans just to eliminate the biggest threat on this course!

And Jiang Liu was the biggest threat he'd seen!

Top ten? He wouldn't even make it to the third round!

If one Immobilization Talisman wasn't enough, then he'd use five—or ten!

Wang Hui burst into laughter when he saw Jiang Liu get hit, but before the sound could leave his throat, it abruptly died away.

He suddenly felt something tighten around his neck, as if he were being strangled. He instinctively looked down and saw a thick black cord around his neck, its surface shimmering with a watery blue glow.

A magical artifact?!

Wang Hui froze. Before he could figure out what was happening, the cord suddenly jerked. His whole body shot into the air, tumbling off Yao Xiang's back and rolling down the mountainside in a thoroughly undignified heap.

As he rolled down the mountainside, a figure shot past him, making his expression change dramatically. His mind was full of questions.

Fellow Daoist Jiang?!

Hadn't he been immobilized by the talisman?

Wasn't the talisman's effect supposed to last two seconds? How was he moving again already?

Not only was he moving, he'd even flung a rope around Wang Hui!

"Holy shit!"

Wang Hui had no time to wonder why the talisman hadn't worked. He scrambled to his feet and shouted at Yao Xiang, "Yao Xiang, come give me a hand!"

"Boss!"

Yao Xiang was secretly delighted. His long legs flew as he ran, and without looking back, he yelled, "I'll win the parkour—"

Before he could finish, it was as if something solid had struck him. A sharp pain burst through the back of his head, and his entire body froze in place.

[You have been affected by the Body Restraint Ring. You are now unable to move.]

[Your cultivation is far lower than the caster's. You will remain unable to move.]

Yao Xiang: "?????"

What did it mean, "remain unable to move"?

Yao Xiang looked up and saw a golden ring floating above his head, like a headband spell, filling him with despair.

What the hell kind of bugged equipment was this?!

Boss Wang had tumbled down the mountainside, and Yao Xiang was frozen in place. Their lofty ambitions had been reduced to nothing in an instant.

Forget being the parkour king—they wouldn't even make the top ten in the second round.

"To think someone at such a low cultivation level could run so fast. You really can't underestimate anyone."

Jiang Liu passed the despairing Yao Xiang, secretly marveling. The fact that the Body Restraint Ring could keep him immobilized meant his cultivation was probably only at Qi Refining Layer 2 or 3.

With cultivation that low, he'd still managed to keep pace with Jiang Liu. That kid was born to be a mount!

After casually removing two obstacles, Jiang Liu continued up the mountain without meeting any further difficulties. It took him just ten minutes to reach the summit.

[Congratulations! You placed first in the second round of the Parkour King event and have advanced to the third round. The third round will begin tomorrow at 12:00 noon.]

[You have entered the AFK zone. Your Cultivation Speed has increased by 2000%. The event will continue for 19 minutes and 34 seconds. Enjoy your victor's reward.]

Twenty times the Cultivation Speed!

Jiang Liu had planned to take in the view from the summit and admire the beautiful scenery stretching thousands of meters below. But when he heard the electronic voice in his mind, he lost all interest in sightseeing and plopped down on the mountaintop.

What view could compare to twenty times the Cultivation Speed?

Twenty minutes at twenty times the speed would be more than enough to push his Qi Refining Layer 8 cultivation points forward by a huge amount!

Qi Refining Layer 9 was just around the corner!

Two minutes after he began cultivating, the runner-up reached the summit. The instant he got there, he collapsed and gasped for breath. He was obviously exhausted.

Even Qi Refining Stage cultivators would run out of strength and be completely spent after sprinting up a treacherous mountain thousands of meters high.

Third place, fourth place, fifth place.

The next few people collapsed as soon as they reached the summit. They wanted to hurry up and cultivate, but as soon as they circulated their techniques, they got winded. In the end, they could only sigh and slowly steady their ragged breathing.

Several people lay sprawled on the ground, watching Jiang Liu, whose breathing remained perfectly steady. Their expressions were indescribably strange.

"Seriously, isn't he tired?"

"He just ran up a mountain thousands of meters high without even panting?"

"Are all high school students this amazing these days?"

"We're all cultivators, but the gap between us is a little ridiculous."

Compared with the mining area in the first round, the climb in the second round had been much harder. The sixty-degree slope was not only steep and treacherous, it was also exhausting. Cultivators with lower cultivation ran out of strength halfway up, and some couldn't even make it to the top.

At Qi Refining Layer 2 or 3, their bodies were only one or two times stronger than an ordinary person's, and they didn't have much spiritual energy. Few could sprint at full speed for several thousand meters over treacherous mountain terrain.

The first round hadn't restricted flight, so the God-Tier Players with wings had managed to scrape through.

But in the second round, the gaps had become obvious. Cultivation, speed, and stamina were all essential. If you fell short in even one, forget making the top ten—you wouldn't even see the summit.

Of course, those who made the top ten in the second round were still high-spending players.

Even without wings, high-spending players had high-level movement speed buffs, cultivation far beyond that of ordinary players, and even a few magical artifacts.

Take Li Dongze, for example. He was one of the city's biggest spenders on Spirit Stones. He couldn't compare to Jiang Liu, but he was still far ahead of everyone else.

"Good grief, I'm exhausted!"

When Li Dongze reached the summit, he leaned straight against Jiang Liu's back and panted with his tongue hanging out like a dead dog. His mosaic-patterned robe was soaked with sweat.

"Was that really necessary?"

Jiang Liu opened his eyes and looked at Li Dongze with disdain. "You're exhausted after just a few thousand meters?"

Forget being tired—Jiang Liu had made the whole climb without a hitch, as if he were walking on level ground. He hadn't even broken a sweat, showing off the bearing of an immortal cultivator.

Getting this tired over a few thousand meters? What a disgrace to cultivators.

"You've got no right to say that."

Li Dongze rolled his eyes and retorted, "I'm only at Qi Cultivation Layer 5, and I've got just three magical artifacts. Making it to the summit at a full sprint is already pretty impressive, okay?"

"Do you know how I got through the last few hundred meters? I crawled up using my hands and feet!"

Jiang Liu: "..."

The contrast between him and Li Dongze showed that there were, indeed, vast differences between cultivators.

"Don't just stand there. Hurry up and take advantage of the twentyfold boost."

"I can't cultivate. I'm winded."

Thirty minutes passed quickly. When the second round ended, Jiang Liu instinctively looked around. The number of players was half what it had been at the foot of the mountain.

That meant more than half hadn't even managed to complete the climb.

Was it really that hard to climb a mountain thousands of meters high in thirty minutes?

When he saw the wilted little ball of fire, he understood.

Maybe it really was a little hard.

Emmmm, this section didn't turn out well, and the follow count dropped. I'll wrap it up as soon as possible.