Reaching the Summit

Three suns hung high in the sky, with clear blue stretching for ten thousand li.

The bone-reading segment had already ended, but the scene was still clamorous. Many who had failed to enter the sect had stayed behind to watch the excitement.

Before the disciples who had already entered the sect were two mountain paths leading to the summit of Clear Abyss Mountain.

One was the path the sect members usually used to come and go.

The other was overgrown with wild grass, ancient and extraordinary.

These were the famed Heaven-Ascending Stone Steps.

According to legend, they were a rare treasure the founder of the Clear Abyss Sect had obtained by chance. They were incomplete, suspected to be something used by an ancient sect from ages long past to test its disciples.

"Those who climb ten steps may enter the outer sect."

"Those who climb fifty steps enter the inner sect."

"Those who reach the eightieth level become true disciples."

The short, stout old man stood before the Heaven-Ascending Stone Steps and spoke in a clear voice.

"What if someone reaches the top?" someone asked confidently.

Who else could it be but Wang Hu?

The short, stout old man's lips curled slightly, as if this was not the first time he had answered this question.

"The founder once said that the one who reaches the top shall become the sect master's true disciple of the Clear Abyss Sect."

"However, looking across the sect's history, though there have been countless prodigies, only two or three have managed it."

"Those people were all upper-grade A talents without exception. Do not aim for the heavens and chase what is far beyond you; instead, you may be able to climb higher."

As he spoke, he paused again.

Those words were meant for most people to hear.

This year, wasn't there an exceptionally gifted little girl?

"Elder, then wouldn't those with strong bodies, or even those who have trained in martial arts in advance, have an advantage?" someone else asked.

The short, stout elder replied patiently, "No need to worry. The stone steps will suppress your qi and blood."

After explaining this to everyone, he waved his large hand.

"The limit is one hour. Begin."

As his voice fell, a disciple inserted a long incense stick as thick as a finger into the bronze incense burner.

The timing had begun, but everyone looked at one another, and no one wanted to be the bird that stuck its head out.

"A pack of cowardly rats. I'll go first!"

Wang Hu strode forward with a gait that acknowledged neither kin nor stranger and stepped onto the stone steps.

In an instant, he felt the qi and blood in his body stop boiling, no longer able to provide him with strength beyond ordinary people.

Yet he still stepped forward proudly.

Ten steps... twenty steps...

At the thirtieth step, his body began to sway.

At the same time, the faint sound of a tiger's roar seemed to come from within his body, resisting the immense pressure.

It also supported him as he crossed the fiftieth step.

The others all cried out in surprise.

Inner sect.

With someone testing the waters, those who came after also followed one after another. After all, the incense was still burning there, and the time wasted might be enough to climb one more step.

Their climbing speeds varied, some fast and some slow, but not a single expression looked relaxed.

The pressure coming from all directions grew greater the higher they went, practically making it impossible to breathe.

"That's Lin Jiang, right? He's going so fast."

"Murong Xiao is even faster!"

"Why are they so relaxed?"

In the end, only a few people were discussing. Most gritted their teeth and put all their strength into climbing with their heads down.

Until Ying Bing stepped onto it.

Everyone's attention unconsciously shifted to her.

After all, everyone was curious.

How far could this aloof young girl, who had been assessed as having upper-grade A roots, go?

"The complete stone steps could also test one's temperament."

Sensing the faint pressure, Ying Bing shook her head slightly.

Besides.

These Heaven-Ascending Stone Steps were far too ancient.

In perhaps a little more time, they would lose their effect entirely.

Her ice-lotus-like figure rose higher and higher.

Ten steps... twenty steps... thirty steps...

As if walking on level ground?!

The height seemed to have almost no effect on her at all, and she swiftly left everyone else behind.

No one could keep it together anymore.

This was no longer a question of whether she could reach the top.

She was clearly here to break the record for the fastest ascent!

Her aptitude was probably among the very best of all the top-grade talents in Clear Abyss Sect's history!

Ying Bing climbed the steps one by one.

Very soon, she reached the fifty-fourth step.

"Mm?"

Wang Hu noticed that it had suddenly gone quiet behind him. He turned to look, and abruptly felt his hands and feet turn cold.

The young girl's gaze was like snow beneath frost.

It was as if the one looking at him was a cold moon hanging amid the clouds, gazing down upon all living beings.

In that instant, he instinctively did not dare meet her eyes and shifted his foot aside.

"All eyes on her, huh."

Li Mo sighed for no reason.

Some people were cold on the outside and warm within; others were warm on the outside and cold within.

But someone like Ice Block, who was frosty on the outside and domineering on the inside, was a first for him.

Thinking this, he also moved.

Hiding his strength?

Not happening.

The higher he climbed, the higher his status in the sect would be in the future, and the easier it would be to come into contact with people blessed with excellent destinies.

He still had not fleeced enough wool from Ice Block yet.

Besides.

He also wanted to see just how far he could go.

The bone examination had measured him as third-class.

After all that fuss, he still had no idea what his aptitude really was like.

What level was an Immortal Body in a martial world?

Waiting online. Pretty urgent.

He stepped up.

"Isn't this just an ordinary stone step?"

Li Mo tilted his head and crossed three steps in a single stride.

Atop the high platform.

"That little girl Ying Bing's personality suits my taste!"

Watching the young girl sweep through like wind and snow, the palace-dressed woman's eyes shone brightly.

Her movements were too large, making her already sinful figure even more sinful.

"Can those two little fellows get together?"

Xue Jing stroked his long beard, looking thoughtful.

In the letter sent to him, his former disciple—Li Mo's father—had said he wanted Ying Bing to become his future daughter-in-law.

Looking at it now...

This disciple-grandson's wife might not be all that certain.

With third-class bones, no matter how you looked at it, he did not seem like someone who could become a true disciple... Hm?

Xue Jing suddenly spotted the young man striding as if he had wings on the mountain path.

"Senior Brother Sect Leader, why not leave that little girl to me? I'm sure I can teach her well!"

The woman in palace dress drunkenly thumped her chest and made her guarantee.

The assembled higher-ups simply couldn't bear to look, and spoke up one after another.

"Oh, give it a rest. There are twelve hours in a day, and you spend six of them sleeping and six of them drunk!"

"Junior Sister Shang Wu, just spare the poor girl. Don't take a perfectly good genius and teach her crooked."

"No, absolutely not! Even if you beat this old man to death, this old man still won't agree!"

The elders had all been tempted to take her as a disciple.

But on this matter, they were all of one mind: anyone could teach her, as long as she did not enter under the Ninth Peak elder Shang Wu.

Just then.

Suddenly.

A clear, ringing phoenix cry resounded through the sky.

They saw it.

Ying Bing was already standing at the end of the Heaven-Ascending Stone Steps.

Crows, magpies, wild geese, Azure Eagles... countless flying birds swept in from every direction, obediently circling around her.

Countless people in the arena stood rooted to the spot, not knowing what had happened.

But up in the stands, the higher-ups of the Clear Abyss Sect sensed something.

Behind Ying Bing, they seemed to see a moon-white bird, its feathers radiant, its aura brilliant, noble and mysterious.

The Clear Abyss Sect Master, who had not spoken a word all this time, abruptly rose to his feet.

"This girl can condense the forms of the Hundred Birds! Gather the Phoenix God! Manifest the scene of Taiyin!"

Shangguan Wencang's gaze burned bright.

The others on the Heaven-Ascending Stone Steps could not see the phenomenon.

But they too heard that startling cry resounding to the clouds and saw the hundred birds circling around her.

Wang Hu, in particular, found it unbelievable.

That fairy-like back was only forty steps away from him.

Just as his eyes filled with naked possessiveness and he prepared to charge up a few more steps—

Tap—

Footsteps came from behind him.

Li Mo?

How had he gotten up here?

"You must have used some trick to fool the Heaven-Ascending Stone Steps!"

"And you still want to stand beside her? Get down there!"

Wang Hu's eyes were bloodshot, his expression dark.

Forcing himself to withstand the pressure, he reached out to grab Li Mo by the collar and throw him down.

Li Mo: "?"

The other party's movements looked as slow as a turtle in his eyes.

Even in this state, he still couldn't behave himself?

He, Li, truly had no interest in face-slapping.

"Heh heh heh, the rules never said you couldn't make a move on the stone steps..."

"Oh? What did you say?"

"I said..."

Bang—

Little Li struck with a rising kick to the groin.

There was a kind of pain that hurt just to watch.

Every youth who saw this scene felt a chill below.

"Mmph..."

Wang Hu's face instantly swelled into the color of pig liver.

The intense pain left him unable to stand steady, not to mention that this was still on the stone steps, where he was bearing tremendous pressure.

"Ahhh..."

The screams and sounds of rolling gradually faded into the distance.

"Get out of the way!"

Someone shouted a warning. Fortunately, everyone dodged in time and wasn't smashed into by Wang Hu as he tumbled along like a rolling gourd.

"Peace and quiet."

Li Mo shrugged and continued upward.

A deacon had looked at him just now, but hadn't said anything more.

It seemed Wang Hu had been right.

On the Heaven-Ascending Stone Steps, there really was no rule saying you couldn't make a move against others.

It was just that everyone wasn't in a competitive relationship. Wasting strength to disgust someone else was entirely a matter of injuring the enemy by a thousand while harming yourself by eight hundred, so no one had ever done it.

"That little brother smiles so sunny, but his hand is really black."

"No, that's not the point."

"Isn't he C-grade aptitude?"

Only when someone suddenly spoke up did everyone come back to their senses.

That was right. Something was off!

How had he climbed to more than fifty steps... no, now he was already at the eightieth step!

With that manner of strolling through a quiet courtyard, he was actually relaxed and carefree too.

If Ying Bing's performance left everyone shocked and envious, then toward Li Mo, they were utterly dumbfounded.

You fucking call this C-grade?!

"Deacon Han, you didn't make a mistake when you checked this kid's bones, did you?" the short, stout middle-aged elder asked, startled and uncertain.

The old woman who had just felt Li Mo's bones had a shifting expression, and could only say in a low voice, "Perhaps this old body is getting on in years, and my dim old eyes saw wrong."

Once these words came out, all the higher-ups fell into thought.

That deacon had sharp eyes and seasoned experience.

Could she really make a mistake feeling someone's bones?

In the span of a few brief words, over there, the figure at the summit had already gone from one to two.

Strange colors flickered again and again in Ying Bing's eyes.

Reaching the summit?

In her eyes, this wasn't difficult.

Even on a complete Heaven-Ascending Stone Steps, she had encountered countless people capable of reaching the top.

But among them, there had not been him!

A breeze blew past, Li Mo's robes snapping in the wind as he smiled and said, "What a coincidence. You're here too."

Gazing down upon the myriad mountains below, a broadness in his chest seemed ready to burst forth.

It should have been a fine scene on a fine day, yet one crow with no sense of romance had to ruin it.

With a slap, it landed on the young man's head.