The Stairs of Sinking

Time flew by, and two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Inside the Quiet Room.

Lu Yan'an slowly opened his eyes. A sharp glint flashed through them, then his aura settled back into silence. Today was the day he and Lord Shen had agreed to begin his Illusionist training. Judging by Lord Shen's behavior so far, though, this training was bound to be anything but simple.

Whenever Lu Yan'an recalled Lord Shen's unmistakably gleeful expression, he felt a little uneasy. But how could he, Lu Yan'an, possibly chicken out? He was just being sensible! After giving himself a pep talk, he slowly got to his feet and marched toward the Quiet Room's door with the air of a man going to his doom!

Outside, Lord Shen had already been waiting for quite some time...

At the sound of the door opening, its eyes lit up. The corners of its mouth lifted, and it put on a faintly teasing smile.

"Well, look who finally came out! I've been waiting ages." The moment Lu Yan'an emerged from the Quiet Room, Lord Shen began its performance.

"Lord Shen, why not just put me out of my misery? What exactly does Illusionist training involve? If I'm going to die, at least let me know why!" Lu Yan'an said with a bitter expression.

"No need to rush. It wouldn't be any fun if I told you. But I can tell you what you'll be training for the next while." Lord Shen looked like it was speaking in riddles, wearing an inscrutable smile as it continued.

"Have you heard of the Stairs of Sinking?"

"The Stairs of Sinking?" Lu Yan'an searched his memories of the original novel, but those four words had never appeared. He couldn't help feeling puzzled.

Seeing the confusion on Lu Yan'an's face, Lord Shen stopped teasing him and explained plainly:

"If the Killing Space is a place suited to warriors and Spirit Readers for training and living, then the Land of Sinking is the perfect place for Illusionists to train!"

"But not every Illusionist is lucky enough to study at the Land of Sinking! Only genius Illusionists are allowed in, and you need a certain level of status just to learn it exists."

Lord Shen explained.

"Then what's the point of this place? Genius Illusionists? A status requirement? Does it basically not want anyone to go there?" Lu Yan'an scratched his head, baffled by these criteria.

Most factions wanted to recruit new blood and would advertise as widely as possible. They would cast their nets over the biggest pool of candidates they could reach, then recruit those with the greatest talent. The 'Five Great Benefactors' of the Human Race followed this approach with their Universe Peak Genius Battle for Star Levels and Strongest Battle for Universe Levels.

But the Stairs of Sinking were peculiar—or rather, they completely went against the usual approach! They only recruited from places with connections. That meant a small pool of candidates, not to mention a high risk of a talent gap between generations.

"Looks like you've misunderstood the Illusionist profession!" Lord Shen fell silent for a moment after hearing Lu Yan'an's question, then replied calmly.

"Becoming an Illusionist has a high barrier to entry. It's completely different from mainstream paths like being a warrior or a Controller. Across the universe, warriors and Spirit Readers make up more than 99.9 percent of the population. Every other profession shares the remaining 0.1 percent."

"Among those other paths, Illusionists and apothecaries are considered mainstream. But they share one common trait: both require a master to teach them!"

At that, Lu Yan'an understood. Every Illusionist had a master, which essentially ruled out the possibility of self-taught Illusionists. No wonder the Land of Sinking had never recruited across the universe. It wasn't that they didn't recruit; there simply weren't any self-taught Illusionists out there! And any Illusionist would have a teacher, which meant he couldn't possibly come from a humble background. He would definitely have heard of the Land of Sinking.

That was what they called targeted recruitment! Lu Yan'an finally understood why he'd never heard of the Land of Sinking in the original novel. The Earth Trio had all followed the paths of warriors and Spirit Readers. They had nothing to do with Illusionists, so it was no wonder they'd never heard of the place.

"All right, now that your curiosity's satisfied, log in to the Virtual Universe System. I already applied for you to enter the Land of Sinking during the two days you were in seclusion. You just have to log in and accept!"

As Lord Shen spoke, it urged him to log in.

Lu Yan'an gritted his teeth, steeled himself, and clicked to enter the Virtual Universe...

The Virtual Universe, the Land of Sinking.

An endless forest stretched as far as the eye could see. It was ancient and primeval, filled with the wonder and majesty of nature. Lakes and seas of flowers spread out all around. Lu Yan'an followed Lord Shen through the forest until they reached its center, where Lord Shen stopped.

Lu Yan'an looked up and saw an ancient-looking structure: a vast, imposing pyramid! The Purple Pyramid stood over a thousand meters tall. With his keen eyesight, Lu Yan'an could even make out tiny figures scattered across it.

"What kind of training is this Stairs of Sinking?" Lu Yan'an asked Lord Shen, who was leading the way.

"See those steps?" Lord Shen didn't answer. Instead, it pointed to the rows of steps on the Purple Pyramid ahead.

"Of course. So what does the training involve?"

This time, Lord Shen didn't change the subject. It smiled at him and said, "Those steps are called the Stairs of Sinking. Your training task is to climb all thousand steps!"

"It can't be that simple, can it?" Lu Yan'an asked cautiously.

"Simple? Go ahead and try. You'll find out whether it's 'simple' or not!" Lord Shen said, stepping aside to clear the way for him.

Lu Yan'an didn't hesitate. Judging from what he'd seen in the original novel, trials involving stairways usually triggered some kind of illusory test as you climbed. As long as you could hold out, you should be fine! Besides, Lu Yan'an had already reached the Clear Heart Seeing Nature realm, which gave him confidence that he could break through the illusions.

He carefully stepped onto the first stair. The instant his foot touched the purple step, a strange mental force swept through his mind, and Lu Yan'an sank into the illusion on the first level...

At the same time, Lu Yan'an's consciousness plummeted. When it finally cleared again, he froze. "Huh?" Lu Yan'an stared at the computer on the desk, dazed. "A computer? I haven't seen one in so long." He hadn't seen one in over a decade!

Then a memory surfaced in his mind. "My name is Xu Yuan. I'm an older programmer. I have a happy family, a gentle wife, a pair of adorable children, and both sides of the family are still alive."

"Ring, ring." His phone rang. Lu Yan'an took it out of his pocket. The simple memories that had been implanted earlier gave him a good understanding of the previous thirty-odd years of 'Xu Yuan's' life.

"Hello, Xu Yuan. I'm from human resources at XX Tech. Our company sends a group of employees out into the job market every year. Congratulations! This year's sele—" Before the caller could finish, Lu Yan'an had more or less figured out what they meant. He was an older programmer, and he'd just been laid off!

He hung up. Before he could even get a drink of water, his phone rang again. "Hello, A-Yuan. I just got a call from the hospital. Dad went in for a checkup today, and they found he has kidney failure..." His wife's voice was tinged with panic. He'd just managed to calm her down and hang up when the phone rang again. "Hello, Mr. Xu Yuan. I'm calling from XX Bank. Regarding your savings..."

He'd lost his job, his father was gravely ill, and the bank manager had absconded with his money. How could so many disasters happen at once? Was trouble all lined up to strike on the same day? Lu Yan'an was speechless. How unlucky could someone be!

A hazy stretch of text appeared in the air before him: First Level of Life's Adversities. Requirement: Resolve the current difficulties, restore family harmony, and amass ten million in assets within one year. Failure penalty: Incontinence for one week.

At that moment, Lu Yan'an completely understood Lord Shen's strange smile. Damn it! So this was what it had been waiting for!