The young woman sat on the ground, clutching her robe in both hands.
She looked up at the Cloud Ladder, which continued climbing into the sky. People were still slowly ascending it, each step as difficult as struggling through a muddy swamp.
Some of them were people she had never given a second thought.
Yet now, those people she had looked down on were climbing higher one step at a time, while she had stopped at the eighty-third step.
"I made it to the eighty-third step. I was so close to passing the test and becoming a member of the Cloud Ruins Alliance..." she murmured, her voice hoarse with frustration.
Her eyes were red, but she didn't cry. She wouldn't allow herself to shed tears in a place like this.
She had been a prodigy since childhood.
She had looked down on every young person of her generation in her family. They were less talented than her, less hardworking, and even weaker in character.
Her standing in the family had never been handed to her because of her bloodline. She had fought for it, fist by fist and step by step.
The family had also devoted every effort to cultivating her, giving her all the resources, cultivation techniques, and renowned teachers they could. They had hoped she would become another member of the Cloud Ruins Alliance, reach Star Domain Rank, and bring glory to the family.
But this blow had left her reeling.
She had lost—utterly and completely.
"Were their wills... all stronger than mine?" Her gaze passed over the figures still climbing, and it felt as if something had lodged in her chest.
The people she had never given a second thought were now standing higher than her, while she had already been eliminated.
She closed her eyes and