The Immortal-Asking Stairs had a total of 999 steps.
Gravity Array Patterns had been carved into every stone step. The higher you climbed, the more pressure your body had to bear. Those with high-grade spirit roots could usually make it past the five-hundredth step. Those with low-grade spirit roots qualified to enter the outer sect if they could climb three hundred.
Li Sanshun handed his pack to Shi Xiaohu.
Shi Xiaohu hugged the pack and whispered a warning. "Brother Li, someone with dual spirit roots collapsed just past the two-hundredth step. Don't rush. Take it steady."
Zhao Yuanqing happened to pass by and stopped when he heard this.
"The Immortal-Asking Stairs test your spirit roots, physique, and cultivation method. Five-element mixed spirit roots can't absorb enough spiritual energy. You might be fast at the beginning, but you'll run out of strength later."
Li Sanshun fastened the ID Token at his waist.
"I remember your score of 567 steps. We'll talk after I make it up there, so you can't say all I do is brag."
Zhao Yuanqing ignored him and turned to stand beside the control platform where Han Zhao was.
Yan Song ordered someone to replace the spirit stones and activate the Immortal-Asking Stairs.
"Retest candidate Li Sanshun, you must reach the three-hundredth step to enter the Heart-Refining Gate. If you fail to reach it, the test is over."
Li Sanshun stepped onto the first stair.
Pressure settled on his shoulders. It wasn't too heavy.
He climbed fifty steps without slowing down. After the hundredth, the Array Patterns' pressure increased several times over, and the spiritual energy in the air grew much denser.
[You have absorbed a breath of five-element array energy.]
[Air quality: Excellent.]
[Life energy increased by 1 point.]
[Immortal Arts energy restored by 0.1 points.]
[Cultivation progress increased by 0.01 points.]
[Tip: The same-source array energy is being absorbed repeatedly. Subsequent gains will begin to diminish.]
The energy he'd spent was replenished, but his cultivation barely improved.
He wasn't disappointed.
The five-element array energy on the Immortal-Asking Stairs was far purer than what he could find outside. As long as he kept breathing, he could recover some of his stamina. While others grew more exhausted with every step, he could keep his losses within manageable limits.
In less than half an incense stick's time, he passed the two-hundredth step.
The laughter and jeers from the plaza gradually faded.
Yan Song stroked his beard, his gaze fixed on the ID Token at Li Sanshun's waist.
Cultivating with five-element mixed spirit roots was slow, but that didn't mean one's physique had to be poor. Li Sanshun had taken marrow-washing pills. Making it past two hundred steps wasn't that surprising.
What was truly strange was his pace.
Throughout the first two hundred steps, the pressure Li Sanshun endured had been higher than normal. Every few dozen steps, the Array Patterns on his ID Token would flash, and the nearby array would grow stronger along with it.
Yan Song didn't say anything. He ordered a disciple beside him to bring over a Memory Stone.
Han Zhao broke into a cold sweat.
The Spirit-Suppressing ID Token was already linked to the Immortal-Asking Stairs. If he stopped channeling energy into it, Li Sanshun could return to normal. But after examining the array records, Yan Song could also discover how the pressure had changed earlier.
If Han Zhao stopped, he'd expose himself.
If he kept going, he still had a chance to make Li Sanshun collapse before the three-hundredth step.
Han Zhao pressed an Array Talisman into the edge of the control platform and activated the final Spirit-Suppressing Rune.
Just as Li Sanshun stepped onto the 280th stair, the wooden token at his waist suddenly grew hot. Immortal Arts energy surged from his meridians into the token, which in turn drew on the Array Pattern beneath his feet.
Crushing pressure descended from above.
Li Sanshun's feet sank into the stone, and his knees nearly hit the ground.
A few gasps rose from the crowd.
Zhao Yuanqing smiled again.
In the end, a five-element mixed spirit root couldn't take it.
He'd already climbed 567 steps. If Li Sanshun collapsed at 280, he wouldn't even qualify to compare himself to Zhao Yuanqing.
Li Sanshun braced his hands on his knees and drew in a deep breath of array energy.
[Your ID Token is drawing on your Immortal Arts energy.]
[Would you like to use life energy to replenish your current losses?]
"Replenish."
[Life energy decreased by 5 points.]
[Immortal Arts energy restored by 5 points.]
The token kept draining him, so he kept replenishing.
The Spirit-Suppressing Rune could restrain ordinary Qi Refining cultivators, but it couldn't stop life energy from being converted. Han Zhao wanted to exhaust his Immortal Arts energy with the token. He was bound to be disappointed.
Li Sanshun lifted his foot and stepped onto the 281st stair.
One step.
Then another.
Every time the token drained his Immortal Arts energy, his life energy made up the difference. The spiritual energy on the Immortal-Asking Stairs entered his body with each breath, easing some of the strain.
By the 290th step, the token was burning hot.
The spiritual energy battered the obscuring seal inside it until the edges began to crack.
Han Zhao clutched the Array Talisman, his arm beginning to tremble.
Why hadn't he collapsed yet?
How much Immortal Arts energy could a first-level Qi Refining cultivator possibly have inside him?
Zhao Yuanqing stared at Li Sanshun's feet, forgetting even to open his fan.
295.
296.
Li Sanshun's clothes were soaked with sweat, but his breathing remained steady. The Spirit-Suppressing Rune in the token had reached its limit. Even the ten nearby steps began to tremble.
Yan Song raised a hand, stopping the array disciples from approaching.
"Don't turn off the array. Keep recording."
Han Zhao finally panicked when he heard this.
He released the Array Talisman, trying to sever the connection between the ID Token and the Immortal-Asking Stairs. But the five-element spiritual energy in the array had already flooded into the token. He couldn't stop it.
Li Sanshun stepped onto the 299th stair.
Cracks spread across the token's surface, reaching its center.
The 300th step!
Li Sanshun planted both feet firmly on it.
The token at his waist snapped. The outer Array Patterns fell away, revealing the black Spirit-Suppressing Rune hidden inside. A broken wooden shard bounced toward the platform and landed at Yan Song's feet.
Yan Song picked it up, recognized the array within, and looked up at Han Zhao.
"Spirit-Suppressing Rune."
Han Zhao turned to flee, but two Law Enforcement Hall disciples had already blocked his way.
Yan Song placed the wooden shard beside the Memory Stone. The stone soon displayed the array records of the Immortal-Asking Stairs.
From the very first step, Li Sanshun had endured more pressure than normal. By the 280th step, the pressure had nearly matched what he should have faced at the 700th.
The plaza erupted into an uproar.
Zhao Yuanqing backed away two steps. The Zhao family steward lowered his head, hoping to slip away amid the chaos.
"Seal off the plaza."
At Yan Song's order, the enforcement disciples guarded every exit.
"Han Zhao, you tampered with an ID Token without authorization and interfered with the sect's recruitment test. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Cold sweat broke out across Han Zhao's face.
"Elder, I didn't make the ID Token. I was only in charge of handing it out. The Spirit-Suppressing Rune inside has nothing to do with me!"
Li Sanshun removed the broken cord from the Immortal-Asking Stairs.
"When we entered the mountain gate, you personally handed me the token. Every few steps I took just now, you touched the control platform. Now the token's broken, and you're saying it has nothing to do with you?"
Yan Song handed the wooden shard containing the Spirit-Suppressing Rune to an enforcement disciple.
"Check the spiritual energy traces. No one who made the token, hid the rune, activated the Array Talisman, or touched it is getting away."
Han Zhao's legs gave way.
The obscuring seal on the token had come from Deacon Zhao, and the Array Talisman had passed through the hands of the Zhao family steward. If the Law Enforcement Hall investigated, the Zhao family wouldn't escape blame either.
Zhao Yuanqing gritted his teeth and forced himself to speak. "Elder Yan, the Zhao family is only here for the test. Whatever Han Zhao did has nothing to do with me."
Yan Song ignored him.
"Take them away."
Two enforcement disciples seized Han Zhao and stopped the Zhao family steward as well. Zhao Yuanqing wanted to invoke his uncle's name, but in the end, he swallowed the words.
Li Sanshun passed the three-hundredth step and headed for the Heart-Refining Gate behind it.
The Heart-Refining Gate was a stone gate suspended at the 330th step. Those who passed through it would see the thing they feared most in their hearts. They only had to endure for ten breaths to pass.
Li Sanshun stepped through the gate, and the scene before him swiftly changed.
A dark underground waterway appeared beneath his feet.
A foul stench entered his nose. Zhang Laosan and two others stood at the exit, blocking the way with clubs. Farther away, Old Rascal had his back to him, his figure growing more distant.
Li Sanshun glanced at the filthy water by his feet.
"Fake is fake. This stinks nowhere near as bad as the real thing."
He circulated the Primordial Origin Art and took a deep breath.
The five-element energy that made up the illusion was sucked into his body. With the array's core deprived of support, the filthy water on the ground and the figures by the exit vanished one after another.
In less than five breaths, the Heart-Refining Gate returned to normal.
At the center of the plaza, Number Nine Spirit-Testing Stone reacted to the energy and released five beams of light at once. The beams converged inside the stone, and cracks appeared across its surface.
A white-haired elder flew down from the main peak.
He landed before the Spirit-Testing Stone and took out an ancient jade disk covered in five-colored patterns.
"Bring Li Sanshun down."
The white-haired elder brushed a hand over the disk. Its dormant five-element patterns lit up one after another.
"Test him again with the Five Elements Origin-Returning Disk."
Before you continue