Although his speed was still very slow, and he even slipped backward from time to time, Ban Kuizhen's figure was indeed advancing bit by bit toward the summit.
The Ancient Dao deity said nothing more and simply watched him climb in silence.
Ban Kuizhen spent a full two quarters of an hour traversing the final two hundred zhang.
The moment he stepped onto the summit, he instinctively lifted his foot to continue upward. Only when he stepped into empty air and pitched forward did he realize that he had reached the end of the mountain path.
"Congratulations, Senior Ban! You have succeeded in climbing high!"
Chen Yang and the Ancient Dao deity were not the only ones watching Ban Kuizhen's ascent. When he rounded a bend on a slope near the summit and entered Yang Lingrui and the other two's field of vision, they too began watching silently.
Now that Ban Kuizhen had successfully reached the summit, all three raised their hands in salute and congratulated him with heartfelt respect.
Ban Kuizhen looked at these three promising, vigorous young cultivators, and a relieved smile appeared on his face as well.
Though he had walked a little slowly, and though the journey had been somewhat rough, he had made it up in the end!
At that moment, the thought that his Dao Path had come to a halt quietly scattered from Ban Kuizhen's mind, vanishing without a trace.
He had merely failed twice to break through to the second level of Spiritual Connection. At worst, he could try a third time, a fourth time, a fifth time—until he succeeded!
If persistence and hard work were among his few gifts, then he would make proper use of them and carry this conviction through to the end.
After watching the final stretch of