As they continued climbing higher, the power of the Heart Demon Tribulation grew increasingly formidable as they neared the seven-thousandth step, and the pressure became ever more terrifying.
The climbers gradually separated into several groups.
Chu Daolin, Qin Wuye, Han Yue, Xuanming, Mo Xingyun, Lei Dong, Jiang Ruofeng, and the others were far ahead of the rest.
Stonebreaker, Ji Xuanye, Xinglan, the Golden Lion, and a number of other exceptionally powerful prodigies struggled to catch up, forming the second group.
Xiao Ruobai and the other four walked behind them at an unhurried pace, steadily advancing toward the seven-thousandth step—and the even more terrifying trials beyond it.
Farther behind them were the greater number of renowned prodigies, including the Saints and Saintesses of various Sacred Lands and ancient sects.
They were under immense pressure. Every step required tremendous effort, and the slightest carelessness could result in their being devoured by heart demons or crushed beneath the overwhelming pressure.
Li Xuanfeng, Mu Chenyu, and the others were among them.
When the Heavenly Ladder reached the seven-thousandth step, the power of the Heart Demon Tribulation peaked. The pressure was now like a tangible mountain, bearing down upon each person’s Dao body and soul.
Screams, muffled groans, and the faint sounds of shattered Dao hearts rang out from various parts of the staircase.
One prodigy after another collapsed. Their eyes became completely vacant as they were devoured by heart demons, and they tumbled down the Heavenly Ladder in a frenzy. Others vomited blood as the terrifying pressure crushed the divine light protecting their bodies, sending them plummeting from the steps.
By then, fewer than a hundred people remained standing above the seven-thousandth step!
Every one of them was an unparalleled genius tempered through countless trials!
At that moment, Chu Daolin, Qin Wuye, and the others from the first group had already reached above the seven-thousand-five-hundredth step.
Stonebreaker, Ji Xuanye, Xinglan, the Golden Lion, and the others in the second group had also long since passed the seven-thousandth step.
But their speed had become incredibly slow. After every step, they needed to meditate and regulate their breathing for a long while, resisting the omnipresent heart demons and the overwhelming pressure.
The gap between them had also widened. Stonebreaker and Xinglan were slightly ahead, while Ji Xuanye and the Golden Lion lagged a little behind.
The five of Xiao Ruobai continued to advance with that unnervingly steady pace.
They had quietly crossed the seven-thousandth step and were following leisurely at the rear of the second group.
Their composure stood in stark contrast to the gritted determination of the prodigies around them, drawing frequent glances from Stonebreaker and the others and stirring complicated emotions within them.
The third group was somewhat larger, but every one of its members wore a solemn expression and was drenched in sweat as they struggled forward between the seven-thousandth and seven-thousand-two-hundredth steps.
The climb continued amid a silent, grueling slaughter.
Seven thousand one hundred steps…
Seven thousand two hundred steps…
Seven thousand three hundred steps…
The pressure continued to intensify, while the heart-demon illusions grew ever more lifelike, striking directly at the weakest points of each person’s Dao heart.
More and more people fell.
When they reached the seven-thousand-four-hundredth step, only a little over twenty people remained in the third group.
But just as everyone reached the seven-thousand-five-hundredth step, a sudden change occurred!
“Boom—!”
A terrifying pressure, ten times more immense than before, erupted in an instant, mixed with the shrill wail of heart demons piercing straight into the very origin of the soul!
In the blink of an eye, more than half of the prodigies in the third group could no longer endure it. The divine light protecting their bodies shattered, and they spewed blood as they were violently blasted from the edge of the seven-thousand-five-hundredth step, tumbling down like dumplings from a pot!
Among them were no fewer than several veteran Saints of Sacred Lands and successors of ancient sects!
Only ten people from the third group managed to stabilize themselves and successfully set foot upon the platform at the seven-thousand-five-hundredth step.
And among those ten, seven figures stood out!
They were dressed simply and inconspicuously, and almost no one had paid attention to them before. Yet now, they stood shoulder to shoulder at this dazzling height.
Their faces were slightly pale, and their breathing somewhat hurried, clearly showing that they were under tremendous pressure.
But their eyes remained exceptionally clear and resolute. Their foundations were deep and solid far beyond those of cultivators of the same level, and amid the struggling masses, they instead appeared remarkably composed and methodical.
“Who are these people?!”
“I’ve never seen them before?!”
“How strange! With such strength, how could they have remained completely unknown until now?”
“And their foundations are all so solid! Their auras are deep and restrained—they’re definitely no ordinary rogue cultivators!”
“With the revival of heaven and earth and the arrival of a great age, so many peerless geniuses we’ve never heard of have actually emerged!”
“I thought the prodigies of this generation were already dazzling enough. Who would have thought that so many hidden dragons had yet to reveal themselves?”
“Where did they come from? What kind of beings stand behind each of them?”
The prodigies below who had yet to reach this height, as well as the countless spectators closely watching from Dao Origin Mountain’s plaza outside the Heavenly Ladder, instantly erupted in thunderous cries of astonishment and incredulous discussion!
These seven unfamiliar experts seemed to have appeared out of thin air, yet their foundations were astonishingly profound. They completely overturned everyone’s understanding of the current balance among the generation’s prodigies.
Just how many unknown geniuses were still hidden within the tide of heaven and earth’s revival?
The true shape of this golden age was far grander and more unfathomable than anyone had imagined.
Most people were filled only with shock and curiosity. No one could identify their origins or call out their names.
Yet not everyone was unfamiliar with them.
At that moment, Xinglan’s expression suddenly changed. Her gaze fixed upon the seven figures, especially the cyan-robed man at their forefront, whose bearing was deep and restrained.
“The Cyan-robed Guest?”
She murmured inwardly, and the calm lake of her heart finally rippled.
“And those others… I once caught fleeting glimpses of them in the Eastern Domain. Could all of them have made it here? And their foundations are this terrifying?”
She remembered that the Cyan-robed Guest had once fought Holy Son of Yaoguang, Mo Yiqian, to a draw. But that had been all.
In her previous assessment, a figure like him, while powerful, still fell short of top-tier prodigies such as Ji Xuanye and Wang Zhan.
Yet now, all seven of them had reached the seven-thousand-five-hundredth step together, even surpassing many veteran Saints!
Xinglan was not the only one to recognize them. A few of the other prodigies from the Eastern Domain, who had either met Li Xuanfeng and the others once or heard some rumors about them, also recognized the seven figures. Astonishment appeared on all their faces.
Even Stonebreaker, Ji Xuanye, the Golden Lion, and the others above—who had already reached beyond the seven-thousand-six-hundredth step and were struggling onward—were drawn by the shouts below and the seven unfamiliar yet unyielding figures. They turned around to look.
“Where did these guys come from? Interesting!”
Stonebreaker grinned, battle intent surging in his eyes.
The Golden Lion let out a low growl, a hint of solemnity flashing through its beastly pupils. From those unfamiliar people, it sensed a certain depth of foundation so solid that even it felt a chill in its heart.
Just as those below were crying out in astonishment at the seven unfamiliar prodigies, and those above were turning their attention toward them—
Boom!!!
A vast and indescribable Daoic rhythm, like the first ray of light at the dawn of creation, suddenly blazed forth from the very top of the Heavenly Ladder, from the end that vanished into primordial chaos.
Immediately afterward, one ray, then two, then three… a total of seven radiant beams of multicolored light shot into the sky. Though different in hue, each was equally brilliant and magnificent, illuminating the heavens above until they shone with dazzling brightness!
Within the radiance, ancient runes could be faintly seen flowing and shifting, while the thunderous resonance of the Dao reverberated through the air, shaking the soul.
“Is that the phenomenon produced by reaching the eight-thousandth step?!”
“Someone has reached the eight-thousandth step? So soon?!”
“Who is it?!”
After a brief silence, thunderous cries of astonishment swept upward from the foot of Dao Origin Mountain. Even the prodigies still climbing were shaken to their cores, and they all raised their heads.
Within the first beam of light—a dark cyan radiance carrying the vicissitudes of time—a figure could be seen faintly, standing with his hands clasped behind his back, as though he had transcended the river of time itself.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
