Assessment Complete

Dao Repository Academy, Hall of Enlightened Mind.

All the elders and stewards, including the academy head, Perfected Xuanji, stared blankly at the scene frozen forever within the water mirror:

The Apex. Five figures. Anomaly resonance.

“They succeeded. All five of them…”

The black-faced elder’s lips trembled as he repeated those words over and over, as though he had lost his soul.

The crane-haired, child-faced elder’s complexion first drained of color, then flushed with a tide of excitement.

“Heaven blesses the Profound Yellow Realm! Heaven blesses the Dao Repository Academy! Such a grand sight—forget seeing it, this old man never even dared dream of it!”

At the deepest part of the academy, upon a bluestone platform, Old Dean Master Qingxu gazed at the scene within the Heavenly Stairway, overwhelmed with excitement.

“Hahaha! They’ve reached the summit! All of them! Five people! Hahaha! Master, do you see this?!

“Since ancient times, only two or three people have ever been clearly recorded as having set foot there, and never in the same era. Yet now, not only have five appeared in the same generation, they have all reached the summit together!

“The Profound Yellow Realm will rise! The Dao Repository Academy will rise! Hahahaha!”

Yet Xing Tian’ao remained seated on the stone bench.

Even so, that white-robed figure involuntarily surfaced in his mind—the calm eyes, the unfathomable aura.

“So this is the Honored Master’s disciple?”

The thought silently passed through his heart.

Beneath his tranquil exterior, however, the heart of an emperor was churning with turbulent waves powerful enough to overturn an entire sea of stars.

One had to understand that, throughout the endless ages, those who had truly reached the summit of the Dao Repository Stairway were few enough to count on one hand.

Every one of them had ultimately become the most dazzling, invincible supreme existence of their era—an emperor without equal.

But now…

Not only had his disciple reached the summit, all five of them had done so together!

With an overwhelming bearing that surpassed the ancient and shook the heavens, they had resolutely stepped into the realm of supreme heights!

More terrifying still, the Qilinzi was merely his disciple’s follower, yet he had reached the summit as well.

Even a mere follower possessed such terrifying aptitude.

Above the summit, the world had transformed into an ocean where chaos had first emerged, a sea of the origins of the Dao and the source of all laws.

A vast, endless rain of creation-light poured down from the depths of the void. Containing the most primal vitality and fragments of the Great Dao, it completely submerged the five figures.

This was no simple infusion of energy. It was the acknowledgment and gift of the heavens and earth to those who had reached the summit and forged an unsurpassed Dao foundation.

The five sat cross-legged, suspended in the center of the radiant sea. Their forms appeared and vanished within the surging energy, while their auras underwent a world-shaking transformation at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The radiance of five Saints illuminated the heavens, and the Great Dao resonated!

Five majestic auras, equally brilliant yet completely different in nature, intertwined and resonated above the summit. The depth of their foundations and the vastness of their potential had already caused even the heavens and earth to turn their attention toward them.

The people below remained transfixed by the astonishing sight atop the summit, almost forgetting the passage of time.

Then a disbelieving cry broke the brief stillness.

“Look! Who are they?!”

“My heavens! Someone else has reached the nine-thousandth step!”

“It’s those seven people! The seven strangers who charged up together afterward!”

“When did they get up there?!”

Countless gazes instinctively followed the cries.

There, upon the platform at the nine-thousandth step, seven tall figures had appeared at some unknown point.

They were none other than Li Xuanfeng and the others.

“Seven people! Seven more people!”

“Adding them to the ones before, there are now more than ten people who have reached the nine-thousandth step!”

“These seven made it up there without making a sound? Everyone’s attention had been drawn to the summit just now, and no one even noticed!”

“Terrifying! What is happening in this generation? When did reaching the nine-thousandth step become so easy?!”

If the ascent of Xiao Ruobai and the other four was a mythical sight to be admired from below, then the silent achievement of Li Xuanfeng’s group of seven brought with it an even deeper, more chilling sense of dread.

Time slipped away amid one successive shock after another.

The radiance at the top of the Dao Repository Stairway began to recede at a visible speed.

The remaining prodigies on the stairway unleashed their final reserves of potential and charged toward their respective limits.

Wang Zhan let out a thunderous roar. His Azurewood Saint Blood burned to its utmost intensity as he forcibly endured the pressure, which had nearly solidified into walls of primordial chaos. Step by step, he climbed to the nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-fiftieth step!

His entire body was drenched in blood, and his aura surged violently.

Just as he was preparing to catch his breath and launch his final assault toward the ultimate heavenly chasm—

“Om—!”

A grand and majestic Dao resonance rang out, spreading throughout heaven and earth.

The radiance of the Dao Repository Stairway withdrew completely. Its pressure vanished, while the phantom of the golden river that had stretched across the sky slowly faded before finally disappearing into the void.

The seven-day period had arrived!

The Dao Repository Stairway trial had officially ended!

“No! Give me just a little more time!” a prodigy who had been on the verge of breaking through roared in unwillingness.

“My eight-thousandth step! I was only a few steps away!” a cultivator who had been stuck before a crucial threshold cried out with bloodshot eyes.

But the rules of the stairway were cold and merciless, unmoved by anyone’s will.

Wang Zhan felt his body grow light as the crushing pressure that had nearly broken him vanished in an instant.

He took one last look at the final forty-nine steps, which had been so close yet were already beginning to turn illusory. A trace of regret showed in his eyes.

“I arrived a little late. What a pity.”

He spoke in a low voice, so softly that only he could hear.

Those few late-arriving days had caused him to fall behind the foremost group from the very beginning of the ascent.

Though he had later advanced with astonishing speed, sweeping aside obstacle after obstacle and catching up to countless others, in the end, he had still been restrained by the stairway’s cold rules at the final moment.

“But it’s enough,” he silently told himself.

On this journey, he had witnessed the scenery at the summit and understood the path that belonged to him.

Lei Dong, relying on his violent thunder force, reached the nine-thousand-seven-hundredth step.

Qin Wuye’s battle intent soared to the heavens, and he stopped at the nine-thousand-six-hundredth step.

Chu Daolin and Jiang Ruofeng both stopped at the nine-thousand-five-hundredth step.

Li Xuanfeng ultimately stopped at the nine-thousand-eight-hundredth step, failing to surpass Wang Zhan.

Mu Chenyu, Shi Jingxian, and the others were scattered between the nine-thousand-four-hundredth and nine-thousand-seven-hundredth steps. Their results were equally astonishing.

All the cultivators who remained on the stairway without reaching the summit were enveloped by a gentle force and teleported back to the square at Dao Origin Mountain.

In this Dao Repository Stairway trial, five people reached the summit.

Twelve people reached the nine-thousandth step.

Twenty-seven people reached the eight-thousandth step.

Every one of them was an unparalleled prodigy who had earned the qualification to become a true disciple of the Dao Repository Academy.

The commotion below gradually subsided, but an even deeper sense of anticipation and tension spread through the air.

Dao Repository Academy, Hall of Enlightened Mind.

Perfected Xuanji exchanged a glance with the other elders. In each other’s eyes, they saw both excitement and solemnity.

“Dean, this year’s stairway trial…”

The crane-haired elder’s voice still carried a trace of trembling.

Perfected Xuanji raised a hand and interrupted him. His gaze swept across the crowd below as he slowly spoke, his calm voice carrying throughout Dao Origin Mountain.

“The Dao Repository Stairway is now closed. The trial has ended.

“All who reached the eight-thousandth step or higher have earned the qualification to become true disciples of our academy.

“Your performance on the ascent, the height you reached, the strength of your minds, and the depth of your potential have all been recorded by the stairway’s spiritual essence. We have witnessed it all as well.

“Three days from now, when the morning sun rises, report before the Hall of Enlightened Mind to enter the academy.

“Rest well during these three days and consolidate what you have gained.”

When his words fell, the crowd in the square reacted in different ways. Some were exhilarated, some contemplative, and others quietly comparing themselves with their peers.

However, just as Perfected Xuanji was preparing to announce the assembly’s disbandment, and everyone’s nerves had begun to relax—

“Om…”

An oppressive sensation, born from the laws of heaven and earth themselves and terrifying enough to make one’s soul tremble, descended without warning!

It was as if the entire space-time of Dao Origin Mountain had frozen in place!

Immediately afterward—

“Rumble!!!!!!!”

A thunderous boom, more terrifying than thousands upon thousands of bolts of lightning exploding at once, filled with the will of destruction and annihilation, suddenly rang out from the depths of the void above the Ninth Heaven, from the realm where the Absolute Peak stood!

“What?!”

“What’s happening?!”

“The Heavenly Tribulation?! It’s the tribulation for becoming a Saint!”

“At a time like this?! On the Absolute Peak?!”