Thank you, everyone, for the messages of condolence.
=========
=========
=========
Shen He clenched his teeth, his face pale.
Sweat ran down his face, trying to lower his body temperature, which seemed to be reaching a feverish state.
With every step he took forward, the urge to give up grew stronger.
It was natural for human beings to seek the easiest path and flee from hardship, and the greater the difficulty, the stronger this escape mentality became.
Thus, at that moment, faced with a pressure that seemed intent on crushing both his body and soul, Shen He's mind screamed at him to abandon everything and flee, telling him there was no point in subjecting himself to such suffering.
The pressure he felt was not due merely to a physical concept like gravity. It was the purest and most oppressive spiritual pressure.
A benefit normally reserved for the strong to crush the weak, now perfectly simulated on that stairway.
The pressure, created by the intentional mobilization of an enormous amount of spiritual energy of superb quality, although it also pressed down physically on the body, had its greatest impact on the spirit and on the very spiritual energy within him, which could not even move under such oppression.
Powerful cultivators could often, with pressure alone, kill cultivators more than one realm below them. If exerted excessively, even turning the opponent's body into a paste of flesh would not be much of a problem.
Even so, Shen He persevered. Even in the face of a pressure that, if he could not endure it, might bring catastrophic damage to himself, he persevered.
What he did not know was that the stairway applied pressure differently to each individual, possessing perfect control over the limits each participant could endure, and therefore posed no risk to life.
Still, stubborn people like Shen He, even without knowing they were safe, would continue advancing. It was in their very mentality not to give up.
The boy was not someone who shrank from adversity. Previously, when his master had not yet awakened, the necklace unconsciously drew his spiritual energy into itself. Because of this, he was no different from a mortal.
At that time, he could neither advance in realm nor make use of the energy he absorbed, as the necklace devoured everything. Still, he persisted. Day after day, he desperately drew energy toward himself, as days turned into months, and months into years, with no results to show for it.
Even so, he never abandoned his cultivation. He persevered until, at last, one day his master awakened, and the necklace ceased its suction.
And now, in the same way, he would not give up until he reached the top, for nothing other than his own stubbornness.
But Shen He, despite his determination, was by no means the only one, nor even the most determined among those climbing that stairway that day.
Ahead of him, just one step away from reaching the top, the old man who had overtaken him earlier, even while sweating profusely, his body trembling and his eyes blurred, on the verge of losing consciousness, still firmly lifted his foot toward the next and final step.
In this cannibalistic world, people's willpower was far from weak.
And people like Lian Shou, the old man on the stairway, were no exception.
As a loose cultivator fortunate enough to be born with moderate talent and to have obtained the opportunity to find an environment with second-level spiritual energy to advance to the Foundation Establishment realm, he had experienced many things in his life.
He lost relatives and friends, some to old age, others to enemies. He traveled through many regions, met countless people, and persevered at every step, even if it was only for a small improvement.
And on that day, at one hundred and seventy years of age, at the sixth level of Foundation Establishment, Lian Shou decided to try to join a sect, unexpectedly… as a disciple.
As a relatively strong cultivator on that continent, he was not looked down upon for his lack of background.
With his strength serving as an attraction, he had already been invited to become a guest elder in several factions after advancing to the Foundation Establishment realm. Combined with various opportunities, this allowed him to reach his current level.
His medium-quality fire-element root was what allowed him to reach this far, even with all the opportunities he had.
In fact, his talent was considered excellent, and he should not have struggled so much at the beginning. Unfortunately, during his adolescence, Lian Shou ended up offending certain influential people, which turned his early years as a cultivator into a living hell. Only many years later did he manage to resolve those grudges and defeat his enemy.
But at that point, forget becoming a disciple—he could already become an elder directly.
It was only recently, when the Infinite Dao Sect emerged, and he heard about the astonishing speed at which its members grew, as well as the morality the sect preached, that he decided, even in his twilight years, to try something as unexpected as becoming a disciple.
From the very first tests, Lian Shou realized how extraordinary that sect was. He had never seen anything like that stairway filled with realistic illusions and memory manipulation in his entire life.
Passing the tests was not difficult.
Despite not considering himself a good person and always maintaining a stern and irritable demeanor, deep down he was a kind old man, who would not hesitate to lend a hand to someone in need, if necessary.
In terms of loyalty, he was not particularly loyal to anyone. Most of those he loved were no longer alive, and the forces he joined throughout his life were merely relationships of mutual interest. Even so, if someone earned his loyalty, he would never betray them.
As for the final test, in terms of willpower, after everything Lian Shou had faced in his long and turbulent life, he was inferior to no one.
And with the final step toward the top of the stairway and the completion of the test came the psychological burden of knowing that the pressure, which he could barely endure, would increase even further.
Even so, at that moment, there was nothing left in his mind except that step, taken solely with his inflexible willpower and courage, not by a consciousness that was already fading.
As expected, the instant his foot touched the final step, an utterly unbearable pressure descended, extinguishing what little clarity he had left.
His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed helplessly forward.
The moment he struck the ground at the final step, the pressure dissipated, and his consciousness slowly began to return.
A few minutes passed, and opening his eyes with a terrible headache, the old man placed one hand on his forehead, massaging it, while with the other he supported himself on the ground and pushed himself up, only then noticing a pair of black boots in front of him.
Carefully raising his gaze, he saw black robes with bronze details, until finally his eyes stopped on a serious middle-aged face, marked by a fierce vertical scar over one of the eyes.
Behind the man, several others were also watching him. Some smiled gently, others maintained serious expressions, and some had an eyebrow raised, looking at him with curiosity.
It was then that the man standing before him finally spoke.
"What is your name?" asked Elder Lie Zheng brusquely.
Quickly recomposing himself at the question, the old man promptly replied as he finished standing up.
"Lian Shou is the name of this junior, senior," he answered respectfully, clenching his fists and bowing, his face serious, completely ignoring the fact that he had fainted just moments ago.
"Hmm… tell me, did you use any trick or, in some way, exploit any loophole that made it easier or even possible for you to climb up here without honestly going through the illusions and the pressure of the stairway?" Lie Zheng suddenly asked, staring at him with narrowed eyes.
Lian Shou's eyes widened in surprise, and his heart raced, fearing that something bad might happen to him.
Shaking his head quickly, he defended himself.
"No, senior! I passed through the stairway honestly. Perhaps there has been some misunderstanding! If necessary, I can climb it again!" he said, justifying himself without hesitating even for a second.
He had been deceived many times in life, and it was not in his twilight years that he wanted a misunderstanding to bring trouble upon himself.
But to his despair, Lie Zheng shook his head.
"There is no misunderstanding here, other than yours," he said firmly, staring at him, which made Lian Shou clench his fists inside his sleeves, frightened. "As a disciple of the sect, why are you calling me senior? You should address me as elder." Lie Zheng suddenly changed his tone, a slight smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
Poor Lian Shou, who was already wondering whether he should fight or flee if this were a trap, froze completely upon hearing those words.
Seeing the small smile quickly disappear from Lie Zheng's face, he finally realized that the elder was teasing him, which made him let out a trembling sigh, mixed with a bit of bitterness and amusement at having been scared like that.
But then he noticed a problem.
"Huh?! Wait, elder, and the second test after the judgment of the stairway mentioned earlier?" he asked, confused by his sudden admission into the sect.
"That was it," Lie Zheng replied, raising an eyebrow at him, amused. "You may even find a way to deceive the stairway, but you cannot deceive me at all. Therefore, when you said you passed honestly, you had already passed the second test," he explained, a hint of amusement appearing in his eyes.
"Ah!" Lian Shou blinked, stunned.
Lie Zheng did not explain anything further and sent him to rest farther back.
The final step was quite large, basically a platform, and could accommodate many people. Once enough participants had gathered, Aotian would instruct the elders to escort them back to the sect, thereby freeing up space.
As for those who failed between the 667th and 998th steps, they would be teleported directly to another location, where some elders would carry out their initiations into the Infinite Dao Empire.
There, after another inner elder from the Punishment Pavilion also questioned and confirmed that no one had circumvented the first two Judgments, those who unfortunately failed the Judgment of Will would receive castrated cultivation techniques from the sect and other items, as well as positions in the empire, instructions, and tasks.
As for the castrated technique they would receive, it allowed the formation of a peak Foundation, just like the sect's original synthesized techniques. However, it provided only a fivefold increase in cultivation speed compared to ordinary techniques from outside, unlike the sect's originals, which offered a hundredfold acceleration.
Like the originals, the castrated techniques also allowed cultivators with mixed roots to train at nearly the same speed as those with single-element roots.
In addition to this main benefit, they would also have access to many resources provided by the sect for their growth, as well as opportunities to demonstrate talent, earn merits, acquire spells, inheritances, and perhaps one day enter the sect directly.
A short while after the old man reached the top, Shen He also arrived. However, he did not receive Lie Zheng's test immediately like Lian Shou, as that treatment was reserved only for the first place.
He had to wait in a corner until a sufficient number of people arrived.
When an adequate number of cultivators accumulated, Lie Zheng would ask the same question he had asked Lian Shou aloud, and with everyone answering at once, he would quickly ascertain whether anyone was lying before him.
Fortunately, as the days of testing passed, to Aotian's relief, there were no cases of anyone circumventing his Judgments, proving that his stairway was reliable enough.
And thus, thirty days later, under the disappointed gaze of more than a billion cultivators who failed, the end of the recruitment was marked.
Moreover, on that particular day, something that few knew—and that would likely go down in history—was about to happen…
The beginning of the adventure of the Infinite Dao Sect and its disciples… on a new continent.