Chapter 235: Arduous Heaven Seeking Staircase

　　Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations

　　On the Yan City Plaza, the competition had reached it’s peak, and the atmosphere was electric. The crowd’s loud cheers raised the level of excitement in the competitors, even causing them to perform a few levels better than normal. No one was willing to hold back in this fight for a chance to enter the Zhen Mo Continent.

　　While Jiang Xiushan and Feng Zhengqiu intentionally left out the problem of the competition boundaries, but the battles on the ten stages were very self-regulating. No cultivators Yuan Dan Stage and above took the initiative to challenge Transcending Mortality Stage cultivators, and no True Lake Stage cultivators challenged the Yuan Dan Stage cultivators.

　　This was not only a matter of pride, but it was also related to whether the person would be despised by Zhen Mo Continent’s experts. After all, in front of such a large crowd, the act of challenging someone who was much weaker than yourself was very disgraceful. Booing was one thing, but this might even incite a riot.

　　Perhaps a Yuan Dan Stage cultivator could take out a Transcending Mortality Stage cultivator in seconds, but everything was not determined in a single match, and he might be taken out by a True Lake Stage cultivator in the next match.

　　There were very few True Lake Stage cultivators below 50 years old, but it didn’t mean that there were none. For example, Feng Luojian was at True Lake Stage Level 2 despite being less than 50 years old in age.

　　Cen Shuyin stood on Stage Number 1, and she was very happy. She was at Transcending Mortality Stage Level 9, and had easily defeated two people. With one more win, she would be able to advance to the next round.

　　Even though her cultivation level was not the highest there, but her ravishing beauty made the cheers at Stage number 1 the loudest.

　　“Hmm!” Xia Mu, which had not been paying much attention to the competition until now, turned to look at Stage Number 1. When he saw Cen Shuyin, his gazed became fixed on her to the extent that he did not even realise that he had slowly stood up.

　　This woman was too beautiful, and even in Zhen Mo Continent, he had never seen a woman as beautiful as her. What made him even more satisfied was that, he felt that this woman was very open, and did not use a veil to cover her unworldly looks.

　　Perhaps this woman’s talent was nowhere close to Bei Suting’s, so the help she could provide to him would not be as great as Bei Suting. But as the star lord of Zhen Mo Continent’s Star King Mountain, was there anything wrong to have a gorgeous woman that he loved from the bottom of his heart?

　　The red faced tall man at Xia Mu’s side did not have to wait for Xia Mu to ask, and the moment Xia Mu stood up staring at Cen Shuyin, he reported, “That is the legacy disciple of Heaven Seeking Palace’s Sword Lake, Cen Shuyin. Her talent is extremely good. Heaven Seeking Palace is considered the number one sect in Lost Continent, and there’s a place called Heaven Seeking Staircase within in. I heard that she could reach the 54th step when she was at Transcending Mortality Stage Level 7, and was at 50th place.”

　　“What’s the Heaven Seeking Staircase?” Xia Mu furrowed his brows as he asked.

　　The red faced man answered solemnly, “The Heaven Seeking Staircase is not an ordinary thing, and from my enquiries this past few days, this Heaven Seeking Staircase is clearly a real ancient treasure. As for its grade, even the elders of Heaven Seeking Palace are unsure of it. There hasn’t been a single person that could reach the top of the Heaven Seeking Staircase. On it, the higher your cultivation level the greater the pressure, and the younger you are the lower the pressure. While special envoy Sir is advanced in cultivation, your age is much smaller than the geniuses here, hence I believe that you definitely will be able to reach the top of the Heaven Seeking Staircase if you decide to climb it.”

　　Nodding his head, Xia Mu replied, “Good, after things end here, we’ll go climb that Heaven Seeking Staircase.”

　　Quietly, the red faced man spoke again, “Actually even if you didn’t ask about it, I would have suggested for you to climb the Heaven Seeking Staircase once. The origins of the Heaven Seeking Staircase is very mysterious, and no one has been able to reach the top after so many years. Who knows, there might be a great opportunity waiting up there. Moreover, I’ve heard that the higher one climbs, the more one understands about cultivation, and the more one will achieve in the future.”

　　“Not bad.” This piqued Xia Mu’s interest, and he followed up saying, “This matter of the Heaven Seeking Staircase is settled then. Once that woman called Cen Shuyin is done with her match, ask her to come over. I’ll give her a surprise.”

　　“Yes Sir,” The red faced man quickly responded.

　　He knew what kind of surprise Xia Mu had in mind, and this was the type of surprise that only an arrogant woman like Bei Suting would turn down. If it were anyone else, it would be considered a pleasant surprise.

　　…

　　On the Heaven Seeking Palace’s Heaven Seeking Staircase, Mo Wuji mustered his elemental energy to intentionally form a circulation route with his 100th and 101th meridians as he stepped onto the 99th step.

　　The instant his foot landed on the ground, a raging pressure and rotating force rushed at him, and the elemental energy within Mo Wuji’s 100th and 101th meridians burst forth at the same time.

　　The wild pressure and rotating force were defended against by Mo Wuji’s explosive elemental energy, allowing him to step onto the 99th step with ease.

　　The 100th, 101th, 102th step…

　　“Crack!” When Mo Wuji finally reached the 103th step, his legs finally broke. Even though his elemental storage meridian still provided the elemental energy, his body could not take it anymore. With a little dissatisfaction, he looked up. There were only five steps left; as long as he could climb another five steps, he would stand at the top of the Heaven Seeking Staircase.

　　Fighting against the terrifying pressure and force from the 103th step, Mo Wuji swallowed quite a few healing pills. At the same time, he started circulating his spiritual energy based on the Immortal Mortal Technique to speed up the rate of healing.

　　As soon as the Immortal Mortal Technique took its effect, gusts of spiritual energy formed a whirlpool around him, and gushed into his body with a bang. At this moment, the impasse in cultivation that he had felt for the past few months was gone, and his cultivation level began to rise.

　　Stubbornly, Mo Wuji clutched to the ground of the 103th step and wildly absorbed spiritual energy. While one stood on the Heaven Seeking Staircase, one would feel that the spiritual energy there was normal, but the moment that he began absorbing it with his cultivation technique, it seemed to be denser than that coming from Heaven grade spirit stones.

　　No, this was completely different from the spiritual energy in a Heaven grade spirit stone. A Heaven grade spirit stone’s spiritual energy was dense and pure, with a sliver of cultivation enhancing dao, but the spiritual energy here seemed like it was made for cultivation. Using the Immortal Mortal Technique in this sort of spiritual energy made him feel like a fish in water.

　　If not for the increasingly terrifying pressure, Mo Wuji really felt like doing closed door cultivation here. But cultivating for a minute here meant suffering for what seemed like a century.

　　Under the influence of his spiritual energy, his elemental energy gave out small popping noises. The cultivation level of Mo Wuji that had remained unchanging for a long time directly charged all the way up to the Great Circle of Transcending Mortality Stage Level 12.

　　Mo Wuji forcibly suppressed the joy within him. By his estimates, he did not have to use the Gold Forming Pill, and with his current rate of progress, he would be able to breakthrough the Transcending Mortality Stage in one shot. However, he still threw three Gold Forming Pills into his mouth, because he was not confident in his ability to enter the Yuan Dan Stage with the increasing pressure and force on the 103th step.

　　A strong wave of elemental energy gushed out of the three Gold Forming Pills, and it clashed with the spiritual energy from the surroundings before rushing into his 102th meridian. The originally blocked 102th meridian instantly burst open.

　　An empty feeling immediately assaulted every corner of his body, and at this moment he felt like he was bathed in immortal energy, which made his whole body full of strength and in a state of extreme relaxation.

　　A new stream of elemental energy entered the 102th meridian, and it formed a elemental energy circulation route with the 100th and 101th meridians. At the same time, the pressure on the Heaven Seeking Staircase was relieved, allowing him to stand up. His broken leg had recovered, and he stepped onto the 104th step with ease.

　　105th, 106th, 107th step…

　　The 107th step of Heaven Seeking Staircase had a pressure almost two times than the previous steps, and the elemental energy stored in Mo Wuji’s three elemental storage meridians were exhausted once again.

　　“Splat!” Mo Wuji collapsed on the 107th step. This time, he not only spat out a mouthful of vital blood, but many streaks of blood began to appear on his skin all over due to the immense pressure.

　　There was only one step left, and he stood up wobbling, roaring out. Then with all the mental fortitude he could muster, he lifted his leg onto the 108th step.

　　…

　　On Stage Number 1 in Yan City, a white robed, long haired man landed in front of Cen Shuyin, “Great Evolution Sect’s Tao Yuan is here to spar with Junior Cen, please make your move.”

　　Cen Shuyin frowned for a moment. Truthfully, she was quite unhappy that Heaven Seeking Palace was overtaken Great Evolution Sect on both contribution points boards. But it was a pity that as a legacy disciple of Heaven Seeking Palace’s Sword Lake, she only had the strength of Transcending Mortality Stage, which made it very difficult to enter the Hundred Sect Alliance’s Contribution Points Board. It was important to note that killing a Transcending Mortality Stage Level 9 cultivator only gave 26 points, while killing a Yuan Dan Stage Level 1 cultivator gave up to 100 points.

　　Therefore, being in the Earth Realm was a minimum requirement for one to enter the Hundred Sect Alliance Contribution Points Board, as not everyone was as exceptional as Rogue Cultivator 2705.

　　At this point, a Great Evolution Sect disciple came forth to challenge her, but she did not give him any mercy, and her long sword had turned into a flurry of sword qi that flew towards Tao Yuan.

　　Wave after wave of sword qi formed on the stage, which made it look like there was a sea on Stage Number One. To most people, Tao Yuan would definitely back off when facing such waves of sword qi, and once he did so, Cen Shuyin would have the initiative.

　　The already standing Xia Mu saw Cen Shuyin’s sword waves, and exclaimed with even more joy, “Who knew that this woman’s talent was so great, such sword waves are rare even amongst the sword cultivators of Zhen Mo Continent.”

　　However, what surprised everyone was that Tao Yuan did not back off, instead charging straight into the sword waves while circles of faintly glowing elemental energy appeared around his body.

　　When the sword waves hit Tao Yuan’s glowing elemental energy, countless instances of elemental energy explosions rang out before they disappeared in the air. It was apparent that the Tao Yuan’s defensive elemental energy was a sort of skill.

　　With a single clash, the experts in sword dao could feel it. If Cen Shuyin could not break through Tao Yuan’s defensive elemental energy later, she would definitely lose to him.

　　As other people could understand what was going on, Cen Shuyin herself naturally knew too. Her expression turned serious. This sort of defensive layer type of skill seemed to be made for countering certain sword arts. Unless her sword waves were much stronger than Tao Yuan’s elemental energy layer, it would be difficult for her to break such a layer in one strike.

　　“I’m sorry Junior Cen, I can’t give you the slot for entering Zhen Mo Continent.” Tao Yuan’s voice mixed with laughter spread to her ears. At the same time, a long whip was raised into the air. He had done this on purpose, otherwise, he could have avoided challenging Cen Shuyin completely.

　　To that, Cen Shuyin laughed coldly, “Wait till you’ve won before you start spouting bullsh*t.”

　　After speaking, her hands formed countless complex hand seals. Streams of elemental energy condensed in her palms, some even giving off a muffled crackling noise.