Lady Mother of the Chariot’s expression seemed empty. There was no mixture of moods. With only a pointing of the finger, a ray of light immediately stopped Kui Li in her tracks, unable to move even a single step.

　　All of a sudden, Kui Li’s heart was shocked. The mana was incredibly terrifying.

　　Kui Li could not sense that Lady Mother of the Chariot was like emptiness. Inside Bi You Palace there were countless unseen shadows squeezing unto her body one after another. Those shadows were remnant souls of thousands of celestials from the former years. As of today, they were all gathered into one body.

　　Shen Lian was already quite close to Bi You Palace. Even though the aura of a thousand celestials was no longer like the rising tides, the vital force that was emitted was far from ordinary. This induced a bit of solemn-ness and respectfulness in his heart.

　　Jing Shu looked at Bi You Palace and said, “I would really like to know how appalling Jie Order was back then. Just these remnants of aura in Bi You Palace was enough to tremble the hearts of people.”

　　Shen Lian replied, “Quite odd.”

　　“What is it?” Jing Shu asked.

　　Shen Lian was silent for a moment. He then blew out a breath of air which shortly after turned into a violent tornado, capable of sweeping away any obstruction in its path. Without anything to stop it, the hurricane charged into Bi You Palace. After a while, a sever explosion was heard.

　　Jing Shy questioned, “Is there no restriction outside Bi You Palace?”

　　“It is not as simple as it looks. The hurricane I blew a moment ago could absorb the surrounding Qi of vitality by continuously rotating but when it reached inside of Bi You Palace, it could not help but scatter itself in all directions. That was why there was such an explosion.” Shen Lian spoke in a low voice.

　　Jing Shu very quickly understood what Shen Lian meant. She replied, “Since we are already here, we might as well go in even though we know it to be a trap.”

　　She was not fearful at all and within one step she reached just outside the main hall of Bi You Palace. Very quickly, she understood the source of the anomaly. Ever since she arrived here, she could not extract even the slightest bit of Qi of vitality from the surroundings. As of now, she could only rely on her own strength as there was no way of acquiring the Qi of vitality from the outside world in order to supplement her.

　　For Jing Shu who had just gone through the calamity of the Yellow River of nine provinces Formation, it was not good news.

　　All of a sudden, Jing Shu understood the significance of the Yellow River of nine provinces Formation. It was intended as a pretext to exhaust their energies.

　　She looked back. Shen Lian was not hesitant to take action. Instead, he similarly arrived just outside Bi You Palace.

　　He looked at the three words on top of the main hall of Bi You Palace. With each stroke, it all seemed so simple. There was no Dao rhythm and there was also no change. Yet, anyone who saw these words would find them hard to forget.

　　Dao was most simple, Dao was like the sky – this sentence was encapsulated in great detail in those three words.

　　Shen Lian was touched by Bi You Palace. It had its origins not only in his own Art of Spiritual Enhancement but also in a particular feeling. Regardless of what happens, he would always have a profound respect for Tongtian Order Master.

　　Jing Shu did not have that kind of feeling. Most of her feelings came from winning a battle with Buddha.

　　She looked at Shen Lian and asked, “Are we entering?”

　　Shen Lian did not answer but merely started walking towards the flight of steps at the bottom of the hall.

　　“Tiantai Mountain which is a hundred and eighty thousand feet tall.” Came the chanting of this verse by an apathetic and faintly discernible voice. It was like a cloudless night sky, indifferent and cold.

　　The stairs were then stretched. Each step was ten feet high and there was a total of eighteen thousand stairs. It was only when Jing Shu started walking up the steps did she realize that the difficulty of the steps was not limited to it simply being hard to complete.

　　Her first step was very relaxed but on the second step, the pressure abruptly doubled in proportion.

　　With every step of the stairs, the pressure doubled. The wheel came full circle, as if without limits. Presently, she was still unable to derive the strength from the outside world to benefit herself. It was because of this that each step exhausted much of her own strength.

　　After quite some time had passed, she caught up with Shen Lian. The both of them were divided by a mere three stairs, and Shen Lian needed only one more step to reach the end.

　　As of now, every step she took was harder than the last. The pressure bore down on both her body and her Primordial Spirit. Even the mere formation of a thought seemed to be too much for her.

　　Shen Lian felt a similar challenge but he did not have any reaction to it and merely walked up the stairs with a sluggish pace. The real difficulty was walking up that last stair of Bi You Palace.

　　The stairs had their limit and human strength was no different.

　　Shen Lian had reached his limit.

　　However, he did not cower by even a half step because such great supernatural power was definitely not something which Lady Mother of the Chariot could deploy. Rather, it was a prohibitive technique passed down by Tongtian Order Master.

　　Tongtian Order Master was an arrogant man. Deep down, Shen Lian also had an arrogance that he never once expressed.

　　Just because I learned your techniques, it does not mean that I will never surpass you.

　　Shen Lian was not quietly angry with Lady Mother of the Chariot. All he wanted was to challenge that Shangqing Daoist. Under this horrifying pressure, Shen Lian was able to clearly and distinctly experience the sudden weakening of his celestial body that was cultivated from the Yellow River of nine provinces Formation. As a result of the pressure, each minute structure began to tear apart, verging on the edge of collapse. This caused Shen Lian to be unable to absorb the strength from the air in order to restore his mana.

　　The speed at which his power of the Primordial Spirit was consumed could be seen by the naked eye and replenishment could not be obtained.

　　The cultivation experience could not simply be replenished by anyone of superior heart and soul. This prohibitive technique of Tongtian Order Master was truly teaching Shen Lian a lesson on what ultimate strength was.

　　Shen Lian heard the loud explosion of his celestial body and then heard his mana boil over. It was hard to bear. The boiling produced a sound akin to the roaring of the Yangtze and Yellow River. If he took a step back, he would be greatly relieved of this kind of pressure.

　　Regardless, he did not give up. As with all the other steps, he unhesitatingly proceeded to the last stair. Immediately, a pressure double that of the previous started to mount. Each structure of his celestial body collapsed. It was as if a pile of fine powder was used to build a statue of him that very moment.

　　Just like the fire of a light that was directly blown upon by the wind, the red cinnabar in the space between his eyes would go out at any time.

　　However, the moonlight-like brightness of that point still persisted on emitting its own light, protecting Shen Lian’s consciousness.

　　A tall deity appeared in front of Shen Lian. The deity clasped his hands behind his back and looked at Shen Lian without saying a word.

　　This was the first time Shen Lian saw such a deity outside of his mind-sea, a deity of respect which he visualized countless times in the past.

　　The expression in the deity’s eyes was exactly as Shen Lian visualized – empty and lonesome.

　　Soon after, the deity lifted his hands, where he held a Jade Ruyi and beat down on his chest. The Jade Ruyi appeared to be able to destroy everything. If Shen Lian did not retreat, a complete vanishing of his body and spirit would await him.

　　At that point, the red cinnabar shed itself off from the space between Shen Lian’s eyes and transformed into a small Golden Dipper, which proceeded to greet the Ruyi. The Jade Ruyi was very indestructible, so much so that cracks appeared in the small Golden Dipper right after it was struck by the Jade Ruyi.

　　The deity showed no emotion and continuously struck the Golden Dipper three times. The golden dipper broke, transforming into the Four Elements – earth, fire, wind, and water. Havoc was wrecked on the surrounding.

　　For Shen Lian, the Golden Dipper signified many things, so much so that it was the fundamentals of his future pursuit of Dao, owing to the fact that it was a world that he created with his own hands. In addition, it was in a condition of growth and maturity. No one could know what heights the world would reach in the en, and whether or not it would turn into a separate, greater world.

　　As of now, all of Shen Lian’s longing and vision for the future could be declared to have come to an end. Originally it was to be a new world but under the pounding of the Jade Ruyi, it had no other choice but to return to being the Four Elements.

　　For the first time, Shen Lian felt somewhat dismayed and indecisive as he thought about whether the disparity was really so great. The Four Elements that were wreaking havoc floated on the stairs. All of the empty space appeared to incline towards a state of formless mass. Shen Lian’s consciousness was like a fish that suffered the pounding of strong currents in a small river. Destruction of it was a possibility that may happen at any time.