The Beginning

The next round of the tournament began. Mu Nansi stepped forward and spoke. "This round will be the trial of the Stairway of the Mind."

Suddenly, a massive staircase made of black stone appeared, rising high into the sky.

"Those who reach the summit within thirty minutes will proceed to the final round. If any of you stop halfway or cannot endure the illusions of the Stairway of the Mind, you will be immediately eliminated."

The disciples fell into a momentary silence. Trials of the mind were often the most difficult for them to face.

"Begin!"

Mu Nansi's voice rang out, and all sixty-four disciples shot forward at once, heading straight toward the Stairway of the Mind.

Leading the pack was Jin Tian. Having once been a Half-Emperor in a previous life, his mental fortitude was unmatched. He easily withstood the illusions that tried to shake his will. Closely behind him were Han Ming's five disciples.

One minute passed.

Jin Tian became the first to ascend beyond the 90th step. Hundreds of illusions tried to erode his resolve, but the will of a man who had once stood at the peak of cultivation remained unshaken. No phantom could disturb the clarity of his mind.

Lei Chen, Han Ming's first disciple, advanced with calm, composed steps. Even when bombarded by illusions dredged up from the darkest corners of his past his father's death, the day his master abandoned him without a word, or the moment his fiancée betrayed him his mind did not waver. He saw once more how she had broken the engagement without even looking him in the eye. He recalled the coldness of the mother who had birthed him. Each memory surged at him like a violent storm.

He remembered everything with perfect clarity, as though it had all happened just yesterday. From the days when he had everything to the moment he lost it all. Such reflections would be enough to break most cultivators... but not him.

He had already overcome trials set by Han Ming. These illusions could do nothing more than slow his steps. They could never stop him from reaching his goal.

Rong Lixian stood face to face with illusions that mirrored her most painful memories. Villagers whom she had once saved now surrounded her with vicious sneers and cruel words, their faces twisted with betrayal and hatred. Their expressions bore down on her, reflections of disappointment, pain, and isolation.

Even memories long buried deep within her heart surfaced. She saw herself lying on a luxurious bed, another young woman resting beside her. A delicate bond seemed to link the two, something so profound it defied words. But that image, too, faded into mist for she had already moved beyond it.

Hao Yang faced the image of Su Baining being mauled by a white tiger, her blood splashing across the ground before his very eyes. A numbness surged through his chest for a moment, but the steel in his heart shattered the illusion without hesitation.

He stepped forward, unwavering. The next scene appeared an unfamiliar man and woman smiling at him gently. Hao Yang returned a faint smile, though his eyes were utterly devoid of emotion. He reached out his hand and tore both strangers apart without even blinking.

Su Baining, a girl who had been forced to struggle in a brutal world with a body that was not originally hers, saw herself once again as a slave. Shackled, whipped, forced to labor endlessly in agony. She had not suffered any lewd acts only because her appearance back then had been unpleasant.

But that was the past. Her eyes now were cold and unreadable. She walked through the illusion with firm, steady steps. Not even a trace of hesitation remained.

Feng Huangjun faced illusions that reflected the humiliation of his past. He had been betrayed by juniors and masters he once trusted, injured by those he had faith in, falsely accused, and condemned despite having done nothing wrong.

He had lost everything his dignity, his faith, the very foundation of his life. The vision of him sitting beneath an old tree, devoid of hope and ready to die at any moment, emerged once again.

But those images could no longer bind him. He lifted his head, eyes resolute, and the illusions dissolved into silence.

In no time at all, Han Ming's five disciples had successfully ascended the staircase, joining Jin Tian who had secured the first place.

Twenty minutes passed, and all sixty-four participants managed to complete the trial of the Stairway of the Mind. Amid the collective sighs of relief from the competitors and the excitement of the watching crowd, the names of the top ten appeared on the projection board.

1st Place – Jin Tian2nd Place – Su Baining3rd Place – Rong Lixian4th Place – Hao Yang5th Place – Lei Chen6th Place – Feng Huangjun7th Place – Xia Lanyi8th Place – Lan Xingyue9th Place – Song Lingya10th Place – Liu Xingchen11th Place – Feng Yan12th Place – Ye Lin13th Place – Liu Fengyue...18th Place – Jiang Zhiyao......64th Place – Long Hei

Mu Nansi smiled in satisfaction, as the performance of this year's new disciples had been quite impressive. Even the slowest among them had completed the trial in just about twenty minutes.

However, just as Mu Nansi was about to announce the beginning of the next round of the competition, the once calm sky was suddenly overshadowed by three enormous airships that appeared without warning. One of them bore the fluttering banner of the Wu Imperial Clan. Another was adorned with the crest of the Holy Land of the Immortal Feather, while the third belonged to the Holy Land of the Blood Moon.

The sight didn't faze Mu Nansi in the slightest. She had been well aware of their arrival beforehand. Far off in the distance, within her line of sight, a vast fleet of additional airships could be seen making their way in this direction. It was clear this mobilization didn't involve just three powers. Other forces were clearly joining the move as well, though it didn't surprise her one bit.

Mu Nansi let out a quiet sigh before speaking in a voice laced with icy disdain. "The time for vengeance has come. Let's go. Those lowly fools who don't know their place no longer deserve to exist."

As her words fell, an overwhelming surge of power flowed through her fingertips. A massive manifestation of elemental water formed around her hand, a colossal finger descending from the heavens and shooting straight toward the three airships. At the same time, the auras of fourteen Great Emperors flared up from the Holy Land of the Immortal River, joined by the presence of numerous Half-Emperors rising into the sky.

Bai Li smiled faintly as he gazed up at the sky, now filled with overwhelming emperor-level pressure. The movement of the three Great Emperor-level forces had been foreseen for quite some time.

The reason they had known was due to the destruction of Pure Light Peak not long ago... an incident filled with abnormalities and hidden truths. The previous master of Pure Light Peak had suddenly taken all his disciples and entered a secret realm, without offering any clear explanation.

At the time, everyone had sensed that something was off, but no one interfered. That peak master had been a near-immortal existence. To control or kill him had been virtually impossible. His strength had ranked among the highest within the Half-Emperor realm.

What they came to learn afterward was far more horrifying. The daughter of the former master of Pure Light Peak had been taken hostage and used as leverage to force him into leading all the disciples of his peak into a trap. Inside that secret realm, every disciple was turned into food for the young master of the Wu Clan an individual who cultivated a demonic path capable of absorbing the cultivation of others.

Even more terrifying was how flawlessly the plan had been executed. Multiple factions were involved behind the scenes. According to the information they uncovered, as many as fifty-five of the top one hundred forces in the world had played a part in constructing the trap.

For the past year, those who had uncovered the truth held their hatred in silence. They amassed power in secret, plotted their counterattack, and reached out to other factions that had fallen victim to similar atrocities forming alliances in preparation for a decisive retaliation.

They had once considered exposing the Wu Clan's young master to the world, revealing his ability to devour others' cultivation. In truth, they had leaked certain rumors about him, but they were met with no result. The evidence they possessed was too insufficient. The deeper they investigated, the more they realized just how powerful the forces backing him were. More than half of the world's top factions had already fallen under the control of the Wu Clan. Striking prematurely would only bring about their own destruction.

So they chose silence waiting patiently for the perfect moment to strike in one fell swoop. And as for why the Wu Clan had yet to act, it was because they were doing the same building an army in the shadows, preparing to end things in one overwhelming assault. Though the Wu Clan may have controlled a larger number of forces, that did not equate to greater strength.

But then... war erupted sooner than expected.

Just one week ago, the Wu Clan's young master appeared to have received some critical information. Perhaps the secrets held by the Holy Land of the Immortal River had begun to leak. This prompted him to make the first move, declaring open war against the holy land and attempting to rally other factions to his side under the flimsy pretense that the Holy Land of the Immortal River should hand over their Holy Daughter to serve as a personal maid.

It was an absurd and laughable excuse, yet that was merely the facade. Their true goal was to suppress and completely destroy the Holy Land of the Immortal River.

What gave the Holy Land its unshakable confidence in the upcoming war, however, was none other than a prophecy foretold by Yun Zhenying, the master of the Mysterious Heaven Peak.