In a vast, empty, and silent area, a flight of stairs dropped from the sky, its height unknown.
Lin Xun looked around to see there was no one else but himself.
This was a strange secret-realm inside the Supreme Tower, and it housed nothing but the flight of stairs.
The great dao was like the sky, and the heavenly stairs were the path!
Before coming here, Lin Xun had done his research and reached the conclusion that the test of the Supreme Tower was very simple. One only needed to climb up, and their cultivation would determine their final position on the heavenly stairs of great dao.
Only the strong who could ascend the one-thousandth step could enter the passageway to the Upper Ninth Realm when it appeared.
However, this heavenly flight of stairs did not merely have a thousand steps!
Boom!
Lin Xun set foot on the first step, and immediately, a great dao force pressed down and caused him to slightly lurch.
Without a change in his expression, he proceeded to climb up.
The pace was steady like he was taking an idle stroll on the ground.
The power of the great dao that emanated from each step was different, and the higher one climbed, the stronger it became.
However, this did not pose any difficulties for Lin Xun.
As he leisurely climbed the stairs, he was reminded of Qinglu Academy in the lower world, where there was a stair mountain imprinted with traces of different great daos.
Back then, he and Gu Yunting had been secretly competing as they climbed the Sky Stairs Mountain.
At that time, Gu Yunting had been dazzling beyond compare and regarded as the number one among the younger generation of Qinglu Academy. It hadn’t been long before he had left the lower world for the Ancient Wasteland Domain to advance in his cultivation.
But time had witnessed many changes.
Countless geniuses and heaven prides gathered in the Ancient Wasteland Domain, and while Gu Yunting’s shine didn’t die out, it was much dimmer compared to when he had been in Qinglu Academy.
This, in fact, was also a form of competition on the path of great dao.
A cultivator might rise like a comet, but they might just dim as quickly as one. It was truly difficult to swim against the current and remain lofty all the time because in this world, there was never a lack of stronger competitors than you!
“How are Shi Yu, Ning Meng, Ye Xiaoqi, and the rest of them doing now, I wonder… And also Liu Qingyan, how far is she on the path of the sound dao?”
Lin Xun was in a trance as he recalled the experiences and the people in his past, feeling as if it was already a lifetime ago.
Hmm?
A bright light suddenly flashed in Lin Xun’s field of vision and woke him from his scattered thoughts.
Looking up, he saw clusters of flames emerge on one side of the stone steps one after another, in colors of silver-white, indigo, golden yellow, fiery red, and ghostly blue…
Each flame suspended next to a stone step, blossoming a unique aura.
They were dao flames!
As the saying went, the fire of dao forever burned, and the path of dao never ended.
These dao flames were the battle scars left by the cultivators on their way up the heavenly stairs, and each contained its maker’s fighting spirit!
And only the top one thousand experts were qualified to leave their dao flames on the highest one thousand steps.
Of course, once they were surpassed, their flames would be erased and occupied by someone else.
Lin Xun’s expression became serious.
He knew that the real test had come.
……
The first dao flame, which was light-green in color, was located next to the thousandth stair counting down from the top.
Buzzz!
The sight in front of Lin Xun warped as he stepped on this stair, and he suddenly appeared in a vast, empty world.
At the same time, the light-green flame had transformed into a delicate woman who exuded an icy and competent bearing.
Swish!
The woman charged forth as soon as she appeared, looking like a dazzling green streak of light.
She swung her hand, and thousands of thick verdant vines appeared out of thin air, dancing wildly in the air and forming a cage that enclosed Lin Xun.
And then, on every vine, a demonic flower sprouted like crazy against the wind, shining with a terrifying light that drowned him.
“The essence of the wood dao, the endlessness of life… How exquisite.”
Lin Xun looked calm as an invisible power operated around him.
Rumble!
The demonic flowers that were close to touching him suddenly turned to dust. The green and tender branches exploded, and the vines that were thick as a python ruptured into pieces…
And then, the entire cage crumbled.
The woman had also approached.
When she was just about to attack, the power around Lin Xun gently swept out and shattered her manifestation with a bang.
Whoosh!
Lin Xun once again found himself on the heavenly stairs.
On the side of the stone step where he was standing, the light-green dao flame had disappeared.
Without hesitation, he stepped on the 999th stair.
This stair was accompanied by a silver dao flame that transformed into a heroic-looking expert of the Profound Light Ancient Clan.
However, it still wasn’t enough to take down Lin Xun, who claimed his victory in an instant.
This time, however, the silver flame didn’t extinguish, but moved backward and settled next to the 1000th stone step.
Lin Xun continued upwards.
The 998th step.
The 997th step…
In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had fiercely advanced onto the five hundredth step!
If this scene was seen by other cultivators, they would be terrified.
There were millions of cultivators in the Burning Immortal World, and although most of them hadn’t set foot on the supreme path, there was definitely no shortage of top-class experts.
Therefore, one could imagine the intense competition for the top 1000. Almost everyone who had made it was a top ranker of their generation.
And the fact that every step higher required much stronger battle prowess showed that each of these supreme characters had been stronger than the last!
The dao flames represented those one thousand supreme characters.
To be able to defeat five hundred of them consecutively showed how astonishing Lin Xun’s fighting ability was.
“Not bad, not bad at all. Even though the opponents aren’t that strong, they’ve opened my eyes to many different dao paths. This kind of opportunity is very rare.”
Lin Xun was calm and relaxed. Although he had fought five hundred battles without stopping, it didn’t take much of his energy, and he didn’t have to stop to recover at all.
He continued to climb.
As time passed, he steadily moved upwards step by step while behind him, the dao flames moved downwards.
Before long, Lin Xun saw a figure.
It was a youth with a dark complexion and a subdued but lofty aura.
He was sweating profusely and looked exhausted. Obviously, he had been fighting his way up the heavenly stairs just like Lin Xun.
It was apparent from the tired look on his face that he had been here for a long time.
Upon seeing Lin Xun, the youth asked in surprise, “Friend, when did you enter?”
“About a quarter of an hour ago,” replied Lin Xun casually.
“You got to the 337th stone step in just a quarter of an hour?!” The youth’s voice cracked, and he looked incredulous as if he was seeing a ghost.
Lin Xun gave him a curt “Yeah” before going up the steps.
The youth didn’t believe him, thinking that Lin Xun was bragging, but soon, he saw Lin Xun ending a battle in just a few breaths and ascending to the next stair.
And then the next step, and the next step at the same speed before Lin Xun soon arrived in front of him.
The youth was completely convinced that the fellow before him was a monster that couldn’t be defined with common sense!
When Lin Xun surpassed him and proceeded to go up, the youth couldn’t help but ask, “May I know your name, honorable friend?”
“Lin Xun,” replied Lin Xun without turning his head.
“Oh,” said the youth unconsciously before realization struck him. His voice cracked, “What? So it’s you!”
In the Burning Immortal Ancient City, there was only one person named Lin Xun, and this person bore an even more famous title–
Demon God Lin!
How could the youth have not heard of him?
“No wonder he’s so freakishly strong, so it’s him…”
The youth had been a little reluctant to accept that someone could be so strong, but he was completely convinced now. Trying to compare oneself to Demon God Lin would do nothing but make one uncomfortable!
After the time it took for an incense stick to burn.
Lin Xun arrived at the 100th step!
His speed was so fast that it completely broke any previous record. Like a sharp sword smoothly splitting bamboo, he was unstoppable.
Occasionally along the way, Lin Xun had come across cultivators and left behind shocked voices.
It couldn’t be helped as he was too fast, crushing his way forward!
And the cultivators along the way had never seen anyone so fierce.
However, upon arriving at the 100th step, Lin Xun began to feel the pressure.
He was keenly aware that from here onwards, his opponents would all be experts who had reached the very peak of the supreme path!
However, this still wasn’t difficult for Lin Xun.
He didn’t even take a break before stepping up the stairs.
To Lin Xun’s delight, from this point onwards, he would see a different kind of supreme dao path every time he defeated an opponent.
Some used their swords to forge their path. Fiercely and decisively, they reached the peak with a sword intent that shook the sky.
Some would master a certain grand dao power and develop it to near perfection. Once exerted, that power would conjure all kinds of overwhelming phenomena.
Some took the road of cultivating their soul and mastered rare methods to attack the opponents’ spirits. This kind of cultivator was the most difficult to defend against in battles.
There were even people who cultivated their physical bodies like A’lu. Their physical strength had been refined to a supreme level and it was nearly impossible to beat them to death.
Dueling with these top-notch characters greatly broadened Lin Xun’s horizons, and he also benefited from comparing his own dao and techniques to theirs.
In this way, he arrived at the 66th step without realizing it.
However, just as he was about to step onto the next stair, the dao flame next to it moved down. In turn, the 65th dao flame replaced the 66th dao flame that he had originally defeated.
There’s actually someone else advancing in the first hundred steps?
Lin Xun looked up, and in a fleeting glance, he caught a figure a dozen stone steps higher up.
Without waiting for him to see clearly, the dao flame above him moved back and initiated another battle. He disappeared on the spot before he could ascend to the next stone step.
At that same moment, the figure in front of him seemed to sense the movement behind them as they let out a soft, surprised sound and turned around.
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