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The fresh blood was the color of immortal gold, and it was crystal clear.
When he sensed it in more detail, he detected traces of the mysterious Charm of the Dao. It was unbelievable!
Chhh! Chhh!
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Even more shockingly, the fresh blood struggled to escape his fingers, as if it had a life of its own. The power it unleashed was shockingly great.
Even with Su Yi’s cultivation, he needed to circulate a detainment technique known as “Mountains and Rivers in My Palm” to repress the smattering of blood.
This looks like… the blood of a Xiantian Divine Lifeform. It contains traces of holiness… Su Yi was inwardly surprised.
It didn’t take long for something else to occur to him. If there’s a Xiantian Divine Lifeform on Sumeru Mountain, it really could have resisted the corrosion of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness.
But Xiantian Divine Lifeforms are supreme treasures born of a world’s source; they can only be happened upon by chance. If they’d had such a treasure under their control, the Sumeru Shrine would have had no need to fear the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness in the first place.
Yet the Sumeru Shrine was indeed lost to the river of time. That’s a bit strange.
Could it be that the Xiantian Divine Lifeform on Sumeru Mountain doesn’t belong to the Sumeru Shrine?
Interesting! There are undoubtedly deep secrets hidden here!
Although Su Yi couldn’t see through its mysteries, this discovery piqued Su Yi’s curiosity.
He flipped his hand, thoroughly suppressing the golden blood before putting it away.
“Brother Su, what was that just now?” asked Wen Xinzhao.
The others looked at him too, especially Mei Yanbai and company; it was as if they’d found their pillar of support.
“I’m not sure yet, but we might see it again soon,” said Su Yi. He looked at Mei Yanbai and his companions. “With your strength, you’d be better off leaving this place.”
Mei Yanbai grimaced. “We’re trapped; even if we wanted to leave, we can’t.”
Su Yi took out a blank jade slip and used his divine sense to carve a road map. “Follow the route I recorded, and you’ll be able to leave.”
Mei Yanbai hurriedly accepted it with both hands, as if it were a supreme treasure. “Many thanks for your assistance, Fellow Daoist Su!”
Feng Zidu, Qian Yun, and Nie Li bowed. “Many thanks, Fellow Daoist Su!”
All of them were beside themselves with delight.
When he saw this, Su Yi couldn’t help but tease them. “I stole your treasures; it’s only right that I help you.”
Mei Yanbai instantly felt sheepish and awkward.
“Brother Su, that’s a different matter entirely. It’s just as you said; there is no right and wrong in a struggle over good fortune. We lost, so it was only right that we give up our treasures,” said Mei Yanbai. He took a deep breath and continued, “But you didn’t hold a grudge, and instead pointed out a path to survival. We’re deeply grateful for this benevolence. How could we possibly hold a grudge over that earlier unpleasantness?”
His companions nodded.
When they saw Mei Yanbai and company take the initiative to bury the hatchet, Su Yi’s companions were delighted. After all, having fewer enemies wasn’t a bad thing.
“Let’s go.” Su Yi didn’t delay any further. He continued ahead, taking his companions with him.
Qian Yun looked a bit hesitant, but he nonetheless interjected, “Fellow Daoist Su, I know this is an unreasonable request, but if you encounter Dou Kou further down the path, could you… could you help her too?”
The image of a charming young woman floated into Su Yi’s sea of consciousness, and he recalled her extremely rare natural talent. “If I see her, I naturally won’t remain uninvolved.”
Qian Yun inwardly sighed in relief. He bowed and said, “Many thanks, Fellow Daoist Su.”
Before long, Su Yi and his companions disappeared into the depths of the boundless fog, while Mei Yanbai and company followed the instructions Su Yi had left in the jade slip and left Sumeru Mountain.
Two hours later.
Su Yi and his companions reached the halfway point of Sumeru Mountain without incident.
A stretch of buildings as dense and numerous as trees in a forest stood before them. However, most had long since collapsed, and nothing remained but rubble.
As far as the eye could see, nothing grew, not even an inch of grass. It was a barren, desolate landscape.
“Don’t tell me a brutal battle once took place here?” exclaimed Wen Xinzhao.
Ge Qian seemed disappointed. “Regardless of whether or not there was a grand battle here, how could a ruined, barren place like this possibly hide any good fortune?”
“How could you find something like ‘good fortune’ just anywhere?” Su Yi looked up and said, “But I dare say with certainty that as-of-yet undiscovered good fortune is hidden within the mountain.”
He then continued toward the rubble.
After passing through the ruins, they arrived at a perfectly straight path to the top of the mountain. It was about a hundred feet across and covered in layer after layer of black stairs.
When Su Yi and his companions arrived, they instantly saw numerous battles raging further up the staircase.
Buddhist Son Chen Lu, Li Handeng, Jiang Li, Yu Wenshu, and the other geniuses of the present day were scattered throughout the various levels of the staircase.
Every one of them was fighting with everything they had, activating their treasures and attacking in full force.
The strange part was that no one could see their opponents!
It was as if they were locked in bitter combat with the air…
“This…” Su Yi’s companions were dazed.
“This is a Staircase of Trials. Every step is a Grand Dao Battle Realm; entering them is like entering a battlefield where you’ll encounter an opponent manifested of the Grand Dao,” said Su Yi. He could see through the staircase’s purpose at a glance.
“The higher up you go, the stronger Grand Dao Battle Realms. That means the higher you go, the stronger the opponent you’ll have to face.
“Ordinarily speaking, only Imperial-level orthodoxies can create trial grounds like this. They’re made for a sect’s disciples, and they’re intended to temper their cultivation and combat skills.
“Of course, since such trial grounds are an extreme test of willpower, courage, and intelligence, when a sect tests its disciples, they often do so in places like this. For example, how far up the staircase a disciple can climb might determine their status and rank, with correspondingly generous rewards.
“Such testing grounds are useful for examinations, as well as for selecting inner sect, legacy, core, and closed-door disciples.”
After hearing this explanation, his companions understood, and they couldn’t help but feel eager.
No such place had existed in the outside world in a long time!
To them, this was a stroke of fortune in its own right; it was a place to temper their abilities!
After all, according to Su Yi, only Imperial-level orthodoxies had the ability to create such trial grounds.
This meant that even thirty thousand years ago, only the greatest factions of the Azure Continent had places like this.
This was naturally worthy of the title “a stroke of fortune”!
Only now did they understand how unusual the battles Chen Lu and the others were fighting were.
“For you, this is indeed a good place to temper yourself and boost your cultivation,” said Su Yi. “It isn’t dangerous, either, so you should go ahead and try it.”
His companions were long since itching to give it a go.
Wen Xinzhao straightforwardly agreed, while Yue Shichan asked, “What about you, Brother Su?”
The aloof young woman in white seldom spoke and rarely made idle conversation. However, when something concerned Su Yi, she paid close attention.
Su Yi smiled faintly. “I want to ascend the Staircase of Trials too, but my goal is to reach the top. Go on; I’d like to see how strong you three are.”
This sentence silently ignited Wen Xinzhao and Yue Shichan’s competitive spirit.
“Big Sister Shichan, how about we have ourselves a little contest?” laughed Wen Xinzhao. She was graceful, with simple, elegant clothing, but she was naturally charming, with striking spiritual energy.
“Alright.” Yue Shichan merely nodded. Her expression was tranquil and ethereal, like an immortal maiden untainted by the dust and fire of the mortal world.
As for Ge Qian? Both women ignored him…
Ge Qian knew better than to say anything. Someone as cautious as him naturally wouldn’t participate in such a competition.
The three of them quickly got started.
Su Yi stood with his hands behind his back and watched in silence for a while.
Then, he flipped over his hand and took out the golden blood he’d confined. He swept his gaze around the area and muttered, as if speaking to himself, “If you dare cause trouble on the Staircase of Trials, don’t blame me for my poor manners.”
With that, he put the blood away and proceeded to the first level of the Staircase of Trials.
Boom!
A strange energy fluctuation followed, and the scenery before him changed completely.
Su Yi now found himself in a dark, boundless world.
There was nothing here but a single enormous platform. The space around it was empty in all directions.
Su Yi stepped confidently onto the platform.
Whoosh!
A strange fluctuation of the Grand Dao appeared, followed by a human figure.
The figure was clad in Daoist robes, and he had a golden belt around his waist and an ancient sword on his back. His features were indistinct, but he emanated the aura of the early-stage Gathering Stars Realm.
This was a “guardian” formed of the Grand Dao.
Su Yi wasn’t at all surprised by this.
The guardians on each level of the staircase had cultivations identical to the person attempting the trial.
No matter how high you went, the guardians’ cultivation wouldn’t change, but they grew progressively stronger.
Yue Shichan, Wen Xinzhao, and Ge Qian all encountered the same scenario.
The guardians’ cultivation was the same as the challengers'. This was the only way to ensure that the resulting clashes were effective at tempering test-takers’ cultivations and polishing their combat skills.
Were the guardians too strong, the Staircase of Trials would serve no purpose.
I wonder if this appearance is based on an Imperial Realm cultivator of the Sumeru Shrine? Su Yi wondered as he looked at the guardian.
It took an Imperial Realm cultivator’s power to create a Staircase of Trials. Only then was it possible for the Grand Dao Battle Realm to work for cultivators of all different levels.
Although the swordsman in Daoist robes and a golden belt was indistinct, Su Yi was confident that his appearance was based on the Imperial Realm cultivator who’d refined the Staircase of Trials.
“I’m actually quite interested to see what an Imperial Realm expert like you thought was the greatest level of strength possible for an early-stage Gathering Stars Realm cultivator. I hope… I hope you won’t disappoint me too badly.” Su Yi shook his head. He didn’t delay any longer.
Whoosh!
He stretched out his hand and silently condensed a sword.
Practically simultaneously, the guardian drew the ancient sword on his back, and his aura instantly grew stronger.
Su Yi leaped ahead and swung casually.
Bang!
Before the guardian could even attack, it split down the center and dispersed with a boom.