Chapter 244: Rank 1 on Heaven Seeking Board
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
On the top of Heaven Seeking Board, there was only one person ranked 1, but the name behind the rank was empty. After the empty name section, there was a step number, and that number made all Heaven Seeking Palace members suck in a breath of cold air, because it wrote"108 steps".
Cultivators from elsewhere did not know how hard climbing the Heaven Seeking Staircase was, or what it meant to reach step 108, but people of Heaven Seeking Palace knew it very clearly.
"What’s going on?" Feng Zhenqiu asked coldly.
The Heaven Seeking Palace Administrator, who had been standing at one side, quickly stepped out and bowed respectfully, "Dean Feng, this situation appeared over half a month ago. I originally wanted to report this personally to you, but I never had the chance until now."
He was not lying when he said those words. Once this situation presented itself, he frantically searched for the top management of Heaven Seeking Palace to report it. However, because of the war with the aliens, the few deans, elders, and summit lords were all absent from the sect. By the time he had the chance to report it to the dean, he couldn't meet the dean, and only received the order to cover the Heaven Seeking Board with red cloth. Up till now, this was the first time he could speak to the Second Dean.
"I’m already aware of the situation. Please take your leave." Bei Suting’s voice came from the side.
"Roger." The administrator quickly backed off after bowing respectfully. His back was already soaked with sweat. Even he did not know how such a situation could arise, and he did not believe that someone could climb to the 108th step of Heaven Seeking Staircase. He had climbed the Heaven Seeking Staircase before, and that sort of difficulty was not something that willpower could overcome.
"Senior Suting, what’s going on here?" Even though Bei Suting was much younger than Feng Zhenqiu, Feng Zhenqiu still addressed her as senior out of respect for her title of Heaven Seeking Palace’s Dean.
At this moment, Feng Zhenqiu was actually a little worried. The Heaven Seeking Staircase was the symbol of Heaven Seeking Palace, so once the staircase had something wrong with it, could Heaven Seeking Palace still be considered as Heaven Seeking Palace?
Bei Suting began speaking a moment later, "I only found out about this not long ago, and I’ve discussed it with a few elders and summit lords. It’s very likely that a disciple of Heaven Seeking Palace climbed the Heaven Seeking Staircase while we were participating in the alien war, and managed to reach the top. This disciple was also unwilling to reveal his name, so he did not carve his name in stone at the top."
"There’s such a genius disciple in Heaven Seeking Palace?" Feng Zhenqiu became so emotional to the point that he started trembling, and soon he reached the conclusion that what Bei Suting said might very well be true. This was because only this sort of disciple would climb the Heaven Seeking Staircase while everyone was away and not leave his name behind after reaching the top.
"I’ve already sent people to check which disciples did not leave Heaven Seeking Palace during the war with alien cultivators, so we should get an answer soon." Bei Suting spoke. In her heart, she hoped that such a genius disciple really appeared in Heaven Seeking Palace.
Feng Zhenqiu nodded his head, and said, "There’s one more thing, according to rumors that are being spread around, Rogue Cultivator 2705 has taken away by Zhen Mo Continent’s Ceng Houyi, and it's likely due to Ceng Houyi going after some treasures that he had."
In response to that, Bei Suting sighed, "Even if that were true, Heaven Seeking Palace can’t do anything about it. Since that rogue cultivator chose his own path, it was fate that he met such an incident. Sigh, when will Lost Continent produce an outstanding expert that will allow us to speak up for ourselves."
After she finished speaking, Bei Suting’s face was filled with sorrow. Regardless whether it was the alien cultivators almost decimating all cultivators of Lost Continent, or the strong front of the visitors from Zhen Mo Continent, they all made her feel a deep sense of helplessness. Even as the leader of Lost Continent, she couldn’t do anything, so what more for the rest of the people.
"Dean Feng, what’s going on?" Xia Mu had an ugly expression on his face. He initially wanted to climb to the top of Heaven Seeking Staircase, but who knew there would be someone that beat him to it.
Feng Zhenqiu quickly went over to explain, "Special Envoy Xia, I’m not very sure why there’s this sort of incident in my Heaven Seeking Palace. If not for the fact that it is impossible to reach the top of Heaven Seeking Staircase, I'd have suspected that someone climbed it on the sly. I believe that, as long as someone climbs to the top of Heaven Seeking Palace and carves down his name, then he’ll naturally take rank 1."
Xia Mu knew that this was Feng Zhenqiu was bullsh*ting him, even mocking him a little. Since no one could reach the top, who rank 1 was did not matter to Xia Mu.
He did not really bother with Feng Zhenqiu’s words though. As long as he stepped onto the highest step of Heaven Seeking Staircase and carved down his name, then the nameless entry would naturally slide to rank 2. Instead of talking nonsense with this guy, why couldn’t he just use his actions to show the Lost Continent what he was capable of.
"All brave men about to head for Zhen Mo Continent, even though you were able to emerge victorious from the large group of competitors, but please let me see the potential you hold. Now I will lead everyone to climb the Heaven Seeking Staircase together, and I hope that I can see everyone’s names on the Heaven Seeking Board." Xia Mu announced loudly in front of the 1st step.
All of the people present applauded, as many of them had looked to the Heaven Seeking Staircase with reverence all this while, just that they did not have the chance to climb it because they were not disciples of Heaven Seeking Palace.
Since there was such a good opportunity before them, who would want to miss it? Even more people wanted to leave their names on the top of the Heaven Seeking Board so that the special envoy would take notice of them.
Satisfied with the crowd’s response, Xia Mu said with a wave of his hand, "Everyone come with me, let’s go conquer the Heaven Seeking Staircase."
The word "conquer" made the people of Heaven Seeking Palace quite unhappy, but most of the cultivators there were rather excited after hearing those words. Conquering Heaven Seeking Palace’s Heaven Seeking Staircase naturally became the dream in everyone’s hearts.
Xia Mu was the first to step on Heaven Seeking Staircase, and as he easily progressed from step 1 to step 2, his heart sank.
Although such pressure was nothing for him, the 2nd step’s pressure was almost double that of the 1st step. How frightening would the pressure be when he reached the 108th step then?
But he calmed himself down very quickly, as his age was not that large, and he was even much younger than other Transcending Mortality Stage cultivators here. Moreover, he was at Nihility God Stage, with the possibility of entering the Extreme Earth Stage. Thus he strongly believed that there would not be anyone from the Lost Continent that surpassed him.
However, a sense of frustration arose inside when he thought of the nameless person in rank 1. Originally, it was not a problem for him to take rank 1 even if he did not reach the top of Heaven Seeking Staircase, but the current rank 1 actually made it to the 108th step.
Lifting his head up and gazing at the seemingly never ending Heaven Seeking Staircase, Xia Mu took in a deep breath. If he tried it best, who said he wouldn’t be able to reach the top?
Xia Mu was the first to step onto the Heaven Seeking Staircase, followed by the hundred selected Lost Continent cultivators. Even those who had climbed the staircase before, like Gou Zihan and Feng Luojian, also climbed the Heaven Seeking Staircase once again.
The plaza in front of Heaven Seeking Staircase became silent, and countless cultivators observed those talented and strong experts climb the staircase.
Feng Zhenqiu turned to look at Bei Suting and sighed to himself. If Bei Suting also went to climb the staircase, she probably could pass the 100th step.
By then, Xia Mu had already reached the 40th step, and at this point he had to start putting in some effort. This was the first time that he felt that no matter how talented he was, there was little chance for him to reach the top of Heaven Seeking Staircase.
Another four hours passed by, and when Xia Mu reached the 70th step, his speed was gradually becoming slower. Moreover, it was the first time that someone had overtaken this special envoy from Zhen Mo Continent.
This shocked Xia Mu completely. Even though the pressure from the Heaven Seeking Staircase would be greater for those with higher cultivation levels, he did not believe that anyone from the Lost Continent would be able to pass him, because the higher one’s cultivation level, the greater one’s resistance was too. On top of that, he was quite young. Didn’t the Heaven Seeking Staircase give less pressure the younger you were?
Before Xia Mu regained his senses, another person overtook him again.
Now Xia Mu’s expression became ugly. Luckily he did not declare that he would definitely be number 1 before starting the climb.
Collecting his elemental energy, Xia Mu also sped up.
The 80th step…
The 90th step…
Many people began to drop out as they were not able to endure any further, but Xia Mu still did not manage to charge to the number 1 position, instead he remained as number 3. The people in position number 1 and 2 were all familiar people. One was Lei Hongji, who Defender Xu had specially mentioned before as this was a cultivator who had just advanced to Yuan Dan Stage and possessed supreme lightning attribute spiritual roots.
The second was Xi Yixuan, who was Great Evolution Sect’s genius disciple and in Yuan Dan Stage Level 9. On the Hundred Sect Alliance Contribution Points Ranking, he was only second to Rogue Cultivator 2705.
Jiang Xiushan was extremely excited, as his Great Evolution Sect was still above Heaven Seeking Palace. Even now on the Heaven Seeking Staircase of Heaven Seeking Palace, the situation did not change.
Other than the unnamed rank 1 person, Gou Zihan was rank 2 for Heaven Seeking Staircase, and he had reached the 92nd step. At this moment, the Great Evolution Sect’s Xi Yixuan had crossed the 94th step. Moreover, the other genius of Great Evolution Sect, Lei Hongji, had passed the 98th step.
After swallowing a mouthful of blood, Xia Mu sneakily took a pill, and jumped two steps up to the 94th step. At the 95th step, Xi Yixuan finally stopped, struggling to write down his name on the white stone slab before being sent down the Heaven Seeking Staircase.
While Xia Mu saw the 95th step in front of him, it seemed very far away. Sighing, he knew that this was the end of the line. If it were some other time, he would not be willing to leave his name behind, but now there were so many eyes on him, so if he did not write his name down, other people would probably think that he was narrow minded. With a short moment of hesitation, Xia Mu decided to write down "Star King Mountain’s Xia Mu" on the stone slab.
Right after writing these few words, Xia Mu was sent down from the Heaven Seeking Staircase.
"Not bad, not bad, there were quite a few genius disciples chosen by Zhen Mo Continent." Xia Mu felt down, but still put up a smile and gave words of praise.
However, no one criticised him then, as it would already take a genius out of many geniuses to reach the 94th step of Heaven Seeking Staircase. Even the Heaven Seeking Palace’s people also thought of Xia Mu as a genius, because their strongest Gou Zihan still peaked at the 92nd step on his second attempt.
"Junior apprentice sister Yan’Er, don’t be disappointed. Once you advance to the Yuan Dan Stage, you’ll definitely be able to reach Heaven Seeking Staircase’s 100th step. Transcending Mortality Stage cultivators always get the short end of the stick while climbing Heaven Seeking Staircase." Seeing that Yan’Er was rather sad after being sent down the Heaven Seeking Staircase, Shi Jinwen quickly stepped forward to offer words of comfort. Since her master, Granny Linglong, had disappeared, to her, Yan’Er was Pill Pagoda’s future.
No one minded that Heaven Seeking Palace’s number 1 genius had come down, as everyone was still staring at Lei Hongji on the 99th step of Heaven Seeking Staircase and wanted to find out if this guy with supreme lightning attribute spiritual roots could climb onto the 100th step, or even reach the 108th step to conquer the Heaven Seeking Staircase.