Chương 595: Chapter 590: The Unbound Stairway

The darkness lasted for a few moments before we found ourselves at the base of a stair that stretched to infinity. Each stair was at least fifty metres wide, carved from the same black dream-stone that formed the rest of the palace, but unlike the corridors, these steps glowed faintly with silver veining that pulsed every few seconds. When I looked up, I found that there wasn't a sky. All we could see was the void, and floating in the middle was a single number: 100.

"That tells us the number of steps left," Song Wei explained before anyone got the chance to ask.

"When we reach the Chamber of the Sleeper King, it will turn zero." Usually, when you looked up a stairway, you would find that the steps grew smaller the further away they were, but the perspective here was wrong, every single stair was the same size no matter the distance.

"Don't stare too long," Shen Bolin warned as my eyes failed to make sense of the geometry.

"It will give you a headache. The architecture wasn't built for mortal comprehension." Immediately, I looked away because I could already feel the pressure building behind my eyes.

"There's nothing there right now, but when the trial begins, the enemies will scale to match our numbers, so more of us means more opponents will spawn," Song Wei said, gesturing at the empty step in front of us.

"An Oneiric Sovereign fighting continuously will burn out before they even reach step twenty."

"Then we need to take turns," Xie Ling said.

"Yes," Shen Bolin confirmed.

"Against enemies below Oneiric Sovereign, Song Wei and I will not act, that would be a waste of our energy. It would be better to conserve our strength for the later steps."

"Steps one through ten, we'll have Xie Ling clear them," Song Wei added.

"Steps eleven through twenty, Tian. Steps twenty-one through thirty, Hou. Then we cycle back." I didn't argue with that. It made sense for the Lucid Lawbearers to act when the difficulty level increased. I just didn't want it to be that they use us, abuse us, then abandon us during those later steps.

"What about me and Li Na?" Xu Feng asked, looking at the endless stairway with a frown.

"What do we do?"

"You and Li Na will be the support," Song Wei said.

"Healing, formations, tactical advice. You don't engage directly unless someone needs assistance." Li Na nodded acceptance of this arrangement. Xu Feng looked less certain but didn't say anything about it.

"There's one more thing, and that is that speed matters," Shen Bolin added.

"The longer we take on any given step, the more time the palace has to prepare surprises, so we need to clear each step as quickly as possible, then move immediately to the next."

"Are there any questions," Song Wei asked, looking us all in the eye one at a time, but when no one said anything, he continued.

"Then let's begin." Xie Ling stepped forward, the ice beauty's spiritual pressure expanded, making the air around her frost slightly. This triggered the beginning of the trial. On the first step, four figures materialised, they were all humanoid in shape but made up of compressed darkness. The closest description I could think of was shadows given physical form.

"They're called Shadow Warriors," Shen Bolin murmured as the beings surrounded Xie Ling from multiple angles. Most cultivators would take this as an opportunity to display their most beautiful devastating techniques, but Xie Ling didn't bother with anything like that. The girl made a simple gesture with her right hand, causing ice to erupt from the stone beneath the nearest shadow warrior.

The frozen spike pierced straight through where its heart would be, shattering the creature into fragments of darkness that merged with the surroundings. Seeing their companion be dealt with so easily, the other three rushed at her simultaneously. One of their arms shot forward like a spear. Xie Ling quickly created a barrier of ice that absorbed the blow. Before the others could react, she shattered the barrier outwards.

Thousands of razor-sharp ice fragments filled the air, moving so fast they were barely visible. The shadow warriors tried to meld into intangibility, but the ice was infused with spiritual energy that tracked them even through dimensional shifts. Within seconds, the three dissipated into nothingness, and the number in the sky changed from 100 to 99. Just like that, the first step was complete. Xie Ling ascended to the second step, triggering five shadow warriors to manifest.

The same scene as before repeated itself, and she made quick work of them. This happened again with the fourth step, which had six enemies, and then with the fifth step, which had seven. By the tenth step, the ice princess was facing sixteen shadow warriors at the same time, but now they had learned from watching her, so they were spreading out more and trying to attack from the blind spots to overwhelm her. That tactic didn't work. Xie Ling's final technique for that rotation was simple but devastating.

She flash-froze the entire step, every shadow warrior solidifying mid-movement, then she walked through them one by one, to shatter each frozen form with a tap on the forehead. When she was done, the number turned to 90.

"Very efficient," Song Wei commented as we joined Xie Ling.

"I like it." Xie didn't bother to respond, she simply took her place at the back of the group and began to cycle her spiritual energy. While her performance was impressive and had seemed effortless, I noticed that her breathing was slightly heavier than normal.

"Tian, my boy," Shen Bolin said.

"You're up." Without any hesitation, Tian ascended to the eleventh step. This time when the enemies materialised, they were different from the shadow warriors, these six had more defined forms, angular bodies made of translucent crystal that reflected light in strange patterns.

"Crystalline Sentinels," Shen Bolin identified them when he noticed our confusing expressions. Tian drew a sword out of nowhere in one smooth motion, the blade was clearly a dream construct. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. The first sentinel attacked, its arm extending into a spear. Tian's sword moved to intercept, and when the two collided, there was a sound like breaking glass.

The sentinel's arm shattered, and before it could reform, Tian closed the distance and drove his blade through its core. The construct fell apart into fragments. Not wasting a breath, Tian moved through the remaining five with the same brutal efficiency that I expected from Wu Kangming. By the time he reached step twenty, he was against what looked to be thirty sentinels, his technique hadn't changed at all, and he cut them down just as easily as before. When he turned to face us, the number in the sky flashed 80.

"Hou," Song Wei said, "It's your turn." Taking a deep breath, I began to climb to step twenty-one, and the moment my foot touched the step, the spiritual pressure crashed down on me. Had I been a normal Oneiric Sovereign, it definitely would have caused my knees to buckle before I adjusted to it, which told me that the difficulty was ramping up as the palace became serious. Around me, fire materialised, splitting into eight separate entities that shifted constantly between humanoid and serpentine forms.

"Flame Dancers," I heard someone murmur behind me. These were creatures designed to counter ice techniques, while this would have been a bad matchup for Xie Ling, I didn't have to worry too much. My eyes narrowed when they all attacked at the same time, sending fire spirally toward me from every possible direction. I had no intention of playing around, so I activated my transformation technique immediately.

Red Sun energy flowed through my arm as I coated it in layers of dream qi to mask it as a demonic dream cultivation method. The final product was those familiar dark gray vines with silver highlights covered in prickly thorns. Before the flame dancers could react, each vine lashed out to grab one of the burning constructs. As the thorns sank deep into their forms, the creatures tried to burn through my technique, but the red sun didn't care about the heat. Nothing was going to stop it from consuming its prey.

With a cry of helplessness, the flame dancers dissolved as their energy was absorbed into my vines. The following steps had more flame dancers, and by step thirty, fifty of them were coordinating their attacks to overwhelm me, but my vines crushed, pierced, and devoured everything in their path. Honestly, I had to make it look like I was just using particularly aggressive dream techniques rather than something fundamentally different, because the red sun wanted to devour everything.

By the time I was done, the number flashed 70 above our heads. As the group walked up to join me, my arm returned to normal as I left the transformation fade away. I quickly noticed that Xu Feng was watching me with concern or suspicion, I couldn't tell.

"That was brutal," he murmured finally.

"I've been thinking about it for a while, I've never seen dream cultivation manifest like that."

"It's a family method," I lied smoothly.

"Passed down from my grandmother. She specialized in nightmare manifestation." Fortunately for me, he didn't push further, he just nodded. What concerned me more was that Tian caught my eye when I sat down, there was something knowing in his look, but he didn't say anything. Did he recognise the red sun energy even though I tried to disguise it? Or was he just noting that my fighting style was different from what he expected Hou would use?

"Xie Ling, it's you again," Song Wei announced, pulling everyone's attention away from me. The rotation continued. Steps thirty-one to forty were cleared by Xie Ling, she faced void stalkers. Even though they could teleport and manipulate gravity, she adapted by creating ice constructs that predicted their movements to trap them in frozen prisons before they could phase out. As for steps forty-one to forty-nine, they were cleared by Tian.

He had to face storm heralds that wrapped themselves in perpetual thunderstorms. I had to admit that the way he cut through lightning itself and redirected electrical energy back at the enemies that generated it was beautiful sword play at work. When he was done, the number in the sky changed to 50. We were halfway done, and it showed on our appearance. On my right, Xie Ling was breathing slightly on the harder side as sweat ran down her forehead.

On my left, Tian's spiritual energy was depleted enough that I could see him struggling to maintain his composure. And honestly, I wasn't much better off. The red sun energy reserves were still good, but using it continuously for ten steps while disguising it with dream qi had been exhausting in a different way. However, each of us were still functional and ready to continue.

As for the two Lucid Lawbearers, since most of the time they had just provided occasional tactical guidance, they were fresh and ready to fight at a moment's notice.

"We've made good progress," Song Wei smiled, checking that jade compass again.

"This is even better than my sixth expedition. At this rate, we might actually reach step ninety before exhaustion becomes a real problem""Don't celebrate yet," Shen Bolin warned.

"The enemies from this point forward are stronger, smarter, and can adapt."

"I know that," Song Wei replied.

"I've been here even more than you. I'm well aware of what is coming."

"Then you should know that this is where most expeditions fall apart," Shen Bolin said.

"The ancients start appearing at step fifty."

"Ancients," Xu Feng shifted on his toes at that.

"Do you mean real people?"

"They are copies," Song Wei clarified.

"Manifestations based on the Dreamgod's memories of people he knew or killed. They have personalities, combat experience, everything that made them dangerous in life."

"Hou," Shen Bolin turned towards me.

"You're up for step fifty, but don't think that this will be like the previous rotations. The enemy will have centuries of experience backing them. They will be a complete cultivator."

"I understand," I nodded, standing up despite the protest from my body.

"Do you?" Shen Bolin's eyes were serious.

"Because the manifestation at step fifty killed three members of my fourth expedition. It's an Early Oneiric Sovereign, just like you, but with combat mastery you haven't developed yet."

"I think I'll be okay, but thanks."

"If you can't defeat it within five minutes," Song Wei added, "then retreat and let one of us handle it. I don't want you dying here because of pride." That offer from him surprised me since he hadn't shown any signs of caring about any of us, but I then realised that it was simply because he didn't want to lose a valuable asset that he could still milk for its worth. As I walked towards step fifty, the pressure intensified with each step.

By the time I reached the forty-ninth step, it felt like I was moving through thick water, and spiritual energy circulated faster to compensate for the resistance. And when I stepped into the fiftieth step, the pressure vanished immediately, and was replaced by a presence that coalesced into a specific form about twenty meters away. It was a man in his mid-thirties. He had bright, friendly eyes that crinkled at the corners, which told me that he smiled often. He was wearing simple yellow traveling scholar's robes.

In his right hand, there was a wooden staff carved with laughing faces. It's not good to judge a book by its cover, but if I had to, I'd say he was the type of guy you would find likeable immediately and trust to go out for a drink with in your first meeting. But all thoughts of friendless disappeared when I sensed the spiritual pressure that oozed out of him. Like Shen Bolin had warned, this was a genuine Early Oneiric Sovereign cultivator.

"Ah!" the manifestation said, his voice warm and welcoming.

"A visitor! How wonderful! I'm Chen Huan, though some called me the Laughing Scholar." He tilted his head, looking me up and down.

"And you are?" I didn't answer immediately because Song Wei had said these manifestations could talk, that they had personalities were based on real people, and I didn't know if I wanted to entertain them.

"Hou Hongyun," I said finally.

"Hou Hongyun," Chen Huan repeated, tasting the name.

"What a good name! It is strong and grounded. Tell me, young Hou, what brings you to this place? What do you seek in the Sunken Dream Palace?" Engaging with the enemy in conversation seemed like a trap, but I didn't know if refusing to answer would trigger the palace, so I decided to just answer honestly.

"I'm retrieving something for a friend," I said carefully.

"What a noble goal!" Chen Huan's smile widened.

"Yes! Friendship is precious. It is certainly worth risking your life for. You know I had a daughter once. Chen Xiaomei was the brightest child, she was always asking questions, always wanting to understand the world." His expression grew distant.

"I wonder how she turned out. Unfortunately, I never got to see her grow up." The sadness in his voice seemed genuine as though there was real emotion there, real grief over a life cut short and a daughter left behind.

"I'm sorry." That was all I could say.

"Don't be," Chen Huan replied, his smile back already.

"It was me who chose this path. I knew the risks. Every cultivator does." He shifted his grip on the staff slightly.

"Now, I'm afraid I have to fight you. That's my purpose here, but it's nothing personal, you see. It's just the way things are."

"I understand…"

"Good, good." Chen Huan nodded.

"Then shall we begin? I promise to make it educational. After all, what's the point of combat if no one learns anything?" His spiritual pressure exploded outward, causing the step beneath my feet to crack from the force of it, and I felt my own cultivation base respond automatically, red sun energy surging to meet the challenge.

"Shall we begin?" Chen Huan asked cheerfully as six more identical figures began manifesting behind him, all of them exerting the same pressure. It was at that moment that I realized I was in serious trouble.