Chương 82: Chapter 81 – The Stairs of Ascension

It took an undetermined amount of time before Ren managed to string together enough fragments to form a single thought. But it was just an acknowledgement of his miserable condition.' It hurts.' He blacked out again. He didn't know how long it took, but some instinct within him kept trying to piece together more thoughts. Awareness returned slowly, in pieces. His eyes were open but unseeing. But Ren eventually managed to remember how he got here and what he was doing before pain ruled over all his thoughts.'

Climb stair?' No sooner had this thought formed that Ren felt a tug around his navel and found himself on the top of the next giant step on the stair. How he knew which step he was on without looking around, he didn't know. He just did. Then the pressure increased and scattered all his thoughts again. His mind recovered once again after an indeterminate amount of time. It felt faster this time, but he couldn't be certain.

The pressure that surrounded him was crushing the breath from his lungs, making it difficult to even breathe. This time, the first thought was to stop the pain, but that did nothing. Then came, 'Breathe.' And he felt his lungs expand and pull in more air. Ren instinctively recognized the power to change his surroundings came from clarity. His mind slowly put together sentences, and Ren started to feel like himself again, albeit in tremendous pain.

Fortunately, all his body cultivation had let him get accustomed to thinking through pain. It was easier to ignore the pain when he distracted himself with other thoughts. He slowly put together his understanding of his current predicament. He could influence his surroundings to some extent, and the stairs didn't have to be climbed manually. But advancing to the next step brought with it increased pressure. It was enough for Ren to begin formulating a simple plan.

Try and grow resistant to current levels of pressure before advancing. He didn't even realize that the concept of retreat had never even entered his consciousness. Ren immediately sat down and began to meditate. The qi in his meridians moved extremely sluggishly. Cultivation was impossible. Then the trick had to lie elsewhere. When his senses moved over his dantian, he received a tremendous shock!

His spiritual sea, the accumulation of all the qi he had gathered, had shrunk by a tenth, and the flecks of gold that often showed on the surface had multiplied! The Fire of Life qi construct showed signs of stress, but it was largely unaffected.

'The pressure must be helping condense the qi! If it means what I think it means, the elder was right about how invaluable this opportunity is!' The urgency to advance to a higher step and higher pressure grew in Ren's thoughts. Despite the urge, the pressure still hadn't reduced one bit. Ren tried everything he could think of, but nothing changed the pressure and the pain it caused him. It took a while, but Ren eventually came to the conclusion that it was beyond his means. That only highlighted his dilemma.

To advance or stay put?' Climb!' Concluded Ren and before he knew what he had decided, he had already been whisked to the 3rd step. Ren felt as though his bones were being compressed and his flesh was aflame. Yet again the pain scattered his thoughts.' No.' A small defiance, but it let him pull himself back together quicker. This time Ren managed to awaken enough to recognize that he was all alone on the enormous stairs, nobody in front of or behind him. Just him.

A glance in his dantian indicated the qi had condensed even more.' No hurt.' The pressure remained, but the pain decreased infinitesimally. Another small change that made a tiny difference. As Ren began to think clearly, an audacious idea came into his mind. The pressure was condensing the qi in his spiritual sea, which would make it easier for him to form his core. If he could add more qi to his dantian, then even that would be compressed. More condensed qi meant a better core.

A greedy instinct that Ren hadn't even known he had formed the thought." Breakthrough." The words escaped his lips and turned into truth. His dantian trembled, and even without circulating the qi through his meridians, Ren could tell the process had begun. His Fire of life began to expand and contract, but the pressure exerted by the stairs made the whole process unstable. Thin cracks formed along his dantian. Ren couldn't spare a single thought toward failure.

Instead, he impressed his will on his dantian to hold it together. The shimmering clouds of golden strands started to appear around the tiny sun floating in his dantian. They represented all those connections, those lives he had touched and influenced. They lacked the karma to form deeper ties with him usually, but even here, the Stairs of Ascension were having an effect. As the Fire of Life fluctuated faster and faster, Ren struggled to hold back his increasing dread.

The clouds of ephemeral strands were being condensed by the pressure as well! A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

'What kind of origin do these stairs have if they can even indirectly affect Karma?!' Ren tried his hardest to gain control over his fears, but it was impossible to repress them. In this place where will determined reality, he couldn't afford to scare himself into failing a breakthrough! Normally breaking through from the 6th to the 7th layer would be harder, as it was the bottleneck for the late stage of the foundation establishment realm. But Ren was progressing too quickly and not stably.

He knew he had to act when his will failed to create much difference and instead started to get overwhelmed with fear. He did the only thing he could do, though it was too soon." CLIMB!!" On the 4th step even his bones ignited with his flesh. There were no more thoughts of failure or fears of being crippled. Only pain. Every nerve was sounding the alarm, but this time, Ren managed to hold on to a single thought when every other one scattered.' Breakthrough.'

By the time Ren managed to regain his wits, the Fire of Life was already at the peak of its transformation. Oddly, when it stabilized, Ren detected a pulse that expanded from his dantian through his body to the outside. The only reason he did was because of the pressure the Stairs of Ascension were exerting on him. He didn't know what it meant when the external pressure fractionally abated. All he knew was that the pain was slightly more manageable.

The pleasurable sensations of the breakthrough were largely erased by the pain, but it was still a relief. He didn't know if any more strands had solidified or if any of them would bring him karmic sin. All he knew was that the vast majority of it had to be positive merit, which he carefully monitored. Ren didn't miss the respite and took advantage of his breakthrough to advance again!' CLIMB!'

Normally, the increased density of his Fire of Life construct would slowly attract qi into his dantian over time, but under the external pressure, qi from the stair was beginning to pour into his dantian. As Ren stood nearly comatose on the 5th step, his entire body shivering unconsciously from the pain, the qi in his dantian was undergoing an immense transformation. This time, the changes were too much, and Ren failed to form a single thought as everything faded from his mind.

PoV Change: Elder Ding watched with surprise as the lad successfully broke through and started absorbing massive amounts of qi. This was the 3rd time he had selected the disciples to represent the sect in the Golden Dharma Trials, and in those 90 years, he had never seen anyone attempt to break through while on the Stairs of Ascension.

He vaguely recalled the previous sect leader mentioning that the Stairs were best utilized in conjunction with a breakthrough, hence the name, Ascension, but such a thing was easier said than done. A few had subconsciously initiated the breakthrough but inevitably failed when they couldn't direct it or let their will and their mental state drag them down.

He felt an intense curiosity about what the consequences of a successful breakthrough on the Stairs would be and fully intended to corner the lad when he remembered something.

'Wait, wasn't this the one claimed by senior Yun? Damn! I dare not mess with that old fart! Who knows what tricks he still has left up his sleeve.' Elder Ding's only consolation was that such an achievement would have to be reported anyway. Maybe someone else could find out and tell him later.

'There are only a few hours left now. Let's just wait.' As he continued the wait, a heavy aura made itself known as it approached at a tremendous speed.

'F**k.' PoV Change: Even before his eyes opened, Ren felt every part of his body protest from any movement. Even thinking hurt! So he just lay there with his eyes shut. Perhaps he fell asleep, but the next time a conscious thought surfaced, he was feeling a little better. He was lying in a room with the other 100 disciples who had participated in climbing the Stairs of Ascension, though many cots were already empty.

Ren extended his senses and recognized the building as one in the inner sect near the Hall of Discipline. Beside him, Hua was still asleep, so Ren didn't disturb him. He scrawled a quick note for him and left silently. A disciple was sitting outside, and as soon as he saw Ren, he came over and handed over a jade slip without a word. Ren extended his qi and saw the slip contained information on the planned departure from the sect in 3 months and other things.

According to the slip, his extra reward had already been sent to his claimed mountain abode. With nothing else requiring his immediate attention, Ren decided to return home and examine the condition of his cultivation. Breaking through spontaneously under such precarious circumstances had been insanely foolish. He genuinely didn't know whether to laugh or cry at his own audacity! When did he become so greedy?! As he flew back, Ren's mind was still racing at how rapidly things had developed.

Now, he only had 3 months to make arrangements to leave the sect for the better part of a year! There was no way he could be parted from his pet companions for so long! And he had only just gotten his mountain to a stable state. Would it survive his extended absence? There was even the notion he had entertained of conducting trade with the allied sect that he could sell for profit when he returned! Ren had already begun making preparations long ago, but until he cleared the selections, it hadn't felt real.

'And what about the 4th class I promised Elder Yun Peng that yet remains? I don't dare break an agreement with him, and that's even without the extremely useful resources he has provided me for my cultivation. The classes last two months each and will definitely reduce the time I have to make arrangements. Aiyaa! There's just so much to do!' All the distracting thoughts clamoring for his attention helped him ignore the looming fear of what awaited him in his dantian.

When he landed, he rushed to his cultivation platform and sat down to meditate. He slowly regained his calm as he breathed deep, rhythmic breaths. Then he turned his senses inwards.