Tian Yi's desire to climb the stairway increased with every passing second.
Watching others do fun-looking things had flipped a switch inside him, causing his hidden desires to leak out.
'I want to climb the stairway with everybody else! I want to experience what they are experiencing! I want to be challenged!' he told himself.
Meng Xiang looked at the people on the stairway that was breathing heavily as they force themselves to take another step; it looked painful and tiring.
"If you do not want to climb it with me, you can stay here and watch," said Tian Yi after seeing her hesitation.
Meng Xiang quickly shook her head. "I will go with Big Brother!"
She had already told herself that as long as he was there that she would be willing to endure anything no matter how hard or difficult it would seem.
Tian Yi nodded at her resolve, and said, "Good! Then let's climb this stairway together!"
Tian Yi then navigated himself through the crowd and to the front of the stairway where people are still signing up for the competition with the number increasing by the second.
After waiting for nearly half a day, it was finally their turn to sign up.
"Name, age, and your cultivation base." The middle-aged man behind the counter said.
"Shuyi, age 18… Spirit Ascension Stage…" Tian Yi said.
"Meng Xiang, age 10, Spirit Ascension Stage... Is how I think you say it..." said Meng Xiang, dumbfounding the middle-aged man and the people behind her in line.
"W-What did you just say?" The middle-aged man asked after clearing his ears with his pinky just to make sure.
"Shuyi, age 18—"
"Not you!" The middle-aged man rudely cuts him off. "You. What did you just say?" He looked at Meng Xiang.
"Uhh… Meng Xiang, age 10, Spirit Ascension Stage…?" Meng Xiang said in a low voice, believing that she was saying her cultivation base wrong.
The middle-aged man looked at her with an unamused expression.
"You think that is funny? Do I look like I have the time to listen to your jokes?" he snorted coldly, and the people in line burst out laughing.
A ten-year-old with a Spirit Ascension Stage cultivation base? Who in their right mind would believe that kind of crap?
Both Tian Yi and Meng Xiang was speechless. What joke did she make?
"Pei!" The middle-aged man spat on the ground next to him and threw to them two yellow talismans. "Scram! If you want to die an early death, then that is your choice!" he said, not giving a single care that he was sending a little girl straight to her death.
The two of them accepted the yellow talisman and walked away to where the stairway started, still confused as to why the middle-aged man was so angry.
The people in line and the middle-aged man decided to stop the queue to watch her walk to her death.
Meng Xiang looked at the first step of the stairway and slowly looked up to where the stairway ended after being cut off by the clouds.
"S-So high…" she mumbled to herself, and her legs started shaking with fear.
"Are you ready?" Tian Yi asked her.
"U-un…" she nodded nervously.
Tian Yi glanced at her shaking legs and reached out his hands. "It will be fine," he said with a smile. "We will be climbing this together, after all."
Meng Xiang grabbed his hands and like magic, she stopped trembling.
"Good. Let's go!" Tian Yi casually strode forward and stepped onto the first step of the stairway—
RUMBLE!
The stairway suddenly shook as though it had a spasm, and the thousands of surprised participants currently climbing the stairway cried out in shock as many of them tripped and rolled down the stairway.
"Ahhhh!"
"What the fuck?!"
Many cried out loud with bafflement as they uncontrollably rolled down the stairway. Why did the stairway suddenly shake? What had happened?
Even the sect masters and Senior Yu was dumbfounded by the unforeseen accident.
None of them had even the slightest idea as to why the stairway suddenly shook.
Maybe the stairway has some kind of hidden mechanism that neither of them was aware of? But why did it activate now?
When the trembling came to a halt, the majority of the participants that had been rolling finally came to a stop, and when they looked up again, their hearts bled upon seeing how they had fallen hundreds of steps that took them hours to climb!
Some unfortunate ones had fallen an entire level with the most unfortunate ones falling off the actual stairway, automatically activating their yellow talisman, ending their climb!
Countless participants felt their hearts bleeding with injustice after that sudden tremor as it was just too sudden and unexpected!
The climbing suddenly came to a halt as many participants including disciples of the Four Ancient Lands look at the sect masters and Senior Yu, their gaze asking for an answer!
The sect masters looked at each other, and then they looked at Senior Yu, hoping she had an idea of what was going on.
Senior Yu smiled bitterly and said, "That tremble just now was a hidden test I had planned for! If you cannot get over such a small trip on the road now, then you might as well throw away all of your hopes and dream for the future where you will experience even bigger setbacks!"
The participants took a moment to digest her words and their passion soared to an even higher point!
"Senior is right! If we let such a small setback beat us now, how will we ever achieve greatness in the future?!"
"Thank you, senior, for that lesson just now!"
The participants no longer felt anger and instead was gracious to Senior Yu for her efforts to temper them.
Senior Yu felt weird listening to them thank her when that tremble just now had nothing to do with her.
'Ah, whatever. Might as well since it's already happened…' she thought to herself.
Back at the starting point, Tian Yi was still on the first step with sweat coming out of his forehead.
That tremble just now was unintentionally caused by him because the stairway had reacted to his aura, and he felt extremely guilty that it had caused so many participants to fall! He felt as though he was cheating by hindering others!
"Big Brother?" Meng Xiang called for him after seeing that he has not moved for so long.
"Eh? Ah… Right… Let's go…" Tian Yi said, sounding much less enthusiastic than before.
He sealed his aura and took another step, hoping that the tremble would not happen again.
There no was tremble this time, and Tian Yi felt relieved.
"Good! Let's go!" he said.
Meng Xiang followed him and began climbing the stairway, and the moment her feet touched the stairway—
Rumble!
The stairway suddenly trembled again.
The tremor was not as powerful as the previous, but the participants that did not expect a second tremor still rolled down the stairs for the second time!
"Ahhhh!"
"Again?!"
They cried out loud, and the sect masters turned to look at Senior Yu with amused expressions. Since when was she the type to do things like this? Was she bored?
Senior Yu nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood witnessing the second tremor. What on earth was going on?!