Cultivation Online

Chapter 1744  Ascending to the Fifth Heaven

Shortly before Yuan arrived at the Stairway to Heaven, he was stopped by Xi Meili.

"Hey, do you think I can challenge the Stairway to Heaven by myself?" Xi Meili asked him.

"Hm? If that's what you want, go ahead. I have no real reason to stop you." Yuan responded.

"Great! I have been wanting to challenge it ever since I heard about it. Hopefully, it won't be too difficult."

"With your talents and training with Kelan, I'm sure you'll be able to pass it with flying colors."

After hearing that Xi Meili wanted to challenge the Stairway to Heaven, Lan Yingying added, "I would also like to challenge the Stairway to Heaven. Since I chose to stay behind instead of training under Kelan with the others, I need to make the most of every opportunity to train myself."

"Alright. Then I'll go first. See you two later."

"W-wait!" Xi Meili hastily stopped him.

"What if one of us fails to ascend?"

Yuan smiled and said, "Neither of you will fail. However, if you somehow fail to ascend, I still have a method to let you ascend."

Xi Meili nodded, feeling a little more relieved, knowing they wouldn't be stuck in the Fourth Heaven.

'Now that I think about it, what about Yingzi?'

Since Yingzi didn't originate from the Nine Heavens, would their laws affect her? Yuan decided to figure it out later.

Once Yuan was inside the Stairway to Heaven with the nine random players, the players were teleported to the spectators' room.

"Tian'er, I have a question. I have someone who came from another world—a place outside of the Nine Heavens. How will Stairway to Heaven work for her?"

Tian'er then spoke, "If you mean that being hidden within your shadow, she can ascend without needing to pass the trials. After all, the Stairway to Heaven is only meant for those born within the Nine Heavens. Moreover, she is already powerful enough to exist within the Supreme Heaven. It'd be pointless to make someone like her take the trials."

"Oh? You can sense Yingzi despite her lack of presence?" Yuan commented in a somewhat surprised tone.

"Presence or not, Tian'er can sense anything and everything that exists within the Stairway to Heaven. Nothing can hide from Tian'er," she calmly stated. "For example, Tian'er can sense the three—technically four souls resting within Master's Dantian, as well as the three souls resting within your three Soul Weapons."

"..." Yuan stared at Tian'er with wide eyes.

'I know I created her, but damn… How terrifying…' Yuan swallowed nervously as he thought to himself.

"Alright, I will begin the trial now. Also, I have two companions who will be challenging the Stairway to Heaven later. Just in case… If they fail, I can still bring them to the Fifth Heaven, right?"

Tian'er nodded, "As the master of the Stairway to Heaven, you ultimately decide who can and cannot ascend. Tian'er has said this before, but Master can also ascend without needing to take the trials."

Yuan nodded, "Thanks. That's all I needed to know. We can begin the trial. Ah, make sure to prevent those players in the spectators' room from seeing my trials." n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"As you wish, Master."

Tian'er disappeared into the void shortly later, and a staircase appeared before Yuan. Meanwhile, inside the spectators' room, the players were puzzled by their situation.

"W-where are we? What happened to that NPC who promised to carry us?"

Due to the inherent difficulty of the trials, very few players even attempted to carry others through the Stairway to Heaven, as doing so only increased the challenge. Those who did try never reached the door, much less enter the Stairway to Heaven. In other words, aside from those previously carried by Yuan, no players were aware of the existence of the spectators' room.

"Did we get fooled by that NPC? What if we're trapped in here forever?" one of the players made this assumption, his face filled with fear.

"What? If that's true, how the hell do we get out of here? This is an enclosed room with no exits!"

"What if we have to kill ourselves to leave?!"

"Fuck! I shouldn't have trusted that damn NPC!"

Right as the players began panicking, a voice resounded, "Calm down. You will all remain here until the one challenging the Stairway to Heaven is finished with their trial."

"Oh…"

"Wait… Whose voice was that?"

When the players looked around and saw nobody, their bodies shivered in fear.

"A ghost!"

They all gathered in one corner of the room and cowered in fear.

Meanwhile, Yuan began his first trial.

When his location transformed, Yuan found himself inside a workshop with a hammer in his grasp.

<You have started your first trial in the Stairway to Heaven>

<Craft a Mythic-grade treasure>

<You have 24 hours to finish the trial>

<Finish the trial in less than 12 hours an hour to receive a reward>

"I need to craft a treasure, huh? But with what materials?"

He couldn't see any materials around, so he used divine sense to broaden his view.

Outside his cave, Yuan noticed several powerful magical beasts roaming a vast wilderness, and they had a cultivation at the peak of Divine Grandmaster.

"I see."

Yuan wasted no time and immediately went to hunt down these magical beasts. With his current prowess, Yuan could easily kill them with less than half his strength.

After defeating his first magical beast, its corpse turned into a material.

Yuan grabbed the material before hunting the next target.

In less than half an hour, Yuan hunted fifty magical beasts and returned to the cave.

He spent a few minutes looking through the materials and several more minutes doing mental simulations.

Once he was prepared, Yuan began crafting the treasure.

Sometime later.

<You have crafted a Mystic-grade treasure and successfully cleared the first trial>

<You have cleared the trial in less than 12 hours>

A golden orb of light appeared from the treasure Yuan crafted and entered his body.

The very next moment, Yuan regained a specific memory that once belonged to Tian Qiyuan, and it was a piece of memory that he hadn't recovered yet.

'The location of Tian Qiyuan's treasure vault! I remember now!' Yuan smiled after recalling this memory.