Rising from the back of the plaza was a colossal staircase carved into the spine of the mountain.
The stone steps crackled with visible arcs of blue electricity, ascending thousands of feet into the clouds where the true inner sanctum of the sect lay hidden.
This was the Path of Howling Thunder...
"Listen closely!" the deacon barked, his voice still a bit raspy from screaming in terror earlier. "The testing stone measured your innate potential. The Path of Howling Thunder will measure your willpower, your foundation, and your absolute limits!"
He pointed a finger at the stairs. "The higher you climb, the heavier the spiritual gravity becomes. The lightning will try to crush your bones and boil your blood. Ten steps solidify your place in the outer sect. Fifty steps mark you as an elite. Eighty steps guarantee you a spot on a primary peak."
"And what if someone reaches the top?" Garrick’s booming voice echoed across the plaza.
The deacon sneered, though he quickly masked it since Garrick was now technically under Elder Silas’s protection. "The hundredth step is the summit. Anyone who reaches it without collapsing is granted an audience with the Sect Master himself. However, do not let your arrogance blind you, boy. The pressure at the top is enough to turn a mortal into a bloody paste."
He turned away from Garrick and waved his hand at the small group of ’failures’ who had been assigned to the janitorial and laundry divisions.
"You lot," the deacon pointed at Theo and a few others. "You don’t take the Path. There is a dirt trail winding around the back of the mountain for servants. Start walking. If the courtyards aren’t swept by nightfall, you don’t eat."
Theo didn’t move toward the dirt trail. He just stood there, his eyes drifting up the staircase.
"The hour begins now! Ascend!" the deacon roared.
A dozen eager new disciples rushed the stairs. The moment their boots touched the first stone, the ambient blue lightning flared.
Three of them instantly dropped to their knees, gasping for air as if an invisible boulder had been dropped onto their chests.
By the sixtieth step, Garrick pace slowed to a labored march. Veins popped on his forehead, and sweat poured down his neck, but he pushed through, roaring in defiance.
"Impressive physical density," Elder Silas rasped from the hovering VIP pavilion. "His blood essence is boiling beautifully."
But the elders’ attention didn’t stay on Garrick for long.
Down at the base of the stairs, Liana finally stepped forward.
The Reborn Empress placed one bare foot onto the first step.
The blue lightning of the Path instantly lashed out, attempting to weigh her down.
It didn’t even get the chance...
The moment the sect’s spiritual pressure touched her skin, her Crimson Supreme Sovereign aura rejected it. The blue electricity shattered like fragile glass, replaced by a blood-red storm that swirled around her small figure.
Ten steps. Thirty steps. Sixty steps.
She passed a red-faced Garrick on the seventieth step without even sparing him a passing glance.
"Heavens above..." Elder Thorne whispered from the pavilion. "The suppression formation... it’s literally bowing to her."
By the time Liana reached the hundredth step, she wasn’t just standing at the summit. The lightning swirling around her condensed, forming the unmistakable phantom of a spiked crown hovering just above her head.
"I have never... in four hundred years..." the female elder in purple silk stammered.
Down at the bottom, Theo let out a low whistle. "Show-off," he muttered with a grin.
Well, if his primary investment target was waiting at the top, there was absolutely no way he was taking the dirt path around the back of the mountain.
Proximity was the key to triggering the system, after all.
Theo cracked his neck, ignored the deacon’s previous orders, and stepped onto the Path of Howling Thunder.
"Hey! You! Janitor!" a guard shouted from the side. "Get off the testing grounds!"
Theo ignored him and took another step.
The moment both of his boots were firmly on the stone, the crushing spiritual gravity slammed into him.
It was designed to force impurities out of the body and test the limits of one’s meridians.
However, Theo didn’t have normal meridians anymore.
[Notice. High-density ambient spiritual energy detected.]
[Host’s ’Primordial Abyssal Meridian Network’ activated.]
[Assimilation in progress...]
Instead of crushing him, the pressure flowed straight into his pores. His meridians acted like a vacuum, devouring the hostile energy, filtering it, and converting it into pure stamina.
"Oh, that hits the spot," Theo sighed happily, rolling his shoulders.
He didn’t bother trying to look dramatic. He simply put his hands in his pockets and started jogging up the stairs.
He passed the struggling outer sect disciples on the twentieth step, humming a light tune. He breezed past the exhausted inner sect hopefuls on the fiftieth step, barely even breathing hard.
"What in the hell is that boy doing?" the deacon gasped from the plaza below, rubbing his eyes. "He has mortal roots! He should be a smear on the pavement by step thirty!"
Up in the pavilion, the elders stopped fawning over Liana’s crimson crown.
"Is the array broken?" Elder Thorne frowned, leaning over the railing. "That boy’s jade token says he’s a laborer. Why is he immune to the suppression?"
"The array isn’t broken, you fool, it’s operating at maximum capacity," Elder Silas hissed, his eyes locking onto Theo. "Look at the stone beneath his feet. The lightning is vanishing."
Up on the seventy-fifth step, Garrick was on his hands and knees.
The Titan Physique was incredibly durable, but the spiritual pressure was slowly crushing his lungs.
He was trying to gather the strength to crawl just one more step.
Then, he heard the light tapping of boots.
Garrick slowly turned his head, his eyes bloodshot and bulging.
Walking past him, looking as relaxed as a man on a Sunday stroll, was the very same ’trash’ he had insulted just ten minutes ago.
"Lovely weather up here, isn’t it?" Theo smiled, giving Garrick a polite nod. "Keep up the good work, you’re doing great."