The jade steps wound like clouds, crushing the reflections of a past life beneath one’s feet…
After landing, the woman smiled and said, “I am the one guiding you on this journey, Qiao Jiayan. You may call me Senior Sister Qiao. If you step into our Lingyun Sect today, from this moment on you shall be Lingyun disciples. You must memorize the sect rules and precepts thoroughly and never violate them, do you understand?”
The youths’ faces flushed red with excitement, their spirits soaring as they shouted in unison, “We understand!”
“Good,” Qiao Jiayan’s tone shifted, her expression turning serious. “However, don’t celebrate too soon. Testing spiritual roots is only the first hurdle, to see if you have aptitude. Cultivation requires not just aptitude but also perseverance.”
“As for the second hurdle…”
Qiao Jiayan raised her hand, and in an instant, the cranes floating in the sky spread their wings in unison, blotting out the sun. They then swooped down to the ground, lowering their necks, waiting for the youths.
Having never witnessed such a spectacle before, the young ones were so nervous they didn’t know what to do, only carefully stepping on after a long pause.
Before the youths could steady themselves, a whistle sounded, and the white cranes took flight. The world spun around them, startling the group into screams.
As the cranes gradually steadied, they belatedly looked around and realized they were already in the sky.
Dazedly raising their heads, they found themselves amidst a sea of clouds, golden light spreading endlessly, mountains and rivers painted like a scroll.
The magnificent scenery unfolded like a vast painting. The youths, unaccustomed to such wonders, gaped in sheer astonishment.
The sect’s sprawling architectural complex was built within the Cangxian Mountain Range, shielded by a protective spiritual light barrier.
Along the mountain ridges stretched a towering, unbroken path, the so-called thirty-six thousand steps of the Jade Heavenly Staircase, coiled like a giant dragon resting there, its grandeur awe-inspiring and daunting to behold.
“Is this the Lingyun Sect? How magnificent!” A slightly youthful voice rang out, though within its youth carried a unique pride befitting a young man.
That youth was Zhong Daochen. He sat at the front, closest to the crane’s neck, his brows carrying an air of superiority, his features handsome, sharp, and finely chiseled.
“This is so beautiful.” The speaker was a girl kneeling beside Gu Er, dressed in a spring robe of ice-blue silk embroidered with butterfly motifs, her eyes holding a daughter’s charm and liveliness.
Unlike the youths leaning over to look down, Gu Er sat collapsed on the crane’s back, legs weak, eyes tightly shut, face pale, dizzy and nauseous, a wave of vomiting sensation washing over her.
Gu Er didn’t know if this body was afraid of heights, or if her past life’s fear had carried over, either way, she was utterly miserable right now.
Qiao Jiayan and the other cultivators stood atop the cranes, explaining to the youths: “As one of the five great sects, Lingyun occupies most of the eastern region. Beneath its banner, the mountain range boasts seven main peaks, ten great peaks, twenty-six middle peaks, and seventy minor peaks! Not to mention the affiliated clans and immortal cities under its command!”
The children all gasped sharply. Though some had long heard of Lingyun’s might, seeing it with their own eyes, hearing it with their own ears, and gazing upon the endless peaks before them, it was impossible not to feel their hearts surge.
They couldn’t help but marvel again, truly worthy of being the foremost of the five great sects!
The cranes carried them on a circuit above Cangxian Mountain before returning to the mountain’s foot.
The youths jumped down from the white cranes’ backs, confused.
Qiao Jiayan clapped her hands to draw everyone’s attention and announced clearly, “You’ve just had an aerial view of Lingyun Sect, and naturally you saw the thirty-six thousand steps leading up to it.”
“This second hurdle is to climb those steps alone. Spiritual roots are the key to the immortal gate, but what determines whether you can set foot on the path of immortality is your heart and perseverance, especially perseverance. This is the Cloud Ascending Ladder, and also the Road of Heart’s Inquiry.”
Then she winked playfully: “Before nightfall, reach the hundredth step to enter the inner sect, and the sixtieth step to enter the outer sect. Those who fail will be escorted down the mountain by your senior brothers and sisters, which also means your test has failed, and you will have no chance with Lingyun. If you can’t hold on, you may crush the spirit pearls in your hands, and likewise, senior brothers and sisters will bring you down.”
At this moment, above Lingyun Sect’s skies stood four people flying on swords, all clad in blue-white sect robes with jade crowns atop their heads, exuding an air of lofty mastery, the very senior brothers and sisters Qiao Jiayan had mentioned.
A young male cultivator crossed his arms: “Senior Sister Gu, why do we have to stand under this blazing sun watching them take their exams? Couldn’t we just grab any disciples who can fly swords?”
“I’d rather stand under the sun than be in the main hall with Xiao Zhenyu. If not for his meddling back then…” The woman wore a standard disciple robe, with an aged jade flute hanging at her waist.
Another man immediately admonished, “Junior Sister, mind your words. Third Elder is not someone you should speak of lightly.”
At that, Gu Wuyou’s temper flared instantly. She was about to retort when, recalling something, she clamped her mouth shut.
The youngest disciple had barely just established his foundation and was joining the senior brothers and sisters in selecting new disciples this time, feeling immensely proud. But he’d just overheard something far too explosive, and the pressure hit him all at once, would he be silenced to keep the secret?
Because she was young, she spent most of her time on Yingzhao Peak. She had only heard the names of a few senior brothers and sisters and rarely ever saw them in person.
At this moment, she couldn’t help but marvel, were all senior sisters these days this formidable? Daring to address an elder by their given name.
Others might not dare, but Gu Wuyou was different.
She was a mortal girl that Senior Sister Gu Wan had picked up four hundred years ago while en route to support Yanyu Sect during the demon invasion. She took the surname Gu and was named Wuyou. When Gu Wan was still around, she doted on her endlessly.
After Senior Sister left, Senior Brother Mu continued to spoil her. With these factors alone, even if Gu Wuyou were a complete waste, she would still be a prime target for flattery within the peak. Naturally, this had fostered her personality of challenging heaven, earth, and everything in between.
Gu Wuyou knew full well that every advantage she enjoyed came from the person who had fallen a hundred years ago.
But so what? Senior Sister had once said that one should seize the day in life, a happy day is a day, a sorrowful day is also a day. Living each day to the fullest is far better than drifting through life in mediocrity.
Though Gu Wuyou wasn’t exactly a genius, she was diligent and hardworking, and her strength ranked among the top of the many disciples.
The youth who had sparked the conversation silently lit a candle for himself in his heart, knowing he had inadvertently touched on Senior Sister Gu’s taboo.
He struggled to change the subject: “Hey, how about we make a bet, see who fails to pass?”
He cleared his throat with a light cough: “I’ll go first. I bet that little girl won’t make it.”
“Which one?” the youngest cultivator asked, craning his neck curiously.
“The one lying on the ground right now. I noticed her when we were riding the cloud cranes, she was the only one whose legs were trembling with fear. Weak mental fortitude, she definitely won’t pass.” The cultivator’s finger pointed directly at Gu Er, who had fallen off the crane the moment she landed because of her fear of heights.
At that moment, Gu Er, who had just fallen, lay on the ground like a fish out of water on the verge of death, gasping for air.
Seeing that the other children had already started moving toward the steps, leaving only Gu Er lying on the ground, Qiao Jiayan walked over and asked softly, “Are you alright? Can you continue?”
Gu Er nodded, struggled to her feet, and muttered under her breath, “Fear of heights isn’t an illness, but heights can kill you.”
Qiao Jiayan was, after all, a cultivator, and her hearing was far sharper than that of mortals. She caught every word Gu Er said, and a strange expression crossed her face.
The reason was simple, that phrase had only ever been spoken by that famous young woman a hundred years ago.
When Qiao Jiayan had first joined the sect, Gu Wan was already at the Nascent Soul stage, a peak Nascent Soul cultivator at one hundred and twenty years old, the youngest peak master-level figure in the sect. She could truly be called a young prodigy.
The entrance examination questions changed somewhat with the times, but the one constant was the ascending the cloud ladder.
Gu Wan had just participated in the centennial Tianyuan Grand Ceremony and taken first place. Upon returning to the sect, she happened to catch the once-every-fifty-years inner disciple recruitment and was ordered by the sect leader to supervise the examination.
She watched many cultivators fly on their swords, soaring through the clouds, always exuding an air of supreme authority, like deities descending upon the mortal world, an attitude of looking down upon all living things.
Except for Gu Wan and Mu Ci…
Gu Wan had walked down the stairs step by step, from the mountaintop to the foot of the mountain.
She stood there, dressed in a standard blue sect uniform, clean and neat, without a single wrinkle. Her hair was casually tied with a ribbon, a jade pendant hung at her waist, and a long sword accompanied her. She radiated a crisp, cool aura, like the first ray of light refracted by morning dew, pure and dazzling.
Mu Ci followed closely behind. Qiao Jiayan looked up and saw him raising his cup with a disdainful glance at the sky, elegant as a jade tree swaying in the wind. If Gu Wan was a brilliant light, then Mu Ci was the moonlight reflected in a gentle mountain spring, unhurried and serene.
Then, Gu Wan introduced Lingyun Sect to the new disciples just as she had done earlier, had the cloud cranes take the newcomers on a circuit above Lingyun, and finally had them ascend the stairs.
A newcomer curiously asked Gu Wan why she also had to climb the steps with them. The young woman put on a mysterious air, saying it was to exercise and set an example for them.
Qiao Jiayan, at thirteen years old and already at the second level of Qi Refining, was young and arrogant. She thought to herself that this senior sister’s aptitude must be lacking, not only did she need a junior brother to escort her down the mountain, but she couldn’t even fly on a sword, and here she was lying to trick the kids.
What she never expected was that on these ascending the cloud ladder, which suppressed spiritual power, that senior sister who had walked down on foot could reach the mountaintop without even a heavy breath.
Later, after entering the inner sect, Qiao Jiayan learned that the female and male cultivators who had received them were none other than Gu Wan, who had just claimed the top spot on the Prodigy Ranking, and Mu Ci, who held third place.
…
The sun was slanting westward, and scattered sunlight filtered through the gaps in the branches and leaves, casting dappled patches of light on the ground. Wind passed through the thickets, carrying a slight chill.
Over here, Gu Er was climbing the mountain. Though she claimed that running eight hundred meters would take half her life, she had always been a seeded contender for the eight-hundred-meter race on campus since childhood, and her stamina was somewhat better than most.
But with every step she took, she felt as if a stone were being pressed onto her shoulders, weighing her steps down, and she couldn’t help but sigh: “Wow, there’s even spiritual power suppression. I knew this mountain wouldn’t be so easy to climb.”
The fortieth step!
The fiftieth step!
The sixtieth step!
…
The hundredth step!
The hundred and twentieth step!
…
Gu Er gritted her teeth, clenching her fists tightly, her nails digging deep into her palms, leaving deep marks behind.
She continued upward against the ever-increasing pressure, the taste of rust spreading in her mouth. She mustered all her strength, climbing step by step.
Ding dong…
The sound of a bell rang out, deep and solemn, as if a great boom from ancient times echoed between heaven and earth.
The last glimmer of light on the horizon vanished, and Gu Er was frozen in place, as figures of others gradually appeared around her.
Gu Er didn’t know which step she was on now; there was still a long staircase ahead.
All she could see was the girl in orange robes at the farthest point, followed by the young man in blue, only seven or eight steps away from her.
When she could move again, Gu Er wanted to turn around and sit on the steps. She accidentally glanced downward and felt the world spinning, her legs trembling uncontrollably.
She quickly closed her eyes, sat down shakily, and gasped for air, trying to calm herself.
Gu Wuyou stood on her flying sword, her posture graceful and ethereal.
She looked down over the entire staircase, holding a crystal-clear jade token in her hand, its surface shimmering with a faint glow, recording the step count of each child.
Unsurprisingly, the few children with exceptional talent were all at the front, and two of them had surpassed the record set by Senior Brother Mu when he joined the sect back then, they were Yan Mingchuan and Wen Lian.
Gu Wuyou didn’t think this was anything special. She could tell that the two had already reached the Qi Refining stage before entering Lingyun. Back then, Senior Brother Mu Ci had joined the sect at twelve years old with no cultivation at all, and in just over a decade, he had already become as renowned as the Senior Sister.
Then she saw Gu Er sitting on the steps with her eyes closed, legs still trembling. She rolled her eyes and snorted coldly: “What a coward!”
After recording the rankings, Gu Wuyou waved her hand, and the formation on the ground activated. A soft light rose from the earth, instantly sending the children who had passed up to the mountain peak. The rest who hadn’t passed were sent down the mountain.
In the end, only fifty people remained standing in the inner sect square.
The selected children were all drenched in sweat and utterly exhausted, but their eyes shone with excitement and anticipation.