Chapter 46
Setting Foot On The Peak Again
Xu Cheng Xin had already sworn the oath on his Heart’s Devil publicly, how could Cheng Wen Cai give up halfway after pressuring Xu Cheng Xin? Thus, the affair of Yang Chen being made to climb the Heavenly Stairs once again to check whether he had cheated or not, began to spread with a large commotion.
But no matter what was said, Cheng Wen Cai of the Greatest Sky Sect was jealous of the younger generation and he did not want any other sect to gain such a glory, if not, why hadn’t the other people questioned Yang Chen’s fraud and only he had raised that objection? Furthermore, he had not questioned those people who had climbed to the thirtieth step but absolutely insisted on Yang Chen, who had stepped on the peak. Regardless of whether Yang Chen had really committed fraud or not, Cheng Wen Cai certainly wanted to examine him because of his jealousy.
It was one of Greatest Sky Sect’s JieDan expert’s words against the reputation of the entire Pure Yang Palace, everyone was very clear about that. This time, Cheng Wen Cai could not get cold feet.
Merely, when Xu Cheng Xin discussed Yang Chen’s words with him, Cheng Wen Cai also began to hesitate when looking for nine other Fellow Daoists from other sects. Pure Yang Palace had demanded that Yang Chen should be allowed to climb up the Heavenly Stairs again, so surely they had a lot of confidence. That meant those JieDan experts who would be responsible for the spell formation would surely become worn out, for some of them this would mean getting devoured, for sure.
Previously, Yang Chen had already made the Nine JieDan experts fall down a level. Every JieDan expert was a shrewd person, who among them would not know that in an Illusionary spell, the more one exerted themselves the greater the backlash would be? At most Xu Cheng Xin hadn’t gone all out, but he had already sworn on his Heart’s Devil that he hadn’t committed fraud. But for the other experts to have such an outcome… This forced these experts to think about this again and two of the JieDan experts right there withdrew immediately.
Under these sorts of circumstances, Cheng Wen Cai had no other option but to look for two JieDan experts from the Greatest Sky Sect. In addition to that, he had to promise all of them a lot of advantages as compensation, only then could the other people feel at ease and they began the preparations to make Yang Chen climb the Heavenly Stairs again.
Because Yang Chen had reached the peak of the Heavenly Stairs, leading to the ten JieDan experts getting injured, the assembly had to be halted and these newly appointed JieDan experts had to allow those disciples who were not able to go up before, climb the Heavenly Stairs, one by one, both to complete this year’s assembly and at the same time to allow these ten JieDan experts get proficient in the Heavenly Stairs spell formation. This process had continued for three days and three nights, and only then did all of the disciples, who were originally expected to climb the Heavenly Stairs, finish. Following them, Yang Chen’s turn to climb the Heavenly Stairs had come for the second time.
For insurance purposes, this time Cheng Wen Cai even found a disciple with the same cultivation level as Yang Chen, the second qi layer, who would climb up before Yang Chen, to check whether the Heavenly Stairs had some difference for lower layer disciples.
Under everyone’s attentive stares, that second qi layer disciple of the Greatest Sky Sect stepped foot on the first step of the Heavenly Stairs and immediately his figure started shaking fiercely, he was barely able to set foot on the second step, when his figure disappeared in a flash and he was pushed out of the Heavenly Stairs. And this was when the JieDan experts in charge had just started the spell formation and hadn’t even exerted any great influence.
Soon after that, Yang Chen appeared at the bottom of Heavenly Stairs, waiting for Cheng Wen Cai and the other nine to properly prepare. The surroundings of the Heavenly Stairs were once again covered with people and compared to the first time, there were at least two to three times more people, now also including all of those who had rushed over to witness this.
When they truly controlled the Heavenly Stairs spell formation, these JieDan experts discovered, that it was nearly impossible to cheat this illusionary spell. They could increase the difficulty of the Heavenly Stairs, but they could not allow a person to easily cross the barrier. Cheng Wen Cai denouncing Yang Chen as a fraud was just ridiculous.
However the arrow had already left the bow and now they could not shrink back, most of all Cheng Wen Cai. There was only one option left now and that was to use any means available, whether fair or foul and not allow Yang Chen to climb to the top. As long as Yang Chen was not able to climb to the peak this time, they would have an excuse, because why wouldn’t he be able to do it again? If Yang Chen could climb to the peak once again, though, Cheng Wen Cai would be considered as a fool within the Greatest Sky Sect.
At the same time, the two JieDan experts from the Greatest Sky Sect would naturally support Cheng Wen Cai, as for the other seven, Cheng Wen Cai had already secretly promised to give them benefits, if, when the time came, they would help to increase the Heavenly Stairs spell formation’s difficulty. At that moment they had already stopped trying to examine whether Yang Chen had cheated or not, but rather were striving hard to save their face.
As soon as Yang Chen stepped onto the first step of the Heavenly Stairs, the scenery in front of him changed completely and he found himself within a bewildering spell. A bewildering spell was different from an illusionary spell. It could make people move in circles and never be able to find the exit. The people who created the spell were all very superior JieDan experts. For them to use a bewildering spell on the first step was already giving great face to Yang Chen.
Unfortunately, all of the ten JieDan experts, including Cheng Wen Cai were making the same mistake as the last time and that was to believe that they could restrict Yang Chen within the spell.
Perhaps if he were replaced with other people, this bewildering spell would be enough to make them go crazy, but for Yang Chen, who had been a Great Principal Golden Immortal, even if this spell had been set by experts who had ascended to the spiritual world, instead of mere JieDan experts, it would still be insufficient.
With ease, Yang Chen didn’t even stop temporarily and directly followed the correct path of the bewildering spell and came out. The following spell became a killing spell formation.
There were some spell formations, which the JieDan stage experts were able to arrange, as long as they could imagine it, they could lay any spell within the Heavenly Stairs to trap Yang Chen. As long as Yang Chen was unable to break the spell or got killed by the killing spell formation, there was only one consequence: that he would be pushed out of the Heavenly Stairs immediately, this was after all still arranged using the Heavenly Stairs spell formation as the foundation.
However, since it was like this, Yang Chen would face it even more lightly. All of the spells arranged with the Heavenly Stairs illusionary spell as the foundation would still contain their innate character, however, it was also still an illusionary spell, this was a thing they were still unable to change. No matter what kind of spell they laid, it could not escape Yang Chen’s watchful eyes.
The most simple way for Yang Chen was that he could forcefully move away from the spell formation, regardless of the illusions, and if his speed was very quick, both parties involved would be most safe. However, Yang Chen certainly did not want Cheng Wen Cai and the others to be able to withdraw so easily.
Yang Chen used the most complicated method to break the spell, that was to use his own cultivation to forcefully break the spell. The ten JieDan experts quickly discovered that, no matter what kind of formation they laid, Yang Chen would always use the most violent method to break the spell formation and rush out. They had arranged the killing spell with utmost care, but not to mention hurting Yang Chen, it was not even able to obstruct him. Fortunately, it was a spell that was prepared for only one person and its destruction only caused a small fluctuation in their spirit power, not even affecting the JieDan experts in the least.
For the spell formation, which was meticulously arranged by them to be broken this easily by someone else, just as if it was made out of clay, left these experts feeling angry. Only, regardless of the ten JieDan experts taking out the works they were most proud of, they were still not able to stop Yang Chen in the least.
Yang Chen was delighted at this moment, Cheng Wen Cai and the others had arranged spell formations of all five phases to deal with him. No matter whether if it was a single attribute or double attribute, in fact, they even included the Yin and Yang of the phases. To Yang Chen, the five phases spell formation were like simply sending him a refreshing tonic. Under the coordinated work of the Yin and Yang five phases secret, no matter what kind of spell formation it was, he could easily break it.
On the outside, maybe he could die because of lacking spirit power or injuries, but within the Illusionary space, he would not have to worry about any kind of injury. Even after the JieDan experts had laid formations one after another several times, Yang Chen not only hadn’t stopped but rather had already reached the thirtieth step.
Yang Chen could not be allowed to just beat their face so easily. Thinking this, Cheng Wen Cai and all of the other experts finally began to act together. A spell formation laid by ten JieDan experts would naturally be out of the ordinary, so Yang Chen’s speed suddenly started to slow down.
As soon as the pressure doubled, Yang Chen immediately sensed an abnormality, as the formation laid by ten people was finally put to full use, and was not as weak as the individually assembled formations. He was no longer able to just rely on the Yin and Yang five phases secrets to resolve this situation.
Under these kinds of circumstances, Yang Chen deployed another method, that was to use a spell to break a spell. Adopting the same strategy as the other party, Yang Chen also arranged his own spell formations, to see which one could destroy the spell of the other first. Under the condition that the spell formations were evenly matched, Yang Chen would not feel his spirit power and spiritual awareness being suppressed, but on the contrary, would be relaxed by a lot.
Within the illusionary space, for Yang Chen to lay a spell would only need some imagination, that’s all. But when Yang Chen had just begun to arrange the formation to break the spell, one of the ten JieDan experts immediately also tried to trap Yang Chen within the spell, both sides testing which side could break the spell formation arranged by the other first.
Cheng Wen Cai and the other nine JieDan stage experts were doomed for tragedy. Although Yang Chen was not a spell formation expert in his previous life, for better or for worse, he was still a Principal Golden Immortal who had ascended to the spiritual world and then to the world of immortals, who had learned many difficult to deal with spell formations. Even if he were to randomly take out a spell formation, a mere JieDan stage expert would still find it incomprehensible. Let alone destroying it, they may not even see it.
Yang Chen was different, when he didn’t need to face the combined pressure of the ten JieDan experts, breaking a spell formation was as easy as lifting a finger. Often, when he walked away from within a broken spell formation, the other party would still be within his formation, at their wits end.
Shu!
After he broke the spell, Yang Chen immediately sensed a familiar spirit power entering his body. As the other party’s jointly formed spell formation released the spirit power, the entire amount of it had entered into his body after he had broken the formation.
At the place where the Heavenly Stairs was controlled from, that JieDan expert who had trapped Yang Chen in the spell formation, involuntarily spat a mouthful of blood, since the spell formation was forced, he immediately had to suffer from the backlash. The power of ten JieDan experts was already sufficient to injure him.
However since Yang Chen was still incessantly moving upwards, the Heavenly Stairs spell formation could only continue and as a result, a second JieDan expert entered Yang Chen’s spell formation. Yang Chen once again broke the spell and absorbed the spirit power, as the second JieDan expert also spat blood and sustained injuries.
The people standing on the outside, in the surroundings of the Heavenly Stairs, naturally could not look at what was happening at the center of the Heavenly Stairs, but Cheng Wen Cai knew what was happening, and soon, all of the ten JieDan experts had coughed up blood in quick succession, one by one, but they were not able to stop the Heavenly Stairs, so at last he tasted the pain suffered by the nine JieDan experts from last time. At the moment, Yang Chen had only stepped on the thirtieth step of the Heavenly Stairs and to the peak there were still seventy more steps left.
If someone could look at the center of the Heavenly Stairs, one would discover a very interesting phenomenon occurring. Every time when Yang Chen climbed and set foot on the next step, on the outside, at the same time, in the center, one expert would spit out one mouthful of blood. This was occurring, again and again, extremely interesting.
When Yang Chen had stepped onto the sixtieth step, the ten JieDan experts had already spat three mouthfuls of blood each and sustained heavy injuries. They could only make do with magic potions, as they were unable to stop the spell. Once the Heavenly Stairs’ spell formations would start, it would only stop, if the person within the spell were to withdraw or the spell was broken. Others would be unable to stop it, so the ten experts were very painfully persisting, complaining endlessly within their hearts.
From start to finish, Yang Chen had only used one kind of spell formation, three times for each expert, but not even one JieDan expert was able to make out even an inkling. What was most lamentable was that from the start till then, the ten experts had already used sixty types of formations, yet none were able to trap Yang Chen. And Yang Chen had only used one queer spell formation, which had made these experts experience a disastrous defeat for thirty times, the ten experts were thoroughly cursing at Yang Chen the entire time.
“Use Magic weapons!”
Cheng Wen Cai thought of something, and using his spiritual awareness passed it on to the other nine. At the same time, within his mind, he imagined a legend grade magic weapon attacking Yang Chen within the spell formation.
Seeing ten different magic weapons flying in the sky, Yang Chen immediately understood Cheng Wen Cai and the other nine experts’ intentions. However, Cheng Wen Cai had only heard of such magic weapons, so even the imagined appearance was not close to the truth. If a common qi layer disciple was bombarded with this magic weapon, he would immediately be pushed out of the Heavenly Stairs. Unfortunately, for them, when Yang Chen was in the Heavenly Court, he had seen genuine legend grade magic weapons.
Since it was only imagination, how could it compare to the magic weapon imagined by Yang Chen, which had the body and soul of a real legend grade magic weapon?
Without any trouble, with a wave of his hand a legend grade magic weapon immediately rushed towards the magic weapons imagined by Cheng Wen Cai and crushed them. Cheng Wen Cai’s spiritual awareness jolted and was only restored after a good moment.
With just this light effort, Yang Chen had crushed the magic weapons of the nine experts one by one and once again climbed the next ten steps.
The shock of spiritual awareness immediately made Cheng Wen Cai realize his mistake. Imagined things were after all imagined things, so the real and imagined magic weapons were completely different. Once he realized that Yang Chen’s magic weapon was even more difficult to deal with than his own imagined magic weapon, he immediately notified the other nine experts, who had been using the magic weapons they had seen, to attack within the illusionary space.
This time, what Cheng Wen Cai gambled at, was that he could control his own magic weapon with ease, and compared to that, the legend grade magic weapon would be more difficult to deal with by at least two to three fold. Thanks to the illusionary spell, he was able to display the power of a YuanYing expert to obstruct Yang Chen.
Suddenly, the pressure doubled again. Yang Chen’s feet stopped moving, when facing the attack by ten JieDan experts acting together with the magic weapon, Yang Chen had no option but to give his all. Suddenly, within the illusionary spell, the Medicine Garden’s dome appeared.
At that moment, Yang Chen’s spiritual awareness was at the level of a peak foundation stage practitioner, as long as he made a breakthrough, it would reach the level of a JieDan stage, so even using the Seven Steps enchanting Deadly Spell within the illusionary spell was not a big issue. Once the spell formation emerged, the ten experts immediately sensed a turn of events. His body had moved just a moment ago and seven by seven, forty nine raised flying swords immediately attacked like fiends and demons.
Even YuanYing stage experts could be taken care of with this powerful spell, so the ten JieDan stage experts were directly dismembered. Naturally, this was all within the illusionary spell.
Including Cheng Wen Cai, all of the experts started spitting blood, mouthful after mouthful without stopping. At the same time as the magic weapon and their bodies were chopped to fragments, their spiritual awareness violently shook, causing them to become stunned, becoming unable to carry on already and they directly lost consciousness.
The Heavenly Stairs’ spell formation had suddenly lost the control of all of the ten JieDan experts, but still it did not stop, rather it kept on drawing out spirit power from their bodies in accordance with the requirements of the illusionary spell and began attacking Yang Chen regularly.
The remaining twenty steps, considered to be the authentic Heavenly Stairs Finding Heart Path were no trouble for Yang Chen, he very quickly reached the peak of the Heavenly Stairs again.
Bang!
A great clamor spread through the crowd again. Ascending to the peak two times, no one needed to say anything now, everyone possessed the ability to tell right from wrong. After witnessing this, the spectators, because of having seen the miracle of someone ascending to the top of the Heavenly Stairs, burst into cheers.
Yang Chen halted at the peak again, as if he had gained another insight, but nobody was surprised at that. However since the ten experts responsible for the spell hadn’t responded, immediately someone went to probe.
The sight within the center made all of the experts from different sects who had hurried over open their mouths in shock.
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