110: Chapter 110 Ao Qin Climbs the Ladder

Outside the Kunlun Sect gate, beneath the Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder.

After Qingxuan finished speaking, the plaza fell silent for a moment.

Immediately after, someone moved. The first to step onto the Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder was a burly young Cultivator.

He came from a mid-level family in the Southern Wilderness, with a cultivation base of Golden Core - Late Stage, which was not considered top-tier among the crowd.

The young man took a deep breath and stepped onto the first step.

The stone steps felt warm and smooth, like jade, with nothing unusual.

He breathed a sigh of relief and stepped onto the second step; it remained calm.

The third step, the fourth step, the fifth step...

There was nothing unusual about the first five steps.

The young man felt a surge of joy and quickened his pace.

When he stepped onto the sixth step, his body suddenly stiffened.

An invisible force surged from the stone steps, enveloping him entirely.

It did not harm or suppress him, but it struck directly at his mind and interrogated his true heart.

Countless images suddenly appeared in the young man's mind; they were the bits and pieces of his cultivation journey.

To compete for a Medicinal Pill, he betrayed his Senior Brother; to achieve a Breakthrough regarding his Bottleneck, he deceived his mentor; for a Magical Artifact, he harmed an innocent Loose Cultivator...

Those sins he thought had long been buried by time appeared one by one in his mind like a revolving lantern, as clear as if they had happened yesterday.

"No... it's not like that..."

The young man's face turned pale, cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and his lips trembled slightly.

He wanted to argue, to deny it, but those images were too real—so real that he could not refute them at all.

His legs began to tremble, and his body began to sway.

The next instant, an irresistible force surged from the stone steps and flung him away.

"Ah—!"

The young man let out a cry of alarm, his body tracing an arc through the air before crashing heavily onto the ground ten zhang away, looking utterly disheveled.

He struggled to get up, but found his legs weak and unable to stand.

The surrounding Cultivators looked over one after another; some showed fear, while others gloated.

"This... just like that, he was eliminated?"

"Only the sixth step! Isn't that too fast?"

"It seems this Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder is not so easy to climb."

Amidst the discussions, a few more Cultivators stepped onto the ladder, but the results were exactly the same.

Some fell at the seventh step, some at the ninth, and some made it to the thirteenth, but ultimately failed to cross that hurdle.

One by one, their expressions were desolate as they fell disheveled beneath the ladder, their eyes filled with unwillingness.

"What exactly is this ladder testing?"

A Loose Cultivator who had fallen from the eleventh step slumped on the ground, muttering to himself.

No one could answer him, because those Cultivators still persisting on the ladder had no time to spare.

Their entire focus was being pulled by that invisible force, struggling bitterly in the depths of their own hearts.

In the crowd, Ao Qin's gaze landed on the towering ladder, watching one Cultivator after another fall from it, his brows furrowing slightly.

"Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder!"

He whispered the name, a hint of contemplation flashing in his eyes.

"Old Xuan, can you discern the origin of this ladder?"

Half a step behind him, Daoist Xuan Chong was silent for a moment before slowly shaking his head.

"I cannot see through it." His voice was deep, carrying a hint of gravity.

"The power contained within this ladder is beyond my scope of knowledge."

"I have cultivated for tens of thousands of years and consider myself knowledgeable, but I cannot see through this ladder at all."

Ao Qin nodded slightly and did not ask further.

He turned his gaze back to the ladder, watching those still struggling, a gleam flashing in his eyes.

Light flowed across the Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder.

Hundreds of people had already attempted to climb it, but fewer than one in a hundred could truly stand firm on the ladder.

Most were eliminated within the first ten steps, and those who could endure past the twentieth were rare as a Phoenix.

And those who could climb above the fiftieth step were few and far between.

Those few were currently gritting their teeth, persisting in the middle section of the ladder, each step taken with extreme difficulty.

Lu Jinghan stood before the mountain gate, his gaze fixed on the figures climbing the Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder.

Behind him, Zhou Tianchen sat cross-legged on a blue stone, holding a scroll of the Scripture of Alchemy in his hands, absorbed in reading.

"Senior Brother, do you think anyone can reach the top today?"

Zhou Tianchen asked casually, without looking up.

Lu Jinghan was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "There will be, but not many."

"The Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder has ninety-nine steps; the higher one goes, the harder it becomes." He gazed at those struggling above the fiftieth step.

"For these people to reach the fiftieth step is already their limit; anything further is beyond their reach."

A few days ago, Lu Jinghan had tried climbing the Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder himself, so he naturally knew the difficulty of reaching the top.

Zhou Tianchen said indifferently, "That is true; after all, not everyone has the talent of Senior Brother."

Lu Jinghan glanced at him but did not reply.

Just then, a commotion suddenly broke out in the crowd.

Ao Qin moved. He walked out from the crowd with a calm, unhurried pace, as if he were not going to climb a Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder that had caused countless others to fail, but rather taking a stroll in his own backyard.

The surrounding Cultivators made way one after another, their gazes falling on him, whispering discussions.

"Who is this person? He has an extraordinary aura; he doesn't look like an ordinary person."

"I don't know, I haven't seen him before; he must be a Cultivator from another domain."

Amidst the discussions, Ao Qin arrived before the ladder, looked up at the towering Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder leading directly to the Kunlun Sect gate, and then stepped onto the first step.

When Ao Qin's foot landed on the first step, his figure was as steady as a rock.

He didn't even pause; the second step, the third step, the fourth step—his pace was calm and unhurried, like a leisurely stroll.

The Heart Demon interrogations on the first ten steps, which had caused countless Cultivators to fail, seemed non-existent before him.

Ao Qin's expression was calm as he continued upward.

The twentieth step, the thirtieth step, the fortieth step—his speed did not slow down in the slightest.

Those Cultivators who had fallen from the ladder widened their eyes, watching that figure steadily climb the ladder, their mouths agape wide enough to fit an egg.

"This... who is this person?"

"He's at the fortieth step! He hasn't even stopped once!"

"Is he a monster? The Qingyang Sect Disciple who made it to the thirtieth step earlier had gritted his teeth and persisted for half an hour; how is this guy walking as if it's flat ground?"

Discussions rose and fell, with countless gazes fixed tightly on that calm and unhurried figure.

Ao Qin continued to walk upward at a leisurely pace, each step steady and powerful, as if the Dao-Asking Cloud Ladder, which made it impossible for countless others to move forward, were truly just ordinary stone steps beneath his feet.

At the fiftieth step, Ao Qin's pace finally slowed.

He stood on the fiftieth step, closed his eyes for a moment, appearing to digest something.

But this pause only lasted for a few breaths.

Then, he stepped forward again, walking towards the fifty-first step.

At the foot of the mountain, there was absolute silence.

Everyone was stunned.

From the first step to the fiftieth, it had taken no more than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

And those Prodigies from various domains who had been highly regarded by everyone earlier had taken nearly an hour to reach the thirtieth step at their fastest.

"This person is definitely no ordinary character."

In the crowd, an Elder of a Southern Wilderness Sect spoke in a low voice, his tone filled with a hint of shock.

The Disciple beside him nodded repeatedly, his gaze fixed tightly on that figure, his eyes filled with awe.