Li Chengfeng thought for a moment and chose to continue walking in a straight line. This was in line with his philosophy: Once you've decided on a path, you must walk it all the way!
In layman's terms, once you've chosen your path, you must walk it to the end even if you have to kneel!
After this fork in the road, Li Chengfeng realised that he did not see any other competitors. There were only endless clouds and endless stairs. He did not know how many steps he had climbed, nor did he know how long he had been climbing.
Li Chengfeng's sweat and dew had evaporated, making him look like he was wrapped in a cloud of mist.
He knew that his body had reached a critical point after a day of climbing. He already felt extremely tired, but he knew that as long as he persevered and endured through this critical point, his body would enter another stage.
After climbing about three thousand steps, Li Chengfeng's body was so tired that he was about to collapse. His legs felt like they weighed a thousand catties. With every step he took, his legs felt so heavy that he could not lift them up.
Previously, Li Chengfeng had overtaken one person after another. Each time he passed someone, he would feel excited. However, now that he had no competitors, all he felt was endless emptiness and fatigue.
Li Chengfeng gritted his teeth as he continued climbing. 'Is this telling us that once we reach a certain stage of cultivation, it's no longer about competing with others, it's about competing with ourselves?'
'Or is it telling us that once we reach a certain stage of cultivation, this is what cultivation feels like? Endless emptiness and endless pain?'
Li Chengfeng was right. This was the purpose of the first stage!
The path of cultivation was extremely long. As beginners, they had to face many competitors. How to stand out from the crowd was a problem that every cultivator had to consider.
However, once they reached a certain stage of cultivation, it was no longer appropriate to use others as a reference. Because they had to face themselves, they had to surpass themselves in the end!
On this long path of cultivation, the pain and depression of a single person was enough to drive ninety-nine percent of normal people crazy. Only by overcoming this pain and torture would one have the ability to win in the end!
Li Chengfeng persevered and continued climbing. After climbing two hundred steps, his body began to heat up rapidly. His head started to spin and his body started to tremble violently. His chest felt like there was a huge rock pressing down on it, making it hard for him to breathe.
Li Chengfeng gritted his teeth and climbed another fifty steps. Suddenly, he felt a pop in his chest and a warm current surged through his body. The fatigue, trembling and pain from before suddenly disappeared. His entire body felt light.
Li Chengfeng knew that he had passed the most difficult stage. He had broken through the critical point of his body, and now he had entered a stage where he had to expend his Yuan Qi.
The human body was a storage device. Normally, energy, blood, aura, and true essence were all stored within. Normally, what was consumed was the external storage, which was a person's physical strength. But once this part was completely overdrawn, it would enter the internal consumption. This was the most essential part of a person's storage, Yuan Qi!
This part of the consumption was like spending a family's savings. How much was spent was how little was left, and it would not be easy to replenish it in the future.
However, the mystery of the human body was that after a person's Yuan Qi was used up, once it was replenished, the person's Yuan Qi would be much more than before. The person's foundation would be stronger, and the person's organs, tendons, bones, and blood would also become stronger.
This process repeated over and over again, tempering the body. It was the body's cauldron.
After Li Chengfeng broke through the critical point, his footsteps became lighter, and he continued to climb at a steady pace. He climbed another four thousand steps until his stomach started to feel hungry. Only then did he stop to eat and drink.
At this moment, Li Chengfeng's body temperature was shockingly high. His face was as red as cinnabar, steam billowed from the top of his head and his clothes were soaked through. He had probably climbed tens of thousands of stone steps but he could not feel any wind or airflow at such a high altitude!
Li Chengfeng thought it was strange, but he did not have time to think. He carefully chewed the dried meat and swallowed it with water. After resting for a while, he started to climb again.
This time, he only stopped when it was night time. However, the moment he stopped, his legs gave way and he almost fell to the side of the road, rolling down.
Li Chengfeng quickly steadied himself and looked behind him. It was already a bottomless abyss!
After cultivating to a certain level, falling down would be like falling into a bottomless abyss!
Li Chengfeng retched a few times and wiped the white foam from the corner of his mouth. He turned to look and felt a sense of lingering fear. He could not imagine what would have happened if he had rolled on the ground in his current state.
Even if he did not die from the fall, he would have collapsed on the spot if he had to climb so many steps again!
Li Chengfeng's heart skipped a beat. Wasn't this the same for cultivation?
Once one climbed to a certain peak and suddenly fell down, the cultivator would definitely be crippled!
Almost no one would have the courage to start from zero again!
Li Chengfeng took a deep breath, rested for a while, then gritted his teeth and continued walking. After another two hours, it was already 7pm. Li Chengfeng was exhausted, so he curled up into a ball and slept on the ground again.
However, when he woke up this time, the sky was already bright. Li Chengfeng was still a little groggy when he woke up, but he soon broke out in cold sweat because he had been sleeping like a log. If a child had stabbed him with a knife, he would have lost his life.
Li Chengfeng lifted his head to look at the sun. He did not know how many steps he had left, so he did not dare to waste any more time. He quickly ate the jerky, drank a few mouthfuls of water, and started climbing the seemingly endless stone steps.
Li Chengfeng climbed the stairs for seven days and seven nights. When he finally reached the ninety-nine thousandth step, he could see the end of the stairs!
At this moment, his clothes had already turned white. It was the salt that was left behind by his sweat. His clothes were stiff, and the soles of his shoes had already been worn through!
This young man, who had been practicing martial arts since he was a child and had a strong body, had almost overdrawn all of his physical strength and vitality. In just seven days, he had lost a lot of weight. His cheeks were sunken and stubble had appeared. His cheeks were covered with a green beard. Only two eyes in his sunken eye sockets were faintly burning with an unyielding flame.
Li Chengfeng was a rather unruly person, but he was also extremely stubborn and stubborn. Once his bottom line was crossed, his stubbornness and stubbornness would explode. His stubbornness and persistence were also extremely determined.
Along the way, Li Chengfeng only had one thought in his mind: he had to win, he had to win!
He had to win against everyone!
Only then could he enter Hidden Brocade Court!
Only then could he become a great cultivator. Only then could the Cleansing Moon Li family not be bullied. Only then could he protect the people around him!
Li Chengfeng gritted his teeth. He could barely stand and could only use his hands and feet to climb up. Every step he took left a wet footprint on his feet and a bloody handprint on his hands.
Just like that, Li Chengfeng climbed up with difficulty. He was getting closer and closer to the last step!
Finally, when he reached the last step, his eyes widened. In front of him was a vast grassland. At the end of the grassland was a sea of clouds. But there was no one in front of him!
He had unknowingly completed his journey. He had climbed a total of ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine steps!
Li Chengfeng did not know that Sun Boyi was lying to them. To complete the Stairway to Heaven was an almost impossible task. Not only did it require superhuman stamina, it also required superhuman willpower!
This was almost an impossible task because the Spiritual Mountain Sect did not want anyone to pass all three tests. This was because the sect was the one who chose their disciples, not the disciple who chose the sect!
When the time comes, this super genius who passed all three stages could choose any court. It would be a humiliation and harm to the other three courts!
Moreover, what if this person suddenly stopped cultivating in the Spiritual Mountain Sect? What then?
The Spiritual Mountain Sect's reputation would be gone!
How would the mighty Spiritual Mountain Sect stand in the world?
That was why no one could pass all three stages!
Since the Spiritual Mountain Sect was founded a thousand years ago, only forty-three people had climbed the Stairway to Heaven!
And for thousands of years, only three people had passed all three stages!
All three of them went on to become great cultivators in the cultivation world. All of them, without exception, became the Spiritual Mountain Sect's Sect Leader!