But nothing happened, just like always.
He stood there for a moment, expression blank. Then suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.
"Wait… maybe that could work," he muttered under his breath. A hint of excitement flickered in his eyes.
Without hesitating, he gathered his Qi and lifted himself into the air, flying toward the next peak—the one where the Heaven Stairs were said to be located.
Swish—
He increased his speed, the wind pressing against his face. His white robe flapped noisily behind him, caught in the force of the rushing air. He couldn't help but feel a bit excited. This plan of his—it just might work.
Swish... swish...
He continued to fly, pushing forward steadily through the clouds. After a few minutes, he glanced down. From the changing landscape below, it seemed like he had already covered half the distance.
Encouraged, he kept flying.
But after what felt like more than half an hour, he frowned.
The peak ahead... still looked just as far away.
He narrowed his eyes and looked again. The Heaven Stairs hadn't moved an inch. The clouds around him continued to drift lazily, as if nothing had changed.
He slowed down slightly and let out a breath.
"...What the hell?"
He hovered in the air, staring at the distant peak. The distance didn't make sense. He had been flying straight, hadn't he?
Yet somehow, it felt like he wasn't getting any closer.
Still, without any better options, he clenched his jaw and resumed flying.
Swish... swish...
One more time. Just a little further.
But no matter how long he flew, nothing changed.
The mountain still loomed in the distance—untouched, unmoved, like a painted backdrop. He tried adjusting his path, flew higher, then lower, even spiraled through the clouds. Nothing worked.
A strange sense of weightlessness crept into his body. Not physical, but mental. Like time itself was thinning out.
Is this… some kind of illusion?
His eyes darkened slightly. "Tch. Figures. A test, huh?"
He sighed, rubbing his temples as a headache formed.
"I always hated tests… Back in school, they popped up three or four times a year. And now they're following me into the cultivation world? Wonderful."
Shaking his head, he kept flying.
Maybe this was a test of willpower. Or maybe patience. Either way, he had no intention of failing.
Minutes passed.
Then hours.
Night fell, casting a dull silver glow across the endless sky. He felt uneasy—but not scared. Somewhere deep down, he knew this wasn't a place where he would die.
But it was a place that wore him down.
Time blurred again. Another day. Another night.
His Qi reserves started draining, slowly at first, then faster. By the fourth day, his breathing was shallow. His body trembled slightly with every movement. But he pressed on.
He had to.
By the seventh day, his vision began to blur. The mountain still hadn't come any closer.
His body gave out.
Swish—
He dropped from the sky like a stone.
The wind screamed past his ears as he plummeted, his limbs too weak to respond. The clouds whipped by in streaks of grey and white.
Boom!
He crashed through a layer of mist, tumbling toward the hills below.
For a few seconds, everything was a blur of motion and noise.
Am I going to die?
No... I'll survive. I'll survive!
Those thoughts echoed in his mind, clinging stubbornly to consciousness—until even those faded into silence.
Boom—
He crashed hard onto a lower hill, the impact shaking the surrounding terrain. A sharp, jagged stone pierced through his right arm, tearing it open entirely.
Tchh—!
A torrent of blood gushed out, but it wasn't ordinary blood—it shimmered in seven colors, like liquid rainbow, glowing faintly as it sprayed across the rocks.
Then—crack!
A cone-shaped stone jutted up from the slope and struck him from behind, its tip driving clean through his back and bursting out from his chest.
Boom!
A crater formed at the point of impact, deep and wide, throwing debris in all directions. The ground trembled. Grass withered. Every living thing within the area—plants, insects, even birds in the air—died instantly as his seven-colored blood seeped into the earth.
He lay there, completely motionless.
His white robe was in tatters, soaked in his own blood. His body twitched faintly for a moment—but then even that stopped. His life force was fading, slow but steady, slipping away into the broken soil beneath him.
Hours passed.
The hill remained silent, like time itself had frozen around his dying form.
And then—
Rumble—
The skies quaked. Space twisted.
Without warning, the very fabric of reality distorted around him. Light warped. Sound vanished. Then—his body, the blood-soaked earth, even the deep crater beneath him—disappeared completely.
As if none of it had ever existed.
Swish—
In the blink of an eye, he appeared atop the peak—the very place where the Heaven Stairs stood.
His vision was clear. His breathing steady.
His consciousness had fully returned, sharp and alert. His white robe, once torn and soaked in blood, was now pristine, as if nothing had happened. Not a single scratch remained on his body. Even the damage to his spiritual sea had been restored.
He stood in the center of the peak, silent.
For a few moments, he just stared at the stairs ahead, lost in thought.
Then he let out a long breath and muttered, "Hmph… I knew it. I wasn't going to die."
He narrowed his eyes, a flicker of annoyance crossing his face.
"So this was all just a damn test… just to reach the Heaven Stairs?"
His voice echoed faintly in the wind, carrying a mix of exhaustion and irritation.
"Whoever designed this place really needs to get their head checked."
As he was lost in his thoughts, he suddenly heard a familiar and annoying dialogue, and it pulled him back to his surroundings.
He was standing in the middle of the platform on the peak. Ahead of him were the Heaven Stairs, and hundreds of people were already climbing them. There were also many people standing around him.
"You lowly trash! You dare to stand in the way of this Son of God? Courting death, are you?!"
Su Chen blinked.
Su Chen heard the voice from behind, and he was sure it was directed at him.
How the heck did these people notice me? he thought.
Umm… maybe my outsider aura lost its effect because of this place... Yeah, that must be it. If this place can even reverse time and space and restore my original body without a single flaw, then it's not surprising.
Maybe the one who created this test is truly an Immortal Emperor… and their cultivation might be far beyond anything even the system described.
With that thought, he slowly turned around.