**Chapter 38: The Stairway to Heaven**
The slab connected.
It wasn't a duel; it was industrial demolition.
Gu The Butcher, Rank 10 of the Heaven Board, didn't fly backward. He was driven straight down. The impact liquefied the stone beneath him, creating a shockwave that blew the windows out of the surrounding merchant stalls.
When the dust settled, Gu was embedded in the earth. His chest was caved in, his spirit weapons shattered, and his terrifying aura extinguished like a candle in a hurricane.
He was alive, but barely. A broken pile of meat breathing wet, rattling breaths.
Kaelen stood over him. He wiped a splatter of blood from his cheek.
"Tough," Kaelen admitted. "Most people pop on the first hit."
He reached down. He didn't offer mercy. He ripped the spatial ring off Gu's broken finger.
Then, he placed his hand on Gu's chest.
**"Heaven-Devouring Scripture: Siphon."**
Black veins crawled from Kaelen's palm into the fallen butcher. The remaining Blood Qi—the cultivation of a lifetime—was drained. Gu shriveled, turning grey and withered within seconds.
> **[High-Grade Blood Essence Absorbed.]**
> **[Vitality +50.]**
> **[Trait Acquired: Iron Blood (Passive Regeneration).]**
Kaelen exhaled a cloud of red steam. His wounds from the earlier tornado knit together instantly, leaving not even a scar.
He stepped over the body.
The plaza was dead silent. Thousands of Inner Disciples stared at him. Their hierarchy, their god-like Top 10, had just been eaten.
Viper emerged from the rubble of a tea shop. She looked at Gu's withered form, then at Kaelen. She didn't say a word. She just adjusted her veil, accepting that her life was now tied to a natural disaster.
"Viper," Kaelen called out.
"I'm here."
"The Board is broken," Kaelen pointed to the shattered monolith. "So I can't buy a pass to the Summit."
He turned his gaze upward.
Directly above the plaza, piercing the clouds, was the **Central Pillar**. It wasn't a chain like the others. It was a massive column of white stone, ten miles high, carved with dragons.
It was the **path of the Dean**. No disciple was allowed to touch it.
"We take the elevator," Kaelen said.
He walked to the base of the pillar.
"Kaelen," Viper hissed, catching up. "That is the **Dragon Ascension Pillar**. It has a **Gravity Suppression Array** that increases by 10x every mile. By the top, your heart will explode."
"My heart is heavy anyway," Kaelen said.
He grabbed the stone scales of the carved dragon.
"Up we go."
***
**One Mile Up.**
The air was screaming.
The gravity here was already twenty times normal. Viper was clinging to Kaelen's back, her face pale, her own Qi barely keeping her conscious.
Kaelen climbed one-handed.
*Grab. Pull. Crunch.*
His fingers dug into the enchanted stone like it was styrofoam.
"System," Kaelen grunted. "Status."
> **[Gravity Load: 20G.]**
> **[Titan Plating: Active.]**
> **[Muscle Density: Increasing to match load.]**
It was a workout. A brutal, bone-grinding workout. And Kaelen loved it. Every inch upward forced his **Storm-Demon** physique to adapt, to harden, to evolve.
**Two Miles Up.**
A flock of **Iron-Beak Eagles** (Stage 3 Beasts) nested here. They saw the intruders.
They dove.
Kaelen didn't stop climbing. He waited until the flock was ten feet away.
"**Thunder King's Roar.**"
He opened his mouth and screamed.
It wasn't a human sound. It was the sound of a thunderclap mixed with a lion's roar, amplified by his massive lungs.
*BOOOOM.*
The sonic wave hit the birds. Their brains turned to jelly instantly. The entire flock dropped out of the sky, dead before they hit the ground.
"Free snacks," Kaelen muttered, catching a falling eagle and biting into it raw as he climbed.
**Five Miles Up.**
The clouds were below them now. The sun was blinding.
The gravity was fifty times normal. Even Kaelen was sweating. His skin was flushed red, his veins bulging like ropes.
Suddenly, the pillar vibrated.
A face appeared in the stone in front of him. A projection.
It was an old man with long white eyebrows. He wore the golden robes of the **Dean**.
"Turn back," the Dean said softly. "You have made your point, child. You are strong. But you are disrupting the order of the Academy."
Kaelen stopped. He hung by one hand, five miles above the earth.
"Order?" Kaelen laughed, spitting out an eagle feather. "You built a tower to separate the strong from the weak. I'm just climbing it."
"There is a difference between strength and arrogance," the Dean warned. "If you cross the six-mile mark, the **Lightning Array** activates. It will fry you."
"Old man," Kaelen looked the projection in the eye.
"I *am* lightning."
He pulled himself up.
He crossed the mark.
*CRACK-ZAP.*
The sky darkened instantly. The white pillar turned black.
Bolts of purple lightning—**Tribulation Lightning**—arced from the stone, striking Kaelen.
It was agony. This wasn't natural electricity; it was the Heaven's punishment.
Viper screamed as the stray voltage hit her barrier.
Kaelen roared. He didn't block it. He absorbed it.
"**Delicious!**"
He climbed faster. The lightning charred his skin, but the fresh layer underneath came back stronger, immune to the voltage. He looked like a demon crawling out of hell, wreathed in purple fire.
**The Summit.**
The top of the pillar.
A massive platform of gold and jade. Palaces floated in the air. The air was thick with Spirit Qi, so dense it looked like mist.
A group of **Core Formation Elders** stood at the edge, weapons drawn, waiting for the intruder.
A hand slam-dunked onto the ledge.
Smoke rose from the fingers.
Kaelen pulled himself up.
He stood on the Summit. His clothes were gone, burned away, leaving only his runic skin and the **Nameless Slab** strapped to his back.
He dropped Viper, who collapsed, kissing the floor.
Kaelen looked at the line of Elders. Then he looked past them, at the massive golden vault in the center of the island.
The Treasury.
He pointed at the vault.
"I heard you have a spare arm in there," Kaelen said, his voice crackling with static.
"I'm here to collect."