Where Micheal was standing, all the youngsters of the big sects were getting ready. They all looked pumped up and ready to take on the world, as their eyes were radiating fierce looks. It didn't require a genius to figure out the relationship between these three sects were not friendly. Especially the relationship between the MorningStar and the Golden Valley seemed worse.
By looking at the way Evan Clarke and Vitoria Parker glaring at each other revealed the enmity between them, therefore like the sheep following their shepherd, the disciples from both sects had started to engage in a verbal war. Not long ago, in the competition among the three sects, Alex Fisher defeated Adam Kane of Golden Valley within five attacks and pissed off many Golden Valley disciples. Now they were looking forward to Vitoria Parker to defeat Evan Clarke and wipe the shame away to an extent. So the second round of the competition would definitely become even more intense.
On the bottom of the stairway, the disciples of the sects as well as the other youngsters were looking at the four persons standing at the top, their eyes filled with envy while many boys were drooling looking at the hot girls on the top.
"Senior Alex and Miss Celina are the definition of a perfect couple, look at their demeanor, and aura around them. Only if I could have a girlfriend like her, sigh"
"And a boyfriend like Senior Alex"
"Hey, look the Golden Valley dogs drooling at the Morning Stars"
"Shut the f**k up, you scoundrels, if it wasn't for our Senior Adam being sick that day, he would have kicked your Senior's ass and sent him back to where he came from"
"How dare you disrespect our senior Alex? Let's wait until our Evan Clarke meet your little Miss Victoria in the battleground, then we'll see who kicks whos ass"
"Obviously Sister Victoria gonna kick his ass"
"Hey darling, I'll visit your SilverMoon palace later"
"What the f**k, dude!?"
****************
The scene immediately became very intense. It looked like they were about to start attacking each other. The calmest person on the scene was Micheal, although he was irritated about Celina's presence, he didn't give a shit about the enmity among these celebrity disciples. As far as he was concerned, he's here to earn badass points and help the Sunrise sect in the process, so he could get a secluded place to break through. He was born narcissistic and how could he admire these disciples.
"Begin," Alex said calmly but his voice was enhanced with Arch Energy to be extremely loud, signaling the start of the first round.
Nearly 700 youngsters instantly started running up the stairway. The stairway was extremely wide and looked like even if there were more than a thousand people on it at the same time, it wouldn't feel crowded.
There were a total of 100 stone steps on Heaven's gate stairway, and each step was at least half a meter tall.
It seemed like any commoner could easily climb such stairways,
Let alone cultivators like themselves, in their eyes it was nothing.
Some of them were even jumping forward like rabbits after hearing Alex's words. It was very funny looking at them as Micheal chuckled inside.
"Human, what are you doing!? If she sees you, she would go berserk again"
Ignoring Gaya's shout, he stepped onto the first step...the second….the third. And just when he stepped onto the eighth step, he felt a slight pressure. More and more people started to pass him leaving behind.
"What the? am I that weak?"
He saw the others climbing the stairs easily without dropping a sweat.
"It seems he's going to be last"
One of the disciples of the Sunrise sect said looking at Micheal on the stairs. A bunch of steps above Micheal, the youngsters who went past him started to slow down feeling the pressure created by the three Core Formation cultivators.
Unlike the teachers who came to assess the competition two years ago, these three were no ordinary cultivators but geniuses and prodigies of this young generation. Each of them was extremely talented and powerful and the soul pressure created by them was no joke and this made this year's competition, toughest.
The higher the steps they climbed, the more pressure they felt.
"Human, you're embarrassing yourself, come on cast your weird spell and disappear!"
Gaya couldn't bear to look at those ridiculing eyes of the crowd.
"System, buy the Energy devourer and activate it"
[Ding! The host has successfully acquired the level 1 Energy devouver]
[Activating the Energy devouver]
[Loading 120...119...118...]
"Shit, I need to wait two minutes?"
He exited the system and turned his hand around to see there's no one behind him as he was the last guy standing on the fifth step.
"As long as you manage to enter the top 40, you can choose to become a disciple of any of the sects as you wish"
Even though the crowd knew this, right after the words left Sadie Kaplan's mouth, the crowd became restless.
"What about the top hundred? So that last kid could have a chance"
"hehehe"
"I TOLD YOU, HUMAN!"
Gaya could hear a few mocking words coming in her way and she couldn't hold her anger anymore.
Micheal tried to pay no mind to these comments but still, he became slightly irritated since he had done nothing like bragging or anything.
Surprisingly even some of the disciples who were above him started to follow the crowd by mocking him. They tried to relax their mind a bit by making fun of him.
"Look at that weakling, I bet he can't go more than twenty steps!"
"Twenty steps? Look at him where is he standing, he's stuck at the fifth step for god sake, I'm sure that he wouldn't even cross the tenth step"
The scornful remarks were getting more and more intense while he was waiting for the system to activate the spell.
[30...29...28]
"Good thing he isn't wearing our sect name"
Elder Miles sighed looking at the young man standing last with eyes closed.
"humph"
But suddenly he opened his eyes and snickered at the disciples above him.
Brushing his shoulder-length black hair behind, he began to walk towards them step by step.
"Teachers, he's moving"
While the disciples of the sects were sweating and trying their hardest to climb forward, he was calm and had a smile on his face.
[Experience points converted 2000]
[Experience points converted 3000]
[Experience points converted 4000]
The Legendary spell devoured the soul pressure and converted it to experience points as the invisible force he had felt a moment ago now disappeared.
In a few seconds, he reached the tenth step and looked at the girls who made fun of him before. The two girls were only a couple of steps above him and seeing him walking calmly towards them, they were utterly shocked.
"Middle finger bitches"
He simply showed his middle finger to both of the girls and walked past them as their faces turned red like beet in anger. However, they couldn't do anything as they were trying their best not to fall down due to soul pressure.
"How dare he!"
"Shut up they deserved it"
"Arrogant bastard!"
Some of the crowd noticed what just happened at the thirteenth step and began to argue as Micheal calmly climbed the stairs.
"Human, were you playing with me a moment ago?"
Gaya asked, looking at him moving higher step by step without stopping.
Once many of them reached the twentieth step, the pressure almost doubled and started weighing down on them, each of them felt they were being crushed by a little invincible mountain. The knees started to bend as sweat wetted their shirts and trousers. The higher they climbed, the bigger the pressure, and many of them stopped moving.
"I don't think I can move any further than this, the pressure is too strong, I can even feel my soul trembling"
"Yeah, me too"
Some of them sighed and said while wiping their sweat away. At the twentieth step, most of them who were standing were Body refining stage level 4 but when they saw Micheal who was only a Body refining stage level 1 calmly walking past them, their mouths and eyes widened in shock.
"Huh?"
From the twentieth step to the thirtieth steps, only a hundred or so youngsters were standing tall compared to the starting 700 people.
Among this 100, the geniuses like Evan Clarke and Victoria Parker had already reached the 30th step and still looked calm and relaxed while many beside them looked exhausted.
"Elder Sandra, how is he climbing with his level of cultivation?"
Sect Leader Claire opened her mouth wide looking at him and asked Elder Sandra.
"I...don't know, it shouldn't be possible "