Three boards above atop Paradise Earth Abyss. Each one had a title: Core Formation Realm Ranking, Nascent Soul Realm Ranking, and Unity Realm Ranking. Each board had one hundred thousand ranks on it, and each rank depicted the cultivator’s name and the number of steps they’ve reached. Only when a new record was surpassed would there be a change on the board.
The three ranking boards of Paradise Agony Abyss listed all the cultivators who attempted to reach the depths since the creation of the training ground. So anyone who attempted to Paradise Agony Abyss was not only competing against the current generation but the past as well.
Aside from fame, there was no other point in appearing on the ranking board. There were no additional rewards or benefits. Still, just appearing on the ranking board was enough for many disciples. Just by putting up three pieces of boards atop the Paradise Agony Abyss, the Buzhou Immortal Sect ignited a fire in their disciples. Without the need to dangle any rewards, the disciples would automatically compete amongst themselves and improve.
What a ludicrous bargain.
“Hey, isn’t that Senior Brother Xi?”
“You’re right. Judging by the direction, he’s heading toward Paradise Agony Abyss!”
“So Senior Brother Xi is going to challenge the previous record holder? I wonder what rank he will get?”
“Senior Brother Xi hardly comes to these sorts of training grounds, so we don’t have a clear understanding of his strength.”
“Who knows. Maybe Senior Brother Xi doesn’t come to training grounds like these to hide his inferiorities, hehe.”
“Psh, do you think Senior Brother Xi is like Lovespot, who only relies on the treasure to get to his current realm? Oh wait, last I heard, he failed his Unity Heavenly Tribulation and lost his memories as a result. Forcing him to recultivate from scratch.”
“Junior Brother is right. Senior Brother Xi is not yet forty, but he’s already at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm. That isn’t something you can accomplish by using treasures alone.”
“Who knows. I heard that in the past four years after Lovespot lost his cultivation, he managed to enter the Core Formation Realm recently. Tsk, tsk, Elder Redseal sure is willing to give so many heavenly treasures for a wastrel.”
“How can you compare Senior Brother Xi to Lovespot? That’s just muddying Senior Brother Xi’s good name.”
“Alright, alright. But back to the main point, what rank do you think Senior Brother Xi will attain?”
“Hard to say. I heard that Senior Brother Xi is outstanding, even amongst the scions of elders.”
“Don’t we already know that? What are you repeating facts for? Tell us something don’t know.”
“No, no. When I’m talking about scions, I mean including the other first-rate sects.”
“Other first-rate sects? How can they compare to us, the Buzhou Immortal Sect? Our former Eldest Senior Sister Su already suppressed all their geniuses. She’s even a Unity Realm elder now.”
“But can she suppress over fifty other Nascent Soul Grandmasters at the same realm and at the same time?”
“This… Just to be sure, you’re talking grandmasters of first-rate sects, right?”
“Of course, why would I compare Lady Su to loose cultivator trash?”
“Then I don’t know. One on one, Elder Su will definitely prevail. But against so many, not even Grand Elder Xi can accomplish it at the same realm, right?”
“I heard that Senior Brother Xi can! All the other scions call Senior Brother the Vast Heaven Young Master because of it!”
“For real!?”
“I heard that he suppressed over a hundred at the same time!”
“Now you are just lying. During the Heavenly Connection Gathering, why would they all gang up on Senior Brother Xi? Are they not afraid of Grand Elder Xi finding trouble with their sect?”
“Well, the process wasn’t exactly clear cut…”
“You are all straying from the main point. What rank do you think Senior Brother Xi can attain?”
“Hmmm, top ten thousand?”
“Who are you kidding? Senior Brother Xi can obviously get into the top thousand!”
Tianyi’s ears twitched as he took in the conversation. This wasn’t the only conversation he heard but one of many. His already sullen mood became even more gloomy. He really didn’t want to come to Paradise Agony Abyss. Just thinking of the pain, he would feel made his hairs stand on end. But he had reached a bottleneck in the creation of his martial method and condensing his qi into a liquid form.
Qi wasn’t matter or plasma, so Tianyi had a hard time condensing it into liquid form. He had reached the point that he could condense it into a liquid form after long hours of experimentation, but he could not find a way to store it in such a form. The moment he relaxed, the liquid qi would return to its gaseous state.
Since he already reached the limit of these two methods to increase his strength, Tianyi now only had the option of tempering his willpower. It was also the first time Tianyi discovered that it was so hard to increase his strength. He couldn’t even enter the Unity Realm to powerup. And now, there was even more pressure on him to do well. If he did poorly, Tianyi was afraid that everyone in the sect would know of his weakness in willpower. The more outstanding one was, the more glaring their weakness would be.
Tianyi silently gulped a mouthful of saliva as he stood onto the entrance to the Paradise Agony Abyss. Although it was called an entrance, it was nothing more than one of the many stairs carved into the side of the hole. The longer Tianyi lingered at the entrance, the more he could feel everyone’s stares penetrating into his back.
Sucking in a deep breath, Tianyi stepped onto the first step of stairs down into the abyss. Immediately, he felt darkness consume his vision. But that only lasted for an instant before his vision returned.
Tianyi tilted his head. Each step would come with a trial for the challenger to face. But Tiany never expected the first step to be so easy. He didn’t even need to do anything, and he already overcame it. Perhaps his willpower was actually quite strong? With far more confidence, Tianyi began his trek down into the Paradise Agony Abyss.
Reality proved that he celebrated too soon.
At the one thousandth and tenth step, Tianyi found himself nauseous to the extreme. He felt like he would puke his guts out. Compared to the sharp pain he felt when he absorbed the Dragon Emperor’s blood essence or the pain from battle, Tianyi didn’t know what was worse. Tianyi released a sigh of relief when the nausea finally passed, and he successfully passed the trial. He had been too overconfident, resulting in him being caught unaware. He nearly failed the trial because of his overconfidence and carelessness.
He almost failed so early on. On the Nascent Soul Realm rankings, the one hundred thousandth place only managed to make it to the 9,676th step. And if he couldn’t even surpass that, wouldn’t that be embarrassing?
Tianyi feared pain, especially the pain to his soul, after suffering from the Dragon Emperor’s soul attack. But right now, he had something even more that he didn’t want to experience, being seen as a failure by the rest of the disciples. His pride forced him to continue to undergo the numerous trials in front of him.
As he descended deeper into the abyss, Tianyi lost track of time. Sometimes it felt he was being tortured for eternity with countless ants biting his soul, but Tianyi would discover only a moment would pass when he awoke. There were several times Tianyi wanted to give up, but when he recalled that the possibility of death, he soldiered on. He didn’t want to die because he didn’t prepare and trained himself when he could have. At the same time, it would be far too embarrassing for himself and his mother if he got too low of a rank.
As he persevered, he eventually lost count of how many trials he passed. But Tianyi thought it was better that way. If he didn’t know, he would try his hardest to reach as far as he can. Like this, Tianyi continued progressing forward, trial after trial.
Tianyi had just finished an excruciatingly painful trial. It was as if all the pain Tianyi had experienced in his life had concentration into that single point, excluding the pain he felt from the Dragon Emperor’s soul attack. And it was under his internal comparison of the pain compared to the Dragon Emperor’s soul attack that Tianyi was able to pass the trial.
After composing himself, Tianyi prepared himself and stepped onto the step, and entered the subsequent trial. The pain he expected never came. Instead, Tianyi found himself in a familiar room. Or rather, a type of room. Clinically white walls, curtains, beds, and sheets with the lingering scent of disinfectant.
Beep
Beep
Beep
Tianyi’s body whipped around towards the direction of the heartrate monitor. His mind froze as he saw the patient lying on the bed. She looked different, far different than she did in his memories, with shambling white hair, waxen and rough skin, chapped lips, so skinny that her bones were conspicuous through her skin, and bulging eyeballs even with her closed eyelids.
“…mom.”
Tianyi didn’t know how he arrived in front of the bed. But by the time he was there, he subconsciously called out to the woman. His hands trembled as he tried to reach out to her, but he pulled back at the last moment.
He had never seen his mom so fragile, so weak, and close to death. Just a single touch from him could lead to her death if he wasn’t careful. With his discernment, he could tell that his mother wasn’t that old, sixty at most. But she had more wrinkles than a ninety-year-old with failing organs. Had it not been for the machine hooked up to her, Tianyi fully believed that she would have already died.
His mom was not yet close to the limit of her lifespan, but her body was a wreck as if she had not rested even once. What could have caused her to destroy her body like this?
“…”
Tianyi heard his mom gasp as if she wanted to say something. He felt as if knees would buckle any moment now, but he still bent and placed his ear next to her face. When he heard what she was gasping, Tianyi felt something wet slide down his cheek. Just as he was about to say something, he heard the heartrate monitor flatline.
It was as if a bomb had gone off in Tianyi’s head.
“Senior Brother Xi, Senior Brother Xi!”
Tianyi was broken out of his shock when he heard someone addressing him. When he looked around him, he realized he was out of the Paradise Agony Abyss. His surroundings were being affected by the true qi of chaos he unconsciously leaked due to having his emotions in turmoil.
All around him, he could see disciples looking fearfully at him from a fair distance. The ground was pitch black and constantly being corroded. The worst part was the some of the disciples had their flesh corroded by his true qi as well. Some howled, and others could only silently grit their teeth and attempt to resist it.
Tianyi waved his hand, and all the black gaseous qi separated themselves began to be absorbed back into him. Even though he absorbed the true qi of chaos back, the injuries were still present. Tianyi prepared to revert time back to heal their injuries using the sea of time in his Mountains and Seas Formation.
He paused for a moment before closing his eyes. After spending years in the Temporal Void Domain trying to understand spacetime, Tianyi felt that it was possible for him to use the technique without external aid. The true qi of chaos began to be emitted from his body, but moments after leaving his body, the true qi of chaos lost its corrosive and chaotic nature before changing to a silvery mist. The mist permeated the area, and under everyone’s shocked expression, the wounds on their body began to rewind.
Once the wounds were healed, many of the disciples cupped their hands and thanked Tianyi.
Tianyi waved his hands. “It’s only natural. Since I caused your injuries, I have a responsibility to heal them. It’s my fault. I didn’t expect to be impacted so much by Paradise Agony Abyss that I lost control of my true qi.”
He looked up at the Nascent Soul Realm ranking board. Each name had the number of steps they took, so it was relatively easy to find oneself. Tianyi felt that the number of steps he took should definitely be over nine thousand, so he started from there.
Tianyi’s lips twitched when he saw so many people who failed at the nine thousand nine hundred ninety-ninth step. The ten-thousandth step must have dramatically increased the difficulty. To his horror, Tianyi discovered his name at the 80,091st rank. And the number of steps he took was nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine. He was first among those who took the same number of steps, first among over ten thousand people. But that didn’t comfort him at all.
Before Tianyi could sink deeper into his thought, a commotion could be heard from the gathered disciples. He soon discovered why. Because on the Nascent Soul Realm ranking board, the former fourth place was now the new fifth place. And the new fourth place was a person known named Sheng Ni who had taken over thirty thousand steps.
Tianyi felt the corner of his eyes twitch as he tried not to react. Perhaps soon, there would be a rumor that Sheng Ni had more talent them him. Tianyi felt like he had become a stepping stone for someone else.
He shook his head and looked at the Core Formation ranking board. Perhaps, there would be someone he recognized. He remembered that there was a disciple brother that he met years ago who was skilled in both spiritual and martial ways. Tianyi recognized someone alright, just not the one he expected.
Rank 97: Jiang Daoyi, 1002 steps
Tianyi felt as if someone took and hammer and smashed his heart. In the five years, Daoyi had reached the mid Core Formation Realm, but Tianyi still felt a sting to his pride. He was a peak Nascent Soul Grandmaster, but he still lost to his core formation master junior sister. It would be a lie to say that he wasn’t envious.
He chuckled ruefully. Rather than being jealous, he should congratulate his junior sister. He shouldn’t be so petty over something as small as a ranking. He waved his hand, and instantly several nascent soul ranked materials appeared.
“This is just a little compensation from me for injuring you due to my loss of control earlier,” Tianyi said. He immediately left afterward before the disciples could reject him.
“Senior Brother Xi seems kind of down, doesn’t he?”
“I saw his ranking. He was ranked 80,091 at nine thousand nine hundred steps.”
“Even Senior Brother Xi failed to overcome the hurdle of the ten-thousandth step. Sigh,”
“I think it is already very impressive that Senior Brother Xi reached nine thousand nine hundred ninety-ninth step on his first try!”
“Yes, but compared to the darkhorse, Sheng Ni, Senior Brother Xi’s rank seems too low.”
“When Senior Brother Xi left earlier, he seemed a little down.”
“I know, I felt it too! But I think even if Senior Brother Xi only reached nine thousand nine hundred ninety-ninth steps, he is still scarier than that Sheng Ni. Didn’t you see how terrifying he was earlier? Just the qi he released was enough to threaten our lives!”
“You’re right. All those who come here are great talents in soul cultivating. I never heard of Senior Brother Xi cultivating a soul method. Even without a soul method, he could reach this; it; it is truly amazing!”
“Hmpf, I know that Sheng Ni is only an early nascent soul grandmaster. I think he has more potential than Senior Brother Xi, who is already a peak Nascent Soul Grandmaster.”
“Don’t exaggerate. Why do you sound as if you’re the one that beat Senior Brother Xi? If you have the ability, then you rank higher than Senior Brother Xi. Hmpf, only knowing how to compare others, never comparing yourself.”
“Heh, what do you know? That Sheng Ni had a quadruple spiritual vein, and it was by luck that he entered the Buzhou Immortal Sect. I heard that it took him over a hundred years to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm. But once he entered the Core Formation Realm at one hundred and fifty, he only needed ten years to reach the Nascent Soul Realm. He’s a born soul cultivator. If he had a better spiritual vein, Senior Brother Xi wouldn’t even be in the same stratus as him without Grand Elder Xi!”
“What do you know? Foundation Establishment at ten, Core Formation at fifteen, and Nascent Soul under twenty, do you think anyone can do that? That Sheng Ni, even if has a heavenly spiritual vein, wouldn’t reach the same height as Senior Brother Xi.”
“Heh, at least I wasn’t bribed by him. You seem to be holding that Thousand Flower Steel quite tightly.”
“This is Senior Brother Xi’s kindness. Unlike those other scions who would only disdain us for being too weak. Senior Brother Xi apologized, healed us, and even gave up compensation. Can you apologize if you accidentally hurt someone? Oh, I’m sorry. You probably can only hurt someone if that someone was taking a piss while half asleep.”
“You!”
Tianyi didn’t fly back to Jade Peak; he walked. He didn’t enter the Temporal Void Domain. Instead, he climbed onto the tallest point of Jade Peak Palace and sat there looking at the night sky. He was down by only getting a low rank on the board, being outshone by Sheng Ni, and shocked by how high Daoyi’s rank was. But compared to seeing his mom’s heartbeat monitor flatline, Tianyi felt that everything else was minor.
Tianyi wasn’t worried about other people knowing his trial. Each trial was personal to the challenger, formed based on their weaknesses. Actually, now that he thought about it, he was kinda worried, could the elders see what his trial was? Tianyi sighed once more as he looked at the shining stars.
For seven days and six nights, Tianyi stared listlessly at the sky, his eyes reflecting the starlights, and on the seventh night, he fell asleep for the first time in years.