“I swear upon the Heavenly Dao, once I step unto the Nine Heavens Road, life and death are left to fate. If I succeed in making it through, I will not reveal any information about the Nine Heavens Road. Otherwise, may Heaven strike me dead!”
Ye Yuan swore once according to the words on the stone tablet and slightly felt his divine soul quiver.
Ye Yuan knew that this was the feeling when one’s divine soul signed a pledge with the Heavenly Dao.
In the future, if he goes against this oath, the Heavenly Dao will make heavenly punishment descend, destroying his body and soul.
“Now, can I enter?”
The guard stepped aside to allow Ye Yuan passage.
Ye Yuan turned back to Feng Ruoqing and co, and he said, “Help me take good care of Lu-er. I’ll be back soon.”
Finishing, Ye Yuan walked past the guard and stepped onto the Nine Heavens Road.
Stepping onto the first step, the scenery suddenly transformed.
The initially narrow Nine Heavens Road suddenly became a boundless horizon.
Ye Yuan turned around. The road he came from already disappeared, and what replaced it was still endless steps.
The entire strip of Nine Heavens Road had transformed into another world. A world constituted of countless green stone steps.
“Indeed a little interesting! Looks like every man has his edge. Even though the Lower Realms’ martial prowess cannot compare to the Divine Realm, they still have undergone countless eons of development and derivation. They are many things aren’t present in the Divine Realm. This Nine Heavens Road became an independent world. Looks like the person who set the array already had considerable accomplishments, and this array formation is a unique school of thought. 1 It’s a different style from the Divine Realm. Tranquil Cloud Sect can’t be underestimated!” Ye Yuan gasped in admiration.
This entire array formation was integrated into a harmonious reality. There were countless illusion arrays and killing arrays mixed into it. Even though its power was inferior to the Divine Realm’s arrays, the complexity of this did not pale in the slightest.
“No wonder this Nine Heavens Road is so hard to pass through. If these illusion arrays and killing arrays were activated at full power, killing Crystal Formation Realm martial artists would be like chopping vegetables!” Ye Yuan exclaimed in admiration once more.
“Well, there’s not much hope of breaking the array. My strength now is really too poor. Let me test out this Nine Heavens Road’s array formations’ power!”
After he said this, Ye Yuan strode out with a large step.
The step forward seemed to have activated the arrays. Countless strong gales howled towards Ye Yuan.
These gales were abnormally piercing-cold as if it could annihilate all life on earth. But this world only had Ye Yuan alone, so naturally, he was the target.
“The concept of wind? Looks like this Nine Heavens Road was constructed to help students train. Much thought and care had been expended on this. Except, using this sort training method seems a bit too cruel.”
As Ye Yuan sighed admirably, he moved along with the wind. The strong violent gale was actually unable to cause any harm to Ye Yuan whatsoever!
These strong gales were man-made through the creator of the array formations integrating his own understanding of the concept of wind inside it!
After sensing the concept of wind amidst the powerful gales, Ye Yuan knew the intention of the creator of this array. He hoped to let students comprehend the concept of wind inside through these gales.
However, how many people could comprehend the concept of wind at the Essence Qi Realm or the Spirit Condensation Realm?
The way the other students saw it, these powerful gusts existed to hurt people, instead of helping them to understand some profound concept.
If it were another student tackling the Nine Heavens Road, this Strong Gale round would most likely have already exhausted a great deal of essence energy.
They were unable to be so at ease like Ye Yuan. They have to activate their essence energy shields in order to withstand the power of these gales.
Otherwise, these strong gales would be like blades, slicing their body into pieces.
Even Spirit Condensation Realm students would have exhausted enormous amounts of essence energy after making it past this round; let alone those of Essence Qi Realms.
If Essence Qi Realm students used essence energy protection to withstand this round, they would directly lose 30% – 40%, and this was only the first round!
Under this sort of expenditure, if Essence Qi Realms did not die, where could they flee to?
In contrast, Ye Yuan did not even use his essence energy for protection. He simply swayed his body along with the wind force, and the gale wind blades floated past his body easily.
These gales were just like a giant wind blade technique, cutting wantonly in this space; omnidirectional and with no blind angles.
If students did not open their essence energy protection after coming in here, the consequences would be very severe.
As to why Ye Yuan did not use essence energy protection, it was because his comprehension towards the concept of wind was way above these gales.
The concept of wind encompassed within these gale winds, to Ye Yuan, was like a toddler learning how to walk. Wanting to hurt him was naturally hardly possible.
Not to mention that Ye Yuan’s Falling Flower Floating Zero Sword technique already encompassed an exceedingly profound concept of wind within.
Except, Ye Yuan’s Essence Qi Realm cultivation realm was too low and unable to unleash the true might of the concept of wind; that’s all.
Following the increase of his cultivation, the power of the Falling Flower Floating Zero Sword would also become increasingly stronger.
Although Ye Yuan was only at the Essence Qi Realm currently, it was still more than sufficient to evade the attacks of these gale winds.
. . . . . .
Ye Yuan could not see the landscape outside, but the people outside could see Ye Yuan’s situation.
To be more precise, they could not see what was happening inside the illusionary world, but they were able to clearly see what Ye Yuan was doing right now.
There were a total of 999 stone steps on the Nine Heavens Road. Right now, Ye Yuan had already walked across more than 20 steps.
It was just that from the perspective of a bystander, Ye Yuan’s condition did not seem to be too good.
“What’s Ye Yuan doing? He’s dangling and swaying about like he’s drunk.”
“Don’t know. Is he being mesmerized by an illusion world?”
“I think so! Look at him swaying around non-stop. Who tackles the Nine Heavens Road like that?”
“En. I heard from some senior apprentice brothers that in the past when those people challenged the Nine Heavens Road, they opened up their essence energy protection right away as if there was something terrifying. But you look at Ye Yuan. He didn’t even open anything, but rather, it’s like he’s drunk. Why is he totally different from how others challenging the Nine Heavens Road?”
“Yeah. According to the seniors’ speculations, the first 333 steps of the Nine Heavens Road might be some external force test which is extremely taxing on essence energy. Those who could walk past 333 steps would be completely fatigued. But why is Ye Yuan’s perfectly fine? Could it be that what he encountered was different from the seniors?”
“This Ye Yuan is really a wonder. Whatever he does is different from the rest. It’s just that if he does this, would he lose his mind within the first 333 steps?”
“I think there’s really that possibility!”
“Eh? Look! Ye Yuan seems to have recovered!”
That person fixed his eyes to take a look, and Ye Yuan was indeed no longer behaving like he was drunk. He continued walking up steadily.
One look and onlookers could tell that Ye Yuan should have passed through the first barrier.
“This . . . the first round is completed so effortlessly?” Huyan Yong stared dazedly at Ye Yuan’s figure with a dumbfounded face.
As an instructor in the academy, he knew much more things than the rest of the students! These things were summed up using the experience from students’ fresh blood.
The first 333 steps on the Nine Heavens Road, and every 33 steps was a minor barrier.
Although it was unknown what exactly these minor barriers were, regardless of who charged through these minor barriers, it would not be this effortless!
What’s more, some Essence Qi Realm students were directly annihilated at the first minor barrier!
But Ye Yuan managed to pass through it just by swaying around like that the entire way!