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As soon as Li Guanqi stepped onto the first step, he immediately attracted the attention of many people.
The young man who carried a huge box on his back did not hesitate to step onto the stairs.
The black cloth strip over the young man's eyes caught everyone's attention.
The manager, who had been silent, suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the figure on the stairs.
In his eyes, the stone box behind the young man weighed at least two hundred pounds!
But the young man's breathing was steady from start to finish, showing no signs of effort.
The manager's eyes flashed with a hint of sharpness as he murmured to himself.
"Such a physique… I'm afraid he has already reached the stage of body forging."
Swish!
A slight sound of breaking through the air rang in the young man's ears, and with a sudden force under his feet, his figure instantly shifted a foot to the side.
"Huh?"
Li Guanqi stood on the stairs and bowed towards the direction of the manager, saying, "Um… what was the senior trying to do just now?"
The manager looked at the young man's swift movements and smiled even more.
"Kid, don't be afraid, it's just a timing talisman."
Li Guanqi scratched his head awkwardly, realizing that it was a timing talisman.
The manager gestured, and the yellow talisman circled around Li Guanqi before finally sticking to his chest.
The manager smiled and said, "Go on, make good use of your time and go up as early as possible."
Li Guanqi's mouth twitched slightly, and he quickly bowed and thanked the manager.
"Thank you, I'll go up first."
The manager was about to say something, but he saw the young man take a deep breath, and with a sudden force under his feet, he rushed upwards like a cheetah!
"Wow… this physique! I wanted him to take off the thing behind him."
As Li Guanqi rushed upwards, there were constantly figures flashing past him, falling behind him.
Li Guanqi looked down at the talisman on his chest that was gradually dissipating, calculating the time until it disappeared.
"Two hours…"
"This endless Sky Ladder has at least a few thousand steps, it's not a simple matter."
He had already walked for nearly three hours from the foot of the mountain to halfway up.
There were so many people coming to pay respects to the sect that there were at least thirty to forty thousand people at the foot of the Great Xia Sword Sect's mountain.
Among them, there were nearly ten thousand boys and girls aged twelve to fourteen.
The rest were family members and servants.
"It seems that joining the sect is not as simple as I imagined…"
"I heard that last year, the number of people who joined the Great Xia Sword Sect exceeded eighteen thousand, but in the end, only close to a hundred people were accepted as disciples."
"The spirit root test has stumped many people…"
"By the way… what kind of spirit root do I have?"
However, as Li Guanqi was rushing upwards while lost in thought, he found a thin young man running alongside him.
The man was dressed in white, with a jade hanging from his waist, and he was extremely fast.
As he passed by, he even made a mocking sneer.
Li Guanqi frowned slightly. The man didn't seem to be in the stage of body forging, so why was he so fast?
But then Li Guanqi saw two Clear Wind Talismans under the man's feet!
The Clear Wind Talisman, a seal talisman that could be activated without any spiritual power. When attached to the feet, it would move as swiftly as the wind.
However, this item was not cheap, and in terms of earthly wealth, it would cost ten thousand taels of gold.
As for himself, he didn't even have half a penny, let alone buying such a thing.
Li Guanqi shook his head and began to adjust his breathing and pace. He didn't know how many steps were still ahead, so he had to conserve his energy as much as possible.
When he reached the thousandth step, he found that many people were sitting down, exhausted.
The ten-zhang-wide stairs were now full of people, leaving only a narrow two-foot-wide path in the middle for people to climb up.
The person in front slowed down, so naturally, the people behind could only wait.
The boys and girls sitting on the steps, all looked at the passing people with playful expressions on their faces.
Some of them didn't even bother to conceal their smiles.
It seemed that these people had been influenced by others' words, which was why they had gathered so densely, leaving only a narrow path to restrict people's speed.
Li Guanqi couldn't help but sneer.
"Once you've been rained on, you want to tear others' umbrellas!"
"Hmph!"
Li Guanqi looked around like a hawk.
He saw the white jade handrail next to the stairs, and on the other side of the handrail was a thousand-zhang cliff!
However, Li Guanqi suddenly exerted force under his feet, and his figure soared into the air.
When he jumped nearly two zhang, he stepped on a young man's shoulder and leaped again!
"Wow!! How can that person jump so far?"
"Is he crazy? What is he trying to do? There's a cliff below!"
This shocking move immediately caused an outcry from the crowd.
Clang clang!
Li Guanqi landed on the handrail in an instant, crouching down like a hungry leopard, and rushed upwards like a cheetah.
However, the young man's actions caused an outcry, but no one dared to follow suit.
After all, on the other side of the handrail was a thousand-zhang cliff!
If someone didn't stand firm, they would fall and be smashed to pieces, and there was no hope of being saved by the disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect.
However, those with great skills and courage were not just Li Guanqi alone.
The blocked staircase had hundreds of steps, and those who were slow had long been left behind by others who had already reached the top.Among this group, there were many descendants of great clans who had honed their bodies from a young age, all stepping into the realm of body tempering.
Some, with a burst of strength in their arms, climbed up the walls beside the staircase, their figures like apes, swiftly crossing the crowd with the help of withered vines.
Others forcibly stepped on the shoulders of others to get past the crowded throng.
For a time, the crowd resorted to various means, all racing towards the peak.
"Huff… Ha…"
At this moment, Li Guanqi had already reached over two thousand steps, and his forward speed had noticeably slowed down.
With every step, beads of sweat the size of beans splashed onto the white jade staircase.
The cloth straps of the Sword Coffin on his back had chafed two long bloody marks on his shoulders.
Yet the youth still did not put down the Sword Coffin, constantly remembering his grandfather's words, never to put it down.
Sweat blurred the youth's eyes, and now only a handful of people could keep up with him.
These were also the ones who had just managed to get through the crowd.
The one who had stepped on the Clear Wind Talisman had already stopped to rest at the fifteen hundredth step.
When Li Guanqi, gasping for breath, stepped onto the last step, the Spirit Talisman on his chest also stopped burning.
Li Guanqi bent over, hands on his knees, taking deep, ragged breaths.
At this time, a burly youth came to his side, slapped his shoulder with a smile, and said, "Good fellow, brother, you've got some real strength!"
Li Guanqi turned his head to look at the dark-skinned youth and replied with a light smile, "Brother, you flatter me, you're not bad yourself."
The youth laughed heartily, scratching his head.
"I've been chasing you all the way and couldn't catch up. Even I was sweating when you moved through the crowd on the handrail; you've got guts!"
"By the way, let's get acquainted. My name is Lin Dong."
Looking at the youth's outstretched hand, Li Guanqi was slightly startled.
After hesitating for a moment, he still extended his hand and said softly, "Blind, Li Guanqi."