Everyone arrived at the Wenzhen Mountain, but only Man Gu felt his power decreasing and his body becoming more like everyone else’s.

The boiling blood of the ancient barbarians in his body had calmed down, no longer providing him with a constant source of power.

Everyone looked at each other and eventually turned to Man Gu, the strongest among them.

“I’ll go first.” Man Gu didn’t hesitate to be the first.

He easily climbed the first ten steps, but the pressure gradually increased from the eleventh step onwards. He felt like he was carrying a heavy stone slab on his back, and the higher he climbed, the heavier it became.

However, he could still bear it.

He continued to climb.

After reaching the twentieth step, his steps became more and more difficult, and he climbed slower and slower.

At the twenty-ninth step, sweat began to seep from his back and soak his clothes. He had to stop and rest on the step, panting heavily.

“Even sitting down is still stressful.” Man Gu gritted his teeth and spoke to himself, too tired to say more. Sitting down and carrying the stone slab was not much easier than standing up, and his recovery was slow.

Seeing how difficult it was for Man Gu to climb, everyone knew that this mountain was not easy to conquer.

Someone said in a low voice, “I’ve heard from the elders that places like this can test one’s heart for the pursuit of the Dao. The purer and more steadfast one’s heart is, the purer their pursuit of the Dao will be. Man Gu comes from the ancient barbarians and is known for his stubbornness. If even he finds it so difficult to climb, we will find it even harder!”

“Maybe a meditation mantra can help settle our hearts,” someone suggested.

The third challenge required climbing to the fiftieth step, and there was no requirement to be among the first to pass. They were not in competition with each other.

Everyone nodded, thinking it was a good idea. They had learned similar mantras for cultivating their character and inner selves from their elders.

Lu Yang opened his mouth, but he didn’t know any meditation mantras.

“Do you want me to teach you a meditation mantra?” Meng Jingzhou asked.

Lu Yang shook his head. “Not yet. I’ll think of another way.”

Meng Jingzhou didn’t insist on teaching Lu Yang the mantra.

…

When Meng Jingzhou woke up from his meditation, he felt a peace in his heart like never before.

The meditation mantra worked!

Meng Jingzhou had meditated for longer than most people, and when he woke up, the others were already at the twenty-thirty step, sweating profusely and needing great determination to take another step.

Large drops of sweat flowed down their faces, and they didn’t even have the strength to wipe them away.Some people wanted to take a different approach and thought that there would only be pressure on the steps, so they went around the 50th step from the mountain next to the steps. However, they found that this method was not feasible as the entire Wenzhen Mountain had increasing pressure the higher up it went.

Others wanted to use their magic weapons, but found that they had lost their power and could not be activated. Dai Bufan was not worried about them using magic weapons.

Lu Yang was lagging behind everyone else and was the most eye-catching. He was squatting on the 10th step with one foot bare, lost in thought and observing something.

“What are you doing? Everyone else has climbed quite far,” Meng Jingzhou asked curiously.

Lu Yang didn’t answer and held a shoe in his hand.

He threw the shoe and it landed on the 11th step. “Pick it up and try it,” he said.

Meng Jingzhou didn’t understand Lu Yang’s meaning, but did as he was told. He found that the shoe was heavier than usual, as if something was pulling it from below.

Meng Jingzhou seemed to understand something and threw the shoe to the 12th step. He found that the shoe fell at the same speed as on the 11th step and was heavier when he picked it up.

“Do you see any pattern?” Lu Yang asked.

Meng Jingzhou furrowed his brows. “If an object doesn’t touch the ground, pressure won’t be applied to it. Only when it touches the ground will there be additional pressure.”

“Correct,” Lu Yang punched his palm in excitement. It was rare for someone to have the same idea as him.

Meng Jingzhou quickly thought of something. “The steps are slanted and there are so many trees here. We can make a ‘7’ shaped ladder, burying one end in the ground and leading straight to the 50th step.”

Lu Yang confidently said, “Yes, this third test should test our intelligence, and this is the standard answer!”

Meng Jingzhou understood Lu Yang’s idea and quickly raised another question. “How do we chop down the trees?”

They didn’t have axes or saws, so how could they make the ladder?

“Do you have any sharp magic weapons on you?” Lu Yang had thought of this problem a long time ago.

He had thought of cooperating with others, but unfortunately, no one else understood his ideas.

Meng Jingzhou took out a dagger. “This was given to me by the clan elder for self-defense. It can be activated with mental energy and is as fast as a Golden Core cultivator, but it can’t fly in Wenzhen Mountain.”

“It doesn’t matter, as long as it’s sharp,” Lu Yang smiled. The magic weapons made by the Meng clan were far sharper than ordinary axes and saws, even if they couldn’t be activated.

“Come and see, I designed the blueprint while you were meditating,” Lu Yang brought Meng Jingzhou to a soft sandy area where he had drawn the blueprint for the ‘7’ shaped ladder.

After a brief discussion, they began to take action.Meng’s family dagger was indeed sharp. The thick trees were like paper in front of the dagger, and they were quickly shaved into strangely shaped wooden boards by the two.

The trees that could grow here in the Wenzhen Mountain range were just the most common ones, like those that grew in the mortal world.

Soon, Meng Jingzhou found another problem.

“How can we connect these two wooden boards? Even if we had nails, we couldn’t join these thick boards together.”

“Have you heard of mortise and tenon joints?”

“No.”

Lu Yang was helpless. He took the dagger and shaved the connecting part of the wooden boards into mortise and tenon joints while explaining mortal wisdom to Meng Jingzhou.

“This protruding part is called the tenon, and this recessed part is called the mortise. Together, they form a mortise and tenon joint. The biggest feature of this joint is that it is extremely sturdy without using nails.”

Meng Jingzhou listened attentively. Meng’s family used spiritual energy and refining techniques for their crafting, so they didn’t need mortise and tenon joints.

The people on the stairs were sweating profusely and gasping for breath, just to reach the fiftieth step and become the first to clear the challenge. Perhaps the first to clear the challenge would gain the recognition of the Seek Tao Sect and be given special attention.

Everyone understood why there was no time limit now. Climbing the mountain consumed too much energy. If they stayed too long, they would be too weak to stand, let alone climb.

The two below the stairs were also sweating profusely and gasping for breath. After spending a lot of effort, they finally cut down a large number of trees and made a ladder after several trials and errors.

The ladder was strangely shaped, thin at the top and thick at the bottom, and curved at the end. It was more like a huge “7” than a ladder. The surrounding bare ground was like it had been bitten by a giant pig demon.

A Seek Tao Sect disciple secretly glanced at Dai Bufan. They remembered that Dai Bufan senior brother loved to show off his lush Wenzhen Mountain.

Dai Bufan’s eyes twitched, and he couldn’t help clenching his fists.