The drizzle soaked the surrounding wood, and the wild animals in the jungle disappeared.

The students, who had relied on hunting to make a living along the way, had no fresh meat to eat. Every day, they squatted in the carriage, wearing autumn clothes that were not warm enough, covered with damp quilts, and chewing dry coarse rice.

Happiness is always relative.

As Shang Yanting ate the delicate pastries (which Jia Xitong had collected), he suddenly found them less cloyingly sweet; the roast duck with its glossy skin (←bought because it was affordable and saved money) suddenly didn't seem greasy anymore.

That complete tiger skin was expensive, but it was also very warm.

He lay there at night, cuddling the bald little beast, feeling the warmth from the thick fur and dry quilt, and listening to the chattering of teeth around him from the cold. Surprisingly, he slept very soundly.

##

Due to the sudden drop in temperature and heavy rain, the journey, which was originally scheduled for three days, was delayed for everyone except Shang Yanting.

The academy's vast complex of buildings is built into the mountains. The towering, long ridge is home to the Holy Capital Ladder, which is said to have 20,000 steps and is the first obstacle.

Shang Yanting left Jia Xitong's little gray raccoon at the foot of the mountain and climbed up while carrying the raccoon.

The Heavenly Ladder is a place for cultivating one's character.

Only those who complete the entire ladder climb are eligible to proceed to the next round of testing.

When I first stepped onto the Heavenly Ladder, there were many people around, many in groups, chatting and laughing. However, after a few hundred steps, fewer people were talking, and the expressions on everyone's faces became solemn.

After a thousand steps, the number of people around began to decrease, and some stopped to sit and rest on the steps.

As they climbed higher, they encountered the first person who turned around and started to walk down.

Once you have a first, you'll have a second, a third, and a fourth.

Jia Xitong noticed that each of their expressions shared the same characteristic—extreme pain from exhaustion.

"Dear host, please put me down."

She looked at Shang Yanting.

He looked alright at the moment, but his clothes were soaked with sweat, and there was a fine sheen of sweat on the tip of his nose.

Upon hearing this, Shang Yanting put down the raccoon in his arms, saying, "If you're tired, don't push yourself."

"The puppet won't get tired."

Jia Xitong glanced at the bundle he was using to conceal himself and said, "Take it off too, I'll carry it for you."

Shang Yanting chuckled softly, then actually tied the package to the back of the bald little beast.

The bundle was only a hand's length shorter than the raccoon's body, and the way it carried it was rather comical. Most importantly, it had to stand upright to climb the stairs, which was much more difficult than walking for a human.

After climbing more than a dozen stairs, Shang Yanting picked it up again.

"Sigh, the shape limits my creativity."

Jia Xitong sighed in Shang Yanting's sea of ​​consciousness.

"I really want a tall, agile puppet."

"I'll find you someone better later."

"real?"

Upon hearing this, Jia Xitong turned her head and said, "I want an octopus puppet, with legs all below its head, so I can draw eight talismans at once!"

As Shang Yanting listened to her description, he imagined a monster with a raccoon head and eight legs.

Well, it's kind of disgusting.

"...I'll try my best."

"Host, you're so generous!"

With the male lead by her side, how could she not create beautiful puppets in the future?

Jia Xitong happily returned to her sea of ​​consciousness to avoid causing him any trouble. Looking at her latest paintbrush, she felt incredibly proud of herself, imagining all eight tentacles working simultaneously in the future.

Wait, that's not right!

If she could recreate the puppet, why wouldn't she be a person?

##

It takes a whole day to climb those 20,000 steps.

Shang Yanting climbed up from the bottom of the mountain, and it started raining heavily halfway up, soaking all his clothes. The temperature at the top of the mountain was extremely low, and his clothes began to freeze after only standing there for a short while.

However, there was no time to rest. The ladder eliminated 30% of the participants, leaving 70% in a long queue. At the very front of the queue was a three-meter-high boulder, entirely black and with a smooth surface.