The staircase was not only spacious but also very long, winding around a thick pillar four times before reaching the top.
Scattered among these four circles were more than twenty cultivators, like fruits growing on a winding branch.
Shi Xuan and the other two glanced at it briefly, didn't think much of it, and started walking up the stairs.
By this time, the monks trapped on the stairs were exhausted, and they all looked at the three new people who had entered.
Shi Xuan and Lu Shenzhi are the first and second on the Prodigy Ranking, and everyone knows them. The last person was originally ranked fifty-first, but Yan Lingyi did not appear, so he was the lucky one who moved up one place.
All three belong to the best team, ranking as the highest and lowest among all the prodigies.
They had completely missed the main group. Apart from coming in with them on the first floor, they had been left behind for the next ten days or so, as if they had disappeared.
Now, while they are trapped on this sixth floor and struggling to move forward, the three of them have overtaken them and caught up!
Shi Xuan, Lu Shenzhi, and Lu Wenxing walked up the stairs together.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the three of them, as if they wanted to see how many steps they could successfully complete.
If the entire nine-story tower is in an extremely strong gravitational field, making it difficult for them to move, then the staircase is the core of gravity within that field.
It's so difficult! Walking on these stairs is incredibly difficult! Every step feels like it weighs a ton, and some people can't even take five steps a day.
As the three of them ascended the stairs, meeting their gazes, someone finally noticed something was amiss.
They seemed to be moving with far too much ease, as if gravity had absolutely no effect on them.
But what surprised them even more was yet to come.
The three of them walked up the stairs with ease, as if they were walking on flat ground, step by step.
Shi Xuan and Lu Shenzhi kept their eyes straight ahead, but Lu Wenxing's eyes kept darting around. He looked curiously at the cultivators who were not moving on the stairs, his expression seemingly saying: Why aren't you moving? Don't you want to move?
That's infuriating.
But no one spoke up at this time, so they couldn't come out to criticize Lu Wenxing's attitude.
Shi Xuan and his two companions moved straight ahead without any hindrance, much more easily than anyone they had ever seen before.
Even those who have successfully climbed to the seventh floor struggled to take their first steps when they first reached the top of the stairs.
But it seemed that the gravity here had no effect on the three of them at all!
What's going on? If they can move around freely here, why didn't they come up a few days ago? It's been more than ten days since then, and they've only just reached the sixth floor.
Could it be... that they obtained some kind of magical artifact that could resist the effects of gravity?
The more these people thought about it, the more convinced they became that this idea was correct.
If Shi Xuan and Lu Shenzhi are the top two on the Prodigy Ranking, and their aptitude and cultivation skills are superior to theirs, then how do you explain the guy who rose from fifty-first place by luck?
At this moment, they all felt a little regretful.
If I had known I would be stuck here and have difficulty moving around, I would have stayed behind and searched for the secret to clearing the level, just like them. Maybe I would be as relaxed as that loser now.
The three of them walked without any hindrance, under the watchful eyes of everyone, and did not stop even halfway through the journey.
In the latter half, the gravity became stronger, which slowed them down, making it seem like they were exerting more force.
But that's all.
Shi Xuan looked back at the people below the stairs. She really wanted to say that it wasn't too late to start consolidating the foundation here.
But many of the people looking at her were quite hostile. Shi Xuan thought about it and decided to let it go. Everyone has their own destiny, just like she always said: it's all fate.
The gravity is stronger in the second half, and each step becomes more difficult than the last.
Shi Xuan could already imagine what those of them who hadn't honed their spiritual power would experience on these stairs.
However, the gravity within this entire nine-story pagoda is so strong that some enlightened cultivators have probably already found ways to consolidate their strength and thus reduce the impact of this gravity on themselves.
By the time they reached the last loop of the spiral staircase, all three of them were experiencing some degree of strain.
Lu Wenxing, in particular, is starting to fall behind Shi Xuan and Lu Shenzhi.
Since there was only one lap left, Shi Xuan and Lu Shenzhi weren't in a hurry. They walked two steps and then stood still to wait for Lu Wenxing to catch up before walking together.
By the time they reached the last half-floor, Lu Wenxing was practically crawling on all fours.
But many eyes were looking up at him from below, and from their perspective, it would be too unseemly for him to lie down, so he decided against it...
He gritted his teeth and persevered, panting heavily from exhaustion.
Those below felt a little relieved to see that Fifty-one was finally about to give up. Of the three, two who were far ahead couldn't compete, and the last one couldn't possibly be doing so easily either; they would start to doubt themselves.
But when the last one didn't leave, the first two also stopped leaving.
This is truly incomprehensible.
Once inside this nine-story tower, everyone is there to claim their own rewards. Who would linger for the sake of their fellow disciples and slow down their own ascent?
Friendship isn't for this kind of time.
But the top two remained unchanged, maintaining the same pace as the bottom two.
Lu Wenxing walked slower and slower, and eventually, he needed to rest for more than an hour after each step before he had the strength to take the next step.
Shi Xuan and Lu Shenzhi did not urge him, and maintained the same pace. For the remaining time, they silently followed the method of moving three steps and stopping for two.
The suction here is so strong that this polishing method is even more effective than on the first and second floors, and Shi Xuan and Lu Shenzhi have also benefited greatly.
Lu Wenxing, who was in last place, saw that his junior sister and senior brother had stopped to wait for him and realized that he was holding everyone back.
At this point, he couldn't care less about glancing at others; he gritted his teeth and charged forward, trying his best not to hold those two back.
None of the three spoke, yet they were perfectly in sync. The two in front practiced as they walked, while the one behind chased after them with all his might.
Later on, it became impossible to stay on each floor for even an hour. Lu Wenxing stayed for longer and longer periods of time.
The first two didn't urge them either.
It took Lu Wenxing three whole days to walk just half a circle.
When he reached the last step, he simply couldn't climb any further. He lay there like a dead dog, unable to move at all.
Once you reach the top floor of the spiral staircase, giving up halfway there is clearly not an option.
Although the gravity of this staircase is great, its effect on consolidating the cultivator's foundation is also obvious.
Earlier, Shi Xuan had been letting Lu Wenxing go through this process on his own, but now that he's reached this final stage, those things are no longer important.
Shi Xuan and Lu Shenzhi pulled Lu Wenxing up from both sides, and with their combined strength, they managed to lift him up in one go.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
