Chapter 245

Chapter 245: The Last Step

“Right. I bet even she doesn’t think she can really clear it,” someone said, pointing at the image: “Look, she has barely started and already seems worn out.”

The crowd turned to the Water Screen.

On the Water Screen, Li Shuang was climbing with great difficulty.

The sixth mountain was unlike the other five. The first five had clear tests. Sometimes ice. Sometimes fire. Sometimes monsters. But on the sixth, from the first step, she felt like heaven and earth and every living thing had turned against her. The rocks tried to trip her. Branches blocked her path. The wind stung her face. Even the air pushed against her stride. There was no visible danger, yet the mountain made her feel awful.

Two years ago, she had barely reached the halfway point before the malice of all things rejected her from that world.

Now she began again.

She climbed even slower than before. Under the heavy repulsion, sweat beaded on her brow. The mountain rejected her. The ground rejected her. Every blade of grass, every flower and bird, all rejected her. Each step felt like wading through a bog, and a slip could swallow her whole. The silent mountain seemed to mock her.

She felt the malice clearly.

Suddenly she stopped. In her mind, Lin Qing Ling’s words rose up: sense heaven and earth, merge with all things. Then she remembered Elder Ling’s hand sewing stitch by stitch.

Lifting her head, she looked around with new thought. It was the same sky and the same earth. All things were still all things. They held no malice and no kindness. All things were without feelings. [They are not hostile or kind. All things are without feelings.]

She gazed quietly at a stone before her, then tilted her head as if listening.

“What is she doing?” someone muttered.

“Stalling because she knows she will fail?” another guessed.

“What good is stalling? You can’t pass just by standing there,” a third said.

Just then Ancestor Xuan Wei reached Great Dao Mountain. Seeing Li Shuang’s actions, her face grew very serious.

This girl Li had already touched the next step. She was feeling the breathing of the stone. All things have spiritual rhythm. Each grass and tree has a breath of its own. To truly grasp this is the key to stepping into Integration. Some people comprehend a mountain, so their Integration Realm becomes a mountain. Some comprehend an ocean, so their Integration Realm is the boundless sea. Some only touch a blade of grass or a tree and rush into Integration; this is called False Integration. Such cultivators gain the life span of the realm but not its battle power. Only those with no future choose that path. Those who clear the Sixth Peak, once they enter Integration, gain the Mountain Realm.

Was Li trying to use this mountain to push her Soul Realm into the Integration Stage? Ancestor Xuan Wei’s face darkened. [Do not succeed, do not succeed!]

If Li reached the summit, she would shake all of Myriad Arts City. She would draw offers from Super-tier Sects and win the favor of Tribulation Crossing Stage powerhouses. Then word of the Supreme Ice Spiritual Root would spread. Some would wish for Li to grow. Others, like her, would try to dig out the Supreme Spiritual Root. Either way, the root would no longer be hers to claim. Her own strength was decent, but compared to true giants, she was a child.

Li Shuang listened to the stone for a long time. Slowly, her breathing shifted. At last, her breath and the breath of the stone matched in a strange harmony. She smiled gently and said: “I understand.”

Carefully, she guided a small line of ants from the rock onto her arm. When the ants left, the stone’s aura grew mild. Turning back, she carried the ants to a hole and let them return. The ants looked back at her, as if to say thanks.

Step by step she climbed on. She set bent branches back in place. She tended to the wounds of birds and beasts. With every touch, her breathing changed a little more.

Soon she reached the halfway mark again. The crowd held its breath as one.

Smiling, Li Shuang moved forward. This time, she was not transported out. At the very least, she had surpassed who she had been two years ago.

She kept going. A thread of spirit rose from a slab of blue stone and linked to her. Another thread rose from a red flower and linked to her as well. With every new step, more strands from all things tied themselves to her.

Logically, climbing should grow harder the higher you go. Yet Li Shuang was the opposite. She had struggled at first. Now she began to move quickly.

The “malice” she had felt from all things quietly turned into “kindness.” A cool breeze brought comfort. Butterflies fluttered ahead as if to guide her. Stones, afraid of tripping her, rolled aside.

Li Shuang’s smile deepened. The spirit of ten thousand things gathered as one.

Then she saw the whole mountain. She felt a clear, steady breathing that belonged to the mountain itself. She adjusted her own breath until each inhale and exhale matched the mountain’s pulse.

She walked upward with ease.

“Wait, that can’t be right. What happened? Why is she suddenly so fast?” someone cried.

“She must be cheating!” another shouted.

“How can anyone cheat on Great Dao Mountain? Use your head,” a third snapped.

“You clearly haven’t reached the Integration Stage,” an older cultivator said: “Only those at or above Integration will understand what is happening.”

“That’s right,” another agreed: “This girl Li may really reach the top.”

The crowd went still. The youngest record on Great Dao Mountain might be broken.

Ancestor Xuan Wei’s eyes bulged. Hugging her last hope, she repeated in her heart: [Fail, fail. Just fail.]

“Look, her soul is changing!” someone yelled.

Li Shuang stood one step from the summit. Her Spirit Soul Body had already begun to change. The strength of a high mountain poured into her. If she wished, she could break through to the Integration Stage at any moment.

At the very instant she was about to enter Integration, Li Shuang remained calm. All the power faded in a blink. She had stopped the breakthrough on purpose.

Then she took the final step onto the peak.