Nine Dragons Saint Ancestor

"Yun Xiao, how is it, are three days enough?"

Just as Yun Xiao was about to stand up, a somewhat dismissive voice echoed from the sky. It was clearly from that Half-step Holy Spirit, who seemed confident in himself.

"It’s enough, I must thank you for these three days!"

This time, Yun Xiao wore a confident expression, raising his head to thank the Half-step Holy Spirit in the sky, whose exact location was unknown.

"Then please proceed!"

The Half-step Holy Spirit wasn’t an easy opponent, and he wasn’t intimidated by Yun Xiao’s calm demeanor. The voice from the void made Yun Xiao imagine the person making a ’please’ gesture.

"As you wish!"

Without hesitation, Yun Xiao took the first step, and in the eyes of the Half-step Holy Spirit, it was a step full of confidence.

"Hmph, I thought this kid realized something extraordinary after sitting for three days, but it turns out to be just this!"

This whisper wasn’t as clear as before but still reached Yun Xiao’s ears, causing a playful glint to briefly flash in his eyes.

If Yun Xiao’s previous dismantling of the so-called Myriad Phenomena Stone Stair Formation was done systematically and according to the original correct positions, then at this moment, he used a different method on the Endless Stone Stairs.

Regardless, even though the Half-step Holy Spirit was the artifact heart and spiritual intelligence of the Chongxiao Stairs, and had seized the body of the human Guardian of the stairs, he ultimately couldn’t reach the peak of the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud.

However, Yun Xiao was the Long Xiao Battle God in his previous life. Both his meridian refining techniques and array formation skills were among the best on the Continent. He hadn’t acted before only because of a slight lack in soul power.

After absorbing heaven and earth energy for three days, Yun Xiao’s two soul ancestor veins were initially activated, greatly enhancing his soul power, making his techniques more effective.

Furthermore, the method Yun Xiao used now was vastly different from the original concept of the Half-step Holy Spirit. So when he saw the human youth take that first step, he instinctively thought it was a misstep.

In this endless stone staircase that functioned like a maze, it was like playing Go—one wrong move leads to more mistakes. If the first step was wrong, naturally, subsequent steps would only go further astray, until completely lost in the endless stone steps.

Those like Xue Changze and other human cultivators kept walking and could never reach the end of the stairs. They could never talk about entering the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud.

Some of them wandered in circles, while others tread back and forth on these endless stone steps for decades. Their final result was always the same—being toyed with by the Half-step Holy Spirit.

But this time, it was Yun Xiao on the endless stone stairs. Once he elevated his soul power to the peak of the Advanced Heavenly Rank, the endless stone stairs held no secrets for him.

"Hey, this step is wrong, this one too, tsk tsk, this step... remarkable!"

Under Yun Xiao’s continuous steps, a series of somewhat odd sounds came from the sky, as if the Half-step Holy Spirit was enjoying a show.

With each step Yun Xiao took, the Half-step Holy Spirit would comment, becoming increasingly excited, as if predicting the conclusion of that human youth.

Compared to directly striking him down, perhaps the Half-step Holy Spirit preferred seeing the youth in his current predicament—endlessly walking on the stone stairs, was this not the game he always played?

By now, it seemed the youth had taken many wrong steps and was about to fall into the same endless cycle as those other human cultivators. The Half-step Holy Spirit was visibly delighted, feeling in complete control.

To the Half-step Holy Spirit, this endless stone stair had only one path to freedom. Unfortunately, the human youth in rough clothes never hit the right spots with his steps, so there was not the slightest worry.

"I ask you, where does all your overwhelming confidence come from?"

Just as the Half-step Holy Spirit continued speaking heedlessly, unaware Yun Xiao could hear him, the youth suddenly stopped, staring at a point in the sky, and uttered in a cold voice.

"Yun Xiao, you are deep within the endless stone stairs and can never come out. Just obediently perform here for a century!"

The sky seemed to resonate with a disdainful voice everywhere. As Yun Xiao had claimed, it was full of overconfidence. Now, the Half-step Holy Spirit knew that the youth had no chance of stirring up any trouble.

"Perform for a hundred years? I suggest you start worrying about yourself first!"

Below, Yun Xiao’s face was expressionless. His words made the Half-step Holy Spirit’s heart skip a beat with a sudden unease, though he quickly suppressed it.

"Yun Xiao, you..."

Tap!

Just as the Half-step Holy Spirit was about to bolster himself with some self-talk, he saw the young man below in coarse clothes take two steps diagonally to the left.

Boom!

Yun Xiao completed these two steps in one fluid motion without any delay, and as the second step landed, an enormous change occurred in the entire Endless Stone Stairs.

It was as if the Endless Stone Stairs, previously stretching infinitely in all directions, vanished in an instant. Yun Xiao stood on a small step with emptiness all around, lacking any support.

With one foot on the solitary step, Yun Xiao raised his head to gaze at the Half-step Holy Spirit that suddenly emerged in the sky, a playful smirk on his face.

"This... this is..."

Witnessing the sudden turbulent changes below, the revealing Half-step Holy Spirit was clearly caught off guard. He murmured in disbelief, seeming unable to accept the reality before him.

"How about it? My method of breaking the array isn’t quite what you imagined, is it?"

Yun Xiao didn’t bother with the Half-step Holy Spirit’s emotions. He stood on the step, speaking softly, knowing that the so-called Endless Stone Stairs no longer posed any threat to him.

"How... how did you do it?"

Knowing that the Endless Stone Stairs had been broken, the Half-step Holy Spirit at least had some worldly experience. He didn’t stay panicked for long; instead, he calmly asked at this moment.

"You must have thought that once I stepped out the first time, I’d never be able to escape the Endless Stone Stairs, right?"

With a slight smile, Yun Xiao’s first rhetorical question touched on the piece of riddle the Half-step Holy Spirit couldn’t fathom, for the young man’s method of shattering the Endless Stone Stairs was utterly different from what he had in mind.

"Even if I explain my method to you, you wouldn’t understand. Just know that you’ve lost!"

How was the Half-step Holy Spirit to know that, at the moment he was awaiting Yun Xiao’s explanation, he almost exploded out of sheer frustration at the human youth’s words.

But what the Half-step Holy Spirit didn’t know was that Yun Xiao was speaking the truth, for it was indeed a top-tier method transmitted from the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud.

If replaced by another human cultivator at the same Heavenly Realm Middle Stage, even with a soul power reaching a Half-step Holy Rank, they would never break the Endless Stone Stairs so effortlessly.

Though the Half-step Holy Spirit can sweep across Tenglong Continent, he is only a bottom-tier existence in the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud. Any strength from the Holy Rank Third Realm could easily overpower him.

And because this space was the Chongxiao Stairs, only cultivators from Tenglong Continent could enter, allowing the Half-step Holy Spirit to have never experienced failure, always deftly manipulating anyone who stepped in.

Unfortunately, this time the Half-step Holy Spirit encountered Yun Xiao, a seemingly young human youth, with cultivation only at the Heavenly Realm Middle Stage, yet his carefully laid Myriad Phenomena Stone Stair Formation and the Endless Stone Stairs both failed to achieve the desired effect.

The method Yun Xiao employed to shatter the Endless Stone Stairs left the Half-step Holy Spirit utterly confused, for it was the first time he felt things spiraling out of his control.

Unknown to the Half-step Holy Spirit was that when Yun Xiao’s last two steps were taken, his fate had already been sealed: with his spiritual wisdom to be completely obliterated.

"Yun Xiao, I admit you’re formidable, more so than other human cultivators. How about it this way? Let’s cease hostilities, and I’ll let you pass to the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud?"

With faint Meridian Qi emanating from Yun Xiao’s hands, the Half-step Holy Spirit, perhaps recalling something, unexpectedly proposed this offer.

To be honest, the Half-step Holy Spirit bore deep resentment towards Yun Xiao, but through these methods exhibited by Yun Xiao entering the Chongxiao Stairs space, he sensed a hint of threat.

Even without fully sensing what exactly the threat entailed, the uneasiness compelled him to believe that continuing this duel with the human youth might lead to his spiritual wisdom being completely erased.

The genesis of this feeling was due to the Half-step Holy Spirit’s previous defeat by Yun Xiao outside the Chongxiao Stairs. Initially, he deduced that upon entering his domain, he could easily destroy the boy.

Little did he anticipate that Yun Xiao would manipulate and shatter both the Myriad Phenomena Stone Stair Formation and the Endless Stone Stairs, showcasing what were supposed to be the Half-step Holy Spirit’s most formidable tactics within the Chongxiao Stairs space.

Despite his masterful tactics, he still couldn’t deal with Yun Xiao, which led the Half-step Holy Spirit to believe his trump cards hadn’t performed as intended, prompting him to seek compromise.

At this juncture, the Half-step Holy Spirit assumed that even if he couldn’t kill the human boy, he could protect himself. However, the young man in coarse clothes lifted his head, revealing a mocking smile on his face.