Ten Thousand Years in Seclusion

Qi Tian and Qian Duobao continued upward side by side, one step at a time.

Qian Duobao shuffled upward with every step making his whole body wobble. With each step, the cold grew heavier, leaving the flesh on his body trembling uncontrollably. The higher he climbed, the harder he shook.

Of course, no one below could see his trembling. Only the Foundation Establishment elders, with their keen eyesight, could make out every shiver.

The short, stout elder narrowed his eyes.

"What’s wrong with that fat kid? Why’s he shaking so much?"

An elder beside him casually replied, "Maybe the mountain wind is strong up there, and he’s particularly sensitive to the cold."

"Cold?" The short, stout elder snorted, patting his round belly. "Give me a break. A fat guy afraid of the cold? Me, I’ve only ever been afraid of heat. Never cold."

Elder Li stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on the jade staircase. He said calmly, "His qi is probably running low. His legs are starting to give out."

"I think so too."

Several other elders nodded in agreement, joining the discussion.

Elder Liu said nothing. Holding his green-jade ruyi, he merely glanced sideways at Elder Li, a trace of meaning in his eyes, before turning his attention back to the two figures climbing the staircase.

Up on the jade steps, the two finally reached the two-hundred-and-ninety-eighth step.

Qian Duobao stopped. His round face was pale, and his teeth were still chattering slightly. He glanced at Qi Tian beside him. The man had remained perfectly steady from beginning to end, his expression unchanged. Qian Duobao had already realized that he was far from being just a third-level Qi Condensation cultivator.

His lips trembling, Qian Duobao forced out a smile more pitiful than a cry.

"Qi... Brother Qi... why don’t... why don’t you go up first... and take a look? What... what kind of trial is it?"

The two had already discussed it while climbing. Each time they reached another ninety-nine-step mark, the Heaven-Ascending Stairway presented another trial.

"Sure."

Qi Tian nodded and stepped onto the two-hundred-and-ninety-ninth step.

The instant his foot touched the jade—

Countless strands of spiritual energy, fine as hairs, silently condensed deep within the jade. Like needles, they pierced precisely into the Yongquan acupoint beneath his foot and traveled upward through his meridians.

It wasn’t scorching heat. It wasn’t biting cold.

It was pure pain.

It felt as though hundreds of invisible needles were moving through his meridians. With every step, they seemed to sink deeper, striking precisely at the points where his spiritual energy circulated. Wherever they passed, there was a strange mixture of numbness and swelling, like a hundred ants gnawing through his meridians.

Qi Tian’s expression did not change. He simply stood there for a moment, feeling it out, then turned back.

"Needles."

"Needles?" Qian Duobao stared at him. "What needles?"

"Spiritual energy condensed into needles. They pierce the meridians." Qi Tian said it casually. "Nothing fancy. Just pain."

Qian Duobao swallowed.

"Very... painful?"

Qi Tian thought for a moment.

"It’s fine. Kind of pleasant, actually."

"..."

Qian Duobao drew a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and stepped onto the two-hundred-and-ninety-ninth step.

"Hiss—!"

The instant the needle pierced the sole of his foot, his entire round face twisted in agony, his features scrunching together. The spiritual needles drove straight in through the Yongquan acupoint, piercing through his meridians and forcing every bit of flesh on his body to tense at once. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

His mouth fell open, but only a muffled groan escaped his throat. His teeth were clenched so tightly that he refused to let the scream out.

The two continued upward.

"Brother Qi..." Qian Duobao’s voice was almost trembling with tears. "I really thought I could make it to the top. But now... I don’t think I can even make it to the three-hundred-and-thirty-third step and qualify for the inner sect."

"You can."

Qi Tian glanced sideways at him.

"Just hold on a little longer."

A fierce look flashed across Qian Duobao’s round face. He stomped his foot hard.

"All right! I’ll do it!"

Qi Tian slowed his pace to accompany him, continuing upward one step at a time. The test was only halfway through, so he wasn’t in any hurry.

Three hundred steps.

Three hundred and ten.

Three hundred and twenty.

Qian Duobao’s face had gone from pale to deathly white. His lips were bitten bloody, and every step felt like walking across a blade’s edge.

Finally—

The three-hundred-and-thirty-third step.

Qian Duobao stepped onto it and immediately sagged with relief. He could no longer hold himself up and collapsed onto the cold jade with a heavy thud.

"I did it. I—"

The moment he relaxed, the spiritual pressure and spiritual needles he had been suppressing through sheer force nearly knocked him flat.

He hurriedly sat cross-legged and began circulating his cultivation to resist them. Then he looked up at Qi Tian.

"Brother Qi... I... I can’t go any farther with you. Good luck!"

Qi Tian nodded without saying anything and continued upward.

The elders below looked up at the lone figure still climbing, then glanced at the fat man sprawled on the three-hundred-and-thirty-third step. One after another, they nodded.

"Finally. Two more inner-sect disciples."

Elder Li stood with his hands behind his back, listening to the discussion around him, his expression calm while his thoughts churned.

—Inner sect? Hardly.

If the pressure was all that was doubled compared to the Myriad-Jun Formation, then by the same calculation, these two had already earned the right to become personal disciples.

Qi Tian continued climbing.

The instant he stepped onto the three-hundred-and-ninety-ninth step—As expected, another tribulation awaited him.

The stinging pain of the spiritual needles was gone. In its place came—

lightning.

Countless strands of lightning, fine as silk, silently surged up from the jade beneath his feet and raced through his meridians. Wherever they passed, his flesh trembled and his bones gave faint, brittle sounds. Even the spiritual energy within his dantian was stirred into ripples.

Qi Tian’s eyes flickered.

Now this was something good.

Lightning was one of the most yang, most unyielding forces of heaven and earth. Within a cultivator’s meridians and acupoints, there were always hidden impurities, blockages, and accumulated ailments that ordinary spiritual energy could never reach. Only the fierce, unyielding force of lightning could pierce through the meridians and acupoints, shaking loose those accumulations and cleansing them bit by bit.

Tempered by lightning, the meridians would become clearer and more resilient. Stirred by its force, the acupoints would grow broader and more responsive.

Many great sects possessed a Lightning Pool—a place where natural lightning gathered. Only cultivators who earned the right were permitted to enter and temper their bodies within it.

And this was only the most superficial use of the power of lightning.

For a Foundation Establishment cultivator, the Dao Platform must gradually transform from the unreal into the real, becoming fully solid before it can condense into a Golden Core. Lightning can accelerate this process, hastening its solidification.

Lightning became even more indispensable in the breakthroughs that came later.

Take the breakthrough from the Core Formation realm to the Nascent Soul realm. The Golden Core had to withstand a lightning tribulation, using heavenly lightning to temper away the mortal body, reshape the Dao bones, and refine away the impurities before the true form of the Nascent Soul could be born.

Qi Tian had never expected a small sect like the Falling Cloud Sect to possess something resembling a Lightning Pool.

Well...

The lightning itself was pretty lousy.

Qi Tian slowly closed his eyes and began circulating the Essence-Returning True Origin Scripture.

A strand of divine sense sank into his dantian. Above the Sea of True Essence, nine Dao Platforms stood tall and imposing, completely solid. The tenth remained nothing more than a phantom, shrouded in mist and wavering as though it might disperse at any moment.

With a thought, the lightning force that had entered through his Yongquan acupoint and was racing through his meridians was quietly redirected. He guided it all the way into the Sea of True Essence within his dantian, sending it straight toward the insubstantial Tenth Dao Platform.

Hum—

The Tenth Dao Platform trembled faintly.

Across its misty surface, the palm-sized patch of solidified substance slowly spread outward, expanding further across the platform.

A flicker of suppressed delight passed through Qi Tian’s eyes.

The spiritual-pressure trial of the Heaven-Ascending Stairway was different from an ordinary Spirit-Gathering Array, but it could still be considered an enhanced version of one—or, more precisely, a mutated version. With the addition of this lightning force, his cultivation speed was actually several times faster than it had been last night at the Yuelai Inn.

Most importantly, he didn’t have to spend his own spirit stones.

Qi Tian continued climbing while secretly using the lightning force to temper the Dao Platform. On the surface, however, he remained the same unassuming "third-level Qi Condensation" cultivator. Anyone whose cultivation was no higher than his could not possibly see through his true cultivation.

He quickened his pace.

With every step upward, the spiritual pressure grew heavier, and the lightning force grew fiercer. From the four-hundredth step to the four-hundred-and-fiftieth, then onward to the four-hundred-and-ninetieth...

The lightning force flowed like a trickling stream becoming a small river, then a rushing current, surging madly through his meridians before continuously pouring into the Tenth Dao Platform.

At the four-hundred-and-ninety-eighth step, Qi Tian looked inward.

The palm-sized solidified area at the base of the Tenth Dao Platform had now expanded slightly outward.

It was now roughly the size of a large basin.

He glanced up at the four-hundred-and-ninety-ninth step, genuinely curious about what the next trial would bring.

But compared to an unknown trial, the free supply of lightning force before him was clearly more valuable. Qi Tian simply stopped on the four-hundred-and-ninety-eighth step, closed his eyes, and focused his mind, intending to absorb it for a while longer.

But after standing there for a moment, his brows furrowed slightly.

Not enough.

The lightning force was still coming in too slowly.

"Can I... draw it in myself?"

The moment the thought arose, the Essence-Returning True Origin Scripture began circulating on its own, reversing its flow and greedily drawing upon the lightning force contained within the jade steps beneath his feet.

Boom!

His entire body jolted violently.

That single pull was like punching a hole through a dam. The lightning force contained within nearly a hundred jade steps below suddenly came rushing into him!

Qi Tian’s throat tightened, and a metallic taste rose to his lips—

He clenched his teeth, forcing the blood back down, but his face instantly paled.

He had been careless. He had actually injured himself by drawing in too much at once.

He immediately slowed the circulation of the technique and adjusted the rate at which he drew in the lightning force.

At the same time, he diverted half of his True Essence to repair his damaged meridians and soothe the acupoints scorched by the lightning.

Qi Tian tended to his meridians while simultaneously directing the lightning force toward the Tenth Dao Platform.

As he gradually found the right rhythm for actively drawing in the lightning force, it began entering his body faster and faster. The solidified area at the base of the Dao Platform spread rapidly, soon growing from the size of a large basin to roughly the size of a cartwheel.

Suddenly—

The lightning was gone.

The flow of lightning force came to an abrupt halt.

Qi Tian frowned and circulated the technique again, actively drawing upon the jade steps beneath him. But all he could pull out were a few lingering sparks, which vanished almost instantly.

There really wasn’t a trace left.

The entire Heaven-Ascending Stairway was now left with nothing but its heavy spiritual pressure.

Not a shred of lightning force remained.

"..."

Qi Tian opened his eyes, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

That was it? The lightning’s already gone?

Terrible service.