บท 56: Steps of Ascension - The Weight.
"THE STEPS OF ASCENSION AWAIT"
Su Wen's words sunk into the minds of the participants as they collectively swallowed their saliva in anticipation.
The exam had started.
Yet no one moved an inch yet, simply because they knew nothing about what the exam entailed, and it didn't look like they'd get any more information explained to them, so they waited for someone else to make the first move.
'I doubt the exam would be walking up a flight of normal stairs, there's going to be some sort of weird effect isn't there?' Shu He thought to himself.
"…"
And so, a small period of silence settled on the group as they all looked around to each-other then back to the staircase, trying to urge someone else to move with their eyes.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Gang Bo said while patting him on the back causing him to stumble slightly before shooting Gang Bo an annoyed look.
"We're waiting because… actually never mind, let's go." Shu He decided to just go, he quickly realised trying to explain it to Gang Bo would just get a reply on the lines of "But if everyone waits no one will go" so he decided to throw caution to the wind.
"You're going? Just like that?" Wei Yu said with surprise, even he was taking the wait and see approach.
Shu He just threw his arms up in the air and said "Well someone has to go! And we all have to go sooner or later so whatever!" as he walked off towards the stairs in a huff, Gang Bo followed behind him cheerfully.
"..Maybe I should too?" Wei Yu thought to himself as he watched the two go, he then realised the eyes of the collective group were all on them and a realisation hit him, his eyes began to sparkle.
'That's… great!' He then decided to follow along with them.
Soon the three of them were stood side by side with Shu He in the centre, their feet barely a few centimetres from the first step.
"It's far" Gang Bo said as he covered his eyes from the overhead sun and stared into the distance.
"I've heard there's exactly 1000 steps here" Wei Yu spoke as he basked in the feeling of being in the spotlight once more.
"Did you hear that from your father?" Shu He asked to which Wei Yu nodded "Then did you hear anything else about them?".
"Unfortunately, not… he only mentioned a few landmarks that the sect has and not what's special about them".
Shu He couldn't help but let out a small sigh of disappointment before he turned to look at the steps in front of him, they were made a beautiful white stone like the building he was in before with no patterns on them, they stretched high and wide, each step big enough for couple people to fit on front to back, and tens to stand side to side.
Other than that, Shu He couldn't make out anything more, at least with his normal vision.
He activated his keen sight and his view changed, it was like looking at a live circuit board that was overheating with the copper lines burning bright, but it was a light blue light instead, the entire staircase was filled with blue lines interweaving in a wonderous pattern creating a large formation, he felt that looking at it hurt his eyes a little due to how complex it was.
'Yeah, definitely not normal'. He closed his eyes, opening them once more with renewed vigour.
"We've already stepped forward, no point hesitating anymore!" Shu He said, hyping himself up as he took a step without another hint of resistance.
Gang Bo followed suit, and Wei Yu also after hesitating for a second.
The three stood on the first step without moving, the others looked on with nervousness.
For ten seconds it was like this, before Shu He once more started walking followed by the other two, and this time they didn't stop, instead they just kept going!
This baffled the onlookers as they watched, the same question filled their minds.
'''Was there no trick?!'''
As they watched the three steadily tread ahead they began to feel embarrassed about having waited out of fear or insecurity, the moment the three reached the 50 step mark people began to walk up the staircase to follow along, as time passed more and more of the participants did so until the three reached the 100-step mark, already a 10th of the way there; At that point all who remained began to climb as well.
And once the final person had begun to ascend the steps instructor Su Wen decided to speak once more.
"Now then, since the final participant has begun to ascend I'd like to announce an additional rule".
"""""?!"""" Nearly every single person current ascending froze in place apart from the few figures near the front of the pack.
"Once you reach a step, you may not retreat the to previous one! Doing so will result in failing the exam!"
"What?!"
"Why didn't you say that earlier?!"
Complaints began to ring out, yet Su Wen merely waved them away with a smile.
"I merely forgot to mention it; besides it shouldn't matter, the only way to pass is to move up after all"
With that the complainers were immediately silenced.
It was true, they didn't really know why they'd want to retreat anyway, at least they hadn't found out yet.
The same couldn't be said for Shu He's trio and those close behind them.
'Heavy'
Those were the only thoughts on Shu He's mind as he kept plodding along the staircase, he had already stopped counting the steps that he had passed, his mind focusing solely on the gate off in the distance and for good reason.
He had quickly realised that he needed all the mental concentration he could get and that everything else was a distracting, he hadn't noticed it at first since the effect was infinitesimal at the first step, but it quickly got stronger with each one he passed.
Currently, he felt like his body had turned in to stone, his light flesh and bone body was no more, and he was a man of rock weighing far more than before.
While it was still manageable right now, it wasn't quite on the level of some intensive physical training he had done before, he wasn't even at the half-way point, and it felt like it was getting magnitudes stronger as he went.
Who knows how much he'd feel weighing down on him by the end.
Step by step he felt it increasing, bearing down on him like a guillotine.
'This is the first exam?! How are we supposed to be able to do this, none of us are high level cultivators, we don't have the strength for this!' He panicked inside his head.
He turned his head slightly to peek at Gang Bo who was a step beside him.
"Not too bad, eh?" Gang Bo responded to his gaze, along with a smirk, yet Shu He could see a slight hint of sweat growing on his brow.
Shu He then took at look at Wei Yu who was also a step beside him, he wasn't looking too bad either, yet his expression didn't look as optimistic as his other companion's.
'Something is off…' Shu He felt a weird itch scratching the back of his mind, so he tried to find the cause.
As he continued to walk, he held his arms up in front of him and let them drop beside him, the then grabbed the exam token from his robe and let it swing wildly as he walked, watching it carefully.
'What's he doing? Has he gone mad?' Wei Yu who was struggling with the weight became confused as he watched Shu He's actions from the back.
After a minute, Shu He's eyes gained a gleam of light as he placed his token back where it was and suddenly spoke.
"You two, I think the key to this test is willpower, just remain positive." He spoke without looking at the two.
"Got it" Gang Bo replied without questioning him.
"Huh… Ok…" Wei Yu spoke listlessly, still confused at Shu He's reactions.
Meanwhile, the instructor Su Went stood watching while stroking his moustache with an intrigued look on his face.
"Hmm, has that child figured it out? Quite smart."
At his level of cultivation he could easily hear all the conversations on the staircase, so he had heard and seen Shu He's words and actions clearly!
"But, figuring it out doesn't solve it" He smirked slightly.
And he was correct.
When he had noticed that Gang Bo and Yu Wei were equally tired he found it odd, Gang Bo a trained mercenary and his sparring partner was as tired as a wealthy scion that barely ever did much physical labour.
It wasn't right.
In fact, the entire exam didn't feel right.
When he first felt the effects of the formation on the steps, he assumed it was some form of gravity increase, a multiplication of weight applied to everything, yet that seems incredibly unfair towards the more bulky or older participants, they would have to deal with far more weight, and some of the less trained children was be far worse off, these tests were supposed to be more about current aptitude rather than overall capabilities.
Then it clicked with him, he let his arms free fall and observed their movements, then he let token swing freely on the rope and observe that too.
Everything seemed normal, he didn't notice a difference in movements that would be a result of increased gravity.
He even went further and used his sight to observe his body, his muscles, they were not under any more strain than they would be when he normally ascended some steps!
And yet, he was feeling all this weight.
He could only form one conclusion; this is a mental formation! It affects the mind.
While he wasn't an expert in formations, rather he knows next to nothing, he assumed that as long as one remained sturdy in mind they could pass this test!
With that knowledge in mind, there was only one thing left to do.
Ascend without stopping!
…
It had been nearly fifteen minutes since the exam had officially started, truthfully the exam wasn't much of a spectacle, the participants merely slowly made their way up the staircase without much fuss, the moment they began to feel the weight they became hyper focused and no longer cared about anything but ascending, the chatter had died off quite quickly.
There hadn't been any incidents either, no one had failed yet and no one had caused a fuss.
Until now.
*CRASH*
"AAAAAAAAA-"
One of the participants crashed on to the step, holding his head as he screeched before silence drowned the area soon after, a blue light flashing over his body.
At that moment, you would even be able to clearly hear a pin drop.
Those behind that participant merely looked at his still body in horror, one of them became scared and took a step back causing a blue glow to flash over him before he realised the weight on him was gone causing him to feel abject horror.
"Wait… I failed? NO! NO! I CAN'T FAIL!" He lamented as he stared over at the examiner.
"There is no second chance, please remove yourself from the exam area."
"But- BUT-"
"You have FAILED, come down before you need to be moved forcibly." Su Wen's voice carried a hint of annoyance as he spoke.
The boy that failed seemed to deflate as he began to walk down the stairs, before taking a peeved look at the man that had caused him to flinch in fear laying on the step.
"You don't need to worry about him, he had failed like you and thus is no longer feeling the effects, he's only unconscious so he will be retrieved later." The instructor spoke like the boy was worried about the man, but he was just letting everyone else know the result.
And from that moment on, there were many more that had started to fail like a chain reaction had started, their mental state had become disturbed, and the possibility of failure had become a hard reality as they experienced it happen right before them.
Left and right people began screaming and collapsing at all stages of the stairway, both young and old.
Meanwhile, much, much further up Shu He and co were already approaching the last stretch.
'Please die quieter' Shu He barely managed to form a thought in his mind, not bother to think whether he was correct or not.
The screams of failure had reached him as well causing his mental state to shake, but he'd managed to maintain it for now, however it was getting incredibly hard for him to do so.
His body was shaking, he felt like he had a train pulling his entire body to the floor, his sweat was pouring through his clothes even though he wasn't physically doing anything, his body was also heating up like he was in a desert.
And yet he could see the gate in front of him, its grand steel shape engraved with a massive human shaped figure holding a hammer, his goal was in his sight.
Yet these last few steps felt like a distance of 100 miles!
He landed on the next one, he felt a heard of elephants crash down on him, he faltered slightly.
The next, a mountain smashed on to his shoulders, he almost fell to his knees.
The next…
He kept going just like that, each step sent him one moment closer to failure.
And soon, the last step before him.
Yet he couldn't move, he was stuck, he felt that if he moved the weight would squish him like a bug.
'I… can't…' The words of failure formed in the back of his mind like a poisonous spear stabbing deep into his heart.
Yet a shield stood in place.
The shield was his fear of failure.
He gritted his teeth hard, chipping some slightly as he made the last step.
The world sat upon his shoulders, dredging him down to hell.
His mind was going blank, he felt a white light begin to envelop his consciousness.
"NO" He screamed from the bottom of his heart and his lungs, his voice echoing down the side of the mountain.
Many looked towards him, expecting him to fail finally, a hint of pity filled their eyes.
One step away from victory and yet he will fail.
Yet his legs moved dragging his body forwards, soon his upper body began moving, then his arms, then his eyes became filled a strong light of determination.
'This isn't heavy at all!'
Memories became dredged up from his mind.
The lives of those he watched become extinguished in Greengate.
The uselessness he felt as he was overwhelmed in an instant.
The feeling of watching his mother be impaled.
The absolute weakness he felt as he witnessed the life slowly drain out of his father.
All of this, his failure, his weakness.
All of that weighed far more!
He couldn't falter now, he needed to move forward no matter what, failing a mere exam would make him a joke, his resolution would be a lie!
*Tiiiiing*
Without realising it, he felt the cold metal on his fingertips as he heard a ringing echo in his ears, he felt a refreshing blue wave travel over his body, the weight disappeared like it was never there.
His body relaxed instantly, flopping against the metal gate.
He had succeeded!
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ShiroN3K0
ShiroN3K0 First exam over - Kind of.
Never really written these things before so i don't know how i'm doing, but i'm trying to keep them shortish since whenever i'm reading something like this i hate when they drag out.
As always, thanks for reading, any feedback is appreciated!
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