Chapter 78 (1/2)

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Chapter 78

Overcoming Obstacles

Li Chengfeng took a moment to think and decided to continue the path that was going straight ahead. His decision coincided with his ideology — once you are committed to a path, you must stick to it until the end!

Or, to put it simply, once you had chosen a path for yourself, you must finish it even if it meant that you had to crawl all the way through!

After pa.s.sing the crossroad, Li Chengfeng noticed that the road did not contain as many compet.i.tors anymore. What lay ahead of him was just misty fog and a staircase that seemed to be endless. He didn't know how many steps he had taken on these stairs, even less so about the time that had pa.s.sed since he started climbing.

The sweat on Li Chengfeng's body had already evaporated at this point; it made him look like he was shrouded in mist. He knew that after completing today's climb, his body would reach a critical point. He had started to feel unbelievably exhausted, but he knew he had to persevere! After breaking his critical point, his body's performance would enter into a brand new phase.

As he continued to climb another three thousand steps, Chengfeng could feel his body shaking from fatigue; his legs felt as if they weighed five hundred kilograms. Each step he took felt just like his feet were sinking into the ground, and it was getting harder and harder to lift them.

Before, Li Chengfeng always felt a sense of achievement when he pa.s.sed his compet.i.tors one by one. But now, with no one to compete with, all he felt was a constant feeling of emptiness and fatigue.

Li Chengfeng gritted his teeth and continued his climb as he thought to himself, ‘Could this be a way for the test to tell us that once we reach a specific phase in cultivation, we would not be competing with others anymore? Our compet.i.tion afterwards would be none other than ourselves? Or could the test be trying to tell us that once we reach a specific stage in cultivation, this would be how it might feel like — a persistent feeling of emptiness and pain?'

Li Chengfeng's a.n.a.lysis was spot on! It was indeed the core objective of the first challenge. The road to cultivation was no bed of roses; it was a long and rocky road ahead. As one began the cultivation path, in the beginning, they would have to face many compet.i.tors, and they had to figure out how to stand out amongst the sea of compet.i.tors as well — a problem that every cultivator must figure out on their own.

However, as one had cultivated to a particular stage, using others as a means of reference or motivation would be unsuitable. This was because they ultimately had to face themselves, as the only ones they had to surpa.s.s eventually were themselves.

After Li Chengfeng continued to climb two hundred steps more, his body's temperature started rising, and he began to feel light-headed. His body shook like a leaf as his chest felt like there was a giant boulder crus.h.i.+ng it, suffocating him.

Li Chengfeng gritted his teeth once again and continued to climb fifty more steps. Suddenly, he heard a ‘pop' sound coming from his chest; a warm wave seemed to circulate through his body. The fatigue, shakiness, and pain he felt suddenly disappeared as his entire body felt light and mobile!

Li Chengfeng knew that he had overcome the most formidable obstacle of this challenge and had a breakthrough at his critical point. He was successfully entering a stage where he could utilise his Yuan Qi.

The human body is like a storage box — Our energy, blood, breath, and true yuan stored within it. The energy that one usually depletes comes from the outside portion of the storage box; this can be represented by physical strength. But once that part has been wholly overdrawn, the utilisation of the inner portion of the storage box begins. The inner portion represents a human's very essence: Yuan Qi.

To utilise this part of the human body would be equivalent to spending all of an entire household's savings. The amount you spend would be the money you lose; replenis.h.i.+ng these stores will not be easy in the future.

But this is where the miracle of the human body comes in. If a person had wholly depleted their yuan qi, and if they were to replenish it back, this person's Yuan Qi would be far more vital than before. Their foundation would become much stabler; even their internal organs, muscles, and bones would be hardier and more robust.

As this process continues back and forth, the body shall be strengthened and trained. Hence, the physical body becomes a crucible of transformation.

After Li Chengfeng had made a breakthrough from his critical point, his steps felt much lighter. His body quickly moved forward up the path as he breezed through four thousand more steps, only stopping when he felt his stomach grumble from hunger to eat and drink.

At this moment, Chengfeng had a body temperature high enough to shock the ma.s.ses. His face was as red as amber, and the crown of his head felt like it was boiling! His sweat had thoroughly soaked his s.h.i.+rt too. He had already climbed over ten thousand stone steps at this point, but yet, at such a height, he still couldn't feel even one gush of wind from his surroundings!

Chengfeng thought that it was odd, but he did not dwell much on it. He carefully chewed his dried meat slices and drank a gulp of water. After a quick rest, he continued with his journey.

This time, he had climbed until the sky turned dark; only then he stopped in his tracks. Yet the moment he stood still, both of his legs immediately turned to jelly. Li Chengfeng almost fell on the side of the road, but he quickly stabilised his body from falling. He turned his back to see what was behind him, and he saw a road so steep it looked as if it was descending to darkness.

Could it be that when a person had cultivated to a particular stage and was to fail, they would drop to their lowest as well?

Li Chengfeng gagged a few times and wiped away the white foam from the corner of his mouth as he turned back and glanced at the darkness one more time. His heart trembled in fear. He dare not imagine what would have happened to him if he had fallen from the steep road.