151: Chapter 151 Shen Zhihan, who was hit hard

He knew all too well how complex his power was.

It was so complex that even though he had already understood his true martial heart, he still needed time to slowly reintegrate those dormant parts.

Thus, he was slow—slower than many of the common passersby.

The tenth step finally became the first true watershed.

The Skeleton Warriors on this level, working together, could already threaten an Awakener at the rank three peak.

Four Skeleton Warriors formed a partial encirclement, their bone blades, bone claws, and bone spears pressing in simultaneously, leaving almost no gaps.

The difficulty of this level suddenly increased by a massive margin.

If one relied solely on the physical strength of the Third Stage Late Phase, it would be impossible to pass.

Xu Jin was the first to step onto it.

He hardly hesitated; the fire in his palm flared up, and he used that fresh spark of fiery intent to forcibly tear a hole through the encirclement of the ten skeletons.

Bone shards flew, and sparks scattered.

He crushed the bone surface at the edge of the tenth step with one foot, then suddenly charged onto the eleventh platform.

In that moment, he paused for a brief second.

It wasn't because of exhaustion, but because of a vibration akin to pure ecstasy.

"I passed?"

Standing on the eleventh platform, he looked up and then down at the people below, a strong sense of superiority suddenly welling up in his heart.

"I... I'm the first to pass ten levels?"

As soon as this thought emerged, even his breathing became a bit more rapid.

It turned out he wasn't any worse than those so-called geniuses.

It turned out he could stand at a higher position.

At this moment, he couldn't even resist looking back at the people still on the ninth and tenth steps.

That single glance already carried a clear sense of disdain.

"That's all there is to it."

"Azerbaijani own? Zhou Jingyue? Lin Mo?"

"These so-called geniuses are actually inferior to me?"

"I've passed the tenth level now; I'm already ahead of them."

This thought was like opening a certain door.

Standing on the eleventh platform, Xu Jin's expression grew brighter and brighter, feeling more and more that he had underestimated himself before.

And the moment he crossed the tenth step, more passersby in the rear began to sprint like mad.

Su Heng followed closely, successfully stepping past the tenth level.

Su Heng also gritted his teeth and charged up.

Qin Yuan, quadrupole, Pei Lin, and Song Yan, one after another, began to cross the watershed in succession.

The pressure on the steps allowed each of them to undergo a noticeable transformation at the tenth level.

Some rediscovered their wind intent.

Some integrated their originally fragmented attack styles into a crude but effective killing method.

This collective breakthrough also caused their mindsets to begin to inflate.

"We've passed the tenth level, so what's there to fear?"

"Going higher is just doing it one more time."

"Isn't even someone like Lin Mo still behind us?"

"Azerbaijani own, Zhou Jingyue, and Shen Zhihan are all stuck at the tenth level too!"

On the steps, more and more similar thoughts were germinating.

They began to truly place themselves in the position of competitors.

They began to look at these geniuses anew with a perspective that suggested they weren't actually any worse.

...

After an hour had passed, Shen Zhihan finally stood before the eleventh step.

She had been stopped at the tenth level for a long time, but she was the only one among those at the tenth level who hadn't yet challenged the eleventh!

She was quieter than Azerbaijani own and more patient than Zhou Jingyue.

But because she was calm, she saw things more clearly than anyone else.

She saw the fanaticism of the passersby.

She saw the inflation and disdain in their eyes once they stood on the eleventh level.

She also saw that Azerbaijani own and Zhou Jingyue were already stuck by the eleventh level, their expressions starting to show irritability.

She even saw Lin Mo.

What level was Lin Mo on?

He seemed to still be behind.

Still sorting things out.

Still slowly finding his own path.

Shen Zhihan's gaze darkened slightly.

But in that instant, something originally calm in her heart was suddenly pushed to the limit by this continuous suppression.

She suddenly understood.

She shouldn't just be staring at these few levels beneath her feet.

What she wanted wasn't to shuffle forward step by step.

But to directly find the true path that belonged to her.

"It turns out... I hadn't truly seen through myself yet."

She whispered to herself.

In the next moment, an incredibly startling aura suddenly erupted from her body.

Under the pressure of the Martial Inquiry and the Bone Steps, she completely understood the path that truly suited her.

Shen Zhihan raised her hand, and a very faint but extremely dangerous mysterious black pattern appeared in her palm.

It was the secret sigil of the Xuanqing Palm, a B-rank technique she had previously mastered!

Originally, the secret sigil that only appeared when she performed the Xuanqing Palm was now manifesting directly!

Once that pattern formed, her entire aura surged violently.

"This is..."

Zhou Jingyue suddenly looked up, his eyes shaking.

Azerbaijani own also finally turned back from the suppression of the tenth level to look at her.

Shen Zhihan didn't explain.

She simply lifted her foot and stepped onto the eleventh step.

"This is my path."

Then, she took a step forward.

Boom!

Level eleven—the battle was resolved in less than half a minute!

Level twelve—the battle was also resolved within half a minute.

Level thirteen took a slightly longer time, but it didn't exceed a minute.

She hardly paused.

With every level she ascended, her aura grew a bit stronger.

Those who had just been on the eleventh and twelfth levels with a sense of superiority didn't even have time to fully react before they saw Shen Zhihan's figure flash past them.

"How did she suddenly get so fast?"

"Shen Zhihan?"

"Wasn't she still on the tenth level?"

"How did she suddenly..."

Before they could finish their sentences, Shen Zhihan had already crossed the fifteenth level.

Then came the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth...

In almost the blink of an eye, she had caught up to the front of the group.

Level nineteen.

Level twenty.

When she finally stepped onto the level twenty platform, the atmosphere on the entire Bone Steps changed noticeably.

This wasn't a matter of "someone being a bit faster."

It was the first time a true gap had appeared.

She didn't simply overtake someone.

Rather, while everyone else was still lingering at the tenth and eleventh levels, she had charged directly to the twentieth.

At this, many who still carried a sense of superiority felt their hearts sink.

Especially those passersby who had just stepped onto the eleventh level.

Their expressions hadn't even had time to fully inflate before they were ruthlessly suppressed by this development.

A moment ago, they felt there wasn't much difference between them and the geniuses.

The next moment, Shen Zhihan tore that thought to shreds.

It wasn't that there was no difference.

It was that the difference was too great.

They just hadn't seen it for the time being.

On the eleventh platform, the smiles on the faces of Xu Jin and the others froze.

Looking at Shen Zhihan's back, a sense of uncertainty arose in their hearts for the first time.

"She..."

"How can she be so fast?"

"Wasn't she just stuck?"

"How did she suddenly—"

Someone swallowed hard, their throat tightening.

A very slight but very real sense of panic began to rise from their hearts.

Azerbaijani own and Zhou Jingyue's expressions changed simultaneously.

Because they were still on the tenth level.

While Shen Zhihan was already at the twentieth level.

What this meant didn't need to be said; they already knew.

It meant—

A solid distance had already opened up between them and her.

And this distance wasn't just one or two steps.

It was a full ten levels.

Azerbaijani own's breathing became noticeably hurried.

"How did she do it?"

He gritted his teeth, a clear sense of anxiety appearing in his eyes for the first time.

Further away, Lin Mo finally completed his sorting.

He looked up at the situation that had already begun to diverge ahead and stepped onto the fourth Bone Stair.

Those who were still lingering below were the first to notice the change.

At first, no one cared much.

After all, Lin Mo had been very slow all along.

So in many people's eyes, his start was merely him finally beginning to move.

Nothing special.

It even carried a sort of expected sluggishness.

But in the next instant, the situation changed.

A Skeleton Warrior on the Fifth Star Step had just raised its bone blade when Lin Mo suddenly stepped into the air, allowing his body to naturally drift aside by a fraction under the heavy pressure.

It was just that fraction.

It caused the Skeleton Warrior's bone blade to miss.

It allowed Lin Mo to glide past smoothly.

The movement was too fast and too light.

So fast that people almost thought they had seen wrong.

On the fifth platform, a young Awakener who had been feeling a bit proud suddenly had his pupils constrict.

He was stunned for a moment, as if he hadn't reacted.

"Just now... did someone flash past?"

His companion's Adam's apple bobbed, the smile on his face gradually fading.

"I must... have seen wrong."

He said so, but his eyes were fixed on the area below.

Lin Mo continued upward.

Sixth level.

Seventh level.

Eighth level.

His speed began to increase noticeably.

Like a river that had been dammed up, it suddenly found an outlet, and the water flow instantly became smooth.

With every step he took, his movements became more fluid.

With every level he passed, his movement technique became lighter.

By the time he reached the ninth level, the expressions of many who were watching the show on the eleventh platform had begun to change.

That change was very subtle.

At first, it was just slight bewilderment.

Then came doubt.

Followed by subconscious denial.

"That's not right."

"How could he be so fast?"

"He was clearly so slow before..."

"Was the guardian of that level just now relatively weak?"

But soon, this self-consolation was shattered.

Because Lin Mo reached the tenth level.

The tenth level—ten Skeleton Warriors working together.

That was no longer a place an ordinary trial-taker could easily pass.

Even Xu Jin and Su Heng, who had just crossed the tenth level, knew how difficult it was.

Because they had barely managed to charge up themselves.

But when Lin Mo stepped onto the tenth level, his pace hardly faltered.

He just sank slightly, then shifted his body, as if he had already predicted the angles from which those bone blades would fall.

And then—

He just passed through.

Passed through.

At that moment, the air on the eleventh platform seemed to be sucked out for an instant.

The expression on Xu Jin's face froze completely.

His hand was still raised, the fire in his palm flickering slightly, but that spark suddenly seemed a bit ridiculous.

"He..."

Xu Jin opened his mouth but couldn't say anything more.

Because he suddenly realized that his "nothing more than this" from earlier seemed to have slapped him right back in the face.

When he stood on the eleventh level just now, he still felt that Lin Mo was just a bit slower than them.

But now, Lin Mo's pace had begun to clearly outstrip their understanding.

"How can this be..."

Su Heng's voice was a bit weak.

He stared at Lin Mo's figure, feeling a faint chill on his back.

He had clearly categorized Lin Mo, Azerbaijani own, and Zhou Jingyue as "similar to himself, just faster runners."

But now he realized—

They weren't similar.

They weren't even in the same rhythm.

Lin Mo wasn't chasing.

He was cutting through.

It was as if he treated the entire suppression of the Bone Steps as wind beneath his feet, slicing through them level by level.

On the eleventh platform, the few people who had begun to feel superior were now silent.

All they could do was stare.

Stare intently.

Because in the next moment, Lin Mo reached the fifteenth level.

In the next instant, he had already crossed the eighteenth level.

"What is he doing?"

Su Heng's expression was the first to turn sour.

He had just been on the twelfth level, thinking that since he had at least crossed the watershed, he might be able to continue chasing.

But when he saw Lin Mo's figure like a low-slung shadow passing through levels in the distance, the confidence he had just formed began to waver.

"No way..."

He murmured, his throat tight.

Because when Lin Mo crossed the eighteenth level, he didn't even pause.

It was as if those Skeleton Warriors ahead weren't blocking him, but were simply making way for him.

At this, even those passersby who had just crossed the tenth level and were about to feel superior began to freeze.

Song Yan was standing on the eleventh level, intending to continue to the twelfth.

But just as he lifted his foot, he saw Lin Mo gliding all the way up from further down, getting faster and faster.

He stopped completely.

It wasn't that he didn't want to move.

It was that his mind went blank for a moment.

"How... how is this possible?"

The excitement in Song Yan's eyes hadn't fully faded before it was ruthlessly suppressed by an even stronger shock.

He had just been thinking that being the first to pass the tenth level had proven something.

He even felt that Lin Mo just had a big reputation, but on the Bone Steps, he was nothing more than this.

But now, Lin Mo seemed to be using facts to tear his thoughts apart bit by bit.

Level nineteen.

Level twenty.

When Lin Mo stepped onto the level twenty platform, Shen Zhihan, who had just stopped to rest, was completely dumbfounded.

"How can you be so fast?!"

Shen Zhihan practically blurted it out.

Clearly, a few minutes ago, Lin Mo was still far behind at the bottom.

But now, Lin Mo had suddenly charged directly to the twentieth level and was standing at the same starting line as her.

That tiny sliver of pride she had just felt was instantly extinguished.

"You're not slow either!"

Lin Mo turned his head and said to Shen Zhihan with a smile.

Previously, Lin Mo had always regarded Shen Zhihan as an ordinary genius with the same reputation as Azerbaijani own and the others; if it hadn't been for these Bone Inquiry Stairs, he wouldn't have discovered that this female student from Tianyan Academy had such potential.

"I'm far behind you. You're a real monster!"

Shen Zhihan said with a look of frustration, feeling quite discouraged.