179: Chapter 180 The Real Test: Successful Refinement

[Stairway to Divinity] (Purple) Quality: Peerless. Realm: Novice (0/1000).

Effect: Ascend the mental steps in Soul form. Each step taken accumulates one layer of the "Ascension" state, temporarily increasing spirit attribute by 1% and duration by 10 seconds. Currently, it can stack up to 99 layers.

"This..." Lin Ye was stunned, his gaze lingering on the Cultivation Technique panel for quite a while.

Good heavens, Heaven Rewards Diligence is truly awesome; it's like getting exactly what I wanted.

The Stairway to Divinity Cultivation Technique is different from the Mind Ape Visualization Method; it is a purely combat-oriented Cultivation Technique and cannot permanently increase the spirit attribute.

But placed here, it is just right.

After absorbing The Woodcutter's remnant Soul, his spirit attribute had already reached 380 points.

If he activated Stairway to Divinity and reached the 99th layer, his spirit attribute would reach as high as 760 points!

He refused to believe that with such high Mental Energy, he still couldn't reach the top.

Without hesitation, Lin Ye decisively activated Stairway to Divinity.

The next second, a surge of massive Mental Energy merged into the True Form of the Heart Ape out of thin air. Not only were the cracks on his body instantly repaired, but his aura also began to climb steadily.

Ten percent, twenty percent... fifty percent... In the blink of an eye, the strength of the True Form of the Heart Ape had nearly doubled!

"Hmm?" Lin Ye was taken aback for a moment, then immediately realized what was happening.

The Stairway to Divinity Cultivation Technique was originally comprehended by climbing these stairs in the Spiritual Artifact space.

In other words, it was equivalent to him having already taken 99 steps on the mental stairs. Therefore, upon activation, he was already at the maximum stack state!

"Looking at it this way, there's no rush to improve the Realm of Stairway to Divinity."

Previously, he thought that stacking the layers of Stairway to Divinity was just a formality, requiring him to just take a few steps on the mental stairs.

But now it seemed that if the spirit attribute wasn't high enough, he probably wouldn't be able to stack many layers at all.

Actually, this was normal. Take the Wild Bull Strength he had cultivated before as an example; Wild Bull Strength at the Mastery Realm could increase explosive power by up to three times.

But the prerequisite was that your Physical Body had to be able to withstand this burst of power.

Stairway to Divinity was somewhat similar to Wild Bull Strength, except one temporarily increased mental power, while the other temporarily increased physical power.

Raising his head, Lin Ye looked toward the 100th layer, which was the end of these stairs. Without hesitation, Lin Ye lifted his foot and stepped onto it.

However, to Lin Ye's surprise, the moment the sole of the True Form of the Heart Ape stepped onto the 100th stair, all the overwhelming pressure surrounding him vanished.

It was like a clear sky after a storm, pristine and clean, without a trace of Impurities.

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment, and then a flash of realization rose in his heart. "So, the true test of the Spiritual Artifact is here!"

In fact, when he stepped onto the 99th stair, he already had the qualifications to control this Spiritual Artifact.

But to completely pass the test, one also needed to possess the courage to seek life in death. Facing an unknown choice, do you still have the courage to take that final step?

Most people facing this kind of choice would choose to avoid the sharp edge and wait until they had absolute certainty before trying again; Lin Ye was no exception.

If not for the confidence given to him by Stairway to Divinity, he would never have chosen to take that final step.

"I've learned..." A true expert is never defined by the strength of their power; more importantly, it is that indomitable will!

And these were exactly what Lin Ye was currently lacking. However, he couldn't be blamed for that.

After all, three months ago he was just a college student drifting through life; wanting to forge an iron-like will in such a short time was simply unrealistic.

Willpower is different from other things; it has nothing to do with the strength of one's power, only with one's experiences.

There are martial arts experts with weak wills, and among the Mortals, one can also see the brilliant flower of will bloom!

Lin Ye's case was actually quite good. After all, although the Heaven Rewards Diligence Talent was powerful, it didn't grant him power out of thin air.

The pain he had to experience would be no less; it just accelerated the process.

If it had been the type of Talent that allowed for one-click stat increases, it would only create a hollow shell with the body of an expert but no Soul of an expert.

On the platform, the True Form of the Heart Ape just stood there quietly, not moving for a long time.

Suddenly, countless golden lights surged from the center of the platform, pouring into the Heart Ape's body like a tide.

Those golden lights were warm and gentle, carrying an ancient and vast aura, as if they had traveled through millions of years of time, just to meet the Heart Ape at this very moment.

Lin Ye felt that his Soul had established a connection with some kind of existence. That was the artifact spirit of this Spiritual Artifact, expressing its approval of him.

However, one knows one's own situation best. Regarding willpower alone, he could not yet be called an expert.

But Lin Ye would not belittle himself either; at least compared to others, he was already far, far ahead on this path of the expert.

As for the rest, he would just take it slow.

The True Form of the Heart Ape extended its right hand and pressed its mark onto the center of the platform. In an instant, the golden light flared brilliantly.

The entire staircase began to tremble violently. Starting from the platform at the very top and moving all the way down, every single stair began to glow.

Those lights grew brighter and brighter, finally converging into a golden pillar of light that reached the heavens and the earth, shooting up from the center of the platform and clearing away all the surrounding gray-white mist.

Hum~~ At this moment, the entire Spiritual Artifact space began to vibrate, as if something had been awakened and was stretching its long-dormant body.

In the outside world, the hands of the sundial began to rotate. And the speed of the rotation became faster and faster, until it finally turned into a golden ring of light.

Immediately after, the surrounding gray-white mist began to rush toward the sundial at an unprecedented speed. With every wisp of gray mist that flowed in, the light of the sundial became one degree brighter.

In just a short while, all the gray-white mist had been completely devoured by the sundial.

Opening his eyes, Lin Ye found himself standing in the middle of ruins, with shattered stone slabs and collapsed earthen walls beneath his feet. He was out.

At the same time, above his Sea of Consciousness, a golden sundial was floating, looking just like a sun. He tried to touch it with his thoughts, and a massive amount of information immediately flooded into his mind.

That was the information transmitted by the sundial, which included its origin, characteristics, and specific methods of use.

After digesting all of this, Lin Ye slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath. He finally knew what this Spiritual Artifact was called. The sundial of Time.

A legendary rank Spiritual Artifact capable of manipulating time. Of course, at most, it could only accelerate the flow of time within a certain range.

As for time travel, that was not a Domain that a legendary rank Spiritual Artifact could touch. However, Lin Ye was already very satisfied with this!

Originally, he still felt some regret about losing Qishan Village, the Cultivation Holy Land. But now, he could activate time acceleration anytime and anywhere.

Coupled with Heaven Rewards Diligence, this could no longer be described as adding wings to a tiger, but rather adding a cheat to a cheat—in short, a cheat within a cheat!

It could be said that this thing was the biggest harvest of his trip. Calming his somewhat excited mood slightly, Lin Ye scanned his surroundings, and his gaze was immediately drawn to several figures in the ruins.