454: Chapter 454 Yin-Yang Dao Principles

"What... what is this?!"

At the front of the viewing platform, a sword Dao master with white hair and a white beard, surrounded by the faint phantoms of ten thousand swords, rose abruptly. The star-jade throne beneath him creaked under the pressure of the Sword Qi he subconsciously unleashed.

His pupils shrank to pinpoints as he stared fixedly at the figure in the water mirror, his voice trembling from sheer shock:

"Yin and Yang Dao principles... completely refined by him into his own life-bound Sword Intent?! No... this is no longer ordinary sword cultivation; this is... the body as a sword, the sword merging with the Heavenly Dao?!"

The old monsters beside him, whose Auras were as deep as the sea, were horrified, and none could respond.

Unheard of, unseen!

This had transcended the category of "climbing" and was nearly a manifestation of the "Dao" itself!

After Xuanyuan Zhanxian—

Was Jian Tanghuang.

She stood with her eyes closed, the Divine Phoenix Tribulation Flame that could burn mountains and boil seas condensed into a form-fitting crimson-gold battle suit, motionless, as if immersed in the deepest realm of enlightenment.

Just as Xuanyuan Zhanxian stepped onto the 108th step and the final sword chime rang out—

"Squawk—!!!"

A piercing, clear, and passionate Phoenix cry erupted from within her body, without warning!

No.

It erupted from the Void Realm behind her!

An ancient Phoenix phantom, entirely crimson-gold, as if cast from divine iron, with wings spanning a hundred zhang, tore through space and manifested arrogantly!

In the Phoenix eyes burned undying tribulation fire, and every feather flowed with Dao runes. Just by manifesting, the pressure it emitted caused the heavy pressure on the nearby dozens of steps to vanish instantly!

She opened her eyes.

Her gaze was indifferent and cold, yet in the deepest depths, flames burned that could incinerate the firmament.

She moved.

No sprinting, no leaping.

With just one step, she landed steadily on a step.

And with this step—

The Divine Phoenix phantom behind her suddenly flapped its wings!

"Boom!"

Not a sound, but a massive, scorching ripple of power that flattened everything, booming outward!

Jian Tanghuang's figure, using the force of the wing flap, crossed ten steps in one stride!

One step, one flap. Every flap of the Divine Phoenix phantom seemed to align with some ancient rhythm, stirring the surrounding Dao principles and carving out a short, "effortless" path for her.

After nine flaps, she stood steadily on the 200th step!

Behind her, nine scorching ripples of power slowly spread, as if nine undying divine suns had been imprinted on the Cyan Heavenly Ladder!

"Divine Phoenix Nine Flaps... this is the Divine Phoenix Nine Flaps!!"

In a corner of the viewing platform, an ancient entity shrouded in gray mist screamed, their voice completely distorted by extreme shock:

"The supreme evasion technique that only the purest Divine Phoenix Bloodline has a slim chance of Awakening during the moment of life-and-death Nirvana... She actually mastered it?! And she is definitely far beyond the initial stage!"

Jian Tanghuang ignored all the exclamations.

She lifted her eyes slightly, her crimson-gold pupils crossing the distance of hundreds of steps, accurately locking onto the ethereal figure in white at the very top, the flames in her eyes flashing and vanishing.

Immediately, the Divine Phoenix Tribulation Flame around her surged, and she continued to climb the steps.

Lotuses bloomed with every step, with tribulation flames as the stairs!

After that—

Was Luo Xiaojiu.

While the sword chimes and Phoenix cries of the two were still echoing in the sky, she moved.

No earth-shattering phenomena, no profound ancient techniques.

Her movements were simple, direct, and even carried an unreasonable brutality—

She merely reached out and grabbed the hairy wrist of the Golden Lion, who was still looking up in a daze, mouth agape.

"What are you doing?!" The Golden Lion was startled, his Yao Race energy surging as he tried to break free.

However, the power coming from that slender palm was overwhelming; her five fingers, like shackles cast from divine metal, locked onto his wrist bone, and no matter how he struggled, it did not move!

It was as if it wasn't a hand grabbing him, but an ancient divine mountain!

"Stop talking nonsense, keep up."

Luo Xiaojiu did not look back, and the moment her words fell, she stomped her foot—

"Boom!"

An invisible ring of Qi exploded where she stood!

She, along with the two-zhang-tall, sturdy, and burly Golden Lion she was dragging, shot upward like two meteors launched by a catapult!

Not walking.

Charging! A wildly unreasonable charge!

One step, ten steps!

Another step, twenty steps!

"My lady! Slow down! Slow down! My legs are weak— Ahhh! We're going to hit it! The steps! There are steps ahead!!"

The Golden Lion felt the scenery before him flashing by madly, the wild wind cutting his face like a knife. His massive body was completely out of control, being dragged and stumbling, his giant claws nearly knocking against the edge of the steep stone steps several times, but always at the critical moment, a flick of the girl's wrist in front would yank him into the air, narrowly avoiding it, before he would slam down heavily, the stone steps thudding.

He could only let out desperate, utterly un-dignified screams, his four claws paddling uselessly in the air.

On the viewing platform, there was dead silence.

Everyone was as if frozen by a binding spell, staring dumbfounded at the inconceivable scene in the water mirror—

A petite girl, expressionless, dragging a Golden Lion several times larger than her that was screaming, running wildly on the Heavenly Ladder in the most savage, wildest, and most unreasonable way!

Her footsteps were light and precise, every touch of the ground utilizing force to the extreme.

And that lion had become a "heavy hammer" in her hand that kept bouncing up and falling down.

The scene was absurd, yet filled with a hair-raising shock!

"This... who is the Yao Race here?" A Barbarian Bear Prodigy touched his furry head, muttering, his worldview suffering a violent impact.

No one laughed.

Because Luo Xiaojiu's speed was fast enough to make people's hearts palpitate!

This was by no means a simple climb against Dao pressure, but more like using a brutal stance to briefly "shatter" the Dao principles blocking the way!

Two hundred steps! Three hundred steps! Three hundred and fifty steps!

Behind her, only the Golden Lion's long-drawn-out screams remained, along with a series of teeth-aching, muffled impacts on the stone steps.

Behind Luo Xiaojiu.

Chu Zhanxiao and Li Jiuyou smiled at each other.

There was no surprise in their smiles, only understanding, and a hint of the joy of fighting side by side.

Chu Zhanxiao took a deep breath, his already sturdy body seeming to expand further. Beneath his bronze skin, his blood Qi surged and roared like a great river, emitting a shocking "clattering" sound.

He took a step.

"Thump!"

The cyan stone steps beneath his feet emitted a muffled boom, like the drumsticks of an ancient war god pounding between heaven and earth!

Steady, domineering, one step at a time, as if to trample this towering Heavenly Ladder underfoot, climbing higher with every step!

Li Jiuyou's figure flickered, turning into a wisp of shadow, a trail of blue smoke.

His steps were eerily light, every step landing on the "gaps" and "nodes" where the surrounding Dao pressure flowed the weakest and changed the most strangely, like a fish swimming through raging waves, or like walking on the boundary between reality and illusion.

Leveraging force, his figure was elusive, yet so fast that he only left a string of faint afterimages in place, following closely behind Chu Zhanxiao's heavy and powerful footsteps.

The two of them, one extremely Yang and rigid, breaking finesse with power; the other extremely Yin and soft, using force to deflect force.

Their styles were vastly different, yet they faintly formed a wonderful echo, cleverly utilizing the "air waves" opened up by Luo Xiaojiu in front that had not yet subsided, increasing their speed even further!

Four hundred steps! Four hundred and fifty steps! Five hundred steps!

When these six figures—

Xuanyuan Zhanxian with lingering sword chimes,

Jian Tanghuang accompanied by the Divine Phoenix,

Luo Xiaojiu dragging the screaming lion,

Chu Zhanxiao with booming war drums,

Li Jiuyou following like a shadow—

Simultaneously stepped over the 500th cyan stone step that symbolized the watershed...

Boom!!!

The entire viewing platform, as if thrown into an ocean of billions of thunderbolts, boiled completely! Exploded!

"They're up! They've really caught up!"

"It's the Human Race! Those mocked Human Race members! And that lion! Five hundred steps! They've all passed the five hundredth step!"

"How is it possible?! An illusion! This must be an illusion projected by the Primordial Secret Realm! Just now they were clearly stagnant at the hundredth step for a long time, their Auras weak, on the verge of elimination, how could they in the blink of an eye..."

"Idiots! That wasn't stagnation! It wasn't exhaustion!"

An old, excited voice roared, overriding all doubts:

"It was tempering! It was honing! They were using the supreme Dao pressure of this Heavenly Ladder to temper themselves, to hone their Dao techniques and will! They treated this climb as a life-and-death ordeal, a practice of breaking and then establishing!"

Using the Heavenly Ladder to temper themselves?!

Seven short words, like seven Nine Heavens thunderbolts, striking the minds of everyone who heard them!

Making the clamor in the sky fall silent for an instant.

Immediately, a more frantic, more unbelievable wave of exclamations erupted!

What did this mean?

It meant that from the very beginning, this group of "Human Race trash" had never viewed "reaching the top" as the only goal!

They treated this Primordial Dao principle, which was enough to crush countless Prodigies, as a whetstone, actively placing themselves under extreme pressure, tempering their bones, refining their Divine Souls, and melting their Dao techniques in the desperate situation!

How crazy was this?

How tenacious was this?

How bold was this?!

This was no longer a simple chase.

This was a silent, yet deafening declaration!

Absolute self-confidence in their own path! Extreme contempt for all difficulties and obstacles!

Those alien strongmen who had mocked them the loudest and most meanly before, now looked ashen-faced, their lips trembling, unable to utter another clear syllable.

They looked at the six figures in the water mirror with surging Auras, climbing step by step, feeling their faces burning with pain, as if being repeatedly slapped by an invisible hand.

A cold chill, mixed with unspeakable fear, rushed from the soles of their feet to their crowns.

And what made them, everyone on the viewing platform, including the ancient existences on the high platform, shrink their hearts even more was—

These six figures, after stepping over the invisible boundary of the five hundredth step, their speed did not slow down at all!

Instead, due to the previous accumulation and tempering, their Auras were even stronger, and their steps were even firmer!

Five hundred and fifty steps! Six hundred steps! Six hundred and fifty steps!

They were like six peerless divine arrows released from the bowstring, tearing through the increasingly heavy mist of Dao principles, and at a breathtaking speed, they were fiercely catching up to the higher ground, to those few figures at the very front!

The distance was constantly shrinking!

At this moment, on the Cyan Heavenly Ladder, the situation had changed drastically—

First tier: Mysterious white-clothed figure, 850 steps, still in the lead, speed already showing signs of suppression.

Second tier: Golden Crow Burning Heaven! Yuansha! Kasyapa! Burial Son! Prince of the Nether! Blood Butcher! Divine Son of Holy Brilliance!

Third tier: Chen Shenhuang, Ji Tianming, Li Wuji, Sword Child, the four of them barely stepped over 700 steps, their Auras churning, approaching their limits.

Fourth tier: Xuanyuan Zhanxian, Jian Tanghuang, Luo Xiaojiu (and the dragged object, the Golden Lion), Chu Zhanxiao, Li Jiuyou, all six of them standing above 650 steps, their eyes like lightning, locking onto the top, pressing forward step by step, their Auras like rainbows, and the gap with the third tier was shrinking at an astonishing speed!