The moment Evan stepped onto the thousandth step—
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
His mind trembled under the force of a mental assault, and he staggered backwards, nearly losing his balance and falling down the stairs.
"Damn... This mind attack is more than ten times stronger than the one I faced after stepping onto the 999th step," He muttered through gritted teeth, struggling to fend off the invasive pressure of the soul fragment.
The sheer strength of this soul fragment was overwhelming and it took him nearly ten minutes to overcome it, draining almost all of his spiritual power in the process.
"This was just the thousandth step. How am I going to cross tens of thousands more?" Evan muttered as he took deep breaths to steady himself.
He glanced back, noticing that the 999th step was now glowing with a blood-red light.
Swish!
A beam of red light suddenly shot out from the glowing step, piercing into his body.