Staircase (2)

Liu Feng looked up at the peak of the staircase.

He was getting closer and closer to the peak, and the pressure that he was feeling from the downward force was decreasing instead of increasing.

With every few steps, he sat down and circulated the Qi around his body, letting its repair his muscles and strengthen his body.

And with each cycle of this process, he could feel himself getting stronger and stronger.

"If I was in the strength test once more, I am sure I would have done a much better job." Li Feng thought to himself.

He shook his head and stood up once more, braving through the opposing force.

His hands trembled as he kept going. The veins on his hands and legs were getting more and more prominent as he neared the peak of the mountain.

"The force is getting so much stronger. This is unbearable." Li Feng stopped as he stared at the ten steps that remained.

He wanted to take a step forward, but it seemed like there was an unsurmountable gap between the step that he was on, and the step in front of him.

Li Feng could see where he wanted to go. He couldn't see much of the sect itself, but he could make out a building or two from where he stood.

But these ten steps that were in front of him were blocking his view.

Sitting down cross legged, Li Feng took a deep breath.

He closed his eyes, letting the force wash over him.

As he felt it, he listened to the rhythm of his heart. The force burst toward him in a tempo that he could make out after all the cycles of braving through it.

By now, the force became so predictable that Li Feng felt like he could replicate it if he had the ability to shape the Qi around him.

With this familiarity, he circulated the Qi in his body in a peculiar manner, such that it went around his body every time the force peaked.

He could feel the Qi start to accumulate close to his belly.

As it did, he could feel himself get even stronger than before. The strength didn't seem incremental like before.

Li Feng's eyes lit up as he stood up once more.

Clenching his fist, he stepped forward.

It was like the first step once again.

Once again, an invisible barrier stopped him from entering the next stage.

But this time was different from the last. Li Feng knew what he was going against. And he had a way around it.

Li Feng's eyes suddenly turned blue as he stepped forward.

His movement was sluggish in real time, as if he was moving in slow motion.

And yet, he was indeed moving forward.

His foot planted itself firmly above him as he entered the final ten steps with great difficulty. The moment he was on the step, his concentration faltered as he took a deep breath.

Beads of sweat poured down his face as he looked up once more.

"Nine more to go." He gasped as he bent down for a quick moment.

He resisted every inner voice that told him to turn around and look at everyone that was behind him.

They were mere distractions, and it would not help him if they were in front of him, or behind him.

"One more." He took a deep breath and circulated the Qi in his body once more.

He tried to force the Qi outside his body, but it felt like his control over this mysterious ether was not strong enough to do that.

The blood in his body seemed like an easy enough medium for him to control the Qi.

And so, he controlled the Qi toward his legs, which were doing all the power lifting at this point.

As the Qi was concentrated near his soles, he moved forward once more.

The difference between the two steps was nowhere near the change that he felt just moments ago.

It was as if every ten steps was a bigger gap, like a threshold.

And he had just passed through the final and biggest threshold.

With a new found confidence, he stepped forward more aggressively, and the resistance he felt seemed to decline.

Thud!

His body forced through and his feet landed on the next step.

"Good. Eight more."

…..

Li Feng repeated this process, and every step that he passed, he reminded himself just how little remained before he would be rewarded.

And with every step closer he got, he could see what awaited him.

The veiled woman and the yellow robed young boy were standing next to each other, talking to an old man.

They seemed to be talking about something serious, as the two didn't stare each other off like every other time they met each other.

"Put that aside. One more step." Li Feng shook his head as he looked forward.

He could see the sect in front of him, but he refused to give himself the satisfaction of a reward before the task at hand was not over yet.

He tried moving forward, but this was the pinnacle of the force that he would face, after all. There was no way it would be the same as what he had faced before.

"How were those two able to do this so easily?" Li Feng looked at the two who were standing in front of him.

Shaking his head again, he took a deep breath.

He stepped forward, forcing through.

But as he did, a strong force suddenly rushed against him.

"Ohh shit!" Li Feng's face changed.

He knew it. The force that he was facing was stronger than he expected, and it was going to push him off of his pedestal.

"No! I can't stop now. It is the last step!" Li Feng's eyes lit up, and all the Qi that had accumulated in the lower belly burst out in a singular action.

"Aargh!"

Li Feng forced forward, and as he did, he felt the force suddenly lower its intensity and all of a sudden, disappear.

Ping!

All the fatigue that Li Feng felt as he climbed the arduous staircase disappeared immediately, and Li Feng felt a comfortable, soothing feeling throughout his muscles.

"Interesting. Someone without any cultivation entering the Muscle Tempering Stage on the staircase? Surprising."

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