Chapter 14 - Why Cultivate?

"You don't have to continue, you've passed this trial, go back to the Temple and wait, you'll pass the second and third trial normally"

Ye Feng nodded and went back to the Temple, he entered it and looked inside, there were 10 long queues, on the podium, there were 10 boxes, needless to say, all the Furbun there were queuing to enter those boxes, he watched and saw that the Furbuns entering the boxes would leave soon after, with no change of expression on their faces except puzzlement, it seemed that they themselves didn't know if they had good results or not.

Even though they didn't stay too long in those boxes, the queues were just too long, Ye Feng estimated that it would be noon by the time the first trial finished, as for what was happening inside those boxes, Ye Feng guessed that it would estimate one's Mental Power then it would estimate one's mastery of their own Mental Power, it should more or less be a trial of Talent.

He took a seat in a corner and started cultivating and would stop every 30 minutes to look at the queues, he did that 8 times before everyone finally went to the boxes once, since it was noon, he took out dried fish from his pouch and ate them until he was full, "Brother Feng, what's this?", he turned his head to see who spoke and said,

"Oh, that's just dried fish, you want some Xiao Qiu?"

He took a few more pieces from his pouch and gave it to the chubby Furbun with brown fur, Xiao Qiu picked up the pieces of dried fish and put a small piece in his mouth before chomping on them,

"This is delicious! Anyway, brother Feng, you should call me Ye Qiu now, since today is also our coming of age, we have to change our 'Xiao' by another name by the end of the day, and I've decided to be called Ye Qiu now!"

Ye Feng nodded but then realized something and thought, 'Wait... It's already our coming of age? Aren't we only 1 year old', he then remembered, 'I'm some kind of bunny now... My lifespan should be significantly lower than a human's lifespan... Will, I even live by the time I lose the 5 years of protection?' this steeled his mind even more, he had to be the first, he had to increase his cultivation quickly if he wanted to live longer, and, to do that, he had to get the Heaven Spirit Root.

Whilst eating, his other siblings eventually joined in and also tasted a few pieces of Dried fish before announcing how they wished to be called now, with no surprise, they all decided to have the surname 'Ye'.

At some point, Ye Feng noticed that Elder Yi entered the temple and slowly went toward the podium, Ye Feng was sure that the second trial was about to start, Elder Yi waited a few seconds for the Temple to calm down and for everyone to stop speaking,

"The second trial will be a Trial of Will, I will now ask everyone to please close their eyes when I tell you, you'll be allowed to open them again, at this point, you'll be met by a stairway, the more stairs you climb, the better your results will be. When you can't go on anymore, close your eyes for 30 seconds."

Ye Feng immediately closed his eyes, after approximately 15 seconds, Elder Yi spoke again and told everyone to open their eyes, Ye Feng did so and noticed that he was in a totally dark place, he couldn't see anything except light one illuminated stairway.

He breathed a few times before climbing up, the first step didn't cause much trouble, Ye Feng only felt an extremely light dizziness, it was so light that Ye Feng wouldn't have noticed if he just climbed the stairs like normal. However, as he continued climbing the stairs, the sense of dizziness got even stronger.

Ye Feng gritted his teeth and continued until he reached the 15th steps, at this point, he didn't only feel extremely dizzy to the point of vomiting, he even received a slight pain, he kept going, the memory of Chu Yixue and Liu Erlong reminding him that he needed to be stronger, at the 30th step, he didn't only feel extreme pain and an extreme sense of dizziness, he started feeling pressure, this pressure made it extremely hard for Ye Feng to continue, the moment he hopped, he realized that he didn't even land on the next step, he had aimed wrong due to the dizziness.

Ye Feng used his Mental Power and slapped himself with the strength of a Mortal to clear his mind and continued his ascension of the stairway whilst thinking of his low lifespan, he probably didn't even have 5 years to live! Pain, pressure, dizziness... Those were only minor things, he had to continue if he wanted to live, yet, at this point, he had a realization and stopped.

Why would he want to cultivate for? To live longer? But what would he use that longer lifespan for? Continue being stronger until he reached the apex? In Ye Feng's minds, ideas appeared and disappeared, he kept thinking about the reason he wanted to cultivate for...

Finally, he realized, he wanted to 'just because', he realized that although it was probably extremely selfish and idiotic, his own dream wasn't being immortal, being the strongest... He wanted to cultivate... Just because he wanted to and dreamed of cultivating for a long time...

Having found his way, he smiled and continued his ascension of the stairway, he reached the 44th step and took in a deep breath before climbing on the 45th step, he closed his eyes as he felt his energy being drained, he would be unable to climb another step, it was already extremely hard to stay on the 45th step so he counted in his mind until it reached 30.

He opened his eyes again and covered his nose as he looked, it seemed that some people were unable to contain themselves and the moment they were hit by the dizziness, they puked...

Ye Feng sighed, he probably didn't even have to endure until he reached the 45th step but he'd rather have an extremely good result that would surely place him first than an above-average result that would place him first if he was lucky.

"It seems like everyone has finished their ascension of the stairway. You'll be given 30 minutes to recover, after that, you'll directly go through the third trial."