An Unprotected Heart

To pass the second stage of the Xuqi Sect entrance examination, it was required to reach the 10th floor of the Tower of Mortal Dao. It did not matter how quickly or slowly a participant reached this floor, nor was their method of ascending the floors important.

The moment Yaan stepped foot onto the 10th floor, he had already passed the examination! However, Yaan felt nothing towards this, he placed no importance on this achievement.

Yaan was not the first person to reach the 10th floor, but he was far from last place at this point. Even though he did not move for the first 15 minutes of the test, he had already overtaken most of the individuals who had rushed ahead earlier.

At this point, Yaan was in 7th place, meaning there were six individuals ahead of him. He could see one of these people on the 10th floor, breathing heavily and attempting to recuperate before tackling the next stairway. Unfortunately, the pressure in the Tower of Mortal Dao made it near impossible to recover whilst still within the tower. When the cultivator realised this, he smiled bitterly and turned towards the next stairway.

Yaan could see one person on the stairway ahead, it was Eccentric Granny. Oddly, she had stopped and sat down midway up the staircase…and she had actually taken out some ordinary mortal berries and started eating them!

Everyone who saw this felt speechless. Within the tower, it was impossible to operate any spiritual treasures, meaning that must have placed these berries into her pockets before entering the tower!

Aside from the people ahead of him, there were still many individuals behind Yaan, gradually making their way towards the 10th floor. The were clearly struggling at this point, whilst many had already been ejected from the tower.

Less than an hour had passed by since the start of the trial, but 34 participants had already been eliminated! This was quite normal though, typically, only around one fifth of the participants of the second trial were able to reach the 10th floor.

Even though it might seem as if Yaan reached the 10th floor without much difficulty, he could understand why so many others were incapable of reaching this height. The pressure weighing down on the heart was extremely unusual, it was a feeling that almost none of these cultivators had ever experienced before. They had never felt such weakness before, they had never needed to deal with the depletion of their will and the dampening of their determination until now!

These righteous cultivators were simply too sheltered. They had not experienced enough adversity throughout their lives, they had not experienced enough failure! The moment they started to feel weakened, the moment self-doubt arose in their hearts, they completely broke down and gave in.

Of course, not everyone was so fragile. Some people could excel regardless of the environment they grew up in, this could be seen clearly in the individuals ahead of Yaan right now.

But right now, Yaan did not care about his 'competition'. Watching others would only distract him from his own progress. The only thought on his mind was to take one more step, no matter how tired he felt, no matter how much his body and mind wanted him to stop, no matter how much his heart begged for him to rest.

Just one more step…

On the 11th floor, Yaan already felt exhausted.

By the 12th floor, he was practically dragging himself forwards.

He made it to the 13th floor, not realising that he had already overtaken the person who was previously in 6th place; that person became distracted as he noticed Yaan passing him by, causing him to lose focus and be ejected from the tower!

Despite Yaan's accumulating exhaustion, his pace did not change. It was as if his body was moving on its own, forcefully dragging him up yet another flight of stairs.

This tower felt endless, every person within felt as if an eternity passed by with each step they took.

"Who do you think will obtain 1st place this time?" A Hukon Clansmen asked his friend excitedly. This was his first time spectating on the Xuqi Sect entrance exam. So far, it had been even more thrilling than he had expected!

"Elder Hukon Foo of course." His friend stated certainly. "Elder Hukon Foo has maintained 1st place for the past hour, it's clear that he has the strongest dao heart!"

"I'm not so sure about that…" A Xuqi Dynasty female clansman appeared beside the pair, smiling faintly. "Junior sister Laila isn't far behind Hukon Foo, her talent is truly phenomenal."

"Hmm…"

The conversation continued as people debated on who they thought would get the furthest. The record throughout the Xuqi Sect's history was 31 floors, but usually, nobody would even surpass 20 floors. Truthfully, whenever someone surpassed 20 floors, they were almost always a Nirvana Realm old monster! Anyone who was able to reach this floor prior to attaining Nirvana Realm cultivation was definitely a top end talent!

Zue Yin clicked her tongue involuntarily, feeling irritated by the loud debates all around her. When some frowns were directed her way, she realised that she had accidentally made her discontent known. She sighed, knowing that this was going to be tedious to deal with.

"Elder Zue Yin, perhaps you have a better idea than us about who will win?"

Before Zue Yin could even explain herself, a middle aged female elder from the Fragment Sect stepped in, clearly looking to further aggravate this minor conflict.

'Yu Jenna…' Zue Yin thought to herself in irritation. Yu Jenna was a Yu Clansman, but she was also one of the Fragment Sect Elders who had been making things difficult for her ever since she arrived in the sect.

When Zue Yin saw all of the disapproving looks thrown her way, she sighed, before turning her attention back towards Yaan.

She watched silently for a while as Yaan continued walking upwards at that same steady pace.

"Well?" Yu Jenna asked impatiently.

"Yaan will take first place."

"Elder Yaan? But he…" Yu Jenna trailed off, swallowing her words quickly before speaking out of place. It really wouldn't be appropriate if she talked badly about their sect's own candidate whilst praising the opposing organisations' candidates, would it? She wanted to refute Zue Yin, but there was nothing she could say on this matter now.

"Hmm, your Fragment's Sect's Elder Yaan is very impressive, but I don't think he can compare to Xuqi Laila or Hukon Foo." A lone cultivator who was mingling with the various superpower groups spoke up. He wore a faint smile, clearly looking amused by the tension between the disciples and elders of the Xuqi Dynasty, the Hukon Clan and the Fragment Sect, who had all gathered together unknowingly at some point.

"I hate to admit it, but Elder Yaan does seem to be struggling more than those two…" Yu Jenna spoke carefully, before throwing a cold smirk towards Zue Yin.

Many people couldn't help but nod in agreement. They thought this way not because Yaan was lagging behind the other front-runners, but because of his expression when compared to the expressions of the five individuals ahead of him.

Xuqi Laila, Hukon Foo, Old Spear, Eccentric Granny and Xuqi Jean, all wore serious, ferocious expressions, burning with intensity as they grit their teeth and forced themselves to push on.

Even Xuqi Laila no longer looked indifferent like before, her eyes were shining with brilliance, it looked like there was a fire burning in her soul, pushing her onwards towards greatness!

The others looked similarly determined, but Yaan…

Yaan looked tired.

He looked exhausted.

There was no light in his eyes.

He was simply moving.

Seeing this, Zue Yin looked at Yaan again. She saw that he was truly trying to excel in this trial, he was definitely taking it seriously.

Zue Yin shook her head gently.

"Without a doubt, Yaan will win."

She said this with such confidence that the others began to feel uncertain. Did she know something that they did not?

Yu Jenna couldn't help but feel pressured…there were rumours in the Fragment Sect that Elder Yaan and Elder Zue Yin had some sort of relationship. She had dismissed this as a fabricated rumour until now, but could it actually be true…?

Yu Jenna hoped it was not so, because otherwise, she might end up suffering a severe backlash for making trouble for Zue Yin!

Yaan naturally didn't know about the various discussions focussed on him, but he wouldn't care about any of that regardless.

Finally, he reached the 14th floor. As he took the first step onto this floor, the light in his eyes faded further.

So tired…

He had not expected to struggle so much so early on. Yaan felt like he was walking through an infinite sea of thick mud, as if everything was holding him back, pulling him down. With every step he took, the mud became thicker, the pressure on him increased, making moving increasingly arduous.

But even so, his pace did not slow down.

A dreary aura emanated from Yaan's body, it was an aura suggesting that he might collapse at any moment. And yet, he showed no signs of even slowing, no matter stopping!

The crowd felt surprised by this. Every other participant ended up being ejected from the tower as soon as they started to falter, or at least soon after they showed that they were experiencing such difficulty. The moment any exhaustion appeared on their faces, burning away their previous energetic determination, they would inevitably fall.

The immortals were now all staring at Yaan without blinking as he made his way towards the 15th floor. Xuqi Laila was also on this staircase - she had been overtaken by Old Spear and Xuqi Jean now, whom were close behind Hukon Foo on the stairway leading to the 16th floor.

After a long period of silence, the Xuqi Sect Immortal Lord finally spoke.

"Pristine Qi Immortal, how did your disciple cultivate his dao heart to this extent? If you have developed a special method, my Xuqi Sect is willing to exchange it for a fair price."

The Immortal Ancestor lightly shook his head.

"How could there be such a method to assure the development of a strong dao heart? My disciple achieved this with his own efforts."

The female immortal furrowed her brows, looking back at Yaan in contemplation.

The Hukon Clan Ancestor had also become more serious, he was not even watching his own descendent now, his full focus was on Yaan.

Yaan was seemingly struggling more than the rest, and this was in fact true, but the reason for this truth, and his ability to deal with it, caused all three immortals to feel moved.

The Tower of Mortal Dao was said to pressure the dao heart, but the dao heart was not something that could be targeted directly; the tower's target was in fact the dao soul.

The dao soul was the biggest mystery to all cultivators, and really, it was the most ethereal possession of all life in this world. The dao soul was the core of a being's existence, its base form was produced as a manifestation of the dao heart. The dao soul also incorporated a being's dao comprehension into its form; these comprehensions could be thought of as the dao soul's features, its clothes, its armours, its tools and weapons.

Instinctively, when they felt the Tower of Mortal Dao pressuring their dao soul, every Foundation Step cultivator would utilise their dao comprehensions to protect themselves from this pressure. They did not even realise what they were doing and it was difficult to see this dao utilisation from the outside, since it had no physical manifestation in the outside world. Even so, the immortals had their methods to see through the intricacies behind the methods which were unknowingly utilised by the various participants.

Utilising their dao comprehension directly like this was tiring, and as soon as they exhausted their heart's ability to sustain this dao manipulation, the pressure would land directly on their dao soul, causing the participants to experience such a vast pressure weighing down on their heart that they would give up within seconds.

Everyone was like this…with the exception of Yaan.

Back when Yaan took his first step onto the 1st staircase, he immediately felt the pressure. He also felt surprised when he stopped and examined his state, finding that he was subconsciously utilising his dao comprehension to resist the pressure! He realised that constantly maintaining his dao manipulation ability to this extent was quite tiring, and what was it even protecting?

His heart?

When Yaan had this thought, he immediately stopped trying to protect himself from the tower's pressure.

And now, as he made his way towards the 15th floor, Yaan's dao soul was still completely exposed to the immense pressure from above. The pressure which weighed down on the heart was something that other cultivators simply could not bear, but to Yaan, the act of trying to protect his heart was countless times more unbearable.

Others would protect their heart with their all, but Yaan did not even spare his heart a second thought.

After all, why would he protect something that he believed did not exist…

He continued walking upwards, oblivious to his own worsening condition.

15th floor…

16th floor…

17th floor…

Unknowingly, Yaan had overtaken Xuqi Laila. At some point, Xuqi Jean also dropped out of the tower, having reached the 17th floor before falling. Yaan was now right beside Hukon Foo, Old Spear and Eccentric Granny…

The three powerhouses were stunned when they saw Yaan's condition, unable to understand how he was still moving.

Yaan's eyes had rolled back, his body was unstable, yet he somehow maintained the same pace which he had utilised since the beginning.

An aura of agony spread out from his body in ripples, causing the others to shiver.

The pressure of the tower was immense, but that aura spreading out from Yaan's body was simply dreadful!

Shockingly, Hukon Foo and Old Spear actually chose to stop, waiting for Yaan to pass by and make his way to the floor above, before they continued on!

Only Eccentric Granny remained unfazed by Yaan's aura, she continued jumping from step to step, laughing manically now and then, whilst occasionally sparing Yaan a pondering look.

Time continued to pass by, and eventually, Yaan reached the 20th floor. Right beside him, Eccentric Granny also jumped onto the 20th floor. She continued walking on with a seemingly leisurely expression, before she stopped and quickly turned back. Her eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped dramatically.

Everyone's attention landed on Yaan. When they saw his current state, they all had the same thought, but it simply made no sense. In fact, it seemed so ridiculous that nobody said anything, not until Hukon Foo reached the 20th floor with immense difficulty some time later.

By now, only Hukon Foo, Eccentric Granny and Xuqi Laila remained in the tower aside from Yaan. Even though Yaan was still in the tower, his state did not seem good, because…

"He's…passed out?"

Hukon Foo was the first person to say it. Soon after he spoke, the Hukon Clansman dropped to his knees. He grimaced heavily and tried to get back up, but after a dozen seconds of struggle, exhaustion washed over him. Hukon Foo sighed as he was ejected from the tower.

Yaan had reached the 20th floor, then immediately passed out!

But how was he still standing, and more importantly…how was he able to remain in the tower, despite losing consciousness?