Chapter 92: Sea God’s Nine Trials 1

Chapter 92: Sea God's Nine Trials 1

Word count = 2123 on 10/6/2023

Xue Tie is guided by Bo Saixi, Tang Chen and the 7 sea pillars to the Nine Heavens Staircase. It is the pyramid that was previously mentioned reaching high up into the sky.

Tang Chen looks at Xue Tie and says seriously. "I've climbed the staircase before"

"I know, your record was somewhere in the 700 steps range. I'm ready for this. I've been happily expecting this for a long time now" He says with a notable hint of anticipation but at the core of it all is confidence in himself.

"It seems your information is lacking, my pace slowed down in that range but my final score was 844" [1]

"Ah. That's nice to know. Makes me more confident in getting to the very top of 999 steps" [2]

"Brat, what is that supposed to mean?" Tang Chen retorts with annoyance

"Just that i'm better" He states and then proceeds to the stairs.

"Be careful kid" Tang chen whispers to himself as he plans to lay witness to whatever miracle that Xue Tie would accomplish.

Xue Tie observes the pyramid steps in front of him and nods while thinking, 'At least I don't have to goose step to climb each step. They are nice and low, good enough for casual walking. This just makes it even more of a testament to it's height and the 999 steps'.

Bo Saixi the high priestess and Sea God Douluo sits down once more alongside the 7 pillars. They begin to watch the show as the golden rune that is linked to Xue Tie's trial once more shows up.

"You may begin" The Priestess states to Xue Tie who nods and takes the first step.

Xue Tie is stunned, he thought it was some nightmare inducing horror once he began based on what the Shrek Seven Monsters experienced. Yet that is not the case. At most 1 pound of force is applied to him. As such he takes the 2nd and finds the weight has increased to 2 pounds.

The Third step, 4 pounds. Xue Tie realizes the formula of the first realm of steps which is 101 steps. The weight seems to double each step. Realizing this, he cancels the energy barrier around himself, letting his own full weight fall upon the steps.

When Xue Tie became 18, he found that his weight from his robes that increased over time, had been fully transferred to his own body. To compensate for this, he learned to coat his body in an energy barrier like his Eye of Xue's camo film, in fact, it was this technique that gave him inspiration for the new camo effect of the artifact. It offers no protectiveness to him due to the thinness of it. It's purpose is instead a barrier so he never damages the ground when walking.

The result is self-evident when the stone made from an extremely durable sea stone cracks under his current weight. The stone is obviously able to ignore the weight caused by the pyramids effect but it did crack under his weight.

Granted his robes are not the sole reason for his current weight, refining his body many times had redefined what density is on his body. Naturally his weight scaled with his strength so he was always able to handle it and more. Even more so with the high level rings and whatever effects they provide him every time they had been elevated. Ensuring his high physical strength.

Xue Tie continues onto the 4th, 5th and beyond stairs. His pace does not slow down even when he reaches the 101st step in half an hour, but the next step, he halts for half a second before continuing. This is because he is now in the 2nd realm of the Heaven stairs, each step has the full weight of the entire first realm (aka 2^100 which is 1.267 ... .e+30. Can't scale based on first step since it has a weight of 1 lb)

It takes him a few minutes longer to reach the end of the 2nd realm which is step 202. Xue Tie is already quite proud as he has long surpassed the required steps of even Tang San from canon. Granted the weight isn't the only problem of the stairs, he has faced minor illusions that tried to halt him but with the protection of 2 skull bones, he faced little problem from them so far.

Nothing more than strange wisps that try to confuse him. He faced worse illusions in the Junior Spirit Master Competition in his youth. Though he isn't sure if that was actually an awakening illusion of his bloodline layered on top of his opponents original illusion skill.

Shaking off the stray thoughts, he continues on his way up, preparing for entering the third realm. Xue Tie feels a new type of pressure press down onto him. He quickly realizes why the name of this layer is called Wind Resistance Realm. It's like the sky is falling upon his shoulders. Comparable to a weakened version of Atlas holding up the sky from the mythology stories of the Greeks.

He continues on forward, not stopping at all. His passive bonuses helping him climb. It takes roughly an hour for him to reach the limit of the 3rd realm which would mean that he is stepping into a whole new Heaven (3 realms make 1 heaven. So 3 heavens and 9 realms make up the pyramid). Bracing himself, he is forced to halt due to a much more powerful illusion that makes him panic a bit as he envisioned himself as a child again during the hidden Mohgwyn trials. But he quickly breaks out as this illusion was not solid and instead of grasping his throat like in his childhood, Mohgs hand phased through his neck and disappeared.

It takes him 2 hours to reach the end of the 4th layer, Dragon Courage Realm and get to the 444th step. Xue Tie summons his robes as he has been holding up against the pressure without it this whole time. He could still continue like this but would rather be safe than sorry since he is forced to go to the absolute limit of the challenge.

He takes the next step, entering the 5th layer, the Cloud Fantasy Realm. [3]. He was forced to stop for a moment as the illusions became even stronger than before while the pressure also increased on him. Since all 3 forms of distractions/pressure increased, it's not as drastic as when it was simply introducing a new pressure or boosting a single pre-existing one.

As such, with his robes on. He faces little harm from the elevated threat. Xue Tie has gotten used to these illusions and can typically dispel them with a wave of his hand from just the physical pressure and a minor influence from his energies.

With little change from the 4th layer to the 5th layer, it takes him another 2 hours to reach the end and the beginning of the 6th layer, Divinity Realm. Xue Tie is not sure why it is called that since it's not even the end. As for what happened, The previous wind and gravitational pressure dissipated and was replaced with a new type of heavenly pressure that is a true application of atlas and the sky. With the weight of the world on his shoulders, he presses on.

With the new pressure limiting his movement, he has to waste a bit more energy to dispel the illusions. It takes him 3 hours to reach the next stage and the sun has gone down but everyone here is a titled douluos with the weakest being hyper douluos. So they aren't affected by the darkness at all.

It is no longer a matter of weight on Xue Tie anymore, with the new pressure from the 6th stage pressing down on him, it's like every single individual cell in his body is being forced down and suppressed. This greatly weakens his energy regeneration, especially since he doesnt plan to use the eye of Xue to help him recover. He is just relying on his 3 cores.

He soon reaches the edge of the 6th stage and the entrance to the 7th at step 777. Upon entering, the illusions disappear in exchange for another new pressure, except this one is against his mind. As such, he decided to personally call this stage the Slothful Mind Realm. If his guess is correct, based on the trend of things with evolving pressure. The next stage would introduce soul pressure and then the last stage combines all 3 types of pressure into one.

He summons out the external skull bone which turns it's mind protection from passive into active in exchange for more energy. This is the key to surviving this floor otherwise he truly would become too lazy to continue higher due to the mental influence of the 7th stage.

It takes him 4 hours to reach the 8th stage which he has dubbed the Sinful Soul Realm as his hypothesis was correct and he has soul pressure on him now. Since he could never refine his soul of all things except through absorbing his rings and death rune. This makes it the most vulnerable to harm of all aspects on him.

The culminated pressure has actually started wounding him as the various pressures cause cuts upon his skin. He doesnt bother to take any meds since it would be pointless anyways, at least in his mind.

His pace gravely slows down to 7 hours to reach the end of the 8th stage and reach the 9th. His guess was again correct but not fully. All 3 types of pressure did combine but it's not constant like it has been this entire time. It comes irregularly, it can come in 1 second, next it would be 3 seconds. As such, one can't really adjust to the pressure at all.

The sun rises over the horizon and reaches noon when Xue Tie reaches step number 995 but he cant continue further, His body is covered in blood from all the injuries he has accumulated as a result of the god pressure. The very reason why he has named this 9th stage the God Sight realm.

As for why he cant continue, his mind and soul have been crushed alongside his body. Xue Tie is hunched over and he has little he can do now as the only thing he has left is energy.

To a point, Xue Tie decides on a final choice to dedicate his life to. He sits down upon the 995th step, regularly getting blasted by the divine pressure which is at it's peak since he is near the end.

Xue Tie summons his trident and points it at himself. He activates his first ring.

As for the target of refinement….Everything.

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[1: Wiki states that Tang Chen stopped at 787 due to the interference of the high priestess. I Don't know why she would stop him if he is testing himself since it makes no mention of his reason to climb except to be worthy of her (my hypothesis). but when I wrote this initially, I felt that was a bit dumb so I made it so that he only slowed down around then and then reached his limit a bit higher. Gotta pay my respects to the old man.

[2]:Also I think I messed up. I think last chapter I wrote that it was 1001 steps which is dumb of me when I literally have the page open in front of me while writing the chapters but at least i double checked when writing this one so the error didn't continue

[3] For those unaware, the names of each realm are the same as the 6 Ultimate Spirit Bones of Spirit Hall. how this is related to each other, I have no idea but i'm sure it's a coincidence since I think the pyramid was around much earlier than Spirit Hall but they getting those bones must have been a test of luck or effort on Qian Daoliu if he was trying to replicate it so that he could somehow be closer to the Sea God Douluo.

Also there is the fact, the wiki has no names for the last 3 realms so we only have 6. Ill be coming up with my own custom names for them as a result. In fact, the first 6 realms got their name after Tang Chen Climbed the pyramid, so yea. It makes sense for me to name the next 3 stairs.