It didn't take too long to make a decision. Shun Long stared at the golden staircase for only a few monts before he raised his foot and touched the second step.
The last ti he had done this, the pressure had turned so overwhelming that he'd been sent flying to the patch of red soil behind him before getting kicked out of this realm. But this ti, it was only mildly uncomfortable.
It was a weird sensation that he'd never felt before, but Shun Long only paused for a split second before heading directly for the third step.
As the pressure around him thickened, Shun Long quickly realized that it wasn't spiritual qi that was present in the air around him either, but sothing similar... and yet at the sa ti, completely different, boring down on him from every direction and drowning him under its pressure.
It wasn't re gravity either, but Shun Long felt like he was carrying a heavy boulder using every part of his body.
''Hmm... this is not that different from how most body refinent cultivators train when they are younger. Aside from the level of difficulty-''
That was the only thought that had enough ti to form in his mind before his foot landed on the third step, and the pressure increased nearly tenfold.
If the pressure from the first step had been akin to carrying a small stone and the second one was comparable to a heavy boulder, this third step was probably closer to a small hill, crushing him under its weight.
Even his thoughts were interrupted midway as he took a mont to get used to this abrupt change. And yet, after only a slight shift in his posture, Shun Long continued forward, stepping directly on the fourth golden step.
At this point, it wasn't just the muscles on his arms, legs, and back that were feeling the strain, but even his bones that had already started to crack, imdiately feeling the difference between the third and this fourth level.
But Shun Long didn't seem to have noticed any of it. At least that's how it must have looked to any outsiders... had there been any in this place, of course.
Still, that couldn't have been further from the truth. Shun Long could feel the pressure boring down on him very clearly, and he could also feel the strain his body was under as it rapidly approached his current limits. Bones weren't ant to crack. Even more so, the bones of a peak sixth stage body refiner who could snap gold-grade weapons with his bare hands.
But Shun Long also felt sothing else amidst all the pain; An intoxicating sensation that could only be described using a single word... bliss!
It hadn't been long since his 'Monarch's Eternal body' had reached the peak of the sixth stage, and yet Shun Long could tell it was now advancing again, inching closer and closer towards the seventh stage.
The gap between a peak sixth stage and a seventh stage body refiner was enormous, but Shun Long could feel that he was bridging it at a terrifying rate!
The more this sensation persisted, the more he seed to lose himself into it, too completely ignoring everything else in the process.
Even his curiosity about the white palace and the two statues in front of its entrance seed to give way at this point, and the sa went for those mysterious runes engraved on the palace's outer walls, as Shun Long focused solely on enduring the pressure.
Even the golden staircase had now beco nothing but a fleeting thought stored in the back of his mind, as Shun Long forced himself to continue ascending it, step by step.
The sixth step had rooted him there for more than half an hour, and was the first ti he'd been finally forced to stop... for a while.
The seventh step caused so of his tendons to snap, and Shun Long even began to wonder if his ridians had gotten injured in the process, as well, while the eighth step forced him to cough blood and almost collapse.
''Still, it's not enough!''
Despite his body's violent protests for a break, Shun Long forced himself up and extended his shaky leg towards the ninth step.
The golden staircase had a thousand steps, and yet a peak-stage Dao King couldn't even make it through the first 10? How was this even possible?
At this point, Shun Long began to wonder if he could make it to the top of the staircase, even with his cultivation base from his previous life.
Still, it was exactly that absurdity that made Shun Long grit his teeth and move.
The mont his foot landed on the ninth step, a deafening snap echoed inside his body, followed by another one... and another one! His breathing grew ragged, and blood began to pour from his nose, ears, and the corners of his eyes. His vision blurred, and even his thoughts had already started to grow hazy, but sohow, he remained standing.
He could feel sothing awakening inside him, pushing him to keep going forward.
Every step, every breath, every heartbeat was tempering his body and soul in tandem. It was more than training. It was a transformation.
The pressure was relentless, threatening to split him apart at any mont, but Shun Long no longer resisted it. He couldn't resist it even if he wanted to.
He just let it burn, tear, and reshape him.
His 'Monarch's Eternal body' wasn't budging either. The more it was stimulated by this external pressure, the more it seed to respond and draw out more of its latent potential, almost as if it was being provoked by the golden staircase.
Shun Long didn't know how long he stood on that ninth step — a minute, an hour or a day — but when he finally moved again, his foot dragging toward the tenth through pure instinct, his body began trembling uncontrollably... before he finally collapsed!
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