New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live-Chapter 1094: Dark Clouds Above

Time slipped by slowly, and steps were climbed, one at a time, now taking up to two minutes per step. Alexander could see the plateau and sighed internally.

’If I hadn’t been taking on the burden of half of them, I would have already been up the entire staircase.’

Looking back at his friends, he could tell they were getting tired, and he half wondered if this wasn’t the fox’s plan. To tire them out here before confronting them somewhere no one could see his underhanded methods.

Of course, he knew he was the one who insisted on taking the staircase in the first place. But that didn’t make the fox any less guilty of trying to trick them.

Otherwise, why would he have made Bai Feng tell them about the alternate path? If not to challenge them, or to play on their egos, what was the point of letting them know this path wasn’t for them?

Alexander couldn’t see the fox’s face, but he could already imagine its smug look, as they trudged up these steps so incredibly slowly.

Of course, he wasn’t taking into consideration that the steps themselves would have normally killed a regular person, this high up the first bout. Even if the master was indeed laughing at their attempt, their sheer determination still impressed him.

However, up on the plateau, something changed.

The celestial fox inside Gu Fang’s body suddenly twitched as the hair on his arms rose.

His eyes snapped toward the sky, where black clouds had started gathering lazily, rumbling with warning.

"What? How is that even possible?" he mumbled, rising from the bench he had been lazing on.

Walking toward the edge of Heavenly Ascent, the fox quickly tried to ascertain who was causing this turmoil, and found the culprit almost immediately.

Amongst the group of guests, at the complete back of the pack, a young Chinese man was struggling to push past the seventy-ninth step, and his body crackled with energy.

Liu Yan was sweating bullets, using his entire mana reserves to circulate within his body, trying with all his might to unearth more mana inside him, sleeping in his cells.

Up to now, the climb had been arduous, yes, but doable. But ever since he lifted his foot to take the eightieth step, his leg had been hovering over the step, unable to make contact with it.

He felt as if it was pushing against him, refusing him the right to lay his feet upon it, and even with all his efforts, his foot refused to make landfall.

He had cranked everything he could into his mana circulation, and nothing was changing. At this pace, he would faint from mana exhaustion before reaching the top, and he couldn’t bear the thought of failing himself or this group.

Alexander, from a few steps, could tell he was working himself to the bone and stopped on the eighty-sixth step to turn and look at him.

"Liu Yan, you can tap out. I’m sure the master here would gladly transfer your burden to me. Don’t push yourself too hard."

Liu Yan looked up at him, his gaze oscillating between defiance and desperation.

"I can’t do it. I don’t want to force burdens on you from my ineptitude. Let me do this!" he replied, clenching his fists.

From up the stairs, the master looked up again; the clouds lowering even more, and his face dropped.

"I would gladly transfer his burden to you. Better yet, how about we call it even? I cancel everyone’s burden, and you climb the alternate path. Call it youth’s foolishness. Yes?" he asked, his tone suddenly lacking the confidence from earlier.

Liu Yan looked at his conflicted face and grinned back at him.

"You would like that, wouldn’t you? Well, I refuse. I will conquer this staircase, whether it wants to or not!" he shouted.

And as he did, the darkened clouds dropped even lower, rumbling with menace.

Alex thought Liu Yan was using his magic to bolster his body, but his face scrunched up when the clouds reached low enough and entered his detection radius.

His eyes rose toward the clouds, which he could feel ooze with energy, and he shivered instinctively.

’That’s not mana... That’s pure Aether... What the hell is going on?’

The fox clicked his tongue, waving his hand and rushing down the stairs separating him from his guests.

"Up! Up the stairs, now!" he barked, flying past Alexander and his friends.

Alex felt the weight on his body vanish at the same time as all the others, and his fear confirmed itself.

Seeing the fox rush past him, he could tell the fox knew what was going on better than he did.

"Everyone up the stairs!" he called out, echoing the fox’s order.

But he didn’t budge from his step as his friends suddenly rushed up the last dozen or so steps separating them from the plateau.

After reaching it, Kary immediately turned to look at Alex and saw him rush to Liu Yan’s side, who still looked like he had the weight of the world on him.

But she saw something around him that made her worry. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

He was crackling with static energy, like a Tesla coil reacting to objects near it.

"What is your name, boy?" the fox asked, stopping before Liu Yan.

Liu Yan looked at him defiantly, but his stomach turned, wondering why he was suddenly right before him.

"Liu Yan. His name is Liu Yan. What is going on, fox?" Alex replied in his stead.

The celestial fox glared at Alexander, angry that he was still here after he had ordered everyone up.

But he ignored the demon boy. He had more pressing issues.

Seeing the clouds start to flash in golden light, he knew time was of the essence.

"Liu Yan, I need you to focus. You are about to experience something that shouldn’t even happen to people with no Qi, and it will be extremely life-threatening. You will die if you lose focus even a fraction of a second. Do you understand?"

Liu Yan’s defiance wavered, and he looked at Alexander.

Alexander sighed at being ignored but nodded at Liu Yan.

Liu Yan then focused on the man before him, nodding in response.

"Good. The steps under you will soon give way to your passage as a test. You will be able to step on the eightieth step. But that won’t be the end of it. Once you do, the skies will punish you for your arrogance.

"Lightning will strike at you nine times. Resist the nine times, and you will become incredibly stronger than you were before stepping foot on this mountain. But lose focus, and all that awaits you is death. Understood?"

Liu Yan nodded again, raising his eyes at the sky, as thunder clapped above them.

"We have to go," the fox said, turning away from Liu Yan.

"What about him?" Alex asked. "What will happen?"

"He’s going through tribulation. If you stay near him, the heavens will strike you down. Be my guest if you are foolish enough to think you can resist the powers of the heavens," the fox answered, rushing back up the steps.

Thunder clapped again, and Alex glanced at Liu Yan.

"I’ll be fine. Go!" Liu Yan said, closing his eyes to focus.

Alex clicked his tongue in annoyance and ran up the steps.

’Survive, Liu Yan. You owe it to yourself.’