Unbeknownst to them, the time it took to take a single step amounted to days. Yet to them, it felt as though only a few minutes had passed.

On the fourth step, Grey could no longer see the captain. It was as though she was growing fainter and fainter as she disappeared into the fog.

In truth, the path to the top of the crystal palace only consisted of fourteen steps. Each step was like a trial, as overwhelming pressure would be felt by whoever stepped on it.

The captain had only managed to reach the ninth step, but this was already her limit. She felt that if she tried to reach the tenth step, her body would surely crumble into flesh and blood.

But she also felt that if she reached the tenth step, she would be closer to her destination. Not only that… she sensed that a serendipity lay in wait on the tenth step.

Several breaths passed before she gathered the power of her cultivation and pushed her body to its limit.

As she took the next step, the captain suddenly felt as though she was falling backwards into a deep, black abyss.

Her body plunged into darkness, and her vision dimmed. But when she opened her eyes, she found herself standing on a hill dyed red.

All around her were several thousand corpses, and in the sky was a red sun that shone brightly upon the land.

The captain saw that she was covered in blood, her body riddled with injuries. When she looked around, she realized that the red hill she stood upon was made of dead bodies.

Its redness came from the vast amount of blood that had seeped into the ground.

The moment the captain realized all this, the several thousand corpses on the ground trembled and turned to look at her with lifeless gazes.

Those whose bodies were incomplete struggled to stand, yet still stared at her with cold, eerie expressions that sent chills down her spine.

Violet, the only living being in this place, felt as though she was being stared at by countless eyes.

However, instead of fear or apprehension, the captain's face revealed an eerie, mocking smile.

In such a place, a smile like that was deeply unsettling. The cold glances from the corpses grew even colder as they slowly stood up and fixed their gaze upon her.

Some, with broken and twisted bodies, faced forward but cracked their necks to look at her.

Seeing their hateful gazes, the captain's smile widened even further.

"Haha, so this is my serendipity. This red sun in the sky symbolizes a reality of the Soul Ascendancy realm. This reality should be the Endless Destruction World…"

Hearing her words, the corpses began to move towards her with cold intent. But the captain did not flinch. Instead, her smile widened.

With her blood-covered face, it looked terrifying.

At that moment, the multitude of corpses charged at the captain with killing intent. It was as if they wanted to kill her for disturbing the peace of this land.

They wanted her dead because… she was not one of them.

"Haha, wonderful… come." The captain laughed crazily as killing intent burned in her eyes. A bloodthirsty aura that she had suppressed from the beginning began to spread from her.

As it did, dense black smoke rose from her body and filled the air. From this smoke came shrill cries of pain.

Several wisps of smoke twisted and transformed into small, screeching figures of ghosts and malicious spirits.

They let out heart-rending wails as they emerged. The bloodthirsty aura surrounding the captain grew even denser.

The black fog soon converged and formed a pitch-black spear. Emotions such as resentment, hatred, despair, and fear radiated from it.

This was the first time the captain had released her full bloodthirsty and crazed aura. It was also the first time the true black spear had appeared.

With a mad look in her eyes, the captain licked her lips and grinned.

"This is my serendipity… but only after I've killed all of you can it truly be mine!" she roared, thrusting the black spear forward.

It moved like a blur, piercing through several corpses and killing them instantly.

But even as many fell, the army of the dead did not stop. They continued charging toward her, bodies in various stages of decay, all intent on killing her.

Even the corpses she had pierced rose again and crawled toward her.

But the captain did not care. After casting the spear, she used her fists and hands to fight.

With each blow, several corpses were sent flying, their bodies dismembered as parts scattered in all directions.

Even the mountain of corpses beneath her began to move, as bony, decayed hands reached out to grab her legs.

But with a single stomp, those hands were crushed into rotten paste.

Inevitably, injuries began to accumulate on her body. However, the captain did not care and continued slaughtering every corpse around her.

Only after eight hours, when all the corpses had been reduced to dust, did she finally collapse into fatigue's embrace.

But when she closed her eyes and opened them again, she found she was no longer in that world.

Instead, she was still climbing the stairs. Her foot hovered over the tenth step, just a few breaths away from setting it down.

When she opened her eyes fully, her foot had already stepped onto the tenth step.

At that moment, the world trembled.

One of the six suns in the sky dimmed significantly. The sun that dimmed… was the red sun representing death and destruction in the Soul Ascendancy realm.

The captain felt as though she had been bestowed something.

Inside her mind, a small, bright sun appeared. It was very similar to the red sun in the sky, so similar that they could almost be considered the same.

The only differences were their size and the aura they emitted.

The red sun in that world was one of the eyes of a Soul Ascendancy expert.

Although the red sun within her sea of consciousness was real, it was fundamentally different, as it had no true source.

It was like a sun shining where the moon should be.

The captain felt a strange, alien sensation trying to overwhelm her, something filled with immense malice.

Yet that feeling was faint, almost nonexistent… and yet undeniably present. It was like a brand imprinted upon her mind.

Others might not recognize what this sun was, but the captain instinctively understood.

It was a mark that would aid her when she attempted to ascend to the Soul Ascendancy realm.

If ancient experts were to see this brand, they would go mad with excitement.

Suddenly, a dense bloodthirsty aura burst from her body, only to vanish just as quickly.

Grey, who was below her, sensed the sudden change and looked up at her figure. But just as quickly as it appeared, the feeling disappeared, as though it had never existed.

Now, as one of the suns in the sky dimmed, the overwhelming pressure they felt while advancing lessened significantly.