Chapter 75 - Acting!

Leng Yan’s action of holding his head with both hands was seen by Sun Hao and the others as a signal to stop. To them, it seemed that Leng Yan had reached his limit and would not continue anymore.

Indeed, Leng Yan’s assimilation of faith had reached its peak, but that did not mean it was the end of his journey on the heavenly ladder!

As his soul’s faith stabilized, the pain in Leng Yan’s mind eased as well.

“1,022nd level, what will be my limit?” Leng Yan looked ahead, wondering where he would ultimately stop.

After adjusting his body, Leng Yan lifted his right foot once more and slammed it down heavily. This step was not held back, and it erupted with a thunderous roar!

With the first step down, he immediately took a second. After taking two continuous steps, the repelling force beneath his feet was nearly about to throw Leng Yan off the ladder.

“If this continues, I might not be able to suppress the force beneath my feet and be flung off. What should I do? Should I give up?” Leng Yan felt as if he was stepping on a trampoline, bobbing up and down, with the constant threat of losing control and being catapulted away.

“Two steps! This… this must be his ultimate limit, 1024! Just six more steps, and he will surpass me!” Li Nan’s face was extremely grim. He had relied on the resources within the sect to quickly cultivate to the Late Stage of the Heavenly Realm. Now, as he aimed for the unification realm, he required even more resources. If Leng Yan surpassed him now, he wouldn’t know how long it would take to attempt the breakthrough again!

In contrast, Wang Han was much calmer. He had already identified Leng Yan as the primary target to eliminate in this competition. No matter how good the trial results were, they would be useless if Leng Yan were dead.

Meanwhile, Leng Yan was still contemplating how to deal with the repelling force and was unaware that he had become a target for others.

“Repulsion, oppression, balance… Yes, balance! As long as I master balance, I don’t have to worry about the repelling force. And to achieve balance, I need pressure to offset the repelling force!” A flash of insight crossed Leng Yan’s mind as he identified the core issue. However, the current challenge remained: How could he transform the repelling force into oppressive strength? With his current capability, he could divert the repelling force elsewhere, but he still lacked the ability to convert it into a force of oppression.

“I’m not sure if I can use the space within the immortal land to achieve this step,” Leng Yan pondered as he thought of the immortal land.

The space within the immortal land was vast. If Leng Yan could redirect all the repelling forces into the immortal land, he wouldn’t have to worry about the balance issue.

It was as if Leng Yan was channeling the repelling forces into his mind, letting his battle faith counteract them. Now, he envisioned the space in the immortal land as his mind, and the wheel within it as the object to withstand the repelling forces.

This tactic bordered on cheating, but Leng Yan chose to proceed because the flow of repelling forces within his body would further strengthen him.

The primary advantage was its simplicity; he didn’t need to think about converting the repelling force into oppressive force.

However, Leng Yan was aware of his limits. Even if this method worked, he couldn’t continue indefinitely, perhaps no more than a hundred steps, to avoid exposing his tactics to observers like Xuan Yi.

How would Leng Yan feel if he knew that over a hundred thousand people were watching him?

At this point, what was being tested wasn’t Leng Yan’s strength, but his acting skills. He needed to appear as if he were struggling, ensuring no one realized how easy it actually was, to avoid unnecessary trouble.

The reason Leng Yan couldn’t rely on his own abilities to go further wasn’t due to a lack of strength compared to Sun Hao and the others; they had also used unconventional means to reach their achievements. So far, Leng Yan’s method didn’t count as cheating because his battle faith had become part of his strength.

By using spiritual awareness to guide the repelling forces into his body and letting them flow through every corner, Leng Yan’s body became more resilient.

When Leng Yan felt that his body could no longer withstand the force, he began to communicate with the immortal land, directing the pressure into it.

Unexpectedly, the introduction of pressure caused a change in the immortal land. The wheel began to rotate with the pressure, and Leng Yan suddenly felt that the repelling force was being absorbed without him needing to guide it.

This unexpected change caught Leng Yan off guard, but he remained calm. He let the immortal land continue its work while he focused his spirit on his performance.

With each “strenuous” step he took, Li Nan’s heart trembled, and Wang Han felt even more shocked. The murderous intent in Wang Han’s eyes was almost tangible.

A trickle of blood flowed from Leng Yan’s mouth, sweat beaded on his forehead, presenting the image of someone pushing himself to the limit. Meanwhile, Leng Yan was internally considering how to make his act even more convincing.

“I used a blood pearl from the Barbarian Tribe to reach the 1,080th level. He must have some treasure as well; otherwise, it would be impossible to pass the 1,000th level. Li Nan and Wang Han’s treasures aren’t obtainable, but I must acquire this guy’s treasure,” Sun Hao thought to himself with a smile on his lips.

In the Five Elements Sect’s Yun Tian Pavilion, Xuan Yi, Yanyan, and others were seated in the hall. In the middle of the hall, a scholar in a white robe sat with closed eyes and an inexplicable expression on his face.

After a while, the scholar opened his eyes and spoke in a puzzled tone, “Strange! This young man clearly redirected the repelling forces somewhere, so he shouldn’t be struggling like this. Why does he appear this way?”

“Don’t be surprised. This lad is deep and calculating. He probably guessed we would be watching him, so he’s putting on a show for us,” Xuan Yi said with a beard-stroking smile.

“You do know this boy well!” Yanyan, with his fiery red hair blowing in the wind, smiled slightly as he spoke.

“I warn you all, don’t get any ideas about Leng-Ge, or I’ll beat you up!” Long Qing, with a somewhat arrogant expression, ran out from behind Yanyan, waving her small fists threateningly.

Hearing this, everyone felt a bit awkward, and Yanyan quickly pulled Long Qing back.

With each step, Leng Yan spat blood, truly making a formidable display. His face was pale, and his back was hunched, looking as if he was about to crawl.

This sight evoked admiration for Leng Yan’s perseverance!

Continuing to use this force to refine his body, Leng Yan aimed for the 1,030th step. But he decided this would be his last; he couldn’t keep up the charade any longer.

“He won’t make it! He just can’t!” Li Nan muttered nervously to himself. But with Leng Yan’s shout of determination, he successfully reached the 1,030th step.

That would have been impressive enough, but Leng Yan stumbled, accidentally stepping once more, which left Li Nan looking ashen-faced. Meanwhile, Wang Han’s eyes burned like fire.

“1,030th step, he’s surpassed Senior Brother Li and Senior Brother Wang. That’s incredible.”

“Let’s invite him to join our team later; our chances of winning this time will be much higher!”

In the plaza, everyone started planning how to recruit Leng Yan.

Leng Yan thought to himself that since he had stumbled, he might as well go with the flow-pretend to faint, as continuing the act might give him away.

He lay down on the steps, cutting off the pulling force of the immortal land and ceased resisting, allowing the repelling force to launch him into the air.

At that moment, a gigantic hand caught Leng Yan and disappeared, causing the cloud screen outside the crystal mirror to shatter and vanish into nothing.

“This boy is clever, but still a bit naive. Even so, if he grows, he might become difficult to control in the future,” an old man sitting to Xuan Yi’s left said in a low voice.

“If he’s easy to control, how could he possibly achieve greatness?” Xuan Yi replied.

“That makes sense. Let him continue to grow! After all, there’s still plenty of time,” Yanyan said, while playing with Long Qing.

…

Leng Yan kept up his pretense of being unconscious. The hand placed him in a room and then disappeared.

Leng Yan was indeed exhausted, so without worrying about anything else, he deployed a trace of spiritual awareness as a precaution and rested with his eyes closed.

The next day, Leng Yan felt he had fully recovered to his peak state, with his strength surpassing that of before.

As he exited the room, he happened to encounter an outer disciple who had come to find him.

“Senior Brother, Elder Xuan Yi has asked me to take you to the plaza to await the opening of the space battlefield and the official start of the Five Veins Competition!”

Leng Yan nodded with a smile, “Thank you!”

Following the outer disciple across several mountain paths, he finally saw the expansive plaza.

“Senior Brother, this is the plaza where the Water Vein disciples cultivate. You can go on ahead; I will take my leave now,” the outer disciple said respectfully.

Leng Yan took out five hundred primordial spirit elixirs and handed them to the outer disciple, saying, “Thank you very much!”