"Stay strong!" a manly voice cheered.
Wiping his tears away, Tang Lin looked around.
'Was that the female guardian spirit? But it sounded like a man? WAIT! Don't tell me that she was a man the whole time!' he thought in horror and temporarily forgetting his sorrow.
"I'm over here", the voice spoke out again as a figure appeared on the same platform next to him.
'Oh, phew', Tang Lin thought as he realised it was a different guardian spirit, who was a man.
The male guardian spirit seemed to be in his mid-thirties with long, black unkempt hair and an unshaven beard. Despite his simple clothes, like a white shirt and a pair of trousers, Tang Lin could tell he was incredibly strong and unfathomable from the aura he exuded.
"What's wrong?" the male guardian spirit asked.
"Ah, nothing's wrong", Tang Lin replied back as he waved both of his arms in front of him in denial.
"You were probably wondering why I appeared instead of Xue'er, weren't you?" he asked after noticing Tang Lin look around.
"Xue'er?" Tang Lin asked.
"Yes, the girl you saw before, who took care of the first trial", he answered.
"Technically, she's meant to be here right now, but your performance so far has been outstanding. Being able to reach the 90th step safe zone is testimony to that", he added.
'Safe zone?' he thought.
'Oh, now that he mentioned it, the pressure from the trial has completely dissipated', Tang Lin thought as he checked his body's condition.
"Who are you then and why is there a safe zone at the 90th step?" he inquired doubtfully.
"I'm Bing Qiling. I take care of the third and fourth trial, while Xue'er looks after the first and second trial", Bing Qiling informed him.
"Then who looks over the last trial?" Tang Lin asked curiously.
"Even I don't know. Since the creation of this ancient inheritance, no one has made it to the fifth trial. So, they've never had to make an appearance", he answered.
"Anyways, that's not what I'm here for. You're one of the best geniuses in this batch of contestants even if you were to be compared to the past contestants", Bing Qiling applauded.
"One of?" Tang Lin asked.
"Well yes, a few others who came in with you have also managed to make it this far. The only difference is that they failed at the 89th step and were unable to understand and break free from the shackles of their past. Inevitably, their minds and bodies were being devoured by the Law of Death, but I still saved them in time of course", he said.
"But you… YOU! You managed to find yourself even within that state of isolation and darkness. You managed to understand, accept, and carve your own path forward even through your darkest moments. That's what set you apart from the other geniuses you came in with", Bing Qiling said with admiration.
"The reason I'm here is to cheer you on, yet warn you of the dangers lying ahead of you", he said as he went back to the main topic.
"Dangers? Cheering me on? I don't understand what you're talking about", replied Tang Lin as he was overwhelmed by the influx of information.
"You see. You've reached a very special and important milestone. This is the reason I'm explaining so much to you", he said.
"As we are guardians binded to this ancient inheritance, we are unable to leave or live our lives as we please. However, there is one exception", he said before stopping.
"If we are able to find a trial contestant that can complete the trials we manage to pretty much the highest degree, we will be set free and allowed to leave this place and live our lives as we please", Bing Qiling said with unimaginable hope in his eyes.
"Tang Lin. You've already managed to finish Xue'er's first trial to the absolute highest degree by killing a beast equal in strength to a God-tier beast. For this trial, you need to at least reach the 99th step to set her free and perhaps…", he paused.
"Perhaps you'll even manage to awaken the being slumbering within the final trial, but regardless of that, you'll definitely be able to obtain high-tier rewards from the third trial or even low to middle-tier level rewards from the fourth trial", he continued.
"Do you understand why I'm cheering you now? This is not just for Xue'er, but myself. You're a talent that we haven't seen in ages, so I hope you'll be able to set us both free from this endless cycle of desolation", said Bing Qiling with a tired expression.
"So, that's why. Well, I can't promise or guarantee anything, but I'll try my best", Tang Lin answered.
"However, what dangers exactly were you referring to?", he asked with a gulp.
"There's no official name for the last ten steps. However, we guardians call it the Zenithal Calamities. This is because one has to overcome a natural disaster every step onwards, but only five types of natural disasters will appear", explained Bing Qiling.
"Not only that, the order of the type of natural disaster you encounter is completely random. However, it will always follow a certain pattern in its difficulty", he informed.
"First of all, all of the natural disasters start developing in its minor form at the same time and then evolve to its major form. However, your presence will instantly accelerate the evolution of whichever step you are on to its major form when you reach the border to the next tribulation step. In addition, by the time you reach the 99th step, it will have already evolved to its major form. Another thing to note is that they all have the same difficulty, but what makes it hard is having to overcome multiple natural disasters at once as you climb the steps of Zenithal Calamities", Bing Qiling continued to explain.
'SHIT! The calamities stack? What the fuck am I meant to do against that?' Tang Lin thought as he trembled nervously.
"Ok, good luck! I'm not meant to be here, but I wanted to talk to you privately, so I need to go now. If you need to ask anything, while you're in the safe zone, Xue'er will come to look after you instead. NO PRESSURE!" his words echoed in Tang Lin's mind as his body disappeared.
Tang Lin frowned at his parting words as he sat down to meditate and adjust his mind and body to an optimal condition.
*Half an hour later.*
'Phew. I'm in peak condition now', he thought as he clenched his fists.
'Oh yeah! I haven't observed any changes to the stage yet', remembered Tang Lin as he bent down to peek at the situation.
*Boom!*
*Crash!*
*Fwoosh!*
*Inaudible screams.*
'Oof. What the fuck is happening down there!' Tang Lin questioned as he raised an eyebrow.
There were disasters and chaos everywhere down below.
'Wouldn't want to be down there full of disasters', he thought with a sigh of relief, while feeling safe from above.
"Haha…ha? Disasters? Zenithal Calamities?!?" Tang Lin mumbled loudly as he alternated looks from the last ten steps and the situation below.
However, when Tang Lin looked over to the last ten steps in front of him that should've been there, they were nowhere to be found.
'Oh shit…' he thought with a big gulp.
"Xue'er, are you there?" Tang Lin shouted anxiously.
*An incense stick of time later.*
"Xue'er?" Tang Lin asked again after not seeing her appear.
"Yes?" a voice replied from behind spookily, which almost caused Tang Lin to fall off the ledge from shock.
"SHIT! Stop doing that!" he said as he clutched his heart tightly.
"Stop doing what?" she replied in confusion.
"Nevermind. Anyway, I just wanted to confirm that the Zenithal Calamities I have to face against don't include those ones down below", Tang Lin asked, while pointing downwards with one arm and wiping the sweat on his forehead with the other.
Xue'er simply smiled back at his question.
"Don't worry, the difficulty will be automatically adjusted according to your cultivation base", Xue'er told him with a smile.
"The only advice I can give you is to start as soon as possible, because the Zenithal Calamities grow stronger over time", she advised as she disappeared.
"So, think of this as a little gift from me to you", her voice whispered into his ear as she appeared behind him and pushed him off the 90th step safe zone.
'Huh…? Wait… what just happened?' he thought the moment he was pushed off the safe zone.
"MOTHERFUCKER!!" Tang Lin yelled saltily as he flailed his arms and legs in the air, while falling.