As the Sect Master gave the command, tens of thousands of people ran towards the Path-chasing Stairway.
The path of immortal cultivation was extremely difficult and among the many people, only a few could meet the requirements of the inner sect.
For some reason, when the Human Immortal Sect was established, there were many cultivators with good talent, but now there were fewer and fewer.
Many cultivators were stuck at their current level, but the resources available to the Human Immortal Sect were not lacking. Without any successors, the Human Immortal Sect would probably gradually decline in the long run.
"I hope there will be more talented people," Sect Master Yue Xiyun sighed.
"Sect Master, you don't have to worry. The path of immortal cultivation has always been difficult, everything is determined by fate," said an old man behind Yue Xiyun.
"Perhaps the luck of the sect has been relatively poor recently, but luck is illusory. It's sometimes high and sometimes low. Maybe the luck is low now, but it will be high in the future," another elder said.
Yue Xiyun remained silent, and her gaze fell upon a young man in the crowd.
The young man was running towards the Path-chasing Stairway as if he was flying.
"Chen Xiaojie, the seventh level of the Qi Refinement Stage. His cultivation progress is extremely fast. He seems to have awakened some special constitution." Yue Xiyun looked at this young man and said, "If his performance is good, then I'll take him as my disciple."
Actually, before the inner sect assessment, the Sect Master and the elders had already studied the information of the current outer sect disciple.
They prioritize talent as the most important factor because talent determined the upper limit of one's abilities. However, some individuals who rely solely on hard work and a bit of luck may advance a few stages in cultivation, but they quickly hit a wall. These individuals are immediately dismissed.
They had also reviewed Lin Bai's information, but because he was stuck at the second level of the Qi Refinement Stage for too long, they believed that the seventh level was his limit. It was easy for him to hit a wall in the later stages of cultivation, so they were not optimistic about his potential.
...
At this point, Lin Bai had already brought Zhao Fei'er with him to the bottom of the Path-chasing Stairway. Looking up, many people had already started climbing the stairs.
The stairway was so high that one could not see the top at a glance, and they had no idea what was waiting for them at the top.
They had heard rumors that there were some secret places within the sect. Usually, the secret places were hidden by Formation Spell, which would only be opened on special occasions. This experience broadened Lin Bai's horizons.
Since the Sect Master and a group of elders were monitoring the inner sect assessment from the beginning, no one dared to cause trouble.
Lin Bai also saw Brother Hu at this moment. Brother Hu glanced at Lin Bai and gave him a thumbs up.
Lin Bai also gave Brother Hu a thumbs up to encourage him.
Brother Hu took a deep breath and charged up the stairs, but it felt as if he had hit a cotton ball. His strength was suddenly weakened, and he slowed down considerably. After struggling to climb a few levels, he was panting heavily.
Looking at the other climbers, many of them were also struggling on the higher levels of the stairway.
At this moment, a young man took a quick step and rushed up the stairs without being hindered like Brother Hu. He climbed the stairs quickly as if he was walking on flat ground. In a short while, he had already climbed more than a hundred steps.
This person was Chen Xiaojie.
Upon seeing this, the Sect Master on the high platform nodded in approval.
Lin Bai and Zhao Fei'er also began their ascent.
Lin Bai took a leisurely pace and climbed over ten steps. He found it was not too difficult and turned to look back at Zhao Fei'er. He noticed that Zhao Fei'er's speed was a bit slow but she was still making her way up.
Zhao Fei'er waved her hand at him, indicating that he should go ahead and not wait for her.
Lin Bai nodded and infused his legs with spiritual energy, taking three steps at a time as he climbed quickly.
Not long after, he had already reached the hundredth step. When he turned around, he saw a crowded mass of people below.
Meanwhile, there were already over a hundred figures ahead of him on the higher steps. They were in different positions on the Path-chasing Stairway.
"A hundred steps should warrant a reward of at least a thousand spirit stones!" Lin Bai muttered to himself, doing some calculations. A thousand steps would equal ten thousand spirit stones. He was confident that he was right.
Now that he had a partner to cultivate with, he would have more partners in the future. He had to think of a way to earn more spirit stones.
Lin Bai felt that there was a force suppressing him on the Path-chasing Stairway, and the higher he climbed, the stronger it became.
After a short while, he had already climbed 500 levels of stairs, and looking back, he saw that the rest of the group was far behind him.
At the same time, he noticed that Zhao Fei'er had already climbed to the 300 level stairs.
Lin Bai continued to move upwards. At this moment, he was still taking three steps at a time. Although the pressure had increased, his physique was strong, so it did not seem to be a problem at all.
600 steps!
700 steps!
900 steps!
1,500 steps!
Lin Bai still felt at ease, but when he looked back, the others were scattered and slowing down.
Moreover, he had already surpassed more than a dozen people who were ahead of him earlier.
Those people were surprised to see Lin Bai taking three steps at a time.
Lin Bai received the system's lifespan bonus, so his physique became very strong.
When he climbed to the 2,000 steps, Lin Bai saw a person, Ouyang Ruoxue.
At this moment, Ouyang Ruoxue was more than 200 steps ahead of him. She was wearing a snow-white tight-fitting dress and walking at a moderate pace. She didn't seem to be struggling.
Lin Bai had a better impression of this person because he had seen Ouyang Ruoxue several times when he was collecting the sect's monthly spirit stones. Moreover, she was especially good-looking. Most importantly, the system recognized her. If he was lucky enough to become her partner, it would be perfect.
Not long after, the distance between the two people had shortened by a lot. At this time, they were now separated by just over a hundred levels of stairs, then soon fifty levels of stairs.
Thirty steps, twenty steps.
Lin Bai suddenly slowed down his footsteps and decided to follow Ouyang Ruoxue for a while. He was below her while she was above.
Perhaps for the sake of convenience during exercise, Ouyang Ruoxue was wearing tight-fitting clothes that revealed the curves of her entire body. Her slender thighs were climbing up step by step.
At this moment, there were only two of them in this position.
However, Ouyang Ruoxue was so focused on climbing the stairs that she did not notice Lin Bai, who was not far behind her. After all, she couldn't be as relaxed as Lin Bai.
Every step she took consumed a lot of her spiritual energy, from her calves to her thighs.
She wasn't wearing a dress, but rather a pair of tight-fitting pants that tightly wrapped around her body, making her look exceptionally sexy.
It wasn't that she wanted to dress like this, but it was the only way to save energy while climbing.
Lin Bai was not far behind her, climbing up slowly. He kept his eyes fixed on Ouyang Ruoxue.