Ye An raised his head and looked towards the mountaintop, urged on by Huang Zexun.
Huang Zexun frowned, a foreboding feeling rising within him.
Ye An didn't take shortcuts like himself to forcibly step onto the steps that couldn't be tread upon, but steadily climbed step by step.
When he was in the air, it was painless for himself, only needing to endure the impact upon landing.
Ye An, however, was different. Every step he took was accompanied by excruciating pain. The more steps he ascended, the deeper the pain piled upon him!
His achievement was at 5555 steps.
Huang Zexun considered himself quite formidable.
Because everyone was just entering the Fifth Realm, with progress only about 5%, Chengdu had not yet been reached.
Achieving 5555 steps was a standard indicating progress around 55% in the Fifth Realm, a prodigy.
He had already crossed half a great realm.
Even if Ye An could also cross, he didn't believe he could go so far!
At the moment he stepped on the 5500th step, sure enough, the majestic force of the Vermilion Bird Stage surged into Ye An's internal organs, feeling as if his whole body was burning, as if he were in a purgatory of molten lava.
But the next second.
The dense yellow soil appeared outside his skin.
Huang Zexun narrowed his eyes.
The power of Xuanwu?
Fire generating earth.
The invisible flames within the Vermilion Bird Stage became stronger.
The more Xuanwu earth covered Ye An's body, the stronger his defense!
Huang Zexun took a deep breath.
He knew there was this power within Ye An, naturally guessed that he might do this.
He wasn't worried before that Ye An would use Xuanwu's power to resist the Vermilion Bird Stage.
Because Xuanwu's power had a huge flaw.
Too heavy!
This weight might be too much even for the user themselves to bear.
Now, with Xuanwu earth attached to Ye An's body, the strength of this thick earth was no longer under Ye An's control but depended on the Vermilion Bird Stage beneath his feet.
The stronger the flames of the Vermilion Bird Stage, the stronger the defense of the earth.
But correspondingly, the weight would also increase exponentially!
Huang Zexun was born into a wealthy family and had been exposed to various powerful forces since childhood.
He knew very well how terrifying the weight of Xuanwu earth was.
At this moment, Ye An might have resisted the flames of the Vermilion Bird Stage, but he had to bear the weight of a mountain!
The thick earth grew madly on his body, quickly covering Ye An's figure.
This scene would make many who had once yearned for Xuanwu earth envious.
Where could one find such power?
And there are side effects?
And it's uncontrollable.
What kind of thing is this?
Other earth-based powers might also be nurtured by flames.
After all, the Five Elements interact with and restrain each other, and water elementalists are naturally unable to fight lightning elementalists; this is normal.
But there is no element as heavy as Xuanwu earth, so severely restrained!
Regarding this issue, Ye An had thought about it himself.
Xuanwu was known as the King of Force among the Yao Clan, naturally possessing unparalleled strength.
So he didn't care about the weight of Xuanwu earth at all because he could carry it.
On the contrary, the heavier the Xuanwu earth, the greater his attack power.
Any warrior who dared to use flames to restrain Xuanwu himself would ultimately be reduced to ashes.
Because Xuanwu is not restrained by flames; on the contrary, the stronger the flames, the stronger he becomes.
Xuanwu earth is not a double-edged sword.
Everything depends on strength.
If the strength is powerful enough, then Xuanwu earth is the densest, strongest, and heaviest energy body under heaven.
At that time, Ye An also thought of a word.
Blunt weapon!
Xuanwu earth is one of the strongest blunt weapons, the source of which is strength.
In a sense, human fists are also blunt weapons.
Both are combined.
Ye An had the confidence to shake everything in the world with absolute strength and weight!
So everything depends on strength.
What a coincidence...
On the Vermilion Bird Stage.
The Xuanwu earth on Ye An's body turned into thick armor, seeming to have reached a certain limit.
Below.
Huang Zexun couldn't help swallowing his saliva, seeming to see indentations appearing on the steps beneath Ye An.
The ancient and desolate Vermilion Bird Stage, he didn't know if it was really being crushed by weight, or if the temperature was too high, distorting the image, causing him to have an illusion.
Can Ye An still move forward carrying such weight?
The next second!
Huang Zexun's pupils suddenly contracted.
He keenly felt that under the heavy Xuanwu earth, a powerful force suddenly surged in Ye An's knees, forcibly lifting the thick soil, stepping onto the 5501st step.
At the moment his right foot touched the ground.
"Boom!"
A loud sound, enough to prove the weight of that yellow soil, caused Huang Zexun's heart to skip a beat.
It also indicated that Ye An possessed a power that he simply couldn't comprehend.
He continued forward without using martial intent, only pure strength!
When he came out of Tianqi Star, Ye An didn't have such strength.
But later, he learned a skill called "Mountain Collapse"!
The prerequisite attribute for comprehending this skill was strength!
In this epic, there was a simple but clear description of "Mountain Collapse".
"Having the strength to lift mountains, thus causing mountains to collapse."
Without the strength to lift a high mountain, it would be impossible to collapse it.
After gaining the strength to lift mountains, combined with the eruption of the Linlin and the amplification of the war fire.
You can have the power of mountain collapse!
So Xuanwu earth is simply the perfect artifact for practicing mountain collapse.
Lift the mountain, lift the mountain.
Xuanwu earth itself is a mountain!
Ye An was trying hard day and night to lift this mountain.
At this moment.
The path from 5500 steps upward was not a difficult challenge for him.
He repeated this every day.
Huang Zexun didn't realize.
He was using his own limits to challenge Ye An's daily routine.
5520 steps.
Suddenly, Ye An stopped, took a long breath.
Huang Zexun couldn't help swallowing his saliva, clenching his fists slightly. It wasn't until this moment that he realized his palms were full of cold sweat.
Can he still go up?
The Xuanwu earth on his body has already become so thick!
But after a brief change of breath, Ye An continued forward, from 5520 steps to 5530 steps, each step taking a bit longer, reaching 6 seconds.
After stepping on 5530 steps, Ye An took another breath and moved forward.
Huang Zexun suddenly looked down.
His face changed slightly because he saw faint footprints on the Vermilion Bird Stage behind Ye An.
Very light.
Light enough to make him wonder if there was dust on the Vermilion Bird Stage, the footprint left by Ye An's shoe.
But suddenly.
He looked down at the steps beneath him.
Huang Zexun's pupils suddenly contracted, then hurriedly reached out to touch the fiery red stone steps.
"There really are footprints."
He muttered to himself.
It wasn't because the high temperature made his vision blurry.
On the Vermilion Bird Stage, there were indeed one footprint after another.
It is very obvious that this footprint is definitely not left by himself.
Then it's Ye An?
Huang Zexun looked down.
Starting from the 5400th step, there were these faint or even blurry footprints on each step.
Suddenly.
He looked up sharply at the higher steps Ye An had just climbed.
There are footprints at 5535 steps.
5536, 37, 39... 45, 46, 46... 50, 51, 52...