Upon hearing Elder Hong's words, Neil felt an intense excitement and determination to join the Celestial Slaughter Palace. After glancing around at the children who were struggling to ascend with great difficulty, he turned to Elder Hong and asked while looking at the palace above, "Elder Hong, what is your prediction for the level I will reach?"
At that moment, Neil was observing a boy who had surpassed the hundred-step mark but looked extremely exhausted. Elder Hong responded, "Perhaps you can reach the 200 mark. As for beyond that, I don't know. Despite everything, you children have not yet begun cultivating."
In reality, Elder Hong was flattering Neil, perhaps due to the potential connection with the Palace Lord. Otherwise, he wouldn't have paid much attention to Neil, who had no remarkable talent. Of course, Neil knew that Elder Hong was flattering him but didn't comment much on it. He then looked at the first step and placed his foot on it.
At that moment, in the middle of the Celestial Slaughter Palace, there was a young man in his twenties. He opened his eyes and began to pierce through space with his gaze, then looked at Neil and muttered, "Interesting, this boy is not affected by my killing intent." But what surprised him even more was the look the boy gave him.
Neil then released a small amount of killing intent and mixed it into the surrounding air. He knew that the person watching him could handle the field of killing intent as if it were part of his own body. He said in a voice barely audible, "Isn't spying on others a bad thing, elder brother?"
The young man was greatly astonished but transmitted the voice to Neil's ear, saying, "Sorry." It was a single word, and although it sounded a bit cold, Neil felt sincerity in it.
Neil continued ascending the steps one after another as if he were strolling. At first, no one paid him much attention, but after reaching the 100th step, many eyes were on him, and one of them mocked, "It seems the talentless boy has finally arrived here."
The first hundred steps were not very difficult for the students, as more than 80% of them had already surpassed the hundredth step.
Neil paid little attention to the mocking boy and continued ascending step by step. Upon reaching the 200th threshold, he found that there were now dozens of students, and he encountered an old acquaintance, Prince William of the Fath Empire. William was struggling on the steps beyond 200.
William noticed Neil's gaze, and upon seeing Neil, a slight shock appeared on his face, along with some annoyance at the fact that a seemingly useless talent like Neil could reach his level and even appear to be better.
Neil paid no attention to William and continued climbing, surpassing one step after another until he reached nearly the 300 mark. At this point, there was only one person left, Lily, the girl with legendary talent. When she saw Neil next to her, Lily was astonished. After exchanging greetings, Neil continued his ascent.
400, 500, 600, 700, 800
At this moment, Elder Hong was in great shock. The test was not just about cultivation level but also willpower, and even he could not reach this high level without using suppression of his cultivation level, let alone a boy who had just turned seven.
By then, Neil had already reached the 990th step. There were 9 steps left, but he had reached his limit and could not continue the remaining nine steps. Suddenly, a notification appeared:
"Do you want to assimilate the killing intent?"
Neil was pleased with this feature but did not understand why the message was delayed. Then another notification appeared:
"Host, in fact, the previous killing intent was not worth assimilating."
After seeing this, Neil agreed to assimilate the killing intent. He felt the power enter his body, but within a few seconds, the killing intent suddenly disappeared, and the door in front of him opened.