Chapter 53: Chapter 53- I Ran

In no time the boy caught up to Sol and he snorted as he rushed past to reach the top of the mountain first.

Sol smiled at him as he rushed by before he went back to calmly walking up the steps, this time one at a time; he even began humming a melody as he went along.

It was not until about half an incense stick’s worth of time went by that a bloodcurdling scream filled with immense pain and regret suddenly reverberated further up the steps.

Despite the tragic cry, Sol didn’t raise his head and only focused on walking up the staircase. After some time, he came across a puddling of blood just after the eight hundredth step.

“Ah, he didn’t die, did he?”

Even though Sol’s words sounded concerned, he was wearing a silly smiling.

However, if one looked closer, they might spot a hint of mischievousness hidden in his eyes.

It wasn’t that Sol had lied to the boy.

If he had continued climbing the staircase two steps at a time without stopping, he would have reached the top of the mountain without feeling the full effects of the steps he leapt over. But if he dared slow down, all the pressure of the steps he skipped would compound and come crashing down on his shoulders.

It was a gap that really wasn’t a gap Sol found when looking at the runes.

“He must have slowed down after he entered the illusions, ah, that’s too bad.”

Sol commented as he continued to climb the staircase at a steady pace.

“Father always said being jealous of someone just means that I lack confidence in myself. So, one should always be self-confident while avoiding feeling jealous of someone, though that self-confidence should never reach the point of arrogance. Hm-Hm-Hm…”

Sol went back to humming.

In truth, Sol had predicted this would happen. He was just being spiteful because of how the boy acted by not telling him the full details.

Back in the village, Sol never had someone be mean to him, and even if someone had, he would follow his father’s advice to always try to get along with his fellow tribe members, resulting in him looking the other way. So, because of that, he had never shown this spiteful nature that he had.

But by coming to the Martial Alliance Academy and meeting people like that boy, this side of him might just awaken in full force.

However, Sol still had reservations.

“The Academy will probably still accept him and a few others even though they haven’t reached the top.”

Sol speculated this was the case since this test to climb the mountain was extremely hard.

Even for him, the higher he got, the heavier the pressure the steps had. As for the illusions, those he could handle just fine. But from the difficulty, it also meant that the success rate of climbing the mountain must be low.

The Academy couldn’t possibly expect those kids to fully climb it, but rather just said those words, while they judge their determination and mental fortitude while climbing.

“They must have a certain number of steps a person has to pass before they can enter. I used my Heavenly Eyes to try and count the steps, but they couldn’t fully penetrate all the way up the mountain. But from my estimates, there should be around two thousand steps. And based on the difficulty, step three hundred must be the cut-off mark they’re using to accept disciples.”

Sol quickly analyzed this out of boredom but with frightening accuracy.

Although he made it look simple, Sol in fact has a rare ability of logical deduction. Something he had not realized was abnormal. But the old man had when he saw how quickly Sol was starting to create his own rune inscriptions.

“Yawn!”

Sol suddenly released a loud yawn after some time. He had been climbing the staircase for some time now, and he was starting to think maybe he was wrong about their being two thousand steps. He climbed over half of that, but he hadn’t seen the peak of the mountain, only more steps.

Sol decided to pause and look back down towards the bottom. He saw a few figures on the bottom steps, but when he tried to use his Heavenly Eyes to see things at a closer distance, he realized he couldn’t.

’There is probably another rune here that prevents these kinds of abilities from working. Even though I can still see through it, at a certain point, it becomes too much for my Heavenly Eyes.’

After thinking this, Sol looked down at his chest and asked.

“Little Zeel, how are you holding up?”

Sol had been careful all this while because he didn’t want the pressure to affect Little Zeel much.

Protecting Little Zeel while still wearing his bracelets added a bit of difficulty while climbing, but his Master’s training was a thousand times harder.

“Awoo! Awoo!”

Little Zeel’s reply came, and Sol showed a dumbfounded expression.

“It’s not?”

What Little Zeel responded with was that the increase in gravity wasn’t affecting him.

’Does it only work on humans?’

“Ah, if that’s the case…”

Sol suddenly bent his knees, and then…

Swoosh!

Quickly his figure resembled a bolt of lightning as he shot towards the top of the staircase.

He was leaping over up to ten to fifteen steps at a time.

Meanwhile, as Sol was running up the staircase like a madman, at the top there was a disciple who was in charge of greeting the people who successfully climbed the mountain.

He was sitting around a table with his head resting on his hand.

From this person’s nonchalant, and unfocused demeanor, one could tell he wasn’t taking his job seriously.

In fact, this job had become somewhat of a golden ticket among the disciples in the Martial Alliance Academy.

For some reason, the Academy was paying a lot for someone to sit here and wait for people to climb the mountain.

Maybe if this was an ordinary staircase, the person stationed here would be busy checking hundreds of disciples into the Academy. But these were the infamous Stairs of Hell, as dubbed by many in the Academy.

Anyone who calls it the Heavenly Staircase was someone who had never tried climbing it before!

No one was able to.

Rumors said that only three people had done it before in their youths, and those three were the current leader of the Martial Alliance Academy, the Patriarch of the Huashan Holy Sect, and someone called Hong-So.

Aside from those people, no one had managed to reach the mountain peak by climbing the staircase since the founding of the Martial Alliance Academy.

A well-paying job to sit around and do nothing? Who wouldn’t want that?

This young man leaned back his chair and kicked his foot up onto the table in a relaxed manner.

This job only came once a year when the Martial Alliance Academy recruit’s disciples through its second test, and every year there was a fierce battle inside the Martial Hall for it.

Many blood feuds had even formed because of this job. But he, Mu Ran, was able to get it.

Even now he couldn’t stop gloating about the fact that he beat everyone to obtain this job.

“There should be a few more hours until the test is over. There are more people here than last year, so I’ll be earning more Aether Stones than the last person here.”

Mu Ran chuckled to himself after he said that.

“Hmm, I would rather have the test last as long as possible. So, don’t give up easily you brats, try as hard as you can. How can you lack the determination to enter the Martial Alliance Academy? It’s only climbing some steps, ha-ha…”

As Mu Ran said this, he slightly rocked his chair back and forth a little while closing his eyes.

However, a strong breeze suddenly ruffled his clothes, before he then felt something blocking his face from the sun.

“Huh?”

Mu Ran, realizing this, slowly opened his eyes, but he suddenly came face to face with a pair of black orbs.

Mu Ran blinked before he realized those black orbs were someone’s pupils.

“Whoa!”

Mu Ran was so shocked that he jerked back and almost flipped over in his chair.

Sol took several steps back and cupped his fist before saying.

“I apologize for startling Senior Brother Mu Ran.”

There was a badge with the young man’s name on it, so Sol had been trying to read it, causing him to get so close.

“Brat, who are you?”

Mu Ran calmed his rapidly beating heart and asked as he glared at Sol. He realized this kid wasn’t a disciple from his plain robes.

Scratching his cheek, Sol answered.

“My name is Sol; I just climbed the mountain.”

“What?”

Mu Ran’s glare turned into shock when he heard that.

“You—What do you mean you climbed the mountain?”

“Uhh… I ran?”

Sol really didn’t know how else to answer that.

However, his answer caused Mu Ran’s eyes to bulge out of his head.

Though, Mu Ran suddenly thought of something and asked.

“Are you a disciple? Let me see your Disciple Token.”

Sol frowned at first, but then he remembered the token his Master gave him.

“Do you mean this?”

Seeing the Token, Mu Ran confirmed Sol was a disciple. He immediately went back to glaring at him.

Mu Ran wondered if Sol had tricked him on purpose. How could he run to the top of the mountain if he wasn’t a disciple?

Disciples of the Martial Alliance Academy were given Disciple Tokens when they became a disciple.

Aside from identifying someone as a disciple, the Token also had a few functions.

One such function was that it allowed disciples to walk up the steps and enter the academy without being hindered by the staircase’s pressure and illusions.

“Damn brat, if you’re a disciple then say so! And why aren’t you wearing your disciple robes?”

“Oh, I’m not a disciple yet, I just came here.”

“Huh? It’s already been a month, why are you just coming to the Academy? How did you receive your Disciple Token?”

Mu Ran said this as he looked down at the token in Sol’s hand, this time more closely. However, his expression immediately changed.

“W-Wait, that isn’t a Disciple Token!”

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