Chapter 418: Arduous Climb
"Don't worry about me, Brother Liu. These people have no vendetta against me, and I'm just a nobody anyway, so I'm sure they won't do anything to me," Lu Yuqing said.
Han Li hesitated momentarily, then suddenly strode over to Lu Yuqing's side before picking her up in his arms.
Lu Yuqing was swept off her feet before she even had a chance to react, and the force weighing down on her was instantly lifted, while the gravitational force acting upon Han Li was doubled.
However, this was still well within his tolerance capacity, and he began to quickly bound up the staircase.
"Brother Liu..."
"I agreed to bring you with me, so I have to do everything in my power to keep you safe," Han Li said in an indifferent voice.
A complex look appeared in Lu Yuqing's eyes as she lowered her head.
Both Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan had noticed what Han Li was doing, and they were quite taken aback by his actions.
"Looks like you've found yourself quite a womanizer of an ally, Fellow Daoist Cold Flame. I must say, I do admire his courage," Xiong Shan jeered with a mocking look in his eyes.
Patriarch Cold Flame's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this. Even with his physical prowess and extensive preparation, he didn't dare to take this gravitational restriction lightly at all, and he certainly wasn't optimistic about Han Li's chances of scaling the staircase while carrying an extra burden.
With that in mind, a cold look flashed through his eyes as he turned his gaze away from Han Li.
Meanwhile, Han Li was accelerating further and further, to the point that his speed was comparable with Xue Han's, and as a result, the gap between them was steadily maintained.
Xue Han's expression darkened slightly upon seeing this, while Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan were both quite surprised,
Never had they anticipated that Han Li would only be getting faster in this situation. In fact, he was beginning to slowly catch up to them.
Both of them immediately renewed their efforts, accelerating further themselves, and before long, over an hour had already passed by.
At this point, all of them had already crossed the halfway mark of the staircase, and Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan were still leading the way, but Han Li was only fewer than 30 steps behind them, while Xue Han was around 100 steps behind Han Li.
As for the other Ghost Wail Sect cultivators, they had already been left so far behind that they were nothing more than tiny black dots in the distance.
At this point, the gravity on the staircase had already reached an extremely formidable level, and everyone had slowed down significantly.
Patriarch Cold Flame's entire body was enshrouded in a layer of bright starlight that resembled a veil, giving him a mysterious and powerful appearance.
He was still leading the way from the front, and he was climbing up the steps at a roughly consistent speed.
Meanwhile, Xiong Shan's skin had also taken on a golden hue in addition to the radiant golden light emanating from his body, and he resembled a golden statue that was giving off a tremendous aura of physical prowess.
He was a few steps behind Patriarch Cold Flame, but he was progressing just as smoothly.
Patriarch Cold Flame was rather taken aback to see this. He could tell that Xiong Shan was using a very formidable body refinement secret technique.
Xiong Shan hadn't mastered this ability the last time they were here, so he had most likely attained this ability since the last emergence of the immortal manor specifically for this purpose.
Having said that, this was no surprise as he had also made extensive preparations over the years.
Patriarch Cold Flame cast his gaze even further down the staircase to find that a layer of starlight had also appeared over Han Li's body, and even though he was carrying Lu Yuqing, he wasn't showing any signs of strain at all as he continued to scale the staircase in a calm and measured fashion.
As for Lu Yuqing, she had fallen completely still, and her eyes were tightly shut, as if she had fallen asleep.
Patriarch Cold Flame was astonished to see this, and he was only just beginning to realize that Han Li's physical prowess was far more formidable than he had imagined.
Han Li seemed to have detected Patriarch Cold Flame's gaze, and as he looked up, their eyes met.
Patriarch Cold Flame gave Han Li a rather forced smile, then hurriedly averted his gaze.
Han Li's expression remained indifferent as he also averted his gaze from Patriarch Cold Flame and turned his attention to the top of the silver staircase.
By his estimates, there were roughly 10,000 steps on this staircase, and he still had over 3,000 steps left until he reached the top.
He had only used a small portion of his physical powers at this point, so if the rate of increase of gravitational force remained consistent, then he anticipated that he would be able to reach the top of the staircase just fine.
However...
Han Li turned around to find that Xue Han wasn't falling behind at all.
His physical prowess was rather average, so he held no special advantage when it came to scaling this staircase, but ultimately, he was still a Golden Immortal. At this rate, perhaps he wouldn't be able to catch up to Han Li and the others, but he would most likely also be able to reach the top of the staircase, and once that happened, he would undoubtedly immediately lash out at them.
While Han Li didn't fear him, a battle against a Golden Immortal was naturally something that he wanted to avoid.
With that in mind, the starlight emanating from his body grew even brighter as he accelerated even further.
Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan were both astonished to see this, and they could only accelerate themselves in order to maintain their lead.
However, it didn't take long at all before Han Li was directly behind them, and at this rate, he would even overtake them soon.
Patriarch Cold Flame's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this. Even though he had agreed to forge an alliance with Han Li, the Light Frost Palace was just up ahead, and he certainly wasn't going to allow Han Li to get there before him.
Hence, he let loose a low roar, and the starlight radiating from his body also became significantly brighter, while his True Extreme Film also emerged over his skin.
At the same time, his body swelled drastically in size, with his limbs in particular becoming significantly thicker, and he was able to speed up once again.
Xiong Shan naturally wasn't willing to be left behind, and he began to chant an incantation as his skin took on a darker hue and a metallic gleam, giving him an even stronger resemblance to a golden statue.
Furthermore, his stature was also dramatically enhanced, and with that came a significant increase in speed.
With Han Li's trio picking up the pace in unison, Xue Han was instantly left behind, much to his alarm and fury.
His cultivation base far surpassed those of Han Li's trio, but his physical prowess wasn't remarkable in the slightest, and he hadn't prepared for this in advance, so he was already going all-out just to maintain this speed.
An urgent look appeared in his eyes as he watched Han Li's trio getting further and further away from him.
He swept a sleeve through the air to release a streak of white light, which contained a white talisman, upon which was inscribed an image of what appeared to be a giant humanoid deity.
He slapped the talisman against himself, and it instantly vanished into his body, upon which a burst of dazzling white light appeared around him.
At the same time, a series of white spirit veins quickly spread over his body, and his physical prowess was significantly enhanced, thereby allowing him to remain in the race to the top.
Han Li raised an eyebrow upon seeing this, and he identified the white talisman to be the Giant Strength Spirit Talisman, a powerful immortal talisman that could enhance one's physical prowess.
However, he wasn't all that concerned by this. After all, a talisman like this was inevitably going to wear off soon.
Around 15 minutes passed by, and at this point, everyone was only around 1,000 steps from reaching the top of the staircase.
At this point, even though Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan had sped up, Han Li was still able to catch up to them, but he didn't overtake them, and the three of them were scaling the staircase alongside one another.
As for Xue Han, he was clearly beginning to struggle. The white spirit veins on his body had become quite dim, and a faint sheen of sweat had appeared on his forehead, while his breathing had also become rather labored.
Earlier, he had only been lagging behind by about 100 steps, but that gap had since widened to somewhere between 200 to 300 steps.
Furthermore, his pace was becoming stagnant, while Han Li's trio continued to make rapid progress, and the gap between them was only continuing to widen.
Ultimately, his talisman was unable to bridge the enormous disparity in physical prowess.
An uncertain look appeared on Xue Han's face as he looked up at Han Li's trio.
At this rate, they were going to reach the top far ahead of him.
With that in mind, he flipped a hand over to summon a palm-sized black jade box, which was giving off a warm and comforting aura, clearly indicating that the box had been crafted from some type of extremely precious material.
There were several talismans plastered to the box, all of which were shimmering with spiritual light, indicating that whatever was in the box was being kept tightly under wraps.
Xue Han opened his mouth to release a burst of black light that enveloped the jade box, and all of the talismans on the box immediately flew off their own, following which the spiritual light emanating from them completely faded, indicating that they were disposable talismans.
Xue Han paid no heed to those spent talismans as he carefully opened the jade box to reveal a black pill inside that was roughly the size of a pigeon egg.
The pill was giving off a burst of black light, within which a demon beast projection could be seen.
The beast resembled a dragon with a lone horn on its head and a pair of wings on its back.
Tremendous energy fluctuations intermingled with a hint of law power fluctuations were emanating from the black pill, and a hint of reluctance flashed through Xue Han's eyes, but he ultimately swallowed the pill, nonetheless.
Even though Han Li's trio was far ahead of Xue Han, the black pill gave off such formidable energy fluctuations that their attention was instantly drawn to him, and a stunned look appeared on Xiong Shan's face as he exclaimed, "That's... a Profound Beast Essence Pill!"
"What kind of pill is that, Fellow Daoist Xiong?" Patriarch Cold Flame immediately asked.
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