Qian Feng got back up shakily and turned to the right, presumably going to the next trial.

Once he got there, Qian Feng looked at what lay ahead of him.

Golden stairs, seemingly ascending to the heavens, scaled upwards. On them lay profound inscriptions with lettering he couldn't even begin to fathom. The purpose of them was obvious: scale the stairs, and you pass the test. On the wall next to the stairs, as with the hallway, the words "The Second Trial" were carved in, emphasizing what was already clear to Qian Feng.

SInce Qian Feng couldn't be sure he would not be caught in an unescapable position, he resorted to his previous trick and tossed a stone up the stairs, only to see that it wasn't affected at all, nothing out of the ordinary occurring as the stone fell onto a step.

Qian Feng still didn't want to risk it, though, so he planned on recuperating fully before attempting the next trial. He sat down and started meditating, using his consciousness to hasten the recovery process as much as possible. Thankfully, the explosions only caused him slight internal injuries, so he did not need long to recover.

Now at peak condition, Qian Feng began to ascend.

The moment his foot touched the first step, Qian Feng's body sagged, instanty burdened by a mountainous pressure. His blood started roiling, an immense strain now being placed on his internal organs.

As a result, Qian Feng stepped off and reassessed the trial - well, he counted the steps, which numbered 99 in total. A fortuitous number.

Thankfully, Qian Feng had already developed a resistance to this type of attack, because of the Nine Pits of Hell, so he had little to fear if he was able to use his Earth and Life Qi to defend himself.

Cloaking himself in Earth Qi and getting ready to use his Life Qi to heal any injuries that might crop up, Qian Feng prepared himself to make the climb once again.

With his powerful Qi protecting him, Qian Feng barely felt the pressure that could his affect his internal organs previously, and issued a mental cheer as a result. Maybe, just maybe, he could indeed do this.

The second step increased the pressure by a large amount, but he could shrug it off almost as easily as before.

The third step, he began to feel actively bothered - this was not boding well.

The fifth step, and Qian Feng was breathing heavily, his Qi draining at a noticeable rate.

The seventh marked the point at which he struggled to stay standing, his knees flexing to provide a force powerful enough to resist the pressure.

The eighth step increased this load once again, and Qian Feng began to wish he had a defensive martial skill, which would increase the efficiency at which he defended himself through various methods. Thankfully, Qian Feng could still hold on.

The ninth step, however, boasted the greatest increase in pressure of any yet - it seemed to be a marking point of sorts, as the already nearly unbearable pressure doubled in force, sending the warrior to his knees and making his vision black out for a few moments before he regained consciousness. His Earth protection flickered, the Qi consumption becoming something he couldn't keep up for long. Knowing he couldn't sustain his location here, Qian Feng stepped(well, whatever one calls a step with one's knee) backwards onto the eighth step, only to be immediately relieved of all pressure.

Qian Feng, after getting over his shock and relief, theorized that this was because every ninth step was a checkpoint of sorts, and would allow a rest on the previous steps to recover and push on. This, naturally, would make his task far easier.

And so Qian Feng settled into a routine: he would ascend the steps, getting as far as he possibly could and letting the pressure temper his body and Qi, then retreet back down to the safe area and recuperate, then repeat.

Under the intense pressure, the young boy's body quickly grew stronger, his Qi also benefiting from the tempering.

A few days in, Qian Feng was on the eleventh step and getting ready to continue, before the thought occurred to him: what if he were to practice his body tempering technique under the influence of the pressure?

So, Qian Feng sat down - thankfully, he wasn't too far in and could afford to let his guard down a bit and soften his defenses while cultivating - and began practicing the Tian Mountain Art. Quickly, it became evident that his progress was over twice as fast because of the pressure, which made Qian Feng's heart bleed as he now knew he had been wasting his time the entire while he was passing the trial.

He knew now, of course, and made the proper adaptations to his schedule.

In this manner, Qian Feng quickly improved, with his cultivation reaching the fifth level of the Martial Warrior stage in the Earth affinity and the 4th level in the Life affinity(sadly, his Force Qi did not grow since it didn't have any uses, at least with his current mastery over it. True, the Force affinity theoretically had the ability to negate and reduce the power behind attacks, but that was at a far higher level of skill and experience than Qian Feng's own), and his Tian Mountain Technique making great headway towards the Knowledge level, his body more than doubling its defense and, since after the Initial stage the muscles were tempered instead of the skin, tripling its strength(that wasn't to say that the Tian Mountain Technique, at this stage of mastery, increased the strength more than the toughness, it was just that his strength was just so low compared to his defense, it was far easier to increase it by 3 times)..

It took Qian Feng three months before he touched the 93rd step. After that, a span of two weeks passed before the 95th step was stepped on.

The 96th? Four days after.

The 97th? Five days after.

The 98th? Seven days after.

The final step, the 99th? Up to now, Qian Feng hasn't yet dared to step onto it for fear of death.

From general experience, he was familiar with how much the pressure increased from the eight to the ninth step, or any multiple of those. The increment went up as he did, going from a factor of 2, to a factor of 3, to 4, and so on and so forth. If the pattern kept up, the difficulty from the 98th step to the 99th would increase by twelve times. That was something Qian Feng was confident he would not be able to bear, and instead would only end up hurting himself. He knew that if he wanted a shot, he would have to reach the Knowledge stage completely, and break through.

So that's what he did.

It took him a week and a half of incessant meditation on the 98th step before he came into solid contact with the threshold of the Knowledge stage, which meant that he could attempt a breakthrough.

A young child's body emitted a fearsome aura, well beyond the child's age, of an ancient, firm mountain. Just and strong, it stood tall and weathered all calamities with naught but a scratch, its unshakeable defenses renowned.

An illusory image of a mountain appeared behind the boy, casting a righteous glow upon his bare back(his clothing had long since been torn apart by the pressure, which was indeed a shame as, even if he was alone, he certainly did not enjoy walking around naked).

His body trembled and his skin took on an earthly sheen, visibly becoming stronger and more solid.

His toughness and power skyrocketed, his body now well beyond his cultivation. Qian Feng was ready for the final step, with the power of Knowledge-level proficiency in the Tian Mountain Technique now supporting him.

A shroud of Earth Qi covering Qian Feng, he took his final step.

The young boy's bones creaked in protest, his muscles shaking, paralyzed by the enormous pressure. He could not move.

Qian Feng's Earth Qi began to falter, his spirit realm being sucked dry for all its Qi.

With a gargantuan amount of effort, the young boy brought his other leg up onto the final stair, resisting the pain and pressure.

As his muscles actively tore apart and healed because of the Life Qi, Qian Feng passed through the stair, coming closer and closer to the ledge of the hallway, before throwing himself onto it.

This produced a very strange-feeling effect: his torso was completely free from pressure, but everything below his waist was still being dragged down with the force of a mountain. Thankfully, his arms were free, so he began to push himself further onto the ledge, inch by inch, bit by bit.

Finally, he collapsed onto the hallway, gasping for air and struggling not to slip into unconsciousness, but with a fire of triumph burning in his eyes.

Second trial, passed!