After entering the Ghost Domain.
Lanling had not the slightest mental preparation, and received an unprecedented visual impact.
From the outside looking at the Ghost Domain, here each day was a different season, as if time moved a hundred times faster than outside, the scenery incomparably beautiful and dreamlike.
But upon entering the Ghost Domain.
It was completely dark here, the sky torn apart, revealing a strange green light.
“Boom boom boom…”
Bolts of lightning struck down.
Each bolt of lightning was a terrifying ghastly green.
The entire Ghost Domain had no mountains, no water, no flowers or grass or trees, and no blanket of white snow.
The only thing present was a mountain.
Oh, no!
This wasn’t a mountain, but a pyramid, a black pyramid.
The foundation of the pyramid was at least a hundred li wide. As for the height…
Lanling raised his head, completely unable to see the end. Perhaps ten thousand meters? Perhaps even higher!
In short, this didn’t look like a pyramid at all, but more like a high mountain, even taller than all the mountain ranges on Earth.
“Boom boom boom…”
Lightning and thunder still raged in the sky, tearing apart pieces of the black sky, emitting ghastly green light.
Lanling concentrated all his spiritual power, and finally saw the top of the pyramid.
Perhaps ten thousand meters, perhaps twenty thousand meters, the peak of the tower flickered with mysterious light.
Lanling thought inwardly, “Is the so-called Demon God relic at the top of this pyramid?”
How to reach the top?
Very simple, climb up the steps.
Each step was approximately a chi in height. How many steps led to the top?
He didn’t know, perhaps thirty thousand steps, perhaps fifty thousand, perhaps seventy thousand?
In short, this was like a heavenly ladder, directly leading to the dark sky.
Lanling turned his head to look back, trying to see Suomo and Constantine and the others behind him.
As a result, what lay behind him was nothingness, complete darkness.
It was as if this was an independent world, and Lanling was standing at the edge of this world.
He turned around and tried to walk out.
As a result, no matter how far he walked, what lay ahead was still boundless dark nothingness.
That’s right, he could never walk out of this Ghost Domain world.
Turning back again, he discovered that it was as if he hadn’t taken a single step. This enormous dark pyramid was still before his eyes.
If the Demon God relic was at the top of the pyramid, then Lanling would have to climb up.
Setting aside whether that mysterious light at the top of the pyramid was emitted by the Demon God relic, it was certain that it was definitely a supreme treasure of the world, definitely something incomparably powerful, incomparably mysterious, and incomparably astonishing.
Taking a deep breath, Lanling prepared to climb the pyramid.
…
Before Lanling were four doors.
The first was green, the second was red, the third was yellow, and the fourth was white.
Very clearly, this represented spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Green represented spring, red represented the blazing sun of summer, yellow represented ripe fruit, and white represented the cold snow of winter.
The choice before Lanling was, which door would he take?
Simply from the surface appearance, the doors of summer and winter seemed the most terrifying, because they represented extreme heat and extreme cold.
Then if he chose to take the spring door, what would happen? And the autumn door? What would happen?
Lanling took a deep breath. He did not make a choice, but instead closed his eyes and began to concentrate his spiritual power, allowing the lake of his heart to completely calm down.
He wanted to determine whether this world was real or illusory, which parts were real and which parts were illusory.
But, without question, this exceeded the scope of his spiritual power.
No matter how hard he tried, when he opened his eyes again, what lay before him was still this Ghost Domain world, without any change.
At least with his current knowledge and abilities, he was still unable to distinguish the true from the false in this world.
…
Since he could not distinguish, then climbing to the top of the pyramid became the only choice.
Whether it was to obtain the Demon God relic, or for the mysterious supreme treasure, or to find the final truth.
Now, what Lanling needed to do was choose a door to enter.
Perhaps, once chosen, it could not be changed.
From the surface appearance, the summer door and the winter door should be the most dangerous.
But Lanling knew that surface danger was not true danger. Unknown danger was the true danger.
So, the spring door and the autumn door were perhaps the truly most dangerous ones.
After thinking for a long time, Lanling decided to choose the summer door.
Because he seemed not to fear heat. Even if he fell into volcanic magma, he remained completely unharmed. He possessed the Golden Demon Body.
Thus, Lanling resolutely walked into the summer door.
Indeed…
After entering the summer door, what assailed him was terrifying heat.
Approximately fifty-something degrees of high temperature, but this temperature was nothing to Lanling!
But he raised his head and saw countless corpses on the steps ahead, all of them dried corpses.
Perhaps several hundred, perhaps over a thousand, or perhaps even more.
Scattered about, all collapsed upon the steps along the way, each one having become a dried corpse.
Without question, these were all people who had entered the Ghost Domain before. Indeed, not a single one had been able to leave alive.
Looking further up, perhaps starting from the one hundredth step, each step began to turn red, increasingly red, until finally they were completely the color of magma.
And as for the top of the pyramid, it was completely engulfed in roaring flames.
Lanling began to climb.
First step, second step, third step…
He clearly felt that with each step he ascended, the temperature increased by approximately ten degrees Celsius.
He kept climbing upward.
By the twentieth step, the clothes on his body could no longer endure and directly caught fire, turning to ashes.
By the twenty-first step, the shoes on his feet burned to ashes.
Twenty-second step, his hair and eyebrows all burned to ashes.
Lanling still continued upward.
Twenty-third step, twenty-fourth step, twenty-fifth step, twenty-sixth step…
At this point, the corpses on the steps by the roadside were already becoming fewer and fewer.
Thirty-second step.
Lanling’s body epidermis began to melt, to char.
Continuously charring, and continuously recovering.
The soles of his feet were also charred time and again, and recovered as good as new time and again.
If one could see him, they would discover that he was like a malicious ghost, completely naked, burning into charcoal time and again, and recovering as good as new time and again.
Boundless fiery energy surged into his body.
His golden bloodline desperately devoured and dissolved this energy, greatly reducing the harm to Lanling’s body.
At this point, Lanling’s eyes had long since solidified into a kind of crystal, like gemstones, no longer ordinary eyeballs. Otherwise, they would have long since boiled and burst.
Lanling continued to walk upward step by step.
Fiftieth step.
Eightieth step.
One hundredth step.
At this point, the temperature here had already exceeded one thousand degrees.
“Boom…” Suddenly, Lanling’s body began to burn fiercely.
“Ahh…” He roared desperately.
Boundless pain assaulted him. This was perhaps the true feeling of hell.
Being deep-fried in oil upon entering the Eighteenth Level of Hell was perhaps this kind of feeling.
Lanling still endured the terrifying pain, climbing upward step by step.
The golden bloodline within his body desperately devoured the terrifying heat energy, and desperately released energy to protect Lanling’s vitality.
Gradually, Lanling could no longer feel pain. His nerves began to grow numb. Even if he had completely turned into a man of fire, he felt not the slightest pain.
He still numbly walked upward, upward…
One hundred and fifty-ninth step!
Lanling lost all consciousness and abruptly collapsed to the ground!
Flames roared all over his body, his entire body completely turning to ashes.
The speed at which the golden bloodline protected his vitality had completely failed to keep up with the speed at which the terrifying heat devoured his vitality.
Lanling’s brain domain grew increasingly dark, and finally completely disappeared.
In the traditional sense, he was already dead!
…
I don’t know how much time passed.
Lanling faintly awoke and discovered that his four limbs were intact, completely unharmed.
However, his shoes, clothes, and so on had all disappeared, leaving him completely naked.
Then, he discovered that he had actually returned to the origin, that is, before the doors of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
He had clearly died just now, yet now he had actually come back to life.
Without question, everyone else who entered the Ghost Domain had completely died. Why was he the only one who had survived?
Immediately after, Lanling clearly felt that his strength had increased.
Then, he began to search. When he entered the Ghost Domain, he had carried in some graduated stone bars to test his cultivation level. Before entering the summer door, he had placed these stone bars on the ground.
Indeed, he found these stone bars.
Taking a deep breath, he picked up the one thousand three hundred jin stone bar and discovered that he could actually lift it with one hand, though it was slightly strenuous.
But without question, the strength of his arm had broken through one thousand three hundred jin.
Inexplicably, he had actually broken through to Demon Warrior! He used all the strength in his arm and ultimately lifted the one thousand three hundred and thirty jin stone bar.
Climbing one hundred and fifty-nine steps in terrifying heat, and he had actually broken through to Demon Warrior? Previously, his arm strength had merely been 1,273 jin, and the closer he got to Demon Warrior, the slower the improvement from hell trials became, like a snail. Yet now, he had directly broken through to Demon Warrior.
Why was this?
If the terrifying environment of high temperature was effective for improving cultivation, then why couldn’t Lanling’s cultivation improve at all inside magma, and instead he had to mess around with women to vent the excess heat energy within his body?
Could it be that climbing steps here was a form of cultivation?
For others, once they died, that was truly the end.
But Lanling possessed the golden bloodline, the Golden Demon Body. He could actually resurrect after death? At least, within this Ghost Domain world, he could resurrect!
Then, couldn’t he attempt this an infinite number of times?
…
The second time, Lanling chose the winter door!
Indeed, after entering the winter door, there was terrifying extreme cold.
The first step was zero degrees Celsius.
And there were even more corpses on the steps here, each corpse lifelike, as if an ice sculpture.
Looking up from here, after one hundred steps, each step revealed a strange blue crystal color.
Not only that, but the mysterious light at the top of the pyramid also seemed like the reflection of a glacier.
Lanling braved the extreme cold, climbing up step by step.
Ten steps, thirty steps, fifty steps, eighty steps!
Here, corpses could finally no longer be seen on the steps by the roadside, because no one had reached this height before freezing to death.
It was minus eighty degrees here!
This was approximately already Lanling’s endurance limit.
His golden bloodline desperately devoured the ice-cold energy on one side, while releasing heat to protect Lanling’s body and vitality on the other.
Lanling continued to climb upward step by step.
He now finally knew that extreme cold was even more painful than burning heat.
That kind of painfully bitter cold was ten times more painful than being burned by fire or cut by a blade.
Even, the feeling of extreme cold and being burned by fire was, to a certain extent, very similar.
One hundred and twenty-fifth step!
One hundred and thirtieth step!
At this point, Lanling’s bloodline seemed to have truly reached its limit. The energy surging from deep within his bloodline could no longer withstand the surrounding extreme cold.
Lanling’s body gradually began to stiffen, gradually began to lose sensation.
One hundred and thirty-ninth step.
Finally, Lanling completely lost all sensation in his body, and the extreme cold completely froze him into an ice sculpture.
Then, his consciousness gradually disappeared, finally turning into complete darkness.
Once again, Lanling had died!
…
Again, I don’t know how much time passed before Lanling awoke once more, resurrected once more.
Then, he once again tested the strength of his arm.
Previously it had been one thousand three hundred and thirty jin, and this time… one thousand four hundred jin!
He had broken through once again, becoming a One-Star Demon Warrior!
He was overjoyed. Calculating by this standard, even if he didn’t obtain any Demon God relic, merely climbing steps to cultivate in the summer door and winter door would already be sufficient for breakthroughs.
Thus, Lanling excitedly walked into the summer door once again.
But…
He couldn’t enter. The summer door had closed. No matter what method he used, he could no longer enter.
Then, he tried to go to the winter door.
The result was the same. He couldn’t enter that either.
For others, no matter which door they entered, death was death.
But Lanling could resurrect, yet infinite trial attempts were impossible. Each door only had one chance to enter.
His heart immediately grew heavy!
Because his goal was the top of the pyramid. There were only four doors in total.
He had already entered two doors. He had two chances remaining.
If he entered all four doors of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and ultimately died in all of them, then not only would Lanling fail to reach the top of the tower, but he would also have no chance of getting out. He would be trapped here alive.
Then, for the next spring door and autumn door, how should he choose?
Lanling chose the spring door!
…
Entering the spring door!
Instantly, the sun was shining brightly, the sky was azure blue, with an occasional white cloud floating by.
The climate here was pleasant, the spring breeze delightful. It was the most beautiful spring.
Lanling looked up. At first the steps were grey, then gradually turned white. After one hundred steps they turned green, increasingly green the further up, green to the point of almost transparency.
And the mysterious light at the top of the pyramid seemed to have transformed into a gorgeously brilliant flower.
Lanling once again began to climb along the steps, step by step, targeting the top of the pyramid.
Ten steps, twenty steps, thirty steps…
There was no sensation at all?
It didn’t get cold, nor did it get hot. The temperature remained comfortable.
And the spring breeze remained delightful. The wind strength neither increased nor decreased.
But after fifty steps, Lanling suddenly felt his body itch slightly.
After eighty steps, Lanling discovered a terrifying thing. His body seemed to begin rotting.
It was as if countless bacteria, countless microorganisms were growing within his body.
After one hundred steps, these bacteria and microorganisms grew larger and larger, madly devouring Lanling’s flesh.
Every visible part of Lanling’s body was rotting.
His golden bloodline desperately released energy, desperately recovered Lanling’s body, desperately protected his own vitality.
After one hundred and twenty-ninth step…
The devouring speed of countless microorganisms and bacteria far exceeded the recovery speed of the golden bloodline.
Lanling completely rotted, becoming a puddle of mud collapsed upon the steps.
Only now did Lanling remember why there were no corpses at all within the spring door.
Because all the corpses had rotted into dust, completely disappeared!
This was indeed spring. The invisible killing intent was the most terrifying of all.
Spring was the season when all things grew, so countless micro-life forms had seized Lanling’s body, turning it into their nourishment.
Lanling clearly felt his body rapidly rotting, then being devoured by countless disgusting organisms.
Gradually, his consciousness gradually sank into darkness.
Lanling had died once again!
…
I don’t know how much time passed before Lanling resurrected and awoke once more!
Then Lanling couldn’t wait to test the strength of his arm.
As a result, he could still only lift the one thousand four hundred jin stone bar. His strength and cultivation had not improved at all.
The step trial after he entered the spring door had brought no improvement to his cultivation.
So it turned out that the goal of climbing steps was still to reach the top of the pyramid.
As for Lanling’s cultivation improvement from climbing steps within the summer door and winter door, that was merely due to the peculiarity of his bloodline, not the original function of this Ghost Domain world.
Here, this was not some trial secret realm at all. This was the Ghost Domain!
In the summer door, he had climbed one hundred and fifty-nine steps.
In the winter door, he had climbed one hundred and thirty-nine steps.
In the spring door, he had climbed one hundred and twenty-nine steps.
And the distance to the top of the pyramid was tens of thousands of steps. He hadn’t even completed one percent.
Now, only one door remained before Lanling. That was the autumn door.
This was the final chance, and also the only chance!
It was not only his only chance to reach the top of the pyramid, but also his only chance to leave this world.