You immediately skidded to a halt, abandoning the chase. Your only thought was to retreat, to lay low and avoid a head-on clash with Ye Fan.
The temporary power surge granted by the Nine Steps to the Heavens was far beyond what you could withstand right now.
But in the next instant, you froze in stunned disbelief. Ye Fan, who had been radiating overwhelming momentum just a moment ago, suddenly felt his aura plummet. His figure flickered, shrouded in pale gray flames as he fled into the distance.
「You stole my destiny! I'll remember your aura—this debt will be repaid in blood!」 Ye Fan's voice echoed from far away, laced with venomous hatred.
Witnessing this, realization dawned on you instantly—you'd been tricked.
Clearly, Ye Fan hadn't truly mastered the Nine Steps to the Heavens. He'd only forced its activation in a desperate bluff to scare you off.
Having seen the terrifying power of the Nine Steps to the Heavens firsthand in your previous simulations, you'd fallen for his ruse hook, line, and sinker—letting Ye Fan escape scot-free.
「Clever move, Ye Fan. I underestimated you.」 Your expression turned grim as you muttered to yourself.
Truly, one should never underestimate anyone.
Even though you knew you'd been deceived, you had no intention of giving chase. After all, your primary objective for this trip had already been accomplished.
Besides, Ye Fan was the Child of Destiny. Who could say if, in a life-or-death crisis, he wouldn't suddenly have another epiphany and fully comprehend the Nine Steps to the Heavens?
Now that the sheepskin scroll inscribed with the Nine Steps to the Heavens was in your hands, there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
「If I ever want to hunt him down again, I'll wait until I've mastered the Nine Steps to the Heavens myself.」
After weighing the pros and cons, you decided against pursuing him. You pulled out Ye Fan's severed arm once more and used the Soul-Nailing Technique to confirm he was truly gone. Then, brimming with anticipation, you slowly unfurled the sheepskin scroll in your hand.
Whoosh!
A beam of white light shot straight from the scroll into your mind.
The sheepskin scroll in your grasp began to fade, growing translucent as if it could no longer maintain its physical form—then it vanished completely.
In the next moment, you felt yourself transported to a strange, illusory space. Countless ancient immortal characters swirled and danced before your eyes.
The secrets exclusive to the Nine Steps to the Heavens were finally being revealed to you.
Nine Steps to the Heavens (Incomplete): A secret treasure of the immortals. Take one step to ascend to the heavens; take nine steps to transcend mortality and become an immortal. Requires burning lifespan to plunder the power of heaven and earth, forging a ladder to the celestial realm.Note: This is a heaven-defying technique. Once activated, it will trigger a backlash and curse the user with boundless misfortune. The longer it is used, the more stagnant one's cultivation will become—no progress can be made until the plundered spiritual energy is fully returned to heaven and earth. Failure to repay this debt will result in certain death.
「This is the Nine Steps to the Heavens?!」
Sun Qian's eyes widened in shock as he stared dumbfounded at the description displayed in the Villain Simulator.
A secret treasure of the immortals. Take one step to ascend to the heavens; take nine steps to transcend mortality and become an immortal.
What terrifying, overbearing power this was!
In theory, any mortal who obtained the Nine Steps to the Heavens could break through nine major realms in the blink of an eye by taking nine consecutive steps, instantly ascending to the rank of Earth Immortal.
But the drawbacks were simply too severe.
First and foremost, such terrifying power came at the cost of burning one's own lifespan to plunder the power of heaven and earth, forging that ladder to immortality.
Taking just the first step required a staggering amount of lifespan—and each subsequent step doubled the cost.
An ordinary mortal would drop dead on the spot before even finishing the second step.
Only cultivators with extremely long lifespans could hope to sustain its power.
But what was even more crippling was the backlash: the user would be cursed with boundless misfortune after using it.
Furthermore, the longer the technique was activated, the longer one's cultivation would be locked in place. You'd be stuck at the same realm until you repaid every last bit of the spiritual energy you'd borrowed from heaven and earth...
「Is this seriously called the Nine Steps to the Heavens? It's more like a loan from the heavens!」
「You borrow spiritual energy and cultivation base from heaven and earth with your own life, and then you have to pay it back with interest! If you can't pay it off, you can't advance your cultivation. If the debt is too big, you die!」
Sun Qian's lips twitched, his face contorting into an expression of utter disbelief.
This was nothing like what he'd imagined.
The price was simply too steep.
After all, the greatest advantage of his Villain Simulator—aside from foreseeing the future and seizing opportunities—was helping him rapidly boost his strength.
But if he used the Nine Steps to the Heavens, his cultivation would be locked in place until he repaid the debt he owed to heaven and earth.
It was a lose-lose situation!
If he used it too many times, he'd be stuck at the same realm for the rest of his life.
Worse still, the accumulated debt of borrowed spiritual energy would slowly crush him, until heaven and earth themselves snuffed out his life.
Truly, the gifts of fate always came with hidden prices.
That sudden surge of power was never free.
「Still… it's not completely useless. At the very least, it can save your life in a pinch with a burst of power.」
「It's just that I can never use it unless I'm facing certain death!」
At that moment, Sun Qian finally understood why Ye Fan only ever unleashed those few seconds of explosive power in his previous simulations before stopping abruptly.
Having fully grasped the mechanics of the Nine Steps to the Heavens, you fell into a brief silence. This was nothing short of a life-stealing secret technique.
Currently, taking just one step—boosting you from the Fourth Realm: Divine Ability to the Fifth Realm: Mountains and Rivers—cost you one year of lifespan per second. If advancing to the Sixth Realm: Transcendent cost ten years per second, and the Seventh Realm: Saint required a hundred years per second...
A cultivator at the Divine Ability Realm had a lifespan of 300 years. Which meant that if you took three consecutive steps to ascend to the Saint Realm, you could only sustain that power for three seconds before dropping dead of old age on the spot...
「What a joke this Nine Steps to the Heavens is! You'd ascend to the afterlife before you even finished the ninth step! Was this even meant for humans to practice?!」
You were so furious you wanted to curse, but you forced yourself to hold back. After all, power was what you needed most right now.
The Nine Steps to the Heavens would allow you to gain immense strength in the shortest possible time—even if it was only temporary.
Besides, you were in the simulator. If you died here, it wouldn't matter as long as your real body remained unharmed.
You began to pore over the contents of the Nine Steps to the Heavens etched into your mind, only to discover that it was incomplete—it only recorded up to the seventh step, the Saint Realm.
The final two steps, which would allow one to reach the Heavenly Realm and ascend to Earth Immortalhood, were missing.
「Could it be… the complete version is still with Ye Fan?」
You instantly realized that the Nine Steps to the Heavens you'd seized was incomplete. The final two steps were nowhere to be found—likely still in Ye Fan's possession.
After all, Ye Fan, the Child of Destiny, had been the first to lay hands on the full scroll. You'd only snatched it from him halfway through his comprehension.
To obtain the complete Nine Steps to the Heavens, you would have to take it from him sooner or later.
「For now, the priority is to master the first seven steps of the Nine Steps to the Heavens. Otherwise…」
After a moment of consideration, you resolved to practice the Nine Steps to the Heavens first, striving to turn this trump card into something you could wield at will.
You set up a perimeter of talismans around you for protection and early warning, then walked over to the shattered stone statue, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began your cultivation...