Nine Heavens Martial Emperor

Standing before the enormous Crystal Stone gate, Lin Hao didn’t act immediately.

Yingxue had previously absorbed three feet and nine inches of elemental energy, and now, the energy in this Crystal Stone gate hadn’t fully recovered.

Having seen how the other Crystal Stone gates magically refilled on their own, Lin Hao decided to wait.

Lin Hao didn’t move for a long time, and the Heaven-Stepping Sect disciple standing off to the side, who was responsible for recording scores, grew impatient.

"You’re Lin Hao, right? Are you going to take the test or not? If not, then scram so I can call the next person!" he said, his face a mask of impatience.

Lin Hao was taken aback. "The elemental energy in this Crystal Stone gate isn’t full. Can the test still begin?" he asked.

"Oh! Don’t tell me you’re planning to suck all the energy out of it?" The disciple recording the scores took a step forward, a mocking look on his face.

’This guy is just shameless!’

Refilling this elemental energy required his effort; it wasn’t like it grew on trees.

Lin Hao’s brow furrowed. He noticed a detail: when the disciple took that step forward, the elemental energy that had been slowly replenishing inside the Crystal Stone gate suddenly stopped.

And in the spot where the disciple had been standing, there were two Crystal Stone blocks, each about the size of a foot and made of a material similar to the gate itself.

’Are they the ones infusing the Crystal Stone gate with elemental energy?’

Lin Hao had guessed correctly. The disciples responsible for recording scores next to the nine Crystal Stone gates were from the nine different peaks. They all had respectable cultivation levels and a certain degree of influence; otherwise, such a task wouldn’t have fallen to them.

Because although they were responsible for recording scores, the task itself was a form of cultivation.

They were all disciples who had awakened their bloodlines. By standing on the Crystal Stone plates under their feet, they converted the True Essence in their bodies into elemental energy and channeled it into the Crystal Stone gates.

This was immensely beneficial for improving their cultivation.

The disciple in charge of the main peak’s Crystal Stone gate was, naturally, from the main peak. Earlier, Chu Sheng had absorbed one foot and four inches of elemental energy. He had just finished refilling it when Yingxue arrived.

After she absorbed three feet and nine inches of energy, he simply hadn’t had time to convert more True Essence to refill the Crystal Stone gate.

By the time Lin Hao appeared, he had only managed to replenish nine inches’ worth.

He was already exhausted, and now Lin Hao was just dragging his feet. It would have been a miracle if the disciple hadn’t lost his temper. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Now that he knew the secret behind the Crystal Stone gate’s "automatic" replenishment, Lin Hao could understand the disciple’s attitude.

Nodding, Lin Hao placed his hands on the massive Crystal Stone gate and began to circulate the Godslaying Celestial Slash Skill...

And then, the disciple in charge of recording scores was stunned. His eyes grew wider and wider until they were like two bronze bells, practically bulging from their sockets.

Soon after Lin Hao’s hands touched the gate, it was as if it had sprung a leak. The elemental energy inside began to vanish at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Fifteen feet!

Ten feet!

Seven feet!

Four feet...

In less than two minutes, all the elemental energy within the seventeen-foot-tall, six-foot-wide Crystal Stone gate had vanished completely.

The disciple was dumbfounded, his tongue tied in knots. "Y-You... what did you feel?"

"Nothing, aside from it being a little cool to the touch," Lin Hao replied.

The Cultivation Technique he practiced absorbed moonlight and sunlight. Of course he wouldn’t feel much from absorbing this kind of elemental energy.

"Phew..."

The elemental energy of heaven and earth was the foundation of a Martial Artist’s strength. When a Martial Artist absorbed it into their body, they would feel a blissful, almost transcendent sensation.

Hearing Lin Hao’s words, the disciple breathed a sigh of relief. ’So, that means he didn’t absorb the energy inside.’

"This Crystal Stone gate is leaking. You wait here, I’ll go get the examiner." After saying this, he paid Lin Hao no further mind, directly opened a panel in the wall, and walked out...

Chu Sheng, who had been staring eagerly at the wall, saw the Crystal Stone gate open in less than three minutes. He was just about to burst out laughing when he saw it was a Heaven-Stepping Sect disciple who came out.

The sight scared him so much he quickly covered his mouth.

The disciple sprinted over to the middle-aged man and whispered a report of the situation.

"You wait out here!" Before the words even faded, a sudden gale swept through the hall, and the middle-aged man’s figure had already flashed through the central wall panel.

Staring at the completely empty Crystal Stone gate, the middle-aged man’s eyes went wide, and his body began to tremble.

This Crystal Stone gate was forged by the founding ancestor. Like the Deity Proving Platform outside, it was reinforced with powerful Array Runes laid down by the founder’s own hand. Forget the Blood Coagulation Realm; even experts at the Elemental Realm, Soul Aggregation Realm, or Spirit Transformation Realm couldn’t break it. How could it possibly leak?

The middle-aged man simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing. All the elemental energy in the Crystal Stone gate had vanished, and it had only been three minutes!

The middle-aged man felt his Divine Soul tremble. With great difficulty, he controlled his emotions and stepped onto the spot where the disciple had been standing.

A few minutes later, the elemental energy in the Crystal Stone gate was full once more.

"Lin... Lin Hao, you try again." The middle-aged man’s gaze was burning hot. He stared at Lin Hao, a fire raging in his eyes as if he wanted to swallow him whole.

Lin Hao nodded, placed his hands on the Crystal Stone gate again, and began to circulate his Cultivation Technique.

Eighteen feet!

Twelve feet!

...

Under the middle-aged man’s terrified gaze, the elemental energy in the Crystal Stone gate once again vanished completely.

The energy in the twenty-foot-tall, six-foot-wide Crystal Stone gate was absorbed by Lin Hao again. Seeing him act as if nothing had happened, the middle-aged man felt his heart hammer in his chest and quickly clutched it.

He was afraid his heart would leap out if he didn’t hold it in.

To make matters worse, Lin Hao’s voice then sounded in his ear. "Examiner, the Crystal Stone gate is leaking again."

Seeing the innocent look on Lin Hao’s face, the corner of the middle-aged man’s mouth twitched. "W-Wait... let me... let me repair it again..."

How could he possibly repair it? The gate wasn’t broken at all. All he could do was continue to pour elemental energy into it.

After another few minutes, the energy was replenished once more.

Lin Hao placed his hands on it, and, without any suspense, the energy inside was drained dry by him yet again.

The middle-aged man was already numb with shock.

On reflex, he circulated his technique again and continued to refill the gate with energy.

The result was obvious.

"Again!" The middle-aged man refused to believe it. How could a mere Third Layer of the Blood Coagulation Realm drain him dry!

Five times later...

The middle-aged man’s face was as pale as paper. His body swayed, looking as if he had just recovered from a serious illness.

Even with his Elemental Realm cultivation, Lin Hao absorbed the elemental energy as easily as drinking a gulp of water. The speed at which he could output energy was nowhere near Lin Hao’s speed of absorption.

"Um, Examiner, I think we should just let it go," Lin Hao said kindly, seeing the middle-aged man’s state.

’If this keeps up, the gate won’t get fixed, but the examiner will be worked to death.’

"I... I’ll... I’ll try one last time!" The middle-aged man was already a spent force, but after hearing Lin Hao’s words, he refused to admit defeat.

As a result, the energy that had taken him a full half-hour to replenish was once again absorbed completely by Lin Hao in two minutes.

The middle-aged man was so exhausted he collapsed, slumping to the ground without any regard for his image, gasping for breath.

"Huh, I think I felt something. Why does my body feel all warm this time? Don’t tell me I actually absorbed some elemental energy?" Lin Hao looked amazed.

PFFT!

The middle-aged man abruptly spat out a mouthful of old blood. He had exhausted all his strength to refill the gate several times, only for the result to be that Lin Hao "felt a little something."

His eyes were filled with pure horror. ’Wh-Where did this monster come from? I risked my life to fill that Crystal Stone gate! The total energy must have been a hundred and twenty feet, and in such a short time, this monster not only sucked it all dry but only "felt a little something"?’

This was just too humiliating.

’This monster... could his body be a bottomless pit?’

’A bottomless pit, able to absorb a limitless amount of elemental energy... This is definitely a constitution that appears only once in ten thousand years...’

’No!’

’To have such a heaven-defying ability without even awakening a bloodline... a constitution like this is something you might not see in tens of thousands of years.’

The middle-aged man, who had been exhausted to the point of collapse, suddenly found a burst of strength from nowhere and shot up from the ground.

He slapped a palm on the Crystal Stone gate, and it swung wide open. With a push of his feet, he flew off toward the Heaven-Stepping Sect’s main peak, disappearing into the swirling mist.

A cold wind howled, blasting against his eardrums. Lin Hao looked out through the open Crystal Stone gate, and the sight outside left him even more shaken.

He hadn’t been able to see clearly from inside before, but now he could plainly see nine iron chains extending down from nine mountain peaks through the swirling mist, all leading to a cone-shaped mountain floating in mid-air.

A cone-shaped mountain, connected to neither the sky above nor the earth below, was just suspended in mid-air. Such a feat was unheard of.

Lin Hao strained his eyes to look. On that cone-shaped mountain were three large words: Deity Proving Platform!

The moment he glanced at it, Lin Hao stumbled back, his face instantly turning as pale as paper.

An aura!

Though it was far away, Lin Hao could clearly sense a supreme presence from those three words.

It was an exceptionally terrifying pressure. Despite his incredibly tough physical body, a single glance made him feel a pain so intense it was as if he were about to crack apart.

’Those are the words left behind by the Heaven-Stepping Sect’s Emperor Venerable!’

In an instant, Lin Hao connected this to what Wu Kui had told him about the Heaven-Stepping Sect’s founding ancestor.

A look of horror then spread across Lin Hao’s face.

’The Heaven-Stepping Sect was founded over ten thousand years ago, yet the few words left by its founding ancestor still possess such power. The methods of an Emperor Venerable are truly unfathomable.’

Just as Lin Hao was reeling in shock from the pressure of the three words, the middle-aged examiner had already reached Heaven-Stepping Peak and barged straight through a door.

Then, perhaps because his strength was spent, he fell to the ground in a very undignified posture.

Sprawled on the floor, he gasped heavily for breath, the look of horror still lingering in his eyes.

"Bai Ming, what has caused you such panic?"

The Sect Leader of the Heaven-Stepping Sect was startled to see Bai Ming, who was known for his composure within the sect, burst in like this. He shot to his feet.

Although the Heaven-Stepping Sect was outwardly one of the five great sects of the Southern Border Prefecture, as its Sect Leader, he was well aware that the other four great sects had long since excluded them.

Ever since that person left the sect, the Heaven-Stepping Sect had been in decline day by day. Now, it was like a juicy piece of meat that many coveted.

To say nothing of distant threats, the Suo Demon Sect, a third-rate sect established less than a century ago, had been growing stronger in recent years and was now eyeing the Heaven-Stepping Sect.

’For Bai Ming to be in such a panic... could it be that the Suo Demon Sect is preparing to make a move against us?’

Today was supposed to be the day the Heaven-Stepping Sect recruited new disciples. In the past, as Sect Leader, he would have attended with the elders and Peak Masters to select the most promising candidates. But now, focused on improving his own strength, he couldn’t be bothered.

’If the Suo Demon Sect decides to cause trouble today...’

The Sect Leader’s heart skipped a beat. However, after he heard what Bai Ming said next, he breathed a sigh of relief, only for his heart to start pounding even more fiercely.