When Su Ming was inside the golden sea, a glint appeared in his eyes. He focused his gaze on the cultivation planet in the distance and sensed the agitation as well as the madness that came from the mighty pressure spreading out from there. There was also a killing intent contained within that could make outsiders freeze in their footsteps.
"Begone!" A low roar that sounded like thunder came from the cultivation planet with loud booming sounds before Su Ming could even get close.
As that voice echoed in the air, the golden sea that filled the area around Su Ming immediately started tumbling and roaring, forming a great force that rejected him. The killing intent exuded by that voice was enough to make all the people who heard it to feel as if they had run into their mortal enemy, and their hearts would tremble.
Su Ming immediately stopped moving. His pupils shrank. His heart shook, and a loud bang reverberated in his head. There was a will contained within that voice, and it was so great that it seemed that if he did not obey it, his body and soul would be destroyed.
"So this is the test for those who want to have their stone monument reach a million feet?" Su Ming"s expression was incredibly solemn. He stared at the cultivation planet in the distance, and after some time, he moved again, charging forward like a shooting star while resisting the mighty pressure.
He wasn"t quick inside the golden sea. After all, that mighty pressure felt as if it possessed corporeal form. Cracks appeared on his body as he moved forward, as if even with his powerful physical body, he was still unable to withstand the power of that mighty pressure descending on him.
"Just who is in that cultivation planet in front of me? Just that pressure alone is enough to make me like this. That person"s level of cultivation…" Su Ming suddenly understood why so many people had failed in the face of this wall.
Time pa.s.sed, and Su Ming became increasingly slower as he moved forward. Banging sounds signaling his inability to withstand the pressure rang from his physical body. A large portion of his skin cracked and shattered, and his organs were nearly destroyed under the mighty pressure.
And this was Su Ming, who possessed an incredibly powerful body. If it had been anyone else, they probably would have been unable to withstand the pressure a long time ago, but on the other hand… Su Ming did not have sufficient power. If he had enough, then he could protect his entire body with the power generated by circulating his cultivation base, then with his physical body, he could move forward a little farther.
After a moment, Su Ming was forced to stop. Blood trickled out the corners of his mouth, and his eyes were filled with red as he stared fixedly at the cultivation planet.
As of then, he was still about thousands of feet away. The distance might seem great based on that number, but in truth, when that distance was placed in a galaxy, Su Ming was already very close.
"This is my limit. With my cultivation base and the power of my physical body, this is as far as I can go. Without using any special method, I would have to stop here, and I would have no right to talk about making my stone monument reach one million feet."
Su Ming lowered his head and looked down at his body which looked incredibly pathetic at the moment—it was filled with cracks and b.l.o.o.d.y marks. When he lifted his head, the overlapping runic symbols in his right eye suddenly started flas.h.i.+ng.
As they did so, Su Ming lifted his left hand and pressed it against his right eye.
This was the method to use the runic symbols, which he had come to naturally understand during the sixty years. With it, the moment Su Ming lifted his left hand from the eye, the runic symbols there instantly erupted.
Nearly a thousand runic symbols flew out with a bang, and as they shone, they circled around Su Ming, rotating around him swiftly. He looked as if he was in a storm of runic symbols. As they surrounded him, the mighty pressure on him reduced slightly.
Without any hesitation, Su Ming rushed forward. With the runic symbols around him, after around the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, he drew close enough to the cultivation planet that he could see the mountain ranges as well as the rivers on the continents.
Right then, the runic symbols around him started shuddering violently, while some of them were even destroyed instantaneously. Thankfully, being destroyed was not equivalent to disappearance for these runic symbols. They simply turned into glittering light that was instantly absorbed by the other runic symbols, who then begun to s.h.i.+ne even brighter.
Su Ming let out a low roar and continued to charge forward at full speed. He ignored the flow of time around him. The only thought in his head was to step on that cultivation planet, that he absolutely had to step on that planet. Not being able to even step on that cultivation planet during his test was something Su Ming would absolutely not allow to happen.
"I"ve never seen anyone dying when they tried to make their stone monument reach one million feet, which means that while this might look dangerous, real death is not a possibility. If that is the case… then I must give it my all!"
Su Ming lifted his head and roared, then charged forward at an even faster pace. More of the runic symbols around him shattered, but those that remained became even brighter, up to the point where they were almost dazzling.
But Su Ming"s physical body was also being torn apart as he moved forward. In fact, there were several spots on his arms where his flesh and blood had been torn apart, revealing bones. Those bones also started cracking due to the mighty pressure.
The pain that he could not feel in the world outside was incredibly great in this place. It attacked his heart and soul, but it could not suppress his madness.
There was a persistence and determination that others would find hard to imagine within Su Ming"s personality. If it were not for this determination, then how else could it have been possible for him to set his Life Matrix as a movement from winter, autumn, summer, to spring? How else could it have been possible for him to move from death to life? How else could it have been possible for him to go against fate his entire life? How else could it have been possible for him to have such an exuberant fighting spirit even after he had learned that everything in the land of Berserkers was Di Tian"s plan and that he was originally just a corpse?
All of this came from the determination that was part of Su Ming"s character. In fact, what he possessed could even be called obstinacy!
Boom!
There were only nine runic symbols left around Su Ming. Each of them was a thousand feet big, and they were rotating around at a great speed. Su Ming"s legs had already disappeared. His flesh, blood, and his bones were no longer around. Only his arms remained. In fact, he looked as if he was a corpse that had crawled out of its grave after most of its body had decomposed.
He looked incredibly terrifying, and the madness in his eyes and the light s.h.i.+ning in his eyes due to his determination was enough to make all those who saw it to feel their hearts trembling in shock.
Bang!
Only eight runic symbols left!
Boom!
Only seven runic symbols left!
Loud booming sounds continuously rang out, and each bang meant that another one of the runic symbols had shattered. Several bangs later, only three were left by his side.
Those three runic symbols were all several thousands of feet big. They swept through the area, and as Su Ming held on, they continued protecting him as he moved forward.
The flesh and blood on Su Ming"s skull had already dispersed. At that moment, one could see more bones than flesh or blood on his body. He looked like a skeleton that was still persisting in moving forward. The light in his eyes was even growing brighter; twin flames born from madness.
Booming sounds rang out once more. This time, two of the runic symbols exploded at the same time, which left only a single one. It was ten thousand feet big and was rotating swiftly under Su Ming"s feet.
It was at this time that Su Ming got close to the cultivation planet, which was at the center of the golden sea, after experiencing an endless amount of trials!
He was incredibly close, and because of it he could see the land of the cultivation planet. He saw… figures floating in midair, all of whom he was familiar with. Among them was Tian Xie Zi, his eldest senior brother, his second senior brother, Hu Zi… It did not matter whether it was his enemies or his friends, Su Ming saw all the people he had met before in that cultivation planet.
All the faces that existed in his memories were looking at him from the sky of that cultivation planet.
Besides… Di Tian!
Di Tian was not around!
As Su Ming continued getting closer, the final runic symbol under his feet started showing signs of crumbling, and his body started shattering again as the pressure came cras.h.i.+ng down on him.
Su Ming knew that he had failed this time, because he had done everything he could, but he had only gotten close to the cultivation planet. He had not even sensed the highest layer of wind in that planet, only able to see it.
"Even if I fail, I still want to see what else is there in this cultivation planet besides the faces from my memories!"
Su Ming"s eyes were bloodshot. He simply allowed the runic symbol under his feet to crack. What little remained of his body turned into a burning shooting star and charged towards the highest layer of wind with loud booming sounds.
He came closer to it!
With a bang, Su Ming"s body collided against the highest layer of wind of that planet. most of the runic symbol under his feet shattered. Violent gusts of wind roared, covering Su Ming"s vision. They crushed the runic symbol under his feet, and swiftly destroyed it.
When the runic symbol under Su Ming"s feet shattered, he rushed out of the highest layer of wind into the planet and truly reached the sky of that cultivation planet.
He saw the familiar faces, and also saw… a branch right behind each of those familiar figures. There was… a big golden tree that occupied most of the cultivation planet and used the land as its foundation!
That tree possessed countless branches, and the figures in front of those branches looked like flowers on them. They were connected to the tree and there was no distinction between the two. The familiar faces were smiling at Su Ming, as if they were calling out to him.
A rumbling sound rang out in Su Ming"s heart. He looked at this indescribable big tree with a blank stare and watched as one of the branches swiped through the air, landing on his crumbling body.
A power of time that Su Ming was familiar with gathered around him. He saw his crumbling flesh and blood swiftly tumbling backwards before they were all sent to the highest layer of wind in the blink of an eye, then in the span of a breath, he rushed out of to appear in the galaxy beyond the cultivation planet. The runic symbol under his feet looked as if time had reversed on it. As Su Ming was continuously forced back, the runic symbols that had crumbled previously beside him appeared once again.
His body started recovering ceaselessly from its previous crumbling state. When Su Ming was sent out of the golden sea and the cultivation planet became incredibly far away once more, his body recovered completely. The runic symbols had also returned to his right eye.
At the same time, booming sounds rang out in Su Ming"s ears. His vision blurred, and when everything became clear once again, he looked at the stone monument before him blankly. He… had returned to the place where the one hundred thousand stone monuments were.
His own had turned to become only twenty-one thousand feet tall from its previous ninety-nine hundred thousand feet height.
"You failed!" Sui Chen Zi"s ancient voice echoed in his mind, with a hint of aloofness.
"Heh heh, even those who entered the stone monument through the Five Illusory Echelons can fail, huh?"
"Now that you failed once, you"re no longer a newcomer in this place. Welcome to this endless cycle of repet.i.tion."
Voices from all around spoke to Su Ming, and they all belonged to people in the other stone monuments. Once they noticed that his stone monument had regressed to twenty-one thousand feet, they decided to speak up.
"This is only your first failure. If you continue, you will know what true despair is…"
The words from the voices from all around echoed in the air, but Su Ming did not answer. He closed his eyes, and after a long while, when he opened his eyes, a dark glint shone in them.
"Perhaps… I can pa.s.s it this way," he mumbled. The dark light shone incredibly brightly in the depths of his eyes.