Chapter 2857

The ancient capital of the Ganglu Dynasty, below the Sun Ladder.

Only by getting close and looking up could one feel how shocking the Sun Ladder was.

The Sun Ladder was cylindrical, like a pillar standing between heaven and earth. Inside its hollow structure was a spiral staircase leading upward, circling upward as if to lead to the sky.

The outer wall of the Sun Ladder wasn't just a rock structure; a kind of withered vine was embedded within the rock. The main trunk of this vine was as thick as a thumb, and the branches on it seemed to embrace the entire Sun Ladder.

Viewed from the outside, the Sun Ladder was a hundred meters thick, and an arched doorway was located toward the lower part.

Baha, who had been scouting, returned, and before long, Xiuxiluo also arrived.

"Too slow."

Su Xiao glanced at the time. Baha and Xiuxiluo were nearly 2 minutes slower than the scheduled time.

"Went to fertilize the 'leeks,' delayed a bit of time."

Baha smirked, not saying directly that it had encountered the God Emperor adventure squad.

Su Xiao's eyes showed doubt, but he didn't delve into it. After walking up a dozen steps, he entered the arched doorway. Because it was morning, sunlight reflected from the arched doorway into the Sun Ladder, so it wasn't dark inside.

The entire interior of the Sun Ladder was cylindrical. The spiral stone staircase leading upward was fixed to the surrounding walls. Because there were no railings beside the stone staircase, the center of the Sun Ladder led all the way to the top.

Looking upward, after the line of sight passed a hundred meters, one could only see pitch darkness.

Proceeding upward along the surrounding spiral staircase, because there were no railings, it was definitely a very thrilling experience. An invisible force field was falling down along the center.

"How tall is this building?"

The Priest stopped at the center of the bottom floor of the Sun Ladder, feeling the force field slowly falling from above. This force field didn't affect the stone staircase clinging to the walls around it.

"Unknown."

Ovia walked into the archway. At this time, her white hair was tied up, and the black smoke dress on her body was no longer dragging on the ground. The Red-Eyed Woman behind her was carrying a large leather bag, though it was unknown what was inside.

"It is said that an occultist once flew several thousand meters above the ancient capital and then fell down like a stone."

Ovia looked at Chairman Rogesh. Rogesh didn't speak, tacitly acknowledging the truth of this information.

"That is indeed the case. If I fly above 3500 meters, I will feel discomfort."

Baha confirmed the truth of this information. The last time it came to the ancient capital, it wanted to see how tall the Sun Ladder was, but the risk was too great, so it didn't try.

"Let's go."

Although the Priest said this, he didn't walk in the lead, but waited for Su Xiao to walk onto the stone staircase first. Among everyone present, Su Xiao's close-range perception was the keenest, and his reaction speed was the fastest.

Walking in the lead had the benefits of walking in the lead. Amu and Baha were located at the very back of the queue, thus sandwiching everyone else in between. Everyone was clear about this point, but if they wanted Su Xiao to clear the path in front, they couldn't have any objections.

Su Xiao walked at the very front, followed by Ignoring Xiang Bubu Wang, then Ovia and the Red-Eyed Woman, then behind them were the Priest, Chairman Rogesh, and Xiuxiluo, and finally Amu and Baha.

It was worth mentioning that Chairman Rogesh also brought the masked man, Bass. Bass didn't say a word, just followed behind Rogesh.

After Su Xiao climbed upward for a hundred meters, he saw many carvings on the wall beside him. They were characters from different eras, and the content was as follows:

"The sun is above."

"Move forward step by step; this is a trial."

"The trial facing the sun."

The messages from various eras added up to several dozen. Seeing these messages, Su Xiao knew that the Sun Gate squad he was in wasn't the first to bring the five keys and head toward the Sun Gate.

What kind of fate those previous people met was unknown, but one thing was certain: the current Sun Gate squad, in terms of the number of people, was definitely the strongest of this era.

Death Shadow Ovia and Chairman Rogesh were the ceiling of combat power in this world. Who among them was stronger was still unknown, as the two hadn't fought each other.

Climbing the stone staircase step by step, Su Xiao was constantly calculating in his heart. He had now climbed upward for about a thousand meters. Looking to the side, the bottom was already bottomless.

The Sun Ladder was likely not built through conventional means. Although this was a Tier 7 extraordinary world, hindered by the level of technology, the limit for a building was a hundred meters high.

The known information now was that the height of the Sun Ladder exceeded a thousand meters. Not only that, the higher one went, the higher the temperature around them became.

Su Xiao exhaled hot air from his mouth. He turned his head to look at Ignoring Xiang Bubu Wang behind him. Ignoring Xiang Bubu Wang was sticking out its tongue, its gaze somewhat dazed. It was already heat-stupified, its IQ sliding to Xiuxiluo's level. Its genuine leather coat was truly too hot.

"Bubutney, if you're too hot, just peel off your skin to cool down."

Xiuxiluo, who was shirtless, spoke from behind.

"Woof!"

Ignoring Xiang Bubu Wang barked at Xiuxiluo. Because it and Su Xiao were walking at the very front of the spiral staircase, as long as they turned their heads, they could see Xiuxiluo and the others below to the side, with everyone maintaining a distance of about 5 meters.

Continuing to climb upward, Su Xiao took out a rangefinder. After inputting several types of data, this rangefinder, which looked similar to a timer, began to calculate his altitude based on the distance Su Xiao had traveled and the slope of the spiral stone staircase.

Su Xiao glanced at the rangefinder; he had climbed upward for 2168 meters. He looked upward again; the spiral staircase above seemed endless.

Climbing to this point, Su Xiao even doubted whether he had arrived in a place like an different dimension, but Baha sent a message through the team channel, confirming there was no abnormality and they were still inside the Sun Ladder.

Su Xiao placed his hand on the wall beside him. It was truly too hot; even with his physique, he felt the scorching heat.

Just as his hand touched the wall, a piece of weathered rock snapped with a click. Everyone present had keen perception, and they immediately stopped their steps.

"Bai Ye, what's the situation?"

"..."

Su Xiao didn't speak. He was looking at a piece of rock in front of him. This rock was about the size of a fingernail and was slowly floating upward.

Grabbing the gradually floating rock piece, Su Xiao tossed it toward the Priest. Just as the rock piece flew near the Priest, it slowly floated upward.

Seeing this scene, the Priest felt something was wrong in his heart. If the entire Sun Ladder was built from this kind of stone, then it was very difficult to determine how tall this building was.

This kind of stone almost ignored gravity. After using it to build a structure, there was no need to worry about collapse. As long as it was fixed to the ground and not allowed to float into the high sky, it could be built very high.

Baha had previously scouted that there was heavy pressure outside the Sun Ladder; it seemed that because of a kind of energy floating in the sky, this situation appeared.

External heavy pressure, the main body of the Sun Ladder having floating characteristics, plus the rock used to build it being very sturdy—multiple factors combined to create the magnificent Sun Ladder.

Su Xiao didn't know the specific structure of the Sun Ladder, but he knew one thing: the higher one went, the higher the temperature inside the Sun Ladder became, and heat waves kept surging from above.

Continuing forward, when the rangefinder showed 5173 meters, Su Xiao stopped his steps once again. He somewhat doubted that this thing was broken. Even if the structure of the Sun Ladder was special, it shouldn't be this high, and... it was even hotter all around.

Su Xiao wiped the sweat from his chin, took off his 【Mad Night】 long leather coat and inner clothing, and stood shirtless. He took out a large bottle of water and poured it over his head.

Hiss, hiss~

White steam rose from Su Xiao's body surface. The water vapor took away the heat from his body, and water vapor even appeared, which showed how high the temperature on his body surface was.

He poured the remaining half bottle of water on Ignoring Xiang Bubu Wang, and Ignoring Xiang Bubu Wang, who was hot to the point of "joy," recovered a bit.

"Could it be that we are really approaching the sun?"

The Priest behind him was also shirtless. Su Xiao felt the scorching heat, so the Priest certainly wasn't having an easy time either. As for Chairman Rogesh, who was an occultist, one could tell his current state from the drops of sweat dripping from his chin.

"Approaching the sun? How is that possible? We haven't even left Magic Spirit Star's atmosphere. You have to believe in science, Priest."

As Baha spoke, it bit into the cold ice produced by Amu using ice energy (extraordinary ability).

"Oh ho ho, Red-Eyed Woman, I didn't notice it usually, tsk tsk tsk~"

Xiuxiluo, who was almost hot to the point of being a fool, spoke. The reason he said this was because the Red-Eyed Woman had stripped down to only her underwear. She didn't care about these things at all. If Ovia hadn't stopped her, the Red-Eyed Woman would have walked shirtless, as that would be cooler.

"Indeed."

The Priest also looked sideways; the old guy was very bad.

Su Xiao at the very front continued forward. The higher they went, the more terrifying the temperature became.

Carrying Ignoring Xiang Bubu Wang, when Su Xiao had forgotten how long he had been moving, the stone staircase came to an end, and an archway appeared in front.

Walking into the archway, Su Xiao discovered that this was the top floor of the Sun Ladder, with an area of about several dozen square meters.

Just as he walked into the top floor of the Sun Ladder, Su Xiao saw carvings on the ground. They were several messages, and the content was:

"You succeeded."

"Don't be proud; this is just the beginning."

"If you didn't bring the five keys, return the way you came. Sliding down on a wooden board will have a different experience—thrilling and exciting."

"The Sun Gate is already before your eyes, but what is that hole of darkness? That might be... a thing of black filth."

"Another group of people who came to die, tempted by the mask. The final advice: do not fight with more than 10 Sun Warriors."

There were all kinds of messages, but no very useful information was obtained.

Su Xiao looked toward the innermost side of the top floor of the Sun Ladder. A giant metal door was located here. This giant metal door presented an overall dull golden color. In the center was a ring, and toward the lower part, at a height of 1.6 meters from the ground, there were five grooves separated by about a meter. This was the Sun Gate.

【Prompt: The Hunter has passed the "Ladder Trial."】

【Your Willpower attribute has permanently increased by 1 point.】

【Your HP has permanently increased by 300 points.】

【You have obtained Sun Protection. Within 1 hour, the Sun-characteristic damage you take will be reduced by 5%.】

【Warning: The Hunter is about to enter a super high-risk area of this world, the Ganglu Dynasty's Sun Holy Land.】

【Prompt: After the Hunter enters this area, the Soul Shop will be activated. The Hunter can exchange items in the Soul Shop by consuming Soul Coins.】

PS (Four chapters today. Writing a bit slowly, sorry, only updating now.)