Chapter 5: I Think the Third Stage Tests Wisdom

Everyone arrived at the Heart-Asking Mountain without much feeling, only Man Gu clearly felt his strength declining, and all his physical standards were moving closer to everyone else.

The boiling Ancient Barbarian blood in his body returned to calm and could no longer provide him with a continuous stream of strength.

Everyone looked at each other and finally looked at the strongest Man Gu.

"I'll go first." Seeing everyone looking at him, Man Gu didn't stand on ceremony and simply became the first person.

First step, second step, third step... tenth step.

Man Gu walked the first ten steps easily. Starting from the eleventh step, the pressure gradually appeared. He felt as if he were carrying a stone slab, and the higher he climbed, the heavier the slab became.

But it was still within the range of endurance.

Keep climbing.

Man Gu panted twice, stabilized his breathing, and walked toward the twentieth step.

Man Gu climbed to the twentieth step, his pace becoming more and more difficult, and the speed of stepping up becoming slower and slower.

At the twenty-ninth step, sweat had already begun to seep from Man Gu's back, soaking his clothes. He had to stop, panting heavily, and sat on the steps to rest.

"Even sitting has pressure." Man Gu gritted his teeth, muttering to himself, too tired to speak. He had now changed from standing and carrying a stone monument to sitting and carrying a stone monument, and the speed of recovering strength was very slow.

Seeing Man Gu walking so difficultly, everyone knew that this mountain was not easy to climb, and their hearts sank.

Someone said in a deep voice: "I have heard of similar places from the elders in the clan. This Heart-Asking Mountain can test the heart of seeking the Dao. The simpler the heart, the firmer the will, and the purer the heart of seeking the Dao. Man Gu comes from the Ancient Barbarians and is famous for being single-minded. Even he climbs so difficultly, I'm afraid we will climb even more difficultly!"

"Can the calming mantra let the heart settle down? Is it useful?" Another person thought of a way.

The third stage requires climbing to the fiftieth step, not requiring the top few to pass. They are not in a competitive relationship now.

Everyone nodded one after another, feeling that this was a good method. The elders at home had taught similar mantras for self-cultivation.

Lu Yang opened his mouth. He didn't know any calming mantra.

"Do you want me to teach you a calming mantra?" Meng Jingzhou asked.

Lu Yang shook his head: "Not yet. I want to think of other methods."

Seeing this, Meng Jingzhou didn't force the mantra on Lu Yang.

Meng Jingzhou woke up from meditation, feeling his heart was calmer than ever before.

The calming mantra is feasible!

Meng Jingzhou's meditation time was longer than the average person's. When he woke up, others were already at the twenty or thirty-step position, sweating profusely, and needing great perseverance to move forward one more step.

Large drops of sweat covered their cheeks, and they didn't even have the strength to wipe their faces.

Someone wanted to take a shortcut, feeling that there would only be pressure on the steps, so they bypassed the mountain path from the side of the steps to the fiftieth step. But when they reached the side mountain path, they found that this method didn't work. The whole Heart-Asking Mountain had more pressure the higher it went.

Others wanted to use magic treasures, but found that the magic treasures lost their ability. No matter how miraculous the magic treasure was, it couldn't even be activated, becoming a pile of scrap metal.

No wonder Dai Bufan wasn't worried about them using magic treasures.

Lu Yang lagged behind everyone, the most conspicuous.

He was barefoot on one foot, squatting on the tenth step, lost in thought, not knowing what he was observing.

"What are you doing? Others have climbed very far." Meng Jingzhou asked curiously.

Lu Yang didn't speak, holding a shoe in his hand.

Lu Yang threw the shoe, and the shoe landed on the eleventh step: "You pick it up and try."

Meng Jingzhou didn't understand Lu Yang's meaning, but still did as he was told. Then he found that the shoe was heavier than usual, as if something was pulling it from underneath.

Meng Jingzhou seemed to understand something and threw the shoe to the twelfth step, finding that the shoe's falling speed was the same as the eleventh step, but it was heavier when picked up than the eleventh step.

"Discovered any patterns?"

Meng Jingzhou frowned: "If the object doesn't land, the pressure won't be transmitted to the object. Only when the object lands and comes into contact with the ground, will there be extra pressure?"

"That's right." Lu Yang punched his palm, rarely having someone with the same idea as himself, very happy.

Meng Jingzhou thought thoughtfully. In a quiet state, his mind turned very fast: "The steps are inclined, and there are so many trees here. We can build a '7'-shaped ladder, with one end buried in the ground and the other leading directly to the fiftieth step."

Lu Yang said firmly: "Yes, this third test should be testing our wisdom. This is the standard answer!"

Meng Jingzhou understood Lu Yang's idea and soon raised another question: "How do we cut down trees?"

They didn't have axes or saws, how to cut down trees to make a ladder?

"Do you have any sharp magic treasures on you?" Lu Yang had long thought of this problem.

He had thought about cooperating with others, but unfortunately, others couldn't understand his idea.

Meng Jingzhou took out a dagger: "This was given to me by a clan elder for self-defense. It can be activated by intention, and its speed is comparable to the Golden Core stage. However, in the Heart-Asking Mountain, it can't fly."

"No matter, as long as it's sharp." Lu Yang laughed. The Meng family was a big clan. The magic treasures they refined, even if they couldn't be activated, were far sharper than ordinary axes and saws.

Just right for cutting down trees.

"Come and see. While you were meditating, I had already designed the blueprint."

Lu Yang took Meng Jingzhou to a piece of soft sandy ground, where the blueprint designed by Lu Yang was drawn, exactly a '7'-shaped ladder.

The two discussed slightly and began to act.

The Meng family dagger was indeed sharp. The thick trees were like paper in front of the dagger, and the trees were soon cut into pieces of strangely shaped wooden boards by the two.

Cultivators and mortals in the Heart-Asking Mountain were the same. The trees that could grow here were naturally the most ordinary kind.

Soon Meng Jingzhou discovered the problem again.

"How to connect these two wooden boards? Don't say we don't have nails in our hands. Even if we had nails, we couldn't connect such thick wooden boards."

"Ever heard of mortise and tenon structure?"

"No."

Lu Yang was helpless. While taking the dagger to cut the wooden board connection into a mortise and tenon structure, he explained the wisdom of the mortal world to Meng Jingzhou.

"This protruding part is called a tenon, and this concave part is called a mortise. Combined, it is a mortise and tenon structure. The biggest feature of the mortise and tenon structure is that it is extremely firm without using nails on the object."

Meng Jingzhou listened very seriously. The Meng family used spiritual energy for refining tools, which was tool-refining art, and didn't need mortise and tenon structure.

The people on the steps were sweating profusely, tired and panting, just to climb to the fiftieth step and be the first to pass.

Perhaps being the first to pass could get the Profound Heaven Sect's appreciation and then be focused on cultivation.

Everyone also understood why there was no time limit. The physical exertion of climbing the mountain was too great. If they stayed for a long time, they would be too hungry to even stand up, let alone climb the mountain.

The two under the steps were also sweating profusely, tired and panting. After a lot of effort, cutting down patches of trees, and after several trials and errors, they finally made the ladder.

The ladder had a strange shape, thin at the top and thick at the bottom, and the end was curved. Rather than a ladder, it was a huge '7'.

The surrounding area was bare, as if bitten by a huge pig demon.

Some Profound Heaven Sect disciples secretly glanced at Dai Bufan. They remembered that Senior Brother Dai Bufan liked to show off his lush Heart-Asking Mountain the most.

Dai Bufan's eyelids twitched, and he clenched his fists involuntarily. ===== CHAPTER 6 =====