Netherworld Heaven Staircase

Netherworld Heaven Staircase (冥天梯 Mingtianti), Heaven-Hell Staircase, Deathly Stairway to Heaven
== Appearance ==
It was a huge stone staircase. The staircase was extremely wide, with each step having a surface area of several thousand meters. The staircase soared high into the clouds, so high that it was impossible to see the end.
== Karmic luck ==
Atop the Netherworld Heaven Staircase, each person will be able to gain karmic luck.
With each step higher taken, more karmic luck will gather.
It was completely unexpected for the Netherworld Heaven Staircase to be able to increase a person's karmic luck. This was an absolutely heaven-defying treasure. They were all eager to get started.
In the past, no one had managed to reach the 999th step. And even if someone did manage to reach the 999th step, they wouldn't necessarily be able to obtain that final reward.
== Rewards ==
There are nine hundred and ninety-nine stairs. Between each of the large stairs lie ninety-nine smaller stairs.
"Any disciple who can reach the 333rd, 666th, or 999th step will receive a reward. As for what the reward will be, no one knows in advance, because those rewards are given to you by the Netherworld Heaven Staircase. It is decided by a person's karmic luck. There are possible good rewards, and there are possible trash rewards. It will be up to one's karmic luck.
"Furthermore, on the 999th step, there is a platform. The final reward is on that platform. As for what the reward is, no one knows. These rewards were set up by the head sect, but the rewards will surpass your wildest imaginations."
=== Tiers ===
On the 333rd stair, the treasures were split into three grades, high, medium, and low. But there was also a fourth possible reward: trash.
The probabilities for the 333rd stair were: five percent high grade, thirty percent medium grade, sixty-three percent low grade, and two percent trash.
The odds for the 666th stair were as follows: one percent high grade, sixty percent middle grade, thirty-eight percent low grade, and one percent trash. 
=== Treasures obtained ===
The following are obtained by those ascending the stairway:
* blouse by LC
* Soul Fixing Pearl by MQ, given to Gu Yang
* Hatchet
* Heavenly Sword Grass by Yue Qianshan
* Whip
* scale armor
* Heavenly Water Pearl
333rd stair
* hook, Enchanted item
* Barrier Breaking Pill
== Enter the stairway ==
They felt like they had entered water, and their footsteps became slow.
They not only felt physical pressure, but they also felt a pressure on their souls. Furthermore, a kind of lazy, weary feeling filled them, one made them feel like they would rather take a good nap than continue climbing.
Long Chen also felt this strangeness when he stepped onto the first step. He told his people, "The Xuantian Sea was a trial for your physical bodies, while the Nine Netherworld Path was a trial for your souls. This Netherworld Heaven Staircase combines both aspects and more.
"It targets a person's physical body, soul, will, and even the desires deep within their heart. It will cause a feeling of laziness and other negative emotions well up within you. However, that should be nothing to you. 
The person in the last place had only reached the sixth step. As he looked up at the endless staircase, a bewildered and lost expression appeared in his eyes.
The monastery heads didn't feel any shock or anger at that scene.
That was because they knew just how bizarre the Netherworld Heaven Staircase was. They had also once climbed it, so they knew what agony these disciples were going through.
Once you were tired, once you were weary to the bone, or perhaps once your confidence lagged, negative emotions would erupt within you. A voice would tell you to give up, that you couldn't hold on for much longer, so why must you force yourself?
It would entice you, seduce you, tell you that this staircase wasn't as magical as you once thought. Karmic luck? That was just nonsense, a story to trick people.
That voice didn't come from outside, but from within. It came from the lazy part of a person's heart.
Every person had a lazy side. If your will wasn't strong enough, you wouldn't be able to suppress it. On the Netherworld Heaven Staircase, your will was constantly tested, and it would make it far too easy to give in.
This was something unrelated to talent. So each time the Netherworld Heaven Staircase was activated, a few extremely talented disciples would end up falling behind some disciples with a rather average talent. That was because their superior talent made their will less steady. 
=== Motivation ===
Many had collapsed. Unable to see hope, they were invaded by their negative emotions. It was truly too difficult to endure. That was especially true since many of these elite disciples didn't even know their own reason for cultivating.
Their parents had simply told them that they had to properly cultivate. That they had to excel, to bring honor to their ancestors, to conduct themselves properly.
And so, they had begun cultivating. But many of them didn't even know why they had to excel and why they had to bring honor to their ancestors. They had simply been forced to walk forward on this path.
Now, these geniuses had become weaklings. The better their families' circumstances, the greater their origins and status, the easier they collapsed.
It was those who came from comparatively poorer origins who had stronger wills. This situation occurred every time the Netherworld Heaven Staircase was activated, so it was no longer a novel sight.
The Xuantian Dao Sect's only responsibility was to give them a cultivation environment. They didn't have the manpower or resources to properly educate each disciple in how to properly live their lives. Furthermore, their teachings would be the same: cultivate, excel amongst your peers, bring honor to your ancestors, and conduct yourself properly.
=== Recording info is forbidden ===
One can't record anything about the trial, or they'll be exterminated by the laws.
One monastery head had tried to secretly record information about the final trial. But after just a few words, he was destroyed.
The other monastery heads were pale with terror. That flying sword had come so suddenly that it was practically unblockable.
Quite a few of them had been tempted to secretly record this information as well before their memories about this portion of the trial were wiped away.
If they were aware of the final test beforehand, it would be extremely beneficial to the disciples.
=== 999th stair ===
LC reaches the 999th stair first because of the NSHBA. The reason wasn't because he was so used to risking his life.
Instead, it was the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art's sharp perception and intuition that told him that the 999th stair's formation might appear to be a killing formation, but its killing intent was fake. It was able to trick other people's spiritual perception, but it was unable to trick the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art.
Furthermore, through some clues, he understood what the formation's purpose was. That was why he had charged up.
This kind of formation would suppress you the more you resisted. Normal people definitely wouldn't dare to bet their lives.
If Long Chen didn't have confidence in the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, he also wouldn't have dared. Even though he had been sure, he had still been apprehensive. This formation's deceptive ability was truly shocking.
== Results ==
Close to half of the disciples hadn't reached the 333rd stair. As for those that had passed, 90% of them didn't reach the 666th stair.
And in the end, of the five thousand people that reached the 666th stair, a fifth of them directly collapsed after taking out their reward.
One reason was perhaps because the treasure they had obtained hadn't given them any motivation to continue, and so they had lost that drive.
Despite knowing each extra stair they climbed meant greater benefits, they were just too exhausted.
The other more important reason was that even Guo Ran, a rank two Celestial, had collapsed there, while they were only ordinary disciples. They had already done their best, so there was no need for them to try anymore.
Therefore, following the collapse of Guo Ran, another thousand people fell. Following good examples was hard, but following bad examples was easy.
The collapse of that many disciples caused even more negative emotions to surge out of the others. People collapsed left and right.
Furthermore, the Dragonblood warriors were getting further and further away. They felt that they were so far that they couldn't possibly catch up. They no longer had the confidence to catch up to them.
As a result of these factors, a chain reaction started. In the end, the disciple who walked the furthest only managed to take sixteen steps before giving up.
Now, the only ones still climbing were the Dragonblood Legion and the Celestials.
Ten thousand people had been turned into less than four hundred.
"The more talented they are, the more lacking their character is," said the vice sect master expressionlessly.
== History ==
Other than Shui Wuhen, all the monastery heads' expressions became a bit unnatural. They had already claimed that this was their strongest generation of disciples in all of their history.
They had all been extremely confident in them, and they had said that they would definitely surpass the previous generations' records for the trials, including the Netherworld Heaven Staircase.
And they weren't necessarily wrong. They truly had surpassed the previous record in two ways. First, the number of people attending was double the previous trials. That was a number worthy of pride.
As for the other way they had surpassed the record... In the last trial, there had been five thousand disciples who had reached the 666th stair. That was essentially the same as this time.
However, last time, over two thousand disciples had also reached the 700th stair. But this time, only four hundred did. That disproportionate dropout rate was also a record. That made the monastery heads blush with shame. The vice sect master was clearly dissatisfied with their teachings. All they had raised was a bunch of greenhouse flowers.
==References==
Category:Xuantian Dao Sect
Category:Trial