Covering the Sky: Simultaneous transmigration, but both clones are women.

A quiet place lay beneath the mountain gate.

Zhou Yuan's words were like a pebble thrown into a calm pond, creating ripples.

Liu Qing glanced at him sideways, her lips moving slightly as if she wanted to say something, but ultimately she didn't speak.

Jiang Ming remained expressionless, but his gaze remained fixed on the back of the black figure on the Ascension Steps, a glint of unfathomable light flashing in his slightly narrowed eyes.

"Cheating?"

Ye Chen stood on the ninth step, turned around, and looked down at the people below the mountain gate. A slight smile played on his lips. "Why don't you come up and take a walk?"

Zhou Yuan opened his mouth, but did not take a step.

He looked all tough on the outside but weak on the inside!

Ye Chen looked at his hesitant expression, his smile unchanged.

"How about we make a bet?"

"What kind of bet?"

Zhou Yuan subconsciously took half a step back.

"If I can climb all thirty-three steps, from now on, every one of you will have to call me Senior Brother!"

Ye Chen pointed to the top of the Ascension Steps.

He then turned to look at Jiang Ming, Liu Qing, and Meng Chuan, "You too."

There was a moment of silence in front of the mountain gate.

Zhou Yuan and Liu Qing exchanged a glance, both seeing the complex emotions in each other's eyes.

Jiang Ming frowned slightly, but remained silent.

Zhou Yuan gritted his teeth and asked, "What if you can't finish?"

He paused, as if carefully choosing his words, "You have to admit in front of all the disciples that you got in through connections and are unworthy to be a disciple of our Lingbao Sect!"

Ye Chen tilted his head, his gaze fixed on him as if he were an idiot: "I, a mere cultivator in the Bitter Sea Realm, have already easily taken nine steps. If you're not convinced, you can try taking nine steps yourself!"

Zhou Yuan fell silent.

Her eyes were lowered, making it impossible to discern her expression.

After a moment of silence, Ye Chen shook his head and turned to look at the top of the Ascension Steps again.

Hidden among the ancient pines, a stone platform can be vaguely seen, its surface engraved with some kind of ancient pattern, gleaming with a dark luster in the sunlight.

That is the end of the Ascension Steps, the place where the immortal Ge Hong once lectured and taught. It is said that those who can climb all thirty-three steps are qualified to listen to the immortal's teachings on that stone platform.

The first nine steps were easy.

Each step felt like stepping on ordinary bluestone steps, without any unusual sensation.

But the moment Ye Chen stepped onto the tenth step.

An invisible pressure surged from all directions, as if an invisible hand was pressing on his shoulder, heavy and heavy, forcing him to tense all his muscles to steady himself.

Ye Chen took a deep breath and continued upwards.

Level 11, Level 12, Level 13.

With each level up, the pressure increases.

By the time he reached level thirteen, he could hear the faint creaking of his bones, like the groaning of an old wooden door being blown by the wind.

He knew his current situation.

In this pure land, a cultivation level of the Bitter Sea Realm is at the bottom.

Following the normal path, he had already reached his limit by completing these thirteen steps; the remaining twenty steps were all obstacles.

But where in this world are there so many "normal" things?

Ye Chen closed his eyes, and the Heavenly Demon Scripture within his body circulated on its own.

Dark light surged from the sea of ​​suffering three inches below his navel, spreading like a tide along the meridians, passing through his limbs and bones, and finally forming a thin film of light around his body.

The light was deep and cold, like the flames of the underworld rising from the depths of hell, flowing and leaping across his body.

He took the fourteenth step.

The bluestone steps beneath my feet trembled and emitted a low hum.

The pressure suddenly intensified, like an invisible mountain pressing down on his back, causing him to bend over slightly.

But he didn't stop; he gritted his teeth and continued climbing.

Step 15, Step 16, Step 17.

Dark light surged wildly around him, as if resisting that invisible force. Each collision produced a faint crackling sound, like two pieces of steel rubbing against each other.

The people below the mountain gate were completely speechless.

Jiang Ming stood at the front, his hands behind his back, his eyes fixed on the black figure on the Ascension Steps.

His fingers curled slightly, his knuckles turning white from gripping them so tightly, and beneath that composed mask, his pupils were trembling slightly.

Fourteen steps.

He silently recited the number in his mind, and the image of himself ascending the Immortal Steps after breaking through the Dao Palace Secret Realm involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

By the time he reached the eleventh step, he was already drenched in sweat, and by the thirteenth step, his legs were so weak that he could barely keep going. In the end, he gritted his teeth and persevered.

The junior brother in front of them, who was only at the Bitter Sea Realm, had already crossed the fourteenth step and was standing on the seventeenth step!

Although his steps were heavy, his back remained straight, like a pine tree standing stubbornly in the wind.

Zhou Yuan stood half a step behind Jiang Ming, his mouth slightly open, his round face filled with disbelief.

He subconsciously turned to look at Liu Qing beside him and found that Liu Qing had the same expression, her pupils slightly trembling, as if she were looking at something unbelievable.

"Seventeen steps now..."

Zhou Yuan muttered to himself, his voice carrying a dryness he himself didn't realize, "How could someone at the Bitter Sea Realm possibly..."

Liu Qing did not answer.

Her gaze remained fixed on the Ascension Steps, watching the black figure ascend step by step, each step feeling heavy as if it were treading on her heart.

Ye Chen stopped on the eighteenth step.

The pressure had reached the limit that his body could withstand.

The Heavenly Demon Scripture circulated wildly within his body, and dark light flowed endlessly around him, but that invisible power was like an endless ocean, and no matter how he struggled, he could not shake it in the slightest.

He looked down at the bluestone steps beneath his feet, panting heavily. Sweat beaded on his forehead, sliding down his cheeks and dripping onto the bluestone, where it evaporated instantly.

"This thing..."

Ye Chen muttered to himself, a hint of helplessness in his voice, "It's definitely not something you can pass just by looking at talent!"

He possesses extraordinary talent for comprehension, and the cultivation technique he practices is an imperial-level inheritance like the Heavenly Demon Scripture.

But all of this cannot change one fact.

He only has the cultivation level of the Bitter Sea Realm!

The test for ascending to immortality is precisely a cultivator's foundation and understanding of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth.

He possessed all of these qualities, but his cultivation level was too low. It was like a child with unparalleled swordsmanship who, no matter how skilled he was, could not wield that heavy iron sword.

Zhou Yuan, standing below the mountain gate, saw him stop, his eyes lighting up, and his voice rising a few decibels: "He stopped, he can't walk anymore!"

"I knew it! How could a newbie in the Bitter Sea Realm possibly complete the Ascension Staircase?"

Zhou Yuan's voice carried a hint of smugness, as if he had finally found an excuse to retaliate, "I just took seventeen steps, maybe that was my limit—"

His words came to an abrupt halt.

On the Ascension Steps, Ye Chen moved once more.