The Legend of Fangren

"I've made a fool of myself."

Fang Shi smiled confidently, cupped his hands to the crowd, and walked across the immortal stone with Luo He, intending to stand among the group of geniuses.

"You come out here, you bastard!"

Liu Yiyuan was so angry that he grabbed the kid and threw him to the other side.

"Elder Liu..." Luo He didn't expect the elder to actually make a move. He was about to ask for advice when he saw Fang Shi, who had been thrown out, bounce back up like a ball, signaling him not to be impulsive.

"What? Even though you were brought back by Zhang Kongming, if you want to protect someone you know, let's see if I'll allow it!"

Liu Yiyuan was, after all, an elder. With a glare, the aura he exuded caused all the geniuses to take a half step back.

"Very well, considering your humble origins, it's natural that you two have feelings for each other since you depend on each other for survival. But you must know that blindly protecting each other is not a good thing. You each have your own path to walk. Don't let this affection become a shackle on your heart, it would be a real loss."

Once she calmed down, Luo He quickly bowed and said, "This disciple will remember."

"As for you."

Liu Yiyuan turned around and looked at Fang Shi, who was completely oblivious: "If you really want to find a job in the sect, go climb the Heavenly Stairs now. That way you can save some time. Otherwise, you might end up being harmed by mountain spirits before nightfall."

He thought Fang Shi would quietly walk away, but to his surprise, Fang Shi showed no humility whatsoever. Instead, he took off his backpack and asked him, "Elder Liu, may I take this bag of spirit fruits with me?"

"Spiritual fruit? What kind of spiritual fruit?" Liu Yiyuan glanced at the backpack.

"The Fruit of the Sky Tree".

"Oh? This thing isn't valuable, but it's rare. You might not even find it for sale in the city. Where did you get it?"

"I found it myself in the woods."

"Since you found it yourself, you might as well take it with you."

Although Liu Yiyuan was strict, he was not harsh. He used his Xuan Qi to transmit his voice: "Those of you who are going up the Heavenly Platform, if you are just looking for a job, you can go up the mountain with this young man now. Don't waste time."

However, everyone in Taichung was waiting for the Immortal Stone to be tested for its qualifications, and no one was willing to give up, even though some people already knew their qualifications.

Seeing this, Fang Shi thought it best to have only one person, so as not to have to hide his abilities.

"Hezi, see you on the mountain!"

"Yes, I will definitely wait for you."

"What are you waiting for? Take care of your own business first, we'll talk when you have time, okay?"

With a wave of his hand, Fang Shi shouldered his bag and stepped onto the long staircase leading to heaven.

"This person..."

Surprisingly, this thing immediately started climbing up using all four limbs, and its movements were quite nimble.

Liu Yiyuan: "..."

Having lived this long, this was the first time he had felt the urge to be kicked off a mountain halfway through his life.

Now, let's talk about Fang Shi...

Hiking alone is great! No one's watching you, you can rest when you're tired, eat some fruit, and keep going.

However, the towering Canglong Peak, reaching tens of thousands of meters, clearly offered little room for rest. Even though the sect wasn't at the very top, the remaining height was still beyond the reach of ordinary people.

After climbing more than 300 meters in one go, Fang Shi decided to sit down and rest to catch his breath.

This height doesn't even reach the foot of Canglong Peak, but it was already quite high in his previous life. Anyway, he never thought he would have the chance to challenge something even taller than Mount Everest in this life.

However, the physique of people in the Xuan Realm is also extraordinary, definitely several times better than that of a bunch of sub-healthy people in the previous life, and his physical condition is naturally several times better than that of the previous world.

Having understood his mission as the protagonist since childhood, Fang Shi never slacked off in his training. He discovered these things through training. He felt that no matter how tired his body was after labor or exercise, as long as he ate and slept enough, he could recover and even make progress.

Based on what the immortal had said about the principles of taste, the upper limit of the physical growth of living beings in this world must be very high.

In fact, on the day he left Qiaocun, he was confident that he was the strongest man in the village. However, his strength did not seem to be reflected in his body at all. Who would believe that his thin arms, which could be easily wrapped around a wooden door, could dismantle it with his bare hands?

But no matter how strong he was, he was still within the realm of mortals. He had never had any spiritual fruits to eat before, and he believed that if he wanted to improve further, he had to eat even better.

The journey proved this point; even without eating meat, his physical fitness improved significantly after training, thanks to the spiritual fruits he ate.

That's why he's trying so hard to get into the sect.

Firstly, he felt that his body was clearly capable of continuous improvement, and at least he hadn't encountered any bottlenecks yet, so why couldn't he cultivate immortality? Was it because the balance of the five elements in his body was low and the risks were high?

Nonsense! With his level of spiritual power, he can get spiritual fruits like they're free. He could feed them to pigs and they'd grow into mystical beasts. Why can't he produce a "mystical person" when he feeds them to himself? Don't you know that when he gets ruthless, he can eat even more pigs than he can eat?

Secondly, even if he really couldn't cultivate immortality, he still wanted to test how far he could train his body. He didn't want to be invincible, but at least he couldn't let anyone bully him.

"Hiss... Keep climbing."

Fang Shi saw that there were only a few people left on the Ascending Heaven Platform at the foot of the mountain, and he figured the second stage of the trial would start soon. If he didn't hurry, he didn't know when he would be able to get to the sect.

He rose halfway up, continuing to use both hands and feet to nimbly ascend.

He ate spirit fruits when he was hungry and drank the water he brought when he was thirsty. Fortunately, he had been training this month, so his body should be much better than when he left the village.

Even so, they had to stop and rest again when the sun was high in the sky.

Where are we?

I wanted to estimate the distance to the Dengtiantai (a high-altitude platform) at the foot of the mountain, but the dense, towering trees on the mountain completely blocked my view.

The 10,000-meter peak is so vast that even the few protrusions at its foot and waist are no different from the surrounding high mountains and steep ridges. Climbing the Azure Dragon Peak may seem like just climbing one mountain, but in reality, it involves traversing mountains and ridges, venturing deep into forests, and constantly climbing one peak after another with increasing height, with only one set of steps to guide the way.

Most ordinary people give up when they get here, and that is the real difficulty of climbing the long staircase to heaven.

The less aware one is of one's own position, the more uncertain one feels about the distant, boundless mountain gate above, as if mocking those mortals who lack self-awareness and dream of instant success.

Since you've decided to, then take it one step at a time and see how steadfast your worldly desires are.

Ah, but our protagonist Fang Shi is different; he crawls.

The spiritual fruits in his bag were not enough to last long, so he set his sights on the Sky Tree beside the steps.

This mountain is so big, the Sky Tree is just like weeds. It can't be that it's more precious just because it's on Azure Dragon Peak, right?

Then I won't be polite!

Behold my right hand of God, the power of dissolution!

In less than half a minute, a towering tree that looked hundreds of years old fell to the ground.

Even a tree trunk over two meters thick couldn't withstand the force of the disintegration; fortunately, the dense forest prevented it from rolling down.

In fact, given the density of trees on this mountain, even if someone jumped off a cliff, they would likely be saved by the trees and wouldn't die easily.

This is the environmental advantage of a sect's treasure land, with abundant profound energy. The problem of "miscellaneous trees" in the Longhe Sect is actually quite serious.

However, even with the combined strength of the entire sect, it would be difficult to clear such a vast forest. The Sky Trees grow extremely fast, covering the entire Xuan Realm, making it impossible to clear them all.

"The probability of obtaining spirit fruits after the tree branches on Azure Dragon Peak are decomposed is really high. Outside, it's less than one in ten, but here it's one in five."

Fang Shi had a premonition that even if he joined a sect and people ignored him, he would still be able to stay on this mountain.

As for whether they'll end up bald on this mountain... well, that's certainly a good idea.