It was early in the morning, everyone had to wake up in preparation of the upcoming event. The previous night turned out to be a restless night for all of them, which led to bloodshot eyes accompanied by a heavy eye bag beneath it. A tired and unhealthy look were noticeable on their faces as if a ghost were stuck behind them. Nevertheless, everyone wore their armor in preparation of a new battle that is soon to happen. Forced by Ye Tian, they didn’t really have any other choice. This was the only way to make up for their uncontrollable shopping spree that led to near bankruptcy again.

Song Han was given a new falcon along with other armors and weapons given as a new member of the team. Highly valued armors, if worn, used an ancient technology that would appear as similar as their skin tone, integrating flawlessly with its owner.  Even though an ancient armor was given, Song Han still wore another layer of a woman’s outfit, barely fitted that revealed blocky figures of his body instead of curvy.

“Why are you wearing woman’s clothes again?”

“I’ve got no choice….I’ve beaten quite a few young masters from the noble families, hehehe”

Shortly after, they flew towards the treasure mountain. Along the way they saw airships, big and small, flying towards the same direction. Flying beast were also seen in masses, ridden by other cultivators, flying towards the same direction. A black aircraft was seen with the word “Zhao” emblem on the aircraft. Many other aircrafts also had their own emblems represented by either family clans, sects, or empires.

At one point, a huge white battle aircraft, layered by purple colored patterns that resembled a phoenix was seen dominating the sky with other flying beasts surrounding them. Although there was no emblem shown on this aircraft, its sheer size and magnificence outshined the other aircrafts that led to many travelers in front of them to give way.

Another huge aircraft was seen from a different direction, shining its silver platinum silver color with its ancient patterns. Not a single word could be seen on the aircraft that would possinly reveal their origins, but there was a symbol of a tree leaf right on the front of the aircraft spearing its way through the skies. Smaller surrounding aircrafts that flew around this aircraft were actually protectors of what seemed to be a very important and powerful faction in this world.

Ye Tian wanted to take out his aircraft, but eventually didn’t after thinking about the consumption of monster cores it needed that had emptied out his savings. By the time they arrived at the bottom of the treasure mountain, countless people already arrived, coming from different families and sects from different continents. This was a major rare event that was held every 100 years, so no one wanted to miss the opportunity to obtain a priceless magical treasure. Even from a very far distance, one could already see the visibility of the mountain from the rest of the landscape. It was a gigantic mountain where parts of it were experiencing snowstorms, while other parts were flowing with magma, and other few parts were as ordinary as other mountains. Multiple red veins could be seen from the ground base extending all the way up to the peak of the mountain.

“Oh Ye Tian, you finally came. Come to my camp, let me explain to you the 10 stratospheres of this treasure mountain. To win, you need to reach the peak of the mountain. Only a few strong fighters were able to reach such heights. Just think of this mountain as having 10 levels. The first 3 levels, you will experience extreme gravity force that will always pull you back to the base of this mountain. The next three levels have illusionary effects. Each individual will experience different types of illusions.”

“The next three level is called ‘the battlefield level.’ Just like how it sounds, you’re fighting your way to the top against other competitors. It’s important for you all to have great teamwork. You’ll find out later that many sect, families, and empires will send out all their young cultivators, but their true purpose is to help their chosen one to reach the peak.”

“The last level is a bit more mysterious. Past winners were told not to say anything, otherwise, they would die the instant they expose anything. The last level will be entirely up to you. You have to figure out how to reach the peak yourself. Oh, by the way, killing is not allowed anywhere on this mountain….this is the absolute rule from the ruler of this mountain. The moment you kill someone, you will also get killed.  From past incidents till now, no one has been able to get away with killing even if they had life-saving treasures with them.”

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“When one of the volcano erupts, that means the event have started, so prepare everything you need right now.”

Fang Meng had Ma Qian explained to the rest of the team a specific battle formation that could help them during this journey. It was an ancient battle formation that was effectively used against bigger numbers. Fortunately, Ye Tian and the rest quickly understood its principle, but they had no place to practice it. Only time could tell whether they could execute the formation effectively or not.

Boom!

Hearing the sound of erupted volcanoes, a force field appeared right at the border of the mountain reaching all the way to the sky. This force field only allowed cultivators at the age of 25 and under to enter, otherwise, older cultivators would turn to ash immediately. Many families and sects started entering, while some others chose to wait a bit later to enter.

Ye Tian stared at his gang disgustingly like they were some convicted criminals. He still couldn’t let go of what had happened last night. He got robbed twice by his own comrades!

“Let’s go! If you give up easily, I will make sure you will live a horrible life for the rest of your life!”

“Oh, come on….. It’s just zoids man!”

“Shut up! Zoids are the extension of my life! For you to take those zoids away from me is like losing parts of my body. How dare you to be so ignorantly shameful.”

The rest could only follow quietly behind Ye Tian as if they became his servants beginning today. Lin Yang could only sigh sadly, one day he was living the high life, the next day he was living a shitty life. Not even a month had passed by, but he has experienced this twice already!

The moment they entered the force field, an open snow field filled the entire scene. Snows were falling as small as an ant and as big as a boulder crashing to the ground heavily. Trees were abnormal shaped with bones hanging on the branches. Some areas had a sinkhole that was spitting out acid. This was the first stratosphere of the treasure mountain, and some could already feel the heavy gravity pulling them back outside.

Ye Tian and the rest didn’t feel the gravity force was an obstacle to them on the first stratosphere. In fact, this was a perfect opportunity for Song Han to dive deeper into the law of gravity that would help him gain enlightenment. Climbing up the mountain, they could see some cultivators were crushed by mammoths, and some others were eaten by carnivorous plants. They deserved to die, because alll of them instigated the native inhabitants to fight back. But the moment they died in that place, they didn’t really die, instead, they reappeared at the base of the treasure mountain just right outside the force field.

The gravity got stronger as they reached the 3rd level. Song Han asked them to stop temporarily while he isolated himself in cultivation mode, hoping to gain an inch of enlightenment into the law of gravity. It only took a few hours until Song Han opened his glittering eyes as if he just made a big progress. As they continued their journey towards the 4th stratosphere, Song Han tried out the gravity skill that pushed him upwards. The opposite forces clashing together turned out to work better than expected since it didn’t require him to exert as much strength as the others to reach the next level . However, he never told anyone of his recent progress, instead he pretended to be suffering as the rest of them, continuing to climb up ahead. Ye Tian, on the other hand, had a cultivation that was one realm higher than theirs; thus, the gravity didn’t affect him that much since the very beginning.

Not far away from them was a group of young cultivators, where a few were carrying a banner that had an appearance of a snow tiger. Hundreds of young cultivators were surrounding each individual, three of them to be exact, but only several young cultivators were seen surrounding the fourth individual. This small group was at the very far end of the primary group. While other groups were demanding and arrogant, the small group were quiet and reserved. The leader was a young tall man with very short black hair. He had a glowing cheek but a shy demeanor. He also looked weaker than most of the cultivators from the rest of the group. Even though he looked weak, he caught Ye Tian’s interest as their eyes gazed each other briefly. The leader smiled genuinely towards Ye Tian while he smiled back in return.

Song Han also smiled widely at this young man, showing his teeth. His smile was also returned with the same friendly smile the tall young man gave towards Ye Tian. Ye Tian looked at Song Han in disgust.

“Dumb ass! The people I hate the most in this world are people who copy after me.”