After reaching the 40th step the suffocating pressure became much stronger, so much so that it made Xuan Wu spit out blood, his lungs were burning and his vision became blurry.
He was barely conscious at this point, his willpower being the only thing keeping him standing. After what feels like an eternity Xuan Wu walked down the stairs.
"Xuan Wu, peak grade talent!" Ming Yue exclaimed, his voice brimming with excitement at the rare sight.
Xuan Wu would then slowly walk down the stairs, each step relieves more and more tension on his body as he thought [if i remember correctly the talent grades are untalented, low grade talent, middle grade talent, high grade talent and peak grade talent.]
While walking down the stairs he went past someone else who was taking the test, the person taking the test looked at Xuan Wu, their gaze filled with envy.
The tests continued as Xuan Wu went home to rest, the next day quickly arrived and the test results were going to be revealed at 'Heavenly Dao Academy'. (the place that came up with the staircase tests)
Xuan Wu walked to the Heavenly Dao Academy to see all the results, when he arrived he saw Ming Yue and another elder giving a speech.
"Greetings everybody and congratulations to those of you who passed the test!" The elder said before continuing "I am Zhang Ruo, one of the elders here at the academy but you can all just call me Elder Ruo."
Ming Yue then spoke up as well "And i am Ming Yue but please refer to me as Elder Ming."
Zhang Ruo then spoke again, "Now that we have introductions out of the way, we will announce the results and also, Elder Ming forgot to mention that the person who was first in the test would get the necessary materials to break through to the initial stage of the Body Refining Realm."
Ming Yue would then begin to announce the results - "4 untalented people, 25 low grade talents, 15 middle grade talents, 5 high grade talents and 1 peak grade talent out of the 50 participants."
Everyone knew who that 1 singular peak grade talent was as people looked at Xuan Wu, they're filled with envy of not just his talent but also the fact he will be getting materials.
One kid then spoke up, he was half a year older than Xuan Wu and has more knowledge than even some adults. "Ive waited until this point to say this and show everyone what you truly are, you're a liar. Everyone watch how i beat this liar even though i am just a middle grade talent!"
Xuan Wu scoffed and punched the kid away by hitting on of his vital areas.
Elder Ruo then quickly went up to Xuan Wu. "kid do you know what you just did?! that was the eldest son of the first elder! his father is an expert at the middle stage of the golden core realm!"
"he attacked me first." Xuan Wu said calmly, his calmness nearly freaked Elder Ruo out.
Elder Ruo then quickly began talking, "even if you have a powerful backer you can not just do these kinds of things! quickly, come with me, i will make sure you enter the body refining realm this week because when you do you can officially enter the academy and the first elder can't do anything you."
Seeing this as his chance to advance even quicker he nodded his head.
"understood, Elder Ruo. Lead the way."
After a brief moment Elder Ruo led Xuan Wu to a more secluded area of the Academy with no one else around as she handed him some materials as she told him how to refine them.
He thanked her before sitting down in a crisscrossed position as he thought, [in my past life i remember someone who created a technique so completely devour the essence out of anything.]
Xuan Wu then continued by using said technique, though breaking through to the body refining stage is harder than it seems. It is also more painful than it seems.
Xuan Wu felt his dantian being created once more, but this hurt like hell.
He gritted his teeth and went through with devouring the essence of the materials as he slowly began building up his dantian.
After a couple hours the setback of the devouring method set in as Xuan Wu coughed blood.
(next chapter will release later, I'm taking a small break.)