Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Fang Ning stood beside the Divine Gate, bored, so he logged in to a single-player game online in the System Space.
Among all the attendees, there was only one person who could behave like that.
The System was busy categorizing the villainous beings so they were not spared.
Like Fang Ning had said, this could be a once-and-done thing. Next round, none of these guys would even appear in front of them.
It was best that they no longer attend. As time goes by, the righteous and good would only prevail over the evil and wicked. The heavens did not distinguish good and evil, but humans do.
When Fang Ning was indulging in his game, the System caught his attention. “That stupid bear is here.”
“Be nice, it’s the one helping us to hold the sky up next year…” Fang Ning stopped and kept checking the System View. He said incredulously, “It’s only been a few months, how did the bear gain so much weight?”
A white bear was running toward them from far, its waist was as thick as a mountain, and it kept trying to catch its breath while it ran.
The four little clouds supporting it seemed to have been overtaxed and would occasionally dip under the pressure placed on them. Hence, the white bear tumbled across the skies without the regal posture it used to sport.
“It wanted to hold the sky up next year? I think it would be a miracle if it could hold itself up.” Fang Ning commented sassily.
“I don’t know, the internet said that bears would store fat in their body before winter, I think it may be trying to store energy for next year when it was time for it to hold the sky up…” guessed the System.
“No, Sir, you’re so naive. It must just be eating and sleeping all day without training seriously.” Fang Ning gritted his teeth and forced the words out. “The idiot bear must have forgotten everything it had promised! I was rooting for it!”
“How could you be so sure?” The System asked confusedly.
“Uh,” Fang Ning looked away. “I am the famed Detective Fang Ning, why would it be surprising that I can see past its intention with one look?”
“Nah, I think you just have enough experience, you haven’t been doing so differently in the past.” The System said with the same level of confidence Fang Ning had.
System Notification: [The System saw through the Host’s lies and was disgusted.]
Fang Ning could not come up with a comeback. Even the system notification said the same thing, how could he retort?
He immediately changed topics. “Looks like we can’t let the bear cultivate itself, the bear is lazy, we need to find it a coach.”
“Who could coach the bear? It has a power level of Inland-Sea-level. Know this, I don’t have time to coach other people,” said the System.
“Let me think,” said Fang Ning as he gave it a thought. “Right, let yellow dog Xue Ba be the coach. Bears are afraid of dogs, and Xue Ba has met it before. Xue Ba is smart, wise, and knowledgeable, so he can definitely help it in the right direction.”
“That’s fine.” The System accepted the suggestion.
As they were conversing, the bear had already arrived in front of the Divine Gate.
In comparison to its thousand-meter torso, the dozen-meter Divine Gate looked minuscule.
Misha scratched its head as if searching for something in the air.
Soon after, the two-meter-tall Russian representative walked out of the crowd and hovered in front of its head. He yelled loudly, “Misha, it’s me, Rovsky. Come here and listen to my order.”
“Oh, what do you want me to do?”
“Enter that gate and ascend the nine steps on the stair. After that, you can go home and sleep all you want,” said Rovsky gently as if talking to a puppy.
He no longer looked like the man who roared at the phone earlier. Facing the titanic bear, he looked as docile as a sheep.
It was easy to guess why Misha would let itself go from the attitude of the Russian representative. Not many people have the guts to school it.
Misha nodded. It laid on the ground, looking at the Divine Gate, and its face soured.
“This door is so tiny, how would I fit?”
Rovsky was also troubled, he turned around and prepared to ask the Chinese what they could do.
A loud voice blared out.
“It’s been so long, and you haven’t learned to shapeshift?” The voice seemed to be reprimanding it.
Misha pulled its head back and looked into the giant azure dragon that appeared in the sky.
It said evasively, “I am in bulking season so I can have the size to hold up the sky next year. I couldn’t find time to learn these magic tricks.”
“Hmph, all I can see is that you’re eating and sleeping all day. You want to hold up the sky next year? It would’ve been a miracle if you can hold yourself up!” The azure dragon criticized.
Fang Ning was dissatisfied. “Stealing my lines again…”
The spirit bear immediately became ashamed. “I’ve tried hard for three days, and then I got tired, so I’ve decided to take a little nap…”
“As I’ve thought,” said the azure dragon. A golden light shot out of its head and enveloped the spirit bear.
System Notification: [The System taught Misha the Spirit Bear a technique in True Bodhi Tactics, Phenomenal Image Transformation.]
Right after that, the spirit bear shrank from thousand-meter tall to a three-meter-tall mini bear in front of everyone.
“I shall find you a coach in the future, so stop being lazy. You may enter now.”
The spirit bear, Misha, walked toward the Divine Gate obediently.
All gazes focused on the bear in that brief moment.
What would happen?
Could the spirit bear actually enter the Divine Gate?
If it could, how many steps could it ascend?
All these questions would be answered in matters of seconds.
The Russian representative closed his eyes, praying. He prayed for the bear to be able to complete the mission and not make the Russian a joke.
The representative for India, the United States of America, and Europe had mixed feelings. They hoped the bear would fail, but they realized that if the bear failed, humans would have suffered a huge blow to their morale. It was a complicated situation.
The spirit bear, Misha, entered the gate…
Immediately, it laid down on the first step and fell asleep…
Fell asleep…
Fell asleep…
“Hahaha…” The Indian representative laughed loudly. “This is the power of the Russian totem? The human representative with the strongest power level? So what if it is, it can’t even climb beyond the first step, what a waste of the allocation for humans.”
The Russian representative stood red-facedly, the Indian was not wrong.
On top of the huge Divine Gate, golden light shone brightly.
It spelled out a line of text that everyone could see clearly.
“Humans, 1 entered, 9 remaining, ascension progress 0.”
The Americans and the Europeans did not laugh, they were deadly anxious.
‘Even someone as strong as the spirit bear could not ascend beyond the first step?!
‘Is this a conspiracy China have concocted or is the Stairway to Heaven that difficult to walk?’
They were subconsciously leaning toward believing the latter. After all, the Chinese would not do something like this as it would just be toying with the fate of all humans.
“That’s a shame. We’ve already given out a place, but you’ve wasted it away.” Ren Ruofeng said lightly, “Now would you like to try again? If you don’t, you would enjoy the standard treatment all other nations will enjoy. If you do try and failed again, the area you are representing would enjoy a lesser quota for the cultivation resources.”
The three major forces shared a look, but the Indians were not convinced.
Their representative clenched his jaw and said, “We have the gods’ protection, I’m sure we can pass the test, so we would like to try again.”
“That would be the last chance then. Us Chinese have a saying, do not make the same mistake thrice, so don’t say we’re not giving you a chance.”
Ren Ruofeng had already calculated it. With so many other human nations, they would not appreciate just one slot allocated to them, especially when China had yet to build its reputation as the strongest.
His method was just a normal bargaining technique. If he had insisted on giving them one slot in the beginning, they would think it was a victory even if they had just won three slots.
The Indian pondered, not making a decision immediately. He walked aside and began discussing with the other Indian people.
Two out of the Indians were the heir of the three major gods of the Indians. They—a man and a woman—had been captured by the Chinese before they were released after signing an agreement with the Truth Department.
The heir of the God of Creation, Maram, was not among them.
He had been enlisted to do the heavy lifting in the System Prison, so he had no chance of returning.
“Who’s going?” The God of Destruction’s heir, Kamal, said with a frown.
“I’ll go. That first step must be a trial for the mind. Someone with a flaw in their personality would’ve been trapped,” said the Sari-clad Sina, the God of Protection’s heir.
Kamal blushed and said difficulty, “Alright. We can’t fail this time, so you should go.”
Sina approached and entered the gate with a solemn look.
Almost instantly, she kneeled on the first step and began to pray for something…
‘What… what is this?’
At this moment, the golden words shining on top of the Divine Gate refreshed.
“Humans, 2 entered, 8 remaining, ascension progress 0.”
“Ssss…” Everyone—regardless if they were humans, demons, devils, or ghosts—took a sharp breath.
‘That’s how fearsome the Stairway to Heaven is!’
‘The two human elites could not even scale one step of the stairway?’
‘What do we do now?’
‘How should we scale past the first step?’
They turned their gaze toward the Chinese. More specifically, toward the azure dragon hovering in the air.
‘He opened the Divine Gate, he must have the confidence to do it, right?’
