Chapter 291: A Magnetic Storm
Just as the organizer had said, there wasn’t much pressure from the magnetic golden mountain at first. Climbing was as effortless as climbing a regular mountain.
The magnetic field fluctuated slightly on the second floor, but its influence was negligible to a practitioner.
Jiang Chen surged to the third floor in one go.
The magnetic force on the third floor was noticeably stronger than the second floor, but it still wasn’t enough to affect Jiang Chen’s footsteps.
Of course, he wasn’t the type to just heedlessly charge forward with brute force.
It would be an easy thing for Jiang Chen to break through to the fifth floor with his training of third level spirit realm.
After all, this was just the first selection, one that was geared towards ordinary practitioners. Its level of difficulty wouldn’t be so hard that someone of the third level spirit realm wouldn’t be able to pass it.
When he reached the fourth floor, Jiang Chen started seeing some who had charged forward too quickly and run out of strength. They sat on the steps of the fourth floor, planning on meditating to recover their strength.
Jiang Chen also sighed when he saw this.
“These fellows don’t understand that haste does not bring success. This is the magnetic golden mountain. The longer one sits down to meditate, the greater the magnetic pull will become on one’s body. To meditate on this mountain is to fall into a pit of their own digging.”
Jiang Chen had studied magnetic golden mountains in his past life and knew the characteristics of such mountains.
Once caught in a mountain like this, one could never sit down and meditate because there was no spirit power for you to absorb.
How would you replenish the spirit qi in your body without any external source?
It wasn’t that there was no spirit qi on the magnetic golden mountain, but in keeping with the name, the spirit qi had the magnetic force of the metal element and its great killing force embodied within it.
Unless one was a practitioner born with a natural affinity for the metal element, once a practitioner began absorbing the magnetic force of the metal element, it would be akin to absorbing sharp knives into one’s spirit ocean. In the end, it was just a slow form of suicide.
“You there, keep moving if you don’t want to die. To meditate on a magnetic golden mountain is absolutely courting death.” Jiang Chen snorted coldly but still issued a voice of warning.
He didn’t bother to see if they had listened, and went on his way.
He’d only spoken out of kindness. As for whether or not they listened to him, that wasn’t something he could control.
If they didn’t listen to his warning and ended up with a face full of ashes or even lost their lives, it would be their own fault.
Jiang Chen’s footsteps flitted lightly as he proceeded at an even pace to the fifth floor.
The fifth floor was a line of demarcation.
Reaching the fifth level meant one had passed the third trial.
Although thirty to forty thousand people were participating in this trial together on the magnetic golden mountain, he hadn’t run into many of them.
All of the participants had been deposited on different areas and regions, scattered on every corner of the mountain.
On the fifth floor, Jiang Chen could clearly feel that the restraining force of the mountain had suddenly multiplied.
“The fifth level is indeed different from the previous floors. If one isn’t at the level of a true qi master when they arrive at the fifth floor, they would likely be unable to continue the challenge.”
However, since he made it to the fifth floor, he’d passed.
“The organizer said that some fortuitous occurrences would occur at the peak of each floor starting from the fifth, like a lottery. Shall I go try my luck now that I’ve passed the fifth floor?”
Thoughts raced through Jiang Chen’s mind. There was a ten day limit to each trial anyways. He was in no hurry.
He took a spin around the peak of the fifth floor. With Jiang Chen’s dao heart, he could deploy both God’s Eye and Psychic’s Head at the same time. Nothing was concealed to his perceptions.
However, Jiang Chen almost splurted out in laughter after he’d taken a look around.
The organizer had spoken the truth. The encounters and items on the peak of the fifth floor were indeed rare and valuable for ordinary practitioners.
However, with Jiang Chen’s current level of training and breadth of vision, these items were useless to him. He didn’t even have the desire to stretch out his hand.
“Forget it, let’s leave these items to those in need of them.”
There were precious few opportunities for secular practitioners to advance. These items were all undoubtedly priceless to them, and treasures that they could never have too many of. If utilized properly, they would truly have the ability to change their fate.
Jiang Chen wasn’t the sort to take all the advantages for himself. Since he couldn’t use any of these, why fight the ordinary practitioners for them?
He naturally couldn’t be bothered to do something that harmed others and didn’t benefit himself.
Jiang Chen arrived at the sixth floor in the span of a moment.
The magnetic force had become even stronger at this floor. The very air seemed to be inundated with sharpened needles.
The currents of the air seemed to pierce the skin.
Jiang Chen knew that this was a manifestation of magnetic force. However, to a third level spirit realm practitioner like Jiang Chen, this kind of discomfort was as effective as a gentle rain.
What Jiang Chen hadn’t foreseen was the number of practitioners that had already arrived at the sixth floor.
He smiled wryly in his heart, “Although the organizer had continuously emphasized not to charge too hard, these ordinary disciples seem to be quite confident in themselves.”
Jiang Chen naturally had no desire to contend with them for anything.
He had his own plan. This was a long race, and those in front may not necessarily be the ones who made it to the finish line.
He wanted to proceed at his own tempo and not be affected by the outside world.
Those who had made it to the sixth floor were, at minimum, all true qi masters.
When he arrived at the peak, he discovered that several geniuses were conducting a carpet style search of the place.
It was obvious that these fellows had tasted some of the sweet fruits of victory on the fifth level and so were even more enthusiastic in this level in the hope of receiving more fortuitous encounters.
Jiang Chen took a casual look around. The treasures of the sixth floor were indeed on another level compared to the fifth.
However, they were still mostly suited for true qi masters, with some also useful for half step spirit realm practitioners.
In Jiang Chen’s eyes though, these items still weren’t worthy of his notice. They were definitely not worthy of Jiang Chen reaching out to pick them up.
Some other spirit realm practitioners seemed to have come to a similar conclusion.
They didn’t deign to linger in the sixth floor after casting an eye around, and instead made for the seventh floor.
Those that had the right to make for the seventh floor were all of the spirit realm.
A half step spirit realm could make it into the seventh floor, but they would need to make an extraordinary effort.
Therefore, when they made it to the seventh floor, the regard with which the geniuses held each other became complicated.
There was some wariness, some caution, and even some enmity.
After all, the ones who had made to the seventh floor were well aware that they were each other’s greatest competition.
Since they were competition, it was a normal thing for them to stay guarded around each other.
Jiang Chen could also feel some gazes with traces of enmity and provocation coming his way. Apparently, even with his efforts at keeping a low profile, he had still elicited some attention by making it to the seventh floor.
It was a good thing that participants knew nothing about each other, and that no one knew of how exemplary his performance in the previous two trials had been.
If they knew, they’d likely think twice before provoking Jiang Chen.
Of course, Jiang Chen wasn’t the slightest bit bothered by these boring gazes. He was entirely contemptuous of such low level tricks.
Not to mention that they were restricted from attacking each other during the trials. If anyone broke this rule, they would be disqualified even if they had passed through the first selection. They would have no chance of making it into the second.
The speed of the air currents had become noticeably faster after making it to the seventh floor, and the prickling feeling of the air had increased as well.
Even Jiang Chen couldn’t be as leisurely as he was before.
However, although his forward motion had been slightly impeded, this was still not enough to bring him to a halt.
After an hour, he’d arrived at the peak of the seventh floor.
Not many could make it to the peak. Across the ground, practitioners were scattered in twos and threes, all panting severely and seemingly quite weakened.
As Jiang Chen scrutinized these practitioners, he knew they had no strength left tochallenge the eighth floor.
As Jiang Chen leisurely walked forward, another group of practitioners arrived with dragging, weary steps.
He still didn’t touch the so-called treasures on the seventh floor.
When he arrived at the eighth floor, the air currents around him burst into a bedlam of discordant noise, one moment sounding like shining spears and armored horses, and the next the furious beat of battle drums. Intermittently, one could hear the cacophony of horns, or the long howls of ferocious beasts.
The ear piercing sounds drilled into his eardrums, accompanied by the feeling of blades in the air and a far stronger killing intent.
A twister several meters thick suddenly came into existence in the air, taking away one of the ordinary practitioners with it.
It appeared as though a fierce beast from ancient times had just swiped a person away with a tongue.
“Ah!!”
The person only had time to emit one ghastly scream before he vanished without a trace in the twister.
“A magnetic twister?” Jiang Chen’s thoughts raced as he suddenly recalled something frightening.
A magnetic twister was a strong twister on the magnetic golden mountain, a vortex formed after the metallic air currents had become randomly mixed up. It could be big or small and was incredibly frightening.
When the magnetic twister reached several meters wide, it was strong enough to engulf a practitioner of the small spirit realm.
The appearance of the magnetic twister would infinitely increase the difficulty of the mountain.
With the strength of this magnetic twister, even Jiang Chen couldn’t let down his guard.
He deployed Psychic’s Head again and continued climbing.
As savage the magnetic twister was, it wasn’t like it came without warning. He would greatly decrease the danger to himself as long as he avoided the eye of the twister.
Therefore, at the heart of it, it wasn’t about how to fight the twister, but how to evade it.
