CHAPTER 302: CHAPTER 302: THE SKY-PIERCING STAIRS, STRENGTH TALENT

Having a strength talent or understanding the strength law made it easy to resist the pressure here.

At this moment, Benz had already climbed thirteen steps, and now he started to feel a bit tired.

Johnnie and the others followed closely behind. Though it was hard to climb, the higher they went, the more damage they took, and the faster Johnnie’s Eight Desolations Body-Tempering Art improved.

His health was now healing at 4.2 million points per second. As long as he didn’t take more damage than that, he could easily survive.

Right now, Johnnie had reached the twentieth step, leaving Benz behind. He was losing 20,000 health points per second.

"Master, have you also understood the strength talent?" Benz asked, surprised.

Even with his strength talent, moving past the tenth step was already very hard.

Johnnie shook his head. "Not yet, but I’m close."

The prompt messages kept coming, and his body strength and understanding of strength kept growing. Understanding the strength talent was no problem at all.

He looked up at the long, towering stairs that stretched all the way to the top of the mountain. He even had a feeling that maybe he could reach the level of strength law here.

The group climbed slowly, and soon they reached the two-hundredth step. The pressure increased again.

Johnnie and the others were fine—they could handle it. Though he wasn’t a Domain Master, after using the Eight Desolations Body-Tempering Art, his body strength had improved many times. He was no longer weaker than a Domain Master.

As for Benz, he was almost at his limit.

"Benz, you don’t need to push yourself too hard. Just stay here and train if you can’t take it." Johnnie reminded him.

He hadn’t brought Benz here to pass the test, but to feel the strength law.

"Don’t worry, master. I know what I’m doing." Benz said through gritted teeth. His forehead was covered in sweat, and his body was shaking. Even with his strength talent, he was only at stage 9, and he was already struggling.

Boom!

He took another step, nearly falling to his knees. "Master, you guys go ahead. I’ll stay here and train for a while."

Johnnie nodded and said nothing more. He led the others up the stairs.

Strength talent and strength law are among the most common types of power. They don’t conflict with other elemental talents, so the girls could also learn the strength law. It would also greatly increase their power.

"Master, do you want to take a break?" Maiev asked, worried.

At this moment, Johnnie had reached the 1,000th step. He was already near his limit. His clothes were soaked with sweat, but he still gritted his teeth and kept going.

"I can handle the healing." he said calmly, but his face showed no relief. It felt like the gravity would crush him.

"Human, don’t be overconfident. Even though you can’t fight each other here, this gravity could still crush you." a mocking voice said. It was the same Tidal Giant from before.

He took a step and jumped over three steps, passing Johnnie and the others. He clenched his teeth, but tried to act calm.

Johnnie ignored him and kept climbing step by step.

Each step forward became more and more difficult. The pressure grew worse and worse.

The Tidal Giant wasn’t just teasing him. The gravity really could crush him.

Johnnie climbed another 200 steps, then fell down onto the stairs, trembling all over. He took a deep breath, but had no strength left to go higher.

"I can’t go any further. I need to rest for a while." he said, struggling to speak.

"Master, we’ll guard you." the girls said. Though there was no danger, they didn’t want to take any chances.

Johnnie nodded and asked, "Can the three of you reach the top?"

Maiev and Nalorin Sylvia looked at each other and said, "We’re Domain Masters. As long as we understand the strength talent, we should make it to the top. What about The Red Carp?"

"I’m fine too." The Red Carp said confidently.

She had reached Stage 10 and was at its peak. She was just one step away from Stage 11.

At this point, The Red Carp’s power was already close to that of a Half-God.

Johnnie nodded and said nothing more. He closed his eyes and focused on the strength talent.

[Ding, your physical body has improved. Body strength +1, strength comprehension +1.]

...

The prompt messages kept coming. The Eight Desolations Body-Tempering Art worked at full speed.

Johnnie looked up at the endless stairs stretching into the clouds. The higher he went, the stronger the pressure became. He wondered how much the Eight Desolations Body-Tempering Art could improve.

[Ding, your physical body has improved. Body strength +1, strength comprehension +1.]

[You have unlocked the strength talent. Current progress: 1%.]

...

"Finally, I’ve unlocked the strength talent!" Johnnie’s eyes lit up. Strength talent gave a big boost to physical classes.

With just 1% of the strength talent, Johnnie gained 1% more physical damage—both from normal attacks and skills.

After unlocking the talent, he clearly felt the pressure around him drop a lot.

Sure enough, strength talent and laws could greatly reduce the pressure here.

"Let’s keep climbing." Johnnie said to the girls, and started moving up again.

The girls looked at his relaxed state and were shocked.

Nalorin Sylvia asked, "Master, have you unlocked the strength talent?"

"Yeah, just now." Johnnie nodded.

Nalorin Sylvia opened her mouth but had nothing to say.

As a Divine Powerhouse, she had high intelligence and had tried to understand the strength talent before, but never managed to get it.

But Johnnie had gotten it in just a short time.

"Truly amazing!" The Red Carp said, voicing what the two girls were thinking.

Johnnie didn’t respond and kept climbing.

He moved up over 300 steps, and once again reached his limit.

"Is the Eight Desolations Body-Tempering Art still not improving?" He was a bit surprised.

After reaching level 5, it was now very difficult to level up again.

He didn’t know if the Art could reach level 2 by the time he reached the top.

Looking at the tall stairs reaching the clouds, Johnnie was no longer daring to dream too much.

He sat down and continued to train.

[Ding, your physical body has improved. Body strength +1, strength comprehension +1.]

[Strength talent increased. Current progress: 2%.]

...

The prompt messages kept coming. His strength talent improved again, and the pressure around him dropped even more.

Johnnie was happy. Even though the Eight Desolations Body-Tempering Art was improving slowly, he could gain strength talent quickly here.

This was just 1,500 steps. At this rate, it was possible to unlock the strength law.

"Let’s go. Keep moving." Johnnie didn’t stop for a moment and kept climbing.

"Master, do you still have no more strength talent progress?" The Red Carp was surprised.

The three girls were already struggling, and they still hadn’t unlocked the strength talent.

Johnnie just smiled and said nothing.

They moved up and down, sometimes resting. Soon, they even passed some weaker Half-God warriors.

By the time they reached 3,000 steps, all three girls finally unlocked the strength talent. The pressure around them dropped a lot.

...

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Johnnie reached the 4,300th step and stopped moving forward.

At this point, he was losing 4.3 million health points per second. That was already the maximum his healing could handle.

He looked up and couldn’t see the top anymore.

He felt a little worried. Even if his strength talent helped reduce the pressure, the health loss was still the same.

He could use healing skills, but if he lost more than 42 million health points per second, he would be instantly killed. There was no way to recover.

If that happened, he would have to keep killing Blood Spirits to increase his health limit.

Johnnie stopped thinking about it and sat cross-legged, continuing his training.

[Ding, your physical body has improved. Body strength +1, strength comprehension +1.]

[Eight Desolations Body-Tempering Art has reached level 6. Four basic attributes +100,000.]

[Lich bloodline fusion at 60%. Four basic attributes +100,000.]

...

The prompt messages kept coming. Johnnie’s eyes lit up—his Eight Desolations Body-Tempering Art had finally reached level 6.

And his Lich bloodline fusion was now at 60%. His four basic attributes each went up by 200,000.

His power had increased greatly, and most importantly, his health points had jumped up by 2 million.

Right now, Johnnie’s biggest need was to increase his health points.

[Ding, your physical body has improved. Body strength +1, strength comprehension +1.]

...

The prompt messages kept coming. After reaching level 6, the pressure around him dropped even more.

And his strength talent had now reached 16%.

"Keep going!" Johnnie climbed upward again.

He climbed another 200 steps, and the damage he took per second now exceeded his healing speed.

But this place wasn’t even close to the limit yet.

Johnnie looked at Maiev and asked, "Maiev, do you have a way to keep healing yourself?"

Maiev was the Goddess of Life. She had powerful healing skills and many ways to recover. But this place was constantly draining her health, and Johnnie didn’t know if she could keep using her skills for long.

"Yes." Maiev nodded confidently. "I have a skill called ’Life Spring.’ It costs me almost nothing. As long as I’m within ten meters, it heals me one million health points every second."

"One million?" Johnnie couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

Nalorin Sylvia and The Red Carp also looked shocked.

Most importantly, this skill didn’t cost her anything.

Johnnie felt much more confident now. He said, "Let’s go. Keep climbing."

With such a powerful skill, he could climb at least another 10,000 steps.

The group kept moving upward.

In front of them, a huge figure appeared.

It was the Tidal Giant who had mocked Johnnie before.

"Hey, big guy, you don’t look so good either." The Red Carp said with a sneer, walking past him like it was nothing.

"Huh?" The Tidal Giant widened his eyes in disbelief. "How is that possible? How can a weak human reach this high?"

He wasn’t willing to lose. He gritted his teeth and tried to climb faster.

But after just a few steps, he was already out of breath, crawling up with his hands and feet. Still, he couldn’t catch up with Johnnie’s pace.

"Damn it. I can’t be worse than a weak human!" He roared, his forehead bulging with veins. He pushed himself to the limit, ignoring everything else, and quickly overtook the group.

He was a Lesser God, strong in body. It was easy for him to surpass Johnnie and the others.