Divine Emperor of Death

Without warning, new steps began to materialize, extending out from each step, creating individual paths leading upwards. These new steps appeared both left and right, forming a breathtaking extension of the staircase.

The extended stars unfolded like the wings of a bird stretching throughout the horizon, leading towards the summit where the altar and the spatial vortex inside existed.

"What's going on?"

Many echoed their doubts.

This trial didn't give them a single hint, and they had to find everything using their own wits. It was fine if they needed to find everything and make sense of the trials by themselves, but the penalty was abnormally high. Those who tried attacking got death as their punishment, so there was no one brave or stupid enough to throw another attack.

"Bastard, Atsuo! You planned to drag us with you, didn't you!?"

"Fuck! How should I know? I thought there was nothing on these stairs, but it turns out I was wrong! Ahahaha!"

As Atsuo laughed, he displayed a middle finger to the Ice Dragon Clan's inheritor and took a extended out his leg with a huge smile on his face, stepping onto the sixth step before standing on it.

Despite smiling, his expression churned visibly as his hair stood on end, making everyone know something was up.

"Could it be…?"

Davis narrowed his eyes when suddenly Isabella suddenly received a secret message from her Earth Dragon Clan's inheritors. She possessed a messaging talisman that burned to relay the information to her as a one-time use item. This made it so others couldn't hear the content or possibly intercept it.

"The stairs invoke one's sense of fear, disallowing one from going up."

Isabella relayed the information she got from Founder Rocksunder, who was on the third step, to Shirley, Evelynn, and Davis. The three of their eyes flickered with numerous doubts, but they could finally understand what was going on.

The inheritors who stepped onto the stairs were hit with a sense of fear. It may be negligible in the first two steps, but in the third step and above, it seemed that it was becoming more and more obvious.

"Just a sense of fear?"

Still, it seemed like Shirley had some doubts as she spoke in soul transmission, "For a staircase trial, fear is a bit of lackluster. We cultivators push forward at every struggle we face, so isn't this redundant?"

Isabella shook her head, "Fear is a primal instinct extremely difficult to overcome. I can see why it would be tested, which makes this a test of courage. The magnitude of fear can be divided from one to nine considering the number of steps with one being the easiest and nine being the most difficult and you can see a human with Fire Dragon blood, Atsuo, struggling at the sixth step while many are dawdling at the lower steps."

Shirley's lips curled, "Well, it's not like I don't remember facing fear for the first time when Darling defeated me during a competition, changing my whole outlook on life. However, I eventually managed to conquer it and even overcome it by throwing myself to that fear~"

"…" Davis watched Shirley giggle jokingly at this serious time.

"Hehe~ What I meant to say is that we're all inheritors. Wouldn't we eventually conquer our fears?" Shirley asked.

"Eventually, yes, but not now." Isabella shook her head again, "This trial could be timed for all we know, and there might be another layer to it that we haven't seen yet. After all, none have made it to the platform yet. Isn't that right, big sister?"

Evelynn nodded lightly, her sexy eyes displaying a sliver of excitement.

"As far as I can tell-"

"Stop!~~~"

Evelynn, Isabella, and Shirley shouted at him at the same time, causing Davis to blink.

"No, we're no longer going to borrow your aid," Evelynn smirked.

"Let us overcome this by ourselves, our Emperor." Isabella bowed her head.

"We love you and will listen to you, but this is our game, so let us play~"

Shirley grinned, looking excited.

"…"

Davis saw that they were unusually excited.

He couldn't help but feel joyous watching them become happy as though they were little girls finding a new toy to play with, causing him to laugh lightly.

"Fine, fine. Have it your way. I won't interfere."

Davis shook his hands. They were having fun with this trial, so he acquiesced to their request. This trial didn't seem harmful to him anyway, although the rules covering it seemed to be dangerous. Besides, after they entered the spatial vortex, he doubted he could be with them, so it was better that they started analyzing everything they came across by themselves.

'Sigh… I must calm my overly concerned heart for them…'

He inwardly sighed before smiling at them, "Win the Candidacy and make our family proud."

"Yes~~~"

Evelynn, Isabella, and Shirley nodded heavily with smiles behind their veils. Even with their semi-transparent veils, they looked like fairies, with their eyes occasionally blinking and looking at him forlorn emotions as they were about to leave.

Just as they were about to turn around and head to the staircase, a wild yet sonorous voice fell on their ears.

"Rule number one: Don't lay a hand on an inheritor as a bystander or be crushed underneath the formation."

They turned to look at Fairy Thunderblaze approaching, making them narrow their eyes.

"Rule number two: Don't lay a hand on a bystander as an inheritor or be crushed underneath the formation."

Fairy Thunderblaze expounded with her melodious voice, attracting numerous gazes.

"Rule number three-"

"What are you doing?" Evelynn raised her brows, causing Fairy Thunderblaze to stop.

The latter smiled behind her veil, raising her hand to bring out a metal fan, making her look noble and elegant.

"I was thinking right now almost every power received information about the staircase from the ones who entered. I assume you four know what's being tested, so I made my way here in order to know if you have already managed to decipher what's going on."

"Are you claiming that you managed to decipher the main intent with just those clues?"

Evelynn shot back with another question.

However, her expression wasn't good because they necessarily haven't seen through everything, while Fairy Thunderblaze looked like she did.