Initially, everybody thought James cheated his way up the staircase. Though they didn't know how, it was the only explanation. Once James got to the 6th or 7th level of the Qi Absorption Realm, there was just no other option. They assumed James had some way of fooling the staircase, some way to avoid the pressure and stand there unaffected.
And when James was the 8th level, the 9th level, even the 1st level of the Core Formation Realm, there was no more doubt in their minds. Other than Daniel and Sullivan, there was only one word in their minds.
Cheater.
That was until the 11th step – when everybody clearly saw the pressure was so great that even James' legs snapped. When they heard the sickening SNAP sounds, they found their accusations of cheating stuck in their throats. If James wasn't affected by the pressure, then how could his legs have broken?
And when they saw James' legs heal themselves in the blink of an eye, people thought their eyes would pop out of their sockets. That sort of healing power was simply impossible!
"Lowly human, how did you do that?" Firenze the centaur demanded.
"Lowly?" Harry let out a contemptuous smile. "I am on the 11th step, and you're on the ninth. Who is the lowly one here?"
Harry smirked as he looked down at Firenze, who glared upwards at him in rage. For the first time in his life, he had to crane his neck upwards to look at a human.
"Obviously, you cheated to get there," Draco persisted. But though he said that, he didn't seem quite as sure as before. There was a hesitancy in his voice, and his speech lacked the hostile tone present before.
"How could he have cheated?" Surprisingly, it was Sullivan who came to his aid.
"Of course that bastard cheated!" Zacharias Smith retorted.
"But how? He didn't even know anything about the inheritance test! And not to mention, Rowena Ravenclaw selects a different test each time! How can you cheat on a test like that?"
"He – he could have been bluffing earlier, pretending to be ignorant," Ernest Macmillan tried. But the excuse sounded flimsy even to him. And Harry noted that Ernest wasn't able to refute the point about the test being unique each time.
"I don't know how James did it, but for him to withstand the power of the 3rd level of the Core Formation Realm is obviously impossible!" Felix Rosier exclaimed.
"Right, it's impossible! Unless he cheated!" Rowle finished for Felix.
"Cheater," Jugson and Gibbons sneered together.
"Come on, we all saw James' legs snap. If he was cheating, wouldn't he have walked all the way to the top?" Daniel reasonably pointed out.
To that, nobody had a response.
Suddenly, a shrill voice butted into the conversation.
"I know how he cheated!"
Everyone turned to look at Pansy Parkinson, standing on the far left. Even though she had the worst performance, she had the most confidence in her accusations.
"I know how he cheated!" she repeated.
"Go on, tell me how I cheated," Harry lazily responded. He was interested in just how these people thought he did it.
"As you all know, my Parkinson Sacred Clan is an authority in the empire regarding formations. My clan has knowledge of thousands of formations, including ones which can help the cultivator bear weight. They can give the cultivator a boost in strength, or decrease the weight of an object they're carrying. That's what James used!"
"Of course, every formation has a limit. James must have gotten a formation that could boost his strength to the 3rd level of the Core Formation Realm! They're not easy to create, but they definitely exist! That explains why he didn't walk straight to the top!"
Everyone turned to look back at James, interested in his response. Most were skeptical about Pansy's accusation, but theoretically, they supposed, it could be possible.
"You think I used a formation?" Harry asked incredulously. This idea was so far-fetched to him that he almost didn't know how to respond.
"I don't know a thing about runes or formations! And if I used a formation, well, where are my formation papers?"
"Your Space Ring, obviously," Pansy sneered back.
"Are you deaf? Didn't you hear Rowena Ravenclaw say we can't use our Space Rings?"
"Then – then – you took them out before the test started! And you also deployed them before the test started!"
"Then where are they now?"
"You used another formation to make them invisible!"
Harry rolled his eyes. He was sorely tempted to put his head into his palms.
"Ok, let me get this right. So you think that I, who didn't even know what the test would be, came prepared with formations to increase my physical strength. And I thought to deploy them before the test started? And I can also make them invisible?"
"That's right!" Pansy smugly stated.
"That's ridiculous! Where the hell would I even get that kind of formation?"
"My clan sells them! You could have bought one from any of the stores that my clan operates!"
"Sounds like you should have used one then," Harry quipped back.
Harry heard a few hidden snorts across the room, but one with the loudest reaction was Sullivan. He laughed uproariously, like he heard the funniest joke in the world. There were literally tears in his eyes as he looked at Pansy.
"HAHAHAHAHA! That was funny!" he bent over, wheezing for breath while looking at the furious Pansy Parkinson.
"James – you – don't change the topic!" Pansy screamed. "Just admit you bought one!"
"I've never even heard of your Parkinson Sacred Clan until today. And I definitely didn't use a formation. Invisible formations – pfft, what a joke."
"I don't think he used formations," Draco interjected. Once he said that, Pansy's face fell, but Draco acted like he hadn't paid attention.
"Earlier, Rowena Ravenclaw said that we can't use external aids. Formations are considered external aids. But, I still think you cheated!"
"We'll put it to a vote! Who thinks he cheated?" Zacharias Smith asked the room, while raising his hand into the air. Predictably, it was joined by everyone else – except for Harry, Daniel, and Sullivan.
"See?" Zacharias smugly looked at Harry. "We all think you cheated!"
"You're not the judge in here, so who cares what you think?" Harry would have laughed at this fat idiot's presumptuousness if he hadn't been so annoyed.
"We're not the judge, but we're from the Sacred Clans! Our opinion matters!"
"Wrong," Harry sneered. "In here, only Rowena Ravenclaw's opinion matters. Your opinion has the same weight as your fart. Obviously, Rowena Ravenclaw's formation is controlling everything in this room. If I cheated, then it should have disqualified me. Or are you saying that you know better than Rowena Ravenclaw?"
"You!" Zacharias Smith's face turned beet red. He felt like his argument was stuck in his throat, like James had stifled his words before he could even say them.
The Four Founders were legendary existences in the empire, four ancient cultivators who were worshipped by all. They had reached a profound level of power, well beyond the level of those living today. No matter how powerful the Sacred Clans were, they were far from having the qualifications to judge Rowena Ravenclaw.
For someone to claim they were better than the Four Founders was pure blasphemy. Even if all the Sacred Clans got together and said that Rowena Ravenclaw made a mistake, nobody would believe it – that was just how high their status was!
So once Harry brought up Rowena Ravenclaw, there was no way for anyone else to retort.
The rest of the room knew it, and Harry realized it too. Once he did, a refreshing smile grew on his face, as he realized he finally had the means to make these people shut up.
"But – but, he's just trash at the 2nd level of the Qi Absorption Realm!" Marcus Flint shouted.
"Rowena Ravenclaw doesn't agree," Harry smirked.
Marcus Flint fell silent, silently stewing with anger.
"We all know you cheated!" Pansy howled.
"Rowena Ravenclaw doesn't think so."
Pansy Parkinson also fell silent, unable to respond.
"These are old formations! Maybe after 1000 years, they stopped working!" from Felix's group, Jugson voiced.
"There are Rowena Ravenclaw's formations," Harry responded.
Immediately, Jugson shut up.
"It's just common sense! You're just at the 2nd level of the Qi Absorption Realm!" Michael Corner yelled.
"Right, you can't possibly withstand the strength of the Core Formation Realm!" Terry Boot yelled, next to Michael.
"Rowena Ravenclaw," Harry smiled.
"You – you – James – you –" some people were so angry they were at a loss of words.
"Rowena Ravenclaw," Harry interrupted before they could finish.
Each time Harry used Rowena Ravenclaw's name to shut these people up, the smile on his face grew larger and larger. Though the smile was refreshing to Harry, it was the exact opposite to everyone else. Those who doubted James only saw a crooked, wretched smile on his detestable face. The more they looked at his lopsided grin, the angrier they felt.
"The rest period is now over. I will begin to explain the test of determination."
Just as people were about to curse James some more, Rowena Ravenclaw's voice rang out again. Everyone fell silent, as the issue of whether James had cheated or not was temporarily set aside.
"The test of determination is a simple test with simple rules, similar in format to the test of strength. It measures your determination to forge ahead in the face of difficulty."
"As cultivators, it's certain you'll face pain in your future. Those unable to withstand it are fated to stay weak, while those who can overcome it have the qualifications to become strong. That is the focus of the test of determination."
"To put it simply, the test of determination measures your ability to withstand pain."
"The test works in a similar manner to the test of strength. Each time you take a step upwards, you'll feel an increasing sensation of pain. Just like before, to pass a step, you must endure the pain for one minute. Each step will be more painful than the last."
"However, unlike the test of strength, there are only four levels to the test of determination."
"Begin."
A test of pain! Without any warning, the test of determination began.
Ding!
"Step onto the next step. You will feel the pain of being pricked by needles."
Pain – pain was an equalizer. It didn't depend on one's cultivation, it didn't depend on one's strength or cultivation talent. All it depended on was willpower.
As long as one's willpower was high enough, they could suffer through anything. Even an ordinary person without cultivation could be better at withstanding pain than a cultivation expert. This test was surely a form of torture, but it was a very fair test.
Those with high willpower could withstand more pain, those lacking in willpower wouldn't be able to make it as far, simple as that. Hailing from a Sacred Clan was useless in this test, in fact, it could even be a disadvantage. As the juniors of Sacred Clans or similar influences, everyone here but Harry had been raised with a privileged upbringing. They had cultivation resources and techniques handed to them. They rarely had to earn what they got, or fight for resources. When compared to other cultivators, their willpower and pain tolerance were among the few qualities they were inferior in.
There was no one who enjoyed feeling pain, and there was certainly nobody who practiced enduring it – at least, not willingly.
But Harry had plenty of experience in it.
When he heard it was a test of pain, Harry almost burst out laughing. He was confident he had suffered through more pain than everyone else in this room combined. Though he wasn't sure how high Rowena Ravenclaw's standards were, at the very least, he would certainly outperform everyone else.
And glancing around the room, just as expected, the others looked queasy at the thought of testing their pain tolerance.
Once people stepped onto the step above them, they immediately felt sharp, prickling sensations all across their bodies. To others, it felt like someone was pricking their bodies with needles. To Harry, it just felt like his arm or leg had fallen asleep. Though it was uncomfortable, it was far from being considered real pain.
It was a very odd sensation; although Harry could clearly tell something was stabbing into his flesh, when he looked down, he found it as smooth and unblemished as ever. This was a type of phantom pain, sent directly to his nervous system through the formations. Harry had to actively remind himself to not activate Washing Marrow, that was just how realistic it was.
Most people in the room didn't have trouble with this level. The pain of this level wasn't that bad, and even someone from a Sacred Clan couldn't possibly live a life of complete luxury and bliss. As cultivators, everyone had to have experienced some suffering before. Therefore, everyone was able to grit their teeth, suffer through the pain, and pass this first level.
A long and uncomfortable minute passed, and then –
Ding!
"Step onto the next step. You will feel the pain of being stabbed by knives."
Hesitantly, everyone stepped onto the next step. Being stabbed by knives – the true test of pain was about to begin.
Just like Rowena Ravenclaw had said, the type of pain changed. What before felt like tiny needles entering the body were now large knives, digging and stabbing into everyone's flesh. Though it wasn't enough to cause Harry any real pain, each stab stung and felt like it really was cutting his flesh apart.
"AAAAHHHHH!" plenty of people started screaming when they felt the knives enter their body. Some cultivators wailed in pain, others slapped their skin like they were trying to put out a fire. In an instant, the room was filled with anguished wailing.
One scream was the loudest, high-pitched and shrill, and without even turning around, Harry knew it was Pansy Parkinson. She screamed at the top of her lungs, and then without any hesitation, leapt off!
Pansy was only on the 6th step before, and had made it to the 7th step by enduring the needles. But a few seconds on the 8th step was all she could manage, and then she was back on the 7th.
Once she leapt off the 8th step, the pain she was feeling immediately vanished. But she was still trembling, her body shivering uncontrollably, and she looked at the 8th step with a haunted expression.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
The next to quit was Zacharias Smith, then followed by Ernest Macmillan, Terry Boot, Michael Corner, and Anthony Goldstein. All five of them gave up within seconds of each other. Once they felt the knives sinking into their flesh, they immediately forgot about Rowena Ravenclaw's inheritance. This kind of torture – they simply couldn't bear it!
The five of them were now locked on the 8th step, unable to continue further.
Everyone else stood on their respective step, forcing themselves to endure. The biggest surprise to Harry was Sullivan, who stood there with his fists clenched, not making a single sound. Given his personality, Harry thought Sullivan might be one of the first to give up, but surprisingly he was still in the competition.
In and out, in and out, everyone clearly felt the knives plunging into their flesh, but everyone remaining forced themselves to endure it. For the sake of Rowena Ravenclaw's last treasure, they had to do it!
Ding!
"Step onto the next step. You will feel the pain of being cut by swords."
Without hesitating, Harry placed his feet on the 14th step. Not quite as confidently, everyone else followed suit.
Now, instead of being stabbed, it felt like knives running against his flesh. They didn't just sink in, they twisted and turned and carved themselves across the body, sliding against the bone and stinging the nerves. If they were real swords, they would have turned a human body into meat scraps by the end of the minute.
Though Harry's body was too tough to be hurt this way, this was a different kind of pain, one that went straight to his brain. It was like the formation was sending pain signals directly to his nervous system, bypassing his flesh entirely. Harry's complacent expression turned a bit stiff, and he gritted his teeth.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Over to his left, Harry heard Draco Malfoy let out a shrill, girl-like scream, before leaping off the stairs. If Harry hadn't been suffering from hundreds of cut across his body, he might have laughed. Even when Draco got back to the safety of the last step, his body still shuddered, betraying the fear and pain he had felt.
'Making a fuss about nothing,' Harry snorted at the blond idiot's antics, before focusing on the test.
Draco wasn't the only to give up. By the ones and twos, then suddenly all at once, everyone else leapt off whatever stair step they were standing on. Ear-splitting howls of pain rang through the room, followed by the sound of people jumping.
Out of the corners of his eyes, Harry saw the rest of Draco's entourage give up, along with the centaurs and Felix Rosier's group. Daniel and Sullivan both gave up shortly after Draco.
Since they were challenging themselves to defeat each other, once other people quit, they quit too. The feeling of being sliced apart – it was unbearable! Just standing on this third step for an instant was pure torture, and no one could bear it more than a few seconds.
No one, that is, except for Firenze and Harry. Once again it was down to the two of them, standing in adjacent lanes, trying to outdo each other. Harry looked mostly unaffected, while Firenze was enduring with all his might, every muscle of his body clenched in agony.
"James, you're cheating again!" Zacharias Smith roared from the opposite end of the room.
"Yeah, look at his body! He doesn't act like he's in pain at all!" Ernest Macmillan added.
"James, what formations are you using to hoodwink Rowena Ravenclaw's staircase?" Pansy Parkinson demanded.
"You dirty, small-minded cheater!" Draco spat. "James, get off the staircase right now, or else you'll feel the wrath of my Malfoy Sacred Clan!"
Further across the room, the rest of these people's followers joined in on piling the abuse. Since they had forfeited the test of determination, there was nothing left to do other than watch Firenze and James. Firenze was clearly struggling, with every muscle of his body and face tense in pain, but James was just standing there leisurely. Clearly, he used another despicable trick to cheat on this test of determination.
"James, I believe in you!" a sudden and loud voice called out. Harry was so surprised to hear that that he almost lost concentration.
"I don't think you cheated! Don't mind what these people say, just keep going! You can do it!"
It was Sullivan who shouted those words, unsurprisingly. He jumped up and down, with a worried expression on his face, totally oblivious to the death glares everybody else was sending his way.
"Come on, Daniel! Cheer him on!"
"You –" Daniel looked at his companion with an exasperated look.
"Say something! He needs our support!"
"Hmph, fine. I don't know if you're cheating or not, but at least you're making the Sacred Clans angry. So good job."
"Haha, that's right! So keep going!" A beautiful smile was etched onto Sullivan's face. Although plenty of dirty looks were shot his way, he ignored them all.
'Those two... do they have mental problems?' Harry wondered. Other than himself, who else would make themselves enemies out of the all the Sacred Clans so readily?
To his left and two steps below, Firenze could no longer contain it and let out a bellow that threatened to burst Harry's eardrums. Firenze was still on the third step, but he was no longer standing on it. Instead, he was collapsed sideways on the stairs, his large body twitching uncontrollably as he forced himself to endure the torment of a thousand cuts.
"JAMES, EVEN IF YOU CHEAT, I WON'T LET YOU WIN!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"I WON'T ALLOW IT!"
"Haha! Hahahaha!" Harry burst out laughing at the centaur's antics.
"Do you still feel noble? Rolling on the floor like a bug?"
"JAMES, FUCK YOU!" Firenze screamed from his downed position.
Ding!
"Step onto the next step. You will feel the pain of being boiled alive."
Showing an impressive resolve, Firenze dragged his still-trembling body up the next step. Once his entire body crossed the threshold onto the fourth step, he laid there for about three seconds – then let out a howl and immediately rolled off.
"ARRRRRGHHHHHHHH!"
Firenze had managed to suffer through a whole minute of being cut apart – but he didn't last even five seconds being boiled alive!
That sort of pain... that sort of pain... even now, back in safety, Firenze couldn't even imagine suffering through it. The pain was so intense, there was no way to endure it or even compare it to anything.
It wasn't just the pain of being boiled alive; the formations made one feel as if they were actually boiled alive, complete with all the accompanying sensations, like one was being held over a cauldron of scalding water and then dunked in. First there was the steam, burning his eyes and his lungs, then there was the contact with boiling water that sent his skin screaming and his organs howling, his muscles were burning, what little fat that existed on his body was melting, he thought all his flesh was going to slough off in great and horrific sheets of centaur hide, then his head went under and he felt his brain cooking, intensifying the pain by a hundred fold.
At that point, there was just one choice. Give up!
If he had stayed on that step any longer, then he may have gone insane, forever unable to recover.
It took many seconds for Firenze to recover and catch his breath. The centaur finally stood back up, shaking and trembling. A haunted look was on his face.
"It's impossible!" Firenze stated, as phantom shivers continued running through his body. "It's impossible to withstand that for a minute!"
But strangely, nobody else in the room was focused on him. Instead... they were all looking to his right, at James! James, calmly standing on the 15th step. He didn't look like he was in any kind of pain at all.
Suddenly, Firenze felt like he had slapped himself in the face. He just said the pain was unbearable – so how come James was doing it?
"Im-im-impossible!" he stuttered. Standing on the fourth step for just a second was torture of the highest degree. He couldn't imagine standing there as long as James was, without even a flinch or tremor.
For other people, this test would have been pure agony. Ordinary people wouldn't even have made it past the first level, while only experienced cultivators could get to the second. The fact that Firenze made it through the third was a testament to his willpower and determination, and Harry actually found a tiny bit of respect for the centaur – though just a tiny bit.
To pass the fourth step, it would require the cultivator to possess nerves of steel and an unflinching resolve. And Harry had them both!
Back then, to cultivate Burning Blood, Harry had no choice but to put his body into contact with Fire Qi. Whether it was Beast Flames or Fire Qi Natural Essences, he had to stick his hands into unbelievably hot temperatures. Compared to all of that, being boiled alive was only slightly worse.
The pain of this level was roughly equal to the pain he experienced when opening the 7th meridian. But the pain of the 7th meridian didn't even compare to opening the 8th. And of course, the pain of forcing the 9th meridian open had been the worst thing Harry had ever felt.
Thinking back on the past month, Harry had even experienced the pain of being repeatedly struck by lightning. When he ranked his life experiences, Harry sadly realized that this test of determination didn't even rank in the top three most painful experiences.
"James, you damned cheater! Go to Hell!"
"Shamelessly cheating!"
"Despicable human race!"
It took all his focus and willpower, but Harry turned around and addressed the naysayers.
"Again, how am I cheating?"
"You – it's obvious you're cheating!" Firenze yelled, pointing one large finger at James.
"The pain of being boiled alive is impossible to withstand! And even now, you're talking! You can't possibly be talking through that pain! You're employing some fraudulent methods to cheat!"
"Well, it does hurt a lot," Harry admitted. "But it doesn't hurt that much."
"..."
"..."
"That's because you're cheating!"
"Right, he's definitely cheating!"
"Firenze couldn't even last five seconds! So therefore, you're cheating!"
'I've had enough of this,' Harry sighed. Couldn't these people come up with something else to say?
"I know how he's doing it! He's using a formation breaker!" Pansy Parkinson's shrill scream once again filled the room. Harry paid it no attention. He didn't even know what a formation breaker was, though he could guess based on the name.
"Oh, use your brain, Pansy," Sullivan rolled his eyes. "Where can you find a formation breaker that would work on Rowena Ravenclaw's formations?"
"You – who do you think you are? Don't talk back to me!"
"I'm –" Sullivan began, then closed his mouth. "Hmph. I might not be from Sacred Clan, but you're still wrong. There's no way James is using a formation breaker!"
"Right, he can't be using a formation breaker," once again, Draco Malfoy directly contradicted Pansy.
"But, I know you cheated! We just haven't figured out how, that's all!"
Harry sighed and shook his head. He wasn't going to argue against these people anymore.
By then the rest of the minute passed, and the pain ended.
"That concludes the test of determination."
After that, the stairs shifted once again.
Harry was still on the far right, standing high on the fifteenth step, overlooking the rest of the competitors.
Next to Harry was Firenze, on the twelfth step. He stared up at Harry in a mixture of rage and frustration, just itching to gallop up the stairs and beat James to death.
After Firenze was the empty lane, and then there were Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Rowle, and Felix Rosier, one step behind, on the eleventh step. They too looked at Harry with expressions of indignation.
But soon, everyone realized something was wrong.
Before the test of determination, that empty lane had been between those at the 8th and 9th steps, or between the 9th level of the Qi Absorption Realm and the 1st level of the Core Formation Realm. Everyone thought it was just an empty lane, so they ignored it. Some people even assumed it was the line between the Qi Absorption Realm and the Core Formation Realm.
But after the test of determination, the empty lane shifted positions.
Not only had it shifted, it shifted further to the right. In other words, further up the rankings!
