novelraw Chapter 44: Ascending the Divine Long Staircase
Chapter 44: Ascending the Divine Long Staircase
It was impossible to fly straight to the divine throne.
The divine authority forged by power forced everyone to step upward one step at a time under extreme pressure.
No matter how far they were from the divine throne’s front long staircase, regardless of speed, everyone would arrive after spending the same amount of time. Even Mo Wen could not ascend faster than others under absolute energy-level suppression.
The moment he stepped onto the long staircase, Mo Wen felt an incredible weight and a sudden question invading his mind.
"Why do you advance?"
Mo Wen’s body half-kneeling on the ground, his psychic precognition and instincts told him that if he couldn’t answer this question, he wouldn’t be able to shake off the pressure and climb another step.
"To kill those I despise, to destroy their plans," Mo Wen answered.
This was a partially correct answer, but the divine long staircase did not accept Mo Wen’s reply and asked again, "Why do you advance?"
Mo Wen ran through all the answers he thought might be right in one breath: "For revenge, because I feel responsible for others’ lives, for honor, because I might become a hero after victory, for happiness, because I want to stay in this world..."
The pressure vanished, and Mo Wen immediately ascended to the second step."Why are you afraid?"
As the question appeared and suppressed him, Mo Wen saw Canglan smiling.
This agent of the Corporation, whom he had killed once before, had crossed death and appeared again before him.
He sent a seemingly cheerful but actually full-of-anger psychic transmission: "Seeing me not completely dead, yet showing up here stronger, aren’t you happy?"
"Although full resurrection is still far off and the technology is far from mature, being able to carry out such a sinister revenge now makes me extremely happy."
"Don’t think about answering, don’t think about escaping, and don’t think about surviving. Keep interfering with our grand cause."
"You will definitely die here!"
Golden waves surrounded Canglan’s side. Mo Wen could see countless figures weaving within them, imprints of ancient times stamped inside, pushing his power to an incredible new realm, even reaching a thousand times the acceleration of Mo Wen’s Energy Level 4 state. Yet now, this power was used solely to kill Mo Wen.
A psychic torrent slammed down with a roar, the intense psychic energy crashing into Mo Wen, disturbing his thoughts and preventing him from answering immediately.
Mo Wen was preparing to enter Energy Level 5, to fight desperately after super acceleration, but before that, Madman appeared before him.
Madman should be able to win, so there was no need to waste Energy Level 5 time.
He laughed wildly, standing tall with the 40mm plasma cannon under his crotch flashing with electric light: "Canglan, this is all you’ve got."
"Just came up and saw you crouching on someone. Fortunately, I have no fear at all!"
In truth, Madman was also afraid. He feared that his power was still not strong enough, feared any incompetence that might cause failure. That was why he possessed comprehensive psychic power to grow stronger in all aspects.
This fear was so clear that, to overcome it, he constantly strengthened himself day and night, answering questions the moment problems were discovered.
Whether answering the divine long staircase or answering Canglan.
Under Energy Level 5 enhancement, plasma like a miniature star spewed from beneath Madman, power enough to evaporate lakes, burn through rivers, and steam seas clashing with the psychic torrent.
The former strongest figure of the Dream Faction and one of the candidates for the planet’s strongest psychic surpassed Canglan.
Canglan’s humanoid dialogue interface showed a middle finger, then he and his true body were swallowed.
Then, Madman sat down right beside Mo Wen, strange-colored liquid flowing from his seven orifices: "Hiss, this guy is still pretty tough. Used too much power, let me rest a bit..."
"There might be more traps above, ready to strike when answering questions. I’m not sure if I can instantly answer the next question, so let’s wait for the others for a while."
"Oh, right, almost forgot."
Madman pulled an iron rod from the root of his left palm and handed it to Mo Wen: "Here, the strongest rod. Because this thing is basically useless, and I was in a rush just now, I forgot to give it to you."
"I might need to rest longer. People as powerful as us have to save strength for the final confrontation with the strongest enemy..."
He squinted his eyes. Since he hadn’t dissolved, he was probably still alive for now.
What he said made some sense.
Mo Wen answered the questions from the divine long staircase again and again, racking his brain, offering answers like “fear of death,” “fear of prolonged torment,” “fear of doing nothing,” “fear of being a step too slow and not giving full effort,” before finally no longer being suppressed.
He waited a moment, continuing only after the main force assembled.
They pushed forward relentlessly, breaking through several steps consecutively.
On the third step, two Energy Level 5 Corporation agents launched a joint sneak attack; dozens of our psychics died.
On the fourth step, Ren Sisi fully equipped with dual cores fought resurrected Libra. At the cost of losing many computing units, they won.
On the fifth step, two thousand freshly suicidal Corporation psychics launched a joint sneak attack; one of our psychics absorbed the damage for Mo Wen at the front and died.
On the sixth step, the Corporation used special technology to recreate the most insane scenes from the old company wars. Madman and several other powerful psychics fought with full force and died.
On the seventh step, monsters extracted from human subconsciousness appeared. Our psychic hybrids attracted fire and died, while Abyss Diving Corporation’s support killed them.
On the eighth step, another Corporation war fortress and remaining psychics, researchers, and Mo Wen’s side fought fiercely. The steel giant was destroyed, and hundreds of our psychics died.
The ninth step...
Mo Wen grasped a familiar door handle and pushed the door open.
Inside was his home.
The shoe prints left two days ago during a rainstorm were still on the floor, not wiped away. A cat that had somehow sneaked into his home held a mouse in its mouth, looked at him twice, then quickly ran into the bedroom, seemingly preparing to escape through the window.
Mo Wen did not chase it. Exhausted, he came to the refrigerator, took out a small cake he had grabbed on discount last night, placed it on the table, and lit a birthday candle.
The candle flame flickered.
What should I eat tomorrow? The salt and soy sauce are almost gone; I need to buy new ones. The news said the food delivery industry is booming; should I consider changing jobs? Will the cake taste good?
These were all ordinary things, but Mo Wen didn’t know why his vision blurred.
Looking at the candle flame, he didn’t blow it out but pinched it out directly with his fingers.
No fear, no pain, only the temporarily suppressed clear killing intent surfaced again in his heart.
His memory was still vague, but instinct engraved into his bones made Mo Wen come to the door again and push it open.
Bang.
On the ninth step, the agent Invisible launched a solo attack on Mo Wen, sacrificing his life to successfully hold him back for a few breaths before being killed by psychic counterattack.