When everyone arrived at Wenxin Mountain, they didn't feel anything, except Mangu, who clearly felt his strength was decreasing, and his physical standards were getting closer to those of everyone else.
The boiling ancient barbarian blood in his body calmed down and could no longer provide him with endless power.
Everyone looked at each other, and finally looked at the strongest Man Gu.
"I'll go first." Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Man Gu didn't hesitate and just went first.
One level, two levels, three levels… ten levels.
Man Gu walked the first ten steps easily, but from the eleventh step, the pressure gradually appeared. He felt like he was carrying a stone slab on his back. The higher he climbed, the heavier the stone slab became.
But it is still within an acceptable range.
Keep climbing.
Man Gu took two breaths, steadied his breathing, and walked towards the twentieth step.
Man Gu climbed up the 20th step. His steps became more and more difficult and his speed of climbing the stairs became slower and slower.
At the 29th step, sweat had already begun to seep out of Man Gu's back, soaking his clothes. He had to stop, gasping for breath, and sit on the steps to rest.
"Even sitting down is stressful." Man Gu gritted his teeth and muttered to himself, too tired to speak. He just changed from standing to carrying the stone tablet, and the speed of recovering strength was very slow.
When everyone saw how hard Man Gu was walking, they knew that the mountain was not easy to climb, and their hearts skipped a beat.
Someone said in a deep voice: "I have heard the elders of the tribe talk about a similar place. This Questioning Heart Mountain can test one's heart for seeking the truth. The purer the heart, the more determined the mind, and the purer the heart for seeking the truth. Man Gu was born in the ancient barbarian tribe and was famous for his stubbornness. Even he found it so difficult to climb. I am afraid it will be even more difficult for us!"
"Does the mantra for meditation that can calm the mind work?" Someone else thought of a way.
The third level requires climbing to the 50th step, and there is no requirement for the top few to pass, so they are not in a competitive relationship now.
Everyone nodded, thinking that this was a good idea. The elders in their families had taught them similar formulas for self-cultivation.
Lu Yang opened his mouth, but he didn't know any mantras for meditation.
"Do you want me to teach you some meditation tips?" Meng Jingzhou asked.
Lu Yang shook his head: "No need for now, I'll think of other ways."
Seeing this, Meng Jingzhou did not force Lu Yang to learn the secret formula.
…
Meng Jingzhou woke up from his meditation and felt his heart was more peaceful than ever before.
The meditation mantra works!
Meng Jingzhou entered a state of meditation longer than most people. When he woke up, the others were already at the twentieth or thirtieth step, sweating profusely. It took great willpower to move forward even one step.
Big beads of sweat covered my cheeks and I didn't even have the strength to wipe my face.
Someone wanted to find another way, thinking that there would be pressure only on the steps, so he went around the mountain next to the steps to the 50th step. But when he reached the mountain next to it, he found that this method did not work. The higher the mountain, the greater the pressure.
Some people wanted to use magic weapons, but found that the magic weapons had lost their power. No matter how magical the magic weapons were, they could not even be activated, and they became a pile of scrap metal.
No wonder Dai Bufan wasn't worried about them using magic weapons.
Lu Yang lagged behind everyone and was the most conspicuous.
He was squatting on the tenth step with one bare foot, looking thoughtful, no one knew what he was observing.
"What are you doing? Others have already climbed very far away." Meng Jingzhou asked curiously.
Lu Yang said nothing, holding a shoe in his hand.
Lu Yang threw his shoes and they landed on the eleventh step: "Try to pick them up."
Meng Jingzhou didn't understand what Lu Yang meant, but he did it anyway. Then he found that his shoes were heavier than usual, as if something was pulling them from the bottom.
Meng Jingzhou seemed to understand something. He threw the shoe to the twelfth step and found that the shoe fell at the same speed as the eleventh step. When he picked it up, it was heavier than the eleventh step.
"What pattern did you find?"
Meng Jingzhou frowned: "If the object does not fall to the ground, the pressure will not be transmitted to the object. Only when the object falls to the ground and comes into contact with the ground will there be additional pressure?"
"That's right." Lu Yang pounded his palms with his fists. It was rare that someone had the same idea as him, and he was very happy.
Meng Jingzhou seemed to be thinking about something. His mind was turning quickly in his quiet state. "The steps are inclined. There are so many trees here. We can build a '7' shaped ladder with one end buried in the ground and the other end leading directly to the 50th step."
Lu Yang said confidently: "Yes, this third test should be a test of our wisdom. This is the standard answer!"
Meng Jingzhou understood Lu Yang's idea and quickly asked another question: "How do we cut down trees?"
How can they cut down trees to make ladders if they don’t have axes or saws
"Do you have any sharp magic weapon on you?" Lu Yang had thought about this question a long time ago.
He thought about working with others, but unfortunately no one else could understand his ideas.
Meng Jingzhou took out a dagger and said, "This is what the elders of the clan gave me for self-defense. It can be driven by the mind and its speed is comparable to that of a Jindan stage cultivator. However, it cannot fly in the Heart-Searching Mountain."
"It doesn't matter, as long as it's sharp." Lu Yang said with a smile. The Meng family is a big family. Even if the magic weapon they refined cannot be activated, its sharpness is far beyond the axes and saws in the mortal world.
Perfect for felling trees.
"Come and see. I have already designed the blueprints while you were in meditation."
Lu Yang took Meng Jingzhou to a piece of soft sand, where there was a drawing of Lu Yang's design, which was a "7"-shaped ladder.
After a brief discussion, the two began to act.
The Meng family's dagger was indeed sharp. Thick trees were like paper in front of the dagger. The two men quickly cut the trees into pieces of strangely shaped wooden boards.
The monks within the Wenxin Mountain are the same as mortals, and the trees that can grow here are naturally the most common ones.
Soon Meng Jingzhou discovered another problem.
"How do we connect these two boards? Not to mention that we don't have any nails, even if we did, we wouldn't be able to connect such thick boards."
“Have you ever heard of mortise and tenon joints?”
"No."
Lu Yang had no choice but to take the dagger and carve the joints of the wooden boards into mortise and tenon structures while explaining worldly wisdom to Meng Jingzhou.
"The protruding part is called a tenon, and the recessed part is called a mortise and tenon. Together, they form a mortise and tenon structure. The biggest feature of the mortise and tenon structure is that it is extremely strong even without the use of nails."
Meng Jingzhou listened very carefully. The Meng family used spiritual energy to refine weapons, which was a weapon refining technique and did not require mortise and tenon structures.
Everyone on the stairs was sweating and panting, just to reach the 50th step and become the first to pass.
Perhaps the first one to pass the level will be appreciated by the Wendao Sect and then be given special training.
Everyone also understood why there was no time limit. Climbing mountains consumes too much physical energy. If you stay there for too long, you will be so hungry that you can't even stand up, let alone climb the mountain.
The two men at the bottom of the stairs were sweating profusely and panting with exhaustion. After a long time and effort, they cut down large swathes of trees and, after several attempts and errors, finally made the ladder.
The ladder has a strange shape, thin at the top and thick at the bottom, and curved at the end. It looks more like a huge "7" than a ladder.
The surrounding area was bare and looked like it had been bitten by a giant pig monster.
Some disciples of the Wendao Sect secretly glanced at Dai Bufan, because they remembered that Senior Brother Dai Bufan loved to show off his lush and green Wenxin Mountain the most.
Dai Bufan's eyes twitched and he clenched his fists unconsciously.