Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  Under the giant stone, two Ling Xiao Sect disciples who had been standing calmly at the edge of the stone steps suddenly looked up. At the same time, on the distant and towering top of the boulder, there seemed to be a few figures flashing by, stepping to the edge of the giant stone and looking down.

  All of this happened in an instant, and it was no longer within Shen Shi's attention. At this moment, only the figure that had fallen over remained in front of him. The sea breeze blew past the giant rock, carrying a chill, as if reminding him that behind him was the precipice with nothing but emptiness; and the stone steps under his feet now seemed so narrow and steep, as if there was no longer any foothold.

  All the young men around, one by one, were frightened and crouched on the ground, afraid of being implicated, and if they weren't careful, they would also be dragged down. But Shen Shi was unavoidable, at this moment he didn't even have room to curse loudly in his heart, because in the blink of an eye, the falling girl's body seemed to have reached his front.

  On top of the giant rock, a tall figure "whooshed" with the wind and rose up, as if about to pounce down.

  It was as if by instinct, or perhaps a desperate struggle, the hapless Shen Shi let out a low growl and suddenly opened his arms wide, but it was too late to push her away, otherwise he wouldn't have minded letting this unfamiliar girl roll away from him so as not to be dragged down with her unnecessarily. But at this moment, he couldn't help himself, and in the chaos, he could only try his best to keep his body balanced, then use his hands to hold onto the fallen girl's body while desperately trying to stick close to the stone steps, hoping to somehow manage not to slip and fall.

  It was already a strenuous task to maintain balance on the steep stone steps, and after climbing for so long and being tense, most of the boys including Shen Shi were extremely exhausted. So when Shen Shi had just caught the girl and tried to stand firm again, he felt a huge surge of force coming from the girl's body, while his own feet stumbled, and indeed he couldn't keep steady, sliding down directly.

  "Ah......" At this moment, it was not only the falling girl, but also many of the boys and girls around her who witnessed the scene and let out a frightened cry.

  For some reason, at this critical moment, Shen Shi's mind suddenly became much calmer, and in a flash of lightning-like instant, a strange thought flashed through his mind: Did the livestock he had killed before also experience such fear and terror before they died?

  He gritted his teeth, holding the delicate body that had fallen onto his chest with both hands, and the two of them slid down together. The originally steep stone steps now looked so ferocious, but Shen Shi did not give up the idea of struggling to survive. In the chaos, he desperately used his hands to grab every possible protruding rock on the stone steps that could support his body, as well as the steps that could block their fall. At the same time, both feet were desperately treading on the bottom step. Even in these actions, he still remembered to press his body and the girl's body under him onto the stone steps with all his might, otherwise if they were really washed away from the stone steps by the force of the water, it would be a disaster beyond redemption.

  From a distance, Shen Shi looked like a monkey dancing with joy, frantically and recklessly trying to grab something, with a hint of absurdity. However, everyone who witnessed this scene didn't have the slightest smile on their faces, they were all staring in stunned silence.

  One layer, another layer, yet another layer...

  That massive downward force sent Shen Shi's body sliding down four flights of stairs, and several times in between, he almost flew out of the stone steps, falling off the cliff-like giant rocks. However, in the end, he incredibly and stubbornly clung to the stone steps until his feet finally landed on a small protruding rock on the fourth step.

  A commotion burst out from the crowd under the giant stone, and the tall figure on top of the boulder also floated gently back onto the stone after a sudden pause.

  On the stone steps, Shen Shi, who had narrowly escaped death, managed to steady himself again with the help of a small hard stone under his feet. His face was pale and he was still in shock, only now did he feel like he had come back to his senses, feeling deeply frightened, not to mention that his whole body was covered in cold sweat, even his limbs felt weak.

  And the girl under him, until this time seemed to have not recovered from the shock, her whole body was trembling, and she couldn't speak for a while.

  Shen Shi let out a few loud gasps, and suddenly pushed away the girl who was curled up beside him, or perhaps didn't even have the strength to move. At this moment, he only felt an inexplicable and intense anger burning in his heart, like he had just walked through the gates of hell and back. The feeling sent shivers down his spine.

  "You're crazy!" Shen Shi yelled at the girl, gritting his teeth and saying, "You want to die yourself, don't harm others, okay?!"

  The girl's body trembled slightly, and her originally pale face turned even whiter after being scolded by Shen Shi, as if it had lost all its blood color. Her lips quivered, seemingly wanting to say something to Shen Shi, but she couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

  At this moment, under Shen Shi's furious face, a weak and painful voice suddenly came from below, saying faintly:

  "Big brother, you can scold this silly girl as much as you want, I won't have any objections even if she gets scolded to death. However, would it be okay if you moved your foot first before scolding?"

  Shen Shi was startled and hastily looked down, only to see that the small stone on the step below his feet, which had just saved him and the girl's lives, now had a hand grasping it, while his own foot was pressing down on it with all his might.

  Following the hand, he saw a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy lying on the stone steps, with a helpless and painful face, grinning at him with a bitter smile.

  Shen Shi was stunned for a moment, then came back to his senses, hastily withdrawing his hands and feet, looking around, and finding that on the left side of the stone steps there was a relatively flat small platform. At this moment, he too was temporarily unable to walk again. Summoning up his remaining strength, he plopped down onto the small platform with a thud, only then slowly letting out a breath, gradually feeling that his soul seemed to have flown back into his physical body at this moment.

  An unexpected accident happened together, and finally it was safe to pass through the danger. The stone steps were quiet, and after a while, many people started climbing again. However, this time everyone was more careful, and the distance between people in front and back also increased spontaneously. No one dared to stand too close behind someone's back anymore.

  The vast ocean, the rolling waves, the azure sky and the clear sea surface form a beautiful scenery of harmony between heaven and earth. The sea breeze brings even more comfort to the soul. Shen Shi sat on the giant rock, rubbing his eyebrows, silent and speechless. Then he heard footsteps, someone came up from below, stopped at the stone steps beside him, and also sat down beside him with a thud.

  Shen Shi turned his head and took a look, seeing that it was the young man whose palm he had stepped on earlier. He felt a bit surprised and asked, "Why aren't you leaving?"

  The young man let out a long sigh, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his hand, and looked at him with clear and elegant eyebrows. Although he was handsome in appearance, his face still looked a bit unsightly at this moment. He muttered to himself: "Almost got scared to death, my body is all soft, need to rest for a while."

  Shen Shi said irritably: "It's not like you were hit by someone, what are you afraid of?"

  The young man smiled wryly and said, "Big brother, if you hadn't stepped on my hand earlier... uh, no, if you hadn't stepped on that small stone, next thing would have been to crash right into me."

  Shen Shi thought about it and indeed, in that situation, he couldn't keep his balance and could only continue to roll down. If he bumped into the young man in front of him again, he feared that things would get out of hand like a snowball rolling down a hill.

  Thinking back to the dangerous situation just now, Shen Shi and the young man exchanged a glance, both seeing the lingering fear and luck in each other's eyes.

  After a moment, Shen Shi calmed down and looked at the young man, saying: "Anyway, I stepped on your hand just now, sorry about that. My name is Shen Shi, what's yours?"

  The young man smiled and stretched out his right hand to Shen Shi, saying: "Sun You".

  Shen Shi smiled and patted him lightly on the back with his hand.

  Another gust of sea breeze blew by, and the wind seemed to have weakened a bit. The two sat here for a while, and it was as if they had passed the test of life and death just now. In the eyes of Shen Shi and Sun You, these two young men, when looking at this steep stone staircase again, it suddenly felt that the stone staircase seemed much gentler than before, and even the slope looked like it wasn't so steep, no longer as frightening.

  But just then, from the stone steps not far from them, a timid voice came, with a few hints of choking, saying in a low voice:

  "I'm sorry..."

  Shen Shi and Sun You both turned their heads to look, only to see that the speaker was indeed the one who had started the whole thing earlier. For some reason, the girl didn't continue walking up either, and it seemed she didn't dare to turn around and sit directly on the steep stone steps. So from earlier until now, she had been quietly crouching on the stone steps like a startled little bird, with a hint of tension.

  "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." She slowly lifted her head, and the sparkling tears seemed to be swirling in her eye sockets, but she held them back without crying. Sun You furrowed his brow, not speaking a word. Shen Shi had almost been killed by her, and he was originally furious with this girl, but seeing this expression, for a moment, he couldn't say anything harsh either. After a silent pause, he could only shake his head in bitter laughter and wave his hand, saying: "Forget it, forget it."

  The girl bit her bloodless lower lip tightly, looking at Shen Shi as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself. She finally withdrew her gaze and took a deep breath, gritted her teeth, and continued walking towards the top of the giant rock.

  Although Sun You didn't speak from the start, he had been watching her from the side all along. The girl also glanced at Sun You once in a while, but immediately shifted her gaze away after making eye contact with him.

  After seeing the girl walk a distance away, Sun You suddenly asked Shen Shi: "Shen Shi, you're not from around here, are you?"

  Shen Shi hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said: "Yes, I am from Xishan...Lanzhou."

  Sun You uttered an "oh" and seemed to have little interest in the southwestern province, but instead leaned slightly closer to Shen Shi and said in a low voice: "No wonder you don't recognize that girl, haven't you seen how many people are keeping their distance from her?"

  Shen Shi furrowed his brow and shook his head: "I really didn't notice, is there something to be said about this?"

  Sun You glanced at the girl's back and said, "Her surname is Zhong, her name is Zhong Qingzhu, she is a private-born daughter of the Zhong family's collateral branch, so she is not well-received in the Zhong family. It is said that she is usually clumsy, but unexpectedly almost caused a big disturbance today."

  Shen Shi looked at Sun You, and Sun You spread his hands and said: "Don't look at me, this is not something I'm saying casually. Almost all the young masters of aristocratic families inside and outside Liuyun City know about it."

  Shen Shi let out a soft "hmm" and thought to himself that he had just been innocently implicated, but then he changed his mind and thought of something else. He looked up at Sun You and said: "From your tone, you seem quite familiar with these young masters from wealthy families, and since your surname is Sun, could it be that...?"

  Sun You waved his hand and said with a nonchalant expression: "That's right, I'm just the Sun family from the Ling Xiao Sect's subordinate aristocratic family."