#30 - The one hundred million dollar question!

Qin Buyi stepped onto the platform, flanked by two massive stone pillars.

Each pillar was carved with several golden dragons coiling around its surface, and at the very top of the two pillars was a plaque.

The plaque was battered and worn from fighting and the ravages of time, but the three characters "South Heaven Gate" could still be faintly seen on it.

"This really is the ancient Heavenly Court," Qin Buyi thought to himself, deeply shaken.

From the scenes he had seen in the past, Qin Buyi had already deduced that this place might be the Heavenly Court.

But when this conclusion was truly confirmed, the shock in his heart was still beyond words.

Looking down from the South Heaven Gate, at the end of the one hundred and eight steps he had just climbed, were the words: Stairway to Heaven.

The Stairway to Heaven was also known as the Stairway to Immortality. Legend had it that in the ancient primordial era, if a mortal could climb these one hundred and eight steps, they could immediately ascend to immortality and join the ranks of the immortals.

From the increasing pressure with each step Qin Buyi had felt as he climbed, it was clear that a mortal without cultivation could not possibly climb all one hundred and eight steps.

To complete the climb, one would need at least the Nascent Soul Realm cultivation.

On second thought, in the ancient primordial era, the weakest of beings born after the creation of the world were Human Immortals at the very least. As for the innate beings born with supreme treasures, many were Grand Luo Golden Immortals.

It was only later, after Nuwa created humans, that the cultivation levels below Human Immortal were gradually developed due to the innate deficiencies of humans.

"Perhaps in that era, those who had not become immortals were all considered mortals," Qin Buyi thought uncertainly.

Standing at the South Heaven Gate, he looked at the once magnificent and resplendent palaces, now reduced to ruins, many of them completely destroyed in battle.

Even the steps of the Stairway to Heaven beneath his feet were densely covered with marks from various weapons clashing.

Many steps were missing half their original size, the other half having been directly destroyed in battle.

Just then, an extremely pure spiritual energy gathered above Qin Buyi's head at the South Heaven Gate, and in the next moment, it entered his body through the top of his head.

Qin Buyi did not stop it. The level of this extremely pure spiritual energy was so high that if compared to the spiritual energy contained in a high-grade spirit stone, the high-grade spirit stone would be worthless trash on the street.

After the spiritual energy entered Qin Buyi's body, he felt as comfortable as if he had taken a cold shower in summer.

[Ding! Detecting external spiritual energy entering the host's body...]

About fifteen minutes later, the first wave of spiritual energy disappeared, and the second wave of spiritual energy began to condense above Qin Buyi's head.

The second wave of spiritual energy was even purer than the first, but it suddenly lacked the strength to continue condensing halfway through.

Spiritual energy from the South Heaven Gate continued to gather, but it could not merge into the second wave of spiritual energy.

After repeating this several times, the spiritual energy from the South Heaven Gate completely dissipated, and the second wave of incomplete spiritual energy poured into Qin Buyi's body.

[Ding! Detecting the source of external spiritual energy...]

[Ding! System is forcibly intervening...]

The spiritual energy that had completely dissipated from the South Heaven Gate now gathered rapidly above Qin Buyi's head as if controlled by a large hand.

Soon, a spiritual energy hurricane stirred above Qin Buyi's head, with the color of spiritual energy mixed with traces of blood red.

The blood red color was filled with cold killing intent, madness, and bloodthirst.

Soon, a blood-colored spiritual energy storm covered the sky above the South Heaven Gate, with the blood color now completely dominating.

The entire spiritual energy storm exuded a frenzied killing intent from the inside out. As time passed, the spiritual energy gradually liquefied.

Qin Buyi reached out and grabbed at the slowly liquefying spiritual energy in the air. A drop of spiritual energy, like fresh blood, appeared in Qin Buyi's palm.

Under the system's forced intervention, the Stairway to Heaven emitted "creaking, creaking" sounds.

With a loud "boom!", the already damaged Stairway to Heaven finally collapsed under the strain.

From the first step to the one hundred and eighth step, all exploded into pieces.

When the Stairway to Heaven exploded, even the connected South Heaven Gate trembled.

After the blood-colored spiritual energy completely turned into spiritual liquid, it instantly poured into Qin Buyi's body from all directions.

The blood-colored spiritual energy did not bring a comfortable feeling as it entered his body.

Qin Buyi felt as if he were soaking in a pool of blood, with a bloody smell assaulting his nose.

His body, from the inside out, felt as if it had rusted, and his joints became very stiff.

A crazy killing intent surfaced in his heart, as if a voice was constantly bewitching him, urging him to destroy everything in front of him.

Qin Buyi closed his eyes and fought against the killing intent that arose in his heart, but as the blood-colored spiritual energy continued to pour into his body.

This killing intent became stronger and stronger, and there was a possibility of losing control at any moment. Once he lost control, Qin Buyi, dominated by the killing intent, would instantly be reduced to a tool that only knew how to kill.

Fifteen minutes later, the blood-red spiritual energy finally completely poured into Qin Buyi's body, and Qin Buyi slowly opened his eyes.

His eyes had now turned blood-red with bloodlust, and Qin Buyi tried his best to fight against the killing intent in his heart.

[Ding! Converting the spiritual energy in the host's body into attribute points, converting...]

[Ding! Conversion complete, total: two hundred attribute points.]

[Warning! Warning! Warning! There is too much residual killing intent in the host's body, and there is a possibility of losing control at any time. Is/is it necessary to temporarily suppress it?]

"Suppress it!" Qin Buyi did not ask what the conditions for suppression were. At this time, the killing intent was constantly impacting his mind.

With his understanding of the system, since the system asked this, no matter what the conditions were, he could definitely afford them.

[Ding! Consuming attribute points to suppress...]

Half an hour later, the blood-red eyes gradually returned to clarity, and Qin Buyi let out a long sigh of relief.

"Huff, if it weren't for the system's help, this time would have been dangerous."

[Ding! This suppression consumed a total of one hundred and seventy attribute points, and the attribute points have been deducted.]

The system's voice came, and Qin Buyi stood there for a long time, blankly saying: "One hundred...seventy attribute points!"

"Fourth-order is ten points of points for one point of attributes, one hundred and seventy attribute points is one thousand seven hundred points, converted into spirit stones is seventeen million low-grade spirit stones."

Qin Buyi immediately felt that his whole heart was bleeding. It took a long time to adjust his mentality and comfort himself:

"It's okay, it's okay, if it weren't for the system's help, I wouldn't have been able to obtain so many attribute points."

But thinking about it, his heart still couldn't be completely calmed. The system poured the blood-colored spiritual energy into his body and then helped him temporarily suppress this killing intent.

But with this back and forth, not only did he not get any benefits, but he also left such a potential danger in his body that could explode at any time.

Thinking of this, Qin Buyi, coupled with the system's usual performance, couldn't help but feel a little helpless and a little sad: "System, you tricked me again!"

[Considering the host's current inner feelings, this disrespect is exempt from martial punishment, deducting ten points of attributes.]

The system's emotionless voice reached Qin Buyi's ears.

After hearing this, his heart ached even more. One million low-grade spirit stones flew away from his eyes, and Qin Buyi haggled weakly:

"You should just strike me with lightning, and return the attribute points to me."

The system did not reply to Qin Buyi and fell silent.

Opening the personal information panel, Qin Buyi added the remaining twenty attribute points to himself.

Name: Qin Buyi

Desolate Celestial Body · Elementary

All attributes amplified by 5%.

Cultivation: Fourth Order · Mid-Nascent Soul (154/200)

Strength: 154

Speed: 154

Stamina: 154

Attack Power: 154

Defense Power: 154

Luck: 154

......

Slaughter Blade · Fourth Order (154/200)

Attack Power: 154

Slaughter Blade Technique · Third Order (100/100 · Missing follow-up, unable to break through)

Attack Power: 100

Azure Dragon · Fourth Order (154/200)

The increase in power within his body made Qin Buyi feel much better.

Qin Buyi had never figured out his cultivation system. He was clearly in the mid-Nascent Soul stage, but there was not a trace of spiritual power in his body.

Every time he broke through, his strength, stamina, and other attributes were comprehensively increased, but there was no spiritual power attribute in it.

Qin Buyi had also asked the system before, and the system said at the time that answering Qin Buyi's question would require one hundred million mall points.

Not to mention that Qin Buyi didn't have this expensive price at the moment, even if he did, he wouldn't spend it on a question that didn't provide any substantial help.

Recalling the spiritual energy that had poured into his body just now, Qin Buyi vaguely understood why the legends said that mortals could immediately ascend to immortality after walking through the Stairway to Heaven.

Judging from the first and second pure spiritual power, if the Stairway to Heaven was not damaged and the spiritual power continued to pour in, it would be very likely to become an immortal in one day.

Qin Buyi then thought that if the Stairway to Heaven was not damaged, perhaps the gravity would be stronger, and it would be much more difficult for him to reach the top than it was now.

Without staying at the South Heaven Gate for too long, although the system temporarily suppressed the killing intent in his heart, the system did not say how long it could suppress it.

He now just wanted to quickly complete the awakening task, which was already very dangerous.

If coupled with the interference of killing intent, the situation would basically be difficult level plus hell level.

Qin Buyi suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart that this suppression would not fail at a critical moment, would it?

With his understanding of the system, this situation was very likely to happen.

"The system shouldn't be so bad, maybe... possibly... probably... not," Qin Buyi thought with a very uncertain heart.

Passing through the South Heaven Gate was an extremely long passage, originally guarded by heavenly soldiers on both sides.

But now, apart from seeing the traces of the heavenly soldiers guarding, both sides were empty.

Qin Buyi continued to walk forward. When he was about one-third of the way through the passage, a corpse with its head separated from its body suddenly appeared, and the head was not far from the corpse.

This was the first corpse Qin Buyi had encountered after entering the Heavenly Court. The corpse was wearing the clothes of a heavenly soldier seen in the remaining scenes of the Stairway to Heaven.

Qin Buyi stopped and did not continue forward, looking at the corpse cautiously.

The corpse swayed and stood up from the ground, its body making a harsh, ear-piercing "creaking" sound.

After standing up completely, the corpse reached out and touched the empty position of its head.

Perhaps because it did not touch its head, Qin Buyi could clearly feel the anger emanating from the corpse.

The corpse bent down and reached out to feel around its body, and soon found its head not far away.

Holding up its head and placing it on its neck, the connection between the corpse and the head quickly healed, and there was no trace of a wound.

The heavenly soldier's corpse suddenly opened its eyes and looked at Qin Buyi.

This strange scene happened before his eyes, but Qin Buyi did not feel any fear in his heart. He drew out the Slaughter Blade and prepared to fight.

Then, the Eye of Exploration looked at the heavenly soldier, whose cultivation was only at the Golden Core Perfection stage.

Just then, a force came out of nowhere in the passage and entered Qin Buyi's body.

His cultivation continued to decline from the mid-Nascent Soul stage and was suppressed to the same Golden Core Perfection stage as the heavenly soldier opposite him.

The heavenly soldier showed Qin Buyi an ambiguous smile, held a long knife, and rushed towards Qin Buyi. Because he had not spoken for a long time, the heavenly soldier's vocal cords rubbed against each other and made a hoarse voice as he shouted:

"Slaughter · Massacre!"