Finding the relived reactions of the different cultivators from the major powers of the small world understandable, Xuan Hao could not help wondering what kind of reaction they would make when he ended up challenging the immortal ascension staircase. Feeling confident that he would be able to do better than the older woman who had just perished on the immortal ascension staircase.

Whoosh~

And deciding now was as good as any time, he directly flew down towards the start of the staircase. Throwing a spirit stone as payment to the small guard in charge of the formation there before being granted access through the formation in place around the staircase. Finding himself at the center of attention as he stepped onto the very first step just after the older woman had perished and not one of the spectators that had showed up to watch the older woman’s challenge attempt had left.

"Hey, look, someone else is challenging the immortal ascension staircase!"

"Hm? True... What has gotten into people? Throwing their lives away before the ascension ceremony even started..."

"Hehe, who cares? Anyone want to bet whether this fellow makes it further than that old lady?"

"Oh? Is this even a fair bet? Even if that fellow is a senior at the Star Creation Realm, few people make it that far. Even someone at the Star Creation Realm can at most force their way through the first four or so thousand steps before being forced to slow down."

"Is that so? I have a good feeling about this one, I will bet a hundred top grade spirit stones."

"Hmph, wasting your spirit stones, I bet a hundred he doesn’t make it." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Ah! Let me join in as well~"

Because of this, a lively discussion that soon devolved into some kind of large-scale betting event soon enough took shape as those already gathered to watch the fun decided to stick around to see how far he could.

However, Xuan Hao himself wasn’t the slightest bit focused on the discussions playing out amongst the spectators and was instead entirely focused on combing through the information inside the jade stone that had been taken out by the different major powers to help those ascending the immortal ascension staircase.

Originally, he wouldn’t have thought to much about it and merely believed it was a simple gesture of goodwill towards those attempting to ascend the immortal ascension staircase and there might be some kind of restricted information that meant it couldn’t be spread outside the immortal ascension staircase.

But...

After seeing the looks of relief on some members from these major powers, he had a feeling that the information within might not be entirely trustworthy.

Ninety nine percent might be accurate while that single one wrong part might end up dooming him when he reached a certain point, causing him to perish on the immortal ascension staircase before he had the time to realize that he had been fooled.

As for the information present inside the jade stone, it was far simpler than he had originally anticipated, being a large encyclopedia filled with information on countless illusions one might encounter on the immortal ascension staircase and how to best solve them and move on to the next.

Though, a thing that made it somewhat believable was the fact that the illusions weren’t set and the difficult illusions that appeared later when one crossed the middle section could change beyond the ones recorded in the jade stone.

In other words, the blame could always be shifted elsewhere if a problem happened later to someone following the information within the jade stone.

Then again, if he could figure this out, so could the rest of the people who challenged the immortal ascension staircase. After all, everyone who challenged it had to at least reach the Breaking Dawn Realm of the Profound Immortal Realm and could already be considered a sly old fox who had lived for who knows how long given how not everyone was like him.

And looking at the past and how those who had come before the older woman perished at around a few hundred steps and the fact that the older woman had also been about to perish at that same place, he guessed that all of them had refused to follow the guide left behind by the different major powers. Sensing the potential trap within the information ahead of time. Only the older woman had ultimately decided to rely on the information and successfully managed to get extremely close to ascending thanks to it.

From this fact alone, it was also clear that not all the information was flawed and most of it was accurate.

Along with the challenger facing different illusions, there was a very real chance that someone would be able to reach the top and successfully ascend to the immortal realm relying on the information recorded within the jade stone with enough luck on their side... Although... There should be a far higher chance that they ended up perishing before they even got to a thousand steps. After all, he doubted others wouldn’t rely on the information from the jade stone when they felt themselves close to dying on the staircase with no retreat.

In that sense, the nervousness from the members of the different major powers had undoubtedly come from the fact that the older woman had truly been about to become one such lucky individual and end up ascend through their assistance.

Shaking his head as he thought about this to himself before he finished going through the more than one million different illusions recorded inside of the jade stone, he didn’t hesitate for a second as he took his first step upwards to the second step of the immortal ascension staircase. Feeling his surroundings shifting as he found himself being forcibly pulled into an illusion by an overwhelming power that left him with no way to resist even with his powerful cultivation at the Middle Stage of the Land Creation Realm.