Chapter 382: He Is Cheating For Sure!
Daniel, as his consciousness returned to his main body, looked around. Naturally, no one had even gotten close to him, and his distance from the other participants was extremely large.
He turned and glanced behind him. From there, he could roughly understand the situation of the others. As expected, the number of eliminated participants had greatly increased.
Andreas had managed to reach the 40th step, Tormyn was on the 37th step and was heading toward the 40th.
Selera was not too far behind and was doing her best to reach the 40th step as well. Ilaris seemed to have reached the 30th step and then left the stairway after receiving her reward.
That girl was smart enough to realize that further advancement wasn’t possible for her and could even lead to her downfall, so she had made the best decision.
Lorak and the rest of Tormyn’s subordinates were all eliminated. They didn’t even get the chance to attack Daniel, unfortunately.
As for Olivia, she was currently on the 30th step, and it was likely that after her fight ended, she might also leave the stairway.
Daniel then turned and continued his advance. Only 40 steps remained until the end of the stairway, and he didn’t want to waste more time.
The moment he started climbing, the gazes of all the participants who had left the stairway fell on him.
They had already noticed the person who had managed to reach the 60th step, but at first, they thought they had seen wrong. After all, how could someone advance at such speed?
"My god, he really is advancing! Who even is he?"
"What kind of monster is this? Even Young Lord Tormyn and Young Lord Andreas have only just managed to reach the 40th step!"
"Isn’t he that new friend of Young Lord Andreas? The same one who beat up Lorak?"
"Now that you mention it, he does look exactly like him!"
"Hush! Is he really such a monster? Could he be cheating?"
"He’s definitely cheating!" Noise erupted as many participants demanded that the elders of the family investigate the situation.
However, even the elders themselves didn’t know how this boy was advancing at such speed. More importantly, cheating on this stairway was impossible.
After all, this was a stairway built by the gods themselves. How could cheating on it even be possible?
One of them appeared before the crowd and explained things to calm the situation. The others frowned after hearing the explanation, but they had no reason to refute it.
When they saw that the white-haired boy passed the 70th step without facing any fight, everyone was shocked and confused.
How was such a thing even possible? Could someone actually change the mechanism of this ancient stairway, even by cheating? Even they doubted it.
However, there was no proof. They could only shut their mouths and stare at the boy. No one cared about Tormyn or Andreas anymore.
What a joke. The current star was the white-haired boy who was casually climbing the stairway like it was nothing
Daniel didn’t know that with every passing moment, he was creating more chaos and drawing more attention.
Even if he had known, he wouldn’t have cared. He hadn’t done anything illegal nor harmed anyone. That meant the Lionheart family naturally wouldn’t make things difficult for him.
He walked calmly, and finally, only one step remained before the 80th. However, instead of immediately stepping onto it, he sat down on the step he was on.
"What’s he doing?"
"Why did he sit down? Did something happen?"
"What happened? Did he decide to accept defeat?"
The crowd was stunned by his actions. They narrowed their eyes to see more clearly.
"Looks like he’s resting?"
"He’s definitely resting! Is something like that even allowed?"
"There’s no rule that says it isn’t."
The crowd sighed. They now realized that resting on the staircase was, in fact, allowed. There was no rule against it. But whenever they entered the staircase, they were so caught up in the competition that they completely forgot this fact.
Daniel sat cross-legged and began calming his mind. Even though the energy he used in those fights didn’t affect his real body, his mind was a bit tired.
He had fought some of the strongest figures in history. On top of that, he had learned many things from those battles. Later, when he had time, he would have to carefully think about them.
After a few minutes of calming his mind, he stood up again and looked at the 80th step. Without hesitation, he placed his foot on it.
The moment he reached the 80th step, his consciousness was once again dragged into another dimension. The world around him turned dark, and when he could see again, he found himself in a dark space.
Both the sky and ground were pitch black. The smell of death filled the air. In the distance, one could see the cycle of death—the cycle that determined the end of all living beings.
In the middle of that dark sky and earth, a figure was sitting, wearing only a dark robe. His body was barely visible.
Yet, strangely, this figure felt familiar to Daniel, as though he had seen him before. He took a step forward, and suddenly the surroundings became a bit brighter.
"This place?" He frowned. With the sky brightening, he realized where he was. He had been here once before.
This was the realm of the dead—the place he had once entered back when he was in the Pagoda of Death. Of course, this was only a copy, not the real thing.
"Then you must be..." he muttered, understanding the identity of the man sitting there.
"It’s been a while, kid." A deep, authoritative, and charming male voice rang out. The figure sitting between the sky and earth slowly rose to his feet.
He turned, and his face entered Daniel’s sight—a familiar face he had seen before.
"Hero of Death," Daniel muttered to himself, then bowed slightly in respect and greeted him.
"You’ve grown stronger since the last time I saw you. Not bad." The Hero of Death spoke with a calm tone and a straight face.
"Well, a lot of things happened. I was forced to improve." Daniel smiled. He was a bit surprised that this remnant of the Hero of Death actually recognized him.
But on second thought, it wasn’t that strange. After all, this was still a part of the man’s true consciousness.
"It’s clear that many interesting things have happened. Otherwise, summoning me within the ancient staircase isn’t an easy thing. Still, I didn’t expect another person would summon me again so soon."
"Oh? So there was someone else before me?" Daniel smiled and asked.