Yi Fan took the next step — it was the 3001st. This time he felt an intense heat. The higher he climbed, the more the heat increased.
Yi Fan thought, "This way I will not be successful to reach the top before Yang Kai." The thought made him slow. He stared at the endless stairs and then sat cross-legged on one of the steps to rest. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly, letting the heat wash over him while he thought.
After a moment he realized something and a plan formed in his mind. He thought, "With Scorching Meridian technique I can temper my body and endure fire energy. If I successfully master the 2nd layer then my heat resistance will increase several times. This time it will be best to cultivate it. This type of intense heat energy I can't get from solar Qi." The idea sounded right to him — the Scorching Meridian fit the heat, not the Yang Qi around him.
He began to cultivate. He tried to use the surrounding energy to refine his body. He drew in what he could, forcing it into his meridians and following the pattern of the Scorching Meridian technique. But it was harder than absorbing solar Qi. The environment gave him Yang Qi, not flame Qi. That mismatch made the refinement painful and slow. His technique was related to fire, while now he was using Yang energy's heat to refine his body — the energies did not match. Each breath felt like a test, each circulation risked tearing his meridians.
At that moment the system panel opened and gave him a warning.
[Host, your physics is not related to Yang energy. If you try to refine your body by this, it will damage your meridians and you will not be able to refine this body successfully next time.]
Yi Fan saw the notification and frowned. He thought, "Oh... That means now I have to decide only one of them. If I take the Ancestral Dragon fragment then I will not be successful to refine my physics in future, while if I don't do it then I will lose the Ancestral Dragon fragment and even Su Yan, and can refine my body several times in future." The choice pressed on him like the heat itself.
He had not expected this. He had overestimated himself. He had tried to refine his body with Yang energy heat, and now the system warned him of the cost. His mind began to calculate every possibility. He counted benefits on one hand and dangers on the other.
He thought, "Should I stop now? There is benefit and danger at the same time when I take the inheritance. If I want to reach Divine Dragon stage like Yang Kai I have to do the same types of things like him. Not only that — before absorbing so many dragon blood flowers I can't cultivate in dragon. Before this it will be only useful for Dual-cultivation with Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art. If I don't have present, what will I do with future?" His thoughts stumbled over the last question; it was raw and honest.
Yi Fan asked the system, "Can you describe for me what the benefits of my special physics are, its limitations and other things?"
[Your physics is "Limitless Force physics."
Like its name, it can be refined limitless times and gain limitless strength if you find enough material. You can gain Open Heaven strength power at Emperor stage if your body is refined more than ten times.
This physics does not belong to the original Martial Peak world; that is why when you breakthrough to Open Heaven you can make two worlds in your body at the same time.]
The answer sat in front of him like another weight. He read it again, feeling both hope and the heavy price that came with hope. He kept taking steps upward, but in his mind he still could not make the decision. Every step felt like choosing and every breath like counting losses.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai had reached 3400 steps while Yi Fan was only at 3100. Yi Fan forced his body, using all his strength to close the gap, but how could a transmigrator compete with a heaven-chosen one in climb speed? Even if Yi Fan now had many times more raw strength and defense than Yang Kai — enough to kill him if it came to that — this was a speed contest where Yang attributes gave Yang Kai the upper hand. Strength meant little here; timing and the right affinity mattered more.
Time ran thin. Yi Fan had not much time to decide. He had to choose whether to cultivate the second layer now and continue to ascend the staircase, or to give up some chance for a longer path of growth. The dilemma tightened his chest.
In a quiet moment he thought about fate. Yi Fan realized that in life nothing happened just as one wished. He had not come to this world on purpose. This was destiny that had brought him here, and destiny asked for a price.
Later, Yang Kai took 6000 steps. At the top, Su Yan still looked at the Dragon-Phoenix fragment. She stared toward the door at its back and waited for someone. She had been waiting there for half an hour, but no one had come.