I'm extremely interested in Nen abilities.

However, finding this place is quite an achievement, so it's not appropriate to immediately question them.

The middle-aged man flicked his cigarette ash and asked, "What's my name?"

This question seems rather nonsensical.

Kurapika was about to have doubts when his eyes suddenly narrowed, and he clearly saw that as the middle-aged man finished speaking, a puff of steam rose from his fingers that were flicking cigarette ash.

This wisp of air, like smoke, quickly transformed into a line of text.

"I see. Without Nen ability, one wouldn't even be qualified to accept missions..." Kurapika read the words formed by the aura on the middle-aged man's fingers.

The middle-aged man was even more surprised that the young blond boy had actually mastered Nen abilities, and the speed and proficiency of his Nen technique were also very smooth.

"What are your requirements for the mission?" The middle-aged man's attitude became more serious.

“As long as I can go to the Sensui Mountain Art Fair next month,” Kurapika said. “The employer should ideally be a painter.”

"Let me see……"

A middle-aged man is typing on a keyboard.

……

On May 24th, in the arena on the 211th floor, after the referee announced the start of the match, Xiao Di swiftly attacked her opponent and delivered a punch without any expression.

Her opponent clearly hadn't expected this seemingly quiet and unassuming girl to have such explosive power. He hurriedly released his own energy to defend himself, but the thin layer of energy on his body was shattered by Xiao Di's punch. He spat out a mouthful of blood and flew out of the arena, his chest almost caved in a small part... The referee was stunned. After confirming that the contestant had fainted, he announced Xiao Di's victory.

Xiao Di showed no change in expression. Amidst the thunderous applause from the audience, she looked towards a corner of the audience where Jing Yang gave her a thumbs-up from afar.

Clearly, Shizuku remembered the matter of the Dying Will, which is why she didn't kill her opponent with a single punch...

"Has she finally agreed to go on stage and compete?" a voice came from the side.

Jingyang asked, "Aren't you going to attend the Immortal Water Mountain Gathering?"

Turning his head, he saw Yun Gu. His injuries seemed to have almost healed, except for his slightly pale complexion, which Jing Yang suspected had turned pale from being cooped up in the hospital room.

"Oh?" Yun Gu pushed up his glasses. "You accepted the invitation to the Sky Arena, or..."

Jingyang nodded while staring at Yun Gu.

Yun Gu smiled and said, "I will participate, but as a disciple of the Heart Source School."

"As expected." Jing Yang asked curiously, "What kind of conference is this? You members of the formal sects should be quite familiar with it, right? What are the rules and regulations..."

Yun Gu explained, "I only participated once a few years ago."

He paused, then said, "Actually, it's nothing much. It's just a martial arts tournament where young disciples from various sects and top fighters from the Sky Arena gather to compete and exchange skills. If there's anything special about it, it's that all of you young martial artists will have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Sky Master's prowess..."

"Sky Master?"

“He is the head of the Sky School, a highly respected martial arts grandmaster…” Yun Gu said, “It is said that he is a martial artist of the same era as Chairman Netero.”

"Why is it just a rumor?" Jingyang asked, puzzled.

“The Sky Master appears less and less in public, and there are even many rumors circulating about him. Some say he has already passed away, and others say he died of a serious illness... I was lucky when I participated back then and I met the Sky Master once.”

Jing Yang couldn't help but laugh and said, "You should have met your guild leader Netero, right? How does this Sky Master compare to him?"

Yun Gu honestly replied, "With my eyesight, how could I possibly discern which of the two is better..."

"It's true!"

Jingyang nodded.

Yun Gu smiled and said, "I just happened to see you all and came to say goodbye. Since you're going to participate in the tournament as a disciple of the Xinyuan School, I need to go back to the dojo first. If you participate, you can have another match later."

"A defeated opponent dares to be arrogant?" Jing Yang joked, raising his fist. "We'll see about that later."

Yun Gu bumped fists with him, waved, and turned to leave.

……

On May 30th, Xiao Di encountered an opponent who was the same guy who used paper airplanes and had previously fought against Jing Yang.

The idea of ​​controlling the paper airplane was good, but it was used in the wrong direction. The opponent's Nen power wasn't particularly outstanding, yet he chose an attack method like "bombing," which relies more on Nen power... If he had applied some special effects to the paper airplane, he might have been able to achieve a surprising victory, but when it comes to competing with Shizuku's total Nen power, he was clearly far inferior.

Paper airplanes bombarded Xiao Di, but they couldn't even break through the "firmness" she had built with her aura. Xiao Di walked over and raised her fist amidst the terrified expressions of her opponents.

The energy gathered on his fist increased so much that his opponent's eyes rolled back, and he fainted from fright.

"The winner is Xiaodi!!" the referee announced with great enthusiasm, and the audience cheered enthusiastically. "In just half a month, Xiaodi has achieved an impressive record of 7 consecutive victories! Will she replicate Zhen Yuanzi's perfect 10-win streak? Let's wait and see!!"

As the referee spoke, the big screen split into two halves, one on the left and one on the right. The left side showed Xiao Di on the ring, looking somewhat dazed and expressionless, while the right side switched to Jing Yang in the audience—it was unclear when the camera caught Jing Yang watching the match.

Jing Yang waved at the camera, and the cheers from the audience rose even higher. It was unclear whether they were cheering for Zhen Yuanzi's reputation or because they had caught a glimpse of gossip from the camera's lens.

……

On June 1st, Xiao Di had just stepped out of the arena after securing her 8th victory when she received an invitation to the Sky Arena's Fairy Water Mountain Tournament. Xiao Di naturally declined to continue the competition, much to the disappointment of many who were eagerly anticipating her 10th consecutive victory… Taking advantage of Children's Day, Jing Yang and Xiao Di enjoyed a few days of fun. Time flew by, and before they knew it, it was the 15th, when the airship sent by the Sky Arena to Fairy Water Mountain was about to depart.

Chapter 116: Climbing the Immortal Stage

The small, dedicated airship for the Sky Arena landed on the open ground, and Jingyang and Xiaodi boarded smoothly under the guidance of the staff.

Inside the spaceship, besides a few smiling flight attendants, there was only one familiar face—Zhehao, who was sitting cross-legged on the soft seat, meditating with his eyes closed. After not seeing him for a while, Zhehao seemed even more aura-infused.

Hearing the noise, Zhehao opened his eyes and saw the two of them. It had been a while since he'd seen Zhen Yuanzi, and his aura... well, he couldn't tell at all whether Zhen Yuanzi's aura had changed.

He smiled bitterly to himself, wondering if he had really become stronger during this time.

Jingyang raised his head as a greeting, and he and Xiaodi found a seat not far away. Not long after, the airship retracted its landing gear and slowly took off.

It seems that of the contestants from the 200th floor of the Sky Arena, only the three present accepted the invitation to visit Fairy Water Mountain. Or perhaps there simply weren't that many people qualified to receive the invitation.

Jingyang gazed at the ever-increasing field of vision outside the porthole and suddenly asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

Xiao Di sat opposite him, propping her chin up, just staring at him for a while.

"Is there something on my face?" Jingyang asked with a smile.

Xiao Di said, "Zhu Que must go to Xian Shui Mountain because of his fiery red eyes. What about Jing Yang?"

“Didn’t Yun Gu say that we’re still in the developmental stage?” Jing Yang said. “Traveling around and broadening our horizons is also beneficial for the development of our Nen abilities. Recently, the closer our Qi increases get to 2, the slower it becomes. It seems we’ve really reached another bottleneck…”

According to Yun Gu, every 1 breaths of mental energy, or every 3 hours of sustained mental focus, represents an invisible threshold for most people. Jing Yang's sustained mental focus is now approaching 6 hours, which means he's getting closer to the second threshold. It's truly absurd; now, each time Jing Yang fully exerts himself to maintain sustained mental focus, it takes him nearly 6 hours… The cost of trial and error in cultivation is becoming increasingly high. Without unwavering concentration, one would likely already be experiencing intense self-doubt at this stage, or simply give up on refining and improving their mental energy.

With those 6 hours, what couldn't you do?

……

Airships of all sizes passed through the sea of ​​clouds, and ahead stood a towering mountain between heaven and earth.

"Wow! Senior Brother Yun Gu, is that Immortal Water Mountain?"

"Senior Brother Yun Gu, what is the martial arts competition like at the Immortal Water Mountain Tournament?"

"Wow! So many airships! They're all flying towards the mountaintop... Why are we flying downhill?"

Although there were many questions, they all actually came from the same boy, who was chattering away next to Cloud Valley. The closer they got to Immortal Water Mountain, the more excited this young disciple of the Heart Source School became and the less he could calm down. In fact, the young disciples of other sects and dojos on the airship were not much better off.

Yun Gu closed the book and patiently explained, "Hart, only those who participate in the Xianshui Mountain Art Exhibition will fly directly to the top of the mountain. We disciples who are participating in the Xianshui Mountain Conference need to fly to the back of the mountain first and gather at the foot of the mountain..."

“Actually, this is the traditional way to participate in the Immortal Water Mountain Tournament,” a martial artist from another school chimed in.

"I see!" Hart exclaimed in sudden realization. "But why is the martial arts tournament being held together with the art exhibition?"

"If it weren't for the addition of the art exhibition, this event might have been canceled many years ago..."

"Nowadays, which martial artist with any real skill would be willing to participate in a martial arts exchange that offers no opportunity for public exposure and no commercial activities?"

The other martial artists around shook their heads.

Hart seemed to understand, but not quite. Soon after, the airship landed at the foot of the mountain behind it. Once it came to a stop, Hart followed Yun Gu and the others off the airship. Looking up, he saw towering peaks reaching into the clouds—and gasps of amazement rose and fell around him. Hart was astonished. He hadn't realized how majestic the mountain was from the sky, but standing at its foot, shrouded in clouds and mist, it seemed like an insurmountable chasm.

At the foot of the mountain, the fog was thin, and soon everyone saw an unusual stone staircase that wound its way up the mountainside, like a ladder hanging on the mountain wall, leading straight into the vast sea of ​​clouds and reaching the horizon.

The reason it is called an unusual stone staircase is that the height of each step is not equal. Even the shortest step is more than half the height of Hart, and the higher steps are even taller than Yun Gu, more than two meters tall. This cannot be called a stone staircase at all, but a stone platform.

"It's practically like a staircase for giants..."

"We're supposed to climb up on our own?"

Low gasps came from all around, and the young disciples couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines. Of course, they weren't so weak that they couldn't even climb two or three steps, but when they looked up, they saw that these were not just one or two steps, but countless stone steps of varying heights. Some of the steps on the mountainside even meandered upwards in a Z-shape, as if they were intentionally designed to make the climbers expend more energy.

"In ancient times, this stone staircase was called the Ascension Steps to Immortality," a voice suddenly said.

Everyone looked at him and saw a middle-aged man with gray hair, a ruddy complexion, and a face like a baby, exuding an air of otherworldly grace.

The middle-aged man looked up at Xianshui Mountain and stroked his beard, saying, "Martial artists in the past believed that as long as one could reach the top of the mountain along this long stairway to immortality, one could ascend to heaven and become an immortal."

"Actually, the so-called ascension to immortality refers to gradually opening up the pores of the body during the process of climbing the mountain, eventually mastering the use of qi, and awakening 'thought'." He chuckled and said to the group of young martial artists at the foot of the mountain, "In other words, if someone here has not practiced their skills to this level and tries to climb the mountain by force, there is a risk of falling off the cliff and dying. You should think carefully before you climb this ladder to immortality."

Hart stared blankly at the man, wondering, "Who is this old man?"

Yun Gu pressed Hart's head down, and together they greeted the middle-aged man, saying, "Master Sky, we didn't expect to find you at the foot of the mountain."

"Sky Master..."

The others hurriedly offered their greetings. The white-haired, youthful-looking Sky Master smiled at Cloud Valley, "I remember Netero's little apprentice, a lovely young girl. How come she's grown into a young man in just a few days?"

Yun Gu was embarrassed. "Master Sky, please don't joke." He said seriously, "The disciple of Chairman Netero that you mentioned is my master, Bisky. Master Bisky did not come this time."

Master Sky waved his hand, "It's not much different. People get old, and their memories don't go as well."

Looking at his spotless and vigorous appearance, everyone felt that he was trying to outlive the Hunter Association president, showing no signs of being old.

The crowd discussed among themselves, and as fewer and fewer people arrived, they began to discuss whether they should go hiking.

Master Sky stroked his beard and chuckled, "Don't rush, don't rush, there are still a few people left."

Soon, a whooshing sound came from above and behind them, and a small airship slowly descended. Everyone recognized the symbol on the airship; it was the symbol of the Sky Arena.

"I didn't expect anyone to participate in the Sky Arena this time..."

"It is said that the Sky Arena was personally built by the Sky Master..."

Amid the murmurs, the airship's hatch opened, and two men and a woman quickly disembarked.

Hart suddenly asked curiously, "Senior Brother Yun Gu, weren't you also in the Sky Arena before? I heard you easily obtained the position of the Hall Master!"

"Just getting 10 wins only makes you half a master," Yun Gu explained. "And it wasn't easy. Especially that one loss..."

"Senior Brother Yun Gu lost?" Hart was greatly surprised. "Was it one of them who beat you?" He stared wide-eyed at the two men and one woman walking towards the group. The black-haired woman didn't seem imposing, so she could probably be ruled out... Hart gradually raised his head, looking at the tall, muscular man approaching, and whispered, "Senior Brother Yun Gu, is that him?"