The man looked at the clouds and mist all around, he used his little hand to push away little by little, under the clouds and mist hidden on the cyan path on the branches, the path meandered with the direction of the branches, he walked extremely slowly, for fear that if he was not careful, he would fall into the abyss.

In this way, a small piece of cloud and mist walked for a short while, and the small figure slowly disappeared into the middle of nowhere.

After half an hour, a large vertical tree trunk gradually appeared in front of him, and there were sections of stairs on the trunk, all of which were carved into it, and the color of the staircase had been integrated with the trunk, and from a distance it was impossible to know that there would be a staircase above, and it could only be sent when it was near. On one side of the staircase there is a stout rattan that spirals upwards along the staircase.

Seeing the scene in front of him, the man stopped at the intersection of the branch path and the staircase, and his nervous nerves were much more relaxed than before. After exhaling slowly, he wanted to step up the stairs with his legs.

Just as one foot landed on a step that stretched upward, half of his body suddenly stopped, and a huge pressure came to his face, so that he could not breathe for a moment, and he hurriedly pulled his body back violently, and sat down on the path of the branch, panting heavily, and his face was full of shock.

After more than ten minutes, he came to his senses, and he felt the urge to scold his mother, but he didn't dare to shout, who knew if the strange master was hiding somewhere to secretly observe him.

After resting for a while, he began to observe his surroundings, except for the branches under his feet and the main trunk that showed a little bit in the clouds, the rest of the place was as cloudy as before, he thought to himself, I am afraid that this road will not work, but look at it, there is only this road in the past, what should I do? It's hard to return the same way.

After thinking about it, he turned around and wanted to go back, but when he kept stepping on it, his heart tightened, and he hurriedly withdrew the foot he wanted to step on, and then, with his hand, he pushed away a cloud of mist, and suddenly gasped, only to see that there were any branches behind him, and the path he had just walked over had long disappeared without a trace, and the branches seemed to have been cut off out of thin air, leaving only a small section and that intersection under his feet.

He wept with a sad little face, and his heart was indignant.

Time passed bit by bit, and his mind was empty, without the slightest idea. Just when he wanted to try to walk up again, a strange scene happened, only to see those clouds and mist seemed to be controlled by someone, and kept rushing towards him from all sides, where the clouds passed, there was still a small branch slowly swallowed by the clouds, he ran forward with all his might, and used his hands to pull the clouds that wanted to rush over, but found that no matter how much strength he tried, he could not remove them.

He was forced back by the clouds, and he was about to be forced to step up the stairs. Whether to endure the coercion or let the clouds swallow it, he was anxious.

As the army was about to strike, a familiar voice sounded in his ears.

"If you don't have time to do it, you will die upwards and live downwards."

Without much thought, the crossbowman remembered the last sentence, "Born downwards", and hurriedly flicked his hand towards the cloud below the crossing, and the cloud receded, revealing a staircase that was almost identical to the previous section of the main trunk above, but a little lighter in color. He hugged the rattan next to the stairs with both hands, and as soon as his legs climbed, the whole person slid down the rattan. At the moment when he slid down, the intersection where he was standing had been completely swallowed by the cloud.

After a while, the crossbowman only felt a hot pain in his palm, he stopped, sat down on the staircase, gasped for breath, and watched the worn skin in his palm dripping blood on the stairs, remembering what had just happened, and still palpitating.

He tore off the strip of cloth from the corner of his shirt, frowned, gritted his teeth, and bandaged his wound briefly.

Looking at the stairs at his feet, he looked around, and there was still a vast cloud around him, and nothing had changed. He only then thought that the voice in his ears just now was undoubtedly a hint that Li Guanzhu had said to him. He secretly scolded his master in his heart, which was not only weird, but also unreliable.

Recovering his mood, he took a step and walked cautiously down the stairs.

I don't know how long I walked along the spiral staircase, but because of hunger, there was a feeling of weakness all over his body, and seeing that he hadn't found his way back, he couldn't help but feel a little lost.

He walked like a snail, his steps became floating, and at this moment, only the little survival consciousness left dominated his body, and he couldn't imagine that he would end up in such a mess the first time he practiced with his master, and blamed himself for usually just playing.

Master, Master, where did you die? The last hope in his heart became his eccentric master.

The crossbowman felt that he was about to be unable to support it, and he suddenly felt a few rays of light appear in front of him, and the light shone on his little face through the clouds, as if he saw his own mother walking towards him, his spirit was shocked, and he accelerated his pace along the light.

The light grew stronger and stronger, from a trace to a bundle, and then to a few bundles, and when he removed the last cloud that had obscured the light, his eyes suddenly opened up, and he saw that this was the end of the staircase, and at the end was a natural rattan bridge, and beside the bridge stood a large stone tablet, and there were a few lines of striking words on the stone tablet:

Oak to the sky

A dream and a bleakness

There is no place to return in the clouds

Ascension to be a god

The crossbow man looked at the inscription on the stone tablet, froze in place for a few seconds, and then turned his gaze to the other end of the overpass, only to see that there were already two blurred figures at the end of the overpass silently watching here.

He stepped onto the overpass, moving towards the two figures step by step, and behind him was the huge cloud that had been separated.

Standing at the end of the overpass, there was Li Guanzhu, watching the crossbow man slowly walk to him, his face first showed a relieved expression, and then became a little dissatisfied. Standing on the side was the usually honest and honest third senior brother Niu Er, who looked at his little junior brother with the same honest smile as usual.

The crossbow man stood silently in front of the master and brother with the little strength he had left, and he also wanted to speak, but he found that it was very good to be able to stand, and he had no strength to speak.

"Boy, it's been 4 hours, and everyone who is waiting for the teacher is haggard."

Li Guanzhu's tone was a little displeased.

The crossbowman was still silent, just a little distracted.

"Don't think the teacher is too ruthless, you have to experience this moment sooner or later, the pain in the evening is better than the pain in the morning, you can come out and prove that you still have a little understanding, you should be happy."

"You'll have to go from this bridge to the Oaks every day."

"Have you seen the ladder, it's called the Flying Ladder, the first layer is the branch from here to the teacher, each layer has a coercion prohibition, each layer doubles, today for the division to remove the ban on my layer, otherwise you would have left this beautiful world a long time ago."

"In the future, you will start to climb up from the first floor, when will you no longer be afraid of the coercion of the first floor of the ladder, and come back to find a teacher."

At this moment, listening to what the master said, the crossbow man knew that the ladder was called the Flying Ladder.

After Li Guan finished speaking, he waved his sleeves, and then jumped again, heading towards the clouds.

It was already the end of the crossbow, and the crossbow man finally used up his last bit of strength at this time, his legs were weak, and his eyes were black. Seeing this, the honest third senior brother on the side supported him with a pair of big hands, gently put him on his back, and rushed towards the direction of the Taoist temple.

......

When the crossbow man woke up, it was three days later, he opened his eyes tiredly, and there were several senior brothers waiting anxiously on the side, seeing him wake up, the faces of the senior brothers suddenly appeared with surprise, he looked at the concerned eyes of several senior brothers under the dark circles, and showed a wry smile, he wanted to get up from the bed but found that his whole body was weak and weak, and then looked at his body that was obviously thinner than usual, and said to the senior brothers with difficulty:

"Hungry..."

When the senior brothers heard that their little junior brother was crying out that he was hungry, they hurriedly brought a bowl of porridge from the small table where the food had already been placed, and the ninth and tenth senior brothers helped him to lean against the head of the bed, and the other slowly fed him the steaming porridge in the bowl with a spoon. Come to think of it, the senior brothers at this table don't know how many times it was hot before the little junior brother woke up.

After drinking the porridge, the crossbowman rested on the head of the bed, feeling that his body had recovered some strength, he slowly climbed down with the head of the bed, and several senior brothers standing on the side hurriedly stepped forward to help.

"I'll come by myself, senior brothers don't have to..."

Before he could finish speaking, he was carried to a chair next to the small table by several people. Looking at the table full of steaming meals, he choked as he ate.

Several senior brothers wanted to say something comforting, but the fifth senior brother, who was standing in the middle watching all this, immediately waved his hand and slowly led everyone out.

Eating the food on the table, the crossbow man felt that this was the best meal he had ever eaten in his life, he thought about it in his heart, thought about it, and found that today was his tenth birthday, and the two fathers and mothers who had accompanied him for nine birthdays were going to leave him alone. He felt a few drops of hot stuff slip into his mouth from the corners of his eyes, and a bitterness rose from his heart.

After eating, the crossbowman put away the lost emotions on his face, walked out of the door, and saw that several senior brothers were still waiting quietly at the door, he was a little grateful, and he smiled and saluted to thank all the senior brothers.

The brothers nodded in agreement.

"Little junior brother, don't blame the master, in fact, he... Alas. ”

The fifth senior brother wants to say more, in fact, the master cares about you very much, it is he who tells us to take care of you day and night, and it is he who has stood at the door of your room countless times and watched anxiously... It's just that he won't let us divulge it.

The crossbow man nodded, and then remembered that the master had also explained the task that day, and said goodbye to several senior brothers, and walked towards Mengran Peak with firm steps.

The senior brothers behind him felt as if their little junior brothers had changed at the moment, and they had grown up a lot. Everyone is secretly affirming or cheering him up in their hearts.

...

The crossbow man relied on his intuition for an hour to finally find the overpass next to a big rock, he stepped on the overpass, his heart was no longer afraid of the abyss beside him, after crossing the overpass, the stone monument was still standing there, he looked at the huge cloud and mist, without the slightest hesitation, his hands brushed aside the corner of the cloud, and stepped up to the first step of the first level of the flying ladder.

Standing on the steps of the ladder, he was constantly pushed backwards by bursts of pressure in front of him, he gritted his teeth, and took the second step, followed by the second step, the third step...

When he reached the tenth step, his resolute little face was already bruised, but he did not take half a step back, he stood on the tenth step, feeling the pressure around him tearing his torso, and after half an hour, he could not help but roll down the steps.

He got up from the stele, wiped the blood that spilled from the corner of his mouth, and staggered across the bridge back to the Taoist temple.

Several senior brothers looked at the little junior brother who had just regained his anger and appeared in front of him with a pale face at this moment, a little surprised, thinking that he didn't fight so hard at the beginning, and they all persuaded him to take his time and not be too strong.

The crossbow man was unmoved, and could only force a smile to express his gratitude to the senior brothers.

Then the second day, the third day, the fourth day...

He tirelessly climbed the ladder except for eating and sleeping, and every day he would take a few or dozens more steps than the day before, and stay in that position for a long time until he was fully accustomed to it.

After that, the little junior brother in the eyes of the senior brothers would come back with injuries every day, whether serious or light, sometimes even breaking a few ribs, breaking hands and feet, but he could drag the pain back.

He insisted on it secretly, no matter how much pain he suffered, he could always squeeze out a smile in front of his brothers.

The senior brothers also went from being shocked at the beginning, and after deliberately following the past and watching it a few times, they became accustomed to it...