Chapter 163 -163-The Brightest Star
Watching Daniel surpass the two ahead, the three supreme-grade warriors at the foot of the mountain were shocked.
"Am I seeing things? That kid actually overtook Harris?"
"Impossible... he even left Jonas behind!"
"My heavens... what is he? He’s already climbed nearly two-thirds of the way up!"
"From the looks of it, there’s no way the three of us can catch him."
The three supreme-grade warriors exchanged glances, a deep sense of helplessness flashing in their eyes.
Even reaching Jonas’s position was impossible for them, let alone catching Faustus.
It was a fool’s dream.
"Heh, isn’t that Jonas?"
"Weren’t you dominating the mid-grade battlefield? Then why don’t you go chase Faustus!"
Kiroli mocked with a sharp remark.
Jonas cast a glance at the foot of the mountain, his expression grim.
"If you provoke me, none of you will return alive."
Then he turned his gaze back toward Daniel—and unexpectedly smiled.
"Harris has no hope of reaching the summit. Faustus, huh?"
"Then let’s see if you can work a miracle and reach Cloudcrest Peak!"
"Even if I can’t summit myself in this life, witnessing a prodigy reach the peak is an honor."
In that instant, his obsession with reaching the summit dissipated considerably.
Instead of worrying whether Daniel could make it, he found himself filled with anticipation.
After all, for over a thousand years, no prodigy had set foot on that supreme-grade peak.
If Faustus succeeded, he would be the number one of his generation!
...
Daniel’s steps grew heavier and heavier, climbing as slowly as an old man in twilight.
At this moment, he was still tens of thousands of meters from the summit, untouched for a millennium.
Yet he did not stop.
Thirty-nine thousand meters... thirty-one thousand... twenty thousand!
He exhaled deeply and glanced back.
Harris was still trailing behind, struggling. The prodigy of the Starlight Folk had begun burning Immortal Singularity, using his divinity as fuel to power each agonizing step.
Yet his pace was painfully slow, each step consuming vast amounts of Immortal Singularity.
At this rate, once his divinity ran out, he would come to a halt.
Daniel shook his head, withdrew his gaze, and pressed forward.
The last twenty thousand meters proved far more arduous than the previous three hundred thousand.
It was as if he were dragged into an invisible swamp, every limb gripped tightly by an unseen force.
Each step forward consumed a hundred times the usual effort.
Seventeen thousand... fifteen thousand... thirteen thousand!
Stomp!
Crack!
He gritted his teeth as his bones groaned under the immense pressure.
With each step, his skeleton felt as though it were breaking and reforging over and over.
"No wonder this peak has remained unconquered for a thousand years..."
He muttered to himself, then his gaze sharpened.
"Immortal Singularity!"
Without hesitation, Daniel ignited his Immortal Singularity.
In an instant, the invisible shackles binding him shattered, and the mountain-like Strength suppressing him dissipated.
He felt as light as a swallow.
It worked!
Step, step, step!
His pace quickened, racing toward the summit.
...
Halfway up, the three supreme-grade warriors watched Daniel’s agile ascent, their eyes wide with astonishment.
"If Faustus can maintain this momentum, he will reach the summit," the Shadowkin warrior said gravely.
"But he doesn’t have that much Immortal Singularity to waste. Historically, all summit conquerors only ignited it in the final ten thousand meters to surge to the top."
"Don’t treat Faustus as an ordinary prodigy."
The human warrior shook his head.
"Indeed. First he used Divine Protection, then frantically burned Immortal Singularity to accelerate. Even we supreme-grade warriors can’t match the extent to which he’s using it."
"Tsk tsk... what we call extravagance may be just a trifle to Faustus."
"True. I’ve never seen such a transcendent being before."
"Let’s just watch and see if he can make it to the top."
...
Ten thousand meters behind Daniel.
Harris was still burning Immortal Singularity, but the flames had dulled, flickering like a dying candle in the wind.
He watched Daniel’s figure, his expression increasingly complex.
The Starlight Folk possessed the fastest Immortal Singularity refinement speed in the entire galaxy, and could store far more than any other race.
Yet now, he doubted his own racial advantage.
Were the Starlight Folk really the strongest race in the universe?
If so, how could he explain this human?
He wasn’t even legendary-grade, yet he wielded Immortal Singularity with flawless mastery, enduring for so long...
All of this was happening right before his eyes.
Harris felt his worldview collapsing.
"With Faustus’ momentum, if he can maintain it... maybe he really can reach the summit!"
Confronted with this fact, his heart was filled with frustration.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him.
Perhaps Faustus was so unimpeded precisely because he had not yet stepped into legendary-grade—the suppression was smaller, so his progress was smoother.
"Sigh... the stronger one is, the heavier the obstacles."
"No wonder most historical summit conquerors were legendary-grade low-grade, or even epic-grade or Exalted-grade prodigies."
"I can’t summit... because I’m too strong?"
Harris was proud, but now his pride was crushed.
In any era, usually only one prodigy could reach the summit. Some eras had none.
Harris was born in this era. He had believed with absolute certainty that he would be the one to ascend.
That belief was ingrained in his bones.
But now, his belief was shattered.
Another prodigy existed in this era, one above him.
A mysterious human—Faustus.
Harris lifted his gaze.
The distance between him and Faustus had grown even greater.
"Sigh..."
He let out a bitter sigh.
...
Fifteen thousand meters behind Daniel.
Jonas had long since stopped.
The one known among supreme-grade warriors as "the strongest" had finally relinquished his long-held obsession.
Before encountering Faustus, summiting Cloudcrest Peak had been his undying desire.
From weakling to mighty, from epic-grade to the pinnacle of supreme-grade, he had exhausted every method to reach that mountain.
Why such obsession?
Because his era was a broken one. No one in his generation had conquered Cloudcrest Peak.
It was a monumental humiliation.
A ridicule of an entire generation of young prodigies.
He knew that no matter how his generation would later dominate the galaxy, they could never erase the mark of being the "weakest generation."
Thus, he wanted to obliterate that mark.
For a thousand years, he had climbed again and again, with a life consumed by battle and ascent.
Yet even then, he never succeeded.
The mountain had always been there, yet he could never reach the summit.
The feeling was more suffocating than death itself.
Yet, after meeting Daniel, he felt a sense of release.
"When an era abandons you, it doesn’t even say goodbye."
He exhaled deeply.
Their era was over, like a dream that would never return.
Life was full of regrets, just like his undying obsession with the summit.
"Faustus, show me the glory of your generation."
He watched the figure ascending ever closer to the peak and whispered:
"Climb... reach the summit...
Proclaim to the galaxy that you are the brightest star among the stars!"