Reborn as a Mountain: I Defy the Heavens with a Smile

"Brother Ye Chen, look! Sister Li Mei and others are facing trouble!" Lin Xian'er shouted suddenly.

Ye Chen, of course, didn't need her reminder, as he was keeping an eye on them and knew they were not having it easy.

The trial of insight, after all, required a high ability of comprehension and realization, which just couldn't be forced. Furthermore, to clear the trial smoothly, they would need to gain enlightenment, which was another trouble.

"Little girl, how about I help them? But the premise is you have to become my disciple," the old man Yang Wuji didn't give up on becoming her master and suggested.

Hearing his words, Lin Xian'er couldn't help but consider whether there were female disciples from the Wu family and her senior sister Liu Jiarong who might need help; however, before she could even say anything, Ye Chen shook his head.

"There is no need," he stated calmly.

Listening to his words, Lin Xian'er became stunned nevertheless when she recalled how he had helped her and others at the start of the trial; she thought he might have a way.

The old man still didn't know about Ye Chen helping others, so he frowned a little, wondering what he was up to. However, he was pretty confident that nothing would work, as insights needed to be experienced and realized on their own.

"Ah! Sister Wang Yiyi failed!" Lin Xian'er shouted anxiously as she saw Wang Yiyi getting pushed back to the previous step.

She couldn't help but look at Ye Chen; however, his expression was calm as water and no one knew what he was thinking.

"Little girl, just say a word and everyone who you want will pass the trial," the old man suggested once again.

However, the little girl would rather believe in Ye Chen's lies than the truth from a powerful old man so once again the old man's offer got rejected.

Nonetheless, the old man remained confident and even said he was willing to sign a soul contract to prove all he wanted was for her to be his disciple.

But no matter what, the little girl's thought remained unchanged.

Unless Ye Chen said yes, she would never agree.

…

Just as the old man was pestering Lin Xian'er, Wang Yiyi was a little discouraged at her failure.

Although she could try once again, she understood the chances of her reaching the top were quite low if she continued to fail again and again.

Nevertheless, she did not become anxious and adjusted her mental state before once again trying to realize the small part of insight she missed.

The time of trial, after all, forged her patience, persistence, and will. So there was no way a small failure or difficulty would affect her.

Not only her but Li Mei and everyone else who had successfully cleared the time of trial were the same.

But could they really keep calm if they failed again and again? It was still something they had to figure out on their own.

Swoosh!

After Wang Yiyi, now Lan Ming is faced with failure. However, she displayed no discouragement, as she accepted this would happen and she just had to try it again.

…

"Is that trial really hard? They both failed once."

"Didn't you notice Ye Chen also having a hard time at the start? Maybe the difficulty is higher at first."

The disciples below speculated as they saw Wang Yiyi and Lan Ming failing once.

However, since no one had taken the trial, they did not know what it was, and their curiosity only increased.

"Look, it's Crown Prince Ji Feng! He is now in seventh place!"

Suddenly some pointed at a figure that was ascending rapidly.

"Hiss! Wasn't he even behind the fatty? That's really a talent."

"Yeah, but how dare he go ahead of Fairy Liu Jiarong! She is now in eighth place because of him!"

"Humph! If you have guts, then shout loudly rather than saying it in a low whisper."

"Hey, ignore him, and look who is at the ninth place!"

"Hmm, isn't that Xue Feng? When did he get there?"

"I don't know but I do know that the fatty is doing all he can to stay at tenth place."

"Oh, isn't he afraid of losing fat?"

The disciples below spoke, observing the top ten with some surprise and confusion.

"Look, the crown prince is also going to face the mysterious trial!"

At this moment Ji Feng cleared the trial of identity of purpose and climbed on the next step, facing the trial of insight.

"He is only a hundred steps behind Wang Yiyi. Do you think he can go ahead of her?"

"Let's wait and see. I think he can even get ahead of Lan Ming, who is just one hundred and fifty steps ahead of him."

…

As the disciples continued to speculate, the pressure on Wang Yiyi increased; however, all she could do was to calm herself and continue to climb further despite facing a few failures at some steps.

Like her, Lan Ming also failed a few more times and with each step, the chances of failure only increased, shaking her heart slightly. However, this was still not enough to stop her, so she persisted.

Compared to them Su Ying and Li Mei were having it a little easier because of their special physique increasing their comprehension ability. However, still they were barely managing not to fail; furthermore, they had only climbed up to three hundred steps of trial.

Which meant there were seven hundred more steps waiting for them, but things were already not looking so good.

It didn't take too long and both of them got stuck at different steps.

…

"Brother Ye Chen, do something!" Lin Xian'er saw this and exclaimed.

However, to her surprise, Ye Chen shook his head with a calm look.

"It's better for them to fail and persist; only this way can they clear the next trials," he replied.

"B-but…" Lin Xian'er was hesitant and wanted to say something but before she could, Ye Chen continued.

"It's been only a few hours since the opening of trial so there is no need to be in a hurry, not to mention they can challenge as much as they want," he stated.

Hearing this, Lin Xian'er nodded unwillingly, while the old man gave an acknowledging look at Ye Chen.

There was a lot of time for the trial to end so there was no need to hurry. Of course this might cause some problems in the mental state, especially after failing again and again; however, it was not too hard to overcome this. Moreover, this was also for the better, as they could find where they lacked.

Just like this, the trial below continued as it was. There was not so much of a surprise as Li Mei and Su Ying both failed simultaneously.

Li Mei felt a little dispirited; nevertheless, she didn't hesitate and climbed once again to realize the part of insight she missed.

Meanwhile, Su Ying was disappointed as her special physique reached the limit; nevertheless, she didn't feel discouraged and climbed the next step.

…

"Even Li Mei and Su Ying failed!"

"Just what kind of trial is that?"

"I wonder how Ye Chen and Lin Xian'er managed to clear it."

"Let's forget about Ye Chen. Does anyone know why Lin Xian'er can clear the trial so suddenly? Don't you think it is suspicious?"

"Yeah, but what can we do? Don't tell me you want to make an enemy of the Wu family."

"No way! I don't want to die; it's just I am puzzled."

The disciples speculated while Li Mei and others continued to ascend further, albeit facing a lot of failures, which ate up a lot of time.

Soon an hour passed, and they all had just managed to climb a little more than fifty steps.

"Hiss, just what is that trial? Even Crown Prince Ji Feng is stuck! I don't think he can get ahead of Wang Yiyi like this."

"Yeah, but why do I feel like Crown Prince Ji Feng is staying behind on purpose?"

"Maybe there is something he figured out."

As the disciples conserved Liu Jiarong, Xue Feng, Fatty Li Zhenyuan, and even a few others faced the trial of insight.

At first, they made great progress, climbing fifty steps without much trouble or time; however, once they got ahead of it, things changed, and many of them started to fail.

However, everyone had passed the trial of time, so they were extremely patient.

But as the time passed slowly yet surely, many of them started to feel clearing this trial was impossible. Even Wang Yiyi and Lan Ming felt the same.

The reason? The exhaustion of mental state. The comprehension was, after all, related to memorizing and understanding things logically. It would be really heaven-defying if they didn't get exhausted after trying and failing for so long.

However, there was no place to recover or take a rest. They can give up now and come later but that would mean giving up on the process of insights they had experienced.

If it was a full insight, there wouldn't be a problem, but what they had gained was only part of it and mixed into their heads, which was hard to remember.

So, all of them were slowly nearing the end, where they might lose patience.

"Brother Ye Chen, are we still not doing anything?" Lin Xian'er inquired anxiously.

"Heh, why are you so anxious? If I wished it, then no one can fail," Ye Chen chuckled without any worry and flicked his sleeve.