By now, all participants had climbed to their respective current limits of understanding, and what came next was a competition of progress.
"This miniature Primordial Star is truly miraculous."
"With the influence of external Dao essences eliminated, my rate of comprehension is dozens of times faster than before." More and more geniuses noticed this, growing excited and delighted.
"I'm currently ranked in the two hundreds, I won't aim for the top hundred, but I must at least maintain my position and strive to enter the second trial directly," some geniuses thought.
"I'm ranked in the four hundreds, I must work hard! Perhaps I can reach rank three hundred and twenty."
Each participant could clearly see where everyone else ranked on the Primordial Steps stairway, as well as their own.
Those who ranked high hoped to climb even higher, while some who nearly met the cut-off were eager to break into the top 320.
Meanwhile, the large group of geniuses from the Immortal Court was in a panic.
"We must break into the top 320 on the Primordial Steps, or else we're finished."
"Haven't you seen Zhu Shan? He's ranked over two thousand, destined to enter the battle royale stage."
"When the time comes, he'll definitely hunt down us Immortal Court geniuses. Who can stop him?"
"Hmph! How despicable!" Many Immortal Court geniuses realized this and grew flustered.
Indeed! In a normal battle royale, those with greater strength would have better chances of surviving till the end. However, the Eldritch Court had Zhu Shan, who despite being the strongest, had extremely poor comprehension of the Primordial Doctrine, which was completely illogical.
But regardless, this was the current situation. This also meant Zhu Shan would become a nightmare for many Immortal Court geniuses, and all they could do was struggle desperately to enter the top 320, doing their utmost to avoid direct confrontation with Zhu Shan.
The first Primal Force Diagram is already this difficult? Wu Yuan simultaneously observed the miniature Primordial Star while analyzing the Primal Force Diagram. The two complemented each other.
The Three Thousand Foundation Diagrams were the core. In essence, the Five Thousand Primal Force Diagrams were the continuous reorganization of the Three Thousand Foundation Diagrams, reaching a higher degree of perfection. But this reorganization wasn't a simple merging, but rather the addition of a dimension.
If the Three Thousand Foundation Diagrams are one-dimensional, then the Five Thousand Primal Force Diagrams are two-dimensional, and the final Nine Thousand Primordial Diagrams must be three-dimensional. Wu Yuan thought to himself.
Because of this, the difficulty of the Five Thousand Primal Force Diagrams exceeded Wu Yuan's imagination. Even with his unbelievable talent in the path of matter and perfect understanding of the Three Thousand Foundation Diagrams, his comprehension speed remained incredibly slow.
I need to change my perspective, I can't be limited by the Three Thousand Foundation Diagrams. Wu Yuan realized this. However, realizing something and being able to achieve it were two different matters.
As time passed, Wu Yuan's body refiner self attempted to decode the underlying logic and principles of the Primal Force Diagrams. Progress was extremely slow, but his mind remained perfectly calm, his spirit having been tempered to extraordinary strength through tens of thousands of years of cultivation.
While Wu Yuan's body refiner self hit a bottleneck, other geniuses such as Ming Jian, Inconstance, Li Guang, You Feng and others, were all making rapid progress, approaching the 3000th step.
However, the most dazzling among them remained Lie Jin. Within the special environment of the Primordial Steps, he reached the 3000th step after just twelve years of cultivation, reaching the same height as Wu Yuan.
"Lie Jin has broken through."
"He has also reached the 3000th step, comprehending the Three Thousand Foundation Diagrams and reaching a higher level."
"What about Wu Yuan? Why hasn't he moved at all?"
"He must be trapped in a cultivation bottleneck."
All participants couldn't help but look up toward the higher steps. For over ten years, Wu Yuan had been stuck at the 3000th step. He hadn't moved at all.
Lie Jin? Quite fast indeed. Wu Yuan sensed Lie Jin catching up to him, turning to glance at him with a slight smile.
It should be noted that Wu Yuan's qi refiner self had just broken through to the 2400th step, temporarily ranking fourth. You Feng, ranked third, was still slightly short of the 2500th step.
It could be said that Wu Yuan and Lie Jin's lead on the Primordial Steps was like a cliff edge, with no one else even close to catching up.
As for those who had broken through to the 2000th step? Besides the original six, only High Immortal Bai Lian from the Eldritch Court had joined them.
"Wu Yuan." Lie Jin smiled and nodded at Wu Yuan from afar in greeting.
Afterwards, Lie Jin began comprehending the Primal Force Diagram, but this attempt left him somewhat shocked. It was too difficult! He could barely find a starting point.
The difficulty of comprehension is dozens of times higher; it's as if we went from deducing Greater Laws to comprehending Great Daos. High Immortal Lie Jin was inwardly alarmed.
He began to understand why Wu Yuan hadn't moved in over ten years. It wasn't that Wu Yuan didn't want to take the next step, but that the Primal Force Diagrams were truly difficult to comprehend.
No need to rush, we're already tied for first place. Take it step by step. High Immortal Lie Jin calmed his mind and also began comprehending quietly.
Several decades passed in silence as the geniuses remained quietly immersed in comprehension on the Primordial Steps stairway.
Finally, I've decoded some of the logic behind the rules governing the Primal Force Diagram, the deep profundities of the natural order of matter. Wu Yuan finally found some clues.
It was indeed too difficult. Even with his talent, he barely crossed the introductory threshold of the Primal Force Diagrams after several decades.
Next is to slowly decode the first diagram until completely comprehended. Wu Yuan thought to himself. The first step is always the hardest. Once I can fully comprehend the first Primal Force Diagram, the following ones will be much easier.
Wu Yuan didn't know how long it would take, but at least he had found some clues, and given enough time, he would eventually comprehend the first Primal Force Diagram completely. By now, Wu Yuan had abandoned the thought of reaching the peak of the stairway. It was simply an impossible task.
"Both Lie Jin and Wu Yuan are stuck.”
“This is our opportunity."
"Give it everything to close the gap." The thousands of geniuses from various Saintdoms across the megaverse were all striving with all their might.
Among them, the strongest aspired to obtain a Saintcrest, while those slightly weaker aimed to maximize their gains from the Heavenly Domain stage. They sought to strengthen themselves so that even after leaving the Megaverse Crossroads, their future accomplishments would reach greater heights.
In the blink of an eye, over three hundred years had passed. Time always seemed to fly by for powerhouses.
However, after three hundred years, the positions and rankings of the participants had changed significantly.
Wu Yuan and Lie Jin remained motionless, as if time had frozen around them, both trapped at the 3000th step.
"The Primal Force Diagrams must be incredibly difficult to comprehend."
"The challenge of mastering the Primal Force Diagrams and the Foundation Diagrams must be on entirely different scales." Many geniuses who had initially believed Wu Yuan was merely stuck at a bottleneck now fell silent.
If it were just one person, perhaps he had indeed hit a bottleneck. But two? And both were trapped for hundreds of years? This proved that it was no mere bottleneck - it could only mean that comprehending the Primal Force Diagrams was extraordinarily difficult. Even peerless geniuses like Wu Yuan and Lie Jin struggled.
Whoosh! A faint ripple spread out, immediately drawing the attention of many geniuses.
"Another person has reached the 3000th step?"
"He's caught up and actually surpassed You Feng? You Feng is still more than ten steps away from the 3000th step."
"Ming Jian has taken third place!" Many geniuses turned to look at the white-robed figure.
Over the past hundreds of years, Ming Jian's progress accelerated steadily, constantly closing the gap with You Feng, and now he had finally surpassed him.
Whoosh! Ming Jian's figure gradually blurred, having crossed into a higher realm.
The 3000th step was a major threshold. Breaking through it meant undergoing a qualitative change.
Ming Jian? You Feng, dressed in black robes, furrowed his brows, his eyes flickering. Faster than me? Initially, he had maintained a lead over Ming Jian, but now, Ming Jian had surpassed him.
Over the hundreds of years, many trailing geniuses had overtaken those ahead of them too.
For instance, Inconstance and Li Guang had both reached the 2800th step. More than fifty geniuses had surpassed the 2400th step. Over two hundred participants had exceeded the 2000th step.
It was foreseeable that as time passed, more and more geniuses would overcome their bottlenecks and reach the 3000th step under the special cultivation environment of the Primordial Steps stairway. As long as one had sufficient power and aptitude, the Three Thousand Foundation Diagrams could be gradually comprehended.
Excellent! Zhuo Haiyue, Bai Yi, High Immortal Dong Yang, and others broke into smiles.
While other geniuses might not know their relationship with each other, they all belonged to the Taiyuan Divine Court faction.
The Taiyuan Divine Court had eight Overlords and tens of thousands of Sovereigns in their ranks, wielding considerable power and prestige in the Ling Jiang Universe.
However, among the hundreds of Saintdoms across the endless megaverse, the Taiyuan Divine Court was quite unremarkable. Of course, the Taiyuan Divine Court was still considered fortunate - some less lucky Saintdoms didn’t have any geniuses who made it to the Heavenly Domain stage.