Chapter 2347 — Chapter 2347 Imposter

"Calm down, Rouxi!" Yuan shouted in a somewhat panicked voice as her overwhelming pressure descended on him like a mountain collapsing from above.

"I never gave you permission to use my name, you damn imposter!" Sun Rouxi snapped, her aura growing more violent and powerful.

'Seriously, what the hell is going on?!' Yuan cried inwardly, completely bewildered and puzzled by the situation.

'Is this part of the trial?' he couldn't think of another reason why Sun Rouxi was acting like this.

"I will give you one last chance! Identify yourself! And tell me what you did to Tian Yang!" Sun Rouxi shouted as she retrieved her golden wheel, her entire being seeping with immense killing intent.

"..."

After a moment of silence, Yuan replied, "My name is Yuan. I may not be the Tian Yang you know, but I am definitely Tian Yang."

"What bullshit is that?!" she sneered, refusing to believe him.

This left him perplexed, as he couldn't think of any other explanation that wouldn't sound even more crazy.

Eventually, Yuan sighed and asked, "How can you tell that I am not Tian Yang?"

"Your soul," she calmly replied.

"I have never told anyone, but I had developed a technique that allows me to see another's soul, and your soul is completely different from Tian Yang. No… It's actually similar, but it's too old to be Tian Yang."

"My soul, huh?" Yuan muttered.

"Then can you tell how old my soul is?" he then asked.

"I cannot, but I tell that it's old. In fact, it's much older than anything I have seen before. Just how old are you?"

"If we're only talking about the age of my soul, which has experienced several reincarnations and multiple different eras… at least a few hundred million, I guess."

"Several hundred million years old?! There's no way! I doubt this world is even that old!" she exclaimed.

Yuan shrugged, "I don't know what else to tell you."

"..."

Sun Rouxi was speechless, but she eventually asked, "What happened to Tian Yang? Is he still alive?"

"Well…"

Yuan wasn't sure how to explain further.

"Actually—"

Right as he opened his mouth, the entire building shook violently.

"What the…? An earthquake?" Sun Rouxi looked around. "No, that shouldn't be possible. The entire continent is protected by formations that prevent these sorts of disturbances!"

Yuan spread his divine sense, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

A few seconds later, the building… No, the entire world trembled again.

'Is this caused by an Eternal?' Yuan wondered inwardly.

The shaking did not stop. In fact, it grew more frequent and violent.

Yuan turned to look at Sun Rouxi and said, "Let's postpone this conversation for later. Right now, we need to—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Yuan's vision blurred, and he found himself in a familiar place.

"What the…?"

He was suddenly back inside the Stairway to Heaven.

"Tian'er, what is going on?" he asked out loud.

In the next moment, Tian'er emerged from the void with a troubled face.

"I apologize for interrupting your trial, Master, but we have a situation," she said. "Some troublemakers are attacking the Stairway to Heaven," she proceeded to explain.

"What?" Yuan raised an eyebrow.

"Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be a cause for concern," she said. "But this situation is different. We're being attacked by multiple individuals simultaneously, across several realms. Moreover, these people are wielding a power that is similar to Eternal Essence."

Although it was forbidden to attack the Stairway to Heaven, this wasn't the first time someone had attempted to force their way inside. Of course, none had ever come close to succeeding.

"At this rate, they might actually be able to force their way in," Tian'er said, worry etched across her face as she bit her nails.

"Is there anything I can do?" Yuan asked.

Tian'er shook her head and said, "I'll do something about it. Unfortunately, this means you'll be unable to continue the trial, and you'll have to return later."

"That's fine."

"Then I'll send you to 'that' place right now."

"Alright. Stay safe."

Tian'er snapped her fingers, creating a portal before Yuan.

Yuan had a lot of questions for Tian'er, but with how urgent she seemed, he decided to save them for next time.

"Don't forget about me!" Kulas' voice resounded as his soul appeared beside Yuan.

The next moment, Yuan stepped into the portal, disappearing from the Stairway to Heaven.

Once Kulas also entered the portal, Tian'er immediately activated the Stairway to Heaven's defensive features, something that had never been utilized until this moment.

Meanwhile, outside the Stairway to Heaven, the troublemakers across different realms were taken by surprise when the Stairway to Heaven suddenly vanished into thin air.

"What the? Where did it go?"

"Damn it! I was so close to cracking it open!"

With the Stairway to Heaven gone, the troublemakers did not linger and quickly left the scene.

The Stairway to Heaven's sudden disappearance was quickly noticed, and word spread like wildfire throughout the Nine Heavens, plunging all nine realms into chaos.

"What?! The Stairway to Heaven vanished?! That's impossible!"

"It's true! I saw it with my own eyes—it was gone! And at the location where the Stairway once stood… There were corpses everywhere!"

"If the Stairway to Heaven is gone, how will people traverse between worlds now?"

"It'll likely be impossible for the majority of people, and only those who can traverse the starry sky will be able to move between realms."

"I heard from a friend that he witnessed from afar someone attacking the Stairway to Heaven right before it disappeared!"

"That must be why it disappeared! What kind of lunatic would attack the Stairway to Heaven—and for what reason?! It's like burning the only bridge across a raging river!"

"My only concern right now is whether the Stairway to Heaven will return…"

In just a few days, news of the Stairway to Heaven's disappearance reached almost every single ear in the Nine Heavens.

Of course, this included the Celestial Emperor, who was just as baffled as everyone.