"What's going on?" More and more people gathered around the Prince of the Louro Empire.

His ranking on the Tianjiao List could reach over two hundred, at the very least this indicated his strength wasn't weak, such a person could easily be selected by a superpower, but now he couldn't even pass the first hurdle, there had to be something else going on.

Although the Prince of Louro Empire looked a bit disheveled, he wasn't injured. In such situations, everyone was united in finding a solution, there was no need at this time to cover up and engage in scheming and backstabbing.

"There's something wrong with that floating island," said the Prince of Louro Empire, "when I flew up just now, the first half was almost unobstructed, but halfway through, an invisible pressure suddenly appeared. The higher I flew, the harder it became to make progress, and the pressure grew greater, I couldn't make any progress the last third of the way up!"

"Is there such a thing?"

"This prince is a master in the Tianjiao List, someone of his caliber should be able to easily ascend this floating island, right?"

"Exactly, if even someone ranked over two hundred on the Tianjiao List can't make it, how are we mere spectators supposed to manage?"

"Let me give it a try!"

Another young man, unconvinced, started his attempt. His rank on the list was similar to that of the Prince of Louro Empire. This time, everyone was watching him intently.

Sure enough, he didn't encounter any problems in the first half, his expression was relaxed, but when he reached an altitude of over twenty thousand meters, his expression visibly strained, as if there was an invisible barrier in front of him blocking his way.

The young man's expression gradually twisted from strain to grimace, even his entire body strained, but at nearly the same altitude as the previous person, he couldn't advance any further, and it seemed as if his body was repelled by another force, suddenly beginning to fall, as if pushed by a force rather than in freefall!

"He's right!" The young man said breathlessly, "And there's another thing, if you're completely blocked by that force while flying, and your speed drops to zero, a force from the floating island will strike you down directly."

"Flying doesn't work, I'll try something else!"

In the crowd, another young man began his attempt, and he actually took out a spaceship. Since conventional methods weren't working, he resorted to unconventional ones!

"This is certainly a meaningful attempt! Maybe people aren't meant to fly up in the first place!"

"Indeed, let's all watch with bated breath!"

...

[It won't work, it'll still fall!] Gou Dan's voice echoed in Zhang Menglong's ear, as if predicting the outcome directly.

The spaceship ascended with powerful thrust, but again, at an altitude of twenty thousand meters, its speed visibly slowed down, as if hitting a giant elastic net.

The spaceship began to slow down, its speed about to reach zero, according to the earlier challenger, once speed is lost, a force will strike it down.

"I don't believe it!" He directly set the power to the theoretical maximum.

The spaceship roared, its thrust suddenly increased several times, and it began to slowly ascend again.

"There's hope!" The crowd showed excitement, as long as the correct approach and method were found, reaching the floating island wasn't impossible.

Everyone believed that failing to go up wasn't due to lack of strength, but rather due to not finding the right method. If none of them could reach the floating island, why would the superpowers recruit disciples at all?

"Something's wrong again!"

The spaceship advanced only a few hundred meters further when its speed began to slow down again. Thick white smoke emerged from the engine, a clear sign of an engine overload!

"This model of spaceship isn't the latest, but its performance in power and load capacity is very strong, tested to withstand pressure equivalent to a full-strength blow from a Seventh Grade Divine Cultivator."

After several dozens of seconds of stalemate, the white smoke gradually turned to black smoke, and with a deafening explosion, the engine of the spaceship exploded due to overload.

Fortunately, the safety measures of this level of spaceship are well-secured, only the power cabin exploded, and the other parts remained relatively intact. The life support system was triggered upon landing, avoiding severe damage.

"This is just baffling!" A soot-covered young man cursed as he walked out of the cockpit, "If we can't make it, how on earth are we supposed to do it?"

People kept trying, but the sky was filled with nothing but falling people and echoed screams of pain on the ground, showing no sign of progress.

The Elders and disciples of the superpowers sitting on the floating island found it amusing to watch such a scene.

"Elder, should we give them a hint?" a Core Disciple from Yujian Villa suggested.

"No need," that Elder smiled, "these people are all geniuses in their own right, proud and arrogant. If they enter the Ancient Cave Heaven with such a mindset, they'd surely get into trouble. It's a good time to temper their brashness now lest they suffer later."

"Indeed, in fact, to ascend this floating island, it's simple enough - even a Dao Realm expert can't force their way up. But if you say it's difficult, even a three-year-old child could make it with the right method, it's all about when they uncover the mystery."

...

"What on earth is going on?" Long Sen and Lin Yuan also made an attempt, and their results, unsurprisingly, were no different from everyone else's. At an altitude of over twenty thousand meters, they too felt an immense pressure, even Lin Yuan's activation of his Black Dragon King bloodline power proved useless.

"Brother Gu, it's up to you now," the two of them chuckled bitterly, still having no clue.

"Let me give it a try!" Zhang Menglong performed the Sky Dancing Art and flew directly towards the floating island.

"It's Gu Tian...Gu Xiao!"

"Is he finally taking action?"

Everyone's gaze gathered on Zhang Menglong at this moment, currently ranked first on the Tianjiao List, recognized as the biggest dark horse of this era, bar none.

"No resistance..." Just like others described, Zhang Menglong only felt a slight resistance in the first half, but it was nearly negligible.

As he reached around twenty thousand meters, he abruptly felt a strong field around him, immediately slowing down his flight speed.

[The resistance hasn't increased, Dean, how about you increase your strength and try?]

"Alright." Zhang Menglong knew Gou Dan was analyzing the situation for him, he immediately accelerated, but as his power increased, so did the apparent resistance.

[I see, this area is a special field, its strength increases as the flyer accelerates, no matter how hard you try, going through it is not easy.]

"So what should I do?" Zhang Menglong decided to stop flying upwards and chose to simply land back on the ground.

Even Zhang Menglong failed, and the surrounding people immediately showed looks of disappointment, even a few boos were heard, they thought the Tianjiao List's number one would work some miracles.

It seemed he wasn't much better than the rest of them.

[To do this, there are only two methods: one is to break this field, but this is likely left by a Dao Realm expert, and destroying it is not that simple, so there's only the second method.]

"What method?" Zhang Menglong asked.

[Breaking the common laws of physics!]

"Huh?"

[Dean, did you forget about the martial arts where one foot steps on the other, and the other foot steps on the first, allowing you to ascend to the skies?]

"You mean..." Zhang Menglong's lips curled into a slight smile, "Wudang Sect's Ladder Cloud Ascension, right?"