Tianling then clapped his hands again, a crisp, echoing sound reverberated across the empty space.
The towering mountain, which had previously loomed high into the golden heavens, began to tremble and shrink.
Stone cracked and compressed, its enormous height folding in on itself like a collapsing tower.
Within moments, the once sky-piercing mountain was reduced to a structure roughly the size of a monumental palace — still grand, but now scaled for mortals to approach.
From its base, 108 shimmering steps unfolded, each one glowing faintly with spiritual energy, like stars forming a path toward the heavens. At the summit, a flat golden platform awaited, swirling with divine mist.
Tianling hovered just above the newly formed staircase, hands behind his back and that ever-smug smile painted across his face.
"I'll be waiting at the top. Come quickly, you have only one hour," he said lazily.
Then, as abruptly as he had appeared, he vanished into thin air.
