With the method in hand, the three of them began climbing upward inch by inch. Ten hours passed. Ray Chu, who had started later, gradually overtook Caesar and took the lead.
Though I hate to admit it, Caesar thought, Ray, that Chinese man… has the greatest talent I've ever seen. I suppose that's fitting for someone from that mysterious ancient nation.
As a romantic Italian, Caesar possessed a sensitive and delicate inner world.
Here, every moment was a struggle—an effort to defy gravity itself. In such a place, it was easy to lose all sense of time passing.
At some point, the three of them drew closer and closer to the top. But the angle of the pillar grew steeper the higher they climbed, increasing the difficulty once again. Still, having grown accustomed to using Hamon, they continued forward step by step, even if their pace slowed.
Suddenly, just as the utterly exhausted Caesar was about to lean against the pillar to rest, his gaze sharpened.
In a recessed groove above them, something seemed to be stirring.
Recalling a certain rumor, Caesar immediately shouted, "Watch out! Something's about to spray out!"
The next second, an overwhelming surge of pressurized oil blasted from the recess at terrifying speed, forming a wall of liquid that completely blocked their path.
"W-What?!"
"Why does the Hell Climb Pillar have something this deadly?!"
Caesar pulled a fountain pen from his pocket and tossed it upward. The pen was instantly sliced clean in half, the cut smooth and razor-sharp. That seemingly thin curtain of oil was actually as lethal as a blade—and judging by the force of the spray, it wasn't stopping anytime soon.
"Damn it! Why now, when we were so close to succeeding?!"
Joseph slammed a hand against the pillar and glared up at Lisa Lisa.
"Hey! Was this your doing?!"
Lisa Lisa didn't answer. She merely glanced down at JoJo with utter indifference. The coldness in her eyes made his heart skip.
Then she turned and walked away.
"Hey, hey! Don't leave! Please turn this thing off!"
"Did Lisa Lisa really set this up?" Caesar muttered, sweat pouring down his forehead. "She really thinks highly of us."
He clenched his teeth.
"I do have a possible way through… but honestly, I'm not confident I can break through that liquid blade wall. This is truly dangerous."
Caesar knew Lisa Lisa well. Beneath her cold demeanor, she was kind-hearted. If they truly failed the Hell Climb Pillar trial, she would never simply watch them die.
But that would also mean they had lost the right to challenge the Pillar Men.
Yet if he attempted to break through the pressurized oil wall and made even the slightest mistake, not even Lisa Lisa could save him in time. At best, he would end up crippled for life.
"I see now, Lisa Lisa…"
A sudden realization struck Caesar.
"'Better to die here, unknown to anyone, than be slaughtered and devoured like pigs before the Pillar Men.' Is that the lesson you're trying to teach us?"
Only now did the true trial begin.
"But if it were him… what would he do?"
Caesar couldn't help but glance toward Ray Chu—the man who, though only a beginner in Hamon, possessed "perfect attributes" and repeatedly created miracles.
The next second, Caesar's eyes went blank.
What… was he seeing?
Ray Chu, who had been climbing ahead, suddenly released both hands and allowed his body to fall backward.
An astonishing sight unfolded.
Both of his feet stuck firmly to the pillar, holding his entire body in place while he hung at a perfect ninety-degree angle from the surface.
"He's releasing Hamon through his feet to support himself!"
For humans, hands were the most natural tools. Using feet this way required far greater control—especially while maintaining a full right-angle posture.
"Oh! He's going for it!"
Joseph and Caesar watched in complete fascination.
Ray Chu moved beneath the oil curtain. After a brief moment of thought, he suddenly pressed both palms against the surface of the pressurized oil wall.
Then something incredible happened.
Where his palms touched, the oil began to part, forming a widening hollow—large enough for a person to pass through.
"The oil's being pushed aside!"
With a light leap, he passed cleanly through the high-pressure spray that had completely halted the others.
But he wasn't done yet.
As if deciding that simply clearing the obstacle wasn't stylish enough, Ray Chu kept his body at that ninety-degree angle. His right hand rested over his abdomen, his left hand behind his head, his body leaning slightly back.
He cast Joseph a sidelong, disdainful glance that seemed to say:
Weakling. You could never pull off a pose like this.
With the final step, Ray Chu casually placed his foot atop the tower.
"OOOOOOOOOOH!!!"
At that moment, Joseph felt both his intelligence and his dignity had been thoroughly provoked.
Explosive power surged through his body.
His hands and feet moved like unleashed hounds as he raced upward along the pillar. In only a few breaths, he reached the base of the pressurized oil curtain—and leapt straight up.
"You idiot! You'll die like that!" Caesar shouted in terror, squeezing his eyes shut.
But the expected spray of blood never came.
There was no body falling in two halves.
No crimson rain.
Caesar hurriedly looked around. "Where is he?! That guy!"
"I'm over here…"
A weak voice came from the opposite wall.
Joseph had somehow leapt onto the facing wall of the shaft. And from the height where he clung now, he had already bypassed the pressurized oil curtain entirely. Only a short distance remained between him and the top.
"How did you even do that?!" Caesar stared in disbelief.
"Such tenacity," Lisa Lisa remarked.
For the first time, a faint smile appeared on her usually expressionless face.
"He used an explosive burst of strength to slide out from beneath the oil curtain—like someone using a zipline stretched between two mountains. At the moment he was about to drop, he borrowed the momentum to leap upward."
"Not only did he pass the most dangerous obstacle, he also shortened the remaining distance by two meters. So far, he's the first person to climb it using that method."
Lisa Lisa didn't bother lowering her voice, so Caesar heard everything.
"I see…" Caesar murmured. "Turning the obstacle itself into a boost to clear it. As expected of you, JoJo."
He inhaled deeply.
"Now it's my turn."
Caesar launched himself toward the pressurized oil curtain.
His approach differed from the other two.
If Ray Chu's method was piercing through, and JoJo's was borrowing momentum, then Caesar's was fusion.
He sent an opposing Hamon through his body, completely neutralizing the impact of the oil pressure. Like a fish swimming upstream against a violent current, he carefully passed through the wall of death.
...
"I made it!"
An hour later, after Ray Chu, Caesar successfully reached the summit as well.
"Where's JoJo?" Caesar looked around. "Did he fall?"
Joseph should have been faster than him.
"Hel—help…! I'm out of strength! I'm… going to fall!"
A faint voice came from nearby.
Joseph was clinging to the wall not far away, sweat pouring down his face. The final meter remained—but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't climb it.
Meanwhile, Lisa Lisa and Ray Chu had somehow set up lounge chairs and juice on the platform above him. The two of them lay back side by side, resting leisurely.
Neither showed the slightest intention of helping.
---
T/N: of course! china is an ancient nation! its super mysterious and blah blah blah blah blah
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