Warrior's Path: Silver Fox & the Western Hero, Book 6 (Unabridged‪)‬

Ascension or death.

Alex gazed at the golden steps before him, pretending he was just another cultivator eager to attend Royal Phoenix Academy, and not the most wanted man in the entire province. His fellow aspirants mocked him with their smiles. They expected him to plummet to his death the moment they began their climb, washed away by the flood of spiritual energy pouring down those steps.

Alex had other ideas.

He would climb past the shoals of servitude and the training fields of bronze. He would stride past Silver’s grace and ascend all the way to the gold peaks of royalty, earning for himself privileges that only the true elites of the school could enjoy. After all the trials and tribulations he had suffered, a prize worthy of the most privileged cultivators was finally within his grasp. 

So, he would climb those golden steps just as far as they would take him, even if they led to the very heavens above.