CH 182

Chapter 182 – Only Equal?

TL: Sponsored chapter (1/3)

Just a short moment later, the eyes of the Bodhisattva image overlapping with Lu Wen’s body opened completely, revealing the deep blood-colored light within!

An incomparable terror consumed Xu Disheng’s body, but he lifted his gaze and met the eyes of the evil Bodhisattva, which were dripping with bloody tears. Where its eyes should have been, there were just frightening, empty voids!

It felt like his entire body was being constricted tightly, leaving him unable to move a single inch. The malevolent phantom image opened its mouth, which revealed a cavity containing a dark nothingness. From its mouth came an unprecedentedly powerful suction force that threatened to suck out and swallow Xu Disheng’s soul!

Xu Disheng had been cultivating the Soul Song’s Nourishing Soul Mantra since birth, so his soul was extremely solid, to the point that his Soul Force had materialized into the black flute. When his soul came under the suction power, his origin soul began to tremble slightly, and even the black flute began to shake.

The face of the revenant warped and twisted erratically for a moment. Its mouth grew even larger, emitting an even more concentrated and fearsome aura of void, of nothingness.

Suddenly, a hidden stream of gray divine light swept in front of Xu Disheng, cutting across heaven and earth. It wrapped up the revenant on Lu Wen’s body, then disappeared without a trace beyond the horizon.

Lu Wen, or rather, the plain-clothed youth, who was previously parasitized by the revenant, stood there with a stiff, blank expression. In the next moment, the mist wrapped him up, sending him out of the inner realm of the Luminous Cloud Abyss.

What the people watching the screens of light saw, however, was Xu Disheng and Lu Wen standing there facing one another for several breaths of time, and then Lu Wen being teleported out by the mist. It looked very much like Lu Wen had admitted defeat.

The gray divine light returned to Primordial Lord Yangze, his gaze somewhat cryptic.

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Although his revenant was weak and only at an infant stage, if it had been given a bit of time to hide, it could become an extremely terrifying being!

Primordial Spirit stage cultivators could sense and control the power of heaven and earth, and could use Higher Knowledge spells. A nascent revenant like this simply couldn’t escape the notice of a Primordial Lord.

If it hadn’t rashly entered the Shangqing Sacred Sect and just hid away somewhere until it had matured, it might have become a problem. It wouldn’t be a big inconvenience, but it wouldn’t be a small one either.

Although Primordial Lord Yangze’s maneuvering managed to conceal the matter from many of the ordinary Primordial Lords, it didn’t go unseen by the Mountain Masters of the Eight Mountains. Some of them were already looking over from their cloud chariots and cloud sofas, each with an inquisitive look in their eyes.

Primordial Lord Yangze had previously helped to conceal Lu Wen’s identity because he wanted to thoroughly examine it. He had already achieved his objective now, so he naturally stored it away.

This being was still very useful to him, so he acted as if he didn’t see the gazes of the Mountain Masters looking over at him.

“Victory goes to Xu Disheng of Morning Dew Peak. You will continue to be matched with another opponent,” the cold, mechanical voice rang out.

“There are currently 68 people remaining in the inner realm. The round will end when 20 remain.” The voice, belonging to Cloud Stream Spirit Master, who held the key to the inner realm of the Luminous Cloud Abyss, rang in the ears of every disciple still in the tournament.

With 800 contestants participating and being randomly matched one-on-one battles, some battles would last a long time, while some only a short few moments. As a result, some had already gone through 5 to 6 battles, whereas others had only gone through three or four.

There was no way for people who knew each other to avoid each other or put off getting matched with one another.

Any behavior that might suggest otherwise would make the Shangqing Sacred Sect lose face in front of everyone watching. People would definitely disdain and ridicule such behavior, and if anyone was caught red-handed, Cloud Stream Spirit Master would immediately send them out of the Luminous Cloud Abyss and disqualify both parties.

… …

“I bet on Xu Disheng!”

“I’m placing my bet on Senior Martial Brother Xu!”

“120 spirit stones, all in!”

In a marketplace somewhere, the atmosphere was reaching a fever pitch. Countless disciples were watching the screens of light in the sky with red-eyed gazes, tossing their spirit stones and cultivation resources down on the massive betting table to place their wagers.

After Xu Disheng beat Yu Yangyao, revealing his unparalleled powers of comprehension, it became known that he had fully grasped his profound law foundation at the half-step Dao Foundation stage and could move a portion of the power of heaven and earth!

He had taken away the title of first ranked genius in the Mingxin Mountain Range. Now, in many of the marketplaces, people were starting to hop on the bandwagon and place their bets on Xu Disheng.

There were some clever-minded individuals running the betting tables who took advantage of the opportunity to rewrite the ranking jade slips listing the Sea of Qi stage geniuses of the Eight Mountains. Taking advantage of the crazy demand, they distributed them as fast as they could!

“Zhang Yangui, Shangqing Mountain Range. Half-step Dao Foundation stage. Rank 3 Spiritual Root. Overall evaluation: Unparalleled.”

“Mo Yue, Shangqing Mountain Range. Half-step Dao Foundation stage. Rank 3 Spiritual Root. Overall evaluation: Unparalleled.”

“Ji Haohan, Refining Heart Mountain Range. Half-step Dao Foundation stage. Rank 3 Spiritual Root. Overall evaluation: Extremely strong.”

“Xu Disheng, Mingxin Mountain Range. Half-step Dao Foundation stage. Rank 6 Spiritual Root. Overall evaluation: Extremely strong.”

“Pu Li, Mengyang Mountain Range. Half-step Dao Foundation stage. Rank 4 Spiritual Root. Overall evaluation: Extremely strong.”

“Mu Hui, Wenyuan Mountain Range. Half-step Dao Foundation stage. Rank 4 Spiritual Root. Overall evaluation: Relatively strong.”

“Qin Muxue, Zhuri Mountain Range. Half-step Dao Foundation stage. Rank 5 Spiritual Root. Overall evaluation: Relatively strong.”

“Liu Pengyun, Mountain of Law. Half-step Dao Foundation stage. Rank 4 Spiritual Root. Overall evaluation: Relatively strong.”

… …

The evaluations for most of the people on the list didn’t change at all. Aside from the geniuses like Yu Yangyao and Zong Zizhen who had been eliminated from the tournament, and Xu Disheng, who had shot up to fame all at once, the most noteworthy contestants were Qin Muxue and Pu Li.

Xu Disheng’s half-step Dao Foundation stage cultivation allowed him to move some of the power of heaven and earth and use Dao Foundation stage cultivation methods. On the ranking jade slip, this unexpectedly placed him on equal footing with the unparalleled Rank 3 Spiritual Root geniuses like Ji Haohan and the others!

Qin Muxue was a genius from the Eighth Mountain, Zhuri Mountain Range. Although her Spiritual Root talent was ordinary, he had won five battles in a row, causing her evaluation to shoot up. She was relying on a complete set of mystical ice spells and the Psychic Magic Treasure, the Snow Spirit Silk Band. Against other ordinary geniuses, it displayed an overwhelming might that allowed her to steamroll through her battles, drawing the gazes of many.

Pu Li, on the other hand, was capable of summoning a spiritual beast, which was a transformation-rank monster known as the Dark Thunder Lion. He had also crushed all of his opponents, and while it wasn’t technically his own strength, it could still be considered one of his techniques, so his evaluation was also raised by several levels which brought him to be placed on equal footing with Ji Haohan and the others.

The Eight Mountains Grand Tournament allowed spiritual beasts. But a transformation-rank spiritual beast was the equivalent of a human Dao Foundation stage cultivator, so they were extremely expensive, easily costing tens of thousands of spirit stones. They were also extremely rare and even if someone had the spirit stones to buy one, it was difficult to find one up for sale in any large-scale marketplace.

… …

Blazing flames erupted and magma flowed, bubbling and releasing thick smoke that intertwined with ash and craggy rock. Fireballs of varying sizes burst from the volcanic crater, coloring the sky an ashy gray that reddened into a dark crimson on the horizon.

Xu Disheng was standing on a craggy rock that jutted out dozens of meters. When he looked down and saw the red-hot magma flowing lethargically in rivers below him, his eyebrows furrowed.

This scenario’s environment was very different from the previous one. It seemed extremely realistic.

Even though he was dozens of meters away, he could sense the heat of the lava flowing below, burning hot enough to completely melt any Spirit Tools that happened to come into contact with it.

“Forty contestants remain. Once the loser of this match is decided, the victor will enter the top 20!” Cloud Stream Spirit Master’s voice rang out far and wide in the inner realm of the Luminous Cloud Abyss.