Under Boss's control, the energy canopy above the City of Miracles slowly lowered, and several pre-designed high-end luxury landing pads that had never been used before slowly rose.
On the ground, the Blessing Parrot had also mobilized, leading several employees of Wanbao Pavilion. Wearing specially made spacesuits, they flew into the Cosmic Sea to guide the major chambers of commerce inside.
Sky skiffs and starships landed one after another, and an invisible scent of gunpowder began to spread.
An intense business war was quietly breaking out in the City of Miracles.
Yet, very few people paid attention to this, especially Chen Xu.
After creating the tournament venues, Chen Xu did not return to the Undead Dao Court. Having been in seclusion for so many years, he subconsciously felt a bit averse to that place.
So, he returned to Blue Star—returned to this carefree, simple world where he only needed to summon skeletons and the undead to steamroll his way through everything.
The moment he stepped onto Blue Star, Chen Xu took a deep breath.
“Mmh, the spirit qi has grown quite a bit richer again. Although it's only a matter of quantity rather than quality, and can't compare to the Hunyuan Dao Lord's place, it's still very good.”
After inspecting the fruits of the Blue Star Heavenly Dao's hard work, Chen Xu took a step forward and arrived at the Daxia Military Academy, wanting to catch up with a few of his old friends.
The moment he arrived on Blue Star, Chen Xu spread out his mental strength.
Currently, all of Daxia's high-level combat forces were gathered at the military academy.
This, of course, included Chen Xu's old friends.
The military academy was no longer what it used to be; it now had many layers.
Chen Xu looked up. Layer upon layer, high-rise buildings rose toward the sky, using magic arrays as their foundations to build upward.
“Tsk, who came up with this idea? Connecting to the earth through arrays to serve as a makeshift foundation for the buildings.”
Although it looked incredibly flashy, in reality, it was indeed just flashy.
In less than a second, Chen Xu calculated that this design was a massive energy hog. It was only because Blue Star's spirit qi was so dense now that it could support such a thing.
He shook his head. As a world-creating powerhouse who had personally shaped the new Land of the Undead, Chen Xu looked down slightly on this crude craftsmanship.
Taking another step, Chen Xu arrived inside a castle in the air.
Here was a simple arena. A crowd of Daxia's high-ranking officials sat in the spectator stands, watching a battle in the center of the field.
The two combatants were Chen Xu's old acquaintance and sworn brother, Xiang Longwu, on one side...
...and on the other, a youthful lad standing around 1.6 meters tall—or rather, a child.
A child of only three years old. Yes, that's right, three years old. A three-year-old Epic Rank, currently fighting Xiang Longwu.
In an instant, Chen Xu felt that his own cheats didn't seem so ridiculous after all. After all, when he was three, he was still playing with mud in the orphanage with his buddies.
Of course, Xiang Longwu wasn't using his full strength either. He was merely sparring to guide the child, training his combat instincts.
But even so, it was extremely exaggerated. A three-year-old toddler could actually step onto the arena and trade blows with a veteran warrior, a Mythic Rank Martial Artist.
Speaking of which, this toddler actually had a slight connection to Chen Xu. To be precise, he had a connection to Kunpeng.
This toddler was the martial arts genius Li Taiji had mentioned, the one born with a Heavenly Martial Bone, double pupils, and a destiny of the water element.
And this martial arts genius was a product engineered by the Blue Star Heavenly Dao and Kunpeng.
Calling him a “product” might be a bit inappropriate. To put it another way, he was a chosen Destiny's Child.
In any case, this wasn't the first time the Blue Star Heavenly Dao had done something like this. Before this, it had chosen several Destiny's Children, injecting world origin into their bodies to give them extraordinary foundations.
But this was the first time the Blue Star Heavenly Dao had dragged Kunpeng into it. Since Kunpeng governed Blue Star's water providence, it could indeed choose a Destiny's Child as well.
Out of amusement, Kunpeng had readily agreed. It even took out one of its own scales, refined it, and injected it into this Destiny's Child along with the water providence.
In other words, the so-called natural Heavenly Martial Bone and water destiny came from Kunpeng, while the double pupils came from the Blue Star Heavenly Dao.
After watching for a while, Chen Xu found it a bit dull. A child's play fight wasn't very interesting to watch.
So, Chen Xu walked forward, approaching Xia Qiming, and suddenly spoke up.
“Teacher Xia, are you all gathered here just to watch Brother Xiang play house with a toddler?”
“What do you mean play house? Longwu is sparring with Kunkun to guide him. If Kunkun can learn a few more moves, he might even place in the Assembly of Transcendents.”
Hearing this, shock instantly appeared on Chen Xu's face.
“Him? The Assembly of Transcendents? Holy crap, Teacher Xia, don't tell me a three-year-old toddler also registered for the Assembly of Transcendents? And in the Epic Division? Has Daxia run into some financial trouble? Forcing a toddler to show his face in public like this.”
“Hmph, what do you know? Kunkun has extraordinary talent. Although he isn't quite born divine, he had Epic Rank strength at birth. He's arguably the strongest new human in terms of foundation in Daxia, and even all of Blue Star, in recent years. Wait...”
Only then did Xia Qiming realize something was off. How could anyone who managed to get in here not recognize Xiang Yangkun?
He whipped his head around and found that it was actually Chen Xu.
“Holy crap, how is it you, kid? Why did you sneak over here without a sound again? It's one thing to come, but you didn't even leak a shred of your aura. I thought some alien force had infiltrated us.”
“Uh, I forgot.”
Chen Xu smiled awkwardly. Concealing his aura for years on end had already become an instinct.
Since he didn't release any aura, Xia Qiming had assumed it was just someone sitting behind him speaking casually.
If his brain hadn't retrieved this somewhat familiar yet distant voice, Xia Qiming would have been ready to start cursing.
“But Old Xia, what I said is still true. What kind of trouble has Daxia run into to send a toddler who hasn't even grown all his teeth out to compete? People will laugh at us.”
Hearing this, Xia Qiming looked at Chen Xu with a strange expression.
Chen Xu was puzzled. “What? Did I say something wrong?”
“Ahem, you were the one who announced that during this myriad-world tournament, the participants won't actually die, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Clap!”
Xia Qiming clapped his hands together.
“Well, there you go! Since he won't actually die, what does it matter if we let Kunkun participate? With tournaments like this, the earlier you participate, the earlier you accumulate experience. Even if he doesn't place this time, he'll be among the earliest to prepare for the next tournament. Why not?”
“Uh, I really can't find any flaws in that logic.”
“By the way, how do you have the time to come back? Don't you need to prepare for the tournament?”
“Me? I'm the organizer, not a contestant. What is there for me to prepare?”
“Right, as the organizer, don't you need to prepare things related to the tournament?”
“Oh, of course I do, but someone—uh, some undead—is already handling it.”
On the 44th layer of the new Land of the Undead, Miracle's main body was constantly operating the Undead Network. Prolonged, high-frequency work had long since pushed it into an overloaded state. It didn't even have the time to pay attention to the fire elements on the layers above complaining that the temperature was too high recently.
“Uh, fair enough.”
At this moment, Xiang Longwu also stopped. Patting Xiang Yangkun's head, he looked toward the stands, raised his hand, and waved at Chen Xu.
Chen Xu also raised his hand in response.
Then, Chen Xu suddenly remembered something. Opening his right hand, a spatial gate opened in his palm.
Chen Xu reached inside, and when he pulled his hand back out, he was holding a gold-and-red-colored wine gourd.
Whoosh!
Chen Xu tossed the wine gourd onto the arena, and Xiang Longwu caught it securely.
Pop~
Pulling out the cork, Xiang Longwu took a sniff and praised,
“Good wine!”
Xiang Yangkun, standing nearby, was also very curious.
“Great-Grandpa Xiang, what is wine? Is it as delicious as milk?”
“Hahaha, this wine is way better than milk, especially Brother Chen's wine.”
“Really? I want some!”
“Heh, I can't let you drink this. This is the wine Brother Chen gave me. If you want to drink, go ask your parents to buy you some.”
Xiang Longwu and Xiang Yangkun shared a deep intergenerational bond, but no matter how deep the bond, it couldn't compare to the wine in his hand. Just a gentle sniff made him feel the blood-qi in his body grow a bit stronger.
Such a potent, exceptional wine had to be savored slowly by himself.
Xiang Longwu's feeling was correct. This gourd of wine was part of Li Taiji's private collection that Chen Xu had secretly pocketed from that recent martial arts feast.
In ancient times, Lord Lao had a single Golden Elixir that could grant immortality. Although Li Taiji's private collection of wine wasn't as miraculous as Lord Lao's Golden Elixir, it was still of immense benefit to Martial Artists.
Because a trace of Li Taiji's martial intent was infused within this wine.
Having delivered the wine, Chen Xu looked back at Xia Qiming.
“Old Xia, exactly how many people from Daxia and Blue Star registered for the Assembly of Transcendents?”
“How many? I don't know the exact number, but I think basically everyone who has reached the Transcendent Rank registered.”
“What do you mean, ‘everyone’?”
My goodness, they were really trying to milk this, weren't they? He had set up the no-death mechanism to encourage the geniuses of the myriad worlds to actively participate without worrying about consequences, not to let these newly advanced Transcendent freeloaders come and just go through the motions.
It seemed he still had foresight. The demons, undead, and elements in those tens of thousands of tournament worlds would help him quickly weed out a large batch of contestants.
“In any case, even the merfolk and nagas in the sea have registered. Oh, and it seems your Kunpeng specifically handed down a divine oracle demanding it.”
“Uh...”
This was probably a misunderstanding on Kunpeng's part. Chen Xu had only ordered all the undead to participate because he saw that Heaven was participating with its entire force.
Kunpeng had probably treated this sea race that worshiped it as part of the undead force.
“Whatever. There are qualifiers anyway. I expect a ton of people will be eliminated right at the start.”
“Is that so? Then do you have any insider information to leak? After all, Blue Star is your hometown. It wouldn't be too much to give us a little extra care, right?”
Seeing the eager and greedy look on Xia Qiming's face, Chen Xu sneered.
“Heh.”
Then, he reached out his left hand, channeling the element Dao principles to condense a stack of leaves. On these leaves, the information about the monsters in the tournament worlds was recorded.
“Here, take a look. Absolutely first-hand information. I estimate that at Miracle's current pace, it will take about eight hours, forty-one minutes, and twenty-nine seconds before this data is uploaded to the Undead Network.
You're seeing it eight hours in advance. You've struck gold.”
...
Five days later, the top alchemist force of the myriad worlds, the Pill Tower, announced that it had joined the sponsor lineup for the First Grand Assembly of Transcendents of the Myriad Worlds, providing pills from the Pill Tower for the winners.
The top pet and mount breeding and selling conglomerate of the myriad worlds, the Rocket Chamber of Commerce, announced its addition to the sponsor lineup of the First Grand Assembly of Transcendents of the Myriad Worlds, providing pet eggs from the Rocket Chamber of Commerce for the winners.
In addition, many other well-known chambers of commerce joined the sponsor lineup, and the advertising slots were completely divvied up.
With everything ready, they only waited for the assembly to open, as the registration period Chen Xu had set was one year.
...
One year later, Chen Xu stood in the Cosmic Sea. Behind him was the golden spiral composed of those dedicated tournament worlds.
Beneath Chen Xu's feet was a stage specially set up by Wanbao Pavilion. That fellow Boss insisted on designing a perfect opening ceremony to fire up the audience's atmosphere, arguing that it would be a waste of the opportunity created by the First Grand Assembly of Transcendents of the Myriad Worlds otherwise.
Furthermore, those sponsors had made similar requests, so Chen Xu agreed to it.
Chen Xu reached out his left hand and took a microphone from Boss—one that resembled a bone arm.
“Testing, testing. One, two, three.”
“My Lord, this is divine power technology. That kind of issue won't happen.”
“Oh, force of habit, force of habit.”
“I, Chen Xu, Lord of the Undead and organizer of the First Grand Assembly of Transcendents of the Myriad Worlds, hereby declare the first Grand Assembly of Transcendents of the Myriad Worlds officially open!”
Rate on N.U.
