Having just finished teleporting the contestants, Chen Xu immediately returned to the Undead Dao Court. Before his rear even hit the seat, he began to clamor.
“Come, let's continue. Who are you betting on this time?”
The Lord of the Crafts Sect had just poured Chen Xu a cup of tea, and hearing this, he couldn't help but chuckle.
“Hahaha, I just won the last round, so I'll let the two of you choose first.”
Li Taiji did not decline the Lord of the Crafts Sect's polite concession and spoke up directly.
“Since Fellow Daoist of the Crafts Sect has put it that way, I won't stand on ceremony. I choose Mo Zihan, a disciple of my Universe Daoist Academy.
“I paid a bit of attention to this girl when she was still in her mother's womb.
“She was gestated for nine years in her mother's womb, and the moment she was born, she possessed two great divine anomalies: a martial bone and double pupils.
“Moreover, her bloodline power is not to be underestimated. One of her ancestral branches somehow married into the Yokai Realm's Spirit Monkey Mountain, inheriting a trace of the spirit monkey bloodline. Under the dual stimulation of her martial bone and double pupils, this spirit monkey bloodline has also awakened.”
Hearing this, the Lord of the Crafts Sect was also taken aback, a look of surprise and curiosity appearing on his face.
“Oh? A spirit monkey? Could it be the very same spirit monkey that stirred up trouble in the past, ascending to the heavens and diving into the seas, leaving both the Yokai and Immortal Realms in absolute chaos?”
Li Taiji shook his head and said,
“No, it is not that particular spirit monkey, but rather one of the same race, sharing the same bloodline.”
Hearing this, the Lord of the Crafts Sect shook his head and sighed.
“What a pity. If it were that spirit monkey, perhaps Fellow Daoist Li would indeed have secured his victory. However, the gap between the upper and lower limits of the spirit monkey race is vast. In all these years, only that one Chaos Demon Seed has ever emerged.”
“Heh, no matter. Zihan is a disciple of my Universe Daoist Academy. Her bloodline is merely an auxiliary to provide her with blood-qi.
“With the abundant blood-qi brought by the spirit monkey bloodline, a martial artist's fist becomes the most powerful weapon.”
The Lord of the Crafts Sect nodded, agreeing with Li Taiji's words.
After all, this girl was human, not yokai. No matter how incredible her bloodline was, it only served an auxiliary function. Her true strength still lay in her martial arts and fist techniques.
Then, the Lord of the Crafts Sect looked at Chen Xu again and asked,
“And what about Fellow Daoist Chen? Are you choosing a mage again? I see that in the Epic Division contestant list, there seem to be quite a few mages nurtured by your legacy artifact.”
“Those ones? Forget it. The capable ones ascended long ago. Most of those still lingering in the Epic Division are just mediocre.”
Chen Xu waved his hand. He still paid some attention to and had some impression of the challengers of the Necrotic Archmage Tower.
Initially, when he had Boss travel across the myriad worlds as a merchant, he had him spread projections of the mage tower at the same time. Therefore, most of the worlds where it could be spread were those without any Eternal Rank experts and with relatively weak foundations.
Although they did unearth a few decent prospects in those worlds, such as Please Call Me Top Scholar and Black Magic Master, those decent prospects were already strong to begin with. With the boost from the Necrotic Archmage Tower, they had quickly surged to the Mythic Rank and were already preparing for the Eternal Rank.
Therefore, most of those still left in the Epic Division were mediocre, and Chen Xu certainly didn't expect them to be able to deal with a bunch of innately divine prodigies.
The contestant Chen Xu wanted to choose was, of course, also an innately divine one.
As the saying goes, soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals. You can't pit ordinary iron against genius youths.
Therefore, Chen Xu's choice was:
“I choose Xiang Yangkun.”
Hearing this, Li Taiji snapped his gaze toward Chen Xu, his face filled with utter disbelief.
“Xiang Yangkun? That Destiny's Child from your Blue Star? The one with the natural martial bone, double pupils, and the destiny of the water marshes?”
Chen Xu nodded, confirming his assumption.
“But, Fellow Daoist Chen, if I remember correctly, that Destiny's Child is only three years old right now, right? No, wait, he should be around four years old.
“A three- or four-year-old toddler, and Blue Star actually let him participate in the competition?”
Chen Xu shrugged, spreading his hands.
“They decided it themselves. I didn't interfere.”
“Haha, Fellow Daoist Chen, you misunderstand. I mean, a three- or four-year-old toddler barely knows a handful of words, hasn't read any scriptures, and hasn't cultivated any true techniques. Relying solely on a few innate divine abilities to win the championship seems a bit of a stretch, doesn't it?”
The Lord of the Crafts Sect also agreed,
“Indeed. Although innately divine beings can dominate the lower three realms with their innate divine strength, that is only in their original worlds, against people who lack innate divinity.
“But in this grand assembly of yours spanning the myriad worlds, being innately divine is practically just the entry threshold. I'm afraid he won't be able to gain much of an advantage.”
To this, Chen Xu didn't really care. Among those in the Epic Division, he only knew Xiang Yangkun; he didn't know anyone else.
Rather than betting on a stranger, he might as well place his bet on this Destiny's Child of Blue Star.
Moreover, the reason he chose Xiang Yangkun was also because he had received some inside information from Kunpeng.
Just before the competition started, Kunpeng had secretly inquired, saying it had left some tricks on a Blue Star contestant and wanted to ask Chen Xu if this was against the rules.
Chen Xu then asked it,
“Does this trick align with the contestant's transcendent system?”
Kunpeng nodded.
“And is this trick something they were born with, or have cultivated for a long time?”
Kunpeng nodded again.
“Then there's no problem. It's not like you suddenly handed over your Dao artifact. It doesn't matter.”
Kunpeng bobbed its head in excitement.
Thus, Chen Xu wasn't putting his faith in Xiang Yangkun, but rather in Kunpeng.
Seeing how resolute Chen Xu was, Li Taiji and the Lord of the Crafts Sect dropped the subject.
Seeing both Chen Xu and Li Taiji choose contestants from their own factions, the Lord of the Crafts Sect found himself in a bit of a dilemma.
Originally, he wanted to choose a genius from another faction, but since his two friends had done this, it would make him seem a bit left out if he didn't follow suit.
“Then this old man will choose the intermediate smith of the Myriad Crucible, Song Tiandi.”
“Using 'Heavenly Emperor' as his name? What grand ambition.”
Hearing this name, Chen Xu's eyes lit up, but after pulling up the contestant's profile and looking through it, he found that he was just an ordinary smith.
“Hahaha, it's just a name.”
As the betting in the Undead Dao Court concluded, the fierce battles in the golden spiral competition world also commenced.
Since the contestants in the Epic Division were no longer newcomers who had just stepped onto the path of transcendence, this time, Chen Xu did not place any minor monsters in their starting locations to block their way.
Instead, he gathered all kinds of monsters together, forming various monster colonies.
Therefore, if the contestants wanted to obtain points from the monsters, they would have to face a complete colony containing both high-tier and low-tier monsters.
Mo Zihan rose from the ground. As her double pupils opened, a powerful fist intent swept outward.
But she quickly realized there were no skeletons or fallen demons around.
Mo Zihan didn't waste time pondering the changes in the arena. Instead, she kept her double pupils active, briefly assessed the terrain, and began to move toward higher ground.
Using mental strength to probe could easily attract the attention of others, but the heaven-defying vision inherent to her double pupils had no such drawback.
All the way up, Mo Zihan encountered no trouble.
Along the way, she encountered a few opponents who had the same idea, wanting to gain an information advantage by occupying the high ground.
But the moment they locked eyes with Mo Zihan and saw the double pupils in her eyes, they stopped in their tracks, turned on their heels, and left.
The path of the double pupils was one of invincibility, and these nobodies were highly self-aware. They had entered the competition to secure the guaranteed reward of the top one million spots, not to compete for the top rankings.
Thus, Mo Zihan arrived on top of a cliff without any hindrance.
“There are three monster colonies to the east, ten to the west, eight to the north, and eight to the south. Strange, why are there so few to the east? Could it be that a Hell Demon King is sealed there and has yet to be released?”
Mo Zihan looked around, gathering a vast amount of information on the monster colonies.
Her plan was to farm these monster colonies to accumulate enough points to advance, while avoiding direct confrontations with other contestants as much as possible.
Before the competition, her senior brothers and sisters had warned her that although her talent was outstanding, her techniques were unpolished, meaning she didn't have many trump cards.
If she exposed her trump cards too early, she might lose her chance to compete for the top rankings.
Therefore, Mo Zihan planned to stick to a monster-farming strategy during the qualifiers, accumulating enough points through minor monsters.
As for other contestants, she would try to pick on the easy targets and avoid the hard rocks.
So, who were the easy targets, and who were the hard rocks?
It was simple. Those without innate divinity were the easy targets, like the contestants who had actively avoided her along the way.
And the hard rocks were the geniuses who, like her, possessed divine anomalies such as double pupils and martial bones.
For example, that white-robed youth on the high mountain in the distance.
Dressed in white robes with pitch-black hair, his face was as handsome as carved jade. He truly had an exceptional appearance.
But good looks alone wouldn't catch Mo Zihan's attention. What truly caught her eye was the sword intent emanating from him.
Even from such a distance, when Mo Zihan locked eyes with him, her eyes throbbed with a faint pain, stung by his sword intent.
“Judging by his appearance, he can't be very old, yet he possesses such incredible sword intent. He must have the legendary Natural Sword Heart.”
There was also a powerful opponent perched atop a towering giant tree to the south.
His attire was incredibly magnificent—he wore a phoenix-feather purple-gold crown, golden chainmail armor, and lotus-silk cloud-stepping boots. He held a three-pointed double-edged lance, his silver robe fluttering behind him.
Most striking of all was a red mark at the center of his forehead.
As a possessor of double pupils, Mo Zihan could sense that within his forehead lay another extraordinary eye.
To think that she would encounter two troublesome opponents at the very start of the qualifiers.
Mo Zihan scanned her surroundings once more, then slipped into the mountain forest to begin her plan.
The other two did the same.
Those who were innately divine were just that confident. The moment they stepped onto the stage, they seized the initiative.
On the other hand, those cultivators who relied on diligence and hard work showed a completely different attitude.
Valira, the former Priestess of the Sea God and now the Sea God's Holy Daughter, immediately captured the moisture in the air upon landing, before diving into the sea like a fish and vanishing from sight.
At the bottom of the sea where no one could perceive her, she began to carry out her plan.
Rate on N.U.
