Chapter 1143: Heaven-Sent Tragic News
The commencement of the first preliminary battle of the Xuan Shen Assembly completely transformed the atmosphere of the entire Eastern Divine Region. In every corner of the Eastern Divine Region, discussions about the Xuan Shen Assembly filled the air.
Beyond the Eastern Divine Region, the Western Divine Region and Southern Divine Region were also paying close attention, both openly and covertly.
As for the remote Northern Divine Region—often called the "Northern Demon Domain" and labeled as "abandoned" and "cursed"—no one knew of its movements.
On the first day, the rankings had already showcased the bearing of the "Four Divine Sons of the Eastern Domain" in an extremely striking manner. Compared to their legendary reputations, which had only existed in hearsay before, their battle achievements and rankings, like those of a sovereign descending upon the world, were undoubtedly more directly shocking to the soul.
But the rankings of the first day were ultimately just that—the first day. In fact, many believed that the early rankings could be entirely disregarded.
As the preliminary battles progressed—one day, two days, three days... five days... ten days—the rankings changed every single day.
And by the tenth day, this brutal battle, belonging to all the young geniuses of the Eastern Divine Region, truly began.
Having accumulated soul beads by killing the profound beasts in the battlefield during the initial phase, the time for plundering had finally arrived. For the strong, the weak were fattened lambs; for the weak, they had to evade the strong's hunting, then go all out to find opportunities to hunt other weaklings.
Everyone was a deadly enemy. Every moment could determine life or death. A successful hunt would cause a surge in ranking due to the plundered soul beads, while a death would cause a drop of thirty percent in soul beads and a sharp decline in ranking.
From this day onward, the preliminary battlefield became a cruel hunting hell. The thrill of every successful hunt and the anger and humiliation of every kill deeply stimulated their blood and the beastly nature buried within it. More and more profound practitioners turned into beasts, and the preliminary arena became a brutal battleground for predators.
The preliminary rankings also lost their initial calm, undergoing earth-shattering changes almost every moment.
The fifteenth day... the twentieth day... the twenty-fifth day... In the later stages of the preliminary battles, the battlefield grew more brutal with each passing moment.
On the Star Monument, the rankings of the individuals people cared about caused countless profound practitioners' hearts to constantly tumble between heaven and hell. Many people stayed by the Star Monument day and night, hardly daring to leave.
For example, Huo Rulie checked once a day at first, but in the final days, he personally checked the Star Monument almost every hour or two. Even though Huo Poyun's ranking had never disappointed him, his heart was still like a string hanging over a bottomless chasm, never at ease for a moment.
If one were to speak of the most stable aspect of this Xuan Shen Assembly, it would be the top four overall positions.
Luo Changsheng, Shui Yingyue, Jun Xilei, and Lu Lengchuan—from start to finish, these four held the top four positions. No one among the fifty million other profound practitioners of the Eastern Divine Region could usurp them.
Especially Luo Changsheng—while the second to fourth positions often changed names, he firmly held the first spot, unshakable.
Aside from Luo Changsheng, two other people's rankings were equally stable.
Not only were their rankings incredibly stable, but even the number of soul beads they held remained as steady as an old dog, unyielding like a rock.
These two oddballs were also coincidentally assigned to the ninth battlefield.
Time flowed slowly, and the month-long brutal preliminaries were finally drawing to a close.
"Is this the last day?"
Xiao Mo lazily leaned against a wall corner, biting a dry blade of grass he had picked up from who knew where.
"Correct. Probably in a few more hours, it will end." Yun Che nodded, his expression calm, but waves stirred within his heart... Finally, in just a few more short hours, he could leave the battlefield and step into the land of his dreams, for which he had fought desperately for three years.
"Whoosh!" Xiao Mo let out a long breath. "Good thing you were here, or I would have been bored to death for the whole month. I should have brought my game console in."
Yun Che: "...??"
Although he had never stepped into the battlefield and didn't even know what the outside looked like, Yun Che could still see the battles growing more intense day by day, because the white light of those being resurrected in the main city was appearing more and more frequently. Especially on this final day that determined the ultimate ranking, a large amount of white light flickered over the main city every moment, and hoarse shouts and roars never really ceased.
"Heh, getting eliminated soon will be great—then I can take a stroll through Zhou Tian God Realm. Ahaha! A king realm! I've only heard about them in legends before; they felt like distant celestial palaces. I never thought I'd actually set foot in one one day. At least it hasn't been a waste spending all these years in the God Realm." Xiao Mo's face was full of longing.
"Over fifty million people will be eliminated and flood into Zhou Tian Realm all at once. There will definitely be restrictions. I'm afraid the area we can move around in will be very limited," Yun Che said.
"That doesn't matter. Just breathing the immortal aura of Zhou Tian Realm will be good enough. I can go back and boast to my wife properly." Xiao Mo said with a grin. "Oh, right, Brother Yun, I've been meaning to ask—are you married? You're not still... a virgin, are you?"
"...I got married at sixteen." Xia Qingyue's figure flashed through his mind, and waves stirred in Yun Che's heart.
Eight years had passed since he last heard from her. Where in the world was she?
"Oh, that early!" Xiao Mo's eyes widened, then he muttered quietly, "Back where I'm from, sixteen is way below the legal marriage age."
"So, how many wives do you have?"
"...Three." Yun Che answered quite frankly. Xia Qingyue, Cang Yue, and Huan Caiyi—three wives he had already married.
As for those not yet married...
"Dammit! You beast!" Xiao Mo's buttocks bounced off the ground as he jumped up, shouting with envy and jealousy. "This is the most enviable thing about your God Realm! You can have polygamy! Why can we only have one wife back home! Ahhhh... Looking at your expressionless face, I thought you were a cold fish, but it turns out you're a carnivorous beast!"
Yun Che: "...??"
"Hey? That's not right! You didn't come from the God Realm originally, did you? Dammit! Why are the planets so different!" Xiao Mo felt even more unbalanced and kept shouting.
"With your profound cultivation level, on the planet you came from, you're practically a god beyond the world. Those secular rules can't bind you anyway, right?" Yun Che said disapprovingly.
"No, no, no! You don't understand. Where I'm from, there are things far more terrifying than secular rules." Xiao Mo suddenly lowered his voice and cautiously glanced around before leaning in to whisper fearfully, "You have no idea how terrifying the women on my planet are. Especially my wife. Forget polygamy—if I even look another beautiful woman in the eye for a second longer... sss!"
As he said this, Xiao Mo's body shuddered violently.
"Ohhh~ I understand, I understand." Yun Che nodded immediately, thinking to himself: So he's a henpecked husband. What does that have to do with which planet or realm you're from!
"After I finish sightseeing in Zhou Tian God Realm this time, I should go back to Earth. Judging by what my wife meant, after this return, she probably won't let me out again." Xiao Mo put his hands behind his head and suddenly said, "Brother Yun, although you don't talk much, we actually get along pretty well. I've always felt like you have a heavy heart. Want to talk about it? Maybe I can help somehow."
Yun Che shook his head and smiled. "No need. I don't think anyone can help me. Thank you for your kindness."
"Alright." Xiao Mo didn't press further. He calculated the time and said, "Let's check the rankings. It's almost over. There probably won't be any big changes in the last bit of time. The current rankings should be the final ones."
Xiao Mo waved both hands, and a familiar light screen appeared before them.
[Luo Changsheng]: Origin: Shengyu Realm, Soul Beads: 11,948,053, Battlefield Rank: 1, Overall Rank: 1.
Xiao Mo's eyes bulged. He froze for a long moment, then shouted, "D-d-d-d-d... Dammit! Over eleven million! Over eleven million soul beads!"
"This Young Master Changsheng is practically a god—no, no—a freak, a monster!"
And Luo Changsheng wasn't just first on the overall list; he was the only one on the entire list with a soul bead count exceeding ten million. That soul bead number, a digit beyond everyone else's, was like a supreme king looking down on the world from the celestial gates.
Without a doubt, across the entire Eastern Divine Region, even those who were ignorant and had never heard of the "Four Divine Sons of the Eastern Domain" would from now on know the name "Luo Changsheng."
For an existence like Luo Changsheng's, everyone in his battlefield was prey to be slaughtered at will. Over eleven million soul beads—who knew how many deaths of prey had been piled up to form that number.
And if not for the rule that one could kill the same person multiple times but only plunder once, that number would only be even more astonishing.
Below Luo Changsheng, Shui Yingyue, Jun Xilei, and Lu Lengchuan still firmly held positions two to four. Compared to Luo Changsheng, who stood in a realm of his own, their soul beads were not far apart, all around nine million.
"It seems that the top spot of this Xuan Shen Assembly should belong to Luo Changsheng," Yun Che said.
"Not 'should'—definitely!" Xiao Mo said emphatically.
At that moment, Yun Che suddenly thought of that strange black-dressed girl who exuded an eerie aura everywhere—a fifteen-year-old at the Divine Spirit Realm, leaving Huo Poyun completely speechless. If she weren't so young, but the same age as Luo Changsheng, she would surely surpass him.
He wondered what her ranking was.
But after all, she was too young, and her profound strength was early-stage Divine Spirit Realm... She probably couldn't pass this first round of preliminaries either.
"By the way, help me look up someone's ranking," Yun Che suddenly said. "Yan Shen Realm, Huo Poyun."
"Oh! Yan Shen Realm, I've heard of it." Xiao Mo asked curiously, "But I haven't heard of Huo Poyun. Do you know him?"
"He's a friend of mine," Yun Che nodded. "The Yin Xue Realm I'm currently in borders Yan Shen Realm, so we got to know each other."
"I see. Let me check."
Xiao Mo willed it, and Huo Poyun's name appeared on the light screen:
[Huo Poyun]: Origin: Yan Shen Realm, Soul Beads: 4,994,033, Battlefield Rank: 1, Overall Rank: 71.
"D-d-d-d... Dammit! Seventy-first?" Xiao Mo was stunned. After a long pause of reaction, he said with shock and doubt, "Such a strong person? No... wait! I remember Yan Shen Realm is a mid-level star realm. How could such a strong person appear there?"
"Do you really know him? He's really your friend?"
Not only Xiao Mo was surprised; Yun Che was even more amazed. Then he sighed to himself, "Seventy-first. I'm afraid even Yan Shen Realm itself couldn't have predicted this ranking. It seems I completely underestimated Huo Poyun. Entering the top thousand is now beyond doubt."
He could already imagine how Yan Shen Realm would be overjoyed and excited at Huo Poyun's ranking... Especially Huo Rulie, who had told him earlier that he wasn't completely confident. Now, he probably couldn't stop laughing.
"Congratulations, Brother Poyun." Yun Che didn't answer Xiao Mo. He lifted his head and said sincerely.
You have achieved your wish, and I... will definitely see Mo Li.
Seeing Yun Che's pleased expression, Xiao Mo knew that his friendship with Huo Poyun must be genuine. A little sour, he said, "Your profound strength is so weak, yet you have such a thick thigh beside you! Tsk tsk... And three wives! So enviable!"
Yun Che smiled, neither confirming nor denying.
A thick thigh? His real thick thigh was his master! Even stronger than Huo Poyun.
Hmm... roughly equivalent to eighty or ninety billion Huo Poyuns.
Huo Poyun's astonishing achievements had also eased Yun Che's mood. After all, in the God Realm, the only one he could truly call a friend was Huo Poyun.
"Ah, whatever. A dark horse, life's winner—can't compare, can't compare." Xiao Mo muttered for a while, then waved his hand grandly. "Let's take a look at this battlefield's rankings. No need to guess the first place—it's definitely that Wu Guike... Hmm... Dammit! Sixteenth!?"
Xiao Mo's exclamation made Yun Che look over:
Wu Guike: Origin: Shenwu Realm, Soul Beads: 6,489,672, Battlefield Rank: 1, Overall Rank: 16.
Wu Guike, over six million soul beads, ranked sixteenth on the overall preliminary list!
This Wu Guike's strength had exceeded Yun Che's expectations time and again.
"It seems Shenwu Realm is going to have a big moment of pride this time too," Xiao Mo said.
Just as he finished speaking, the sky suddenly shook, and the voice of Zhou Tian echoed through the air, shaking the entire battlefield:
"Young strong ones, there is still one hour left until the end of the first round of preliminaries!"
"Ha! It's finally over," Xiao Mo laughed, already getting excited at the thought of entering Zhou Tian God Realm.
"Only the top ten from each battlefield will advance to the second round of preliminaries. All other profound practitioners will be eliminated. Their projections will leave the Zhou Tian Battlefield, and their true bodies will be directly expelled from Zhou Tian Realm, not allowed to step in again... Exert all your profound strength and will without reservation. In this final time, determine your ultimate ranking and fate."
"Huh? Expelled from Zhou Tian Realm?" Xiao Mo was stunned, then said indignantly, "Dammit! How can this be! Not only can't we enter the Zhou Tian Pearl, but we can't even stay in Zhou Tian Realm! Why didn't they say so earlier! If I'd known, I wouldn't have come! Such a huge Zhou Tian Realm, yet so stingy! Don't you think so, Brother Yun... Brother Yun?"
Xiao Mo cursed loudly, but suddenly noticed that Yun Che was completely still, not uttering a word... And his back was trembling, shaking more and more violently, his tightly clenched hands white-knuckled.