Chapter 2263: The Struggle for Seats
The ten chief seats were located on both sides of the main channel of the Fate Stream.
Downstream of the main channel were ten large tributaries. Each tributary was ten zhang wide, and ten main seats were set up on each side, totaling one hundred seats.
Zhang Ruochen did not vie for the ten chief seats, but he had no intention of letting the main seats slip by.
For the hundred main seats, three to four hundred cultivators were competing, and their cultivation bases were extremely powerful, almost all having broken over ninety shackles or having reached the Great Perfection of the Hundred Shackles Realm.
The competition for the main seats was even fiercer than the struggle for the chief seats upstream.
Beside each main seat sat several top-tier Hundred Shackles Great Saints, analyzing the restrictive inscriptions on the outer layer of the jade stone.
The struggle for positions at the Hunting Heaven Grand Banquet was not decided through combat, but by who could first break the restrictions around a seat and sit down.
Whoever sat down first claimed the seat, and no other cultivator could take it.
Thus, every cultivator had to accurately assess their own strength, choosing the seat they were most confident in securing while being as close to the upstream as possible.
If they chose wrong, even a Hundred Shackles Great Perfection powerhouse might end up at the tail-end seats, losing face before the banquet even began.
In this way, the faster one could analyze the restrictions, the greater the advantage they held.
Zhang Ruochen appeared unhurried, approaching a main seat closest to the main channel of the Fate Stream. His pupils were covered with Truth Rules, emitting dazzling light as he gazed at it.
He discovered that within a three-zhang radius centered on the seat, a dense array of restrictive inscriptions was laid out.
Beside this main seat was only one Hundred Shackles Great Saint, who had reached the Great Perfection level. It was the Great Senluo Emperor of the Death Clan. Zhang Ruochen had met him once in the Star Sea World, standing beside Bore at the time.
According to Luo Sha, the Great Senluo Emperor had a blood feud with Zhang Ruochen over the death of his brother.
Of course, having killed too many cultivators from the Hell Realm, Zhang Ruochen could no longer clearly remember who his brother was.
The Great Senluo Emperor sensed a cultivator approaching and sneered inwardly, "Some clueless fool dares to compete with me for this seat? Don't they know their own strength?"
When he opened his eyes and saw Zhang Ruochen, he was first slightly surprised, then released a strong hostility.
"You'd better go compete for another main seat and avoid humiliating yourself," the Great Senluo Emperor said.
Zhang Ruochen did not leave. "Is it really necessary to spend so much time analyzing the restrictions on just one seat?"
The Great Senluo Emperor shot Zhang Ruochen a look as if he were an idiot.
This was one of the best-positioned main seats, with restrictions so powerful that even a Hundred Shackles Great Perfection expert couldn't analyze and break them quickly.
Instead of hurrying to find his own seat, Zhang Ruochen was wasting time here. How foolish.
Seeing that the Great Senluo Emperor did not respond, Zhang Ruochen mobilized the power of Truth, enveloping the three-zhang area around the seat with his domain to analyze it as quickly as possible.
Half an hour later.
"Three hundred Divine-level inscriptions, thirty thousand Great Saint inscriptions, three million Saint-level inscriptions, including thirty types of restrictions—Space, Darkness, Fire, Ice, Fate... The restrictions interweave and layer upon layer," Zhang Ruochen said.
The analysis of the restrictions was complete.
Zhang Ruochen walked leisurely toward the seat. When he reached the edge of the three-zhang area, he extended a hand and pressed it forward lightly, causing restrictive inscriptions to snap one after another.
By the time Zhang Ruochen sat down on the main seat, the Great Senluo Emperor was still sitting cross-legged on the ground, frozen like a statue, staring blankly at his back.
What kind of joke was this? He had completely analyzed the restrictions that quickly?
The Great Senluo Emperor ranked twenty-first on the Hundred Shackles Great Perfection List and had the qualifications to compete for a chief seat. He had thought securing a main seat would be easy, but here he was, having only analyzed a quarter of the restrictions, while Zhang Ruochen, a latecomer, was already seated.
With such fast analysis speed, why didn't he go for a chief seat? Why did he have to come and snatch his seat?
"Deliberate. Zhang Ruochen is definitely doing this deliberately, targeting me. Damn it. I haven't even gone after him yet, and he's already provoking me first." The Great Senluo Emperor gnashed his teeth in hatred, feeling that Zhang Ruochen was intentionally humiliating him.
This time, Zhang Ruochen had simply picked a random spot and wasn't specifically targeting him.
Seeing the Great Senluo Emperor unwilling to leave, lingering with a look of reluctance, Zhang Ruochen frowned. "Why are you still here? If you don't speed up, all one hundred main seats will be taken."
"Zhang Ruochen, don't get too cocky. Sooner or later, we'll settle old and new scores together."
The Great Senluo Emperor snorted heavily, knowing he couldn't waste time, and quickly left for another main seat.
Zhang Ruochen paid no heed to the Great Senluo Emperor's threat, instead looking upstream to observe the group of Hundred Shackles Great Perfection experts vying for the ten chief seats.
After carefully identifying each of them, Zhang Ruochen shook his head slightly. He couldn't find the black figure who cultivated the Way of Nothingness.
"Could it be that he's not a Hundred Shackles Great Saint? Or is he not a banquet attendee?" Zhang Ruochen mused.
Clearly, the higher the seat, the harder the restrictions were to analyze and break.
With a total of one hundred and ten chief and main seats, Zhang Ruochen was the first to sit down. This naturally drew countless gazes—some puzzled, some surprised, some envious.
"Zhang Ruochen's speed in analyzing restrictions is too fast. He could easily take a chief seat. Why did he choose a main seat?"
"The difficulty of analyzing chief seats far exceeds that of main seats. And even if Zhang Ruochen could analyze the restrictions, with his Immortal Realm cultivation, he might not be able to break them. In my opinion, he wasn't confident enough, so he settled for second best."
...
Across the Hell Realm, wherever cultivators were watching the Hunting Heaven Grand Banquet, they were all discussing Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen's spiritual power kept watch over the entire Fate Stream.
Yi Xuan Great Saint and Gu Chenzi, to conceal their strength, followed Zhang Ruochen's instructions and did not compete for main seats, instead heading further downstream to the secondary seats.
Zhou Zhen, Hong, Shentu Yun Kong, and the eighteen Six-Calamity Ghost Kings carrying the Seven-Star Imperial Palace, being servants, could only go to the very end for the tail-end seats.
In the entire Hell Realm, there were only ten thousand formal banquet attendees, one thousand from each of the ten clans.
Zhang Ruochen's main focus remained on the Hundred Shackles Great Perfection experts upstream competing for the chief seats. After all, on the Hunting Heaven battlefield, they were the most threatening.
"The two cultivators beside the top two chief seats should be Lan Ying, ranked second, and Yan Huangtu, ranked third."
One was on the left of the Fate Stream, the other on the right.
One was a Cosmic Divine Fetus, the other a peerless genius of the Yama Clan.
No cultivator dared to compete with them for the most prestigious and valuable positions at the top of the Hunting Heaven Grand Banquet.
Below Lan Ying was Luo Shengtian, ranked fourth. Below Yan Huangtu was Wujiang, ranked fifth.
No one dared to challenge their positions either.
But further down, the struggle became fierce, with no shortage of contenders.
Zhang Ruochen understood that even among the top ten on the Hundred Shackles Great Perfection List, there were clear tiers of strength. Lan Ying and Yan Huangtu were the strongest tier, followed by Luo Shengtian and Wujiang.
Those ranked behind—Xu, Yanhong Great Saint, Daoyu Emperor, and others—were far behind the top four. It was this gap that kept others from daring to challenge them.
At the fourth chief seat on the left, three Hundred Shackles Great Perfection experts were competing, including Xu and Yu Huang.
"It seems Yu Huang is dissatisfied with my assessment and wants to spar with Xu. Women, they always like to be stubborn."
Zhang Ruochen could see that Xu's analysis speed was slightly faster than Yu Huang's.
In this contest, Yu Huang would likely lose.
"If she loses to Xu, Yu Huang won't just miss out on a chief seat; she might not even get a main seat. As the strongest figure the Blood Heaven Tribe has put forward, such a defeat would severely damage morale."
Zhang Ruochen suddenly regretted letting Yu Huang go head-to-head with Xu.
Just then, the Hundred Shackles Great Perfection expert competing with Xu and Yu Huang for the seat decisively gave up, turned away, and went downstream to choose a main seat.
If you can't win, you retreat.
At the very least, you have to secure a main seat.
As time passed, the situation became clearer, with cultivators constantly retreating from upstream to the main seat area.
But Yu Huang was still locked in a death struggle with Xu.
The gap between them was not large; their analysis and breaking speeds were close, and even if Xu was ahead, it was by a very slim margin.
However, Zhang Ruochen gradually noticed that Xu was deliberately toying with Yu Huang, creating the illusion that she could catch up, keeping her trapped there.
Giving her hope, then crushing her into despair at the last moment.
Many cultivators saw this, but Yu Huang, caught in the situation, could not see through it. Her mind kept echoing Zhang Ruochen's assessment that she was inferior to Xu, driving her to persist and prove herself.
"Zhang Ruochen, I am by no means weaker than Xu. This time, you are wrong!" Yu Huang thought to herself, biting her red lip, taking another step forward.
The seat was right in front of her, only one zhang away.
Mu Yang Tianjun, Zhi Yuan Blood Emperor, and five other Great Saints from the Blood Heaven Tribe, all under a thousand years old, also attended the Hunting Heaven Grand Banquet. However, since their cultivation had surpassed the Hundred Shackles Realm, their banquet venue was not at the Fate Stream but in a Divine Bone Jade Tower above it, overlooking the entire Fate Stream venue.
"Xu's speed in analyzing the restrictive inscriptions is far ahead of Yu Huang's, yet he deliberately slows down. He's clearly mocking her." Zhi Yuan Blood Emperor was furious, his iron fists clenched tightly.
At every Hunting Heaven Grand Banquet, the Earth Fiend Ghost City targeted the Blood Heaven Tribe, and the two major forces had long been locked in deep enmity.
"Yu Huang is the Blood Heaven Tribe's strongest participant in the Hunting Heaven. If she suffers a setback now, it won't just affect her own mindset; it will also impact the morale of the entire Blood Heaven Tribe. Should we warn her? Even if she can't get a chief seat, she should at least secure a main seat." Xi Fen Female Emperor said.
Mu Yang Tianjun shook his head gently. "Yu Huang has a stubborn personality. Once she sets her mind on something, no one can change it."
"Not necessarily, right? Look at how her perception of Zhang Ruochen has completely changed." Gun Emperor said.
Mu Yang Tianjun was slightly taken aback, then smiled. "Then send a message to Zhang Ruochen, asking him to warn Yu Huang. Maybe he can change her mind..."
"Look, what is that Zhang Ruochen fellow up to?" Gun Emperor exclaimed.
Mu Yang Tianjun, Zhi Yuan Blood Emperor, and the others all turned their gazes toward Zhang Ruochen's location.
...
It's too late today, and my head hurts from writing, so I'll stop here. I'll organize my thoughts and continue writing tomorrow.