Ninth In the World

The bloody mist was like a watermelon that had been crushed mid-air. The entire Immortal Ascension Square fell silent. Many people had thought that the odds of Mei Bashan being alive would be low after he was trapped in Di Jiu’s saber array. However, none of them had thought that Mei Bashan would be pulverized by Di Jiu’s punch.

Mei Bashan might be severely injured, but he was still not someone who could be killed by a punch. How powerful was that punch if Di Jiu had managed to kill and pulverize Mei Bashan with it?

Di Jiu felt no joy. He had only seen the ring that had fallen from Mei Bashan, but he had failed to see his Principal Spirit.

His punch was powerful. However, he could not kill Mei Bashan’s Principal Spirit with it.

He could not find where the Principal Spirit had hidden, no matter which area his Spiritual Force scoured in the vicinity.

The moment Mei Bashan was killed, Di Jiu started searching for Mei Bashan’s Principal Spirit. As everyone on the square fell silent, a lady rushed out of the building. She knelt on the square, right at the spot where the ground had been dyed red.

The entire Immortal Ascension Square seemed to wake up from its stupor as many people started to talk in low voices.

As Di Jiu stared at the lady who was kneeling at the spot where Mei Bashan had died, he was astounded by her beauty. She possessed an indescribable aura of fragility and gentleness, yet there was also a sense of wildness about her.

Her face was like blossom petals bathed in rain, giving people a sense of heartbreak and making them willing to die for her.

Di Jiu sighed, certain that this lady was Shui Tianwan. He understood now why Jue Zhan could not forget about her. She did possess certain assets that made forgetting her impossible.

Jue Zhan looked like he had been struck by lightning. He stared at this lady in a daze as he slowly walked towards her.

The lady lifted her head and looked at Jue Zhan with tears streaming down her face. There was a despairing, self-pitying expression in her eyes.

The Immortal Ascension Square fell silent once more, as everyone looked at Jue Zhan, who was walking towards Shui Tianwan.

Only a few select people were aware of Jue Zhan’s identity. Now that Mei Bashan had been killed, this information spread and everyone found out about the relationship between Jue Zhan and Shui Tianwan.

Jue Zhan walked up to Shui Tianwan and then stayed still, staring at Shui Tianwan dumbly.

Shui Tianwan stood up, her face covered with tears. That fragile, beautiful face stared back at Jue Zhan dumbly, as though she had forgotten she had been crying over Mei Bashan a few moments before.

“Senior Brother Zhan, your back has become hunched. I... I’ve let you down...” Although Shui Tianwan’s appearance was gorgeous, it was her voice that embodied her beauty perfectly.

Jue Zhan seemed to have not heard Shui Tianwan. As he continued to look at her in a trance, his eyes were filled with pity and remembrance. He seemed to be immersed in the memories of harvesting the Water Caltrop Flowers in the lake with Shui Tianwan. At the time, the First Kun Protectorate had been flourishing and he had still been the Young Protectorate Lord of the First Kun Protectorate...

Jue Zhan came back to reality after a long moment. He looked at Shui Tianwan even more lovingly as he said, “I don’t blame you for that. I was the one who was unable to protect you. If it hadn’t been for you, perhaps I would have been killed long ago...”

More tears gathered in Shui Tianwan’s eyes. Then, she took out a dagger and stabbed towards the area between her eyebrows.

Jue Zhan gently captured Shui Tianwan’s hands in his, preventing her from committing suicide. He shook his head, as if to advise her to not kill herself. His voice became even gentler as he aid, “Wan-er, do you know whom I have let down the most?”

When Shui Tianwan saw the gentle look in Jue Zhan’s eyes, she seemed to understand what he was going to say. Jue Zhan had to be referring to her, for she was everything to him. After all, a proud Young Protectorate Lord like him had been willing to be treated like a dog for several hundred years for her. Just as she was about to answer, Jue Zhan shook his head for the second time, lifted his face and looked up at the sky. “I have let down my parents and all the innocent victims of the entire First Kun Protectorate...”

As he uttered the last part of this sentence, the dagger in Jue Zhan’s hand pierced the spot between Shui Tianwan’s eyebrows.

Shui Tianwan looked at Jue Zhan in disbelief as she felt all the energy in her body disperse. “You...”

She could not understand why Jue Zhan, whom she had treated worse than a dog and who had considered her his goddess, would kill her.

Logically speaking, she should have told Jue Zhan to commit suicide and he should have followed her orders immediately.

No one, including Di Jiu, had expected that Jue Zhan would kill Shui Tianwan.

Di Jiu got his answer when he sensed with his Spiritual Force a Principal Spirit that was being pinned by the Floating Flame Flag in Jue Zhan’s hand.

Mei Bashan’s Principal Spirit had teleported to Shui Tianwan’s Purple Palace. No one would have thought of that, yet it had failed to deceive Jue Zhan. The fact that Mei Bashan’s Principal Spirit could teleport itself into Shui Tianwan’s Purple Palace meant that Shui Tianwan had only ever had Mei Bashan in her heart. Jue Zhan had meant nothing to her.

It was exactly because Jue Zhan knew this, and because Shui Tianwan had wanted Mei Bashan, that he had killed her so resolutely.

“Jue Zhan, you killed my husband and my son. Now, you want to kill me as well. You...” Shui Tianwan sounded as sorrowful as a cuckoo crying blood.

Jue Zhan looked at the sky once again and murmured, “I finally realized today who helped Mei Bashan find the invisible Defense Array of the First Kun Protectorate and allowed him to massacre everyone in the protectorate. I’m an animal. An animal who caused it all because of a woman...”

Shui Tianwan stopped reprimanding him as she suddenly thought of and compared Jue Zhan and Mei Bashan. The former had treated her so much better, and yet she had fallen in love with the latter. Was she in the wrong?

Jue Zhan’s hand, which was holding onto the Floating Flame Flag, twisted and two blood-curdling screams were immediately heard. Di Jiu sighed. Mei Bashan was truly dead now.

Mei Bashan had probably never expected that his Principal Spirit would be killed by Jue Zhan.

Di Jiu put away Mei Bashan’s ring and Jue Zhan stored away Shui Tianwan’s body. Then, Jue Zhan walked up to Di Jiu, knelt on the floor and lifted the Floating Flame Flags with both hands. “Thank you!”

No amount of words could express his gratitude to Di Jiu.

Di Jiu put away the Floating Flame Flags, pulled Jue Zhan back to his feet and clapped him on his shoulder. “The past is in the past. Everyone needs a new beginning.”

Jue Zhan shook his head. He bowed before Di Jiu once again before turning and walking out of the Immortal Ascension Square.

No one knew where he was headed to. Perhaps, even he did not know his destination himself.

Di Jiu did not stop Jue Zhan, even as he looked at the latter’s lonely, hunched retreating figure. He did not know how to console Jue Zhan.

“Thank you, Brother Di. Without you, old Mei Bashan would definitely not have let me off.” Xian Ze walked over.

His injuries had not been severe in the first place. Hence, he had already recovered after Di Jiu had saved him. What he was most excited about was that Di Jiu had killed Mei Bashan. This had been a seemingly impossible feat, and yet Di Jiu had succeeded.

It struck Xi Gubo, who was the City Lord of the Immortal Ascension City, that none of the experts on the building had said anything when Di Jiu had come out and killed Mei Bashan. This signified that they had tacitly allowed this incident to happen, which meant that this matter had been put to rest.

He immediately said loudly, “The first two rounds of the True Dominion Genius Tournament have ended. At the first place is currently Di Jiu, who came from the Small Central World. At the second place is Hu Burang from the Small Central World, at the third place is Zhuo Wenshu from the True Dominion, at the fourth to twentieth place are Bai Xizhou, Gu Jue, Lai He...”

Di Jiu looked at Gu Jue, thinking that Gu Jue’s strength was very strange. The Principal Spirit hiding within Gu Jue was one even he could not see through.

After listing out all the names, Xi Gubo added, “All the beast cores obtained by the participating geniuses in the Evil Beast Valley must be handed in. The geniuses who do so will obtain the True Dominion’s resources according to the number of cores they have obtained.”

It was only then that Di Jiu realized that the True Dominion Genius Tournament would affect the distribution of the True Dominion’s resources this time. This was similar to the situation back at the Small Central World’s Five Continent Dao Pagoda.

As the cultivators started to hand in their beast cores, Di Jiu handed in 100 ordinary demon beast cores as well. However, he would not hand in the beast cores belonging to the Illusionary Beasts. In any case, the highest number indicated on the array formation screen was 100, and nobody knew the exact number of beast cores he had obtained.

“Daoist Di, congratulations for obtaining the first place at this True Dominion Genius Tournament,” praised Xi Gubo while Di Jiu was handing in the beast cores.

Given his score and his prowess while killing Mei Bashan, no one would challenge Di Jiu unless they wanted to commit suicide. This also meant that Di Jiu had already secured the first place at this tournament.

Although he was certain that Di Jiu possessed an Illusionary Beast core, Xi Gubo could not demand that Di Jiu hand it in when Di Jiu only handed in 100 ordinary beast cores. The most valuable beast cores during the Evil Beast Valley test trial had belonged to Illusionary Beasts. Most cultivators could only obtain one when they entered the valley. A second Illusionary Beast could not be found by a cultivator if they had already killed one.

The reason Di Jiu had been able to kill two Illusionary Beasts was because he had already discovered the second Illusionary Beast, which had been hiding, when he had killed the first Illusionary Beast.

“Thank you.” Di Jiu cupped his fists. Xi Gubo, who was at the first-stage Domain Realm, was acting as the host of this competition, as they needed someone capable for the job.

Xi Gubo nodded his head and said loudly, “The third round- the round of the challenges- will commence now. Anyone at or above the twentieth place can challenge the top three if they wish to take over their spots. Remember this: everyone only has one chance to do so. Now, I will explain the rules. Anyone from the fourth to the twentieth place who wishes to challenge the top three, please step forward. If more than three people step forward, the top three of the challengers will be selected for this challenge.”

At past tournaments, after the first two rounds had ended, there had been at least seven geniuses who had wanted to challenge the top three. Therefore, there had been a need to select three out of these people to challenge the top three. This time, no one stepped forward when Xi Gubo finished his speech.

Everyone looked at Bai Xizhou.

No one dared to challenge Di Jiu. whose strength was unfathomable. Hu Burang seemed to possess a cultivation level close to the late-stage True Form Realm. Hence, the difficulty of challenging Hu Burang was not small. Zhuo Wenshu, who was at the fourth-stage True Form Realm, appeared the easiest to challenge out of the three.

If there was a potential challenger, it would be Bai Xizhou, who ranked fourth. He had the highest cultivation level out of all the participants between the fourth and twentieth place, as he was at the third-stage True Form Realm.