A Brutal Trial Ground: RE

Netherworld Ancient Peak

"Bring it!!" the serene voice of both ascendants echoed down the flat ancient peak.

The gourd wielding ascendant released two gourds from the five he had on his back and now armed with a gourd in each hand prepared to attack but before he could, a blast of fiery light came his way. The fiery burst of flames were so white that the entire peak was illuminated. Obviously staying in the vicinity of these two freaks was absolutely out of order.

Immediately the many ascendants on the peak took flight as they aimed at fleeing from the range of the attacks belonging to these two madmen. Anyone who wasn't a ninth level celestial phenomenon ascendant would surely die from a single of their attacks or at the very least be heavily injured.

The gourd ascendant opened the gourd he wielded with his left hand, loads of sealing attribute energy was released and the flame burst was sucked in and then immediately refined. He then waved his still opened gourd and scores of Blazing Rocs swooped towards the ever-burning ascendant. The flock of small blazing Rocs covered the entire peak as their reddish glow covered the entire mountain; they were akin to a blanket of fire & light floating in the skies.

Some relatively weak seventh level ascendants were too slow to escape and got caught by the flock of blazian Rocs. After an instant, all that remained of them was tar black skeletons and ashes. The numerous avian shaped flames sped up towards the ever-burning ascendant.

The ever burning ascendant was none other than the infamous eldest lunatic from the Skyflame sect, Di Yan.

Di Yan clasped his two hands together as if to pray and consequently his five differently coloured bright lotus of flames merged into a singular, hundred zhang wide, lotus with five petals. The many blazing Rocs all heavily clashed into the gargantuan five-petal lotus and the flames were once more absorbed and then refined, this time into a five coloured dragon of flames. With a thrust of his hand, Di Yan manipulated the scorching dragon to madly slither towards the gourd ascendant to thoroughly devour him into its burning maws.

"Are these two crazed madmen planning to one-up each other?" The surviving people in the surroundings mused silently as they stared at the burning peak.

This time however the gourd ascendant didn't plan to seal and refine his assailant's five coloured scorching dragon but rather used the gourd in his right hand. As soon as he opened the lid a bright and uncanny light shone all over the entire ancient peak. The violet-gold light bathed the ancient peak as well as anyone or anything within a thousand zhang radius in every direction. The uncanny light was in fact petrifying qi that imprisoned anyone one touched into bronze stones.

Once more several weaker ascendants were caught in the crossfire and as soon as they were immobilised, some opportunistics competitors madly attacked. The result was a brutal death to any of those. Even though they dared not interfere with these two freaks' combats, these geniuses had no qualms whatsoever to use any opportunity to cull the competition.

Down on the peak the five coloured dragon was already nothing more than a statue of bronze and same for the five petal lotus as well as Di Yan himself.

The right gourd was then swapped and this other gourd too was put to good use by its master, releasing numerous terrifying ancient bells that rumbled the sky. Those resplendent golden bells were the product of an immortal technique and not actually real weapons. The reverberations of the bell chimes jolted the petrified peak so badly that the entire mountain was slightly shaking. A fearsome killing intent drifted within the bell chimes and transformed into golden streams of murderous lightning, smashing apart everything.

On Di Yan's statue numerous cracks had already long appeared as he had started to melt his way out of the imprisonment. The bolt of golden lightning that was meant to shatter his statue and kill him was not fast enough to achieve that much. Yet he still successfully targeted and groaned in misery, Di Yan only felt himself trembling uncontrollably as his body turned numb.

The muscles of Di Yan could be observed as the golden lightning had broken the last remaining bits of bronze coloured prison stone as well as a good amount of Di Yan's skin. As more and more golden lightning slithered their way to him, he countered with a casual looking punch. Numerous burning fist shadows covered the skies, they were like ascending meteors and crashed madly into the similarly numbered golden bells.

The impact of these two immortal-ranked innate techniques caused a shockwave of fire and lightning that travelled in every direction for several thousand zhangs.

Di Yan was not willing to let his enemy rest and as such he leaped at the gourd wielding ascendant, the image of a burning dragon could be seen superposed with the lightning fast ever-burning ascendant. If that mountain was a regular one then a trail of lava would have most definitely formed along Di Yan's path but with how sturdy all the mountains of the Immortal Gorge Mountain Range were, even the grass on the peak was not affected. (A/N: Night Guy style xD)

The gourd ascendant was already preparing his next move as his left gourd absorbed a great share of the tempest of fire & lightning of the previous innate technique collision and successfully refined all of it. As Di Yan appeared right before him, he released two huge halberds made up entirely of fire and lightning respectively but unfortunately for him Di Yan was on demon time.

Di Yan seemingly transformed into an eight-arm being with each arm shining with so much heat and light that even the floating ascendants could not easily gaze at him. A punch connected with each halberd but the remaining arms were still free and as such free to punch the rapidly retreating gourd ascendant. The two halberds of fire & lightning were easily eaten away by Di Yan's scorching punches.

The gourd ascendant in his effort to flee moved in the direction of the spectating floating ascendants as the countless meteor fist shadows of Di Yan naturally followed.

The gourd ascendant was a ruthless character just as Di Yan was.

He meant to use the crowd as shields; many of the lowest realm surviving ascendants could not defend against such powerful fist imprints — all but a select few were blown aparts, transformed into tar black ashes. An outside observer would be able to see that some had only their legs remaining whilst others only their torso and heads. The remains of the various weak ascendants fell down from the skies all the while being devoured by soul-soothing white flames. Even some 9th level celestial phenomenon ascendants were badly injured as they failed to retreat in time.

Di yan had great control over his strength and as such if he willed could have stopped in time but why do so. Everybody here other than his three fellow Sky Pill World inhabitants were enemies and everybody knows how the Skyflame sect disciples treats enemies.

The gourd ascendant naturally also took on several of the scorching fist shadows, dents could be observed all over his body within which was noticeably burnt flesh. At last he decided that it was time to go all out and thus use all of his gourds as well as his bloodline power.

This fiery ever-burning ascendant was simply too terrifying.

A bronze coloured stone armour enveloped the gourd ascendant, the armour was manifested purely from the power of his blood. The bloodline of a petrification dao was extremely terrifying and could be used for offence as well as defence. In addition to that, the gourd ascendant also transformed into a four arm demon, each of his arms wielding a gourd. He no longer used the gourd which was previously within his left hand as the power of his opponent's assault had surpassed the limit of his sealing capabilities.

If only he had found a suitable sealing immortal art then he would not have such a hard time right now, this was gourd ascendant thoughts as he prepared to uphold his title.

The gourd ascendant was one of the 20,000 seeded geniuses — A supreme genius.

The surviving crowd was now very far away from the two crazed freaks and one of them mused silently "Both of these two madmen have been fighting ferociously and with such intensity but none of their astral souls yet to be seen. . . Why?"

The answer to his doubts was quite simple, inconceivable immortal techniques.

The gourd immortal had obtained and cultivated a very peculiar immortal technique from the Immortal Gorge Mountain Range despite his short entry into the selection; his astral souls were sealed within his five gourds.

As for Di Yan, he had also obtained quite the impressive and fate-changing immortal technique; his astral souls had been shattered and fused together to form a singular astral soul of higher order. No matter what, as of since he cultivated that specific technique, Di Yan would forever have four astral souls less than your average stellar cultivator of the same realm. Yet this was only a small prize for him to pay to achieve greater heights.

The gourd ascendant was now planning for a last game winning move. The two gourds in his two left arms opened and from their inside intense golden lights shined as corrosion attribute energies and poison attribute energies could be felt. One of his remaining gourds had intense violet-golden shine coming from its nuzzle, this was none other than his petrification-type astral soul from the 7th Heavenly layer.

The gourd ascendant equipped with his four gourds stepped forth but so did his opponent. Di Yan summoned his astral soul, an Eight-Arm Asura. An intense violet-gold burning glow could be seen coming from the asura. Under his astral soul blessing Di Yan lifted his arms and blasted forwards, only to see a countless number of violet-golden palm shadows as well as fist shadows swallowing the skies. All of these palm & fist imprints possessed meteor-like features.

Both ascendants aimed to domineeringly suppress each other. This was especially true for the gourd ascendant who was extremely enraged at this moment, boundless rainbow-coloured light radiated from his petrification gourd. All of his moves seemed to be fuelled by the humiliation he, a disciple of a supreme character, felt being pushed to such limits. The rainbow glow of petrification swallowed the crashing palm & fist shadows.

This was when Di Yan decided to suddenly transform into an eight-arm asura himself under the effect of his astral soul..

The petrification light which was swallowing the palm & fist shadows could no longer keep up and countless palm & fist imprints fell onto the gourd ascendant. Yet most never reached him as they fell into a field of corrosion and were promptly dissolved.

With countless palm & fist imprints covering the skies and a violet-gold astral soul enveloping him, every single one of Di Yan's attacks filled the gourd ascendant with the sense of death. Even supreme geniuses like him didn't dare to risk it by fighting Di Yan in close combat.

"Impossible!! How could his astral of the 7th Heavenly Layer be that much more powerful than mine!!" the gourd ascendant thought as he continued in his best effort to try and petrify his enemy.

"This…" The eyes of the other surviving geniuses in the surroundings narrowed as their hearts actually trembled at the power of these two madmen. Two peak supreme geniuses against each other and the result was that these two were literal monsters. What surprised them the most was how that Eight-arm ascendant was so strong. This ever-burning fellow radiated so much heat that neither the corrosion nor the poison attribute energy of his opponent had any possibility to approach him without being burnt out of existence.

In a radius of ten zhang around Di Yan, nothing could remain unburnt if they were as much as a little relative to him in strength.

What sort of good fortune did this man experience? Why was the palm type as well as fist type innate technique he comprehended so much stronger compared to the other immortal-ranked techniques of theirs? Even the gourd ascendant petrifying light innate technique was somewhat lacking when compared to his.

Each of Di Yan's gargantuan palm & fist shadows contained a marvellous fiery energy in them and he seemed to be able to manifest an endless number of imprints from a single attack. With eight arms, he was even more overwhelming. When placed in the Immortal Gorge Mountain Range, his combat prowess was at a level where only a select elite could fight directly against him.

The gourd ascendant sensing that victory would be incredibly difficult to obtain, decided to flee. Atop one of his gourds, he decided to make a run but how could Di Yan allow it.

Di Yan four pairs of arms merged together and now only left with two arms which were covered into a glowing resplendent fiery light, he punched. A one thousand zhang tall fist shadow ascended the skies and swooped towards the gourd ascendant at heaven-breaking speed. The humongous fist collided with the gourd ascendant as his rainbow-cloured petrifying light enhanced with an eerie corrosive light was nowhere enough to shield him.

"Impos…" before the gourd ascendant could finish his words filled with regrets, he was reduced to a tar black skeleton as all of his flesh and blood was disintegrated; a token flew out of the skeleton to Di Yan — an Immortal Ascension Token.

The crowd of geniuses could not help but gasp at the might of the Eight-arm ascendant. No one right in their mind had any idea of competing against him for one of the three main platforms.

Di Yan and his two friends returned to the Netherworld Ancient Peak. They took position on one of the three platforms when suddenly another supreme character arrived, Pei Qing.

Pei Qing arrived too late to witness the grand battle of these two freaks but with how talented he was, he immediately felt a faint sense of threat from the burning ascendant. A sense of displeasure and disgust filled his heart at the possibility of someone posing a threat to him.

A heroic looking face, the eyes of this 8th level ascendant were pitch black, gleaming with a divine glow. These were the collective thoughts of the many geniuses who laid eyes on him.

As soon as he laid eyes on the thirty-three platforms and noticed how offerings were required for the good fortune to be presented to him, Pei Qing acted.

"Are you all trash even qualified to stand here?" Pei Qing's countenance was ice cold. He was a man destined to accomplish great things and awe the world. These platforms most assuredly hide a good fortune which will be incredibly beneficial to his rise. He was in no mood to wait for these trash so-called geniuses to slaughter each other, he would do that much himself. One could hardly imagine how his mood currently was.

"What a joke, are you a pitiful 8th level celestial phenomenon ascendant even worthy to speak such words?" one of the ninth level ascendant geniuses spoke in cold arrogance. "In any case, die!!!"

Pei Qing's eyes flickered with provocation, filled with contempt for these so-called geniuses. Pei Qing's irises turned even more black as an extremely dangerous aura gushed forth from him.

"Let's play then. I'll end all of your pitiful existences quite rapidly." Pei Qing turned his gaze to the crowd but mainly towards the genius who had just called him out. He continued, "Since you guys are so weak, just leave your lives behind for my rise. DIE!!!!!"

There were a few other participants in the surroundings who were just arriving and meant to observe with an air of watching a show but they would soon know despair as well.

As the sound of Pei Qing's voice faded, his astral soul manifested in the air. An incomparably resplendent violet-gold glow illuminated the skies and in that instant, the hearts of all the geniuses there trembled violently.

That young man was a fearsome fellow too. Those who possess a violet-gold astral soul at the Celestial Phenomenon Realm were one in a billion yet they had already met three in the span of a few breaths of time?

The violet-golden glow from his astral soul interweaved and cascaded down on him, making Pei Qing resemble an ancient war god, giving off a feeling of absolute invincibility.

"KILL!" The genius who spoke to Pei Qing coldly roared. Momentarily, six of his allies as well as himself launched their fearsome attacks at the same time.

"BOOM!"

Pei Qing stared at the seven of them, his black moon astral soul containing a terrifying engulfing might. Streams of crimson rays flashed in the skies, akin to abyssal flames and at this moment, the destructive might emanating from him intensified to a terrifying extreme. Both his eyeballs seemed to turn as dark as the darkest night, he now had an extremely malevolent demeanour.

Pei Qing's terrifying gaze devoured the perception of everyone other than Di Yan and his companions.

When Pei Qing exhibited his dominance, how could all these other geniuses be willing to stay silent? All of their terrifying astral souls were released to the limits as some erupted with their own bloodline power.

"Brat you are truly powerful but don't be so cocky to think you can take all of us out." The surrounding geniuses all had enraged faces but their hearts trembled, the feeling Pei Qing gave off was just too terrifying.. Evidently, he was completely serious at this moment and he was prepared to go all out to slaughter all of them.

"I don't even have to be so serious to play with you all. Come at me and die!" Pei Qing's eyes were truly ghastly, there seemed to be a unique magical power within them that made those in the surroundings feel that he was extremely dangerous at this moment.

"Try, hmmph!!!" the leading ascendants said. Despite his voice being casual like the wind and his tone incomparably calm, he was truly shocked by the feeling of danger that this brat projected. At this moment, Pei Qing, who was like a king of destruction, posed a severe threat to all of them. That casual sounding voice meant to indicate disregard as well as his pride and self-confidence was nothing but false bravado.

"I will fight all of you self-opinionated trash that believes themselves to be infallible yet are so weak." Pei Qing spoke one last time with cold arrogance, his tone filled with confidence.

This caused the expression on many geniuses' faces to turn incredibly unsightly. The abyssal flames around Pei Qing crackled noisily as though he could no longer suppress the pure destructive might within them, wanting to use them and engulf the many people in front of him.

"One astral soul of the 7th Heavenly layer versus tens from the 6th Heavenly layer." someone far away mused silently.

Pei Qing's violet-gold devouring moon astral soul blossomed with dazzling light as a towering pitch black moon appeared behind him. The forcefield of engulfment radiated from the moon made a terrifying devouring might permeate everywhere.

"We will show you, arrogant brat, what we're made of." a random ascendant still had time to waste in speaking.

Pei Qing attacked right after that fellow rambling, he stepped out as the abyssal destructive flames around him shot towards the crowd. A terrifying storm of destruction manifested, capable of devouring everything in existence. He punched out with his fist as the storm of destruction infused completely into his fist light, smashing forward with punitive might.

The geniuses madly tossed out punches, slashes and countless other strikes, manifesting horrifying figures of their own that shot towards Pei Qing's attack.

"ROAR, ROAR!" Terrifying roaring sounds thundered out as the destructive abyssal flames shot forward, seeking to envelop the crowd. An even more terrifying black moon actually opened up in the air. Crimson light flashed within, as it exuded a fearsome engulfing pressure on its surroundings. Many geniuses were severely injured by these pressures as bits and pieces of their bodies were torn apart and a rain of blood fell onto the platforms that seemed to devour all of it gleefully.

"Trash" Pei Qing upon seeing his astral soul completely overwhelming so many ascendants was even more domineering. Both his fists madly slammed out, causing a chaotic current to ravage the air. The abyssal black moon transformed into the maw of a demonic beast that sought to devour everything in existence.

Several surviving geniuses waved their hands as a number of ancient towers, pagoda and weapons manifested. Bell chimes echoed out unceasingly, their chimes forming a cacophony that seeked to destroy Pei Qing's attacks just how Cauldrons released massive amounts of scorching flames that seeked to drown Pei Qing's attacks. Yet no matter what sort of methods they used to attack, Pei Qing was able to calmly counter them.

"That fellow is simply too strong and terrifying." The other geniuses who were very far away mused silently. Pei Qing domineeringly advanced, disregarding any attacks the geniuses threw at him. More and more ascendants were being slaughtered with each of his strikes as the stone platforms madly sucked in all of their blood essence.

The devouring moon then produced chimes that resounded out endlessly, and in just a short instant, a countless number of smaller moons manifested, the shield of engulfment soundwaves they projected corroded the energy of the many geniuses' attacks step by step. Despite many pushing the power of their bloodline to its limit, they were all still forced to retreat while Pei Qing advanced continuously.

Right now at this moment, many ancient moons floated before Pei Qing as they started to spin rapidly. With a wave of his hand, several of those congregated into a gigantic moon of engulfment that madly smashed towards the few remaining geniuses.

Upon feeling that tyrannical power, many roared in rage and despair as their bodies and weapons shimmered with terrifying runic lights as they blasted them forward with their full power.

"Hmph." Pei Qing snorted coldly, looking on with disdain. The gigantic moon sped forth with a speed akin to lightning, devouring everything that obstructed it. When the crowds of several geniuses' attacks slammed against the moon, the abyssal flames crackled, burning even more violently. The attacks were extinguished by the pure devouring might within the moon of engulfment and many ascendants lost their lives.

"BOOM!"

Pei Qing's astral soul shone even brighter as his enemies howled in rage, his entire body crackled with the terrifying abyssal flames. The temperature around him climbed upwards rapidly as he soared towards the ever diminishing crowd.

The surviving ascendants were incredibly worried after all of that but it was already far too late to regret anything.

Accompanying the abyssal Pei Qing was another moon as he lunged towards the crowd, supported by the devouring might of his astral soul, both slammed into many ascendants forcing some back while killing others. Loud cries of misery could be heard, many had expressions which were extremely ugly to behold.

Many of the few surviving ascendants borrowed the force of Pei Qing's moon to retreat explosively. Their minds were currently in a daze from enduring the engulfment might infused into the terrifying ancient moon manifested by him.

"Bzz!"

Pei Qing was like a macabre wind, pursuing after every surviving ascendant madly. He continued casually waving his hands and tossed another gigantic ancient moon over to a retreating genius, annihilating everything that was obstructing his path. The maiden died without even the possibility to scream.

"BOOM!"

He descended as another gigantic moon smashed once more into a pair of ascendants. One died but the other surviving one groaned as traces of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. The latter had no choice but to retreat with explosive speed again.

Pei Qing was like a god of death, pursuing relentlessly. The number of gigantic devouring moons he could manifest seemed never-ending.

"This…"

The other geniuses watching the scene from afar were startled. Pei Qing only used a single move throughout the fight, tossing gigantic devouring moon over and over, the impact caused the many sufficiently strong to survive geniuses left to vomit so much blood to the point where their astral soul lost all their lustre.

At last Pei Qing killed all of the various ascendants other than Di Yan and his companions. He stared at the horizon where a group of spectating geniuses immediately fled as fast they could.

"Amitaba" a soul mesmerising chant resounded on the mountain seemingly from all direction. Even Pei Qing and Di Yan were briefly hypnotised before instantly breaking out of it. Both enraged released their astral soul as terrifying violet-golden light flooded the skies.

Over the horizon a small dot approached the ancient peak. That dot was a handsome monk carrying the dead bodies of the numerous fleeing ascendants strapped to a golden mala bead necklace of gargantuan proportion.

This was without any doubt, Meng Hao.