Dao Conference Festival (4)
Chiyan Peak, Chiyan Battle Arena.
A thousand young geniuses stood in formation in front of their examiner, Daoist Tan. They had all received a badge with a number on it which represented their rankings after the first trial.
The replica of the Immortal Ascension Pagoda had since long been put aside by its wielder and thousands upon thousands of contestants had been eliminated. The lowest cultivation base amongst that group of 1000 contestants was at the 7th level of the Heavenly Dipper realm.
"Alas, hundreds of you still died within the pagoda, how disappointing!"
"Congratulations to the remaining 1000 of you! You are officially a ranking member of this year's Dao Conference Festival and can be proud of yourself. Now I will deliver the rules for the second trial of the Dao Conference Festival. After this round only 100 of you will remain but first take note of this."
Everybody was of course listening with great care to Senior Tan and they instinctively turned their head to the direction he was pointing towards.
Suddenly 100 youngsters appeared wearing badges numbered from 1001 to 1100. The most disturbing fact was that they were all in the Celestial Phenomenon realm and a minority were even already the third level Ascendants.
These new contestants all had a prideful demeanour and their eyes were filled with disdain towards the 1000 opponents. Yet they dare not open their mouths to ridicule them as they were warned by the seniors that accompanied them that this Daoist Tan was a middle tier Immortal foundation expert.
"These are all young geniuses coming down from the Northern Region of the Azure Mystic Immortal Realms. They too will be competing for a top 100 spot. No need for me to tell you how attractive the rewards for the top 100 must be." Daoist Tan once more paused to allow the many Sky Pill World heaven chosen to digest his words.
"The second trial is beyond simple, you will compete against each other in 1-v-1 until a single man or woman is left standing. Lower rankers do not be so quick to be discouraged. The 1100 of you will be divided into 100 groups of 11, the one champion of each group will be awarded a spot in the final 100."
Gasp.
Several young geniuses collectively puffed after hearing about how they would have to compete, especially those with weak cultivation realms.
"The members of each group will be randomly picked by the seeded contestants with badges ranging from 1 to 100 in descending order, starting with the number one ranker — Ji Yuan." Daoist Tan waved his hand right after the announcement and ten boxes appeared.
The ten boxes had written on them respectively; 101-200, 201-300, 301-400, … , 1001-1100. Ji Yuan had to pick a single plate with a number from each box.
"Do not even think about troublesome things such as cheating, the boxes are warded from divinse senses. Even I cannot peek into them." the voice of Daoist Tan once more reverberated within the arena.
Ji Yuan nonchalantly went and picked up his ten opponents; then it was the turn of the number two ranker who happened to be a rogue cultivator in her late twenties, she was absolutely gorgeous and was a peak Heavenly Dipper Sovereign. After she picked her ten opponents, it was then the number three ranker Ji Bolin who went on.
Ji Bolin couldn't help but think; "The ranking is probably made as such, the first of the path of Strength followed by the first of the path of Luck followed by the first of the path of Comprehension. Then rinse and repeat with the seconds, the thirds and so on. How very clever."
After a few breaths of time, every ranking member of the top 100 had successfully chosen their opponents and Senior Tan went on with further clarifications.
"Now that you know who is in your group then I shall explain how the battles will proceed. The one with the lowest ranking will challenge the one with ranking closest to them. If they win they get to challenge the next one and so on. The one who loses is directly eliminated. In this way, in each group, the top 100 seeded contestant will only have to fight once whilst the lowest ranking contestant will have to fight ten times. This is a privilege they have won." The tone of Senior Tan was perfectly flat yet in the silent arena couldn't help but be felt as extremely overbearing.
"I will end on one good piece of news, you have a period of seven days before the second trial starts. I can only strongly advise you to increase your strength as much as possible within that week by digesting the insights you obtained from the Immortal Ascension Pagoda. If you are too weak, you risk being grievously injured or even killed."
Senior Tan's final words could not but rekindled the flames of hope in those who despaired at the sight of those immortal realm geniuses.
Ji Bolin and the other peak Heavenly Dipper Sovereigns couldn't help but think that it was time to break through to the next cultivation realm. The geniuses from the outside world came from Immortal King level forces and should all be pretty strong so it was best to do so.
At last the crowd and contestants dispersed. In seven days, the arena will become a brutal battlefield.
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Barren Peak.
At the top of a gargantuan mountain atop of a mat and surrounded by several hills made up of Yuan Meteor Stones was the third young master of the Ji Clan, Ji Bolin.He was about to break through the Celestial Phenomenon realm.
Ji Bolin cultivated four Immortal ranked arts that he obtained from his Jade Token and thus the resources needed for each of his breakthroughs was astronomical.
The hills of Meteor Yuan Stones around him would be sufficient to allow for several average Heavenly Dipper Sovereigns breakthroughs.
The Celestial Phenomenon realm was the last hurdle before one could transcend their mortal conditions. In addition, the difference between Ascendants could be extremely vast akin to the distance between Heaven and Earth. The importance of this breakthrough could not be any bigger.
The four Astral Novas of Ji Bolin were surrounding him, each in a cardinal position. The North was guarded by his Archaic Demon Sovereign, the East was guarded by his Ancient Sword, the South was guarded by his Ominous Dragon whilst the West was guarded by his Divine Polar Tree.
His first choice was none other than to evolve his Archaic Demon Sovereign astral soul.
The Archaic Demon Sovereign astral soul had a corona of resplendent violet-gold light circulating around it. It flew to the top of his Archaic Demon Sovereign astral nova as the surrounding astral energy was frenziedly being absorbed into his nova. His nova then grew increasingly corporeal and began shimmering with a brilliant light as it slowly expanded.
To form a constellation, one must shatter their astral nova first, allowing them to be reabsorbed into their astral soul to be used as fuel for evolution. Once the attempt of breaking through to Celestial Phenomenon failed, that astral nova used would have already been shattered and as for the astral soul of choice, it would be hard in the future if one wanted to use it to condense another constellation. Hence, one must be extremely cautious when they try to break through to the Celestial Phenomenon because if they failed in their attempt to do so, it was highly possible that they would be restricted to the Heavenly Dipper Realm for the rest of their lives.
The baleful qi radiating out was unleashed to its limit, demonising everything in the immediate surrounding. Already transformed into a red skinned fiend, Ji Bolin sat crossed-legged bathing underneath star light, as he absorbed them to further feed his Archaic Demon Sovereign astral nova.
He was already at the peak of Heavenly Dipper and hence the risk of his astral novas having not yet matured to the absolute limits was nonexistent.
Time slowly passed by, Ji Bolin in a trance-like meditative state did not see the days go by and only after two days did he move again. Right now as he drew in a deep breath, a thunderous boom echoed out, indicating that his astral nova had shattered. A resplendent beam of light shot upwards, as his astral soul greedily started to absorb it.
Soon after, his astral soul grew increasingly larger in size, unceasingly expanding, moving higher up into the skies. The star light shone on it as the embryonic form of a constellation could be seen.
"Huh…"
Ji Bolin could feel that the crucial moment was rapidly approaching. Particles of true intent appeared in the starry space. These particles all had different coloured glows and they gradually formed into a vortex, slowly blending together, exuding a terrifying destructive energy.
Gradually and steadily, this destructive energy permeated the entire space around the mountain peak. As long as Ji Bolin willed it, this destructiveness would explode forth with overwhelming might.
"Bzzzzzzz!"
Ji Bolin, who was sitting crossed-legged waved his hand downward. Instantly, the skies cracked under the destructive power he was channelling. Gradually, thousands of gigantic fist imprints, palm imprints and even foot imprints took form in the air as his embryonic form of constellation began radiating a baleful composite might.
"Wrong, this is not perfect enough." Ji Bolin mused, "I should let it continue evolving. The enormous fist imprints should have a different might following the fusion of my many true intents."
Ji Bolin contemplated as the astral energy from the Yuan Meteor Stones were drawn into the constellation as it continued evolving. Underneath this starry sky, individual dimensions of baleful destruction appeared, each radiating an incomparable terrifying energy.
"The final touch is from my true intent of ice, there should be a faint power of stagnation everywhere. The various imprints contain the fusion of the true intents of demon, sword and devouring boasting unmatched power whilst the true intent of ice is discreetly diffused throughout the whole space under the constellation." Ji Bolin's fingers crossed forming a seal and instantly, the constellation expanded into the skies and the power of stagnation remained everywhere in a several miles radius.
(A/N: Search Zenin Jinichi from JJK and Ichibei Hyosube from Bleach for a visual reference for Fist Imprints and the likes.)
Finally, a satisfied grin appeared on Ji Bolin's face, this was the feeling he was looking for. This was the powerful offensive domain-type constellation he longed to create, the overwhelming power of stagnation was only sparingly present within that constellation but it was enough.
"The Celestial Phenomenon realm! Nothing feels different and yet I know I'm incredibly more powerful. Cultivation is so marvellous!!!" Ji Bolin chuckled.
Although he didn't feel any special feeling, he knew he was leaps stronger than before. The him right now was filled with vitality and energy, he was much stronger compared to the him of before. It felt like he had boundless strength, this feeling was simply too addictive.
Upon further inspection, Ji Bolin discovered that the first floor of his Yuanfu had changed. That transformed first floor had actually turned into a dimension. It was no longer a boundless ocean of energy but rather, it was a dimension that was completely filled with vigorous astral energy and was numerous times larger compared to before.
Indeed the Yuanfu of Ji Bolin was very different from your average cultivator.
The young Heaven Chosen obtained four Immortal ranked techniques so far from his Jade Token; Hundred Beast Refining Sutra in the Body Refinement realm, Sword Transformation Manual in the Arterial Circulation realm, Towering Glazed Astrarium Art in the Yuanfu realm and most recently Celestial Forging Tome in the Heavenly Dipper realm.
The Towering Glazed Astrarium Art was the culprit behind his boundless nine-floored Yuanfu.
Ji Bolin already had a direction on what to do due to his time in the Immortal Ascension Pagoda so his breakthrough was smooth. Adding that to his tremendous comprehension ability, as well as his proficiency in the fusion of true intent and his cultivation base, he had already reached the extreme of the Heavenly Dipper Realm, coming to a limit.
The truth was that the Celestial Phenomenon Realm to true geniuses was nothing more than a natural process, the breakthrough wasn't difficult at all.
The freshly promoted first level Ascendant could not but contemplate his surroundings, the several hills of Yuan Meteor Stones had been thoroughly used. In fact, everything containing astral energy around Ji Bolin had been thoroughly sucked dry, this was because of his devouring attribute astral soul.
"I need to be more careful in the future. I cannot be that unrestrained for each breakthrough." Ji Bolin mused.
Unknowingly six days had already gone by since the first trial ended. The entirety of the six days were used by Ji Bolin for cultivation with his breakthrough so he decided to rest for the seventh one.
Ji Bolin was by no means rushing to condense his fifth astral soul.
He had already set his sight on using an astral constellation from the 8th heavenly layer so this process would surely last for months despite his inordinate talent. He did not have that amount of time at hand so he chose to rest.
Ji Bolin rest simply consisted of eating and sleeping, nothing out of the ordinary. For much of the hours of the seventh day, the third young master of the Ji clan was peacefully drooling on his luxurious bed.
⯁⯁⯁⯁⯁
Above The Chiyan Peak, Chiyan Battle Arena.
At last the day of the second trial had arrived, the chiyan arena had been significantly changed or rather now the true form of the arena had been revealed.
Immortal light radiated from the arena and it was now no longer connected to the Chiyan mountain. In fact the peak itself had been detached from the mountain and it now hung suspended in the skies. There were a total of a Hundred-and-One stone platforms about 10 metre thick floating side to side next to each other.
The central platform was ten times wider than its counterparts and was obviously where all participants would be stationed in between their respective bouts.
Every platform was cocooned in a glistening yet transparent hair-thin protective film that projected an aura of indestructibility. They were undoubtedly able to bear the burden of those super strong ascendent combatants.
The stone platforms themselves were incomparably resistant obsidian divine material which could even bear the attacks of immortals.
That collection of a Hundred-and-One battle platforms were the real form of Chiyan Battle Arena of the Skyflame Sect. It was simply incredible.
Floating a good distance apart and surrounding the arena were extremely large spectator stands with many levels, levels masterfully stacked upon each other. At the lowest level, spectators only needed to incline their head slightly downwards and they would be able to see clearly the events happening on the battle platforms of their choosing.
The gargantuan circular ring which previously made up the stands had been dismantled into smaller floating mobile sections.
Ji Bolin couldn't help but be marvelled at how phantasmal this looked.
At this moment, countless silhouettes were already there, everywhere was flooded with spectators. The contestants were appearing in groups from time to time and roars of cheering and excitement would ring throughout the air every now and then.
"Now that everybody is here, I announce that the second trial has officially started." Senior abruptly appeared out of the void.
Ji Bolin had picked up a group previously and its members were contestants with the badges of 118, 234, 326, 488, 567, 611, 701, 888, 919 and 1005.
The owner of the bagde numbered 1005 was a young maiden called Yu Xue, she was from the Dream Immortal Pavilion and was a second level ascendant. Even as only a second tier genius, she was still from an Immortal King power so her strength was real.
Everybody in that area of the Northern Region of the Immortal realm knew that the Dao Conference Festival was organised by an immensely powerful Immortal Emperor ranked power every ten years within countless particle worlds to absorb the young geniuses of these worlds.
Obviously they could not let second tier disciples from immortal king powers snatch all those places and as such only a select few with great latent talent as herself or strong connections like direct descendants of powerful existences were allowed to partake in.
She was ranked fifth among these hundred foreign geniuses despite being only a 2nd level ascendant, her strength was not to be doubted.
The fights of Yu Xue in her group only served to further prove that tyrannical strength of hers.
Yu Xue swiftly defeated the first six contestants as they were not even in the celestial phenomenon realm under the unperturbed gaze of Ji Bolin.
In her battle against the number 326, Wu Wang, she only needed one strike from her constellation to win and two strikes for the number 234, Wang Wu, and three strikes for the number 118, Cao Zhang.
The disparity was obvious as despite only being a second tier genius in her respective power, she was still a member of an Immortal king ranked power and practice immortal level arts.
At last she was about to face her last opponent, he was a young man with short dark hair and magenta coloured eyes. From what Yu Xue could hear from the loud cheers of the spectators, he was named Ji Bolin.
The young man finally appeared on the battle platform by flying at an unhurried pace. He exuded an aura of carelessness, it was if he felt no need to put on any overbearing pretence. He had the same kind of unfettered smile that her senior brother possessed. A smile only privy to those who knew they were unbelievably strong.
Her instinct screamed at her that he was a demon-level genius, a true heaven chosen.
Yu Xue could not help but feel an unprecedented sense of threat from that young man. That fight would be much harder than she expected.