Darknorth Immortal Gorge

The selection test of Redcloud City and its territories has ended.

Although the selection test has ended, the immortal city was still extremely lively as the inns on the streets were fully filled and the topic of conversation were all regarding this selection test. Information about the top 1,000 contestants could be bought cheaply in any Star Parasol Pavilion.

On the streets, many people laughed as they chatted leisurely while some others sighed lamenting the fact that their cultivations were too low. The immortal realms were simply too vast. For weaklings, they were destined only to be able to see a corner of the immortal realms for their entire lives like frogs forever trapped at the bottom of a well.

Although there were things like spatial transference arrays, given the wealth of ordinary people, how could any of them afford it?

This was the reality of being weak and was also the reason why people in the immortal realms emphasised on pursuing strength so heavily. If one couldn't become a strong expert, you can't even tour the immortal realms to view the beautiful lakes and mountains that existed here. The worst case scenario for the weak is being bullied and killed due to their own mediocrity.

In a certain area located on an ancient mountain peak within the immediate territories under the control of the Redcloud City, Ji Bolin sat in his cave room cross-legged. Abruptly, his eyes opened as sharpness gleamed within as he inclined his head and stared in a certain direction. Over there, an overwhelming fiery aura was gushing forth tyrannically, permeating the entire atmosphere.

Stepping out, Ji Bolin instantly arrived on a huge rock on the ancient peak, only to briefly see nine clones of Di Yan disappearing only leaving the original sitting there calmly as his aura fluctuated intensely around him. In an instant, the hill-size rock had already melted by a third which had left him sitting in a pool of lava.

At this moment, Kang Tian's silhouette also flew over from afar accompanied by Xi Wenling. Her beautiful eyes flickered as she stared at Di Yan on the rock and to her surprise, she actually felt a faint sense of pressure boring down on her.

In ordinary cases, these four would usually not acknowledge each other out because of their respective background or personality. But because the four of them had gone through so much together, a faint camaraderie had slowly been bred between them..

Among these four, Di Yan cultivation level was initially the highest and after the puppet trial he broke through to the fifth-level. Now, he was already showing signs of an imminent breakthrough to the sixth-level of Celestial Phenomenon. The other three were all still in the fourth-level and would take a bit more time to break through. Only after that they could think about catching up to him.

The three of them simply stood there silently until a rumbling sound rang out. Di Yan had broken through and entered the Sixth-level of Celestial Phenomenon.

"How refreshing." Di Yan stood up, his eyes gleaming with sharpness. When he noticed these three behind him, he retracted his aura, stood up and turned to them. "Brother Ji, Sister Xi, Brother Kang."

"Awesome." Kang Tian praised.

Di Yan gave a straightforward nod accompanied with a soft smirk, his exquisite features were nice to watch with a smile painted on it. If one didn't witness how he fought against others, they would never be able to imagine such an exquisite young man could be such a lunatic.

Cultivation was just such a mystical process. Sometimes one would break through during battle, sometimes one could break through in tranquillity or sometimes just like Di Yan's situation, after mad exertion and when things quieted down.

But no matter what, breaking through a cultivation level was a product of sufficient accumulation by the individual. When enough water droplets are collected, a river would naturally form. Di Yan was simply forcing more droplets to fall at a time by means of his cloning immortal-ranked art.

Geniuses are really people beyond common sense. Di Yan being able to use a purely combat oriented technique for daily cultivation was just one example.

"After you have stabilised your foundations, we should head back to the City." Ji Bolin added. Di Yan nodded his head and stared at the horizons. Immortal Ascension Selection? He's coming soon.

Unknown to them, today was the twentieth birthday of Ji Bolin.

𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀

For the twelve days after the selection test, the entire Redcloud City was more lively than usual. When the fated twelfth day arrived, a wave of countless silhouettes gathered over at the Redcloud district. While the 1,000 selected participants also arrived one after another.

Today was none other than the day where they would head to the Darknorth Immortal Gorge.

These 1,000 participants came in a domineering manner, occupying the various floating platforms in the air. They all naturally exuded some form of supreme aura as though they were the innate chosens of the heavens.

The top 10 naturally received the most number of stares.

Kang Tian swept his eyes through the crowd, halting briefly on the top 10. His exquisite lips curled up in a smile of extreme sharpness as hints of battle intent appeared in his eyes. Most of the 1,000 participants casually ignored it, but some turned their heads and the aura exuding from them felt as though they were about to lunge out at any moment.

There was no fear of any of them at all in Kang Tian's heart.

The group of four had naturally bought a list of intel about the 1,000 participants and their cultivation realm was clearly detailed on it. The various Star Parasol Pavilions were sure good at doing business so much so that they sold almost everything.

On the list there was intel on many things but the most important piece of it was their cultivation realm as well as the fact that many had at least one astral soul from the 7th heavenly layer.

Meng Hao, a seventh-level ascendant.

Xu Qing, an eighth-level ascendant.

Han Youdi, a sixth-level ascendant.

Di Yan, a sixth-level ascendant.

Fang Yu, an eighth-level ascendant.

Bai Tian & Bai Yuan, eight-level ascendants.

Cao Zhan, a ninth-level ascendant.

Kang Tian, a fourth-level ascendant.

Han Mu, a ninth-level ascendant.

Shortly after, several immortal-foundation experts arrived. In fact, the heads of many of the city's major powers, all at the immortal king realm, were also here today. It was as though all of them were also preparing to head to the Darknorth Immortal Gorge together.

But this was also very normal. This event was organised once every hundred years by the Darknorth Immortal Dynasty. These major powers naturally had to show their face and be present to greet people from the Empire. After all, the Darknorth Immortal Dynasty was the governor of an immeasurable amount of regions which included their territories.

This time round this expedition to the Darknorth Immortal Gorge could be considered a tempering exercise as well as an opportunity for the geniuses. But to experts of their level, they were going over to pay their respects to the Darknorth Immortal Emperor.

The Redcloud Marquis also brought along a number of experts. He swept his gaze over to the participants and upon seeing everyone wearing the Redcloud Medallion on their robes, a content smile involuntarily painted his face.

"The expedition this time around will be aided by the immense spatial transference array of my Redcloud Palace. The travel distance of this array can span boundless miles and can directly connect to the array near the Darknorth Immortal Gorge. Now, come along with me and let's head out." The Redcloud Marquis spoke as he turned and soared towards that imposingly majestic Redcloud Palace which he resided in.

The people here all followed after the Redcloud Marquis.

The Darknorth Immortal Dynasty controlled an immeasurable amount of lands, hence there was an immense spatial transference array built within each of the 'truly major' cities. This was established by the Darknorth Immortal Dynasty as they could arrive instantly if there were any events of great importance. However, this array couldn't be used casually and external people would almost never have a chance to use it at all. This time around was an exception.

The experts couldn't help but stare when they saw it.

There were actually a total of two extremely large such spatial transference arrays, each one corresponding to a particular location. The array on the right had a gigantic word engraved on it — Gorge.

This array is the one that would lead them to the Darknorth Immortal Gorge.

The Redcloud Marquis then spoke, "Go stand in it batch by batch according to the numbers on your medallions. The first batch consists of numbers 901 to 1000. Go on."

As the sound of his voice faded, a hundred people moved out and stepped into the huge array. When the array activated, a burst of blinding light flashed as the entire atmosphere trembled violently while the first hundred to move out vanished in the blink of an eye.

"The second batch." After that the Redcloud Marquis spoke again as batch after batch of participants stepped into the array before vanishing from view. When the last group of participants disappeared, Yi Dong and the heads from the several major powers then stepped onto the array as they too, also vanished from sight. The surrounding troops from the Redcloud City all had solemn expressions on their faces as they stood guard before the array despite the fact that it was now empty.

The dark-robed general was the one who would be in charge until his master's return.

In a short span of time, the demon-level characters selected from the Cloud Prefectures had already departed the Cloud Prefecture, heading towards the place that contained their dreams!

𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀

The spatial transference array warped everyone to the Nightcrypt City near the Darknorth Immortal Gorge.

The geniuses of all hundred regions were all gathered together in an area segregated into a hundred parts.

As the silhouettes of the participants soared through the air, the geniuses of each region gathered respectively at the spot designated for their prefecture.

The Darknorth Immortal Dynasty contains a hundred prefectures and from a geographical point of view, the prefectures looked as if they were haphazardly put together.

All hundred prefecture lords were immortal emperors at various stages of the realm.

They would randomly select a city in their territories to host the preselection every 100 years. Ironically Redcloud City would host the event almost every time because of the Marquis' overwhelming might.

As for the geniuses of the hundred prefectures, if one wanted to talk about fame, it would naturally be that the geniuses from the Darknorth Prefecture were the most famous.

In fact this should not be like this since the selection was organised in one of the westernmost prefectures far from the capital. But since the Darknorth prefecture geniuses came from very powerful supreme powers, the name of famous geniuses had a higher possibility of being circulated around which led to their higher fame.

Right now, alongside with the over 100,000 geniuses arriving, this area was filled with a stifling pressure. The aura from them all was too overwhelming despite the fact that they were merely Celestial Phenomenon Ascendants.

The additional 20,000 ascendants who entered via a backdoor or Immortal Ascension Token were not there but why? The answer would soon be presented to them.

When over a hundred thousand supreme geniuses stood together, the aura that gushed forth from all of them seemed to become a force field capable of collapsing anything.

Ji Bolin and his companions were also in the air, heading straight for the location where the Redcloud Marquis was at.

He and his group were contemplating the experts similarly rushing there with a solemn look on their faces. These would be the people that would be their competitors and many of them are extraordinary individuals.

Just taking an additional glance would incite the feeling of being pressured and the term 'geniuses as common as clouds' must surely be describing this situation.

They understood that not only for the top 10 rankers of the various cities, there was no guarantee that the lower rankers would be weaker than those top rankers.

A very good example of this was how the Redcloud Marquis conducted his trial. He was extremely diligent in his effort for the testing so much so that for the same cultivation realm, his selected participants were all top notch.

"They've arrived. The selected participants from the hundred cities are all here." Below, the crowd commented as they starred in the air, feeling stunned in their hearts.

What a powerful force field. There were so many characters that exuded a magnificence beyond the generations.

"So many demon-level characters." Beside Di Yan, Ji Bolin mumbled softly. Kang Tian and Di Yan nodded their heads lightly. Other than the top 10 rankers of each prefecture, there are still many outstanding characters.

All four of them could feel their heart pound from excitement. This would be a formidable tempering expedition but they could easily die if they are caught being too weak or inferior.

"That person is so strange, he's the top ranker of Netherworld City. There seems to be an armour of cold flames around him, only his eyes are visible. Just gazing at him made me feel a rush of hellish cold. I wonder how people would fight against him." Below, the crowd mumbled as they starred in the direction where those of the Netherworld City convened.

Not only for the top ranker of the Netherworld City, there were many experts who also displayed magnificent techniques such as cracking snakes of lightning coiling around one and so on.

"Those from Solar Mountain City are the opposite, giving off a hot yet vibrant feeling."

"Look over there at the experts from the Redcloud City, those characters are all so heroic. Each of them exudes such regal aura. They were truly akin to innate chosen of the heavens"

"Both the Redcloud and Heavenspan Cities also have monks among their numbers. Monk cultivators are rarely seen but there are many in the Heavenspan group."

"The prefecture where Heavenspan is located is said to be an arid land of desolation; the environment is extremely wretched, there would often be natural disasters such as heavenly lighting striking out from the blue and destroying cities. For example, a building constructed today might simply be destroyed tomorrow due to these natural disasters. Hence, the number of cities there were fewer, with many different races living there constituting a variety of cultivators."

"These two cities were also situated near the Empire's border. The Redcloud Marquis would often lead his troops on punitive expeditions."

There were many discussions going on among the crowd.

Ji Bolin's perception was powerful and could clearly hear the discussions.

He couldn't help but to marvel at how vast the immortal realms were. There were too many extraordinary grounds and different races in the Darknorth Immortal Dynasty which he couldn't imagine. There were certainly more than in the many books he read in his previous life.

"Move out." At this moment, the Redcloud Marquis commanded.

Instantly, the 1,000 geniuses from his Redcloud City all moved out together, constituting an imposing and magnificent sight.

"Move out."

"Move out."

The Marquises of the hundred cities all commanded one after another as the participants all flew towards the Darknorth Immortal Gorge together. Over 100,000 experts were currently flying in the air. They looked down at this ancient Nightcrypt City, and the ends of the city couldn't even be seen within their vision.

After some time they were finally out of the city's boundary and approached a forbidden zone, a heaven-shaking bell chime resounded through the air as experts guarding the Darknorth Immortal Gorge were all awaiting them with smiles!

𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀 𝛀

Darknorth Immortal Gorge, Entrance

"We are here." The gazes of the crowd were fixed ahead.

Above a pitch black tower of crystal, countless experts had coronas of immortal light around them, it was an extremely dazzling sight.

However, the participants discovered that there was an arched door behind these experts on the tower side. The Darknorth Immortal Gorge was a huge forbidden zone protected by a formation arranged by means of 108 similar towers. It was incomparably vast, even larger than cities in the immortal realms.

"We will leave these participants in all your hands then." At this moment, the Redcloud Marquis stated.

After which, the hundred Marquises all headed to the front as some floating initial stage immortal-King experts on top opened up a path for them as they respectfully greeted, "A warm welcome to all the Marquises. Seniors, don't worry about them, just leave the participants to me."

"Mhm." The city lords nodded as they entered, leaving the participants behind.

Once on the inside they were warped into a floating palace high above the Darknorth Immortal Gorge where they would entertain a banquet until the selection was over and their Emperor arrived.

"Since all of you could be here to attend the selection, it meant that your talents are outstanding among your peers in your respective regions. However, our Darknorth Immortal Dynasty would never accept ordinary people. Through this Immortal Ascension selection test, you all will have an opportunity to join us but our quota this time around is only up till 3,000 disciples." the expert paused and studied everyone before continuing.

"Of course it means that you guys will compete against each other and 97,000 of you would be eliminated leaving behind the last thousand. And if the last remaining ones are willing, they can take their first steps into our power."

An expert that was radiating with an intense immortal light stared at the participants as he spoke.

However, his words didn't surprise any of them. The reason why they would organise this event was precisely because they wanted to build up their foundations more by recruiting and nurturing talents.

Still eliminating that many geniuses was crazy.

"The next event shall be the first test. The 1st to 3rd level ascendants to my right, the 4th to 6th level ascendants to my front and the 7th to 9th level ascendants to my left." the expert commanded before starting another round of explanation.

"The top 1,000 of each of their respective groups can become external disciples if they so desire. The 3,000 who passes gain the right to take the next test. For those who can walk all the way till the end and become one of the top 10 rankers, their fame would shake the world. But most importantly they will become the nominated disciple of almost any one of the many immortal emperors from the Dynasty. If your talent is enough then gaining the opportunity to receive their guidance or even a chance to become their personal disciple is possible. All of you better cherish this chance."

Many reflected on the 3,000 who could join the Dynasty but the true geniuses, those who possessed the hearts of chosen from the heavens, had already set their sight on these 10 spots.

They were absolutely confident in their ability secure one.

Another expert approached as the one who had talked disappeared inside the tower.

"I'll be the examiner for that round. This test is beyond simple. You will teleport inside the Darknorth Immortal Gorge and only have to cull your numbers to 1,000 per group. However, once there will be only 20,000 of you left then the seeded 20,000 participants will be allowed to join. Don't worry, the formation separates the Gorge into three distinct pocket spaces so you won't run into participants of a higher realm than your group. Unfortunately for you, there are demonic beasts captured from all over the immortal realms in there as well as heinous imprisoned criminals. They act as some type of guards. Once you enter you will understand better what they guard." the peak immortal-foundation expert spoke.

"A little bit of a reminder. There are only two ways out alive of the Darknorth Immortal Gorge. The first is simple as it comes — to be one of these 3,000 rankers. The second is to snatch the Immortal Ascension Tokens of the seeded players. This means that this is the Burial grounds for 80,000 of you so. . . Who wants to retreat?" the expert asked with a flat tone.

"Gasp" this was the reaction of the majority of the participants yet none abandoned.

"Good!!! You have one year to cull your numbers down to 20,000 and another year to bring it even further to 3,000. You will notice right away after you enter how to keep tabs on the number of alive participants." the Immortal expert paused before adding one last thing.

"The Darknorth Immortal Dynasty is not a sect but an immortal everlasting empire. Only those that have shed countless amounts of blood can really aspire to become one of ours and share our glory. I will be happy to have 3,000 junior brothers in two years. Now enter!!!" These wise words echoed in the air as the crowd of heaven chosen rushed past the tower.

Some were faster than others in doing so but ultimately it did not matter as the formation would randomly teleport every participant to the Darknorth Immortal Gorge at least a million miles apart from each other.

The peak Immortal-foundation expert watched with cold eyes as the 100,000 ascendants entered the Gorge.

He too was once the top ranker of the Immortal Ascension Selection just as the Redcloud Marquis, Yi Dong. Both once dyed that forbidden ground red with the blood of countless other heaven chosen.

Indeed he once subjugated that burial ground's countless dangers with his own sky-defying strength; in the blink of an eye, 600 years had already gone by.