Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy

  Using Non-Phase Nameless Sword to bounce back the immortal technique, his Master's performance was really an eye opener for Wang Lu.

  The Nameless Sword was a counterattack skill that rebounds the attack by withstanding the damage. In theory, any damage could be rebounded back as long as it was within one's own limit, but this was limited to the same level attacks. At the level of immortal technique, it was difficult to say whether Non-Phase Method could still work because the level difference was simply too high, far beyond the scope of understanding of Jindan Stage. And for an incomprehensible attack, the Nameless Sword would not even know how to begin to fight back.

  Even for the number one Jindan in Nine Regions, understanding the immortal technique would be like a fantasy—even with Wang Wu's perception and intelligence, which were among the top standard in Nine Regions.

  Therefore, not to mention that Bai Ze hadn't known Wang Wu's Non-Phase Method beforehand, even if had, he still wouldn't be able to guess that his opponent would be able to analyze the immortal technique during the fight and return it back at him.

  Because even Wang Lu never thought of this. He thought that this would be a protracted bladder fight. With a large number of backup golden cores, Wang Wu would use her absolute superiority in strength to ruin the opponent. However, the result was completely unexpected. With absolute strength, Wang Wu made her counterattacks and routed the opponent in just two moves, winning an unquestionable victory.

  The power of the ten million spirit stones was really formidable.

  Wang Wu was responsible for gaining victory in the arena, while Wang Lu exploited said victory outside the arena.

  "In accordance with the stipulation, please accept this proposal and carefully read it. The competition will formally begin in three months. Looking forward to the excellent performance of the senior predecessors."

  Wang Lu did not pay attention to the embarrassed Bai Ze after his defeat. He handed over the proposal to Xuan Mo and was about to say his goodbye. Xuan Mo received that thick and heavy file with a complicated look.

  She was not a high ranking leader in the Earth Immortal group, thus, in theory, she had no right to make decisions on behalf of others. However, the defeat of Bai Ze just now was plain for everyone to see and could not be denied.

  Even though Bai Ze himself hadn't conceded his defeat…


  "It's not over yet! I can still fight! Just now, I only used a tenth of the strength, moreover, I never said I want to give up!"

  In truth, Bai Ze did use less than a tenth of Wang Wu's strength in the fight, but that was only due to his arrogance. No one forced him to suppress his power below to even that of ordinary peak Jindan Stage.

  "That's enough, Bai Ze."

  A black-clad Earth Immortal came over and put his hand on Bai Ze's shoulder. Upon being touched by the hand of that black-clad Earth Immortal, Bai Ze immediately went stiff, unable to move.

  "You did use less than a tenth of the opponent's strength, but your Negation Stamps have been broken three times in a row. If you still want to fight, you would only bring shame upon yourself. As an Earth Immortal, you should at least be willing to concede defeat. Don't let other people be ashamed of you."

  After saying that to Bai Ze, that black-clad man turned to his colleagues and said, "The methods of the later generation cultivators are indeed an eye-opener. Able to analyze immortal technique in Jindan Stage, that is simply unheard of. But I think this is also a miracle for them. These days, everyone has woken up from their deep slumber one after the other, and we all have seen the true ability of the later generation cultivators. Even if we follow their rules, we still have the absolute advantage."

  The voice of that black-clad man was so cold that it was more like reading a script than boosting the morale. After that, he said to Wang Lu, "It would be according to your plan. Three months later, we'll arrange the venue for you. I hope that after the competition, we can lay aside the unnecessary disputes and face the real enemy together."

  Upon hearing this, Wang Lu was startled. "Since you really understand the affair, why aren't you the leader of this group of Earth Immortals?"

  "Because I was a sinner."

  With that, the black-clad man disappeared without a trace, but the sentence of 'I was a sinner' attracted numerous sighs of regret from the other Earth Immortals. Obviously, there was a very deep story hidden behind it.

  However, what Wang Lu cared was not the story behind it, nor was he interested in inquiring about the monstrous crimes that he had committed. "So, since he is not the leader, do his words count?"

  Xuan Mo silently nodded.

  —


  Three months later, the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals and the ancient Earth Immortals would launch an earth-shaking contest in the group of immortal tombs.

  According to the plan announced by the Immortal Tomb Management Committee, the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals would organize an elite team that consisted of more than two thousand people, starting from Daoist Master of Jindan Stage to Supreme of Unity Stage. From the head of the Five Uniques to the future star of the middle-rank sects. They were all chosen to compete against the unknown number of Earth Immortals.

  The competition was divided into two categories: civil and martial, each weighing half of the total points. It was just that, the civil subject was very carefully divided. There were more than a thousand events, every subject was included, including zither, go, calligraphy, painting, etc. They were then further divided according to age and stage, which was simply dazzling. The martial events were few, but each event had more weight, especially the high profile individual fights, which was accounted for a tenth of the total score.

  Ultimately, the loot would be distributed according to the scores of both parties, including the result in the future war, the ownership of the ancient secret treasures in the group of immortal tombs, and so on. If one side could dominantly win all the battles in a very convincing manner, it would naturally result in the winner-take-all situation. However, according to common sense, the result would likely be mixed, meaning that the two sides would equally share the loot, and the management was also a mixture of both sides… Such a result was actually the most ideal.

  Democratic decision making might not be efficient, but it was better than direct confrontation between the two sides.

  Of course, that being said, who would dare not to give their best in the competition? For the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals, it was necessary to do their utmost for the win. The opponents were the ancient Earth Immortals, so even if they suppressed their stage, which limited what they could do, they were still people half a step away from immortality. No one dared to guarantee their win except for the kind of freak like Wang Wu. If they were not careful, the Earth Immortals would likely win most of the competition.

  These two thousand members elite team had to be extremely careful. Organizing for them to convene alone would consume a great deal of time and manpower. Previous high-level meetings only defined the basic framework for the organization and operation of the team, such as the selection of the team of elites by the various sects; the sects with different rank had differing amounts of nominations—naturally, the Five Uniques of the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals had the largest number of candidates. This alone was enough to ensure that they could gain the greatest benefits in the competition.

  However, apart from the Five Uniques, the interests of the other sects could not be ignored, not to mention that some small sects were also quite skilled. Therefore, how to balance the quota allocation while also taking into account the combat effectiveness of the team was a really great question. For this reason, several permanent members of the Management Committee were very busy with the general plan, such that they even split their primordial spirit to tackle the problem. At the same time, from time to time, Supreme He Tu and other high-level experts from the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals visited the major sects, asking them to fully cooperate through coercion or luring.

  It took a month for the list of the two thousand elites to be finalized. And two months later, the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals, without pulling any punches, assigned resources to strengthen these two thousand people, especially those in Jindan and Yuanying Stages—it would be difficult to strengthen any stage higher than that in a short amount of time.

  In addition, it was relatively easier to speed up the training of the 'civil' part of the competition—especially for some unpopular events, which no normal person would spend the time to learn those skills. And anyone with the right qualification could make great strides in a few months through intensive training. However, for the ancient Earth Immortals, it was likely that they did not have much time to waste.

  There were no more than a hundred people in the Earth Immortal team, and it was impossible for them to cope with the thousands of competitions in the proposal. It was even more impossible for them to take the time to take into account these unpleasant events.

  And although the individual event score for these unpopular events was not much, their total could not be underestimated. If the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals could be sure to grasp this part of the total score in hand, it was the equivalent of having an advantage before the match began… For this reason, one could only sigh in admiration for the overflowing talent of the designers of this plan, which could not possibly be thought by an ordinary person.

  —


  "Oh? Those later generation cultivators are actually very clever!"

  Inside the group of immortal tombs, a slender cultivator looked at the proposal in his hand and issued a cold laughter.

  "Want to compete for the amount of knowledge? It's a really good calculation! A pity that when I was in the immortal world, I was seriously hurt and only woke up from a deep sleep today! With me here, don't ever think that you guys can win in the amount of knowledge; I have read more books than the amount of rice that you have ever eaten."

  Bai Ze smiled at first, but eventually, out of habit, retorted, "Don't be careless. Although your knowledge is unparalleled in the world, but…"

  "There's no but. Bai Ze, are you questioning my strength?"

  "… Of course not, I do not need to question the Dao of knowledge of my fellow Earth Immortal."

  —


  At the same time, on the other side.

  "Listen, we are a group of people with poor root bone and thus no way to advance in the path of immortal cultivation. However, today, we are highly regarded by the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals, enjoying the luxurious treatments reserved for their elites… Thus, in the next few months, even if we have to risk our lives, we should give our best to complete the task and get valuable points for the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals!"

  In a quiet room made with ice crystals, twenty young cultivators from various sects nervously looked at the old man in front of them.

  The old man was right—their root bones were not good, and their paths in immortal cultivation were hopeless. Indeed, they only really had one skill. But… the old man himself was an Elder of the Ten Thousand Arts Sect who had a venerated status.

  Instead of saying more, the Elder just waved his hand and a heavy book was placed on each of their tables. When these young cultivators opened their book, they saw questions that dazzled them.

  Few examples of the question were - 1. For Jindan Stage cultivator, which of the following statements was incorrect:

  A: If a Jindan Stage cultivator is not satisfied of the quality of their own golden core, they can repair it by crushing it.

  B: A variety of Daos can be fused in a golden core.

  C: Successful formation of the golden core is necessary to reach Jindan Stage.

  D: From Xudan Stage to Jindan Stage, the total increase of the amount of magical power is threefold at the minimum.

  2. Suppose there are three types of sword arts, namely Autumn Breeze, Summer Rain, and Winter Cold. The attributes and comparison tables are as follow… Try to build a set of core method that can be perfectly compatible with the three sets of sword arts.

  3. Try to refine three pills using Autumn Forest Grass, Ambergris, and Cabernet Sauvignon without the aid of tools and special skills.

  —


  Apart from questions related to cultivation, there was also zither, go, calligraphy, painting, and even other miscellaneous things. The types of topics were all-encompassing, and the difficulty was varied. And after these common sense questions, there were also a large number of diagram-pattern questions, numeral reasoning questions, and even so far as calculation of astronomical numbers that were dizzying to people.

  "Elder, what are these?"

  "These are the challenges that we are going to face in two months. The questions will come out of the Mixed Heaven Questions…"

  The young people before him were startled. "Mixed Heaven Questions? Isn't that a treasure book that is known to have endless questions?"

  "Yes. It is also one of the treasures of the Ten Thousand Arts Sect, which would be personally presented by the Supreme Sect Leader. He and the representative from the Earth Immortal team would control it together to issue random questions under the prescribed mode to ensure justice. But the difficulty of the topic would be astonishing."

  One of the young cultivators asked, "Is it our task to score higher than the Earth Immortal team in this competition?"

  "Yes. But the ancient Earth Immortals are probably a generation with extensive scholarly knowledge, so it is probably not enough to just gather us bookworms together to outdo the opponents in the amount of knowledge. Therefore, the Management Committee Member Wang Lu ingeniously invented this set of exercise system, which can limit the use of pure knowledge and make the situation favorable to our side. However, we still need to make great efforts to win. From now on, every day, each of you would do one hundred and twenty sets of simulated exercises to adapt to this written test situation to increase our odds of winning."

  "One hundred and twenty sets!"

  "Yes. For ordinary mortals, this is absolutely impossible. But you guys at least are cultivators of immortal cultivation, so you guys ought to be able to do such small matters, right?"

  These young people looked at each other and then looked down at the exam paper. The more they look, the paler they became.

  One hundred and twenty sets of exercise every day. Even if they didn't sleep, they would still need to do five sets of exercise per hour. However, a set of exercise could go as many as twenty pages; if it were ordinary mortals, just to read it all would need an hour of time, let alone trying to solve it one by one. And even if they were a bunch of nerds who were known for they keenness and resilience, they had to complete five sets in an hour… that would require them to give everything they had.

  "Elder, I think…"

  Before that person finished the question, it was immediately interrupted by the elder of Ten Thousand Arts Sect. They saw him clap his hands, and immediately, a row of brackets appeared in front of the crowds with glittering porcelain vases hanging down from them. Each of them was connected with a leather tube and a needle.

  "This is a refreshing soup that can keep primordial spirit running at high speed, which would be injected directly to your body. During this period, you guys would have infinite supplies of this refreshing soup, so there's no need to worry about exhaustion."

  These young people who already looked pale burst out with cold sweat—it was indeed possible for them to do the training using the primordial spirit refreshing soup… but, the problem was, after a long-term dependence on drugs, that person could end up wasted.

  However, the Elder's torture was not over. "One hundred and twenty sets of exercise each day, with the correct rate of each set of exercise above fifty percent. If you can't reach this number, additional ingredients will be given to your refreshing soup."

  Additional ingredients? Everyone was confused. It was easy to understand if punishment was imposed for failure. But whether it was physical or mental pain, it would only reduce the efficiency of the problem solving, so wouldn't that only make it worse?

  "Humph, I know what you guys are thinking. Rest assured, it would not make you feel pain and distracted. But, if you fail to reach the target, there would be more 'Autumn Medicine' in the refreshing soup. And after the injection, the length of the male's p*nis will be reduced, and the female's breast size will shrink, the change is irreversible."

  Deadly silence descended in that room.

  The elder smiled coldly. "Do you, understand?"

  Everyone shouted in unison, "Understood! We will guarantee that the target percentage is reached!"