Fighting was handled by the Silvermoon Wolfking and silverback gorilla for the last five hundred kilometers. Reaching the end proved to be quite easy after all. A pitch-black island loomed ahead of them, like a great shadow cast over heaven and earth. Even Lu Yun’s Spectral Eye couldn’t get a good look at the specifics.
However, the young man was sure of at least one thing: the island was located on the other side of the Blood Sea, and not within the ocean. In light of that, his curiosity continued to grow—what was the Sovereign Ranking, exactly?
……
There was a melee at the very end of the path.
Here, some of the divines had set up an ambush to throw passing cultivators back onto the walkway over the Blood Sea. Their would-be victims were no slouches, however; everyone who had come this far was exceptionally talented. Resistance against the divines came naturally to them.
Although the ambushing divines were hidden in the void with some special techniques, cultivators of various other races had banded together to strike at divines who arrived there openly.
The Path of Ingress was too wide to fully encompass; cultivators who walked upon it were almost ant-like in scale. Although Lu Yun and Qing Han hadn’t encountered many people on their way through, more and more cultivators were joining them every second.
Right now, at least several hundred thousand of them were gathered here.
Humans, monster spirits, and cultivators of other races had formed all kinds of groups to gang up on any divines that passed by. From time to time, their efforts were sufficient to force some out of concealment.
The divine race had gained an air of mystery after relinquishing worldly rule eighty thousand years ago; its members rarely appeared to the public anymore. This time, quite a few of them had chosen to participate. Although they weren’t as numerous as the other races, their talents far outstripped their competitors’.
Of course, plenty of cultivators with ulterior motives were provoking fights for their own gain as well. Although all contestants were uniformly limited to golden core, the strength they displayed far surpassed their theoretical realm.
Thump—
A dull impact saw the little daoist nun from earlier flying back once more. She landed in front of a startled Lu Yun in a heap.
“How’d you get tossed back here again?” Qing Han helped her up.
“There were seven of them! Not fair!” The girl looked like she was about to cry. She cast a pitiable look at Qing Han, unsure of whether to ask for help; she was out of restorative pills.
Qing Han passed one along, which the girl accepted with hurried thanks.
“Out of the way!” An ochre-colored man came barreling in their direction and came at the nun with a pair of hammers. “How dare a human wench eliminate my brother. Die!”
A loud hum preceded the weapons’ transformation into two small mountains, its zone of effect now encompassing Lu Yun’s entire quartet.
To Lu Yun however, the man’s movements told a different story. Instead of trying to kill the quartet, the man was actually trying to blast them back onto the Path of Ingress in the Blood Sea for the marine creatures to finish the job.
“No, you die!” The silverback gorilla grinned evilly and ran up to intercept the attack with its staff.
“Don’t kill him!” the girl warned hastily. “We can’t kill anyone here. Anyone who does will be eliminated themselves!”
But it was too late; the gorilla’s staff collided with the pair of mountain-sized hammers.
Clang!
Metal struck metal with a resounding clash. The staff of dubious quality exploded into chunks, and the gorilla soared through the air like a cannonball.
“Bastard! Are you trying to get yourself killed?” The ochre man was propelled in the opposite direction. His arms trembling, cold sweat gathered on his face.
The attack had been intended for all five in the group, but the silverback gorilla had taken the brunt of the whole thing itself. If it weren’t for its monstrous physique, the gorilla would’ve been pulverized.
Clambering up from the path over the Blood Sea, the gorilla snapped a few blood monsters’ necks before charging back. Its physical fortitude rendered it largely invulnerable against cultivators of the same realm.
Roaring to the sky, it produced yet another staff and lunged forth in a wild bash. Though the ochre man seemed to have had the advantage in the last exchange, he’d been granted it entirely through the quality of his hammers.
The meridians in the man’s hands had exploded from the recoil, blocking the flow of internal energy in his body and preventing him from channeling any energy to grip the hammers for another go. He looked in despair at the sight of the falling staff—
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Six blasts of force slammed into the gorilla from behind the man, sending it hurtling backward once again as six more ochre-colored men strode to their brethren’s side.
“Humans and monsters cooperating? How odd,” said the smallest of the six. He was the slimmest and most diminutive, but possessed the strongest presence out of the group. He squinted at Lu Yun’s company with thoughtful eyes.
This time, the Silvermoon Wolfking dashed to the rear and dragged the gorilla back.
The unfortunate simian wasn’t in good shape anymore. There wasn’t a single unbroken bone in its body, and its mouth foamed with blood. If the six men hadn’t pulled their punches, it probably would’ve died on the spot.
“Mountain Divines!” Lu Yun breathed out the two words, taking in the earthen glow of the seven men in wonder.
Mountain divines found their origin in the worship of divine spirits located in mountains and rivers. When more and more of them came together, males and females reproduced to form a tribe.
There were two kinds of mountain divines.
One was aligned with nature and could make use of its power to shift mountains and rivers. The other kind included the seven men before him—projections of pure earthen might with bodies built like mountains.
Qing Han fed a healing pill to the gorilla, who grumbled a few times before stumbling to its feet; it knew better than to fight again.
“Why are we wasting time? We should eliminate them and avenge our eighth brother!” the first mountain divine shouted.
“Die!” The other six readily met the call. They’d come here to ambush the other races’ geniuses, working to ensure there’d be less competition for their own race’s promising youth.
This was due to an important discovery: the second round of the Sovereign Ranking had a lot to do with luck, as well as strength. The island before them was filled with opportunity. Ancient immortal heritages were everywhere, including those that belonged to the current races’ ancestors.
“Rooooar!” The Silvermoon Wolfking bristled at the divines’ assault and every hair over its body turned a glistening silver. A colossal wolf shadow rose up from behind it, pouncing upon the seven divines. This was its race’s talent.
……
“The Silvermoon Wolfking has finally come!” Cultivators ahead of them who’d noticed the disturbance paled. When it came to talent, Wolfkings were definitely among the most gifted of all. Thankfully, this one was only in the spirit realm. For some, it didn’t pose much of a threat.
“The Silvermoon Wolfking is the pinnacle of our silver bloodline! Those divine pieces of trash are nothing before our young wolf king. Come on, let’s go watch him win!” Fresh out of a battle, a few monster spirit cultivators were invigorated by the wolf-shadow’s appearance and dashed toward it as fast as they could.
