Chapter 174 – God’s Realm
Zhong Yue met up with Qi Feng, Lei Teng and the others while on the other hand, the hall masters gathered together as well. Zuo Xiangsheng looked around and said seriously, “Today is the day of the battle! Swords Gate has selected us to participate in the battle and during the battle, we all fight for the Swords Gate and the future of the Great Wilderness! Remember that no matter how strong is your opponent, you will have to fight with your life and give it all you’ve got to attain victory!
Everyone nodded in solemn silence.
Tian Yanzong also said seriously, “Make the Swords Gate proud!”
Then, the white robed priest who was responsible for registering them walked towards them with a few of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s diciples. He then looked at everyone before finally landing his gaze on Zhong Yue, at which the latter simply smiled back at him. The white robed priest humphed and looked towards the other side as he was afraid that he would fail to restrain himself and impulsively kill Zhong Yue.
“Come with me.”
The white robed priest walked forward and said coldly, “This time, you Swords Gate do not know your limit and dare to challenge our Xiao Mang Celestial Race. However, we are a generous race so we opened up a God’s Realm as the stage for your battles. You humans from the Swords Gate must have never seen what a God’s realm is I presume? It would be an honor for you if you were killed in the God’s Realm, humans.”
“God’s Realm?”
Lei Teng laughed and replied, Truly generous of you Xiao Mang Celestial Race. You could even bring yourselves to open up the secret realm within the body of a godly spirit. I guess that it would be a very interesting and happy thing to do if those from the Xiao Mang Celestial Race were to die inside the God’s Realm of their own godly spirit!”
The disciples behind the white robed priest became incensed and when they were on the verge of lashing out, the white robed priest raised his hand and said, “There’s no need to be so calculative with soon-to-be-dead people. He may say something bad for now but after he is dead, he would naturally be silenced for eternity. It’s better to let him have his final words now.”
Lei Teng laughed even louder and he asked the few disciples of Xiao Mang Celestial Race, “Brothers, do you like to eat dog meat?”
One of them replied angrily, “Do you eat human meat? You like it raw or cooked? I could treat you as we have nothing much except for an enormous amount of human slaves.”
Lei Teng maintained his laughing expression and said, “In the battle later, you will find out whether I like it raw or cooked. I guess I will cook a pot of dog meat with soup to fill up my stomach.”
The disciple replied, “You will be devoured alive by Senior Martial Sister Xiao Qin with no mercy later!”
Lei Teng’s face brightened up and he asked, “So the Awakening level candidate for you is a bitch? And her name is Xiao Qin? Good, good! I’d better prepare a pot and wait for her to jump into my pot!”
The two continued to argue while Zuo Xiangsheng and the others remained silent. They followed the white robed priest and they passed celestial temples and palaces one after another before finally arriving at the peak of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race’s saint mountain. When they got to the supreme celestial temple, there were huge celestial race statues standing in front of the temple that were very tall and emitted an aura that placed in inexplicable pressure on people.
At that time, there were already countless people waiting in front of the temple, the majority of whom were Qi Practitioners of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. When they gathered together, their collective aura merged together to place a huge amount pressure on Zhong Yue and the others.
Other than the Qi Practitioners from the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, there were other people from the other celestial races as well. When Zhong Yue looked around carefully, he saw quite a few of them that came from the Shen Ya, Shan Shen and the Gui Shen celestial race.
Qi Practitioners from the Gui Shen Celestial Race were cyclops and Qi Practitioners from the Shen Ya Celestial Race appeared to have bird heads and human bodies while the Qi Practitioners from the Shan Shen Celestial Race had four limbs and four eyes – it was quite easy to distinguish each of the different races from one another.
The Qi Practitioners from these three great celestial races must have been brought along by their respective high priests. They were here to witness the battles and also to have a look at the battle between the Xiao Mang Celestial Race and the humans in order to increase their knowledge and to broaden their perception.
Those who were selected to observe the battles were all people with great talent and possessed far greater combat power than those at their respective levels. This huge congregation of exceptional individuals formed an ineffable pressure on everyone else there!
As soon as Zhong Yue and the others showed up, they could feel thousands of gazes shooting towards them. One would not be able to withstand the direct gazes of all these strong Qi Practitioners if they did not possess a strong will and a strong mind.
After having survived through countless trials and tribulations, it was natural that Zhong Yue was able to remain calm and ignore this pressure, but Qi Feng and a few other weaker Qi Practitioners was not able to do the same. Their faces turned slightly blanched as they felt their minds going blank and began to suffocate.
“Don’t be afraid”
Upon seeing their faces, Zhong Yue whispered to them, “If you are afraid, then you would have lost the battle before the battle could even start! Qi Practitioners are all individuals of strong will, able to remain steadfast in the face of great dangers and adversity.”
Qi Feng and the few Qi Practitioners looked at him gratefully and they quickly calmed themselves down.
Although the few of them had participated in many friendly matches with the Qi Practitioners back in Swords Gate, their experiences paled in comparison to those of Zhong Yue, which was why they panicked as soon as all the Qi Practitioners turned to stare at them.
But things were different for Zhong Yue; he had stood on stages far bigger with the stakes much higher. For example, the Devil Soul Forbidden Land, the volcano mountain of Gu Xia City, the Black Mountain’s secret realm and much more. Therefore, a scene like this meant nothing to him and failed to cause him any pause at all.
“The Western Barren must have contained a huge secret….”
In his psyche ocean, Xin Huo said, “Or the God Emperor wouldn’t have built his base here and left behind this many celestial races.”
Zhong Yue was shocked as he had never thought of this and after Xin Huo said it out, he too felt that something was off.
There were too many celestial races in the Western Barren. It was not normal at all for all those thousands of celestial races to be concentrated within the Western Barren. Besides, as compared to the Eastern Barren and the Great Wilderness, the Western Barren possessed terrific power. If these celestial races wanted to get out of the Western Barren, it would not be a difficult task for them, yet they have been dwelling here for such a long time. It must be that something has been keeping them here!
And this ‘something’ must have been the secret that Xin Huo was alluding to!
“Brat Yue, too bad you are too weak or we could have taken a stroll around the Western Barren and found out what this ‘something’ is that is keeping the celestial races all over the Western Barren to stay here.”
Zhong Yue blinked his eyes as an Awakening level human Qi Practitioner that ran around the Western Barren will definitely be captured by these celestial races and become their slaves!
He looked around and saw countless people from the Xiao Mang Celestial Race standing all over the city walls around the temple with long blowing horn in front of them. These blowing horns were made with the long horns of some unknown animals and they were gold in colour. Then, these people blew the horn and the sound horn echoed throughout the mountains for a indeterminate amount of time, creating a very amazing scene.
In the sky, there were all sorts of floating clouds that turned into umbrellas to provide shade for people underneath them. Below the clouds was a little stage that was provided for the high priests from the other celestial races along with some other well known figures to seat.
Feng Shouzhu was also among them and he appeared to be tensed up and sweat could be seen on his forehead.
Elder Feng is indeed very nervous, like an ant on a frying pan… Zhong Yue thought.
As soon as Feng Shouzhu saw Zhong Yue, he wanted to head over to Zhong Yue but it would seem quite disrespectful if he were to leave the side of the high priests at that moment.
Besides, it would be too late for him to aid Zhong Yue to reverse open the Dao Yi Wheel because there were not much time left as the battle was about to begin!
I wonder what kind of expression he will show if Elder Feng knew that I have already managed to reverse open my Dao Yi Wheel, thought Zhong Yue calmly.
Little did he know that various thoughts ran wildly all over Feng Shouzhu’s mind. Although he was a huge figure and the pillar of Swords Gate, he has been overthinking about the battle of Zhong Yue with the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. He did not know if he should let Zhong Yue proceed with the battle or ask Zhong Yue to forfeit.
Maybe I should let Lei Teng go in his stead. I guess he might be able to you…. No no no. Lei Teng is only good at arguing and his psyche has yet to reach the level of thunder blighted pool. He will lose for sure if he fought with the Awakening level Qi Practitioner of Xiao Mang Celestial Race!
Countless thoughts rampaged in the old man’s mind, If Zhong Yue could not take part in the battle then the Swords Gate will lose. How are we supposed to win? Qi Feng of the Spirit Nurturing level? No, he is no match at all… Tian Yanzong is strong but he has only entered the Inner Core level so his cultivation base is not as stable nor as strong as the celestial race’s….”
After a moment, the blowing horn stopped and the surroundings became steeped in silence. Suddenly, loud roars and footsteps could be heard coming out from the supreme celestial temple. Everyone looked towards that direction and they all saw four hundred-metre tall three- headed coiling Ao’s walking out from the temple with heavy footsteps.
The four coiling Aos were very big, just like four moving mountains and they were definitely a very strong existence in the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. Judging from their appearances and auras, they were definitely no weaker than Jun Sixie, Fang Jiange and the young successors of the Swords Gate.
The heads of these coiling Aos were panting and on top of their backs was an enormous wheel. The wheel was illuminating bright lights like an unrivaled jewel!
The wheel was too big and too heavy to the point that even the four coiling Aos had difficulties carrying it.
Other than that, there were a few humanoids with Ao heads sitting on the back of the four coiling Aos that were holding onto the wheel to prevent it from falling down.
“It’s the God’s Realm!”
As soon as the wheel appeared, noises could be heard all over the front of the supreme celestial temple as quite a few of the Qi Practitioners knew that the wheel was the Yuan Shen secret realm within a godly spirit. They were all shocked by the fact that the Xiao Mang Celestial Race that brought out the God’s Realm to be the arena of the battles held today!
Jun Lutang sighed and said in a very low voice, “We have sensed five Xiao Mang celestial temples that worshipped the godly spirit of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race but I never thought that they would have more than five godly spirits.”
A white robed priest washed his hands in a silver basin and then he prayed to the wheel. Then, the wheel started to tremble before ascending to the sky.
In the air, a huge hole to another dimension appeared, the entrance of which was the wheel. From the outside, one would not be able to see anything at the eye level but when looked at from the top or below, that person would only be able to see a huge hole in the sky.
“This secret realm belongs to the godly spirit of our Xiao Mang Celestial Race. The Wan Xiang secret realm in this godly spirit will be able to create a landscape with huge mountains, wide rivers and even desert and ocean or other terrains.”
Beside the high priest of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, a white robed priest stood up and said loudly, “This secret realm will be the arena of the battle between the human’s Swords Gate and our Xiao Mang Celestial Race! Today, the high priest from we Xiao Mang Celestial Race and the high priests from various celestial races have decided that the arenas for the five battles will be the desert, jungle, celestial temple, ocean and glacial area.”
In the air of the city, Feng Shouzhu and the high priests of the other celestial races nodded as these five geographical locations were all decided by them after a long period of discussions. They tried their best to create locations that could ensure the battles involved air, land, water and underground battles.
The reason why they did this was to ensure that the Xiao Mang Celestial Race would not be able to fight in a place where they were familiar with so as to ensure the fairness of the battle.
The white robed priest then said, “The first match will take place in the desert. The candidates of both parties may now enter the secret realm and you have fifteen minutes to acclimate yourselves to the location.”
A Qi Practitioner from the Xiao Mang Celestial Race immediately flew out and entered into the wheel to get used to the location. He was the Qi Practitioner personally picked by the high priest of the Xiao Mang Celestial Race, and his name was Xiao Shan.
Whereas on the other hand, Zhong Yue, Qi Feng and the others looked at Feng Shouzhu and waited for his order to decide who would be the candidate for the first battle.
“We will forfeit the first match.”
Out of their expectation, Feng Shouzhu suddenly said, “The first match is won by the Xiao Mang Celestial Race. Senior martial brother, please summon the little friend back and let us begin the second match.”
