“Qingyun Sect sword cultivator Su Zhan, if you receive this notice, please reunite with your partner as soon as possible and report before the stele on the Third Layer Heaven. You and your partner will participate together in the first competition event of this grand gathering. Good luck to you.”
……
This transmission was the one Su Zhan had received ten minutes earlier.
Over the past two days, more than ten additional sects had gradually arrived at the Immortal Alliance Pavilion.
After statistics and screening, it was finally determined that each group could participate in at most three events.
For the sake of fairness, two groups from the same sect were not allowed to enter the same event. Therefore, aside from Su Zhan and Yun Li, everyone else had a bye today.
Reception disciples had been waiting at the entrance early on.
Su Zhan and Yun Li were led toward the Third Layer Heaven, which was the ninth floor.
She had heard Tang Zhi mention earlier that the top of the entire tower was actually the forty-second floor, meaning the highest level was called the Thirty-Third Layer Heaven—the legendary Heavenly Palace…
They really knew how to name things.
With that thought, Su Zhan and Yun Li walked toward the stele mentioned in the transmission.
The entire stele was a deep, quiet blue, its surface carved with a beast head whose features were savage and ferocious.
They seemed to have arrived late after all.
The Third Layer Heaven was not as crowded as imagined.
Instead, it was extremely empty—so empty it made one uneasy…
Fortunately, they had still made it in time.
“Please place your storage rings or other storage items here. Keep any personal belongings on your person. For this secret realm, you may only carry transmission jade slips.”
Several disciples had already been waiting there.
The one in the lead walked toward them holding a tray.
The left side of the tray was empty, while the right side held a thick stack of papers whose purpose was unclear.
“What is this?”
Yun Li also noticed the papers and could not help but pick one up out of curiosity as she asked.
“This is a life-and-death contract. Once signed, we will remove the protective barriers on both of you. The points you obtain in the secret realm afterward will be doubled, but at the same time, any life-or-death injuries or disabilities you encounter inside will have nothing to do with the Immortal Alliance,” the reception disciple explained.
“There can actually be injuries and disabilities? Then forget it. Safety first.”
Yun Li put the paper back with a slightly nervous heart, yet she failed to notice that the surface of the paper had already begun to glow faintly after she touched it.
“What about this Senior Sister? Interested in giving it a try?” the reception disciple asked with a smile.
“No need. What are the rules?” Su Zhan asked.
She was not particularly surprised by this kind of protective barrier.
After all, the participants were all prodigies of their respective sects, and some were even the only remaining successors. Of course they had to be protected completely intact.
Compared to that, she was more concerned with how to win.
“Hunt different demonic beasts or collect various spiritual materials. Points will be accumulated according to rarity, and ranking will be determined by the final points. The time limit is three days. Before entering the secret realm, each of you will receive two storage pouches for holding items.”
As the disciple spoke, after waiting for Su Zhan and Yun Li to place their storage rings on the tray, another person nearby slowly stepped forward and handed over four storage pouches.
“They feel like they’d be easy to lose,” Yun Li sighed.
She casually picked two and tied them at her waist.
The storage pouches looked ordinary on the outside—yin-yang dual colors with the character for “immortal” embroidered in the middle—and they even gave off a faint, clear fragrance.
“If those are the only rules, that means the storage pouches can be seized,” Su Zhan said in a flat tone.
“Looks like we not only need to fight demonic beasts, but also fight other people.”
After saying all that, it was basically just search, fight, and withdraw.
In her previous life, she had been something of a veteran at this sort of thing.
“After all, the strong prey on the weak is also a survival rule of the cultivation world, is it not?” The disciple smiled and did not deny Su Zhan’s words.
“Both of you, place your hands on the stele at the same time and you may enter the waiting area. Please make certain that all the items you need are fully prepared before then.”
“I’m ready!”
Yun Li let out a breath.
She patted her sleeves and the small pocket at her chest, confirmed that everything was stuffed inside, then nodded, looking fully prepared to go all out.
“I’m ready as well,” Su Zhan nodded.
“Then… may both of you enjoy flourishing martial fortune.”
The disciple smiled and watched the two of them leave to stand before the stele.
They lightly pressed their hands against the lower jaw of that ferocious beast head.
In an instant, their figures transformed into a streak of flowing light that shot upward from within the stele and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Not long after, a figure wrapped in a long red velvet scarf hurried over.
When she looked toward the stele, the disciple sighed at the figure.
“Senior Sister Tang, you are late. They have already set out first.”
“They already left?”
Tang Zhi was still catching her breath, her brows tightly furrowed as she questioned coldly.
“Wasn’t it said that there was a problem with the grouping that needed adjustment? Why didn’t you stop them?”
“My apologies, Senior Sister Tang. The transmission I received said the grouping was completely normal and to proceed as usual. I was only acting according to the transmission.”
“I thought you were regretting that you could not cheer on your friends. I did not expect it was because of this.”
“There is a Qi Refining disciple in their group. She should not have appeared in this competition event,” Tang Zhi said in a heavy voice, her tone almost certain.
“You tampered with the grouping.”
“But as you can see, that Qi Refining disciple did not feel troubled at all. She even signed the life-and-death contract. Frankly speaking, I rather admire her,” the disciple said with a faint smile on her face.
“Admire? Heh.”
Tang Zhi narrowed her eyes, raised her hand, and delivered a clean, sharp slap.
Slap!
The crisp sound echoed.
Anyone could tell that this slap had been delivered with full force.
The disciple’s face was instantly struck sideways and rapidly swelled red.
The smile at the corner of her mouth faded as she turned her face back and looked at Tang Zhi with calm eyes.
“Your father often says that as a cultivator of the Ruthless Dao, you ought to control your emotions. Yet you frequently lose composure, which gives him quite the headache.”
“So you are Father’s person… Why did you deceive Sister Su and the others?”
“No. I am a person of Zuolan Sect, Senior Sister Tang,” the disciple smiled quietly.
“Zuolan Sect never deceives others. I simply have a poor memory and forgot to mention certain things to those two.”
“That is no excuse for tricking them into danger. Last night, when a problem appeared in the grouping results, I had already reported the matter to the eight Sect Masters,” Tang Zhi said coldly.
“Yet the final result of the discussion… was that those two would decide for themselves whether to participate. And as you saw, they did not refuse, did they?”
“You did this on purpose. A Qi Refining disciple has no chance of surviving in that secret realm. You are committing murder,” Tang Zhi said through gritted teeth.
“I am only following the rules. Please do not make things difficult for me, Senior Sister Tang… Besides, if I may be frank, is what you care about truly that Qi Refining disciple, or the other one?”
“…Fine… You are very good.”
Tang Zhi firmly memorized the appearance of the disciple before her.
Mindful of the many rules and frameworks within the Immortal Alliance, she gave a cold snort and left with a sweep of her sleeve.
Right now she needed to find someone and settle accounts.
Once Tang Zhi’s figure disappeared, the expression on the disciple’s face could no longer be maintained.
It instantly collapsed into bitterness as she grimaced and bared her teeth for a while.
If private fighting had not been forbidden within the Immortal Alliance, and if Tang Zhi had not pulled back in time at the end, it would probably have been more than simple redness and swelling.
A strike delivered in the rage of a Nascent Soul cultivator, even without the application of spiritual power and relying only on pure force, was truly not something someone of her cultivation could endure.
She took out a pill from her robes and swallowed it, reducing the swelling.
Then the disciple took out a card from her robes and transmitted everything that had just occurred.
Not long after, she received a response.
“Well done. There will be a heavy reward.”
On the other end of the transmission, a chuckle echoed in the girl’s mind.
“The resources promised to you, as well as the pills to save your junior sister, will be delivered to your hands shortly.”
Then the transmission cut off.
The expression on the disciple’s face gradually settled and became numb.
Disciples at their lowly level were nothing more than ants that could be casually driven about in the eyes of those great figures above, all for the sake of achieving their goals.
Being resented or disliked no longer mattered.
The girl was quite calm about it.
After all, this path was one she had chosen herself. She could not blame others.
If she had to find fault, she could only blame herself for being incompetent.
Yet deep down she still held a contemptuous attitude toward people who resorted to such underhanded methods…
Toward Su Zhan she had spoken all the rules.
Toward the other end of the transmission just now, she had also held some things back.
I only hope that this time, you two can truly enjoy flourishing martial fortune.
Watching the next group of participants walking over from the distance, the girl thought silently in her heart.