Chapter 173 - 172: The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind
The jagged, blood-red spirit-stone cliff offered a commanding view of the desolate, silver-skied pocket realm. But before Lin Yuan could fully take in the feel of the Void Ascension Battlefield, the air directly in front of him shimmered.
With a soft hum, a massive, translucent golden panel materialized, hovering at eye level. It was a projection of the realm’s tracking array, directly tied to the faint Dao Token pulsing above his collarbone.
Lin Yuan’s deep purple eyes swept across the glowing panel.
It was a comprehensive ranking list displaying every cultivator currently inside the realm. At the very top, a counter showed the total number of participants.
470 Participants.
The Nine Lower Division Provinces had brought sizable retinues of elite sect disciples, and martial proxies. The Six Upper Division Provinces were no different, arriving with their own forces of elite swordsmen, beast tamers, and Dao protectors. Among the 470 cultivators currently sealed within the battlefield, the overwhelming majority were at the Nascent Soul Realm.
Four hundred and seventy, Lin Yuan mused quietly, as he watched the names scroll across the golden interface. To secure a Top Five ranking and fulfill the condition of the Ascension Clause, I will likely need to hold at least a fifth of the total tokens in circulation. Roughly a hundred tokens. And perhaps even more if the stronger participants began consolidating their gains by targeting themselves.
Lin Yuan’s eyes narrowed slightly.
A hundred tokens!
That was not a small number.
But it was far from impossible.
The real question was not whether he could obtain them.
It was how he could do so without becoming a target for the monsters at the top of the ranking.
His mind reeled, calculating the most efficient path to victory.
The simplest strategy for a Spirit Severing cultivator dropped into a realm filled with Nascent Soul cultivators was brutally straightforward: hunt. Lin Yuan could sweep across the battlefield and harvest the Lower Division participants like a scythe cutting through autumn wheat.
Against his Early-Stage Spirit Severing cultivation, most Nascent Soul cultivators would have little chance of resisting, let alone escaping with their tokens. If he wanted to accumulate a large number of tokens quickly, he could probably accomplish it within a few days. And that was precisely why doing so would be foolish.
Lin Yuan dismissed the golden ranking panel with a casual wave of his hand, his eyes narrowing as he gazed into the treacherous depths of the silver canyon.
If I immediately begin hunting the weaker participants, I may accumulate tokens quickly, but the moment my ranking rises too high, I will place a target on my own back. The ranking is visible to everyone within the battlefield. Once the number of tokens in my possession becomes substantial, the stronger participants will have no reason to ignore me. They will simply come to me and take everything I have accumulated. Even with the Great Tortoise Breath Technique concealing my cultivation and aura, I cannot become invisible. It can suppress the feel of my presence, but it cannot erase my physical presence or prevent others from locating me once they know where to look. In other words, the faster I gather tokens through brute force, the faster I announce my position to every monster in this battlefield.
The true threat here was not the hundreds of Nascent Soul cultivators scattered throughout the realm. It was the six Peerless Geniuses. Xuan Mingzhe, Chu Kuang, Jiang Wan, Ye Ao, Ling Chuan, and the anomaly known as Feng Yao.
These were cultivators who had already cultivated their Dao Resolve, with some standing at the Half-Step Soul Transformation level. Against ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, Lin Yuan could afford to be reckless. Against those six, he could not. His advantage was not overwhelming enough to guarantee victory against them, especially if several of them were drawn to him at once.
More importantly, there was no reason to fight them before he had to. The rules for the ascension clause only required him to finish within the Top Five. They did not require him to defeat the strongest cultivator in the battlefield.
Lin Yuan’s eyes gradually became sharper.
Then I will not give them a reason to hunt me.
He had no intention of competing with those monsters for every token on the battlefield. Instead, he would remain hidden, study the movement of the participants, and let the battlefield itself do most of the work for him.
The weaker cultivators would naturally seek safety by gathering together, while the stronger geniuses would inevitably clash as they fought for dominance. Every battle would redistribute the tokens, shifting the balance of power across the battlefield. Lin Yuan only needed to wait for the right moment, strike while the strongest participants were occupied, and collect enough tokens to secure his position without ever becoming the battlefield’s most obvious target.
It was not the fastest strategy.
But it was the safest.
And in a battlefield where six monsters were capable of ending his tournament the moment they decided to focus on him, survival was more valuable than speed.
As the saying went, "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind."
Lin Yuan had no intention of becoming either the cicada or the mantis.
He intended to be the hunter that no one realized was there.
Lin Yuan then closed his eyes and activated the Great Tortoise Breath Technique. His Spirit Severing aura rapidly inverted, shrinking inward until it completely vanished from the physical plane. His heartbeat slowed to a glacial crawl, while the temperature of his skin gradually matched the freezing mountain air around him. To any divine sense sweeping across the area, Lin Yuan registered as nothing more than a lifeless, jagged rock.
But concealment was only half the equation. If he wanted to wait for the right moment, he first needed the mobility to scout the battlefield without exposing himself.
Lin Yuan seamlessly fused the passive concealment of the Great Tortoise Breath Technique with the silent Flash Step of his Immortal Cloud Step.
His physical body flickered.
The edges of his black-and-white robes dissolved into a faint mist as his figure blurred and vanished from sight. Lin Yuan stepped off the jagged cliff and simply drifted downward, his body moving with the violent Qi currents sweeping through the Void Ascension Battlefield.
He did not leave behind a trace of spiritual fluctuation.
Not even the faintest ripple.
Like a ghost carried by the wind, he slipped between the towering mountains and vanished into the vastness of the battlefield.
While Lin Yuan faded into the fabric of the realm, the Upper Division elites were already executing their own strategies with terrifying efficiency.
They did not scurry through the canyons looking for prey.
They were kings.
And kings did not hunt for tribute.
They demanded it.
Hundreds of miles away, atop a flattened plateau covered in white ash, Xuan Mingzhe of Xuan Province stood perfectly still.
The undefeated tri-Dao legend did not draw a weapon.
He merely closed his eyes.
A moment later, a terrifying pulse of Gravity Dao Intent erupted from his body.
BOOOOOOM!
A/N: For anyone asking why is Lin yuan being so cautious against the six peerless geniuses? He can just use death gaze on them, yes that’s true, but for this tournament, he can’t! The rule forbade any killing, and death is only accepted as the end result of a fight where the losing cultivator refuses to yield or become unconscious. Lin yuan simply using death gaze will end the match in seconds, during attention, which may lead to him breaking the stated rules.