Chapter 188 - 187: 27 Days
VOID ASCENSION BATTLEFIELD - PRELIMINARY RANKINGS (DAY 27)
1. Xuan Mingzhe (Xuan Province) - 110 Tokens
2. Jiang Wan (Jiang Province) - 83 Tokens
3. Ye Ao (Ye Province) - 78 Tokens
4. Feng Yao (Feng Province) - 70 Tokens
5. Ling Chuan (Ling Province) - 66 Tokens
6. Chu Kuang (Chu Province) - 60 Tokens
...
Twenty-seven days had bled away within the confines of the Void Ascension Battlefield. With only a few days remaining before the spatial array would release the nominees back into the Grand Court of Sky Jade City, the pocket realm had fallen into a tense and suffocating lull. The weak had been completely defeated, while the strong had consolidated their positions and gathered the tokens they had accumulated throughout the battlefield.
Deep within the eastern quadrant of the realm, hidden within a massive, naturally occurring crater of jagged black basalt, lay a camp that practically radiated the stench of blood and unmitigated arrogance.
This was the absolute stronghold of the Chu Province. It was an area so saturated with lethal intent and patrolling elites that any Lower Division cultivator would rather sever their own meridians than dare to step foot within a fifty-mile radius of it. To approach this crater without the crest of the Chu Province was to court death in its most agonizing form.
Yet, even with an army of dozens of elite Spirit Severing cultivators patrolling its perimeter, the Chu camp was not left exposed to the naked eye.
The entire crater was blanketed by a massive, churning dome of violet fog. This was no ordinary concealment array. Woven directly into the essence of the formation, serving as its core, was a formation spirit of unimaginable caliber. It was the bound, tormented soul of an actual Soul Transformation realm expert.
The ethereal, screaming face of the fallen expert occasionally pressed against the violet fog from within, its mouth stretched wide in a silent wail of endless agony. The sight alone was enough to send a chill through the heart of anyone who witnessed it.
To possess the soul of a Soul Transformation expert and bind it to a mere utility formation revealed a deeply terrifying truth about the Chu Province. It spoke of monstrous foundations, ancient inheritances, and patriarchs powerful enough to hunt deities as though they were mere prey. Such a soul was an existence that countless cultivators could only dream of encountering, yet Chu Province had reduced it to nothing more than the core of a concealment array.
Because the formation was powered by such a terrifying existence, seeing through the violet fog was virtually impossible. Unless a cultivator possessed a cultivation base at the Soul Transformation Realm or an equivalent means of piercing its restrictions, the secrets hidden within the crater were completely concealed from the outside world.
And within the protective embrace of this illusion, the camp was a hive of activity. Dozens of Chu cultivators moved about, sharpening weapons, and resting.
But at the absolute center of the crater, the heir of Chu Province sat in a strict lotus position, his eyes closed in deep meditation. His chest rose and fell in a slow, rhythmic cadence, each breath carrying a deep, booming resonance that sounded like distant war drums echoing across the battlefield. His entire body remained perfectly still, yet an invisible pressure radiated from him, making the surrounding space faintly tremble.
Hovering directly before him was an orb of pure, blinding white mist. It pulsed gently in the air, each fluctuation releasing an impossibly dense vitality that filled the surrounding space. Even without touching it, the purity of that energy was enough to make the spiritual energy within one’s body stir instinctively.
The energy within the orb was refined Immortal Energy, forcefully extracted from the core of a Golden Immortal Beast.
There was a fundamental difference between Origin Energy and Immortal Energy in the world of cultivation.
Origin Energy was the first breath of the universe, the purest and most primordial force that existed before all things were born. Yet to cultivators below the Soul Transformation realm, it was nothing short of poison. Without a fully formed Primordial Spirit, even the slightest attempt to absorb Origin Energy could cause a Nascent Soul to rupture instantly, exploding with a force comparable to a dying star.
Immortal Energy, however, was entirely different.
It was the universe’s ultimate nectar, a gentle yet transformative force that could be refined and utilized by cultivators regardless of their realm. Even a mere Qi Condensation cultivator could theoretically absorb Immortal Energy and use it to forge an indestructible foundation, provided their physical body was strong enough to withstand the refinement.
For a cultivator like Chu Kuang, whose Dao Resolve had earlier reached the SupremeStage, the Ninth Step, Immortal Energy was nothing short of a cheat code against the Heavens.
It could greatly shorten the countless years of bitter cultivation normally required to temper his Dao Heart. Every strand of Immortal Energy refined into his body would strengthen his foundation, nourish his Nascent Soul, and accelerate the transformation of his Dao Resolve toward the Transcendent Stage.
What would take an ordinary cultivator decades, or even centuries, of painstaking meditation could be accomplished by Chu Kuang in a fraction of the time, as he used Immortal Energy to forcibly push open a path that Heaven itself had intended him to walk one step at a time.
As Chu Kuang cultivated, drawing the white mist into his nostrils and mouth, the air around him violently warped. The terrifying pressure of his Qi was expanding exponentially.
Standing in a respectful semi-circle around him, a group of Chu cultivators watched their Young Master with expressions of zealous worship. The camp was safe, his token count was astronomical, and their leader was currently ascending. The mood was euphoric.
"Look at the density of his aura," whispered Chu Feng, a cultivator who had recently broken through to the Adept Stage (Second Step) of his Dao Resolve. His eyes were wide as he watched the ambient rocks around Chu Kuang begin to levitate and shatter under the sheer weight of his power. "The Supreme Stage is cracking! He is breaking the final bottleneck! By the time this ends, the Young Master will not just be a Peerless Genius... he will be a god among men!"
"Indeed," agreed a towering, bald cultivator clutching a heavy iron staff. "When he steps out of this pocket realm and the array monolith updates his true cultivation, Emperor Tianxu himself will have to stand and take notice. The Chu Province will demand the highest seeding in the main bracket!"
"Higher than Xuan Mingzhe?" another cultivator asked, a note of awe in his voice.
"Do not underestimate the Young Master!" Chu Feng snapped, turning to glare at the doubting disciple. "Xuan Mingzhe is a monster, yes. A tri-Dao legend. But he is stagnant! He reached Half-Step Soul Transformation and stalled because he lacks the resources to feed his bloated foundation. But Young Master Kuang? He is bridging that gap right now with the purest Immortal Energy the Nine Provinces have to offer! Once he finishes absorbing this second core, his cultivation will reach Half-Step Transcendent!"
The group murmured in fervent agreement, feeding off the intoxicating arrogance of their province.
"It makes him second only to Xuan Mingzhe, and frankly, in a battle of pure attrition, I would wager our Young Master’s physical vitality would shatter him," Chu Feng continued, his voice rising as he sang Chu Kuang’s praises. "Who else in the Upper Division can even compare? Jiang Wan? He is just a sword. Break his blade, and he is nothing. Ling Chuan? He is far too soft, shackled by his pathetic notions of honor. And Ye Ao is nothing but a loudmouth hiding behind beast pelts."
"What of the boy from the Feng Province?" the bald cultivator asked nervously, glancing up at the silver sky. "Feng Yao. They say he was born with a Primordial Spirit."
"Bah!" Chu Feng spat on the ground. "A creepy, inexperienced child with a mutated soul! Having a Primordial Spirit does not give you the martial experience to wield it. He is a child playing with a heavenly weapon. He lacks the bloodshed, the cruelty, and the iron will that Young Master Kuang has forged. When the main tournament begins, the Chu Province will dominate them all! The Central Continent belongs to us!"
As the sycophants continued to shower their ascending master with endless praises, the perimeter of the violent violet fog remained eerily silent.
But a few miles away from the crater’s edge, moving swiftly over the black basalt terrain, were two figures.