Chapter 635: The Schemes of the Eight Desolates
“What should we do now? Just directly kill those eight beasts?” Bai Hongtu gritted his teeth, his heart burning with rage.
“No, there are still three immortals who haven’t appeared. The Qian Desolation Lord proposed this competition for a reason – it might be to buy time while waiting for those three immortals to make their move. Let’s wait and see what develops.”
“By my calculations, the Eight Desolation Lords should be departing soon. Let’s hitch a ride with them.”
The three concealed their auras and arrived at the Qian Position Desolation Lord Palace.
At this moment, the prodigies of the Eight Desolations had gathered here, eager to showcase their skills before the Nine Provinces and gain the Desolation Lords’ attention.
These five days were the most bustling period in the Eight Desolations, as they selected the strongest cultivators to represent them in battle – a matter of utmost importance.
Cultivators displayed their unique abilities while scheming against each other, using conspiracies and tricks to sabotage opponents, even willing to step over their rivals’ corpses to secure a spot in the competition.
Demons and monsters lurked everywhere, making defense impossible.
The battles occurring beneath the arena were far more intense than those on the platform itself.
They had truly taken the concept of overt and covert strife to its absolute extreme.
A black dragon coiled around the great hall, emanating Unity Stage energy fluctuations. The Qian Desolation Lord stood atop the dragon’s head, calmly issuing orders.
“These hoods can conceal your auras. Everyone put them on so the Nine Provinces people cannot discern our true capabilities.”
The Eight Desolations prodigies all donned their hoods, making it impossible to recognize each other’s identities.
Jiang Li and his two companions also put on hoods and blended into the crowd.
“Come aboard, we depart now.”
The other seven Desolation Lords suddenly appeared, standing on the dragon’s head. The gathered prodigies, filled with excitement, seated themselves on the black dragon’s back.
The Black Dragon Domain Lord was the Qian Desolation Lord’s exclusive mount – they never imagined they would have the honor of riding it.
The Qian Desolation Lord traveled through the cosmos with a True Dragon as his steed, utterly confident about winning this inter-realm competition.
The Gen Desolation Lord and Dui Desolation Lord had already returned from the Nine Provinces, bringing back massive amounts of intelligence. They had mostly figured out the Nine Provinces’ true capabilities.
Other details weren’t important – the most crucial pieces were the Human Sovereign, the Earth Vein, and the Nine Provinces immortals.
“These legends about Human Sovereign Jiang are quite amusing indeed. They claim he masters all Hundred Cultivation Arts, reigns supreme in the swordpath, can shatter space with a single sword swing to reveal the River of Time, possesses unparalleled forging skills capable of refining the entire Nine Provinces World into a plaything for his palm.”
“There are even legends saying his cultivation has reached an indescribable, unimaginable realm, something about unifying three lifetimes – no past life, no future life, only cultivating the present life.”
“How foolish these Nine Provinces cultivators are, practically elevating this Human Sovereign Jiang to the level of the Dao Ancestor.”
“And this Human Sovereign Jiang allows these rumors to spread – he truly doesn’t know what’s good for him. He probably doesn’t realize that some things, even as mere legends, can offend important figures.”
“Rumors aren’t credible. Reporting this garbage intelligence to the Immortal Realm would only make them think we’re incompetent, wasting their time for nothing.”
“The most important thing is to report the Earth Vein matter to the Immortal Realm.”
“The Earth Vein isn’t simple. From the available intelligence, it’s very likely the Heavenly Dao prototype that Immortal Lord Luwu mentioned.”
“Who knows which immortal is responsible for the Nine Provinces? They’re in for major trouble.”
The Qian Desolation Lord revealed a slight smile. He knew full well that the Immortal Realm most despised the emergence of Heavenly Dao prototypes. Whichever region produced a Heavenly Dao prototype, the responsible immortal would face utter destruction.
Their Eight Desolations enjoyed overwhelming fortune, with an immortal ascending to the Immortal Realm every few hundred years, making quite a name for themselves.
Among them, the strongest senior immortal was undoubtedly Luwu, who ascended to the Immortal Realm four hundred thousand years ago.
After ascending, Senior Luwu struggled his way up to become a major power in the Immortal Realm, a renowned Golden Immortal.
Not only that, Senior Luwu belonged to the Immortal Emperor’s faction, with deep roots.
What people loved discussing even more was how a Golden Immortal had once died by Senior Luwu’s hand.
The Yama King Immortal Venerable had spoken treasonous words in private. When Senior Luwu heard about it, he reported it to the Immortal Emperor, who flew into a rage and executed the Yama King Immortal Venerable.
Even though it was indirect killing, that was still incredibly impressive.
Six thousand years ago, Senior Luwu came to the Eight Desolations and informed them that turmoil had broken out in the Immortal Realm. The rulers wanted to destroy the myriad heavens and worlds, but as a member of the Immortal Emperor’s faction, he could protect one world, and he chose to protect the Eight Desolations.
However, there were conditions. Senior Luwu needed them to collide the Eight Desolations with other worlds to check if any showed signs of producing Heavenly Dao prototypes.
If found, they should report to him. If not, they should directly destroy the world, but they needed to be careful not to allow Heavenly Dao prototypes to emerge, otherwise even he couldn’t protect the Eight Desolations.
Senior Luwu also said the Immortal Realm’s new ruler was the Divine Vault Sovereign. By worshipping the Divine Vault Sovereign, they could obtain merit.
Destroying worlds while preventing collective will from producing Heavenly Dao prototypes wasn’t difficult for the Eight Desolations.
As long as they sent cultivators at Unity Stage and below to invade worlds, lasting from one month to one year, the people of those worlds wouldn’t collectively fear death enough to form Heavenly Dao prototypes with their willpower.
Encountering the Nine Provinces this time and discovering the Earth Vein was truly an unexpected delight.
After colliding with over four hundred worlds, they had finally encountered one that produced a Heavenly Dao prototype – and it was the most detestable Nine Provinces of all.
The Nine Provinces’ strength had always surpassed the Eight Desolations, which greatly displeased them.
The Eight Desolations never cared which world they faced – they just collided directly anyway. After all, they had Golden Immortal Senior Luwu backing them, they had the Immortal Realm backing them – who did they need to fear?
Initially, when they gathered their forces to invade the unknown world, they discovered the opposing world was terrifyingly powerful – eight Transcending Tribulation cultivators, hundreds of Unity Stage cultivators. For the first time, the Eight Desolations found themselves at a disadvantage.
When both sides identified themselves and they learned the other party was actually the Nine Provinces, they couldn’t afford to act hastily.
The Qian Desolation Lord chose to first stabilize the situation, pretending to be completely unaware and innocent victims, engaging in talks with the Nine Provinces to slowly extract intelligence.
Our Eight Desolations have collided with three worlds already, and the Nine Provinces is the fourth world.
The reason?
We don’t know – probably something the Immortal Realm did?
Telling us to be careful of Immortal Realm conspiracies? Thanks, but we are the Immortal Realm’s conspiracy.
The Qian Desolation Lord’s talk about the Eight Desolations and Nine Provinces merging to jointly resist the Immortal Realm was merely a stalling tactic.
Using competition preparations as an excuse, he delayed for five days and successfully obtained intelligence about the Earth Vein.
The Qian Desolation Lord had already reported the Nine Provinces Earth Vein matter to Senior Luwu, who would certainly take action.
Before that, they could use the competition to further probe the Nine Provinces’ capabilities. The more intelligence they obtained, the more they would gain Senior Luwu’s attention.
If conditions permitted, they could even strike first, subdue the Nine Provinces, and await Senior Luwu’s judgment, thereby earning even more of his trust.
The three immortal ancestors forbade anyone else from becoming immortals. Anyone daring to achieve immortality would be executed immediately.
The previous Qian Desolation Lord had secretly become an immortal, but when the three immortal ancestors discovered it, he died a miserable death.
Perhaps through these achievements, he could break the three immortal ancestors’ monopoly and, with Senior Luwu’s approval, become the fourth immortal.
“Master, we have arrived.” The Black Dragon Domain Lord spoke in human tongue, interrupting the Qian Desolation Lord’s thoughts.
The Qian Desolation Lord arrived above the Human Sovereign Hall, clasping his fists in apology: “Sorry for the wait. We encountered some matters before departure that caused delays.”
Of course, the strong should make their entrance last – first let the Nine Provinces wait a while.