War Sovereign Soaring The Heavens

After learning about the middle realm of the Southern Heaven Ancient Realm from Qi Tian Ming, one of the inspectors of the Profound Nether Mansion, Duan Ling Tian became even more eager to join the Profound Nether Mansion. The middle realm of the Southern Heaven Ancient Realm, unlike the lower realm, was always open, and Celestial Dukes from the Profound Nether Mansion were free to enter whenever they wanted. The restriction on the cultivation bases meant that the strongest people who were allowed to enter were Ten Directions Celestial Dukes.

“Each person is only allowed to stay in the middle realm of the Southern Heaven Ancient Realm for a maximum of 10 days per month. You can choose to stay consecutively for ten days, or you can choose to spread the days out and enter multiple times. You’ll be automatically transported out of the middle realm as soon as you reach the time limit. You’ll have to wait until the next month before you can enter again,” Qi Tian Ming said, concluding his explanation. Then, as though he had just recalled something, he added, “That’s right! To accumulate points, you’ll naturally have to kill other Celestial Dukes to gain the points from their Accumulative Point Jades. However, you can crush your Accumulative Point Jade so that the points would be transferred to your opponent. Moreover, once you crush your Accumulative Point Jade, you’ll be transported out of the middle realm through a one-time hidden Transporting Formation in the Accumulative Point Jade. So…”

Before Qi Tian Ming finished speaking, Duan Ling Tian interjected, “So if I were to meet an opponent I’m not a match for, I can crush my Accumulative Point Jade to surrender my points to my opponent and also escape at the same time through the Transporting Formation?”

“That’s right.” Qi Tian Ming nodded. “As the saying goes, ‘A wise man knows when to retreat and when to advance’. It was not the intention of the Southern Heaven Celestial Lord who created the Southern Heaven Ancient Realm to drive Celestial Dukes to death. However, saying that, the Transporting Formation wouldn’t work as soon as you crush your Accumulative Point Jade. It would take a little time for the Formation to activate. Therefore, if your opponent is intent on killing you, it’d be difficult to just rely on the Accumulative Point Jade to save yourself.”

Duan Ling Tian nodded. “That’s rather humane. At least, it gives a chance to those who are weaker to enter the middle realm of the Southern Heaven Ancient Realm.” Then, he continued to ask, “However, after the Accumulative Point Jade is crushed, can one still enter the middle realm after that?”

“No. Before the ranking is reset, those who escaped by crushing their Accumulative Point Jades are unable to enter the middle realm again. This is because you’d only be given one Accumulative Jade every month,” Qi Tian Ming replied.

Duan Ling Tian knew this was to restrict people from leaving and entering the middle realm as they pleased, taking advantage of the loophole, and also to prevent those who were stronger from repeatedly killing those who were weaker to gain points.

At this moment, Qi Tian Ming looked at Duan Ling Tian and solemnly said, “Duan Ling Tian, there’s no need for you to reveal the fact that you’ve consumed the Heaven Sacrificial Divine Fruit. Although it can also be considered as your ability for being able to come across such a fortuitous encounter, it’s best to let them assume your achievements are from your innate talent and comprehension skills. That way, they’ll look upon you favorably. Otherwise, they’ll definitely question you incessantly about how you escaped from that reincarnated Celestial Emperor, if you killed that reincarnated Celestial Emperor, or how you managed to obtain the Heaven Sacrificial Divine Fruit. That would inevitably lead to them suspecting you of possessing Royal Grade Celestial Weapons. Even if the reincarnated Celestial Emperor didn’t possess Emperor Grade Celestial Weapons, they wouldn’t believe that he didn’t even possess a Royal Grade Celestial Weapon. Even an ordinary Celestial Emperor would possess a Royal Grade Celestial Weapon at the very least. You should know how valuable a purely defensive Royal Grade Celestial Weapon that had been nurtured by a Celestial Emperor is. The difference between a purely defensive King Grade Celestial Weapon that had been nurtured by a Celestial Lord and an ordinary defensive King Grade Celestial Weapon is incredibly wide, let alone the difference between a purely defensive Royal Grade Celestial Weapon nurtured by a Celestial Emperor and an ordinary defensive Royal Grade Celestial Weapon…” He grew even more solemn after he finished speaking.

“I understand, Old Qi.” Duan Ling Tian nodded.

Qi Tian Ming’s expression eased after he heard Duan Ling Tian’s response. As they continued on their journey, Qi Tian Ming no longer spoke.

Therefore, Duan Ling Tian began to focus on comprehending the law of space’s Transportation Profundity as Qi Tian Ming continued to lead the way. Initially, he had planned to break through and become a Celestial King as soon as he could. However, now that he learned about the middle realm of the Southern Heaven Ancient Realm, he decided to put a hold on his plan. After all, he would not be able to enter the middle realm once he became a Celestial King.

After half a day had passed, a question appeared in Duan Ling Tian’s mind so he asked, “Old Qi, since the middle realm of the Southern Heaven Ancient Realm benefits grade-six Celestial Mansions, is there a possibility for some Celestial Mansions to deliberately suppress their members’ cultivation bases when the members are Ten Directions Celestial Dukes so they would have more representatives in the middle realm?”

Ten Directions Celestial Dukes who were thousands or 10,000 years old definitely would have comprehended more profundities than younger Ten Directions Celestial Dukes even if their comprehension skills were not particularly high. If the grade-six Celestial Mansions had such strong representatives, their chances of being rewarded were higher.

“This is a great question. This matter had also occurred to the Southern Heaven Celestial Lord who created the Southern Heaven Ancient Realm. Therefore, apart from the cultivation base limit, there’s an age limit as well. Those who enter the middle realm can’t be more than 1,000 years old! However, there are many Ten Directions Celestial Dukes in grade-six Celestial Mansions under the age of 1,000 who have comprehended many profundities from a law,” Qi Tian Ming said as he looked at Duan Ling Tian meaningfully, “In fact, many of them have comprehended six or seven profundities from a law. For example, there are few Ten Directions Celestial Dukes who have comprehended six profundities from a law in the Profound Nether Mansion. In fact, there’s one who has comprehended seven profundities from the law of wood. They’ve been specially nurtured by the Profound Nether Mansion to enter the middle realm. The Ten Directions Celestial Duke who has comprehended eight profundities from the law of wood is 980 years old now so there’s not much time left before he won’t be able to enter the middle realm anymore.”

‘A Ten Directions Celestial Duke who has comprehended seven profundities from the law of wood?’ Duan Ling Tian was slightly startled. That was just a profundity short of the number of profundities from the law of metal that Ling Jue Yun had comprehended after consuming the Heaven Sacrificial Divine Fruit. ‘The few Celestial King assassins from the Blood Skull Gang I encountered might not have even comprehended seven profundities from a law…’

Before asking Qi Tian Ming, Duan Ling Tian was already rather certain that some grade-six Celestial Mansions must have deliberately raised disciples for the purpose of entering the middle realm of the Southern Heaven Ancient Realm. They would suppress the disciples’ cultivation bases and make sure the disciples comprehended many profundities. He was certain there was some sort of suppression on the disciples’ cultivation bases. Otherwise, it would not be difficult for these Ten Directions Celestial Dukes to break through and become a Celestial King. There was no doubt the grade-six Celestial Mansions had also invested heavily in these disciples to ensure they comprehended as many profundities as they could. Moreover, it would not be difficult for grade-six Celestial Mansions to gather resources to speed up the comprehension of these disciples.

‘I thought I’d be able to easily stay above my competitors in the middle realm with my current strength… No wonder when I met Old Qi, he said I’d be able to easily rank at the top of the rankings. He didn’t specifically say I’d rank first. As it turns out, many grade-six Celestial Mansions have nurtured many powerful Ten Directions Celestial Dukes!’

…

In just a blink of an eye, two days had passed.

Duan Ling Tian finally arrived at the Profound Nether Mansion’s estate.

The estate was located in the sky among the clouds. There were a few humongous floating islands above a towering mountain. The islands were covered in greeneries, looking like paradise from afar. Each island had many smaller islands hovering around them like the stars surrounding the moon.

At this moment, a group of patrolling disciples saw Qi Tian Ming. They bowed and greeted in unison, “Lord Inspector!”

Soon enough, a figure flew toward Duan Ling Tian and Qi Tian Ming from afar. “Senior Uncle Qi, did you just return to the estate?”

‘It’s him!’ Duan Ling Tian’s eyebrows rose imperceptibly when he saw the newcomer. The newcomer was none other than Bihai Mingfeng whom he had met in the past.