The Days of Being Forced to Become the Savior of a Cultivation Civilization

He whispered something to the guard. The guard nodded, gave the three of them a strange look, and nodded again.

"Then I'll head out first, boss. Um, go easy on them, we haven't let a single one go in these three days."

The middle-aged man smiled and slapped the guard hard on the shoulder:

"Get lost. Oh, and remember to take my whetstone; your gun's got dull."

The three stood there, stunned and at a loss. Zhiyue looked at the money in his hand and held it out to the middle-aged man.

"Hey, don't rush to pay. We have a promotion right now, you can enter the city for free."

Zhiyue raised an eyebrow:

"Oh? Please elaborate, sir?"

The middle-aged man waved his hand:

"Don't call me that, just call me Regulus, or simply Regulus."

Zhiyue nodded:

"Let's just call you Regrus. I don't know why, but the abbreviation just doesn't sound like a nice person."

Reese waved his hand:

"Whatever, that's what my men like to call me. Uh, you know about the Yuan Dou Tournament, right?"

The two members of the Kun family nodded, while Qian Xintong looked at them and shook her head.

"It's okay if you don't know. Let me explain briefly. The Yuan Dou Tournament is an annual event held by the Kun family only in major cities. It..."

"Excuse me, could you give a brief overview?"

Zhi Yue interrupted. He had a feeling that if this man continued talking, he could go on and on for a very long time. The man just shrugged.

"Tsk, these young people nowadays are really something... Anyway, the Yuan Dou Tournament is a selection competition to select young geniuses with strong cultivation talents. In previous years, the selection was held within Kun Family City, but this year it has become the entire Federation. People outside the city can also participate in the assessment, and those who pass can enter the city for free. All those who enter the city and meet the basic requirements can register to participate in the tournament."

Yingzi thought for a moment:

"By the way, Uncle Regrus, do you know Elder Kun Ziying?"

Yingzi suddenly spoke up. He asked in a high-pitched, childlike voice, his big eyes sparkling, his expression innocent and adorable, like a clean porcelain doll.

Regrus smiled:

"Of course I know, little friend. This was arranged by Elder Kunziying. He just gave the order recently."

Regulus rubbed Yingzi's head, and she nodded vigorously in response, but secretly frowned slightly, sensing something was wrong.

Zhiyue: "Okay, how will the assessment be conducted?"

Regulus raised an eyebrow:

"Young man, you're quite confident. Come on, step back a little, and let's have a go right here."

-

The two stood facing each other. Xintong, Yingzi, and a group of guards stood not far away, forming an arc to watch them.

The two men stood with their arms crossed, silently gazing at each other, when a gentle breeze blew by, causing the floating sand to drift.

"Sir, should we have a physical duel, a duel of techniques, or a free-for-all?"

"I told you, don't call me 'sir,' it's irritating. But you know your manners, kid. Judging from this, you've had your fair share of fights, haven't you?"

Zhiyue nodded:

"I was just combative when I was young, nothing to brawl about."

"Hmph, it's more than just being belligerent."

Yingzi and Qian Xintong chatted.

"From what you're saying, anything goes, so let's go with physical techniques then."

Regulus began to stretch his limbs on the spot, asking as he did so:

"By the way, young man, I wonder what your cultivation level is? I want to ask before we start, so you won't accuse me of bullying a junior and lacking martial ethics."

At the same time, Zhiyue was also stretching and preparing:

"This junior is not talented and is still in the process of learning and growth."

"Accumulation" may seem like a humble way for Zhiyue to refer to himself as a junior, but it's actually a well-known slang term indicating that his cultivation is currently at the Ascending Origin Realm. The Ascending Origin Realm is the fourth stage of cultivation for those who have progressed against the natural order. As the name suggests, it's a stage where the pace of cultivation slows down to allow for accumulation and solidification of the foundation.

Regulus raised an eyebrow, a ripple of emotion stirring within him:

"Hey young man, you're not that old, but you've got some skills. How old are you?"

Zhiyue responded with a smile:

"Just turned eighteen."

Regulus's expression froze; he realized he had struck gold today.

"Good lad, to have reached such a level at eighteen, haha!"

Zhiyue shook his head:

"I've been stuck like this for a while now, and this is probably how my life will be."

Regulus chuckled:

"Stop joking. How many people can reach the Nascent Soul Realm at eighteen? You have a long life ahead of you."

On this continent of Pangde, it is not uncommon for rebels to be in the Chenyuan Realm at the age of seventy or eighty. In fact, the majority of rebels never reach this realm in their entire lives. However, what Zhiyue said was not just empty talk. The Chenyuan Realm is indeed a hurdle, and countless rebels have never been able to take even half a step out of the fifth realm in their entire lives.

Of course, as a former star player of the Kun family, Zhi Yue's talent was naturally extraordinary. In fact, he had already reached the Deep Yuan Realm for eight years. This meant that from the age of three when he first gained enlightenment, he had crossed the three major realms of Reverse Yuan, Forging Yuan, and Tempering Yuan in less than seven years. He didn't explicitly state this because it was too suggestive and would expose his identity. Such monstrous talent was rarely heard of in modern times, no, in history.

Regulus licked his lips, completing his final warm-up:

"Alright lad, since you put it that way, I'll let loose and we'll have a good fight."

"If we choose physical techniques, firstly, we're just sparring, so there's no need to waste our reverse energy; secondly, there's no barrier here, making it difficult to control the techniques and potentially injuring the audience; thirdly..."

The warm-up was over, and so was the opposing team, Zhiyue, who was already in an attacking stance.

"A brutal, visceral fight is a man's romance!"

"Ode—"

Like a gust of wind, Regulus had already teleported in front of Zhiyue, his right fist poised to strike straight at his abdomen. His movements were so fast that almost none of the guards present could see them clearly; in the blink of an eye, the two were already locked in combat.

Zhiyue reacted quickly, dodging Regulus's straight punch with a slight sidestep. The latter was not to be outdone, and quickly twisted his upper body halfway, swinging his left leg towards Zhiyue's waist.

"Pass."

With a muffled thud, Zhi Yue used his forearm to shield his waist, steadily taking the blow. This strike was delivered with eighty percent of the power of a Deep Yuan Realm cultivator. If it had been an ordinary person who had never cultivated, their spine would probably have been broken, and they wouldn't have had time to fly away before being split in two at the waist.

"Wow, that was a really powerful kick."

Yingzi blinked. Although he had once been a sub-Star Envoy, his body had now redeveloped, and his perception was only slightly stronger than that of an ordinary Reverse Origin Realm cultivator. Qian Xintong was also somewhat confused, but she assumed that because she had been a Star Envoy for so long, she had long lost her sense of such a realm and was instead completely bewildered. She could only sigh softly.

"Sigh, this must be what they call the 'curse of the boundary'."

The contest continued. Zhiyue stepped outward with his left leg, forming a stable triangle with his lower body. He then reached out with his left hand, attempting to grab Regulus's ankle. However, Regulus reacted quickly, and before Zhiyue could grab it, Regulus used his other leg to kick up dust, rapidly raising his center of gravity until his entire body was above Regulus's head, and he continued to rise.

Even when a distance of three meters had grown between them, Zhiyue remained calm, looking up at Regulus directly above, who was slowly descending under the influence of gravity. Although the height wasn't great, and the potential energy wasn't immense enough to pose a threat—after all, he'd seen people fall from thousands of meters before—what was truly noteworthy was Regulus's highly variable movement techniques. He wondered what kind of attacks Regulus would launch from this third dimension.

He extended one leg, aiming directly at Zhiyue's head, seemingly intending to kick. Just as Zhiyue prepared to parry the attack with his bare hand, Regulus, at the last second before his foot touched Zhiyue, swiftly and incredibly rotated his body a full circle, extending his other leg and striking Zhiyue's shoulder with tremendous force—

However, the scene he imagined, where Zhiyue's legs lost their strength and he was knocked to the ground, did not come true. Instead, the sand under his feet was pushed to the side, and he sank a lot, but his posture remained upright and unshaken.

Regrus swallowed hard, unable to hide his surprise. His full-force attack, suppressing his cultivation level, hadn't even bent the young man's knees. In that moment of stunned silence, Zhiyue swiftly reached out and grabbed his foot. A chill ran through him; his combat instincts were telling him:

"Get out of the way!"

In a moment of urgency, Regulus quickly created distance between them, leaving his boots in the other's hands.

Just as Zhiyue was about to exert his strength and throw Regulus to the ground, he found that Regulus had already flown several meters away, and he was left with only one boot in his hand. The scene was quiet for a moment, leaving everyone dumbfounded.

"What happened?"

Yingzi asked Qian Xintong in a low voice. However, Qian Xintong didn't seem to have noticed anything amiss either.

"No... I didn't see it clearly either...?"

From everyone's perspective, it appeared as if Regulus had suddenly teleported to a distance without leaving any trace of movement.

"Okay, okay, I give up."

Zhiyue nodded, walked towards Regulus, and the two shook hands.