Traversing countless worlds from the primordial era

Chapter 58 Treasures for Participation in the Battle

As Lei Ming and Han Li entered the stone hall, the gazes of many old monsters within immediately focused on them. Lei Ming was now regarded as someone who had surpassed even a Grand Cultivator, and no force dared to ignore him.

"Fellow Daoist Lei, you've finally arrived!" Long Han stood up to greet Lei Ming and invited him to sit in the main seat. No one else dared to object.

"I'm not too late, am I?" Lei Ming said with a smile as he sat down, with Han Li sitting next to him.

"Not too late, not too late, just right," Long Han said. "With Fellow Daoist Lei's help this time, we have a better chance of success."

After Lei Ming and his group sat down, other cultivators arrived one after another, and Long Han introduced them to Lei Ming one by one. These cultivators, whether from the righteous path or the demonic path, all greeted Lei Ming respectfully; in the cultivation world, strength ultimately reigns supreme.

Lei Ming reciprocated their goodwill. However, his powerful spiritual senses allowed him to detect the resentment and malice of some of them.

Before long, Venerable Zhiyang and the Old Demon Hehuan walked in through a side door of the main hall. They slowly walked to the center of the hall and stopped.

Wei Wuyai should have been present at this event as well. However, he lost most of his vital essence a few months ago and is still recuperating, so he cannot participate in this battle against the Mulan mage.

The Old Demon of the Joyful Union caught a glimpse of Lei Ming and immediately looked away. It wasn't that he didn't hate Lei Ming; on the contrary, the Old Demon of the Joyful Union wished he could extract Lei Ming's primordial spirit and torment him for ten thousand years. But just thinking of Lei Ming's Demon-Binding Net made the Old Demon of the Joyful Union feel powerless. Until he found a magical artifact to counter the Demon-Binding Net, the Old Demon of the Joyful Union absolutely dared not provoke Lei Ming.

"Fellow Daoists, you all know me, right?" Venerable Zhiyang began. "The reason for this gathering is that this morning, the Mulan people sent an envoy with a challenge, saying that if we do not agree to their conditions, we will have to fight to the death at the border in seven days."

"What are the conditions?" The cultivators stirred in commotion.

"This is their challenge letter. Fellow Daoists, please take a look." Venerable Zhiyang handed the challenge letter to Lei Ming, who then passed it to Han Li... Soon everyone had read it. Everyone's expression turned grim. The conditions proposed by the Mulan people were too outrageous; they wanted half of Tiannan. No one could possibly agree to that.

Of all the cultivators present, the Nine Kingdoms Alliance reacted most strongly to the conditions proposed by the Mulan people, hoping to end the war as soon as possible. Some sects located inland, however, wanted a protracted war, a war of attrition against the Mulan people. The two sides argued about this issue, while Lei Ming watched coldly from the sidelines.

"The struggles in the cultivation world are truly everywhere. In the world of 'A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality,' major forces scheme and fight for cultivation resources, and everyone in the prehistoric world is also vying for fortune and merit. The world of cultivation is all about competition!" Lei Ming realized something.

Master Zhiyang suppressed the argument: "The Mulan people have been attacked from the rear by the Tuwu people, and they can't hold out any longer. However, no matter what tricks the Mulan people have up their sleeves, this is a good opportunity for us. We must participate in this bet, and we must win."

Some people were very dissatisfied with what Master Zhiyang said; they were unwilling to be led by the nose by the Mulan people.

Master Zhiyang explained, "When the Mulan people attacked earlier, they captured many cultivators, mostly from the Nine Kingdoms Alliance, but also quite a few from our various sects. The Mulan envoy didn't mention killing the prisoners, but he kept saying he would give us a chance to rescue these cultivators. In addition to wagering materials, they also added over a hundred captured cultivators to each of the ten duels."

Many Nascent Soul cultivators exchanged glances, and no one dared to refuse. The number of cultivators captured by the Mulan people was not large, only a little over a thousand, and most of them were low-level cultivators, yet no one dared to suggest abandoning them.

"It seems we have no choice but to accept the Mulan people's conditions." Long Han sighed, and the others also felt helpless.

"Let's have a decisive battle then. It's better to end this war sooner rather than later," said a cultivator surnamed Kuang. "But how should we arrange the participants for the duel?"

Master Zhiyang swept his gaze across everyone in the hall: "Because this is a life-or-death battle, whether or not you are willing to fight is entirely up to you fellow Daoists."

The crowd's expressions varied, and they all remained silent. Putting aside the strangeness of this bet, everyone had gone through countless hardships to cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage; none of them would easily risk their lives.

The Supreme Master Zhiyang and the Old Demon Hehuan had anticipated the reactions of the crowd.

"This betting battle is indeed a bit dangerous. If the fellow cultivator who participates wins, all the precious materials won in the betting battle will belong to the winning cultivator. The cultivation resources of the Mulan Grassland are not as abundant as those of Tiannan, but there are still a few rare materials that we do not have. In addition, we also have some collections that can satisfy the needs of you fellow cultivators," said Venerable Zhiyang.

The crowd remained silent. Although the treasure was tempting, they were more concerned about their own lives.

"What you've said, Venerable One, has indeed tempted me." Lei Ming's voice broke the silence in the hall. Upon hearing him speak, Venerable One Zhiyang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. With Lei Ming able to participate in the battle, Tiannan had already won a match in advance.

Master Zhiyang smiled and said, "It's wonderful that Fellow Daoist Lei is willing to fight."

"I have no problem fighting. If the rules allow, I can take on all ten betting matches by myself," Lei Ming said calmly.

"I'm afraid that won't work..." Master Zhiyang certainly hoped for the same outcome; with Lei Ming's intervention, Tiannan would be invincible. However, the rules of this duel were set by the Mulan people, and they would not allow it.

Lei Ming was still somewhat disappointed: "Then forget it. Fellow Daoist knows that I am collecting top-grade Five Elements spiritual items, and that is my condition for participating in the battle."

Master Zhiyang nodded: "We have prepared everything before we came: Star Iron Essence, Earth Fire Spirit, Precious Light Stone Marrow, Ten Thousand Luo Tree Heart, and Ten Thousand Year Ice Crystal. I wonder if you are satisfied?"

"Okay." Lei Ming was overjoyed. The five spiritual items mentioned by the Venerable Zhiyang were the top-tier Five Elements spiritual items in the mortal world, which Lei Ming himself had not found. It has to be said that the forces to which the three great cultivators belonged were very wealthy, even possessing such treasures.

Master Zhiyang was finally relieved. These five elemental spiritual items were carefully prepared by them, and they had put a lot of thought into them.

Once Lei Ming's participation in the battle was confirmed, Venerable Zhiyang and Old Demon Hehuan communicated with other cultivators to discuss the matter. Lei Ming took the treasure from Venerable Zhiyang and did not participate in the rest of the battle. Han Li was still there when he left.

Tianyi City had prepared a cave dwelling specifically for the Nascent Soul Ancestor, though it was rather simple. Lei Ming planted the Five Elements Flags around the cave dwelling, and five streams of light shot out from his dantian, transforming into five elemental spirit beasts that merged with the Five Elements Flags, instantly forming the Five Elements Grand Array. As soon as the Five Elements Grand Array was formed, the spiritual energy in the world surged, and the Nascent Soul Ancestors, still in the stone hall, all changed color.

"Don't worry, everyone, this is Fellow Daoist Lei's Five Elements Grand Formation," Venerable Zhiyang hurriedly said, while also being shocked by the power of the Five Elements Grand Formation.

"I hope these top-tier spiritual items won't disappoint me," Lei Ming thought to himself.

With Lei Ming's current strength and status, it is not difficult for him to collect the Five Elements spiritual objects. Over the years, the Five Elements Pine Nuts have devoured an astonishing number of Five Elements spiritual objects. In addition, with the Five Elements spells that Lei Ming has collected, he has made great progress in the Five Elements Dao.

Even so, Lei Ming was still unable to make the Five Elements Divine Light generate divine patterns.

Lei Ming's divine sense saw that the five-colored light in his dantian was already covered with mysterious patterns, but these patterns were still somewhat dim and had not yet been fully transformed into divine patterns.

The patterns on the five-colored radiance represent Lei Ming's mastery of the Five Elements. The dimness of the patterns is due to insufficient spiritual power of the Five Elements, and the imperfection of the patterns is because Lei Ming's understanding of the Five Elements is still incomplete.

Lei Ming set aside all other thoughts and began to devour the Star Iron Essence. The Star Iron Essence was evolved from meteorite iron over countless years and contained immense metallic spiritual power. This time, the Star Iron Essence that Supreme Yang took out was as large as a head, making it even more rare. As the Five Elements Pine Nut devoured the Star Iron Essence, the part of its five-colored radiance representing the metallic divine light shone brightly, growing to a foot in length.

What delighted Lei Ming the most was that the patterns of the Golden Element Divine Light were shimmering with golden light, clearly indicating that the spiritual power was sufficient!

"As expected of a top-tier spiritual object, it actually replenished the spiritual power of the Five Elements Divine Light." Lei Ming was overjoyed and continued to devour the heart of the Ten Thousand Luo Tree.

(End of this chapter)