Alchemy Emperor of the Divine Dao

Chapter 1695: Stakes

After dealing with the Liu Siblings, Ling Han was in a good mood, and returned to the inn with the Empress.

The application of entry into the city had not been approved yet when the Empress sensed the opportunity for breaking through. She did not leave the city. This secondary city was no smaller than Dark Moon City, so it was fine for her to find any mountain forest that was unoccupied; there was no need to worry that she would bring disaster to others.

Furthermore, in the Celestial Realm’s case, the heavenly tribulation that was endured by Genesis Tiers would not involve much of a commotion actually, because the structure here was too sturdy, so the destructive power would naturally not be overwhelmingly strong, either.

The Empress soon returned from enduring her heavenly tribulation, and advanced first into Saint King Tier. A whole group of people were about to break through, and all requested to come out. Those prodigies who could achieve success even in the Ancient Realm naturally would advance by leaps and bounds now that they were in the Celestial Realm, a sacred place of cultivation.

At the very least, these people would practically not encounter any problems in cultivation before they reached the Severing Mundane Tier. Of course, wanting to form the pinnacle level of 10,000,000 stars in the Eternal River Tier was still incredibly difficult. So far, only Ling Han, the Empress, and the Rain Emperor had accomplished this feat.

The good news was that everyone had achieved enough improvement in their grasp of the Regulations of the two Realms because there were no longer any Regulations of two Realms in the Celestial Realm, as they were naturally one here. There was no need to comprehend both, just like they only had to comprehend either the Regulations of the Immortal Realm or the Netherworld in the Ancient Realm, so it was naturally simple.

However, it was also precisely because it was so simple that even if the others had merged the Regulations of the two Realms, they were unable to compare to Ling Han, the Empress, and the Rain Emperor in terms of battle prowess, despite their equal cultivation levels. It was like even the heavens knew that it had been extremely hard for Ling Han and his companions to merge the Regulations of two Realms in the Ancient Realm, and so made it so that their battle prowess was stronger.

Those who had merged the Regulations of the two Realms left the Black Tower. There were massive unoccupied wilderness and forests here, and were completely sufficient for them to live in seclusion. They could not stay forever in the Black Tower, after all.

They would set up base here, and with this as their base, would develop a new Great Ling Empire.

...Oh, since a nation could not be established in the Celestial Realm, it would just have to be called the Great Ling Sect.

Ling Han had zero interest in building his own power base, allowing the others to just do whatever they liked. By now, the majority had already left the Black Tower, and only the Empress and the Heavenly Phoenix Divine Maiden were left by Ling Han’s side.

The Rain Emperor left alone. He was going to travel all over the Celestial Realm. His Dao was not suited to quiet cultivation; he had to battle all the way through.

Ling Han informed him about the two methods to break through to the Severing Mundane Tier, and the Rain Emperor nodded.

He was a cultivation fanatic, and did not mind severing his mortal bonds at all, but since he was a cultivation fanatic, he naturally had to aim for the strongest way. Since there was a stronger way for achieving the Severing Mundane Tier, why should he use the normal way?

Ultimately, it was not everyone that could deliver this strike onto the heaven and earth. For the sake of immortality, a great many people here would have to sever the mortal bond that they valued the most.

Ling Han involuntarily sighed.

Returning once more to the inn, he saw that everyone else was waiting for him and the Empress. As it turned out, entry into the city had been approved.

“Let’s go.”

They arrived at the center of the secondary city. There was a Transfer Formation, which could directly transfer everyone standing on it to Black Moon City in the skies, here.

Long Gaofei first showed the token of entry into the city, then paid as much as 120 Star Stones—which meant that every person had to pay an entrance fee of 10 Star Stones. Only then would the guards of the Transfer Formation allow them to enter, but they did not immediately activate the formation.

Ling Han and his group waited for a good while, and after 100 people had gathered here, only then did the Transfer Formation activate.

As it turned out, to save on energy for the Transfer Formation, it would only be activated when there were enough people.

Faced with this kind of rule, even a Severing Mundane Ancestor like Long Gaofei did not have the slightest sliver of a temper. He was only a first severance grand elder, and while there were not as many Severing Mundane Ancestors in a Two Star City as carp crossing a river, there were definitely a few thousand, and there were many that were stronger than him.

If he dared act arrogantly, then he would be suppressed at any time, what more when there were Dividing Soul Tiers in Black Moon City.

Weng, the Transfer Formation shone with white light. Everyone could feel a slight tug on their bodies, and they had already arrived at another location. There was similarly a Transfer Formation, but it was different from the previous one.

They had already arrived at the true Black Moon City.

“What dense Spiritual Qi!” Mao Shuyu and the others all exclaimed in surprise. They had never been to a Two Star City before, and this was their first time feeling such dense Spiritual Qi, so they were naturally excited.

Long Gaofei similarly was slightly excited, but his expression did not show it. He lowly said, “Let’s go to the relay station first.”

The Black Moon Sect had set up the relay station deliberately for these visitors from their subordinate cities to make it easier to administer, and it would also be easier to find anyone if they needed to pass on any messages.

The relay station was in a very remote location, a whole seven days’ journey from the Transfer Formation, and at this time, there were already many people from a considerable number of cities that had arrived. When they saw Long Gaofei bringing his group, some of them greeted him, while some glared at him.

The relations among these 200-plus forces under the rule of the Black Moon Sect were very complicated. Some of them had feuds, some were branch families descended from certain clans, and some were allied through matrimony, while others yet were sworn enemies.

The Celestial Realm also had ancient sites and Mystery Realms, so it was inevitable that fighting over treasure would happen. Thus, it was really too easy for enmity to develop.

As it happened, the Black Moon Sect did not interfere at all in matters of internal strife. For example, if the three great clans of Dark Moon City were capable of conquering Bayu City, they could completely make this city their own as long as the tribute that they should pay did not decrease.

This was equivalent to indulging their subordinate forces. Otherwise, Dark Moon City would not need to spend a large volume of their resources on the city walls. This actually was the biggest expenditure of their yearly income.

Precisely because of this kind of enmity and grudges, if anyone drew an enemy city during the competition, a bloody fight was inevitable, and casualties were completely normal.

After they settled down, Long Gaofei told them to rest well, and not to go out and cause any kind of trouble no matter what.

This was the main city of Black Moon City, and anyone here could possibly have the backing of a third severance, fourth severance, or even Dividing Soul Tier. Putting aside the fact that they were only Genesis Tiers, even Long Gaofei could be killed without giving him any bit of face at all.

Another two days later, the participating teams from the over 200 cities had all arrived.

Long Gaofei left for a while, and brought back some information with him.

This piece of information recorded the stakes of each representative team of the various cities emerging victorious.

Correct. Every time this kind of competition occurred, it was a distinguished event for Black Moon City, and all the forces could place a bet on every match in the competition. They could also make a wager on the winning team in advance.

The earlier the bet was placed, the higher the stakes would be. The logic was very simple; as the competition progressed, the number of participating teams would swiftly decrease, so the stakes naturally would be adjusted accordingly.

And to the participating teams, this table showing the stakes was also a ranking of strength from a certain point of view.

“We are ranked at... the 224th place.” After Mao Shuyu swept an eye over it, she immediately jumped up. This was really looking down on them too much, actually giving them the stakes of 1:22.

There were only a total of 237 One Star Cities under the administration of the Black Moon Sect, and they were actually ranked 14th from the back.

Yet Ling Han shook his head mentally. Why weren’t they ranked last? That way, the stakes would be even higher, and he would be able to earn even more money.