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"Battle results aside, this is truly a rare opportunity to practice with a top Heavenly Lord."

"So to speak, it's a shame we didn't participate in the competition."

"What shame are you speaking of? You wouldn't have withstood the Celestial attack."

"But I would have at least been able to see how powerful the Celestial State strike was!"

All the Ascendant State cultivators were discussing.

The two Heavenly Lords who had failed left the arena feeling utterly frustrated, angry and embarrassed.

They had been defeated by the Celestial's first disciples. Still, they didn't feel good to be defeated as brutally by people at their same level…

"Disciple, come here."

Su Ping heard his master's voice while he watched the events. He felt stunned when he looked back, only to see Shen Huang smiling at him.

He hesitated for a moment, but then he rose and flew over.

Su Ping's actions caught the attention of his seniors sitting next to him, and were surprised to see him fly towards their master.

However, their master's passive attitude made them realize he had been summoned.

Looks like our master is truly fond of this junior brother…?Many disciples thought.

Shuai Qianhou and Diaz, on the other hand, stared at Su Ping with a mix of puzzlement and jealousy.

"Greetings, sir!"

Su Ping reached Shen Huang's throne. His masters' image had expanded as he made his approach, ending up being merely as tall as the former's boot and having to look up.

Shen Huang smiled and lifted Su Ping to stand in the armrest to his right.

"Can you see it?" Shen Huang asked with a smile.

Su Ping felt a bit dazed; he shook his head and said, "Their domains blocked my eyesight; I can barely feel a thing."

"Huh?" Shen Huang's eyes glittered. Not just Su Ping, even the other Heavenly Lords were unable to sense anything except what was in plain sight, given the coverage over the void battlefield and the domains blocking.

He smiled, not overthinking about this. He said, "You're now a Star Lord; a top one at that, considering your attainments! You've been invited here to watch the battle because it will prepare you for the Ascendant State. You'll be able to understand more of the battles when the Ascendants fight for the general positions.

"The battles of the Heavenly Lords may be too sophisticated for you at the moment, but don't beat yourself too hard if you can't understand; just try to remember them.

"What you see now will be seedlings of knowledge for the future, when you rise to the Ascendant State. You'll gain a lot of experience when fighting Heavenly Lords."

Su Ping felt dazed by the prospect, feeling hesitant for a moment.

"Now, I'll open your eyes for you; just watch the battle," said Shen Huang softly.

Su Ping then felt that he was being lifted at a fast speed, seemingly passing through many clouds until he entered the void battlefield.

Later, he saw a hazy gray world in front of him, which was also removed quickly. He felt that he had fallen into the domain, and was then able to see the two parties fighting.

One of them was Xu Kong's first disciple. The tall old man looked much younger at that moment, all the wrinkles gone from his face. Still, his hair remained silver and he still wore old man's clothing.

His opponent was a Heavenly Lord from the Yuantian family, who was controlling the power of two illusory dragons. The power was very special, made of countless laws; each of their scales was a manifestation of laws.

The old man fought with one hand behind his back and the other holding a purple crescent blade, which revolved and fought the dragons.

Is this what Heavenly Lords are capable of?

Su Ping was dazed; he didn't know how Shen Huang had done it, but he was able to see the battle inside the domain.

Laws are being manifested; I think there are thousands of them, fully-grasped. Some of the laws on the dragon's heads and claws were perfected; their claws in particular, have the four ultimate perfect laws; three perfect laws were gathered on the heads. The most powerful one of them seems to be a law the old man created!

The Ascendant State power is circulating inside the dragons. Is this an Ascendant secret technique?

Su Ping was rather surprised. Undoubtedly, the Yuantians' Heavenly Lord had formidable attainments. The thousands of laws used to create the dragon scales had certainly taken a lot of time to consolidate.

Adding the laws forming the creatures' torsos, there were altogether seven of the top perfect laws.

There were other perfect laws used on joints and tails, except that they weren't as powerful as the four supreme laws.

What terrifying achievements. However, I don't think he's making the best use of his power. Even though his laws are arranged in the shape of dragons, there are still flaws!

Besides, the dragons are too big!

I would probably choose to do something like this old man…

Su Ping considered this while he watched. Judging from the battle, Xu Kong's first disciple was having an easier time during the fight.

The man was only controlling a purple crescent blade of seemingly simple structure, but Su Ping could tell it was much more complex than the dragons.

When a ten kilogram saber cuts an opponent's neck, what matters is the iron right at the edge which only weighs ten grams!

That's overlapping perfect laws…

The old man's purple blade seemed simple, but it was actually the stacked effect of ten perfect laws overlapping. It also had Ascendant State power, which counted as the weight of the weapon.

The purple weapon glittered in quick bursts and forced the dragons to retreat. The creatures could only fight the blade with their claws; their bodies would crack once hit.

The dragons had plenty of weaknesses, and their creator seemed to be well aware of the fact. That was why he had arranged them in a special manner, so that any blast imposed on them would be evenly distributed. Still, they were unable to resist the destructive purple blade!

Those are two valid ways to use power; one of them is overlapping the power, while the other balances. Both approaches are useful.?Su Ping was fascinated.

The dragons were quickly destroyed by the purple blade, though; one after the other, and their power surged. The old man then charged forward, and soon won.

His opponent seemed to know it was impossible to win at that point. There weren't other trump cards; the man simply quit.

The battle came to an end; the contenders looked and nodded at each other. After that, the Heavenly Lord of the Yuantian family was sent out of the void battlefield.

"Do you know why the guy's seemingly powerful dragons were defeated in the end?"?Shen Huang asked Su Ping telepathically, once the battle ended.

Su Ping paused for a moment.?Am I expected to give an answer?

Right when he was about to reply—Shen Huang simply said via telepathy, "It's because their expertise and law usage are different. Just remember what you saw; you'll know the answer when you rise to the Ascendant State."

"…"

So, it wasn't really a question, just a conversation starter.

"Master, I actually…"

"I know you don't understand right now. In fact, it's unnecessary for you to understand; you only need to commit to memory. Even if I explained right now, it would only disturb your mind. Empty talk is useless," said Shen Huang.

Su Ping opened his mouth and nodded; he chose to play along.

Down below—

The other disciples saw their interaction as his master's way of seizing the chance to teach Su Ping. They were quite envious; even the Ascendant-level disciples who had been taught for many years felt conflicted. Just as expected, the legendary junior was loved by their master.

Elsewhere—Chi Huo and Xu Kong noticed Shen Huang's actions, noticing how Shen Huang was guiding his disciple.

The situation was a bit unfair in their eyes; still, they didn't comment on it, simply turning a blind eye to such a trivial matter.

After all, Su Ping was unlike other juniors; they were still hoping that Su Ping would teach them the multiple small world technique.

The participant who had ranked fourth in the earlier test took action; he also selected a lower-ranking Heavenly Lord. Another fierce battle began.

Su Ping watched their moves quietly, finding that the two experts had styles of their own. One of them enhanced himself with laws and was good at melee-style attacks.

The other was similar to the previous winner, the old man. He overlapped his laws and constructed a huge cat, which was agile and even more unpredictable than the old man's purple crescent blade.

Su Ping had a good time watching the battle. He had learned a lot.

The people on his level weren't in want of power, but of ways of using it.

Power was just the foundation. Given enough resources, even a piece of garbage could be endowed with a tremendous amount of strength.

However, those who were at the peak had comparable strength; what mattered was their understanding and usage of laws.

It was just like in company dynamics: the bottom-level workers sold their strength; the middle-level workers sold their skills, and those at the top had neither strength nor skills. Still, the latter knew how to harness both strength and skills.

Only thoughts were rare; that was why they could stay at the top.

I never got a chance to observe when I fought Ascendants back in the cultivation sites; my sole focus was to simply finish them off as quickly as possible.

Looks like I still have a lot of room for improvement.?Su Ping was thrilled, thinking that the trip was totally worth it, being a good chance for him to assimilate his recent experiences.

The second battle soon reached an end; the Heavenly Lord controlling the big cat was the victor.

Shen Huang glanced at Su Ping in silence. He asked the boy Ping to watch battles beyond his level, not because he wanted the latter to immediately learn something. That would be a task for when he reached the Ascendant State.

He didn't want to be too hasty. It would be great if Su Ping didn't force himself to process the information and waited until he broke through; remembering was enough for the moment.

Su Ping had more chances to see how Heavenly Lords battled as the matches carried on. Some of the fighting methods were inevitably repeated, even though there were varied levels of expertise.

He also saw Loulan Lin's grandmother fight.

Jian Lan was one of the top Heavenly Lords too, and was qualified to pick.

She imbued laws in her weapon, which was then melded with nature. Thus, her attained laws are one with nature, allowing her to channel nature power…

Su Ping was deep in thought. He finally knew that his sword technique was not worth mentioning after seeing Heavenly Lord Jian Lan's performance.

He had the power, but he didn't know how to make the best use of it.

I see…

There were all kinds of sword techniques in his head, including those he had created on his own and the Sky Execution Technique he had learned from Ji Xueqing.

Sword techniques were just the surface.

He had an epiphany.?So, the highest level of the Sky Execution Technique is not about shaking the world with my own power, but to do so with the world's own power. My sword is just the medium!

His understanding of the Sky Execution Technique was instantly perfected.

However, he thought that the sword technique had flaws; there had to be more effective ways to use it, but he was still too weak to understand.

It would be wasteful if the world's power is used to hit the world itself; that's not the way I should wield my sword if I want to break through."

Jian Lan's battle was over while Su Ping was deep in thought.

Shen Huang felt worried once he noticed that Su Ping was frowning, and wondered if he had been too hasty. The sight of Heavenly Lords fighting could be too overwhelming. Also, he was a very talented seedling; spending too much time thinking about what he was seeing could lead him to the wrong path.

It was like an ant climbing a tree, at the risk of constantly going in circles if it was unable to see the whole picture.

The ant would be able to choose the optimal route to the summit once it grew bigger, so it could see the entirety of the tree.

"There's no need to think. Just remember," said Shen Huang in a low voice.

Su Ping was woken up from his meditation. While stunned for a moment, he then said helplessly, "Master, I know what I'm doing."

Shen Huang choked for a moment, not knowing what to say; his disciple was a genius, but geniuses were hard to teach, as they had their own ingrained thoughts which were hard to correct.

"Feel free to ask me if you have any questions," said Shen Huang.

Su Ping nodded. "I don't have any yet."

Then, he went into deep thought again.

Shen Huang was lost for words again, after seeing his disciple act in such a manner.?Is my disciple trying to figure things out on his own?

He shook his head. He planned to teach Su Ping in detail when the competition for the general positions began.

The battles of more than twenty Heavenly Lords were finally over; only a dozen of them remained.

Chi Huo said, "Now, you'll pair up again to fight; the rules are the same. Who wants to quit?"

All the Heavenly Lords remained calm; nobody replied.

Chi Huo instantly said, "All right, let's proceed."

This time, it was still Night Reaper who picked first. She chose a low-ranking Heavenly Lord again, still being the weakest among them.

This time, Su Ping was able to watch how that Heavenly Lord fought in the domain of eternal night.

Liu Xia's contender unleashed all his strength and activated his constitution. It was one of the ten divine constitutions.

Even though her opponent was using his full strength, the Night Reaper was still casual and easy. She summoned a red eye inside the domain of eternal night.