Divine Emperor of Death

Davis, Myria, Ellia, and Zora Luan landed on the floating island. Along the pathways heading to the center from all directions, many fountains and gardens were placed within.

The scenery was quite splendid, not what someone would expect from a battle arena. The smell of blood was almost non-existent. Moreover, they could even see some disciples flirting here and there while some other formed groups, discussing the sect affairs, mostly about the rankings which concerned them but also about the top rankers.

Some information fell on their ears, but it was just too scrambled for them to make sense of it. But Davis could tell that most of it was everyday banter, not anything important.

As they made their way to the battle arenas, he stopped paying attention as he lost interest.

Since he couldn't fly after appearing here, he noticed that there was a formation blocking immortals from flying above the floating island once they reached a particular range within it. He guessed that it was for maintaining discipline and uniformity. However…

"So the restrictive formation doesn't affect Immortal Kings..."

"That's right. The Proving Grounds for Immortal King disciples is on another floating island. This is for Immortal Stage lifeforms."

"I see."

Davis nodded at Zora Luan's explanation. She was also caring enough to clear the doubts he had while coming here, not displaying the haughtiness of an Immortal King. He felt that he could make friends with such a character, clearing him of some air of the unpleasant encounter he had before.

Soon, they finally appeared before the central area in a moment where the disciples were as far as the eyes could see, perhaps in the tens of thousands, raising Davis's brows. However, he also heard that the Aurora Cloud Gate had millions of immortals ranging from workers to true disciples, so he wasn't greatly astonished.

But still, seeing more than a hundred thousand immortals in the central area, their auras soaring everywhere, was a scene that he didn't expect to see this soon. It was shocking to the inexperienced eyes and the mind.

And as expected, Myria and Ellia didn't react much to this scene. However, they didn't attract attention either because Ellia used illusion arts to conceal her status as a true disciple as she changed her three-colored cloud emblem to a white-colored cloud, which represented an outer disciple.

As for Myria, she simply warned Ellia not to disguise as an outer disciple, saying that it would not lessen the burden on Davis but instead would just invite more trouble.

Hearing that, Ellia nodded her head as she agreed but instead of reversing the illusion, she just completely hid her face with a fairy-faced mask.

Myria had become speechless, but she refused to act like Ellia, still appearing as high as a swan with her beauty and as noble as a phoenix with her true disciple status. She caused innumerable heads to turn everywhere she went, sometimes even causing jaws to drop and eyes spewing envy from both sexes.

People felt an innate sense of distance from her. Her aura was telling them to stay away, making them feel uncomfortable even though they didn't know why. But at the same time, it also made them all feel that she was mysterious, wanting to get to know more about her somewhat.

They felt confused.

However, the only thing that saved Davis from the glaring eyes of men was that Myria chose to walk beside Zora Luan. Following them were Davis and Ellia. If Myria had been beside Davis, then that would've summoned a huge headache for him. He was merely mistaken for some subordinate or something of similar nature.

After all, everyone just felt that a high and mighty true disciple had just come to watch the lowly peasants battle it out here for advancement. To them, it looked like she even brought an Immortal King fellow disciple, or a backer.

While most people's gaze was on Myria and her group, Davis and the others had their eyes on the ranking above.

There were four rankings charts in the skies, a projection formation that only turned visible after they had entered the central area.

[Outer Disciple Rankings - Immortal]

[Inner Disciple Rankings - Immortal]

[Core Disciple Rankings - Immortal]

[True Disciple Rankings - Immortal]

Below them were hundreds of names, the top hundred to be accurate. The top three were bright and emboldened with large letters, while the rest were at normal size. The next few hundreds of names were somewhat small to recognize with ease, and the next few thousands could only be seen if one focused their gaze.

However, if one wanted to know their own ranking, they could just activate their own status plate to see.

Davis heard this from Zora Luna, so he couldn't help but take out his status plate and activate it using the aforementioned method.

Instantly a few words lit up that had his lips curving wryly.

[1,081,345]

Davis knew that his ranking couldn't be far off from the last outer disciple to be recruited. That meant there were a million Immortal Stage outer disciples in the Aurora Cloud Gate, all of these individuals capable of crossing two levels to battle. Just a simple function, but the scale that it displayed in the blink of an eye was truly astonishing, causing him to sigh with some amazement.

Moreover, there were still an extreme number of Immortal Stage workers who didn't have their own ranking charts. After all, workers who were less powerful were not a sect's headache when it came to resources.

But still, it was no wonder the Aurora Cloud Gate was feared by every major power he saw outside.

They were truly a frightening force to be reckoned with.

Shaking his head, he walked past Myria and Zora Luan. Instantly, everyone's gaze couldn't help but fall on him, causing immense pressure to descend on Davis. However, his figure didn't falter as he arrived in front of a square-faced white-robed man.

The side of his arm had the emblem of a blue cloud, which meant that he was none other than an inner disciple.

"Inner disciple, I challenge you to a promotion battle."

Davis cupped his hands, showing some respect.

Since the progression here was supposed to be linear, he could only challenge a core disciple after he had become an inner disciple. There was truly no way around it other than a recommendation letter from an Elder or a word from an immortal of higher stature. However, such things were roundabout to him, causing him to directly challenge an inner disciple.

Nonetheless, that square-faced inner disciple with hawkish eyes viewed him with scrutiny before he raised ten fingers with both his hands.

"Ten Immortal Crystals?" Davis turned doubtful.

Did he need Immortal Crystals to challenge someone? Or was he being told to wait for ten minutes?

However, the inner disciple's reaction made Davis blink.

"Are you kidding? Fellow outer disciple, everyone knows that it's ten Mid-Level Immortal Crystals for a promotion battle to become an inner disciple. You dare to take me for a fool, unwilling to use up a single month of your monthly wage, or are you just new?"

"…"

Davis became slightly stunned. Ten… ten what?

Mid-Level Immortal Crystals?

He hadn't even seen one yet, even though he had plundered millions of Low-Level Immortal Crystals. That was how rare it was, yet this inner disciple was asking him to pay up ten of such immortal crystals?

His shock turned to coldness. However, he turned to look at Zora Luan for one last confirmation, and when he saw her lightly nod, he inwardly sighed that it was true and not the inner disciple intentionally making trouble for him.

"Little outer disciple, bringing a core disciple won't work, even if that core disciple is an Immortal King. The Aurora Cloud Gate is a huge place consisting of many Prefectures. It is the Domain itself. Any little collectives living within this Domain all belong to the Aurora Cloud Gate, paying tribute to it every year like without even having to be mentioned, and just like every power has its own unspoken rules, these floating islands are no different."

The inner disciple simply chuckled, not bothering about the ill gazes he received from the crowd.

Davis noticed the reaction from the crowd and quickly figured that this was a way the inner disciples figured out to make money.

Perhaps, it was a tradition already, one that no one dared to break. But considering that inner disciples were taking their time to be here to allow outer disciples to be promoted, he saw that it was also some kind of mission that they took upon themselves, as though it was a self-governing mechanism placed to ensure more social interactions between the disciples.