Chapter Ninety-Two: Results of the Contest

When the two returned to Backed-by-Mountain City, hundreds of thousands of people erupted at once in cheers.

On the luminous screen in the sky, only ten cultivators’ names remained.

On the first line, the five favorites for the championship were still there, unchanged in name and unchanged in order.

Beside the screen, Ouyang Xiuxuan was sitting with his eyes closed, resting.

Su Yizhao and the other descended onto the arena.

The murmur from below swelled by the moment.

Gou Jiancheng asked, “Daoist Han, who do you think will take first place?”

Han Anning shook his head. “I only handle the betting!”

On the arena, Kong Buming said softly, “Daoist Huang, you were too impulsive!”

A faint smile appeared on Lu Yongxin’s crude face. “If you’re impulsive, you deserve punishment!”

“Daoist Lu, even if those two don’t get first place, surely it won’t be you, either?” Kong Buming could not help saying.

Lu Yongxin bared his teeth in a grin. “Who can say for certain?”

Su Yizhao thought of the thirty-seven hundred million premium mystic stones that were about to be lost, and could not help inwardly grumbling.

If you can’t win, go home and cultivate properly.

Why lose your temper? Why act on impulse?

Now look at this mess; the debt could not even be repaid!

Ouyang Xiuxuan opened his eyes and said to everyone, “The results of this contest are in!”

The hundreds of thousands of cultivators below fell silent in an instant.

Every eye was fixed on the luminous screen.

On it, one name slowly faded.

As if deliberately drawing out the suspense, it took a full breath’s time before that name vanished completely.

Gou Jiancheng clenched both fists.

After years of cultivation, he felt as though he had returned to the very first time he ever took part in a contest.

Thrilling.

Han Anning was already frantically muttering in his heart: “It’s fine if I lose five million, but I absolutely cannot lose another one million!”

Ouyang Xiuxuan said nothing.

Another name on the luminous screen gradually faded away.

Only then did Su Yizhao finally catch on, and he too stared fixedly at the screen in the air.

Silence.

Even at dead of night, Backed-by-Mountain City had never been this quiet.

Three breaths later, seven names still remained on the screen.

Gou Jiancheng spread his hands and let the cold wind dry the sweat on his palms.

Han Anning had long since stopped muttering.

In both their eyes, the three words Su Yizhao were still shining upon the screen.

Another name dimmed, but it was not Su Yizhao.

The two could not help but grow excited.

One breath later, they exchanged a look, joy and disbelief mingling together.

Another breath passed, and only three names remained on the luminous screen: on the first line, Huang Qizheng and Lu Yongxin; on the second line, Su Yizhao.

Below the arena, cultivators were already cursing loudly.

“Haha, it’s actually third place!” Gou Jiancheng’s brows relaxed.

“Third place, Lu Yongxin!” Ouyang Xiuxuan said softly. At once, the three names on the luminous screen aligned into a single row, with Lu Yongxin placed at the end.

Han Anning exclaimed in astonishment, “It’s actually second place!”

Second place!

One had to know that in more than twenty years, no one from the auction house had ever entered the top three.

The hundreds of thousands of cultivators could no longer restrain themselves and began shouting, “Huang Qizheng! Huang Qizheng...!”

Su Yizhao was equally astonished.

This method of dangling suspense before the crowd hardly seemed like something a cultivator would do.

Ouyang Xiuxuan’s voice rang out, like a heavenly melody. “Second place, Huang Qizheng!”

“Get lost! What fair contest is this!”

“I refuse to accept it!”

The crowd below instantly exploded into uproar.

Su Yizhao was astonished.

Huang Qizheng remained serenely composed.

Gou Jiancheng slapped Han Anning across the face.

Han Anning covered his cheek, not even realizing the pain.

On the luminous screen, the three shining words Su Yizhao stood in first place.

“It’s him?” someone below cried out.

“Who? You know him?”

“The brothel swordsman!”

“Ah? The brothel scoundrel?”

The noise continued, but the contest had formally come to an end.

...

In the main hall of the Gou Family Auction House.

Su Yizhao casually tossed out a storage ring.

Gou Jiancheng caught it with one hand and stared at him in a daze.

“There’s one hundred million premium mystic stones in there. Returning it fivefold should not be a problem, right?” Su Yizhao asked generously.

Han Anning, standing nearby, hurriedly answered, “No problem, no problem!”

Su Yizhao looked at the storage rings on his ten fingers and sighed. “There are too many. What am I supposed to do with all this?”

Han Anning quickly said, “Deposit them with our auction house!”

“This works too?”

“Absolutely. And there’s even interest every year!”

Su Yizhao nodded in agreement.

Thirty-seven hundred million premium mystic stones!

More than enough for him to spend freely.

Most importantly, when the fourth layer of the Profound Qi Creation Art arrived, these mystic stones would be enough to support the imprint on his chest as it absorbed power.

“Little Su!” Gou Jiancheng suddenly said to him, “the octopus you encountered was really four or five zhang in size?”

Su Yizhao nodded. “That’s what Ouyang Xiuxuan said. A little octopus.”

Gou Jiancheng’s expression changed slightly, and he sighed. “That’s not small at all. Four or five zhang means it was absolutely at the eighth Void Realm! What about the corpse?”

“It was taken away by Ouyang Xiuxuan!”

Han Anning interjected, “It’s useless in his hands, but for you, it would be a tremendous fortune!”

Su Yizhao fell silent.

He had not never thought about it.

But the scales he had once obtained from killing the Divine Tortoise Prince were still, to this day, not fully understood in terms of use. Worse still, once taken out, they would send out a signal and bring an overwhelming sense of danger.

Much less the fact that in his storage ring there was still an old turtle’s corpse at the peak of the ninth Void Realm, which he had not dared to take out.

If that four-or-five-zhang octopus were added to it as well, would his storage ring end up containing nothing but corpses?

Su Yizhao suddenly asked, “What use would it have? Sell the meat?”

Gou Jiancheng looked disgusted, while Han Anning could not help laughing. “The meat can be kept for yourself to eat. It’s of great use for body refinement. What’s most valuable are the sinews in those tentacles!”

Su Yizhao thought to himself that if it was truly of great benefit to body refinement, then that was not bad at all.

It was just that the old turtle in his storage ring was emaciated beyond belief, with practically no meat left on it.

Seen that way, it was a pity to waste the meat from a creature that large.

“What level could those sinews reach?”

“They’re naturally a Void Treasure, and after years of tempering by the octopus, they’re absolutely more formidable than anything forged by hand!”

Su Yizhao was delighted.

“How are they used? Refine them directly?”

Gou Jiancheng rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh. “Couldn’t you spare a little time to look through some books? And you still ask such an idiot question!”

Right.

Su Yizhao immediately accepted the criticism.

Being too busy cultivating was no excuse. Time, after all, was like the hollow between a woman’s breasts: squeeze hard enough, and there would still be some there.

After taking his leave of the two men, Su Yizhao plunged straight into the auction house’s library.

Two days later, at the teleportation array in Yellow Dragon County City, a cultivator in blue robes emerged.

It was Su Yizhao.

Only after reading for two full days did he realize that the southwest frontier was not merely remote, but truly minuscule.

To describe it as poor in resources and shallow in inheritance would be no exaggeration.

This continent possessed a long and profound legacy.

Within the world of cultivation, it was even more bizarre and wondrous beyond measure.

Among cultivators, humans and demons made up the largest two groups, but there were also grasses, trees, sprites, and all manner of strange beings that could cultivate.

There were even devils, souls, and ghosts.

Countless forms of cultivators, numbering in the billions, formed the world of immortal cultivation, and what they all pursued, for the most part, was the proof of the Dao and eternal life.

Of course, to seek the Dao and life everlasting, one had first to cultivate to the very pinnacle, and that required an enormous amount of cultivation resources.

And thus came contention, and slaughter.

And thus, the demon race from the deep sea had come ashore.