After the revelation of the first six Celestial Idols came an intermission, allowing the gathered cultivators to ease their tension.
Inside and outside the arena, in the heavens and upon the earth, no one knew how many immortals were watching. Not only did no one dare step out of line, but many felt compelled to put on their best performance. What if an immortal took a liking to them? And if an immortal didn't, an immortal's daughter would do just fine.
Many female cultivators prayed to catch the eye of an immortal's scion; if the scion didn't care for them, they wouldn't mind becoming the scion's stepmother instead.
Above the venue's grandstands stood rows of private boxes reserved for VIPs. These boxes were equipped with divine-sense-shielding formations, so ordinary cultivators in the stands could not see them at all, nor did they even know they existed. This, too, was Wei Yuan's handiwork: by keeping rural patriarchs from seeing how high-tier cultivators lived, they would remain much happier.
Wei Yuan had naturally reserved a box for himself. Standing before the window and gazing down at the projections of the six Celestial Idols over the arena, he remarked, "The floor-to-ceiling windows from the world beyond heaven really are well-designed. Everything is in full view, giving the illusion of holding the mortal world in one's palm."
Zhang Sheng sat sideways by the window, propping her chin on the back of her hand. "I keep feeling something is off. It seems something has slipped in. There are many immortals in the arena, but precisely because there are so many, their mutual wariness and restraints might give certain individuals an opening to exploit."
A cold glint flashed in Wei Yuan's eyes. In a low voice, he said, "Don't worry, I prepared long ago. Those fellows will never imagine that in less than a year, I have amassed another fifty million in mortal fortune! Moreover, we are in Qingming right now. Bearing the power of millions, once activated, I will be the grand momentum of heaven and earth!
"If they don't strike, so be it. But the moment they dare move and I lock onto them, I will suppress them with overwhelming, majestic might! Even an immortal would have their realm dragged down! I'd like to see just how many immortals they can afford to waste!"
A smile rippled across Zhang Sheng's lips. "You're getting angry again. That won't do."
Wei Yuan took a deep breath, calming his emotions. "I can't help it. The moment I think of your killing tribulation, I can't stomach it. Besides, there is no room for negotiation in this matter—it must be fought until one side is wiped out entirely!"
Zhang Sheng pointed down toward the twelve duel platforms. "I sense the fortunes of heaven and earth converging upon the duel platforms. It seems the true variable will emerge there. Why not prepare a bit early?"
Wei Yuan nodded in agreement. "All right, I'll go take a walk outside."
"Go on. I'll watch from here."
Wei Yuan had habitually moved closer to her, but remembering the immortals flanking the arena, he held back. Zhang Sheng chuckled softly. "Go on! It's fine to feed our sect elders a little dog food, but there's no need to put on a show for outsiders."
"Dog food??"
Zhang Sheng said, "Haven't you read the latest storybooks? To single dogs, what we do is called feeding dog food."
Wei Yuan realized, "So that's what it means! Then let's feed them a few more mouthfuls!"
Zhang Sheng raised a hand, pressing a finger against Wei Yuan to stop him, and said earnestly, "If it were just us, of course it wouldn't matter. But the Bao family Immortal Ancestor is here now. Those romantic entanglements of yours—since they've already happened, they must be treated with respect. On an occasion like this, you and I must keep our distance out of courtesy. Otherwise, it will make them feel arbitrarily slighted."
Wei Yuan nodded. "All right, I'll attend to business first."
Watching Wei Yuan push open the door and vanish into the sea of people, Zhang Sheng sat for a moment before vanishing from the room as well.
In another private box not far away, Princess Ningguo had stripped off all her clothes and stood completely naked. The Sixth Princess held a tub of snow-white pearl frost, smearing it ceaselessly across her body.
"Hey! Put two more layers here! We can't let the dark skin underneath show through! Thank goodness for this 'Immortal-Screening Blemish-Concealing Fine Jade Balm,' or I wouldn't even be able to step outside... Coat the soles of my feet too! Don't slack off!"
Sweating profusely from the exertion, the Sixth Princess finally managed to turn Princess Ningguo into a white jade doll before time ran out.
By then, the intermission had concluded. Princess Ningguo changed into a new outfit: a tender yellow ensemble whose layered skirts clustered around her like petals tinted with soft pink. Her face at the center looked like a fresh sprout brimming with spiritual vigor, her outstretched arms gentle as willow branches, and crystalline sparks gathered at her fingertips. Amid drifting blossoms and twinkling starlight, she slowly descended. Her fluttering gossamer dress framed an immaculate, porcelain-white face. As her eyes darted with vibrant charm, displaying a gaze both pure and alluring, such a sweet and lovely appearance dealt another heavy blow to the hearts of countless naive youths!
Previously, Ningguo had been too beautiful, too ethereal—so peerlessly divine that no one dared harbor wanton thoughts. But now, she was like the girl next door blossoming into maidenhood. When her eyes rippled with emotion, each person felt she was looking right at them. How could their hearts not race? At this moment, countless passionate youths felt she was the very beam of moonlight from their boyhood, shining deep into their souls.
As Ningguo announced the resumption of the assembly, the seventh Celestial Idol appeared.
Upon the bluestone platform, a thatched cottage materialized, inside of which a scholar sat holding a scroll and chanting aloud. The cottage was not large, yet exquisitely detailed, complete with a fair maiden tending the incense and grinding ink.
Discerning cultivators immediately recognized that the Four Treasures of the Study and the maid attending the scholar were no ordinary items. In truth, however, this dharma idol had already been renowned across the realm a century ago, and its true crux lay in the scroll cradled in the scholar's hands.
It was an original manuscript left behind by the Second Sage of old, imbued with immense karma and grand merit. Everything else, including the scholar himself, was mere embellishment.
The moment this idol appeared, connoisseurs knew that Duke Yansheng's personal disciple had arrived. Before Li Zhi emerged into the world, the Four Sages Academy had relied on this very dharma idol to hold up its prestige.
The eighth dharma idol was a drifting immortal sword, weaving effortlessly through wisps of clouds. Though simple in appearance, the sword possessed innate sentience, signaling an apex sword cultivator.
Yet after witnessing the monstrous dharma idols of the first half, these two seemed somewhat unremarkable.
Immediately afterward, heaven and earth plunged into darkness! A colossal mountain descended from the sky!
Pale with fright, many spectators scrambled to stand and flee. Fortunately, the giant mountain shrank rapidly, barely coming to rest atop the bluestone platform. Only then did the crowd realize that beneath the mountain stood a tiny ape: an ancient mountain-moving ape.
Following the Nether Dragon of the Wasteland, yet another divine beast had manifested.
The tenth dharma idol was rather bizarre. Under the watchful eyes of the multitude, a finger-sized green sprout pushed up from the bluestone platform—and that was it. Nothing more followed.
The time to test their erudition had arrived once again. Cultivators across the arena claimed they had read of such an idol in ancient tomes, arguing it had to be the seed of an ancient deity, dragging in the Azure Emperor, Goumang, and Jianmu.
While the crowd guessed incessantly, a fiery-red giant bird plummeted from the sky and settled upon the bluestone platform. It was none other than a pureblood phoenix!
The final idol to take the stage was an exquisite nine-layered pagoda, which appeared somewhat ordinary.
With this, all twelve candidate Celestial Idols had made their appearances. Among them were three ancient sacred beasts, alongside star lords, fierce entities, and karma tied to ancient sages. Aside from that inexplicable green sprout, they left the attending cultivators utterly awestruck.
Only now did the mountain patriarchs realize how secluded they had been, never imagining that earth-shattering changes had taken place in the outside world.
Let alone the mountain patriarchs, even the boxes occupied by the Sword Palace disciples had fallen dead silent, every face grave. They, too, frequently traveled the world—how had the outside suddenly turned so ferocious? How was anyone supposed to cultivate a heart of invincibility now?
Some disciples even looked disconsolate, suspecting that the two dharma idols from the Sword Palace had only made the cut because the Palace Master pulled strings. After all, in appearance and stature, they were clearly lacking compared to the other Celestial Idols. In this assembly, failing to be overwhelmingly spectacular was itself a failure.
After all twelve candidate Celestial Idols had appeared, twelve enormous duel platforms rose from underground. Such a monumental undertaking drew admiring glances even from the immortals.
The duels were meant to be brutally straightforward, where might made right; consequently, the format was kept as simple as possible.
Every registered contestant was free to choose any platform to fight on. After two losses, a participant was completely eliminated. Upon securing three victories, one advanced to the winners' bracket and could choose to rest off-stage until the final round, where they could select a platform to challenge. Those standing atop the twelve duel platforms at the very end would earn the right to duel the twelve candidate Celestial Idols.
The rules were similarly straightforward. The prohibitions mainly forbade cursing an opponent's parents, cursing their children, cursing grass to grow on someone's head, and wagering anyone other than one's blood relatives as curse stakes—for example, a biological brother was acceptable, but a sworn brother was not.
Immediately, a hothead leapt onto a platform as the first challenger, roaring at the top of his lungs, "A cloud drifts through the northwestern mystic skies, I—"
Before his words had even finished, he was kicked off the stage, swiftly and cleanly losing his first match.
Right after, challengers streamed onto the platforms one after another, all harboring the same thought: powerful figures would mostly observe before making their move, so it was better to fish in troubled waters right now and bank a couple of wins while they could.
Duels were the spectacle cultivators loved most. Soon, light screens rose before every spectator seat as the formations activated.
Spectators on-site could place real-time bets directly through the grand formation. Wei Yuan had provided everyone with an initial stake of ten Qingyuan, given completely free of charge.
If one lacked Qingyuan, Qingming also offered collateralized loan services, which could likewise be completed right from one's seat. A simple tap of a call bell would bring an attendant over to handle the loan.
Thus, battles revolved like a revolving lantern across the twelve duel platforms, and the accumulated stakes on-site climbed ever higher, crossing the ten-million-Qingyuan threshold in the blink of an eye. And this was only the beginning; the true climax would come when the twelve platform champions clashed against the candidate Celestial Idols. The million or so Qingyuan Wei Yuan had handed out for free was merely the bait to draw them all into the game.
At this moment, outside the passage leading to the duel waiting area, a group of ordinary-looking cultivators arrived. They presented their identification tokens, and the guarding cultivators called out their names one by one: "Jun Weizhi, Han Li, Fuyao, Lei Ling, Tai... Taiyin??"
With each name announced, the guards verified the registration records, letting them through once everything checked out. This group had arrived very late, but many high-tier Dharma Idol cultivators possessed eccentric temperaments, and Qingming's staff only needed to perform their assigned duties.
Once they passed through, one of the staffers suddenly gasped, his expression turning odd. The other staffers gathered around and saw him holding a profile. On the page of physical data automatically generated by the formation's scan, the body's age was strikingly listed as: one day.
The staff exchanged bewildered glances. The system didn't make mistakes, so where had things gone wrong? Still, this fell outside their purview, so they could only report the matter upward.
Meanwhile, the complaints office was in an uproar, packed with people crying unfairness and demanding transparent criteria. All of them felt they rightfully belonged among the twelve candidate Celestial Idols; failing to make the cut was an injustice, a conspiracy!
In the crowd, Li Zhi of Yanzhou finally squeezed to the front. Slamming the counter, he raged at the clerk, "Why am I not among the twelve Celestial Idols? Are those two swords on stage more formidable than mine? And that bizarre monk—trying to outdo my Buddhist intent? Is he out of his mind? If you don't give me an explanation today, this won't end!"
Used to such scenes, the staff member replied calmly, "The counter costs three hundred Qingyuan. You break it, you pay for it, thank you. Oh, you're not slamming it anymore? Wait a moment, let me check for you...
"The result is in. According to the assembly charter, candidate Celestial Idols are restricted to cultivators aged two hundred and twenty-nine or younger. Your divine soul age is two hundred and thirty-one. You're overage."
Li Zhi of Yanzhou froze in shock. Snatching the charter, he watched as the clerk pointed to a decorative background line woven between the text. Magnified a hundred times, that very line turned out to be the age limit clause.
Instead of raging, Li Zhi burst out laughing. Setting the cutoff at two hundred and twenty-nine was truly diabolical and utterly maddening.
At this time, in the candidate waiting area, a burly man slowly opened his eyes and sighed softly, murmuring, "Never did I think there would come a day when I, Li Tai, the 'Western Sword Saint,' would make my name known across the realm."
He suddenly reached out and held back the elderly man beside him, saying, "Brother Yao, keep your calm. There's no need for you to step onto the stage just yet."
Chapter 1027