Chapter 2303 - The Mountain Guardian

Seven days later.

The City of Ten Thousand Rivers.

Su Yi sat in a restaurant, looking over the jade slip he’d just purchased. It contained the current Divine Ability Ranking, all three thousand names.

However, Su Yi’s attention was focused on the abilities in the top ten.

The jade slip introduced the Grand Dao Divine Abilities names, as well as their creators’ names, origins, and cultivation bases.

It wasn’t exactly detailed. The abilities’ names alone weren’t enough to really teach him anything.

Still, Su Yi did discover that it had been a long, long time since any of the names in the top ten had changed.

The ability in first place, “the Fire of the Five Aggregates”, was the work of Wen Lu, a god of the Three Purities Daoist Court. He’d held the record for thirty-nine thousand years.

In other words, in thirty-nine thousand years, no Mid-Rank God’s Grand Dao Divine Ability had ever shaken Wen Lu’s position!

Of the top ten, it was the sixth-place ability, “the Treasures of Spring and Autumn,” that had been in the top ten the shortest.

Even so, it had been there for thirteen thousand years already!

It was easy to imagine how terrifying the Grand Dao Divine Abilities in the top ten were.

Su Yi continued down the list and soon found Yi Daoxuan and Li Fuyou’s names. To his surprise, they’d dropped further down the rankings, to nineteenth and twenty-fourth place respectively.

Su Yi couldn’t help but be rueful.

Indeed, each new generation surpasses the one before it!

But then, this ranking was just for Grand Dao Divine Abilities. When it came to a fight, one’s cultivation base mattered most.

Grand Dao Divine Abilities could represent a god’s combat strength, but ultimately, they were just one of many means of combat.

“What are you looking at those for? If all goes as expected, once the Ruins of Supreme Emergence reappear, the rankings will be completely overturned," said Wan Zitian.

“Why do you say that?” asked Su Yi.

“This is everyone’s last chance to enter the Ruins of Supreme Emergence before the Dark Days of Legend. I can say with certainty that no one qualified to participate will want to miss this opportunity to challenge Blue Sky Divine Mountain!

“What does that mean? It means that everyone who’s condensed a Grand Dao Divine Ability, no matter their cultivation base, is going to participate! It won’t just be Mid-Rank Gods. There’ll be Greater Gods and even... Master Gods!

“Admittedly, every god has but one chance to challenge Blue Sky Divine Mountain, but as I’m sure you know, there are bound to be some Master Gods who’ve yet to challenge Blue Sky Divine Mountain.

“After all, the Ruins of Supreme Emergence open once every thousand years. Everyone can afford to wait.

“But this time is different. If they don’t participate now, who knows what will happen after the Dark Days of Legend?”

Wan Zitian paused, then continued, “That aside, the heaven-defying figures of unknown territories are sure to participate too, as well as numerous unfamiliar but terrifying figures. They won’t want to miss this blessing of heaven either.”

He sighed. “The God Domain is just too enormous, and everyone knows about the good fortune available in the Ruins of Supreme Emergence’ Blue Sky Divine Mountain. Who wouldn’t want to seize their share of Supreme Emergence Fortune Power?

“Take you, for example. Even someone as free and unfettered as you is going to participate, right?

“Given the circumstances, the rankings are sure to change dramatically!”

Su Yi nodded. “In that case, Blue Sky Divine Mountain is sure to become a gathering point for the world’s top experts, but that just makes me all the more eager to go.”

Wan Zitian was briefly stunned, but then, he realized something. His eyelids twitched. “Brother Fuyou, surely you aren’t going to initiate a ‘struggle for fortune’ while challenging Blue Sky Divine Mountain?”

A struggle for fortune!

This was a special type of battle that only arose while challenging Blue Sky Divine Mountain.

However, struggles for fortune were extremely perilous, because anyone who attacked someone else on Blue Sky Divine Mountain was subject to divine punishment!

This “divine punishment” was actually the backlash and suppression of the source energies of Blue Sky Divine Mountain.

If a challenger couldn’t withstand it, they were flung off the mountain, and they would receive no Supreme Emergence Fortune Power at all.

However, if you succeeded in defeating your opponent, you would seize all of the Supreme Emergence Fortune Power they’d earned during their challenge!

Ordinarily speaking, few would choose to attack others on Blue Sky Divine Mountain.

Firstly, it was too dangerous. Secondly, it was too easy to offend other people. If you attacked someone, you’d be irreconcilable enemies going forward.

“It’s not that I want to start a struggle for fortune, but that I suspect... others will start one with me, whether I like it or not,” said Su Yi. “Given that that’s the case, I naturally ought to be prepared.”

Wan Zitian instantly understood. He sighed. “It’s true. It’s impossible to maintain a disguise while challenging Blue Sky Divine Mountain, and the moment you’re recognized, friction is inevitable.”

“Yes, but isn’t that a good thing?” Su Yi said with a laugh. “I get to clean up my enemies

and

seize their Supreme Emergence Fortune Power. Why wouldn’t I be delighted?”

Wan Zitian smiled and laughed. “Indeed.”

......

Half a month later, the Ruins of Supreme Emergence, the place the whole God Domain was paying attention to, reappeared.

Rumor had it that so many gods went to the ruins that their ranks seemed “more numerous than the carp in a river!”

Even Master Gods of top orthodoxies left for the ruins, one after another.

The vast majority were headed for Blue Sky Divine Mountain.

Some particularly mighty experts went to explore the Ruins of Supreme Emergence’s other mysterious, unknown grounds instead.

Su Yi and Wan Zitian went too. Both disguised themselves had headed straight for the Blue Sky Forbidden Zone.

The Celestial Capital.

This was a primeval, ancient city located in the Blue Sky Forbidden Zone. It hovered nine hundred thousand feet in the air. Although it looked like a giant city, it was, in truth, more like a massive, floating continent.

The city had few buildings. Ruins lay strewn all over the place.

The only part of the city that was intact was the divine mountain at its center. It was bathed in pale blue divine radiance.

The mountain pierced the cloudy dome of heaven, and it was tall and majestic. Since there were no other mountains in sight, it looked like a divine pillar supporting the sky.

This was Blue Sky Divine Mountain!

There was no determining its origins. It was shrouded in Supreme Emergence Fortune Power year-round, and it was seen as one of the most sacred, fortuitous grounds in the God Domain!

In the Celestial Capital, a three-thousand-foot-tall stone stele stood at the foot of Blue Sky Divine Mountain.

It was called the Divine Dao Fortune Stele, and its surface was carved with the names of the top three thousand Grand Dao Divine Abilities used to challenge Blue Sky Divine Mountain!

The Divine Ability Rankings that circulated the God Domain were, in fact, simply copied from the stele.

Every time the Ruins of Supreme Emergence opened, an artifact spirit appeared above the Divine Dao Fortune Stele. He called himself the Mountain Guardian and said that he watched over this place.

The Mountain Guardian was currently seated beside the Divine Dao Fortune Stele. He was immensely overweight, like a ball of lard. When seated, he resembled a mountain in miniature.

He looked kind, with a friendly, approachable smile on his face, like a wealthy retiree enjoying his golden years.

But everyone knew that he wasn’t a living person, but rather, a spiritual body manifested from the Divine Dao Fortune Stele!

No one knew his origins. Even now, they remained a mystery.

The people of the God Domain habitually referred to him as the Mountain Guardian.

There was a crowd gathered around the stele, over one thousand people in total. A bobbing sea of human heads stretched as far as the eye could see.

As time passed, more and more people arrived in the Celestial Capital.

However, thus far, not one of them had taken action.

The time was not yet right.

When the Mountain Guardian announced the start of the challenge, those qualified to attempt it would begin their ascent of Blue Sky Divine Mountain.

In the past, some people disregarded the Mountain Guardian and tried to begin their challenge before he gave them permission. In the end, they met with divine punishment as soon as they drew near the mountain, and they were directly disqualified.

Who’d dare to act recklessly after seeing that?

Su Yi and Wan Zitian soon joined the crowd, too.

“Brother Fuyou, look! There are quite a few familiar faces nearby,” transmitted Wan Zitian.

He’d spotted a few Nine-Tribulation old-timers. Quite a few hadn’t wandered the outside world in a long, long time.

Yet now, here they were.

“Mm,” said Su Yi. He’d noticed them, too.

Of everyone present, it was Master God Yun He of the Three Purities Daoist Court, Liuxang Hen, the ancestor of the Liuxiang Family, and Ye Youyuan, the Third Generation Patriarch of Eight Views Grotto, who drew the most attention.

They’d been there during the battle of Skybright Mountain, too.

In the eyes of the general populace, they were living legends!

Even now, at a time like this, the arrival of these old-timers drew the crowd’s attention.

But Su Yi didn’t actually care.

This was the Celestial Capital. No one would dare to attack anyone else here. If they did, the Laws of the city would strike them dead!

This was an ironclad rule. Not even Nine-Tribulation Master Gods would dare to cause trouble here.

The penalty for attacking someone in the city was unquestionably far, far greater than for attacking someone on Blue Sky Divine Mountain. Who’d risk it?

It was for this reason that the Celestial Capital had stood all this time. No one had ever destroyed it.

Before long, Su Yi noticed some familiar faces in the crowd.

Qi Wei, the daughter of the leader of the Qilin Race, was here, as was her old servant, Li Sanjiu!

Them aside, there was Si Ming, the inheritor of Clear Breeze Daoist Temple, and Yan Shuiming of Purple Mist Grotto. Both hailed from unknown territories.

There were numerous other dazzling figures in the crowd, too.

Although most of the crowd was unfamiliar, when Su Yi listened in on the conversations of those around him, he learned that their ranks included no small number of unparalleled, prominent elites.

There were also other heaven-defying monsters from unknown territories, people much like Si Ming and Yan Shuiming.

Su Yi couldn’t help but sigh.

Indeed, it’s just as we predicted. This is our last chance to enter the Ruins of Supreme Emergence before the Dark Days of Legend. Everyone qualified to participate has come to test themselves!

Of course, Yun He, Yue Youyuan, Li Sanjiu, and the other Nine-Tribulation Master Gods were here to accompany other people. They’d challenged Blue Sky Divine Mountain a long time ago, and they were no longer qualified to participate.

The crowd waited and waited until finally, the mountainously fat Mountain Guardian stood and announced in a booming voice, “You can begin climbing now!”

It was just one sentence, but it went off like a thunderclap, booming throughout the entire area. The crowd’s conversations instantly died down.

Moments later, the crowd boiled over.

The competition for Supreme Emergence Fortune Power, the event that prominent elites from all over the God Domain had gathered for, was finally about to begin!