As Jiang Chen stood on the arena after his ninth consecutive victory, he suddenly felt a piercing gaze shoot right through him. However, the person had already retracted his gaze before he could even react to it. He wanted to find the culprit, but there wasn’t any leads. It seems like I’ve summoned the true geniuses into motion after my ninth consecutive victory. Maybe this will make my following battles slightly more interesting?

Achieving nine consecutive victories in three days hadn’t been much of a challenge for Jiang Chen. After all, the top one thousand geniuses had all been separately placed in different arenas. Thus, it only made sense that he would meet slightly less capable geniuses as opponents. Even the strongest genius that he’d previously fought was only at sixth level sage realm.

Sixth level sage realm cultivators were already no match for Jiang Chen when he had been at initial sage realm. What hope could they have of defeating him now that he was at seventh level sage realm? There wasn’t even a need for him to use powerful martial methods when he was matched with lower level opponents. He could squash them on a whim.

......

At a dark corner of Veluriyam Capital, inside the Eternal Celestial Capital’s other secret base. Three holy kings—Holy King Bei, Saint Holy King Ke, and Saint Holy King Mu were gathered here.

“Holy King Bei, is everything prepared?” Saint Holy King Mu asked.

Holy King Bei had a somber expression. “The preparations are done, but none of our people were placed in the first arena.”

“Hmph! Doesn’t matter unless that brat fails to enter the top two hundred Genius Rankings,” Saint Holy King Mu snorted.

Saint Holy King Ke nodded in agreement, “Yes. As long as he manages to enter the Genius Rankings, there will be a great possibility that he has to face our geniuses.”

However, Holy King Bei was filled with worry. “Noble holy kings, your subordinate has suffered greatly after the punishment from last time. I truly can’t predict whether your arrangements will eventually end in happiness or doom.”

By last time, he naturally meant that time when Emperor Peafowl had blocked their way while they were chasing Pill King Zhen and sealed off every single escape route. At that time, Emperor Peafowl had chosen not to kill them after he’d considered his own position. Holy King Bei genuinely felt that messing with Jiang Chen again was like playing with fire. He’d always been against such plans. Unfortunately, Saint Holy King Mu was determined to get his hands on Jiang Chen. He strongly suspected that Pill King Zhen was Jiang Chen, and was willing to pay any price to check if that was the case.

“Holy King Bei, stop entertaining groundless fears. We’ve done nothing nothing wrong this time. There’s no rule to prevent foreign sects from joining the Veluriyam Pagoda gathering.”

Generally, great sects didn’t send people to attend something like the Veluriyam Pagoda gathering. This was because geniuses were too precious to these sects. It would be a great loss if anything were to happen to those talents. However, these geniuses would occasionally attend these meetings of their own volition.

But this time, the Eternal Celestial Capital had dispatched three very extraordinary geniuses to attend the meeting. One of them was even ranked fifth amongst all youths in the Eternal Celestial Capital! As for the other two, while they weren’t amongst the top ten, they were definitely well-situated within the top twenty. With such a lineup, the organization was confident that they would succeed in assassinating Pill King Zhen.

“We didn’t make any contact with them this time around. No matter how powerful he is, there’s no way Emperor Peafowl will be able to connect them to us.” Saint Holy King Ke asserted.

The Eternal Celestial Capital had learnt their lesson. This time, they’d chosen to relay a message back to the Eternal Celestial Capital and ordered the sect to deploy three geniuses. They were to disguise themselves as wandering cultivators and join the Martial Pagoda battles. These three were also intelligent enough as to not reveal their true talent too early. In the first screening selection, they performed very mediocrely, only revealing enough capability to qualify.

This was just the New Star Rankings battles. With their abilities, they could definitely move to the next level with ease if they’d gone all out. Instead, they chose to suppress their abilities. Their one and only target was Jiang Chen. They couldn’t reveal their true identities before they met him in battle. They hadn’t met any of the holy kings ever since they’d left the Eternal Celestial Capital. Thus, it was imperative for them to keep a low profile.

This was also why Saint Holy King Mu and Saint Holy King Ke were so confident. They simply didn’t believe that Emperor Peafowl would be able to identify them. However, Holy King Bei had been stationed in Veluriyam Capital for a long time, so it was only natural for him fear the emperor. His intuition told him that Emperor Peafowl simply had a way of knowing things, despite everything they’d done to conceal themselves. However, this was the final decision made by the two saint holy kings. Holy King Bei had a lower rank than them, so he had no choice but to follow the orders from above.

“Brother Mu, you’ve been observing Pill King Zhen for a while now. How sure are you that the pill king and Jiang Chen are possibly the same person?” Saint Holy King Ke asked.

“In regards to my own intuition, I’m at least ninety percent certain. However, if you want an educated guess based off of our various leads, I’m only forty to fifty percent certain,” Saint Holy King Mu responded lowly.

“It doesn’t matter if they are the same person or not. This brat must be killed,” Saint Holy King Ke said coldly. “Life and death are hard to predict in the arena.” This was what they hoped would happen.

Killing Pill King Zhen in any other situation would carry a risk of them being discovered, regardless of how secretive they were. But in the arena, they could kill the pill king in front of everyone and not care about any repercussions. Life and death in the arena was up to fate.

Saint Holy King Mu displayed an ominous expression for a fraction of a second. “The plan might be perfect, but we should not underestimate the enemy. Pill King Zhen has already achieved nine consecutive victories, yet he hasn’t even shown any of his trump cards. In fact, nobody can even tell what the origins of his martial arts are. Young geniuses like him are very unnerving.”

“Hehe. His talent in pill dao might be because of a fortuitous encounter. But for martial dao, he won’t be able to soar through the heavens with just one bound even if he managed to have another fortuitous encounter! It’s only been three years since the shattering of the Myriad Domain. Even if his cultivation were to improve quickly, what can he achieve within three years?” Saint Holy King Ke asserted.

“Mm. Based on his abilities alone, any of the three that we’ve sent should be enough to squash him like a bug. However, this brat has encountered many fortuitous events. He will surely have a hidden trump card. We must keep testing the waters with actual combat. Since we have three people, it doesn’t matter if two of them are to fail. As long as we manage to get to the bottom of his abilities, we can subdue him!”

“Mm! Two will test the waters, while the other will finish him!”

However, Holy King Bei suddenly interrupted, “Now that we’ve set a base here, Ninesuns Sky Sect will surely follow suit. Maybe we should also consider how they might influence our plans?”

“Ninesuns Sky Sect?” Saint Holy King Mu was slightly taken aback. “Have they also guessed that Pill King Zhen and Jiang Chen are somehow connected?”

“Better safe than sorry.”

There’s nothing we can do to prevent Ninesuns Sky Sect’s influence now. We need only proceed according to our plans,” Saint Holy King Mu waved his hands. “

......

Even though the Martial Pagoda battles had only just begun, Jiang Chen had no idea that numerous powers had already set their targets on him. Even though he’d won nine consecutive victories, he didn’t let success get to him. The New Star Rankings were only a warm-up. The true battle would begin at the Genius Rankings. However, the fight he was looking forward to the most was the Ranking of the Young Lords. He was looking forward to sparring with the strongest geniuses in Veluriyam Capital. One who knows oneself and their enemies best shall never fall in battle.

At this very moment, Jiang Chen was cultivating the Nine Transformations of Demons and Gods. He’d already mastered the initial five transformations. The golden body of demons and gods had made his defenses impregnable. However, he was dissatisfied with the protection offered by this golden body at present.

The final four realms of the were the true essence of Nine Transformations of Demons and Gods, the formation of the images of demons and gods. There were a total of four levels comprising the formation of the image of demons and gods—the Preliminary, Intermediary, Advanced, and Heavenly Images. Of course, to form the image of demons and gods, one needed to reach sky sage realm. Only at sky sage realm could one practice the various divine arts.

Jiang Chen was now capable of forming three preliminary images. The first was the Redscaled Firelizard Image, which could also be simplified as the Giant Lizard Image. He had already assimilated the Redscaled Firelizard bloodline in the past. Now that he was at sky sage realm, the Redscaled Firelizard Image that he’d formed naturally surpassed the strength of the spirit creature he’d met all those years ago.

Other than the Redscaled Firelizard, Jiang Chen could also form the Golden Cicada Image. The Golden Cicada Image had no offensive power, but it had a remarkable ability known as Cicada’s Disappearance, which could confuse the enemy. Moreover, the Golden Cicada Image conferred immunity from any lightning and poison attacks.

Aside from the Giant Lizard and Golden Cicada Image, there was also the True Dragon Image, which was the most powerful image of all three and in turn, also the most difficult to form. Jiang Chen had assimilated the true dragon bloodline, which meant that he also possessed the dragon clan’s bloodline. Because of this, the difficulty involved in forming the image was also greatly reduced. But even so, he still had to expend a great deal of energy. The True Dragon Image required excessive energy and was difficult to conjure,ut in exchange, it was incredibly powerful. Conjuring the True Dragon Image was almost like summoning a true dragon. Its aura was capable of making all beasts bow in its wake.

“It’s a pity that the Golden Body of Demons and Gods can only form images from bloodlines. This art is restricted by its bloodline requirement. It would be almost impossible to form a image without the possession of a bloodline.” Of course, Jiang Chen was already quite formidable for possessing three different images. In the world of martial dao, some wouldn’t even cross paths with a single bloodline in their lifetime. Yet within a short time, he’d managed to acquire three bloodlines. His luck was truly heaven-defying.

“It’s unfortunate that I can only form preliminary images since I am only at sky sage realm. When I enter emperor realm, I will be able to form an intermediate image. I will then be able to flatten all enemies at the same level without breaking a sweat.”

A divine art like the Hundred Transformation of Demons and Gods was truly one of a kind. One was able to gain invincibility, yet also possess many variations of attacks. It was considered an incredible ability even in the heavenly planes. Jiang Chen consolidated the three images and entered a state of oblivion.

With the passing of the night came the fourth day of battle. According to the rules, with just one more win, he would have achieved ten consecutive victories and would thereafter be promoted to the New Star Rankings. He was going to be directly promoted regardless of his score from then onwards. Naturally, Jiang Chen wouldn’t be satisfied with just ten consecutive victories. Ten consecutive victories might guarantee him a promotion, but it would do nothing to help his placement in the New Star Rankings. He didn’t want to have a miserly rank.

“The arena lord is now seeking challengers! Who wishes to be the first to challenge the arena lord today?” The host’s soulful voice reverberated through all corners of the arena. After witnessing his battles for three consecutive days, everybody now understood just how powerful the arena lord was. Thus, it was only natural that they were no longer as enthusiastic as they had been three days ago.

“Let me!” A loud voice suddenly thundered through the crowd.

The voice reverberated throughout the arena like thunder and immediately captured everyone’s attention.