Chapter 3997: Prayer

Lu Yin acted excited. “I will definitely watch closely! While, as an average cultivator, I may not be able to fully understand, I will do my best to share what I can see.”

“Good!” Ji bellowed while slapping Lu Yin’s shoulder with a massive hand. “What you see is different from what we see. Watch carefully. Don’t relax for even a moment.”

“Little Lotus King! Come to the top of the city walls!” Jian Heng moved forward, his sword intent shooting high into the sky.

Inside the city lord's manor, Little Lotus King looked up. “Alright.”

His single word response caused all of Blackmarsh City to erupt in excitement. The people who had been atop the city wall quickly withdrew to make space.

Countless people were ecstatic, as this meant that things were finally about to begin.

Many people throughout the Nine Odysseys Megaverse had long wished to see the competition for the title of First Scion. Once that was decided, the resources of the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse would be gathered to nurture that peerless genius so that they could rival Mr. Lu and uphold the reputation of the Nine Odysseys megaverse. Then, someone from the Tianyuan would no longer suppress countless people.

“Ning Xiao, are you coming?” Ji roared.

In the city lord's manor, Ning Xiao closed his folding fan. “Of course.”

One after another, powerful auras shot into the sky. From beside the city lord's manor, more powerful auras surged out. The elites who had not managed to enter the manor were also revealing their desire to participate.

Atop the city walls, both gods and mortals bore witness to the contest for the title of First Scion.

The so-called gods were the prodigies, while the mortals were the ordinary cultivators like Fugui.

Throughout history, few cultivators of ordinary backgrounds had ever been able to witness a competition to determine the First Scion. This competition would surely go down in history.

At the moment, the one suffering the worst headache was Yu Sheng. If these prodigies fought in his Blackmarsh City, the entire city would be destroyed.

And yet, he could do nothing to stop it.

Within the city lord's manor, Lu Yin peered far into the distance. Cheng Xue’s bones still had not moved away. They were still in the exact same place that they had since before Lu Yin arrived.

Just what is going on underground? Soon

.

...

Outside of Blackmarsh City, a few insects scrambled up the walls, but no cultivators moved to block them. The bugs were allowed to climb to the top before they were struck down.

Atop the walls, Scrollbane Centipedes occasionally appeared, along with Lithic Drakes, Thousand Shards, and more.

Inside the walls, the houses lay empty. Everyone had hurried to the north part of the city, where they awaited the start of the competition.

Ji was the first to arrive on the wall, and he raised a hand to slap a number of insects dead. None could withstand even one of his palm strikes.

Right after that, Gui Ji arrived, followed by Xue Zhan. Soon, more and more figures appeared atop the city walls.

Once Little Lotus King arrived, everyone was present.

Atop the city wall stood Little Lotus King, Xue Zhan, Ning Xiao, Jian Heng, Gui Ji, and Ji. They were the six experts who had entered the city lord's manor. Nearby were some younger cultivators who believed themselves qualified to join the competition, and so they also stood atop the wall.

Lu Yin stood with Yu Sheng and Yu Xiang'er, and they all watched from a distance.

The first to take action was Gui Ji. He had been targeting Xue Zhan for a long time.

Ji threw a palm strike at Ning Xiao.

Jian Heng’s sword intent sliced out. He did not target Little Lotus King and had instead aimed at the others. His target was the geniuses who believed themselves worthy of standing on the same battlefield as those from the Scion Spire. A single attack swept all of them away, demonstrating the true gap between the competitors and the pretenders.

Little Lotus King raised a foot to step forward. He brushed past Jian Heng, who was already prepared. The sword thrust downward, piercing through the wall and deep into the ground below.

In the distance, Lu Yin arched a brow.

Here we go

.

Deep underground, dust fell.

In a vast underground chamber, skeletons sat around in silence. Some looked upwards, seemingly uneasy.

Cheng Xue did not move. She continued to absentmindedly stare at the unfinished spirit treasure formation.

As for Yong Heng, he still shared her vision and was still sitting beneath a tree, listening to the birds and cicadas.

“Why are they in the Blackmarsh? Please, Master, offer us some guidance,” one of the underground skeletons asked.

There was no reply. The chamber remained utterly silent.

“Master, are you not there?”

A communication device vibrated, and a display appeared. It showed no one, but a voice spoke. “The Scion Spire has not made a move.”

“Was it not Bai Xia who sent them to the Blackmarsh to compete for the title of First Scion?”

“That cannot be determined, but their current battle has nothing to do with the Scion Spire.”

“Then it does not matter. These juniors alone aren’t capable of reaching this place.”

“Be prepared at all times, just in case. Unless Greater Sancte Awe Gate personally takes action, no one will gain anything from this place.”

...

In Blackmarsh City, countless people watched a true battle between geniuses. The participants were only Spirit Ancestors, and yet their clashes produced enough power that even sequence powerhouses like Yu Sheng were trembling.

Both Spirit Ancestors and sequence powerhouses hurried to block the shockwaves, doing their best to prevent Blackmarsh City from being destroyed by the battle atop the city walls.

Everyone else watched from the distance. They could not understand the battle, yet they still found it incomparably thrilling.

A blood-colored aura surged all about Xue Zhan’s body. He relied on Xue Lou’s Blood Tower’s Eight Styles, which seemed to cleave the universe itself. His blood-colored aura condensed outside his body to form a towering peak. The mountain was steep and unyielding, flickering with a cold red light that seemed to devour the world.

He was fighting against Gui Ji, who truly moved like a ghost. The man weaved between the myriad blades formed from the blood-colored aura while treating the cold gleam like it was nothing. There was not even an attempt to suppress the blood-colored aura.

Ji’s strength shook the earth as he smashed the void apart again and again. Each time, countless black spatial cracks snaked across the sky and the ground.

Ning Xiao still looked elegant, even while fighting. With just his folded fan, he easily blocked Ji’s overwhelming strength. It was unclear what was happening in front of Ning Xiao, but the layers of the Nine Heavens Transformation had already appeared behind him. He was also taking this fight seriously.

Each step that Little Lotus King took sent ripples across the ground. From below to above, it was as though sharp arrows were piercing through the void itself, with the sky as the target, each strike unerring from a hundred paces.

Jian Heng’s sword sliced through the void, his sword intent unmatched on the battlefield. It was so dazzling that many of the spectators could not bear to even look at it.

It was only a battle between six people, and yet they produced the momentum of an entire war. Everyone watching felt their blood start to boil.

Everyone other than the six still atop the city wall had been knocked down, and they were no longer able to even approach the battlefield.

The six fought in pairs, according to a tacit understanding. That lasted until Ku Zhou arrived, which changed the entire course of the battle.

Ku Zhou used Heartrift with the intention of suppressing everyone at once.

“Everyone, I do not seek to become the First Scion. I merely wish to see how you will break my Heartrift power.”

The moment he finished speaking, the rift shattered. The six combatants had joined forces in a rare show of unity, instantly blasting Ku Zhou away and stupifying the spectators. They could not believe that they had just witnessed such a thing.

Ku Zhou fell, coughing up blood. He helplessly shook his head and simply left.

Lu Yin was left speechless.

Why did he even bother coming here?

“While the battle is balanced, this situation can’t last long. A Scion is still a Scion. The Scion Spire does not misjudge, and Senior Bai Xia is even less prone to mistakes,” someone commented. The man was an Ortuser, and he had initially gone unnoticed, but as soon as he spoke, even Yu Sheng had to offer a bow.

The Ortuser waved the courtesies away with a hand. “I’ve lived in seclusion in Blackmarsh City for many years. There’s no need for such things.”

“Senior, have you seen something?” a woman asked curiously.

The man nodded. “Xue Zhan attacks the world itself, and his momentum is unstoppable. The longer he fights, the greater his momentum becomes, just like his father. He is perfectly suited for the battlefield. The one he’s fighting against might be able to hold out for a time, but not for long. To maintain a stalemate with Xue Zhan, no matter how briefly, is already enough to give that man the confidence to join this competition.

“Unfortunately, he doesn’t understand the Blood Tower’s Eight Styles. Once the eighth style is used, he is guaranteed to lose. However, Xue Zhan also won’t use the eighth style against this current opponent. He is waiting for his real opponents, Little Lotus King and Ning Xiao.

“As for Ning Xiao, his fight is even easier. I understand him quite well, as I once fought against him in my youth.”

The crowd was shocked. Had this man been born in the same era as Ning Xiao?

Even Lu Yin was surprised. This was quite a coincidence.

The man sighed. “I once believed that I could defeat Ning Xiao, but I was truly ignorant. His physique is absolutely terrifying, and it can be summed up with one word: conceal. Any attack that strikes his body creates a reflexive memory, which allows him to reflexively evade any similar attacks in the future, and he can even subconsciously learn attacks directed at him. Simply put, he can see through everything.

“He has learned far too many battle techniques. Even when he competed with us back then, he was using others’ techniques. It was infuriating, yet completely unavoidable.

“As for that big fellow pestering him, it’s clear that they have both cultivated the same technique. It is called the Nine Deficiencies Art.”

“The Nine Deficiencies Art? I feel like I’ve heard of that before,” Yu Sheng commented in surprise.

Next to Lu Yin, Yu Xiang'er interjected, “I’ve also heard of it. I believe that it’s a wide-spread but incomplete body-refining technique.”

The Ortuser continued, “No one knows who passed down the Nine Deficiencies Art. It is one of the rare battle techniques that continues for dozens of pages when recorded. Not even the Nine Heavens Transformation or the Wayfinder Sutra take up so many pages. Even so, the technique is missing nine pages, which is why no one knows its true name. That is what led to it being called the Nine Deficiencies Art.

“The battle technique focuses on refining the body, so many use it for supplemental training. Those who do not focus on physical strength in combat rarely cultivate it too far. Besides, even for those who want to focus on the Nine Deficiencies Art, it is extremely difficult due to the nine missing pages. Still, some extraordinarily talented individuals are able to ignore the missing pages and obtain incredibly strong bodies by training with it. That big fellow is clearly one of them.

“Ning Xiao has also cultivated the Nine Deficiencies Art, which is likely why the big man is focused on Ning Xiao.”

Everyone understood.

“What about the fight between Little Lotus King and Jian Heng?” Yu Xiang'er’s maid asked.

The Ortuser shook his head. “That, I don’t know.”

Beside Lu Yin, Yu Xiang'er spoke softly, as though addressing him alone. “Senior Brother Little Lotus King is called half-a-body a king, striding the world. His innate gift is Prayer.”

“Prayer?” Lu Yin was stunned.

“From the moment he was born, Senior Brother Little Lotus King prayed to be able to run a little faster. All of his prayers focused on his legs, which led him to create battle techniques like Hundred-Pace Piercing Poplar, Sealed Step, and Ghost-Step. That is why he is called half-a-body a king, striding the world.”

“Wait, what is this ‘Prayer’? Is it his innate gift?” Lu Yin had never heard of such an innate gift before. Was it something similar to luck?

Yu Xiang'er shook her head. “I don’t know what it really is. All I’ve heard is that it’s called Prayer.”

Lu Yin stared at the distant battlefield. Each of these geniuses were stranger than the next. Qian Shu, Luo Ning, Xue Zhan, Ning Xiao, and especially Little Lotus King, were all weirdos.

He wondered if others saw him in the same way.

Although many believed that the Scions would win, the battle continued to rage for two days without a victor being decided. Jian Heng and the others challenged Little Lotus King and his peers with good reason, and the two-day battle showed everyone Jian Heng and the others’ true abilities.

While not obvious, each one possessed a unique innate gift. In particular, Jian Heng could refine his sword intent, though it could not yet compare to a Dukkhan’s. He could also use it to produce ever-changing sword techniques. When those techniques were combined with his sword intent, even alone, he could unleash the sword intent of an entire sect, which simply stunned the swordsmen watching his battle.

They could well imagine that, when Jian Heng eventually became a Dukkhan, or even a peak Dukkhan, he would undoubtedly become a strong contender for the title of Sword Sovereign of the Nine Odysseys. Even Lu Yin had to admit that.

The day before, the battlefield had shifted away from Blackmarsh City and into the surrounding swamp. The battlefield had expanded; if not, it would have erased Blackmarsh City.

Lu Yin had already released the green furball Verdant Sage, with orders that it gather all of the surviving insects in the Blackmarsh and lead them to the location above where he had located Cheng Xue’s bones.

The green furball had patted its chest, promising to accomplish its mission.