"What plan?" Jiang Shishi asked curiously. With such transparent rules, was there even room for a plan?

And how much time had passed before you thought of a plan?

"It’s simple when you put it that way. Through our battle just now, we’ve confirmed that the first layer’s Demon Beasts are merely at the late stage of the Nascent Soul Stage, which falls within the range that your Demon Race geniuses can handle."

"So if we want to get past the first barrier, all we need to do is to honestly hunt Demon Beasts, and anyone can accumulate enough spirit beasts."

"If you want to obtain more spirit beasts and receive better evaluations, you’ll need to employ some extraordinary methods."

"Forming groups of three to speed up the hunting progress?"

Meng Jingzhou shook his head, dismissing Jiang Shishi’s suggestion: "It’s too inefficient. Did you notice the map shown at the beginning? The first layer is absurdly large, and it would take a whole day to run from the entrance to the opposite ladder entrance. Relying on just the three of us to hunt and find Demon Beasts would take several hours."

"Then what should we do?" Jiang Shishi didn’t have enough experience and lacked Meng Jingzhou’s keen observations.

Meng Jingzhou didn’t answer, but counter asked, "You already know the combat strength of the two of us brothers; how would you assess it?"

Jiang Shishi stared at them blankly and gave a fair assessment, "Not beneath me and Ao Yue."

Ao Yue was the prodigy of the current generation of the Long Clan.

Jiang Shishi and Ao Yue were known as the two great prodigies of the Demon Territory, possessing the potential of Immortals.

This was the highest evaluation in the Demon Territory, and among those who entered the Ancient Realm, only the two of them held such an evaluation.

"That settles it, the three of us working together will make the plan foolproof."

To ensure the plan was foolproof, the three decided to use eight days to kill thirty Demon Beasts, accumulating enough to pass through. That way, even if their plan to block the door failed, they could still guarantee to get through.

It was also a good opportunity for the trio to adapt to each other while hunting the Demon Beasts, which would increase the chances of success when executing the plan.

...

The eight days passed in a flash, and Lu Yang’s team became more and more adept at killing Demon Beasts. Even those at the late stage of the Nascent Soul Stage could not last more than two rounds against them.

Lu Yang looked up at the hourglass.

"We killed a few more than planned, taking a bit more time, but no big issue, let’s head to the ladder entrance first."

"Alright."

Jiang Shishi was somewhat excited, having been ready to execute the plan for some time.

The trio quickened their pace, rushing toward the ladder entrance.

Yet, when they arrived at the ladder entrance, they involuntarily stopped in their tracks, disbelieving the scene before them.

Lu Yang’s plan was to block the door. With their combat strength, the three of them could easily prevent anyone from reaching the ladder entrance.

Progenies were expected to rush over on the last day, and they just needed to block the entrance one day in advance.

But now, someone had already blocked the ladder entrance.

They were the ones who had to obediently hand over the Essence Blood!

"Haha, didn’t see that coming, did you? I’ve heard your plan a while ago!" The Jiuying Clan’s Young Master Qin Feng laughed heartily upon seeing their expressions.

"Right when you guys entered the first layer and started making plans, I overheard the entire process of your planning!"

Qin Feng, delighting at Lu Yang’s grimace, said, "I may not know who you are, but thanks for coming up with the plan."

"Blocking the door? It’s indeed a good plan, but when it comes to power in the Ancient Realm, who can surpass our Demon Clan Alliance? Not even the Dragon and Phoenix Clans are our match."

The Demon Clan Alliance was a concept proposed by the Ancient Di Jiang. Before the establishment of the Demon Nation, the demons led by Ancient Di Jiang collectively referred to themselves as the Demon Clan Alliance.

The Di Jiang Clan’s prodigy was personally trained by Ancient Di Jiang and had not entered the Ancient Realm.

With the Di Jiang Clan at the forefront of the Alliance, and with no Di Jiang Clan present, the remaining races all vied for the command of this operation in the Ancient Realm.

Qin Feng was just worrying about how to gain command authority, and this was a pillow delivered to him while he was dozing.

If he had proposed the plan to block the door, wouldn’t the command of the Alliance for this operation be assuredly his?

As he had anticipated, while the geniuses of the Alliance were pondering whether to get Essence Blood by killing Demon Beasts or seizing it from others, Qin Feng presented his plan and won everyone’s approval. They all praised Qin Feng’s plan as a good one.

Qin Feng naturally became the leader of this operation.

Qin Feng was smug, and standing behind him were geniuses from the White Tiger Clan, the Taozhu Clan, and more—a total of dozens of people.

Even if Lu Yang’s team was capable, they couldn’t beat all the geniuses of the Demon Clan Alliance!

Lu Yang’s face was ashen as he quickly thought of a solution.

As the situation became deadlocked, followers of Jiang Shishi hurried over, also not expecting to be blocked by the Demon Clan Alliance.

Then, Ao Yue and the other nine prodigies arrived, frowning silently at the scene.

Following that, geniuses from the Qiongqi Clan and other unallied prodigies came.

The entrance to the ladder was so narrow, being blocked by the Alliance was not something that could be overcome by sheer numbers.

Ao Yue clenched his teeth, "How will we know if we don’t try?"

Ao Yue had a lot of sway among the geniuses. He transformed into an Azure Dragon dancing in the sky while the Bai Xia Clan and other creatures showed their true forms, ready to follow Ao Yue into battle.

Seeing this, the other geniuses transformed into their original forms, the gentle-furred Jade Rabbit, the black Heavenly Dog as large as a hill, the Qiongqi with a tiger’s body and double wings on its back…

"Fight!"

With a dragon’s roar, Ao Yue shook the space around him, burning the Dragon Clan Essence Blood. His dragon claws gripped the Dragon Ball and transformed into a stream of azure ribbon-like energy, charging toward the Demon Clan Alliance.

With him alone, he was powerful enough to fight late-stage Nascent Soul Demon Beasts!

"Fight!"

The geniuses unleashed unprecedented power, fusing into a force like a rope, determined to break through the blockade.

Unfortunately for them, the Demon Clan Alliance had long anticipated this situation. Under Qin Feng’s command, they advanced and retreated in order, not something that Ao Yue and his companions could break through with mere passion.

The two sides battled for a full half day, with the Demon Clan Alliance like an iron wall, always unbreakable.

In the end, exhausted, Ao Yue’s side was defeated and retreated from the battlefield.

Qin Feng walked up to Ao Yue with a look of triumph: "Fellow Daoist Ao Yue, I don’t wish to make our relationship this strained. After the Demon Nation is established, we’ll still need to exchange insights and progress together."

"How about this? You leave behind ten Essence Cores, give me all the rest, and I’ll let you pass through here. What do you say?"

Ao Yue suddenly looked up, staring intently at Qin Feng with bloodshot dragon eyes, startling him greatly.

But he quickly recovered, realizing that staring him down was useless, nothing more than impotent fury.

After wavering back and forth, Ao Yue, pressured by the facts, handed over the Essence Cores.

A full twenty of them.

"As expected of Fellow Daoist Ao Yue, capable of killing so many Demon Beasts," Qin Feng said with a grin as he took the Essence Cores.

Seeing Ao Yue submit, the other geniuses also handed over their Essence Cores, keeping only their ten.

If they only had ten, then Qin Feng simply wouldn’t let them pass.

Looking at the mountainous pile of Essence Cores, Qin Feng’s smile was so wide he could hardly close his mouth, distributing them to all the geniuses of the Demon Clan Alliance according to the pre-arranged ratio.

Qin Feng claimed the highest proportion, receiving fifty-three cores.

Behind the Demon Clan Alliance was a huge box labeled "Essence Cores."

Qin Feng poured all fifty-three Essence Cores into the box.

It was still that emotionless voice.

"Qin Feng, fifty-three Essence Cores. Please proceed to the second layer."

Seeing that the time was about right, the geniuses of the Demon Clan Alliance also handed their Essence Cores to the Ancient Realm to obtain the qualification to pass through.

Next were Ao Yue and the others.

"Ao Yue, ten Essence Cores. Please proceed to the second layer."

"Dong Shu, ten Essence Cores. Please proceed to the second layer."

"…"

Since there was still some time left, Qin Feng strolled over leisurely to where Lu Yang and his two companions stood.

He blatantly ignored Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou, not intending to let these two eye-sores enter the second layer at all.

Qin Feng approached Jiang Shishi, who was hanging her head low, and chuckled: "Shishi, I already told you that the two lackeys you recruited are useless. Look, now they can’t even pass the level."

"As long as you agree to become my fiancée, you won’t have to hand over your Essence Cores, and I’ll let you pass. How about it?"

Jiang Shishi suddenly raised her head, revealing a smile: "Qin Feng, do you really think you have everything under control?"

"What do you mean!" Seeing Jiang Shishi smiling, Qin Feng inexplicably panicked.

Lu Yang, lying back casually, laughed: "Fellow Daoist Qin Feng, you need to work on your observational skills. You didn’t even recognize my clone."

On the other side, Meng Jingzhou had transformed into Lu Yang’s likeness.

Wooden Avatar!

Suddenly, a voice came from behind Qin Feng.

"Many thanks to Fellow Daoist Qin Feng for collecting so many Essence Cores for us."

Qin Feng spun around, his eyes wide with disbelief at the scene before him.

Meng Jingzhou had actually crawled out of the box, holding a large string of Essence Cores in his hands!

"We knew you were listening in at the time. You didn’t really think that the three of us could block the exit, did you?"

"The blockade plan was for your ears to hear."

The rules never specified how the Essence Cores needed to be handed in, and anyone who saw a box labeled "Essence Cores" near the ladder would think that was the place for submission.

Plus, with everyone’s attention on the Demon Clan Alliance, no one would notice anything odd about the box.

In fact, Meng Jingzhou had quickly built the box himself.