The alliance led by the Mount Shu Sect and the alliance led by the Celestial Pivot Pavilion had just finished cleaning up the battlefield, and indeed, they found only a few soul crystals from the fallen.

However, no one was disappointed, as with Ye Yongxing present, locating those hiding wasn't an issue.

Ye Yongxing closed his eyes in meditation, forming a seal with his left hand, his fingertips trembling slightly, as if pulling invisible strings. After a moment, he furrowed his brows slightly.

"They're at the coast, but someone got to them first," he said slowly.

In this illusory realm, the power of Heavenly Law was not that strong. While Heavenly Law reigned supreme in the outside world, Immortal Jiuyi stood as the ultimate authority in this illusory realm. With the Heavenly Law that restricted divination weakened here, divination casters were several times better at performing divination than they could in the real world—a lesson learned over many Assemblies of Immortal Sects.

However, no matter how quick divination could be performed, it still required a certain amount of time. In contrast, Li Guanlong's dream-watching ability allowed him to traverse this world in an instant, making it a much faster technique.

Thus, when Ye Yongxing pinpointed the group's location, all he saw was a blurred, chaotic scene.

A battle was already happening there.

Guo Zhanlei, Xu Fangling, and the Monastery Tower warrior monk Feng Chen were not weak. They had simply been selected by their teams as the individuals keeping the soul crystals safe.

Li Guanlong, however, had arrived alone, seemingly disregarding the three of them completely.

Xu Fangling struck first, raising her hand and invoking the Immortal Art: The Spoken Divine Law. She chanted, "Every move will be as heavy as a thousand jun!"

But as Xu Fangling spoke, Li Guanlong remained unaffected. Instead, Xu Fangling's body trembled, and blood seeped from her nose and mouth, as if she had suffered a serious injury.

This was a clear sign of a vast power disparity. The Spoken Divine Law that she invoked had no effect on Li Guanlong, and she was instead inflicted with severe backlash.

As her technique failed, Guo Zhanlei and Feng Chen both rushed forward, charging at Li Guanlong.

Feng Chen went for a head-on attack, driving a powerful punch toward Li Guanlong's chest, while Guo Zhanlei circled around to his back, drawing a long saber in a swift motion.

Ssssh—

Yet both of their attacks struck only empty air.

Li Guanlong felt like air. Their punches and attacks passed right through him, leaving no sense of impact, as if they hadn't struck anything at all.

An illusion?

Just as this thought surfaced, another figure had silently appeared behind Xu Fangling.

With a calm expression, Li Guanlong placed his palm on her head.

Bang!

In an instant, her body shattered, scattering into a pile of soul crystals.

"It's an illusion." Feng Chen instantly recognized the technique. He bit down on his tongue, spitting out blood, and shouted, "Break!"

Immediately, the hazy shadows shattered, and the real scene reappeared before them. Moments earlier, it was as if they had all been pulled into a grand dream.

As Li Guanlong faced the two, he formed a seal with his left hand and raised it forward.

With a thunderous rumble, a massive wave rose from the sea, shaping itself into a colossal hand that came crashing down upon them.

Feng Chen showed no fear as he leaped upward, his muscular physique slicing through the waves as he lunged forward with another powerful punch aimed at Li Guanlong.

Li Guanlong was about to dodge, but Feng Chen summoned an even greater force, accelerating his strike and landing a direct hit on Li Guanlong.

Bang—

The punch felt solid, yet in the next instant, Li Guanlong's body exploded, dispersing into a spray of seawater.

It was yet another clone!

Back where he stood, Guo Zhanlei swung his saber, slicing through the massive wave in the form of a hand. But just then, Li Guanlong's figure appeared behind him, delivering a powerful strike with his palm.

Thud.

But this time, it wasn't so easy; the Guo Zhanlei beneath Li Guanlong's hand was also a clone.

In that instant, the clone transformed into a black talisman and shattered. Simultaneously, the real Guo Zhanlei burst through the waves, driving his blade toward Li Guanlong's waist.

Li Guanlong frowned, his hand flipping out to catch Guo Zhanlei's saber in a firm grasp!

Swish—

Though his grip stopped the blade in its tracks, blood spurted from his palm.

Yet, even so, Guo Zhanlei failed to gain the upper hand, as Li Guanlong's blood splattered and instantly ignited into blazing flames, latching onto Guo Zhanlei's body.

Whoosh—

Guo Zhanlei was engulfed in flames. He hurled his saber backward and leaped away.

Still, Li Guanlong would not stop pursuing. With a twist of his hand, the saber caught in his palm rotated and unleashed, deflecting the Shadow Gnat flying saber that Guo Zhanlei had released in his hurried retreat, ringing out with a sharp

clang.

Li Guanlong's entire body began to take on a metallic sheen as he activated the fifth-realm Metallic Body. He had assumed this form specifically to withstand the punch coming toward him from behind.

Indeed, Feng Chen had already leaped back, landing another punch.

Bam—

The heavy punch struck his back, and despite having activated his Metallic Body, Li Guanlong's entire body trembled, blood spilling from his mouth.

As he absorbed the force of the punch, Li Guanlong had already closed in on Guo Zhanlei. Violet lightning crackled around his right hand as he launched another strike.

Lightning and fire intertwined, resulting in an instant explosion.

Boom!

The Fog-Hidden Mountain of Immortals had a deep legacy with numerous cultivation techniques, and its disciples practiced various arts. Zhuge Guanxing specialized in star-gazing divination, Situ Guanhai focused on talisman arts, while Li Guanlong trained in innate dream techniques and various stealth traversal methods.

Having killed two of them at the cost of only minor injuries, Li Guanlong now turned his attention to the warrior monk Feng Chen, who felt an overwhelming pressure.

But having landed a successful strike, Feng Chen knew that he had to seize this opportunity and continue his attack without retreating even half a step.

And so, he stepped forward again and delivered another forceful punch.

Lightning continued to radiate from Li Guanlong, expanding to envelop a one-zhang radius around him, creating this pool of lightning!

Li Guanlong was now using the immortal art—the Five-Lightning Heart of the Sky!

This divine technique had been used by Jiang Yuebai against Chu Liang at the Mount Shu Summit. If one hadn't dodged in time, one would be impaled by the surging pool of lightning.

But as a warrior monk, Feng Chen had finally closed the distance. If he backed off now, he would surely lose his advantage and might never get the opportunity to close in again.

So, he made the same choice Chu Liang had back then—he advanced instead of retreating!

Using his powerful physique, Feng Chen surged forward, crashing heavily into Li Guanlong!

Sizzle!

As Feng Chen struck Li Guanlong's chest with a resounding bang, he felt his body being pierced by the Five-Lightning Heart of the Sky!

Rumble!

Amidst the explosive noise, Feng Chen's body was reduced to ashes by countless bolts of divine lightning. The power of Li Guanlong's Five-Lightning Heart of the Sky far surpassed the one unleashed by Jiang Yuebai at the Mount Shu Summit.

Even with Feng Chen's formidable physique, it was unbearable.

"

Phew—

" Li Guanlong exhaled deeply, feeling the energy and blood in his chest surging, nearly ready to spurt out. Those two punches had done quite a bit of damage.

Just as he was rushing to leave this place, he heard a light footstep behind him.

Tap.

…

Shit. I was too focused on the fight that I forgot to watch out for movements in the surrounding area with my divine sense. Regardless, someone that is able to approach without making sound must be a powerful enemy,

Li Guanlong thought.

When he turned around, he saw a slightly disheveled young swordsman standing behind him.

The young swordsman wore a simple linen robe, his unkempt hair tied high, with a sword wrapped in hemp rope slung across his back. His features were plain, and his eyes squinted lazily. His relaxed demeanor even bore a striking resemblance to Li Guanlong himself.

With just a single step, the pressure from his qi was stronger than the combined force of the three opponents Li Guanlong had faced earlier.

Li Guanlong couldn't help but become serious. "Who might you be?"

Given his current injuries, he was in no condition to fight anyone, especially not someone as powerful as this individual. Yet, how was it that he didn't recognize such a formidable cultivator?

"Sword Sect, Xu Bao," the youth replied simply, his gaze drifting to the soul crystals scattered across the ground.

The Sword Sect he referred to was, of course, the Endless Sword Sect. And now, it all made sense to Li Guanlong.

The Endless Sword Sect was known for its peculiar yet exceptionally strong individuals, with disciples who dedicated themselves entirely to the Dao of the sword. It was likely that many of them trained on the mountain for decades without ever descending, which explained why they were not widely recognized by others.

"You want the soul crystals?" Noticing the expression in Xu Bao's eyes, Li Guanlong let out a sigh of relief. With a wave of his hand, he gathered all the soul crystals from the ground and continued, "There are over ninety soul crystals here. Let's split them fifty-fifty so we don't have to fight. How does that sound?"

Originally, these were all the soul crystals that the alliance of four teams led by the imperial family had saved up. The siblings of the imperial family had decided to forgo saving any for themselves, dividing all the soul crystals into three portions and entrusting each of the other teams with one.

The amount would be enough for each team to advance to the next round.

If the two split them now, it would be more than enough; there was no need to fight.

But after hearing this, Xu Bao frowned without saying a word, as if he was calculating something.

Seems very greedy…

Li Guanlong thought.

Seeing how silent Xu Bao was, Li Guanlong thought that he was one of those ruthless and taciturn characters.

Li Guanlong's expression grew slightly grim as he spoke slowly, "You and I are at similar cultivation levels. Even though I'm a bit injured, there's no telling who would win in a fight. I'm simply unwilling to take unnecessary risks... I can take a step back and let you have sixty percent while I settle for forty."

Even with just forty percent of the soul crystals, it should be enough for advancement. Since the Fog-Hidden Mountain of Immortals had no allies, Li Guanlong was fine with giving out the extras.

Upon hearing this, Xu Bao's frown deepened.

He still remained silent.

Is that not enough?

Li Guanlong thought.

At this point, Li Guanlong felt quite displeased with how greedy Xu Bao was.

The moment of readjusting his breathing had settled his qi and blood somewhat, and he no longer feared a fight. While his injuries would still affect him, there were other factors that would come into play during a fight between the powerful ones. Oftentimes, such injuries were not the decisive factor.

He straightened up and issued a final ultimatum, "Seventy percent for you, and I'll take thirty. This is my last concession. If you keep pushing, you won't get a single one!"

Just because the team from Fog-Hidden Mountain of Immortals had been drifting at sea for days didn't mean they had no soul crystals. With thirty percent from this haul, they would have enough to advance to the next round.

Li Guanlong was ready to fight if he couldn't secure even thirty percent of the soul crystals.

It wouldn't be easy to find so many soul crystals elsewhere at this point. After all, it had taken him a significant amount of time spent in dream-watching to finally come across such a prime opportunity.

Unexpectedly, Xu Bao, who had been frowning, erupted in fury upon hearing that Li Guanlong was willing to compromise again.

"Are you done changing your mind?" Xu Bao shouted, his eyes blazing with anger. "Every time I finish calculating, you switch things up… What's seventy percent of ninety? Just give me the damn number!"

GLTD Alternate Universe's Thoughts

Translator: GT