Ninth In the World

Bai Hong’s face turned green. One shouldn’t humiliate the opponent during a battle, yet the Skygold Protectorate Lord had given him a slap in the face. Actually, it wasn’t because he was magnanimous that he didn’t seek revenge with Di Jiu. Huan Mingzi had been right. Bai Hong had too many sons, so he might not even have seen them all since birth, let alone been able to remember all their names. His subordinates would naturally take care of matters like the death of one of his bastard sons. Thus, he wouldn’t have needed to interfere.

It was only when he exited his seclusion recently that he had found out that the Elder who had been sent to avenge his son’s death had failed in his mission. He might not even have recalled that his son’s murderer’s friend was in the Immortal Ascension City if the Skygold Protectorate Lord had not mentioned it.

“You don’t have to worry about this. I will go and kill Di Jiu personally after the True Dominion Genius Tournament ends,” said Bai Hong coldly. He couldn’t do anything against the Skygold Protectorate Lord, whose disciple Lai He would be taking part in this tournament. He would definitely get his son, Bai Shaoxiang, to kill Lai He during the second round of the competition, when they would fight against each other.

“What kind of background does this Di Jiu have?” asked Mei Bashan.

His son, Mei Zhiyun, had to clinch the top spot in the True Dominion Genius Tournament. Thus, he had to be sure what Di Jiu was made of, even if he didn’t pose a threat to Zhiyun.

“It is said that he is the top expert in the Small Central World,” said Zhuo Changgeng. “He is also the only cultivator who has come back to life and made it down the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain after dying on it. Zhuo Wencheng of the Zhuo Family died in his hands.”

Mei Bashan’s expression changed as he asked, “Did Di Jiu really make it down the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain alive after getting killed on it?”

Mei Bashan had been to the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain before too. However, he had given up climbing it upon reaching the 103rd step. He had been sure that he would have died on the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain if he had taken one more step. He had been one of the few people who had made it down the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain alive, so he was well aware of how treacherous it was.

If one had already died on the Planted Cultivators’ Mountain, it was impossible to come back to life and make it down the mountain again. Now, he would never let Di Jiu off, even if he didn’t participate in the competition for the top spot in the genius tournament this time. Di Jiu definitely had a huge secret after all.

“The True Dominion cannot tolerate someone who has killed innocent people so indiscriminately!” Mei Bashan snorted.

“Protectorate Lord Mei is right. Such a person should be disqualified from the True Dominion Genius Tournament. Let’s capture him!” said Zhuo Changgeng as he tried to ride on Mei Bashan’s words.

Then, another stick-thin man echoed, “I agree. A scumbag like Di Jiu should be disqualified!”

This was Yue Li, the family head of the Yue Family, who was from the True Dominion. He had been wary of Di Jiu all this while. If Di Jiu could kill Yue Jian, he was definitely not much weaker than him. Therefore, he took advantage of the fact that Mei Bashan was unhappy with Di Jiu to stir up trouble.

Everybody was aware of what Mei Bashan meant. Besides wanting to clear the path for Mei Zhiyun in this tournament, he was also coveting the secret that Di Jiu was hiding.

Mei Bashan had been a notorious tyrant in the True Dominion. Therefore, nobody refuted him.

Before Mei Bashan could capture Di Jiu, a delicate-looking, middle-aged scholar said suddenly, “It is erroneous of Family Head Zhuo and Family Head Yue to say so. The fact that Di Jiu has killed people indiscriminately will not affect his participation in the True Dominion Genius Tournament. The True Dominion Genius Tournament is a test of one’s talent, not of one’s character. Therefore, only people who violate the tournament rules will be disqualified. I have never heard of anyone getting disqualified because they had killed innocent people. The True Dominion Genius Tournament would be meaningless if people joined it just to seek revenge.”

“Protectorate Lord An is right.” Zhuo Changgeng laughed wryly.

Yue Li smiled too but didn’t say anything else.

The strongest powers in the True Dominion came from the Five Major Protectorates. The person who had just spoken was An Lingzhou, the Protectorate Lord of the Peaceful Farmers’ Protectorate. The Peaceful Farmers’ Protectorate ranked at Number Five among the Five Major Protectorates and was the weakest in terms of strength. An Lingzhou was at the sixth-stage Domain Realm. Although he was more powerful than both Zhuo Changgeng and Yue Li, he paled in comparison to Mei Bashan.

However, An Lingzhou wasn’t a tactful person. He just said whatever was on his mind and didn’t stop even when he saw that Mei Bashan was getting angry.

If Mei Bashan had proceeded to capture Di Jiu and deny him participation in the tournament, everyone would think that he was being a tyrant in the True Dominion. Actually, he didn’t have the ability to do so anyway.

...

Di Jiu was at the ninth question by now. He had only answered one of the previous eight questions by himself. The rest of the answers had come from the Book of the World.

The ninth question asked where the Beastly Spiritual Fruit grew and what its main uses were.

This was a really odd question. Di Jiu wouldn’t have known what the Beastly Spiritual Fruit was if he hadn’t possessed the Book of the World. The Beastly Spiritual Fruit was a fruit that fell onto a demon beast after it ripened. Its unique characteristic was that its flesh would fall apart by itself once it fell from the tree and the seed would then adhere to the body of the demon beast. Upon germination, it would extract and absorb the Blood Essence from the demon beast.

By the time the demon beast discovered something was germinating on it, it would have almost died. After the demon beast died, its flesh and blood would become nutrients for the seed. Thus, whenever the fruit ripened, it would become the Beastly Spiritual Fruit.

The Beastly Spiritual Fruit was an extraordinary level-nine spiritual fruit with a heaven-defying purpose. It could help one understand the divine powers and magic techniques of the demon beast that had helped the Beastly Spiritual Fruit grow.

It was difficult for the Beastly Spiritual Fruit to find a suitable environment to grow. Therefore, its creation was rare. This fruit had another special characteristic. It had to fall naturally on the demon beast in order to germinate. If there had been any human intervention in the process, then its spirituality would be lost and it would not grow.

Although many people were not able to answer this question, it was easy for Di Jiu.

The 10th question looked extremely easy. It was asking whether or not the Geocentric flame crystal could be used to advance the Dao fire to level nine. The answer was almost obvious. The Geocentric flame crystal was a level-nine material, so even the most top-notch flames could definitely use it to advance to level nine.

However, Di Jiu knew very well that it couldn’t be used to advance the Dao fire to level nine. In order to do so, one had to use either a naturally-occurring flame or the Earth fire vein. He had tried to use the Geocentric flame crystal to advance his own Dao fire before, but he hadn’t succeeded.

His Dao fire had still been at a very low level back then. Subsequently, it had only reached level six. However, Di Jiu knew that he couldn’t use the Geocentric flame crystal to help it advance to level seven, because he had already tried it before. Therefore, it was impossible to use it to advance to level nine.

Di Jiu, who answered all the questions in just five minutes, remained in his seat after he wrote down his name. It wouldn’t have earned him extra points even if he had handed in his exam paper before the time was up. Thus, he didn’t do so.

By now, the rankings of some of the people who had handed in their exam papers had appeared on the huge screen on the Immortal Ascension Square. Many people had handed in the papers before the time was up. After all, if one ran into any questions they couldn’t answer, it wouldn’t help even if they sat there thinking for a whole year.

Mei Zhiyun ranked at Number One with 87 points. It was stated on the screen that he came from the First Plum Protectorate.

Zhuo Wenshu ranked at Number Two with 73 points. He came from the Zhuo Family of the True Dominion.

At Number Three was Bai Xizhou from the Bright Protectorate. He had also scored 73 points, yet he ranked third because other factors, such as their age and the time it had taken them to hand in the exam papers, had come into play.

...

Mei Bashan was very satisfied when he saw the results. The written examinations of the True Dominion Genius Tournament had always been very difficult. Mei Zhiyun, who had scored 87 points, could be considered the best candidate. He led by more than 10 points compared to Number Two.

“Ha ha... Looks like I was correct. Mei Zhiyun is Number One,” said Bai Hong as he turned to look at the Skygold Protectorate Lord. “Protectorate Lord Huan, didn’t you say that Di Jiu was formidable? Why haven’t I seen him on the ranking screen yet?” he added.

“Maybe he hasn’t handed in his exam yet,” answered the Skygold Protectorate Lord coldly.

“When it comes to such an exam, you either know the answers or you don’t. If you don’t know, even if you hold on to the papers and keep looking at the questions, nothing will change,” retorted Zhuo Changgeng suddenly. How dare he rebut the Skygold Protectorate Lord!

Both the suspended level and the Immortal Ascension Square were filled with hot debates by now. People came up with all sorts of stories, especially about Mei Zhiyun, who was Number One.

Xian Ze sighed to himself. Di Jiu had the necessary strength, but it was unfair for him to compete in terms of knowledge. He was an Itinerant Cultivator, so he couldn’t possibly know more than the members of the large sects. The large sects had the sutra depository, which contained an abundance of knowledge for its disciples to study. However, as an Itinerant Cultivator, Di Jiu must have spent all his time cultivating and looking for cultivating resources instead.

He could only hope that Di Jiu would catch up in the second round. Otherwise, entering the top three would be a tough fight.

Two hours passed quickly. Xigu Boyang, the City Lord of the Immortal Ascension City, said suddenly, “Time is up. Please stop writing now, regardless of whether you still have any unanswered questions. If you do not stop before I finish speaking, your marks will be invalid.”

Nobody dared ignore Xigu Boyang. When he saw that everyone had stopped writing, he said, “Please hand in your papers, everybody. The results and rankings will be shown on the display screen on the Immortal Ascension Square. Anyone who is not in the top 500 will not qualify for the second round. The second round of the tournament will be held in three days.”