Ninth In the World

Before he finished talking, Di Jiu’s Heavenly Aqua Saber had already whirled up a space-ripping saber flare. This green-colored flare wrapped around Bai Shaoxiang. He couldn’t escape, no matter how much he wanted to.

A bloody mist burst into the air after the saber flare struck.

Mei Zhiyun had at least withstood a few of Di Jiu’s moves. However, Bai Shaoxiang was killed in a single move before he even managed to take out his dharma treasure.

“You have killed Bai Shaoxiang...” said An Xiaoqi in disbelief as she watched Bai Shaoxiang’s body disappear.

“Yes, I have!” Di Jiu chuckled.

An Xiaoqi’s scalp was beginning to turn numb. She didn’t believe that Di Jiu would let her off as she looked at him in fear. She had watched him kill Mei Zhiyun and Bai Shaoxiang so he would definitely silence her.

After a long while, An Xiaoqi finally said, “My father is the Protectorate Lord of the Peaceful Farmers’ Protectorate, An Lingzhou.” She didn’t explicitly ask for mercy, but she still implied it.

“Yes, I could guess that you are the daughter of the Peaceful Farmers’ Protectorate Lord since your surname is An too,” said Di Jiu as he nodded.

“Do I have to die too?” asked An Xiaoqi. She didn’t want to die. Although she wasn’t the most gifted person in the True Dominion, she was among the top few. A bright future would be waiting for her after she left the True Dominion. Very few people there could attain her level of cultivation in 200 years. Therefore, she couldn’t accept dying in the hands of Di Jiu, whom she had no enmity against.

It took Di Jiu a while to understand why An Xiaoqi had asked that question. However, he actually wasn’t worried that people would know that he had killed Mei Zhiyun. This was because he believed that Mei Bashan would be able to guess anyway. In other words, even though An Xiaoqi knew about it, he didn’t need to kill her considering that they were not enemies.

“I guess you do have to die too,” said Di Jiu as he touched his nose. He didn’t believe that An Xiaoqi had attained longevity.

“Can I kill myself?” Di Jiu thought that this woman was really cute and innocent when she asked this silly question.

Thus, he replied in a serious tone, “I suggest that you die from old age instead.”

Then, Di Jiu immediately left with a turn of his body. He had already killed 96 demon beasts and two IIlusionary Beasts. Therefore, he had scored more than 100 points. However, he didn’t plan on handing over the two Illusionary Beast Cores, so he needed to kill a few more demon beasts.

An Xiaoqi only realized that Di Jiu hadn’t planned on killing her after he had been gone for quite a long while. She quickly sped off. She found it hard to believe that Di Jiu would let her off. Therefore, she swore to herself that she would not breathe a word about him killing Bai Shaoxiang and Mei Zhiyun.

...

After Mei Zhiyun had been killed, Mei Bashan had flown into a rage and nailed Xian Ze onto the scoreboard. Other than that, there hadn’t been many changes on the Immortal Ascension Square.

Everybody continued to stare at the scoreboard as they anticipated the results of this round. Based on past experience, while the scores might still change a little, the ranking would basically not differ much.

The Number One on the Array Formation Screen was still Di Jiu, who had earned 100 points again. Plus, there was still one more day to go before the time was up for this round. Therefore, Di Jiu had really achieved what he had said earlier. He had amassed more than 100 points. Xigu Boyang felt like Di Jiu had slapped his face as he touched his cheeks.

Zhuo Wenshu ranked second with 74 points, which was considered a high score. Bai Xizhou was third with 67 points. Number Four was Hu Burang with 65 points, and Number Five was Bai Shaoxiang with 64 points. Gu Jue, who came in sixth with 56 points, was a genius from the Small Central World too. Number Seven was Lai He with 43 points, Number Eight was Han Qingyi with 42 points, and Number Nine was An Xiaoqi with 40 points...

Three out of the top six genius participants had come from the Small Central World. This was weird.

The suspended level at the border of the square was somewhat quiet. The Immortal Ascension Square, on the other hand, was filled with discussions about who would emerge as the winner of this True Dominion Genius Tournament.

Many people believed that Di Jiu was Number One only in name because Mei Bashan would surely kill him once he exited the Evil Beast Valley. If he was killed, he would naturally lose his ranking.

Although Bai Hong felt somewhat agitated, it wasn’t because Bai Shaoxiang had scored 70 points in the first round.

Actually, 70 points was not a low score. However, there were too many geniuses in the tournament this time. Therefore, these 70 points had only earned Bai Shaoxiang the 12th spot on the ranking. This made him feel disappointed. Although Bai Shaoxiang was a second-stage True Form cultivator, he was still weaker in comparison to the likes of Mei Zhiyun, Bai Xizhou, and Zhuo Wenshu.

The reason Bai Hong was agitated was that Mei Zhiyun had been killed. Thus, his score in the first round would naturally be voided. Plus, Di Jiu, who was at the Number One spot currently, would surely be killed. With these two eliminated from the tournament, there was a possibility that Shaoxiang could enter the top three. If he didn’t make the top three, it would be because Hu Burang was taking up the spot ahead of him. Bai Hong believed that he was more than capable of eliminating an Itinerant Cultivator from the Small Central World.

He was still plotting how to help Bai Shaoxiang get into the top three when he saw Shaoxiang’s name suddenly disappear from the Array Formation Screen.

Bai Hong stood up immediately as his hands began to tremble. His son, Bai Shaoxiang, had fallen in the Evil Beast Valley! How could this have happened?

Suddenly, he understood why Mei Bashan was furious.

“My son must have been killed by Di Jiu!” Bai Hong roared as he lost control of the killing intent within him.

Everybody was speechless. If Di Jiu had really killed Bai Shaoxiang too, he was being too bold.

“Protectorate Lord Bai, Shaoxiang was an outstanding young man. It is really unfortunate that he fell in the Evil Beast Valley. However, I think that there are others who are more powerful than Shaoxiang besides Di Jiu,” said the Skygold Protectorate Lord coldly.

Bai Hong opened his hands and a halberd with a fish-shaped ax blade appeared and floated about his head. His voice was filled with killing intent as he spoke. “Do you wish to pick a fight with me, Huan Changzhu?”

Huan Changzhu spread his hands and said, “If you think that it was Di Jiu, then so be it. I have no intention of fighting with you.”

Then, a man with a bronze complexion said coldly with a frown, “Let everything wait until the True Dominion Genius Tournament is over. It is a disgrace to the True Dominion that the True Dominion Genius Tournament has turned out this way.”

When he heard this, Bai Hong finally stopped his outburst, put his halberd away and sat down.

Even Mei Bashan didn’t say anything. The man who had spoken was the Protectorate Lord of the Bright Protectorate, the second major protectorate in the True Dominion, Bai Cangxing. His cultivation level was at the peak eighth-stage Domain Realm, so it was not any lower than Mei Bashan’s.

However, no matter how confident Bai Hong was, he wouldn’t dare pit himself against Bai Cangxing.

Bai Cangxing was really unhappy about the way things had turned out. Regardless of what had happened, Mei Bashan, who was the Protectorate Lord of the Number One Protectorate in the True Dominion, shouldn’t have nailed an irrelevant party onto the Array Formation Screen. Now, Bai Hong was stirring up trouble too. How could the tournament continue like this?

He hadn’t spoken earlier because he knew that if he had stepped in to stop Mei Bashan, they would surely have had a fight. However, he wasn’t scared of Mei Bashan.

Although Huan Changzhu and An Lingzhou could speak up, Bai Cangxing knew that he couldn’t. He had almost the same status as Mei Bashan after all. Mei Bashan would have been left with no room to back down if he had stepped in to reprimand him.

Now that Bai Hong wanted to stir things up as well, he naturally couldn’t allow things to go on this way.

...

Suddenly, Di Jiu stopped. He felt that he had reached the deepest part of the Evil Beast Valley, as his Spiritual Force had been constrained to merely a few dozen feet.

There was a huge Dharma Array before his Spiritual Force. Di Jiu recognized this Dharma Array. It was the Life Transformation Array.

This was a very high-level Dharma Array. Di Jiu suspected that if he got injured here and only relied on his Blood Essence, he would most likely be transformed into nothing by this Life Transformation Array.

It was no wonder that everybody who had fallen in the Evil Beast Valley had been transformed into nothing. It was all because a top-notch Life Transformation Array existed there.

Di Jiu didn’t know who had set up the Life Transformation Array. However, he was sure that he would only be committing suicide if he tried to investigate it. He definitely couldn’t do it given his current strength.

Although Di Jiu was curious, he wouldn’t give up his life for this. Therefore, he began to back off.

Suddenly, the participant’s card that was hanging at his waist lit up. Di Jiu knew that this was a sign that the time of this round was up. He had been thinking of leaving the Evil Beast Valley anyway.

“Do come in since you are already here!” Di Jiu heard a voice say as an enormous hand came grabbing at him.

All of a sudden, Di Jiu felt as if he had been squeezed between two huge rocks. He couldn’t move at all.

He struggled like crazy as he saw the enormous hand getting closer to him. Finally, he managed to get some space just before it reached him. When he kicked without hesitation, a big footprint flew out.

Bam! Di Jiu amassed all his might. Upon swallowing his saliva, everything that had constrained him disappeared.

When he broke free from this constraint, he used the Spiritual Force escape technique and dashed madly towards the exit of the Evil Beast Valley.