Chapter 1179 - Merit Points
"Mm? The souls of many people are flying back…"
As Lin Ming sat in meditation, he didn't even need to open his eyes to feel the soul energy that represented martial artists flying back to the city. This was the result of having perceived the Laws of the Divine Dream World these past days. Otherwise, as a common participant, there was no way he could see the trajectories of these souls.
"Many people have died. It seems these nightmare beasts aren't easy to deal with…"
Lin Ming wasn't surprised. This Divine Realm First Martial Meeting was specifically aimed at the peak geniuses of the Divine Realm. Those who couldn't even reach Ninefall were doomed to be eliminated at the end of the first round.
Although this Divine Realm First Martial Meeting involved over 10 quadrillion individuals, it was actually extremely fair. There would be no case in which a powerhouse would be eliminated because they managed to get themselves thrust into a death group. There also wouldn't be any weaklings that managed to pass because of some heaven-defying form of luck.
Occurrences of fraud wouldn't occur either. Whether one was a peak genius of a World King Holy Land or a common wandering martial artist, no matter which of the 3000 great worlds they came from, everyone started at the same line. Those with strength would inevitably pass through this qualification round.
This also caused Lin Ming to sigh at Empyrean Divine Dream's supernatural powers. He thought that gathering 10 quadrillion geniuses in any location of the Divine Realm was an impossible task to begin with, but Empyrean Divine Dream had done so with absolute ease. Moreover, the method of competition she devised was more than fair!
"The nightmare beasts that kill martial artists will evolve, and the merit points obtained from killing them will be higher. At the same time, Ninefall martial artist that can kill nightmare beasts will accumulate more and more merit points. In other words, the efficiency of doing anything at the start will be very low. The true gap will form after one or two months."
Lin Ming realized this and wasn't anxious. These three months of time were very precious to him. Being able to perceive Empyrean Divine Dream's transcendent divine might was much more important than whatever result he obtained. As for merit points or whatever else he needed, he was satisfied as long as he crossed the elimination hurdle.
Near Immemorial Imperial City, battlefields of slaughter were occurring everywhere. It wasn't just Eightfall Divine Sea participants, but even Ninefall Divine Sea participants saw their lives equally threatened.
There were many nightmare beasts that became disgustingly fierce after evolving just once!
In order to survive, many participants had no choice but to join forces and kill nightmare beasts together. But in doing this, the number of merit points they received dwindled as they were divided amongst everyone else. An ordinary nightmare beast gave just over 10 merit points. If 4-5 people joined together, everyone could only obtain a sad 2 or so merit points. Without needing to be told, these people knew they would be inevitably eliminated after three months passed.
"This is too difficult! How can anyone deal with such freakish nightmare beasts!" several participants cursed out as they finally killed a nightmare beast with grueling effort.
"This sort of test is not something a normal person can handle! Even if they are strong, they would still be devastated if they ran into a pack of nightmare beasts! All of their previous efforts will have been for naught! The luck factor in this competition is simply too great," the captain of this team of martial artists said.
"Boss, there's something happening up ahead." A martial artist suddenly spoke up. As everyone turned to look, they felt a tingling sensation crawl up their scalps. Not too far away, in the forest, there were dozens of nightmare beasts rushing towards them!
After battling through a violent life or death battle for the entire day, this team of martial artists were well aware of what it meant for dozens of nightmare beasts to come rampaging towards them. They would be instantly slain!
Although they were only soul forms that existed in the Divine Dream World, and would also be reincarnated if they died here, it was still mentally hard to withstand the pressure of imminent death!
"Hide your aura and escape!"
The head martial artist restrained his aura as he spoke with a true essence sound transmission.
In this critical situation, everyone carefully restrained their aura and began slowly moving backwards, a step at a time. They didn't want all those points they worked so hard for to shrink by over half.
At this moment, they only heard a sharp whistle pass by their ears. There was a blur as a red shadow shot into the forest.
The speed of this red shadow was far too fast; no one was able to clearly see it. They also saw the red shadow crash into place the dozens of nightmare beasts were at, arousing the angry roars and reactions of those nightmare beasts.
That red shadow was a participant, and from the shape of their back, it was a woman!
"This crazy woman!"
"Shit! Does she want to die and bring us down with her!?"
As these martial artists saw the red shadow anger the nightmare beasts, all of them were scared silly. Once those nightmare beasts killed that rabid woman, they would die from bearing the anger of those nightmare beasts!
Just as everyone was about to escape, a burst of loud explosive sounds filled the air. Countless large trees imploded and 4 or 5 nightmare beasts emitted pitiful cries as they burst like a balloon of meat and blood. That red shadow was like a wisp of light smoke, shuttling within the pack of nightmare beasts. Two flywheels were in her hands, glowing with a cold light. Wherever she went, nightmare beasts would erupt into a puddle of bloody goo. She was no different from a death god that was harvesting lives!
"Ho-how is this possible!?"
Everyone was shocked. They had to join forces in order to barely take down a single nightmare beast with their coordinated efforts, and yet this woman was killing an entire pack of them as if she were slaughtering chickens and cows. The difference between them was simply too great! Although these martial artists knew the Divine Realm was unimaginably vast and there was always a higher peak and a stronger martial artist, they always subconsciously thought that their strength was equal to the peak geniuses from Holy Lands. At least the difference shouldn't be too great. But now, with this red-clothed woman in front of them, all of the confidence they built up was completely shattered.
In just a short 10 breaths of time, the dozens of nightmare beasts were slaughtered by that red-clothed woman!
She calmly stood among the wreckage of corpses, her body stained red with blood.
Her figure was slender and she wore a bamboo hat on her head. It was impossible to discern her appearance. One could only see she was incomparably mysterious.
"35 nightmare beasts. With the 70 I killed before, I've already killed over a hundred. This is over 1000 merit points! I wonder just how Zhong Wenshu and the three prodigies from Sacred Martial Mansion are doing. There is also that boy who bought the Boundless World Pill… Humph, I will prove to everyone that just having resources and talent is meaningless! Although my background is inferior and my wealth is inferior, I am not weaker than any of you! I will be the one who takes first place in Immemorial Imperial City!"
The bamboo hat woman thought out loud. As she spoke, her words carried with it a faint hoarse and gravelly tone, causing her voice to lose all its charm.
Meanwhile, somewhere else, Zhong Wenshu and the three prodigies of Sacred Martial Mansion were also engaged in a frigid slaughtering.
"None of you need to fight. If you do anything you will just take a part of my merit points. All that you need to do is to guide the nightmare beasts over here, the more the better! Evolved nightmare beasts are the best!" Zhong Wenshu said as he crushed the skull of a nightmare beast beneath his boot. A confident smile hung on his face. "My cultivation method excels in group battles. I want to see just who in all of Immemorial Imperial City can obtain merit points faster than I can!"
"That's right, I had you investigate the whereabouts of that little bastard who bought the Boundless World Pill. Haven't you found him yet? Looking for him is a top priority. I want to have as much fun with him as I can! It's perfect we can revive in this Divine Dream World. I will wait until he resurrects and kill him again! I want to kill him until he is dirt poor and shits his pants whenever he sees me!"
As Zhong Wenshu cruelly smiled, the minion beside him said, "Young Master, that garbage Lin Ming withdrew from the city and has yet to emerge!"
"Mm?" Zhong Wenshu frowned. "That little bastard. He clearly knows I'm looking for him, so he doesn't dare to come out and face me?"
"That should be it!"
"Ugh, how pathetic! I was hoping to kill him and take away his merit points, but now killing him doesn't even seem worth the time."
To Zhong Wenshu, the best way to get revenge would have been to kill Lin Ming and also take away all of his efforts. But now, since that wouldn't work, the enjoyment he received from taking revenge against Lin Ming would be severely diminished.
"Humph, I don't believe he won't come out and hunt for nightmare beasts and then let himself be eliminated in the first round. Although that little bastard is nothing compared to me, he should still be able to enter the second round with his qualifications. I can't believe he is willing to simply resign himself to being eliminated. I will wait. As long as he leaves the city, I will instantly kill him. I want to chop him into 70 to 80 pieces and let him experience true suffering!"
"Haha, what Young Master says will be done! Rest assured, we have already bribed several participants to stand guard outside the city. As soon as that boy appears, we will inform Young Master. At that time, Young Master can deal with Lin Ming and enjoy him to your heart's content!"
"Good! Well done!" Now, go and quickly look for nightmare beasts. I have to guarantee that my merit points will be the number one rank of Immemorial Imperial City! Not only will I win this qualification round, but I must also struggle for the top five ranks of the True Martial Great World!
Zhong Wenshu had great ambitions. Although he was currently the greatest genius of Dual Polarity Palace's young generation, the sect still wasn't willing to train him regardless of cost. For instance, it was impossible for him to enjoy medicines like the Boundless World Pill. He had to prove to everyone he had value, and perhaps even the potential to become a World King! Only by reaching the top five rankings of the True Martial Great World would he have enough qualifications to gain the attention of Dual Polarity Palace's upper level figures. In the future, during the finals of the Divine Realm First Martial Meeting, if he could enter the top 10,000 or the top 8000, he would become the best disciple within Dual Polarity Palace for the last tens of thousands of years!
As endless slaughtering was occurring within the Divine Dream World like a raging fire that spread without end, outside of the Divine Dream World, the near infinite audience was all gazing at the massive golden scroll in the sky, captivated. They soon discovered that on the scroll, the positions of the participants names were constantly shifting and changing.
"Look! There's numbers appearing behind people's names! 1027, what number is that?" Everyone discovered that as the positions of names changed on the scrolls, there were also many names that had numbers attached to them. From the start it was only a few, but slowly, more and more names were given a number.
"1130, 1150. The numbers are increasing. Look, someone even has 2000!"
"That's not 2000, that's 2500! It's even about to break 3000! Moreover, I saw that some numbers even vanished altogether!"
"What do these numbers mean?" Many people asked, puzzled.
"They should be merit points! These numbers represent the merit points they have!" When Empyrean Vast Universe used his great supernatural power to speak, his sound transmission passed through the entire Divine Realm and the audience also heard the rules of the competition. To say these numbers were the merit points the participants had was the most reasonable explanation.
Chapter 1180 - Ranking
"So they were merit points. That makes sense. But why do only a small number of people have numbers behind their names, and most martial artists do not?"
Although the golden scroll had many names with numbers behind them, this was because the scroll was simply too large. The names were densely packed together and seemingly endless. If one counted them, the number of people with merit point values behind their names were not even in the thousands.
"It should be that only those with at least a thousand merit points are displayed. Even for an Empyrean, wanting to constantly update the merit points of over 10 quadrillion geniuses wouldn't be easy! Those with numbers but then vanished were likely people that crossed over 1000 before being killed by other participants or nightmare beasts. Finally, their merit points fell and they fell down the list."
It was naturally impossible for Empyrean Divine Dream to constantly update the merit points of every single participant with her soul force. No matter how powerful her soul force was, wanting to simultaneously monitor and change the merit points of over 10 quadrillion geniuses was impossible.
What she relied on were the heaven and earth Laws of the Divine Dream World.
Everything within the dreamland was supported by the Divine Dream Laws as a foundation, and the Divine Dream World would complete the statistics of everyone there itself. Empyrean Divine Dream would only need to provide a little bit of energy to display everyone's scores.
"So that's what is happening. Those with their scores on the golden scroll are all outstanding cultivators! They are likely to pass the first round of eliminations and possibly even the second round!"
"Yes! Perhaps they will even be noticed by the various large influence, especially those whose merit points rise the quickest!"
In all corners of the Divine Realm, there were countless people holding such discussions.
However, they soon discovered that although they could see the merit points of all the participants in the Divine Realm, it was far too difficult to find specific people.
The golden scroll was simply far too large. It was hundreds of thousands of miles wide and several million miles long. Even a Holy Lord didn't have the ability to cover the entire golden scroll with their divine sense. And if they did, with the near endless names on the golden scroll, they would overdraw their divine soul before they found who they were looking for.
"I wonder how Wenshu is doing."
Several old men from Dual Polarity Palace frowned. They all had a half-step Holy Lord cultivation and were important characters of the Zhong Family bloodline. Even with their combined abilities, wanting to find Zhong Wenshu's name on such a massive list was far too great an undertaking for them.
Of course, Dual Polarity Palace's Palace Master had the ability to find Zhong Wenshu. However, a World King didn't have such leisurely time to spend an extremely long time observing the preliminaries. What they cared about were only the finals.
As the several Elders were worrying, a golden carriage soared across the sky. The chariot stopped and a middle-aged man with a jade crown stepped out. He wore a long embroidered golden robe tied together with a purple gold belt. He had a bright smile on his face, and the aura he emitted was one of wealth and extravagance.
"Mm? It's Imperial City Auction House's Vice Director!"
The Elders of Dual Polarity Palace quickly recognized the middle-aged man.
"Everyone!" As the middle-aged man stood atop the golden divine carriage floating in the skies, dazzling arcs of golden light shot out into the world, capturing everyone's attention. As for his voice, it easily spread over an area of 100,000 miles. His cultivation was at the half-step World king!
A half-step World King powerhouse. Within an area of 100,000 miles, that was a peak existence among hundreds of millions of watching people.
Everyone looked at the middle-aged man, not sure what he was about to say.
The middle-aged man faintly smiled and said, "My Imperial City Auction House has been granted authorization by Empyrean Divine Dream to come here and sell inquiry jade slips. You may use these jade slips to search for the ranking of specific participants. If you know the name and sect of a martial artist you may search them to find out how many merit points they have. The number of times you can use this jade slip is unlimited. The price of each jade slip is 10 million violet sun stones. The quantity is limited, so the price is quite high." The middle-aged man took out a deep green jade slip as he spoke.
This small jade slip only had a simple array formation carved into it that could connect to the golden scroll dreamland projection of the Divine Dream World. Even so, the cost was 10 million violet sun stones!
For some time, all of the wandering martial artists and martial artists of small families and sects were left speechless. This price was simply a killing move. Moreover, it was just to look at the results. It was simply far too luxurious an item.
However, those from distinguished families didn't care at all. An Elder from Dual Polarity Palace laughed and said, "Sage Shi, you have come at just the right time. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find the results of my family's juniors. Allow me to buy an inquiry jade slip."
"Alright!" Sage Shi tossed out a jade slip toward the Dual Polarity Palace Elder. At the same time, a spatial ring with violet sun stones contained within it was sent flying to Sage Shi.
Of the 10 million violet sun stones per jade slip, Imperial City Auction House was only able to take in 10% of the profits; the rest was to be given to Empyrean Divine Dream. In fact, these jade slips were created by the disciples of Divine Dream Palace. Although the process of creating them was simple, they contained a faint touch of the Divine Dream Laws, so anyone else could forget about thinking of duplicating them.
Empyrean Divine Dream was managing the Divine Realm First Martial Meeting. Just creating these massive Divine Dream Lights, continuing everything occurring within the Divine Dream Realm, and summoning those massive golden scrolls on all 3000 great worlds of the Divine Realm required an incomparably terrifying amount of energy.
Even if Empyrean Divine Dream was ridiculously rich, she still wasn't able to use up resources like this, so she also needed a method to earn back some money.
A similar sale was occurring all throughout the golden scrolls of the Divine Realm's 3000 great worlds. The ones responsible for carrying out these sales were the several peak trade associations of each great world. As for those that were able to afford jade slips, they were also great influences.
"I found it! Dual Polarity Palace - Zhong Wenshu, 5300 merit points! Haha, Wenshu has not let us down! Amazing!"
After the Dual Polarity Palace Elder obtained the jade slip he immediately began searching for Zhong Wenshu's name. Of course, just looking for the name of Zhong Wenshu alone wasn't enough; there were many people with duplicate names. But with Dual Polarity Palace added on, it was much easier.
"However, Wenshu is not the highest. The True Martial Holy Lands have some people that are even higher. Their top participant already has 6000 merit points.
"That's already quite good! Let's go and report this happy news to the family head! But the current ranking is a bit inaccurate. Only later when the points stabilize will we be able to see the true results!"
Meanwhile, Sacred Martial Mansion also bought a divine dream jade slip. This jade slip was enough to display over a dozen names. The three prodigies of Sacred Martial Mansion were among them. Their merit points were around 5000 each.
This was a result that satisfied the many Elders of Sacred Martial Mansion.
At this time, at Good Fortune World, a massive scroll similarly floated in the skies. Underneath this massive scroll, a beautiful woman was also selling divine dream jade slips.
"10 million violet sun stones is far too expensive!"
An Unbroken Cult Elder frowned. They were only an eighth-grade sect. Although they could afford a price of 10 million violet sun stones, it was hard for them to pay such a price only to find out the results a few months ahead of time. But their sect had spent a great deal of wealth and effort to cultivate Yu Youming. They were anxious in discovering just what his results would be like.
"Let's join together with some other eighth-grade sects to buy one. Buying one alone is a bit too luxurious for us. Our Unbroken Cult's wealth comes from the hard work of our disciples. We don't have so much to spare."
"Right, let's buy it with others."
The Elders of the Unbroken Cult devised this new plan and contacted some other eighth-grade sects they were on good terms with. Together, they bought a divine dream jade slip.
They quickly searched for Yu Youming's results.
"3150 points. This result ranking is between the top one and two million of Good Fortune World!"
Currently, only those in the top 10,000 ranks would show their specific results. The rest only showed a general range.
"A rank between one and two million…" The disciples of the Unbroken Cult discussed amongst each other, not knowing just what concept this rank was.
"It seems that passing through the preliminaries will be impossible," an Elder said. This was only the ranking of Good Fortune World. If this rank spread through to the entire Divine Realm it had to be multiplied by a factor of 3000. But through the preliminary qualifiers, only 10 million or so people would pass. If one wanted to pass in a great world, one needed to rank in the top 300,000. This would be extremely difficult for Yu Youming.
Even so, these Elders were quite satisfied with this result. They were only an eighth-grade sect, but there were also many geniuses of countless Holy Lands that were unable to pass the qualifiers. Those that were able to advance were at least the geniuses of peak Holy Lands that approached a World King Holy Land in strength.
The other sects that bought the divine dream jade slip with the Unbroken Cult took their turns to look up the disciples they sent. The result was that all of their disciples were ranked below 3 million. One could see the disparity as soon as they compared disciples. It was clear that Yu Youming led them all.
This caused the Elders of the Unbroken Cult to be in a much happier mood. The Vice Sect Master stroked his beard in satisfaction and said, "That Youming child is quite good. It seems we haven't trained him in vain!"
"Yes! In the future he might even be able to become a half-step Holy Lord!"
The Elders of the Unbroken Cult were all overjoyed with their successes. Moreover, the Elders of the other eighth-grade sects also sourly sent their congratulations. The disciples of the Unbroken Cult that accompanied them here were soon celebrating.
Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan were also amongst these accompanying disciples.
"Big sister, that jade slip is…" Qin Xingxuan whispered.
"I know."
Mu Qianyu's heart was also tangled with conflicting feelings. If she was able to search that jade slip she could look for Lin Ming. She didn't care about Lin Ming's results; she only wanted to know whether or not Lin Ming joined the Divine Realm First Martial Meeting. If she knew he was participating, she could find out which great world he lived in. She could also confirm which branch palace he was accepted into. At that time, looking for Lin Ming would be far easier.
Her status as an outer court disciple was simply far too low. She and Qin Xingxuan had put in their greatest effort in their tasks and helped to perfectly refine the heaven-step pill. Finally, they managed to obtain two spots that were reserved for janitorial disciples so they could come watch the First Martial Meeting.
To directly speak to an Elder, she didn't have these qualifications at all.
Mu Qianyu clenched her teeth. She took a brave step forwards and said, "Elder, this disciple has a request to ask of you."
"Mm?" The Unbroken Cult Elder turned to Mu Qianyu. It was very sudden and surprising for Mu Qianyu to stand out from among the outer court disciples.
Yu Feng, who was responsible for managing the outer court disciples was angered. Her thin eyebrows shot up and she fiercely said, "Mu Qianyu, hurry up and step back if you don't know customs!"
The rules of the Unbroken Cult were severe and strict. If Mu Qianyu aroused the annoyance of an Elder, as the one in charge of handling these disciples, she would leave a bad impression on the Elders.
However, due to Yu Youming's results, the Unbroken Cult Elder was in a very good mood. He didn't bother with Mu Qianyu's rudeness but instead waved his hand. "What does she want? Let her speak."