Seeing Yue Yao's aggressiveness, Yun Feiyang revealed a devious look. He quickly readied the Pixiu-like transcendent artifact in his hand, then hurled it out.
As the transcendent artifact opened its jaws, it instantly transformed into a giant bag and shot through the sky, gobbling up Yue Yao along with her six crescent moons in one go.
As he shut the bag, Yun Feiyang laughed aloud, "Yue Yao, you're still a little too inexperienced to be fighting against me."
Quite a number of people were greatly shocked to see the outcome decided in an instant. Hei Wuya and Feng Ruxiu looked to one another in astonishment. They never thought Yun Feiyang would still have such a powerful transcendent artifact.
Miao Yi too had an anxious look on his face.
However, as he was laughing to himself, Yun Feiyang's expression suddenly froze. He spread his palm open and quickly tried to grab the airborne bag. Sadly, he was already too late.
Bang! A crescent moon suddenly ripped through the giant bag and burst forth into the sky. At the same time, the giant bag exploded into a great plume of black fog.
Seeing the state of his transcendent artifact, Yun Feiyang bellowed with fury, "You…!" However, his expression suddenly twisted as the Mad Satan Bull beneath him hastily turned around and retreated as though it sensed a great danger.
Whoosh! With five crescent moons rapidly orbiting around her, Yue Yao burst through the fog with blinding speed, in hot pursuit of the hastily retreating Yun Feiyang and his Mad Satan Bull.
She was practically flying. There were a few among the audience who looked on in admiration, but the majority were indignant. Could this still be considered a Second Grade Transcendent Artifact?
Seeing Yue Yao quickly catching up to him from behind, Yun Feiyang threw out an alms bowl. The bowl shone with a blue light, instantly expanding to the size of a house as it shot towards the rapidly approaching Yue Yao.
Whoosh! A cold streak of light shot down like a flash of lightning, smashing straight into the alms bowl blocking Yue Yao's path. It was the crescent moon that had broken the Pixiu-like transcendent artifact.
Boom! A loud noise erupted as the alms bowl instantly exploded into black fog.
Almost simultaneously, Yue Yao's figure dove straight into the black fog, then leaping out the next instant.
His expression contorting with distress, Yun Feiyang decided to go all-out and tossed out over ten transcendent artifacts in rapid succession with both hands, which then fiercely shot towards Yue Yao. This guy really had a lot of transcendent artifacts. It was as though there was no end to it.
Boom boom boom! A series of explosions reverberated across the area as plume after plume of black fog burst forth.
The five crescent moons orbiting around Yue Yao tore through the transcendent artifacts that Yun Feiyang tossed out like they were crushing rotten wood. The crowd couldn't conceal their astonishment at the sight before them. This had completely surpassed the level of conflict one would expect between two Second Grade Transcendent Artifacts.
"Stop!" Yun Feiyang suddenly bellowed.
The eruption of more black fog concealed the state of the battle from sight, and no one could see what was happening.
The black fog gradually dissipated, and the crowd soon noticed Yun Feiyang with a small black pennant flag in his hand. Unfortunately, before he could even get the chance to hurl it out, a sharp crescent moon was already being held against his neck. In that moment, his expression was incredibly dark.
Orbited by five crescent moons, Yue Yao stopped at an arm's length behind the Mad Satan Bull. Everyone had seen how powerful those crescent moons were. If the battle had continued, Yue Yao would have definitely turned the Mad Satan Bull and Yun Feiyang into mincemeat altogether.
Finally, Miao Yi could calm his rapidly beating heart.
"You've lost!" Hovering in mid-air, Yue Yao declared simply.
"I won't accept it!" Yun Feiyang said angrily, "What difference is there between your transcendent artifact and a Third Grade Transcendent Artifact?!"
"What right do you have to ask this? If you were in a similar situation with those participants who didn't have a single mighty artifact on them, then I might be able to accept your argument. But you're not," Yue Yao said disdainfully, "Yun Feiyang, admit your loss. Stop looking for excuses and hand your half of the wager over."
Laughing in exasperation, Yun Feiyang exclaimed, "I'm not handing it over! What can you possibly do to me then? Kill me if you dare!"
"It's just a wager. There's no need for anyone to die. After all, with so many witnesses here, it wouldn't be a bad idea either to show everyone how big of a sore loser the people from the Great Devil Realm can be. I definitely wouldn't mind trading off a mere ten thousand Geotranscendence Bangles for the reputation of your Great Devil Realm!" As Yue Yao waved her hand, the crescent moon pressing against Yun Feiyang's neck flew back to her.
Whoosh! Yue Yao turned around and flew back to the mountain. As she gracefully landed, the six crescent moons immediately shrunk down into her palms. Looking back at Yun Feiyang still frozen in place, the corners of her lips curved slightly upwards as she gave off a soft smile.
Her objective wasn't to win the ten thousand Geotranscendence Bangles. It was simply because as a disciple, she had to teach Yun Feiyang a lesson for insulting her master, Mu Fanjun.
Yun Feiyang glanced across the crowd; his expression was absolutely terrible. He'd really made a fool of himself today. However, he wasn't that much of a sore loser. He took out a pile of Geotranscendence Bangles from his storage bangle, then scattered it on the ground.
Not that he couldn't afford to fork out his half of the wager, but the problem was that if he didn't, then even if he managed to get a high placement later on, he would still be the target of mockery and ridicule. So why would he let himself earn the reputation of a sore loser on top of that?
"Let's go!" Yun Feiyang barked, then turned around and left.
Miao Yi cast a deep gaze up the mountain towards Yue Yao, who was standing elegantly with her hands behind her back. After which, he turned around and followed after Yun Feiyang along with the rest.
Even if Yun Feiyang didn't hand over the Geotranscendence Bangles, Yue Yao wouldn't feel upset about it. But since he did, there was no point in rejecting the spoils. She gestured with a slight tilt of her head, and Lan Ruo immediately led two other subordinates over to collect the spoils.
Looking at Yun Feiyang departing with a darkened expression on his face, Feng Ruxiu burst into laughter. He exchanged glances with Hei Wuya, and the two of them rode their mounts up the mountain. After which, they dismounted and followed after Yue Yao, chatting merrily as they entered the main hall of the wooden house at the top of the mountain.
At the foot of the mountain, the spectating cultivators couldn't help lamenting over the broken transcendent artifacts. Seeing over a dozen of them destroyed in the blink of an eye, they couldn't help wondering how many Crystalline Obsidians must have been wasted in that one fight.
"Why are you all looking at me like that? You think I can't afford to lose? The only reason she beat me was because of her transcendent artifact. It doesn't count as her true strength!"
Back at his own mountain, Yun Feiyang noticed that Miao Yi and the others were looking at him weirdly, so he quickly made a show of his own magnanimity.
However, he was clearly feeling spiteful deep down. Turning to point at the mountain with the Celestial Nation flag, he waved his hand and said, "It's just ten thousand Geotranscendence Bangles anyway. I'll just think of it as paying the prostitution fee on my grandfather's behalf for fooling around with that old hag Mu Fanjun all those years ago!"
When they heard him, Miao Yi and Yun Feiyang were utterly dumbstruck, while Yun Feiyang's subordinates immediately started coughing uncontrollably, trying to hint to Yun Feiyang that he had gone too far.
Meanwhile, Yan Beihong couldn't help asking, "Young Master Yang, did you just say that Mu Fanjun is an old hag?"
Miao Yi also had the same doubts in his mind.
Yun Feiyang chuckled and said, "Of course, she wasn't always an old hag. My grandfather doesn't have such strong tastes. Although, I did hear that Mu Fanjun was quite the rare beauty when she was young. However, her attitude was simply too nasty. That's why my grandfather dumped her."
"No!" Yan Beihong cried out, then asked curiously, "What I mean is, Mu Fanjun is a woman?"
Shocked, Yun Feiyang asked, "You don't think my grandfather is interested in men, do you?"
"This…" Yan Beihong and Miao Yi exchanged glances, then remarked, "But all the statues seem to depict Mu Fanjun as a man."
Yun Feiyang was taken aback. However, he soon laughed aloud. "But of course. Don't you see? The precise reason Yue Yao developed a cross-dressing habit was because of her master. It looks like you two do lack quite a bit of knowledge. Who in the other five nations didn't already know that Mu Fanjun is a woman? But then again, I can see why you would have that assumption. Coming from the Celestial Nation, I doubt someone would even dare mention Mu Fanjun's name, much less badmouth her behind her back. Unless they're tired of living, that is. And with the passage of time, people just naturally forgot about it. Hence, it's understandable for those working at the bottom like you two to not be aware of this."
Yan Beihong and Miao Yi were utterly speechless. Despite living in the Celestial Nation for so many years, they had only just found out that Celestial Sage Mu Fanjun was actually a woman. However, Yun Feiyang's words were extremely insulting indeed, even going as far as using the words 'prostitution fee'. And he had the gall to say he wasn't a sore loser. He was clearly venting out his frustration because he couldn't accept his loss!
What took Miao Yi and Yan Beihong even greater by surprise was that Devil Sage Yun Aotian and Celestial Sage Mu Fanjun had actually been lovers when they were young. How complicated could their relationship get?!
"You two—Young Master Yang didn't mean what he said. I hope you won't take it too seriously. You can just think of some things as idle chatter. Never repeat what you've heard!" Yun Feiyang's subordinate suddenly warned Miao Yi and Yan Beihong with a threatening gaze in his eyes.
It was no laughing matter to use the words 'prostitution fee'. If Mu Fanjun were to hear about this, she would definitely be enraged. Perhaps even Devil Sage Yun Aotian himself would want to beat Yun Feiyang until he was crippled. Some things must never be joked about.
Yun Feiyang seemed to have sensed the terrible consequences from his subordinate's warning and realized that his words had indeed gone overboard. Feeling a little scared, he coughed a couple times and started whistling as he turned his head to the side, pretending as if nothing had happened...
After which, the Sea of Constellations Subjugation Crusade entered a rare period of peace and quiet. When the people in the Western Constellations Palace observed the astrolabe and noticed that not a single person was dying even after gathering them all into one place, they were all utterly confused as to what was happening.
Half a month later. In order to help Yun Feiyang re-establish some dominance, an extremely lavish house was constructed on the mountaintop.
At the same time, Kong Zhi of the Buddha Nation and Bai Ziliang of the Yao Nation both arrived on the nameless island alongside their subordinates. All the other cultivators from each nation continued pouring into the island as well.
Now that all six representatives of the various nations had arrived, they could finally decide on the rules for the final battle of the Sea of Constellations Subjugation Crusade.
To ensure fairness, the six of them would not join in the battle, and the use of highly powerful transcendent artifacts was also restricted. However, this didn't mean that they would not be involved, nor did it mean that they had stopped fighting for a high placement. Only the way in which they competed had changed.
The six of them each led their own nation's cultivators, who would compete by challenging one another to battle.
The participants would be able to freely challenge anyone from the other five nations if they were confident in defeating said person!
Victors would keep all the dead's riches for himself, while the Geotranscendence Bangles would be handed over to the leader of their respective faction.
Of course, the competition wasn't entirely fair. The six leaders each had five free passes for avoiding battle entirely. This was clearly prepared for their subordinates.
Thus, the killing would continue round after round in this manner, until only a hundred survivors remained!
When the rules of the competition came out, most of the six nation's cultivators were jumping with joy, filled with gratitude for the six representatives. It was because they simply had no hope against powerful artifacts, but now that they were actually given a chance to survive, how could they not be thankful?
Of course, while there were people who rejoiced at the new rules, there were some who were dissatisfied with the verdict as well. Those who possessed powerful artifacts but couldn't use them evidently had to face a much greater risk now.
There was still some time before the end of the three-month deadline to reach the nameless island. During this period of time, most of the participants were working like commoners, plowing the ground as they tried to level the mountain at the center of the island in preparation for the final battle. With so many powerful cultivators at work, it was not a difficult task to complete.
At the same time, all six factions used this opportunity to wait for the remaining participants who had yet to arrive. Once the three months were up, the final battle would officially begin.
Of course, not every participant returned to their own supposed faction. Take Miao Yi for example. By staying with Yun Feiyang, he would have a surefire chance of entering the top one hundred, simply because it just so happened that Yun Feiyang had one extra spot. But even if he didn't, Yun Feiyang would have definitely freed up one of the spots for him anyway.