Ninth In the World

Di Jiu let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Han Qingyi had not chased after him after he entered the Five Continent City. That woman must still be suspicious of him. Otherwise, she would not have been so certain. She knew, however, that she could do nothing to Di Jiu.

Fortunately, he had upgraded his cultivation level to the third-stage Pioneer Sea Realm. If he had currently still been at the Void Spirit Realm, she would surely have had the guts to kill him.

The Sea Roll was erected at the border of the Five Continent Square. After standing and staring at it for a long while, Di Jiu finally decided to start with Ren Hai, who currently ranked 97th. Di Jiu did not see any of the Sea Roll’s Five Young Masters’ names. It seemed like the five of them had all broken through to the Ekayāna Tripod Realm.

“You’re the Young Master Red Embellishment?” asked a gray-robed young man suddenly when he noticed the Heavenly Aqua Saber Di Jiu was carrying on his back.

Di Jiu shifted his gaze from the Sea Roll and onto the gray-robed young man, who was at the ninth-stage Pioneer Sea Realm and possessed condensed Quintessential Essence. This man was a powerful warrior.

“That’s right. I am indeed the Young Master Red Embellishment, who likes to do good deeds without signing them with his name.” Di Jiu sensed a mocking, disdainful aura coming from the gray-robed young man. His tone was naturally not friendly as a result.

“Ha ha ha!” The gray-robed young man laughed. “I heard that you challenged Ren Hai. In the end, you couldn’t survive even one move on the battle arena. You actually suffered severe injuries.”

“You are right. I even lost a ring. I still don’t know your name, though.” Di Jiu could sense that the aura surrounding that gray-robed young man was not weaker than Ren Hai’s. Perhaps it was even slightly stronger. This fella was most likely also on the Sea Roll.

If he was truly on the Sea Roll, then Di Jiu would be very lucky. He would not need to find Ren Hai anymore.

The gray-robed young man shook his head speechlessly. He suddenly understood why the Young Master Red Embellishment had dared head to the battle arena with Ren Hai. Di Jiu seemed like someone who acted without thinking.

He and Ren Hai had a good relationship. He actually suspected that he had misheard when he had first heard that an Essence Soul Realm cultivator had bit more than they could chew by challenging Ren Hai to a one-blow bet. When he’d encountered Ren Hai later, he had discovered that this was true. That was why he’d asked Di Jiu upon encountering him. He looked down on Essence Soul Realm cultivators like him who dared challenge Sea Roll Experts. This was evidently a classic act of ignorance and bravery. Such a cultivator would typically not survive in the Cultivation World.

“I’m Jin Xun from the Celestial Ocean Pavilion…”

“The one who ranks 89th on the Sea Roll?” Di Jiu asked in pleasant surprise before Jin Xun could finish his sentence.

Jin Xun stared at Di Jiu coldly. “Keep your schemes to yourself, Young Master Red Embellishment. Your name carries a big reputation. In order to become famous, you even gave your ring to Ren Hai. However, you do not have the necessary qualifications to challenge me. You should feel fortunate, for if I agreed to your challenge, you would no longer exist after one move.”

As soon as he said that, Jin Xun turned around and left. He had seen through Di Jiu. This was a fella who would do anything to gain some reputation, including sacrificing his own life.

Di Jiu knew that now that his name was on the Potential Roll, he should possess the qualifications to challenge Sea Roll Cultivators. He did not know what the steps to challenge a Sea Roll Cultivator were, however. Now that he’d encountered Jin Xun, there was no way he would let him off. He considered it crucial to be able to enter the Sea Roll as soon as possible.

“Ha ha! That’s right. I did indeed lose my ring to Ren Hai back then. I am fortunately not unlucky, for I obtained a large piece of geocentric pattern gold. I used that gold to buy a ring, but I still have some left.” Di Jiu opened his palm and took out a piece of geocentric pattern gold slightly bigger than a grinding disc.

“That’s geocentric pattern gold?” Jin Xun stared at the geocentric pattern gold in Di Jiu’s hand, his eyes shining with desire. That item was something he needed.

The truth was that geocentric pattern gold was something not just Jin Xun, but any cultivator, would need. This gold was a top-notch material for refining Spirit Weapon Dharma treasures. Jin Xun was using a staff. Thus, if he obtained this geocentric pattern gold, his strength would increase significantly.

“I will battle with you. You will be allowed one move as well. I won’t kill you, nor do I want your ring. I only want your geocentric pattern gold. I will make you famous since that’s what you want.” Jin Xun could not walk away now that he had seen Di Jiu’s geocentric pattern gold.

“Who said that I want you to allow me one move?” Di Jiu said coolly. “I only want a battle with you on the battle arena, nothing else.”

“Alright, I will allow you to make a few moves and ensure that you will become famous.” Jin Xun tried his best to ease his tone.

Di Jiu laughed mockingly. “I do not want a reputation. I simply want your position on the Sea Roll.”

Jin Xun’s expression turned frosty. “I’m afraid you don’t possess the ability to acquire it.”

There was no way to play tricks during a Sea Roll challenge battle. Even if Di Jiu could pull some tricks, Jin Xun would not purposely lose just to gain this material.

Why did the cultivators on the Dao Roll possess better opportunities than anyone else? Why was their cultivating speed faster than anyone else’s? This was because the Dao Roll and the Small Central World were closely related.

The Dao Roll of the Small Central World represented the providence light for a cultivator. If Di Jiu coveted his position on the Sea Roll, they had to head to the Dao Roll fighting arena for this challenge. Losing would mean losing one’s providence light, which meant that their own providence light would decrease.

There was no way Jin Xun would take this lying down, not when Di Jiu coveted his position on the Sea Roll. This could very well destroy his future.

“I am on the Potential Roll,” Di Jiu said calmly. “I do qualify to fight with you. You are at the bottom of the Sea Roll after all.”

Suddenly, Jin Xun remembered that Di Jiu was a Potential Roll Cultivator. He stared at Di Jiu for a moment before saying, “Alright, I accept your challenge. However, I want to gain some benefits from it.”

Di Jiu chuckled. “Naturally. If you beat me, this geocentric pattern gold will be yours.”

…

The Five Continent City was bustling once again. This time, the busiest place there was the Dao Roll fighting arena.

The Young Master Red Embellishment, who had disappeared for more than two years, had challenged Jin Xun, who ranked 89th on the Sea Roll, the moment he’d come back to the Five Continent City.

Most of the people in the Five Continent City had probably heard the Young Master Red Embellishment’s name. He was the person who had helped many cultivators by the Herald Night Lake, as well as chased away the Spirit Blaze Team and the Twilight Team, and yet had earned no benefits or acknowledgment.

Afterwards, he had performed a brilliant feat by ascending to the 90th level of the Five Continent Dao Pagoda and becoming part of the top 10 on the Five Continent Dao Pillar. If the Young Master Red Embellishment had not acted foolishly later on and challenged Ren Hai, he would still have been a role model for most cultivators.

The only blemish in the Young Master Red Embellishment’s reputation was the fact that he had challenged Sea Roll Expert Ren Hai and failed to survive even one move of his.

After losing and going missing for a couple of years, the Young Master Red Embellishment had unexpectedly come back and challenged a Sea Roll Expert once again. This time, they were actually going to the Dao Roll fighting arena. This arena was no ordinary battle arena, for there was no such thing as being merciful on that stage. Many cultivators believed that Di Jiu had only survived the previous challenge because Ren Hai had shown mercy.

Even the cultivators who liked Di Jiu believed that he had a death wish.

In five minutes, the fact that Di Jiu had challenged Sea Roll Expert Jin Xun on the Dao Roll fighting arena spread throughout the entire Five Continent City.

The Dao Roll fighting arena was packed with people by the time Di Jiu and Jin Xun were standing on it.

“Di Jiu, are you certain that you wish to challenge Jin Xun, who ranks 89th on the Sea Roll?” A middle-aged man landed on the fighting arena while Di Jiu and Jin Xun were standing there.

This middle-aged man, who was called Li Zhai, was the judge of the Dao Roll fighting arena. He was feeling very unhappy right now, for this was evidently a waste of his time. However, he had no choice but to come over, as Di Jiu met the qualifications to challenge Jin Xun.

“Start!” After saying a few words, the middle-aged man landed on the judging panel by the fighting arena. If the strength of the two parties was similar and the winner was still undetermined after 24 hours, it would be up to the judge to determine who was the strongest of the two. The judge would actually find it impressive if Di Jiu survived even one of Jin Xun’s moves.

Jin Xun snorted before a 20-feet-long staff landed in his open palm. He slashed the staff down in a simple, compact movement.

Di Jiu immediately sensed the change in space. Jin Xun thought absolutely nothing of Di Jiu. The staff enveloped directly the space he occupied, which made his intention to use the staff to oppress him evident. This was a technique used only when the opponents’ strength difference was great.

However, Di Jiu, who could see that Jin Xun had no intention of killing him, lashed out with the Heavenly Aqua Saber, making a blue flare explode.

Boom! Violent Quintessential Essence enveloped Jin Xun’s staff. The staff aura Jin Xun was controlling instantly dispersed and disintegrated. Jin Xun took more than 10 steps back before he stopped retreating with great difficulty.

Di Jiu did not follow up on the attack. The truth was that he had not even used 30 percent of his full strength in that saber move.

Jin Xun looked at Di Jiu in a daze. He had quite a bit of battling experience, so during that one exchange, he had realized that Di Jiu was no weaker than him.

“I’ve belittled you,” Jin Xun said in a solemn tone after taking a deep breath.

Di Jiu smiled. “Surely you can use your full strength now?”

His original intention had been to test out the differences between his own strength and that of top-notch Pioneer Sea Realm cultivators. That was why he had been waiting for Jin Xun to use his full strength to attack him.

“Alright!” Jin Xun shouted before the staff in his hand started vibrating. Killing intent dispersed along with the vibrating ripples.

Jin Xun roared. His entire body merged with the vibrating killing intent ripples, surging towards Di Jiu. He was serious this time around.

Di Jiu, who was standing still at his original position, slashed out with his Heavenly Aqua Saber again. The blue flare and the vibrating staff shadow ripple collided, transforming into surging fragmented saber waves. These fragmented saber waves crushed Jin Xun’s killing aura.

When he saw that the unlimited saber intent shards were about to enter Jin Xun’s body, Di Jiu sighed and stopped his saber intent.

Jin Xun was alarmed when he felt a deadly aura. He instantly took out a shield with great difficulty.

The shards of the saber intent all slammed onto the shield and dissipated.

Jin Xun let out a breath. Then, he opened his palm, put away his staff, cupped his fists before Di Jiu and said, “Thank you for showing mercy.”

Di Jiu had evidently shown mercy on him. Otherwise, he would have become a corpse by now. He simply could not understand how Di Jiu could not even have defended himself against one move of a Sea Roll Cultivator if he was so powerful.

Jin Xun was aware of Ren Hai’s strength. Ren Hai was no match for Di Jiu.

It took Li Zhai a long while to react. When he landed on the stage hastily, he said, “Di Jiu is the winner. He automatically occupies the 89th position on the Sea Roll. Jin Xun’s rank will drop by one place.”