All that glitters is not gold, especially when the one glittering was Huo Zongxing. This was a fact well known to all, but no one spoke of it out of consideration for Huo Shentong.

Who would’ve thought that Huo Zongxing would be so brainless as to hop into the arena to challenge the Inception prince?

He’d been kicked off the stage for his temerity, but every one of the fire elemental divine sect burned as if the stomp had been right on their faces.

……

“Disappointments like Huo Zongxing should be kept out of the public eye so they don’t make a fool out of themselves!” A vicious light flashed through the eyes of the divine sects’ senior council when they looked at the disgraced disciple.

Huo Zongxing fled in shambles, but Lu Yun fell into deep thought when he looked at the retreating figure.

Maybe… I’ve actually underestimated him. For some reason, this thought occurred to Lu Yun as he watched Huo Zongxing leave. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

The disciples of the nine divine sects were almost frothing at the mouth to protect their future and wrest back the sacred land name. Huo Zongxing was just a small interlude in all of this.

What followed after was a series of ghastly battles.

Since the restrictions of the Inception Spiritrial Arena had been dismissed, every battle was one to the death. Lu Yun didn’t have any time to rest and fought continuously for forty-five minutes, killing eighteen sixth level mortal realm geniuses of the nine divine sects.

He was covered in blood and had been pierced through in several places. In terrible condition, he was already sitting on the floor, drooping, when the nineteenth challenger set foot in the arena.

……

“He’s using our disciples to hone his combat arts!” An eternal overlord suddenly frowned. “Anyone of his level—sixth level mortal realm—isn’t his match, they’re just his whetstone!”

Dismay spread through the crowd at this revelation. The sect leaders of the nine divine sects had also identified this a while back, but they couldn’t expose the true reality of things given their status. Though they were facing a prince of a sacred palace, they still had their own dignity to consider.

“Hearken to me, disciples of the water origin divine sect! Only those ranked at number one hundred or higher of the Origin Rankings may challenge the Inception prince!” roared a heavyweight of the water origin divine sect.

The Origin Rankings was a ranking between the four origin divine sects that was used to determine the potential of their disciples. Anyone within the top one hundred could potentially become a sovereign.

A similar Elemental Rankings existed with the five elemental divine sects, and their senior council gave the same order.

Anyone without the potential to be a sovereign was just delivering their heads on a platter if they entered the Inception Spiritrial Arena. They would be the most ideal sharpening stone for the Inception prince’s blade.

The senior councils could tell that the Inception prince wasn’t well versed in his combat arts. He needed to temper his arts through a process of proceeding from weak to strong. If they allowed their disciples to challenge him willy nilly, that was just permitting them to throw their lives away and presenting a tremendous chance for Lu Yun to upgrade his combat arts.

Everyone was feeling the pressure now and understood the severity of the situation.

After killing his nineteenth challenger, Lu Yun was almost sprawled out on the ground. Fresh blood flowed freely from his body, but no one dared step forward. Even those in the top one hundred of both rankings hesitated.

“The prince of Inception Palace, is it? I’ll challenge you!” called out a clear voice before a figure of faint gold appeared in the arena.

“Jin Gushen!” Various expressions flickered rapidly through the metal elemental divine sect when they saw the newest challenger.

Though Jin Gushen came from the metal elemental sacred land, he was a stunning genius in his own right and half a step into the sovereign realm before he’d experienced even one chaos tribulation. He was ranked dual first with Chi Wuxia among the Elemental Rankings, but the two had never sparred with each other, so they didn’t know who was stronger.

His cultivation level was suppressed to sixth level mortal realm the second he entered the arena, but even so, he was a sovereign within this cultivation realm!

“No, wait!” Some in his divine sect reacted unpleasantly when they saw him on stage. “Jin Gushen is friends with the Inception prince, someone saw them walking together in the Tomb of Heaven and Earth!”

“That traitor!” The metal elemental sect leader wanted to slap Jin Gushen dead, but he knew that if he really attacked the disciple, he might not be able to rival the genius.

Within the chaos, apart from the eternal overlords of the sacred clan, only the old monsters painstakingly repressing their cultivation and Qiu Luoyu could safely handle Jin Gushen. While the sect leaders of the nine divine sects were fierce, they weren’t his match.

The sect leaders were also listed on the two rankings. True, they were named near the top, but there was still a marked difference between them and true geniuses like Huo Shentong, Chi Wuxia, and Jin Gushen.

……

“Greetings to senior brother Jin.” Lu Yun heaved a slight sigh of relief to see Jin Gushen facing him. He really was having trouble continuing after so many battles.

“No worries, recover first. I’ll fight you fair and square.” Jin Gushen grinned broadly and sat down cross-legged, closing his eyes.

Seeing that Jin Gushen was even giving Lu Yun time to recover, those of the nine divine sects wanted to run up and skin both of them alive.

But Leize had set the rules of the arena—no one else could take to the stage after a challenger already set foot in it. In order to ensure Lu Yun’s safety at a time like this, the monarchs of the six sacred palaces materialized and stood behind him.

It would be one thing if Lu Yun was defeated in a fair fight, even if it came at a war of attrition. However, they wouldn’t sit by and watch others attack him on the basis of superior cultivation.

Lu Yun stood up gracefully after roughly three hundred breaths.

“Junior brother Lu, do your worst. I won’t be holding back,” sighed Jin Gushen. “After all, I am a member of the sacred lands.”

“I know.” Lu Yun inclined his head. “I’ve long wanted to trade blows with senior brother Jin.”

Whoosh!

Inky-green sword light gathered at his fingertips with a casual twitch and took the form of a sword. The Dragonquake Scripture and Myriad Inception Fist were beginning to meld into his sword dao.

Suddenly, Lu Yun moved. A piercing dragon cry howled from his body and a stroke of Dragonrise came down on Jin Gushen’s chest. He didn’t hold anything back. If Jin Gushen couldn’t block this move, he would die!