Li Shangtian’s roar was more like venting his emotions, telling the world: I may be born ordinary, but I still shine brilliantly in the heavens.

“Junior Brother.”

Li Qingyang, Xiao Zuiji, and the others’ faces showed smiles.

They felt proud of Li Shangtian’s victory. However, the next second they couldn’t smile anymore because he suddenly collapsed on the ground.

During these five years of cultivation, Eternal Sect disciples had all comprehended the Nine Dragons Splitting Palm. Though they had some gains, they only grasped the surface. So Li Shangtian forcibly using it to instantly defeat Chu Wange had depleted seventy to eighty percent of his dantian’s energy.

Simply put.

However fierce his showing off just now, the weakness now was equally strong.

“Damn!”

Jun Changxiao sat down, arms crossed, roaring inwardly, “Using your ultimate move right at the start and exhausting yourself—what about the later matches?”

“This contestant, can you get down from the stage yourself?” the referee asked.

“I can…”

After gasping briefly, Li Shangtian struggled to stand and walked down step by step. Li Qingyang and Xiao Zuiji hurried forward to support him from both sides, afraid he’d accidentally fall again.

“Senior Brothers…”

“Did I overdo it…”

“Yes.”

Li Qingyang and Xiao Zuiji said in unison.

…

Each group’s first round ended.

However, the entire venue remained silent as if someone had pressed the pause button.

Spectating male martial artists stared wide-eyed, female martial artists covered their mouths, looking in disbelief at Chu Wange being carried away by officials.

The hope representing our Crossing Heaven Realm was defeated just like that by a seemingly unremarkable Eternal Sect disciple?

“Uncle.”

Jun Changxiao waved his hand before Gu Tianxing’s eyes. “Are you alright?”

“…”

Old Gu stiffly turned his head. “May I presumptuously ask what level of disciple this Li Shangtian is in your Eternal Sect?”

“Inner disciple.”

“What about Ye Xingchen?”

“Core.”

“…”

Gu Tianxing fell silent, suddenly stood up, grabbed his collar and shook vigorously, roaring, “An inner disciple stronger than a core disciple—do you think I’ll believe that!”

Because the shaking frequency and amplitude were too great, Jun Changxiao frothed at the mouth, his eyelids rolling back.

Gu Tianxing thought Li Shangtian was stronger than Ye Xingchen because the martial technique displayed was too terrifying. In fact, core disciples all had comprehension of Nine Dragons Splitting Palm—they just disdained using it in the preliminaries.

…

The hope of Crossing Heaven Realm being defeated dealt a heavy blow to various martial artists while also shocking competitors who passed the first round.

At this moment, they looked at each Eternal Sect disciple as if viewing demons, howling inwardly, “Can’t see any hope of advancing at all!”

Right.

Not a bit of hope.

Next, Li Renfu announced the start of rounds two, three, and four. The scenes presented were all Eternal Sect disciples easily advancing.

He Wudi was still the same—though ultimately winning matches, he always gave the impression of being lucky.

Ye Di was still as domineering as ever. Whenever he mounted the battle platform, he instantly finished opponents.

Some might worry whether Li Shangtian could still perform.

Men.

Cannot be questioned.

So he took a spiritual energy recovery pill and continued mounting the battle platform, defeating opponents with iron-hard fists.

Logically, having expended so much energy, fighting should be very difficult. In fact, he won quite easily. This was nothing more than his opening move finishing the preliminaries’ big favorite.

More precisely, using Crossing Heaven Realm’s strongest competitor to give other competitors a show of force, making them scared to death every time they came up to fight.

“Group One advancement spot, He Wudi!”

“Group Two advancement spot, Li Qingyang!”

“Group Three…”

“Group Fifty advancement spot, Li Shangtian!”

After intense competition, all fifty preliminary spots were determined. Just as Jun Changxiao predicted, all registered Eternal Sect disciples obtained spots—truly a complete sweep!

Unfortunately.

Five short.

Otherwise, they would have taken them all.

“Uncle.”

Jun Gou Sheng said, “This junior did what he said.”

“…”

Gu Tianxing said nothing.

At this moment, he had long been shocked by the Eternal Sect disciples’ powerful performance.

These Eternal Sect disciples were truly a group of monsters!

“Haha!”

Suddenly, Gu Tianxing threw back his head and laughed.

The Universe Holy War’s competition principle was the strong advance, the weak are eliminated. With Eternal Sect disciples so formidable and having instantly defeated Crossing Heaven Realm’s number one genius, having them fight in the galaxy main competition would definitely achieve extraordinary results, thus raising our realm’s prestige!

“Sect Master Jun!”

Gu Tianxing said, “Whether our Crossing Heaven Realm can achieve better rankings in the galaxy main competition three years from now depends on your Eternal Sect disciples!”

“What?”

Jun Changxiao said speechlessly, “We still have to wait another three years?”

“Ding! Epic quest triggered.”

Another quest…

Wait!

Epic quest!

Jun Changxiao nearly flew up from his seat.

After completing the main quest in the upper realm and advancing to half-step Heavenly Mystery Realm, epic quests never came again. His realm had been stuck in place for hundreds of chapters. Today finally… the wait was over!

“Swish!”

Jun Changxiao quickly pulled up the system panel and clicked on the epic quest.

Upper Universe Epic Quest One.

Quest Details: The Universe Holy War is the highest-level martial combat feast in the upper universe. Host must bring disciples to participate in the galaxy main competition and obtain direct entry tickets to the Holy War.

Quest Conditions: Holy War entry tickets 0/2.

Quest Reward: ???

“Holy War entry tickets?” Jun Changxiao stroked his chin. “Uncle, have you heard of these?”

Gu Tianxing said, “Three years from now, the Azure Cloud System will hold the galaxy main competition. Only competitors who make it into the top ten can obtain entry tickets and participate in the Universe Holy War finals as seeds.”

“Only ten entry tickets?”

“The ten best-performing geniuses can go directly to the Holy War finals. Others can obtain entry qualifications through the resurrection matches.”

“Good.”

Jun Changxiao said seriously, “Three years from now, my Eternal Sect will definitely go all out and not disappoint Uncle.”

Epic quests were linked to realm advancement. After waiting so long, one finally came. Forget participating in a genius Universe Holy War—even if it were a sect master Universe Divine War, he’d go complete it.

…

“Swish!”

The scene suddenly shifted from Crossing Heaven Realm to the vast universe starry sky, with subtitles slowly appearing below: ‘Three Years Later.’

“Swish—”

In endless starspace, the Eternal sailed at extreme speed, then merged into a plane even larger than Crossing Heaven Realm.

This was Upper Origin Realm.

One of the Azure Cloud System’s strongest planes.

The hosting location for the Universe Holy War’s galaxy main competition.

“Wow!”

“So beautiful!”

After disembarking from the Eternal, Su Xiaomo and the others looked at various warships flying back and forth above and mountains suspended in the heavens, their gazes showing surprise.

“Stay calm.”

Jun Changxiao said.

Undeniably, Upper Origin Realm was stronger than Crossing Heaven Realm. The environment could be described as marvelously crafted. But having traveled the universe for years, he had long learned to remain composed.

“Roar!”

“Roar!”

Suddenly, dragon-tiger roars came.

Jun Changxiao looked up and saw several gigantic dragon-tiger beasts flying overhead, carrying handsome men and beautiful women—truly full of immortal energy.

“Tch.”

One of them glanced down at the docked Eternal and said disdainfully, “People still travel by ship these days?”

“…”

Jun Changxiao said speechlessly, “We’ve been mocked.”

Gu Tianxing’s expression grew serious. “These are Dragon-Tiger Immortal Beasts. In the entire upper universe, only a few can be found. For them to use them as mounts, their status is probably extraordinary.”

“Whoosh!”

At this moment, a massive aura surged nearby.

Gu Tianxing quickly turned around to see a gigantic dragon beast with nine horns on its head and lightning coiling around it appear.

“Nine-Horned Thunder Cloud Dragon!” Passersby exclaimed in succession.

“Uncle.”

Jun Changxiao, sitting atop it, waved his hand. “Hurry up and get on.”

“…”

Gu Tianxing’s mouth twitched.

The Nine-Horned Thunder Cloud Dragon’s preciousness far exceeded the Dragon-Tiger Immortal Beasts, but it always preferred solitude with a proud temperament—how could it willingly become a human’s mount?

This question needed the Prison Trio to answer.

“Roar—”

After loading Gu Tianxing and the disciples, the lightning-effect-maximized Nine-Horned Thunder Cloud Dragon flew at extreme speed, soon catching up to the Dragon-Tiger Immortal Beasts flying ahead.

“Tch.”

As they overtook, Jun Changxiao looked at those handsome men and beautiful women and said, “Giddy up! Yah!”

—