“Hey, she’s actually starting?”

“Looks quite proper too. What do you think—can she pass?”

“A woman without talent is virtuous, and she came from the City of Wrongful Death. When I was at the Human Realm Island, I never heard of any talented women. It’s probably hopeless, right?”

“Yes, someone like Lord Cui is truly rare…”

…

Below the platform, people saw that the legendary female cultivator was actually concentrating and beginning to answer questions, and couldn’t help but discuss among themselves.

Especially when talking about Cui Jue, many people showed reverence on their faces.

Zhao Yang stood in place, listening to these words, and couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

He had been in the City of Wrongful Death for quite some time and was well-versed in all matters concerning the Ding Struggle. Not to mention the surface affairs, even the Eight Direction Yama Hall’s behind-the-scenes schemes couldn’t escape his eyes.

It was nothing more than wanting everyone to empty their pockets!

So Zhao Yang knew Cui Jue quite well.

On the contrary, the lean cultivator from the Day Wandering clan standing beside him was very puzzled: “Lord Cui? Is that Cui Jue? I haven’t been cultivating for long—what’s so remarkable about him?”

Immediately, people around cast disdainful glances.

Zhao Yang was also his friend, and facing the surrounding gazes, his face couldn’t quite hold up. He tugged at the thin man and lowered his voice: “Keep it down! You don’t even know Cui Jue?”

As soon as the thin man spoke, he knew he was being stared at by a group of people around him.

He was obsessed with cultivation and wasn’t very interested in people he couldn’t interact with, so he really didn’t know much about Cui Jue’s affairs.

How did it feel like…

Not knowing Cui Jue seemed like some great crime?

To cover his embarrassment, he coughed: “Well, I only know that Cui Jue was the Ding Yuan champion of the Ding Struggle back then, becoming the most formidable person in that year’s competition. Almost the entire Extreme Domain went to watch his battle when he won the Ding Yuan. But wasn’t that a third round matter? What does it have to do with the second round?”

“…”

There was actually someone in the City of Wrongful Death who didn’t know about the shock Cui Jue had created back then!

Zhao Yang already felt the urge to faint. He gave himself a hard slap on the forehead, then looked at his companion like he was looking at a monster: “You…”

“Don’t be like that. Cough, I was, you know, obsessed with cultivation. Tell me about it? Come on.”

The second round of the Ding Struggle had just begun, and obviously it wouldn’t end so quickly.

Looking at that large group of people sitting motionless up there was really boring—better to listen to some gossip.

So the thin man winked at Zhao Yang, signaling him to speak quickly.

Zhao Yang rolled his eyes again, glanced at the platform, and forcibly suppressed the urge to strangle this beast in front of him.

“Speaking of Cui Jue, that’s quite a long story…”

Just as the thin man had understood before, back then almost the entire Extreme Domain had gone to watch Cui Jue’s final battle for the Ding Yuan.

At that time, Cui Jue was indeed from the City of Wrongful Death under a clean official, and his cultivation progressed very quickly.

But at that time, Fengdu City was also full of geniuses. What did one Cui Jue amount to?

Why could he attract so many people to pay attention to his decisive battle in the Ding Struggle?

The reason for all this lay in the second round of the Ding Struggle.

No matter how the rules of the third round of the Ding Struggle changed, the second round was always a written test with fixed rules.

Answer within half an hour.

Once the answering was finished, those who passed would immediately be sensed by the Ding Struggle Golden Order, which would emit a magnificent nebula, then condense the image of the successful candidate, like the statues of the Eight Direction Yama Hall standing in the seventy-two cities.

Only this “statue” was a virtual image, arranged on the nebula scroll above the seventy-two cities.

Generally speaking, regardless of the difficulty of the test questions, all cultivators’ answering time was very tight.

Many couldn’t finish answering, some could barely finish, and those who could complete and pass within the allotted time were extremely few.

Basically, all cultivators participating in the second round submitted their “answer sheets” at the very last moment.

But in the session over two hundred years ago, when Cui Jue participated…

This “convention” was completely shattered!

He had actually finished all the questions in just two quarters of an hour and passed the second round!

Unprecedented!

All the countless people present at the time were stunned.

Everyone watched with their own eyes as the Ding Struggle Golden Order emitted blazing light, projecting Cui Jue’s posture at that moment onto the nebula scroll at the top.

From then on, he became the most legendary Grand Judge in the Extreme Domain!

“After such a world-shocking second round, naturally everyone had to pay attention to Cui Jue. Hehe, that year’s Ding Struggle made the Eight Direction Yama Hall and the Ten Great Ghost Clans rich beyond measure!”

Having recounted Cui Jue’s legendary deeds one by one, Zhao Yang felt proud in his heart.

But then he thought of the events over the past two hundred years and shook his head: “It’s just a pity that over these two hundred years, although everyone has been expecting it, no one has ever been able to break the record Lord Cui set…”

After all, genius was rare.

Cui Jue had been a clean scholar-official in life, rising through imperial examinations with vast learning. After arriving at the City of Wrongful Death, he possessed exceptional cultivation talent.

The combination of these two factors created the later “Grand Judge Cui.”

Such coincidences required the perfect alignment of timing, location, and human factors—all three were indispensable.

But where in the world would such perfectly aligned “coincidences” come from?

Naturally, there had been no “successors” since.

“Even the second person in Ding Struggle history to pass took a full three quarters of an hour, a huge gap behind Cui Jue!”

Someone nearby listened with great interest and added to Zhao Yang’s words.

The thin man from the Day Wandering clan was also dumbfounded.

He had only vaguely heard people say how formidable Cui Jue was in the Ding Struggle, but had never heard such detailed accounts. For a moment, he couldn’t help but start counting on his fingers.

“This… two quarters… that’s only half the total time for the second round! This… how the hell is this possible?!”

What was impossible about it?

Zhao Yang was noncommittal.

Actually, he had once suspected that Cui Jue could answer so quickly that year entirely because the Eight Direction Yama Hall had given him the test questions in advance, with the purpose of attracting everyone’s attention to the Ding Struggle.

But after that year, no similar stunts had appeared in the second round.

So Zhao Yang gradually dismissed this idea.

But now…

Zhao Yang looked up, staring at the female cultivator on the platform who was still looking down in concentration, and said in an extremely strange tone: “Anything is possible. I now think that two quarters isn’t that remarkable—cultivating such a ‘large’ Soul Pearl is probably the most impressive thing.”

Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, the surroundings immediately burst into laughter.

“Oh my Yama King, are you really not here to be funny?”

“Hahaha, someone actually said that such a small Soul Pearl is the most impressive! Hahahaha, you’re killing me! Haha…”

“I can’t take it… just… just with that female cultivator, she dares to be mentioned in the same breath as Lord Cui? My molars, you… you owe me… hahaha…”

“Isn’t she just a gimmick? Do you really expect her to pass the second round?”

“Hahahaha…”

…

A chorus of laughter.

Zhao Yang stood in the center of the crowd, momentarily becoming everyone’s laughingstock.

Everyone had heard him speak seriously about Cui Jue’s affairs before and thought this person would be reliable, but unexpectedly he ended with “the female cultivator above is the most impressive”—it came completely out of nowhere!

Everyone was laughing themselves silly.

Even that friend from the Day Wandering clan who had come to watch the excitement today was now full of embarrassment and panic, couldn’t help but wipe cold sweat from his head: “This… Brother Zhao, this…”

“…”

Zhao Yang suddenly couldn’t speak.

Standing at the edge of this plaza, he only felt inexplicably despised: these people actually didn’t believe his judgment?

For a moment, Zhao Yang couldn’t help but grit his teeth and sneer: “What’s so funny? Do you think that female cultivator is that simple?! I tell you, nothing is impossible. Even if she surpassed Lord Cui, I wouldn’t be surprised at all!”

Whoa!

What bold words!

Really not afraid of bragging so big it bursts the sky!

Everyone never expected Zhao Yang could actually say such things.

After a moment of stunned silence, there was uproarious laughter!

Some people even laughed until they cried, clutching their stomachs and unable to speak coherently: “Hahaha… this… this is the funniest thing I’ve heard all year, haha…”

“Brother Zhao, are you really okay today?”

“Hahahaha, surpass Cui Jue! Just with her? Never mind surpassing Cui Jue—if she can just pass, I’ll dare to call Brother Lihan grandfather to his face! Hahahaha…”

If Jian Chou could pass, he’d dare to call Brother Lihan, such a ruthless person, “grandfather” to his face!

This clearly showed contempt for Jian Chou, completely disbelieving she could pass!

“You!”

Zhao Yang’s expression changed, his teeth clenched tight, his eyes immediately widened with full anger as he looked at the speaker.

That person was a one-eyed burly man with several scars on his face—one look told you he was no good person in the mortal world.

He laughed the loudest and spoke the most mockingly.

Zhao Yang clenched his fists, almost ready to punch this person, fortunately the thin man from the Day Wandering clan beside him pulled quickly.

“Brother Zhao! Calm down, calm down!”

“Calm down my ass!”

Zhao Yang directly cursed.

He was usually a rough person who never feared trouble, so he immediately pushed away his friend to go fight that foul-mouthed bastard.

“Old Zhao! Don’t! Old Zhao!” The thin man from the Day Wandering clan came up to pull him again.

Zhao Yang was impatient, rolled up his sleeves, his brow already stern.

“Don’t pull me! You—”

“No!”

The thin man from the Day Wandering clan behind him was now looking ahead, his eyes about to pop out, and he cursed for the first time in his life.

“Holy shit, look quickly!!!”

Zhao Yang was startled. Look? Look at what?

He instinctively glanced at the one-eyed man not far away, who also seemed to be looking in some direction behind and to the side of him, frozen stiff.

The surroundings suddenly fell quiet.

The rustling discussion sounds throughout the plaza actually disappeared completely at this moment!

What… what was happening?

Zhao Yang’s brain couldn’t quite process it.

He opened his mouth, wanting to ask questions, but at this very instant, a wisp of faint golden light suddenly overflowed from the corner of his peripheral vision, like a needle instantly piercing into his field of view!

At the same time, Zhao Yang clearly saw the expression on the one-eyed man’s face—

Like he’d seen a ghost!

What happened…

Zhao Yang turned his body almost rigidly toward the source of that light—

It was a massive golden pillar standing in the center of the plaza, with various inscriptions and runes floating on it, engraved with all the rules of this Ding Struggle tournament…

At this moment, a beam of golden light was slowly rising from its base like a spring, but quickly reaching the top of the pillar.

Thus, in an instant, the golden pillar trembled!

“Hum!”

Infinite brilliant golden light, like meteors and shattered moons, burst forth toward the scroll above the City of Wrongful Death!

“Holy… holy crap…”

The Ding Struggle Golden Order!

The Ding Struggle Golden Order had actually lit up!!!

No…

That’s not right!

Wasn’t this golden order supposed to light up only when the second round ended?

But how long had the second round just started?

They had only chatted for three or five sentences!

—At most one quarter hour had passed!!!

An indescribable chill suddenly shot up from everyone’s feet, making everyone shiver violently and break out in goosebumps!

At this moment, never mind Zhao Yang and the one-eyed man who were about to fight—everyone in the entire plaza, without exception, was like being slapped senseless by a giant palm falling from the sky!

Looking around, the ground was full of “stone statues” frozen from excessive shock.

On the high platform in the center of the plaza, Jian Chou, who had long been looking down, her long and thick eyelashes trembled slightly, finally lifted her eyelids and raised her eyes again.

On her index finger, the connection between that Ding Ring and herself had been automatically severed by her.

So the Ding Struggle Golden Order could clearly sense all her aura…

Everything.

From her delicate brows and eyes to her subtle expression.

She slightly raised her head, looking toward that golden pillar.

The bursting golden light was like exploding star streams. They piled up on the entire nebula scroll like cheering.

Momentarily there were rumbling wind sounds and rolling muffled thunder!

Endless star streams converged toward the center, actually condensing continuously, gradually outlining a vague silhouette.

Then, as the golden light grew brighter, the silhouette became clearer…

—Who would it be?

Everyone strained to raise their heads, widened their eyes, exhausted all their ability to watch, their minds taut as bowstrings about to snap!

Completely unable to look away, not even for an instant!

Bit by bit, bit by bit…

Like bold brushstrokes wielding, piling and forging the sky full of nebulae.

First appeared the upper body of a person, looking somewhat slender; then, flowing black hair, giving a sense of graceful charm…

At this instant, Zhao Yang’s eyes, which couldn’t get any wider, actually widened another degree!

Even, upon seeing this silhouette clearly, he gasped!

On the scroll, the virtual image’s outline was finally clear—

Willow-leaf thin brows, exceptionally handsome; phoenix-eye pupils, gentle yet cold; a jade nose, smooth as goose fat; powder lips lightly thin, with a shallow smile…

These features!

This expression!

This appearance!

It was someone they all found familiar!

That biggest gimmick of this Ding Struggle tournament, that smallest Soul Pearl in Extreme Domain history, that female cultivator from the City of Wrongful Death they had been discussing just before—

Jian Chou!

“…”

Just a moment before, they had been discussing Cui Jue who no one had ever been able to surpass…

At this moment, not a single person could react.

Everyone looked at the virtual image forged on the nebula scroll, only feeling their legs tremble and feet go weak, as if seeing the statues of the Eight Palace Yama Kings, with a floating sensation like being in a dream.

Throughout the entire plaza, there was only a ground full of magnificent dead silence…