782: Chapter 783 The Unlucky Demon

In an extremely remote and quiet deep valley within the Ancient God Burial Plain.

Buzz!

A clear sword hum, like a dragon's cry, suddenly rang out and returned to silence in an instant, as if it had never appeared.

The white-clothed figure sitting cross-legged in the valley slowly opened his eyes. It was none other than the Little Sword Emperor, Ling Guzhou.

His aura, which had been slightly chaotic and sharp due to his heavy injuries, had now become calm and restrained.

Only in those eyes, at the moment they opened, did a physical sword light flash and vanish, sharp enough to seem capable of slicing through the ancient dust permeating before him.

Since his battle with Li Xuanfeng, he had sought out this silent place far from conflict and had not taken a single step out.

dao seeds? Rankings? To him, after that strike, they were no longer the most important things.

The dao seeds he already possessed were enough to ensure his advancement.

Li Xuanfeng's gentle and open, yet pride-crushing and cognition-shattering noble sword strike replayed, disassembled, and collided repeatedly within his mind.

From the initial pain and confusion, the shaking of his Dao Heart, to forcibly suppressing his vacillation with arrogance, and finally, he could at last examine that strike and his own isolation with a near-cold calm.

Aloofness as a prison, obsession as a cage!

These eight words were no longer shackles, but had become a whetstone for his sword.

His sword dao had not changed; it was still that solitary path of cutting everything down and being the sole supreme.

However, it lacked a bit of paranoid hostility and gained a few points of clear determination.

At this moment, Ling Guzhou slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air; that breath actually condensed into a fine white sword scar in the air, only dissipating after a long time.

He spread his palm, feeling the surging Sword Essence within his body, which was far more condensed and pure than seven days ago.

As well as that Bottleneck, now thin as a cicada's wing, lying between the Peak Immortal King and the Supreme Immortal Sovereign Realms.

"Half-step Immortal Sovereign..."

He murmured to himself, with not much joy in his eyes, only a yearning for a higher sword dao.

"Li Xuanfeng, next time, my sword will be faster."

He raised his eyes, his gaze piercing through the cover of the deep valley, looking far toward the dazzling golden heavenly pride list in the sky.

"Is it about to end?"

Upon the list, gilded characters slowly manifested; the rankings and the number of dao seeds were clearly reflected in everyone's eyes.

The ten thousand feet of golden light slowly retracted, and the heavenly pride list was completely finalized.

On the list, every name was like it was cast in iron, emitting a halo that was either brilliant, dim, sharp, or heavy, representing the potential of its owner's dao foundation and the results of these seven days of plundering.

The names on the list slowly settled.

First Place: Ao Zhan, 267 seeds.

Golden light shone brilliantly, a dragon-shaped phantom coiled around it, and the pressure was at its Peak.

Second Place: Gu Shitian, 189 seeds.

Glazed divine light flowed, exuding a sense of ancient immortality.

Third Place: Sword White Robe, 178 seeds.

Sword Qi soared to the heavens; the name was like an unsheathed sharp sword, its edge pressing.

Fourth Place: Xuan Yi, 175 seeds.

Fifth Place: Huang Jiutian, 171 seeds.

Sixth Place: Battle Asura, 167 seeds.

Seventh Place: Daoist Son of Myriad Phenomena, Yun Yandao, 165 seeds.

Eighth Place: Demon Ape Cang Li, 157 seeds.

Ninth Place: Demon Son Ming Yeyan, 130 seeds.

Tenth Place: Li Xuanfeng, 125 seeds.

...

Fifteenth Place: Shen Jinghong, 80 seeds.

Sixteenth Place: Lin Mochen, 79 seeds.

...

Thirty-fifth Place: Ling Guzhou, 10 seeds.

...

Eighty-ninth Place: Mo Cha, 1 seed.

The list was finalized; the dust had settled.

Previously, over a thousand prodigies entered the Ancient God Burial Plain, and after seven days of bloody chaos, the dominance of the strong, and plundering and slaughter, in the end, only eighty-nine people remained to advance.

Throughout the wasteland, there was an uproar; sounds of amazement, wariness, lingering fear, and unwillingness rose and fell.

Everyone looked at the list, mentally reviewing and analyzing the events.

Anyone could see that the top prodigies like Ao Zhan, Gu Shitian, and Xuan Yi, who already possessed the foundation of an Immortal Sovereign...

In the Early Stages, they were led around by Shen Jinghong and Lin Mochen until they were stifled with rage, but in the later stages, they completely let loose, no longer hiding their skills or being patient.

Sweeping in all directions with Immortal Sovereign pressure, they wantonly harvested dao seeds. Their unique Realm advantage allowed their dao seed counts to lead by a massive gap, far outstripping the middle and lower-tier prodigies.

Meanwhile, Shen Jinghong and Lin Mochen were hunted across the Great Wilderness by the five top prodigies the entire time, having no leisure to engage in frontal plundering and slaughter.

Yet they were able to firmly hold the fifteenth and sixteenth positions on the list, which was already world-shaking. No one dared to underestimate these two Late Stage Immortal King Cultivators again.

"Tsk, Shen Jinghong and Lin Mochen were chased for seven days by five great Immortal Sovereigns, yet they still have eighty seeds?"

"Are these two like loaches or hamsters?" a Cultivator remarked.

Another person looked warily at the names of Ao Zhan and the others, saying in a low voice:

"Restrained in the Early Stage, exploding in the Late Stage. These top beings never cared about others from the start; the only opponents in their eyes were each other."

At this time, among the eighty-nine who could hold on until the end, not one was an ordinary person.

Aside from those from the Azure Profound Sect, they were all famous top prodigies within the Immortal Realm from various sects, clans, lineages, and Demonic Path families.

Nameless juniors and those with shallow foundations had long been entirely eliminated during the seven days of ruthless slaughter, not even having the qualification to appear on the final list.

When gazes swept to the end of the list and saw Mo Cha's name, followed by that lonely, eye-piercing "1 seed," an irrepressible low murmur and sneering immediately rang out across the wasteland.

"Pfft... Mo Cha? That ruthless, vindictive Evil Star of the Demonic Path? He only has one?"

"What a huge joke! Just a few days ago, I saw him plundering everywhere with such arrogance. I didn't expect this kind of result."

"Hehe, he probably kicked a steel plate, didn't he? I wonder which ruthless person dealt with him to make him so pathetic."

Many prodigies who had grievances with Mo Cha or simply disliked his style of conduct now showed undisguised mockery and schadenfreude on their faces.

At this moment, in another corner of the wasteland, Mo Cha curled up in a rock crevice, his eyes staring fixedly at his name on the list, his face so dark it looked like it could drip water.

A thick aura of hostility and unwillingness swirled around him, and his whole body was trembling slightly.

He never imagined he would end up in such a state, ranked eighty-ninth with only 1 dao seed, becoming the absolute bottom among all the advancing prodigies.

He thought of the scene in the final moments of the Secret Realm, and the humiliation and anger in his heart erupted like a volcano.

He had originally accumulated over a hundred dao seeds and could have firmly held a spot in the top ten. Before he could even feel smug, he was intercepted by Gu Shitian, heavily injured, and barely escaped.

Yet, just as the Secret Realm was closing, his luck was terrible; he happened to run into Fang Hanyu, who was guarding Shen Jinghong on her return journey.

Fang Hanyu showed no mercy, breaking his protective Devilish Qi with a single sword strike and damaging his cultivation Origin. All the dao seeds Mo Cha had painstakingly plundered were entirely confiscated by Fang Hanyu.

In desperation, he lunged like a madman at a nearby Early Stage Immortal King Prodigy, fighting with his life on the line.

He did not hesitate to burn his own essence blood, and only in the final second did he snatch 1 dao seed from that Prodigy's hand, barely securing his qualification to advance.

But this humiliation, this unwillingness, and this wretchedness made him lose all face, making him wish he could find a hole to crawl into.

"Gu Shitian... Sword White Robe..."

Mo Cha gritted his teeth, pronouncing these two names syllable by syllable, his eyes filled with venomous resentment and murderous intent.

"I, Mo Cha, will remember today's humiliation! Someday, I will surely repay it a hundredfold, a thousandfold, grinding you to ashes and seizing all your dao seeds and opportunities!"

He clenched his fists tightly, the hostility around him growing even thicker.