181: Chapter 180 A Gathering of Masters

Chapter 180: Gathering of Masters

After all contestants entered the secret realm and the competition officially began, among the images projected by the great tianji mirror, a total of over a hundred contestants entered the secret realm, yet the broadcasted images were not identical at all.

Some were deserts ravaged by sandstorms, some were dense forests, some were volcanic zones with flowing lava rivers, and some were even wasteland worlds scattered with giant mechanical parts.

This largest secret realm in the history of the extraterritorial region unexpectedly turned out to be a huge fissure entrance leading to over a hundred completely different worlds.

The fact that none of the images of these hundred-plus contestants were identical was also sufficient to show that even if more people entered, each person would likely enter a completely different world.

In other words, this limitation of the secret realm restricting those below intermediate Card Maker could not be conquered purely by relying on numbers.

However, regardless of which world it was, by this moment, these contestants had basically encountered all kinds of monsters.

Some were fierce beasts like those in dense forests, some were sandworms in the deserts, some were demons swimming freely in lava, and some people even encountered monsters that were entirely mechanical bodies.

Furthermore, striking blood-red numbers had already appeared in the upper right corner of each contestant's screen, and without a doubt, that was the display panel where the Mirror Spirit recorded the points for each contestant.

Most contestants currently only had a few points, but there were also contestants who were strong, highly efficient, or had encountered monsters suppressed by their own cards, and had already secured a dozen or even more points by this time.

However, the performance of a few among them was particularly exaggerated, and their performance was far more powerful than the others.

One of them was the plump big boy holding the coiling dragon stick and the scrawny boy driving a donkey cart.

As the plump big boy's coiling dragon stick danced, faint phantoms of Azure Dragons fluttered within; for a moment, stick shadows and dragon shadows flew about, and the monster groups were like tofu meeting spinning blades, turning into heaps of minced meat one after another. Yet the attacks of those monsters were taken in full stride by the plump big boy, leaving him completely unharmed.

The scrawny boy, who looked seven or eight points similar to him, drove the donkey cart, carrying the plump big boy as they rampaged and dashed wildly left and right through the monster swarm.

Sitting on the donkey cart, these two moved as if entering a realm with no one else around.

Wherever the coiling dragon stick reached, unexpectedly, no monster was a match for them in a single move, and their points had even broken through to three digits.

At this moment, in front of a huge gateway, a rather majestic-looking middle-aged man wearing Taoist robes was staring at the Donkey Cart Brothers in the screen, his face somewhat turning livid.

Surrounding him, people who were either holding whisk dusters, wearing battle armor, or dressed in Confucian gowns successively cupped their fists to congratulate the middle-aged man.

"Congratulations, Family Head Song! Your two young masters possess quite extraordinary strength!!"

"Indeed, look at how Changsheng drives this donkey cart, moving in and out of the purple monster swarm at will. Who said the exclusive talent of this donkey cart is no good? I think this donkey cart is simply fantastic!!"

"And the eldest young master, Changli, has an appetite like eating fifty bowls of rice since childhood; it really is different. Even without using Taoist arts, this coiling dragon stick alone can smash these purple-quality monsters until their brains splatter and bones and flesh fly everywhere."

"That is right! Family Head Song, to have sons like these is a great fortune for the Song Family! Hahahaha!!"

This middle-aged man named Song Daoyi was precisely the family head of the Song Family. Although he was stationed at the extraterritorial secret realm at this time, thanks to the great tianji mirror this time, he could still watch the Gaokao of his two sons.

Although he had anticipated such a situation, Song Daoyi still felt anger welling up from nowhere.

As one of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, the Song Family possessed numerous near-ancient Taoist classics, and even the Nine-Word Secret Arts practiced by the official Heavenly Soldiers were provided by the Song Family.

Song Daoyi's two sons, Song Changli and Song Changsheng, had also possessed extremely outstanding talent as Card Makers since childhood, and both brothers even possessed exclusive talents. In the families of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, this was also worth celebrating and taking pride in; after all, having successors could ensure the family would not decline for at least a century, not to mention there were two of them.

But gradually, as Song Changli and Song Changsheng grew up, Song Daoyi became increasingly worried.

The Song Family had countless Taoist classics, and since childhood, Song Daoyi had made these two brothers study secret arts and classics related to them.

Yet these two brothers stubbornly refused to even take a glance at them. Song Changli was obsessed with wielding spears and sticks, while Song Changsheng spent his days tending to his donkey.

Perhaps it was also related to the exclusive talents of these two brothers; eldest brother Song Changli's exclusive talent was named [Untouchable], and its effect was that various energies could not be imposed upon his body. Up to now, no matter what disaster Qi or divine power it was, it could not touch Song Changli's body.

Meanwhile, second brother Song Changsheng's exclusive talent seemed far less powerful than eldest brother Song Changli's; his exclusive talent was named [Untrappable Cart].

Its effect was possessing a wooden two-wheeled flatbed cart that could not be trapped. This cart could not be sealed or trapped by any form, and up to the present day, even dimensional barriers could not trap this flatbed cart. Its breakthrough ability was even comparable to the south-pointing chariot of the Coachman, Ranger Xuanyuan.

Both brothers had produced cards very suitable for their own exclusive talents, which were the coiling dragon stick in eldest brother Song Changli's hand and the donkey pulling the cart for second brother Song Changsheng.

However, regarding the family's inherited Taoist classics and secret arts, both brothers stubbornly refused to learn them to death.

Eldest brother Song Changli said it was not as straightforward as striking down with a single stick, and second brother Song Changsheng said it was not as straightforward as driving a cart carrying the eldest brother to strike down with a single stick.

For this reason, Song Family Head Song Daoyi could be said to have exhausted all methods, trying both soft and hard approaches, but he still could not make the two brothers develop the heart to study the family-inherited Taoist classics.

It was precisely because of this that the phrase "The stubborn donkeys of the Song Family do not practice Taoism" came to exist within the circles of the younger generation of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans.

At this moment, Song Daoyi watched his two sons drive the donkey cart to massacre everywhere in the secret realm, feeling a mixed bag of emotions in his heart.

Listening to the congratulatory and flattering remarks from his colleagues and subordinates around him, clearly they were all words of congratulations, but in Song Daoyi's ears, they sounded somewhat piercing.

After a long time, this head of the family sighed: "Forget it, at least they are not softies——"

Aside from the Song Family's Donkey Cart Brothers, another person whose points reached triple digits was the youth named Qin Wudao.

This person was just quietly standing on a giant bronze bird, watching a long black dragon below churn and slaughtering within the sea of monsters.

Regarding this long black dragon, many people were not unfamiliar with it; it was the signature sequence [Ancestral Dragon] Sequence of the Qin Family, one of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans.

The Qin Family's [Ancestral Dragon] Sequence was also currently known as the most stable and mature card-making sequence capable of reaching the black grade.

Furthermore, the [Ancestral Dragon] of the Qin Family with a quality as high as [Black 9-Star] was universally recognized as the highest-quality card in the Yanhuang Ancient Country. Its owner was already unknown to which generation of the Qin Family ancestors, but this [Black 9-Star] [Ancestral Dragon] had survived to this day, which was also the Qin Family's most imaginative secret.

The [Black Dragon] before their eyes had already reached the orange tier, and judging by appearances, its star rating was not low. Coupled with the fact that dragons were mostly skilled in large-scale damage and had formidable physical bodies, although these purple monsters were tricky, they were not enough to cause trouble for Qin Wudao, and they did not even force out his exclusive talent.

Moreover, Qin Wudao formed a team by himself, giving him a higher point bonus, and the growth rate of his points was also the fastest at this moment.

Slightly inferior to them was the giant whose surroundings were filled with phantoms of countless fierce birds and beasts.

This giant's luck was not particularly good; what he faced was a pile of mechanical monsters even taller than him, but the performance of these mechanical monsters looked a cut stronger than ordinary purple monsters.

He summoned a fierce blood-colored mastiff, which unexpectedly was also of orange quality.

As soon as this mastiff appeared, it let out a long howl, and boundless waves of blood surged from behind the blood mastiff, directly engulfing the entire screen.

People could not clearly see what happened in that image, only seeing that the point numbers in the upper right corner of the giant's screen were rapidly rising.

Even through the screen, the citizens seemed to smell the strong stench of blood.

"Is this the mastiff of the Yuan Family? It truly makes people look at it with terror."

"Yuan Zongli just suffered from the disadvantage of having too few people under the Yuan Family's governance, so not many people know his abilities. In my opinion, Yuan Zongli's golden bloodline is the strongest."

"Hehe, would you like to think about why the population under the Yuan Family's governance is small? Do you think the Yuan Family's mastiffs gnawing on human heads are playing around with you?"

"Not to mention anything else, if you like it, go stay in M Province under the Yuan Family's governance. If you dare to go, I respect you as a real man."

"The high number of deaths in M Province under the Yuan Family's governance is because M Province's territory is too vast, there are too many secret realms, and there are not enough Card Maker hands, which leads to a high mortality rate among the citizens."

"I still say the same thing: if you like it, go settle down in M Province, and I will respect you as a real man."

Aside from these few, there were also some people in the Yanhuang Ancient Country whose points were rapidly growing at this moment. Although they had some gap compared to the Donkey Cart Brothers, Qin Wudao, and the giant named Yuan Zongli, they had also obtained eighty or ninety points.

It could be seen that most of those who dared to come in had a few tricks up their sleeves.

For example, that sword-eating swordsman faced a kind of huge beetle monster. The beetle's shell reflected an oily metallic luster and looked very hard, but it could not stop the swordsman.

The swordsman spat out a pill-like object from his mouth, spinning around briskly in the air while releasing countless flying sword phantoms orbiting around it.

This move was precisely the sword pill technique practiced jointly by Liu Jianren and the Red Flood Dragon back then; only at that time, Liu Jianren had to rely on the Red Flood Dragon's Water and Fire Flood Dragon Pill to unleash the disembodied Chixiao Sword Pill.

However, this swordsman did not even summon a card; it was entirely nurtured by himself. In terms of difficulty, it was higher than Liu Jianren's Chixiao Sword Pill.

Of course, its power was also extraordinary. Those shiny, metallic-lustered large beetles were directly engulfed by the sky-filling flying sword phantoms. After a fierce clanging sound, bursts of blood mists exploded, leaving only a ground of broken insect limbs.

The scholar surrounded by scrolls beside him, the youth driving a mechanism giant, the sloppy Taoist leading a pack of wild dogs, and others also displayed their respective methods, harvesting quite a few points.

Among foreign contestants, there were also many eye-catching existences. The earth-yellow crystal at the top of the staff in the hand of the man shaped like a pharaoh bloomed with a faint light, and the flow rate of the wisps of yellow sand surrounding the crystal became faster. The range of the yellow sand's flow also changed from surrounding the crystal to encompassing an area of about ten meters around the man's entire body.

The man's figure was completely hidden in the rapidly rotating yellow sand, and all the monsters around him, even just approaching this yellow sand storm, would rapidly shrivel up in body, resembling mummies dried by the wind for a long time.

Meanwhile, the number in the upper right corner of the man's screen also rapidly broke through three digits.

Lion Tribe Alliance, the great sun blazing fiercely.

In the sky at the top of an ancient conical building, a huge light curtain emerged.

Inside the light curtain were scenes of various contestants fighting fiercely against monsters in the secret realm, and in front of that building were densely packed dark-skinned people.

When these people saw that the points of the man wearing the pharaoh's robe broke through three digits, they unexpectedly knelt down in unison, kissing the scorching yellow sand on the ground.

Afterwards came neat, synchronized shouts: "Black Pharaoh!! Black Pharaoh!! Black Pharaoh!!!"

Similar scenes were happening in every corner of the world.

The big guys of the Northern Ice Bear Kingdom saw that irritable, red-bearded strong man looking like steaming red charcoal, his twin axes wrapping around wind and thunder as he charged into the monster tide.

They excitedly raised their beers and shouted: "Hey! Red-Bearded Eric!! Show them what thunder and storms are all about!!"

"Wizard Harry's points have also broken through three digits!!"

"This secret realm environment is simply too suitable for Yisheng Qingming's Shikigami to perform, otherwise Hattori Renxin would not fall behind him!!"

"The bloodline of Deathwing is simply too terrifying. Even though Nefarian only changed classes to become a Dragon Knight for three months, he can still sweep through these terrifying monsters, and they are all of purple quality!!"

The Yanhuang Ancient Country had the largest population and the most viewing citizens, and while the citizens might not understand who was stronger, they could see very clearly who was the prettiest.

Thus, merely less than half an hour after the start, Jiang Cha of the Shennong Jiang Family attracted a massive amount of attention with her sweet appearance.

"Jiang Cha comes from the Shennong Jiang Family after all! Why are her points still in the double digits?"

"Passersby over there, do not bring unearned hate to my Goddess Jiang Cha. My Goddess Jiang Cha is not skilled in slaughter; otherwise, how could the likes of Qin Wudao and Li Tiance take the lead?"

Of course, other long-established geniuses also had quite high topic discussion rates.

"I see that Li Tiance's slaughter efficiency is also very high; why are his points so different from Qin Wudao's? It seems the Qin Family's dragon is still stronger than the Li Family's phoenix."

"You're talking bullshit. Li Tiance was clearly dragged down because he did not weed out his teammates."

"Are Li Tiance's teammates that bad? The slaughter efficiency of that kid who transformed into a red dragon almost catches up to Qin Wudao's [Black Dragon]. And that guy named Sun Po is also the only gold card holder that has appeared so far! That slaughter efficiency————what the fuck? What is that Sun Po doing? Why is he not moving?"

"What do you know? This is a master's method, killing enemies with willpower. This armor is fucking cool!"

"Get lost, killing enemies with willpower my foot. Could this gold card of his be just all show and no substance? Could it be an illusion? That's not right, the speed at which his points are rising is right there, yet he hasn't killed a single monster!!"

"I heard this kid comes from a civilian background. As expected, he's a fraud!!"

"I told you so, eliminating the disaster of [Huzhang] and being the youngest golden Card Maker? How could someone from a civilian background be as formidable as rumors say?"

For a moment, voices of doubt came rolling in one after another.