Chapter 279: Reward Ceremony - 279
After Guang Fu walked down and the people in last place went to the sides, the next group was called.
"Bai Hun, Ao Wen, …" Four more names were called by Heaven as the four people walked towards the stage.
"For Bai Hun, a set of growth armor. As you become stronger, the armor will get stronger with you. This will work until the tenth level of the space shattering realm. Whether you are in humanoid form or phoenix form, it will fit perfectly." Zhou Fan said as he handed Bai Hun a spatial ring.
Bai Hun thanked him and walked down from the stage.
"For Ao Wen, a special dragon breath technique." Zhou Fan spoke as he handed Ao Wen a book.
Ao Wen thanked him and walked back down. Two more people also received awards before they went to the side and the next group was called.
"Hong Yen and Lernean." Heaven spoke.
They walked down the hall and arrived below the stage.
"For Hong Yen, the crown of excellence. When wearing this, you will naturally give off an air of superiority. It is also covered with defense arrays that will act when your life is threatened." Zhou Fan said as he handed Hong Yen a crown.
Hong Yen thanked him and walked down.
"For Lernean, a unique technique designed specifically for you that will allow you to temporarily merge your nine heads and release a breath combining their power." Zhou Fan said as he handed Lernean the technique.
Lernean thanked him and walked down the stage.
After Lernean and Hong Yun walked to the side, the 2nd place competitor was called.
"Yao Mun." Heaven spoke.
Yao Mun walked down the hall, receiving applause from only those of the demonic path.
"For Yao Mun, you shall receive a technique that allows you to regrow parts of your soul." Zhou Fan said.
Hearing him, everyone in the hall had their eyes widened. Healing the soul was something incredibly hard. Even a lesser dao creation realm cultivator would struggle to heal a nascent soul realm cultivator's soul.
The soul was extremely deep and profound.
What they did not know was its true value to Yao Mun. Although Yao Mun had the ability to sacrifice his soul for an attack, he had never done so before.
That was simply because he had no way to regrow or heal the soul. Each bit of soul cut off would cause detrimental damage. Even if it was just the fingertips of the soul it would nearly kill someone from the pain or the effects.
Pain was no problem to Yao Mun, but he was not willing to permanently injure himself or even die for an attack unless he was going to die anyway.
Even in the arena, he dared not to sacrifice his soul in fear that Zhou Fan would be unable to heal it. Unfortunately, it seemed he was worried for nothing.
The soul's sacrificial value was much higher than the body's. Sacrificing the right arm of his soul would be the equivalent of sacrificing all of his limbs.
Yao Mun thanked Zhou Fan and walked down the stage. Even he could not help but regard Zhou Fan as a superior.
"Finally, Ying Xiong, the champion." Heaven said.
Ying Xiong walked down the hall towards the stage.
He did not have to wait below it and immediately walked up.
"For you." Zhou Fan began. "The Buddha's teachings."
Ying Xiong looked confused as he looked at the book in Zhou Fan's hands. Zhou Fan naturally explained.
"The name Buddha should sound familiar to you. He is the very basis upon which Buddhist Qi exists. Your Buddha phantoms all look different, yet none look like the one and only Buddha." Zhou Fan explained.
"Even as a mortal in a world of mortals, he had understood the world like nobody else. He was the one who taught me the mortal dao despite not truly knowing of its existence. Each sentence in this book was spoken by him and has immeasurable value. Whether you want to keep it to yourself or follow the Buddha's ways and teach others is up to you." Zhou Fan finished.
Ying Xiong, along with everybody else was surprised and stunned, but Zhou Fan got Ying Xiong off the stage and spoke for the final time.
"This marks the end of the Youth galactic assembly." He said as a blue light shone below everyone.
"When you are teleported away, everyone's identity will seem fuzzy and you will be unable to remember them clearly. In this way, those who wish to remain unknown will remain unknown." Zhou Fan said as the light intensified.
"May all of you have a good life. Goodbye." Zhou Fan said as everyone disappeared, leaving him and Heaven in the hall alone.
"What did you think?" Zhou Fan asked Heaven.
"My idea was pretty good." Heaven said with a smug look. "But your addition made it many times better." He added.
"At least you recognize my superiority." Zhou Fan said as he laughed and disappeared.
Heaven was left alone in the hall as he went around and cleaned up the messes made, bringing the three rooms to their perfect state.
After he finished cleaning Yao Mun's table, he developed a grudge.
Back on earth, Ying Xiong sat in his room with a book in his hands. He read the title, "The Buddha's Words".
Then, he decided to flip to a random page. He ended up on page 73 and saw some words and a poem.
Sitting on his bed, he read it.
"A respectable and honorable man, firm in will and clear of evil, saw the Buddha's greatness and asked the blessed one a question. "Under whom have you gone forth, friend. Who is your teacher?"
The Blessed one replied in stanzas "I am the one who has transcended all, a knower of all, unsullied among all things, renouncing all, by craving's ceasing freed. Having known this all for myself, to whom should I point as teacher?
I have no teacher, and no one like me exists in all the world with all its kings and emperors because I have no person for my counterpart.
For I am the arahant in the world, I am the teacher supreme, I alone am the perfectly enlightened one, whose fire's are quenched and extinguished.
I go now to the empire of mortaniel, to set in motion the wheel of the Dharma, in a world that has become blind, I go to beat the drum of the deathless"
The man replied, "By your claims, you ought to be the universal victor"
"The victors are those like me, who have won the destruction of taints, I have vanquished all evil states, therefore, friend, I am a victor"
Chapter 280: Rules of War - 280
While Ying Xiong and the other contestants were enjoying their rewards, Zhou Fan headed back to his shack on the edge of the galaxy. He had only briefly come out due to his interest in Heaven's idea.
The most important matter was still to speed up his own cultivation. He had made some progress, but he was still very far away from having any major results.
What he was doing was comprehending cultivation. The river of cultivation was the result of his comprehension so far, but he needed to go much further for more results.
From what he understood, cultivation was similar to how living beings can breathe or exercise. It's a natural part of the universe.
However, it is much harder to use and understand than other parts. Before Zhou Fan had interefered and changed the Chaos Qi into the other Qi's, it was simply impossible to cultivate.
Even if there was someone who had understood how to cultivate and tried, they would have instantly died, their bodies turning to mush or disappearing entirely.
Only one with an affinity towards Chaos Qi, as well as a Chaos divine physique would be able to truly begin cultivating before Zhou Fan.
Naturally, there had never been someone like that. Even in all of the universe, which now held more than a million times more life in a year than earth did in its history before Zhou Fans birth, had not had a single person born with an affinity to Chaos Qi.
And if they did, they would instantly die when cultivating without the corresponding Chaos physique.
Zhou Fan's comprehension of cultivation had always been going up, but the concept was much more profound and in depth than anything else he had ever made contact with.
If the concept of space and time were to be considered as deep as a river, and the concept of Chaos was to be considered as deep as the ocean, then the concept of cultivation was deeper than an entire planet made out of water.
Despite its extreme depth, Zhou Fan was getting closer to the bottom.
He quickly began focusing on his task as the outside universe continued to function.
Soon, ten years passed.
Yao Mun turned 35, Guang Fu turned 31, and both Ying Xiong and Lernean turned 23.
Each of their cultivation levels had slightly increased.
Yao Mun and Guang Fu reached the 3rd level of the nascent soul realm, while Lernean and Ying Xiong reached the 2nd level of the nascent soul realm.
Not a single one of them was doing anything but cultivating in seclusion and using their rewards from the Youth galactic assembly.
Ying Xiong had read the book Zhou Fan had given to him multiple times, and had already decided to spread it across the human race.
In the last ten years, multiple groups were formed, calling themselves buddhists, that adhered to the buddha's teachings and followed his way of life.
Most of them slept outside and meditated under trees, only not doing those when eating, teaching others, or using the restroom.
They meditated normally, while also cultivating a lot. It seemed that, in a certain amount of time, the human race would have an entire percentage of it following the buddhist ways.
Lernean and Yao Mun were practicing their techniques, while Guang Fu gleefully watched his talent go up. Soon, twenty years passed.
Everyone's age increased by twenty years while their cultivation went up a single level. In a mortal world, they would all be considered middle aged men, while Yao Mun could even be called old.
While they continued growing older and stronger, the tension between heavenborns and the beast world continued to rise. Although the supreme beasts had backed off due to Lernean, the Beasts and Heavenborns were still technically competitors.
As five days passed, Tian Ren and Bi Chong met on top of the mountain from long ago. They had come with two of their most trusted aides.
As they met in the middle, arguments broke out. Populations had been increasing, especially for the beasts, and everyone wanted more land.
They had negotiated before, and had usually come to agreements, but this time was different.
Even after five entire days of arguing, there was no compromise.
"Fine. War it is." Bi Chong said as he turned around and flew off with his aides.
"Good. Let's see just how strong you think you've become." Tian Ren snorted as he too left.
In the next few days, the lives on all planets were shaken by the declarations of war. For the first time in a long time, armies formed and marched out.
Borders were guarded more tightly than ever as letters went out to many, calling for strong youths to join.
Neither Bi Chong nor Tian Ren were fools. They were not going to fight a ridiculous war that destroyed large amounts of resources.
Instead, they opted for an organized war that seemed more like a competition.
A fourth of the remaining unclaimed territory of the world would be split into 1000 squares.
Those squares, on the agreement between both sides, would be categorized as fight zones for people of different cultivations and groups/individuals.
100 squares would be for groups, while 900 would be for 1 on 1 fights.
Of the 1 on 1 zones, 50 would be for core formation cultivators, 500 for nascent soul, 250 for soul formation, 98 for void traversing, and 2 for space shattering cultivators.
As part of the war agreement, neither Tian Ren nor Bi Chong would fight in zones.
Of the group battle zones, 5 would be for core formation, 50 for nascent soul, 25 for soul formation, and 20 for void traversing, although there weren't that many void traversing cultivators.
In the beginning, both sides would equally split the territories, but when the war started, cultivators could attack squares to claim for their side.
When battles started, a great barrier would arise that would protect each 1 on 1 fight from interference. Only space shattering cultivators would be able to break the barrier, but there wasn't anyone stupid enough to do that.
These would be the basic rules until all hell broke loose at least.
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