章 5: Dao Conference Festival (3)

Immortal Ascension Pagoda.

Ji Bolin's first choice to evolve into a constellation was none other than to evolve his Archaic Demon astral soul.

The wrathful demon astral soul was bathing in a corona of pure violet-gold light and appeared to be incredibly lofty in the sky. The sovereign astral soul was a full Mile tall projection standing behind the inconsequential Ji Bolin.

A blossom constellation slowly materialises around the two of them. The gargantuan demon sovereign opened his palm on which Ji Bolin then climbed, he stood proudly there overlooking the ground below him.

At last in the skies above the sovereign bald horned head, an ominous cumulonimbus summon-type constellation appeared and within the dark crimson clouds, several shadows of horrifying Astral War Beasts could be seen, exuding an overwhelming baleful qi.

Countless monstrous beasts could be seen appearing out of thin air within the snowy Boreal forest, they all had their sight set on Ji Bolin.

"Let's do a beast tide versus beast tide then!" The words of Ji Bolin were accompanied with several loud explosions as countless Astral War Beasts were summoned out of the clouds.

Trails of dark crimson lights projecting an unreal amount of baleful qi could be seen all over the skies as the war beast simply allowed their massive body to fall in the melee.

Loftier flying war beasts such as Jiao Dragons, Primordial Rocs, Garuda or Vermillion Birds could be seen exiting the constellation, they simply dived downwards full throttle and shredded any monstrous beast they set their sight on.

All of the Astral War Beasts were at the first level of the Celestial Phenomenon realm just as their summoner, Ji Bolin. Only the single true intent of the mandate of demon was used to create this constellation so its power was somewhat lacking.

The several Astral War Beasts came in all forms and shapes yet, they all only had a baleful demonic attribute to them.

Ji Bolin's answer to the lack of power was to infuse another true intent in the constellation — sword true intent.

The summons no longer simply had the baleful attribute of demons but also a sharp sword intent attribute.

The Pagoda seemingly reacted to this change as the monstrous beasts realm were elevated to the next stage. They were now incomparably more powerful yet the Astral Sword Beasts had their claws, fands, tails and so on infused with incredibly sharp sword qi so they could vallaintly deal with them.

The monstrous beasts' realms increased again and were now at the third level of the celestial phenomenon. Luckily they did not have a constellation of their own but only possessed brutal physical might.

Ji Bolin immediately countered; a third true intent was added to the constellation, it was a devouring-type attribute — true intent of the mandate of engulfing.

The Astral Sword beasts were now even stronger, they could engulf their opponents and then refine their essence to strengthen their own attacks.

An Astral Sword Eagle of gargantuan proportion, with a wingspan of about a mile, dived and swallowed whole a python-type monstrous beast. The beast was instantly refined in the eagle's belly and its essence was used as fuel to augment the Sword Eagle tyrannical lingering sword qi.

The Sword Eagle was only a 1st level ascendent yet the sword qi produced gave off the aura of a 3rd level ascendant. It coated its massive beak as well as its similarly massive wings with the sword qi and dived, then glided along the ground. As it moved parallel to the ground, any beast along its trajectory was either ripped through or slashed apart immediately.

Other Astral Sword Beats were just as powerful; Jiao Dragons slashed apart tens of monstrous beasts with a single tail sweep, massive Sword Tortoises ripped the enemies apart with tail swings and they could also swallow whole monstrous beasts by strengthening their jaws in a formless baleful sword qi.

These were only a few examples amongst a multitude. The Pagoda sensing the overwhelming advantage of Ji Bolin reacted.

A pulsating wave of light raced through the Boreal Forest and all of the monstrous beats realms were once more increased, now they were all 5th level ascendant.

Ji Bolin's Astral Sword Beast could no longer be as rampant as before. Only the sword beast of legendary lineage could contend; normal sword beasts such as ape, eagle and the likes were getting overwhelmed.

Ji Bolin performed a hand seal and the weaker sword beasts exploded, projecting massive gusts of formless baleful sword qi. The formless sword qi lacerated any nearby monstrous beast but were rarely lethal.

At this point, only two thirds of the time had passed.

Ji Bolin selected four Astral Sword Beats that he was particularly fond of and allowed them to cannibalise on the other sword beasts.

The four Astrals Sword Beasts were; Tortoise, Roc, Dragon and Ape.

In no time, a large amount of baleful qi, sword qi and ominous qi coalesced in the belly of these four sword beasts as they grew in size and their realm progressed to the 2nd level of celestial realm.

The Roc took the sky and killed any flying type monstrous beasts, its talons ripped apart birds whilst its beak pierced through serpentine type beasts like Flood Dragons.

The Sword Tortoise was gargantuan, even more so than the other three sword beasts, its neck could elongate which allowed it to bite the heads off of the various monstrous beasts. At times it would swallow them whole and use their devoured essence to conjure and then stockpile a huge amount of baleful sword qi in its tail.

At last the Astral Sword Tortoise decided to make use of its tail; it tucked its limbs, its head inside its shell and only left its tail outdoors. Then, with some help of its tail spinned on itself and finally released all its built up baleful sword qi — a massive omnidirectional sword wave propagated thoroughly slashing anything in a five miles radius.

The aftermath was a gruesome sight, carcasses of monstrous beasts bisected halfway up their height lying in pools of their own blood were everywhere.

A faint pungent smell of blood was all that subsisted around the Astral Sword Tortoise.

Quite far away, a massive Astral Sword Ape was using its hands as swords, it easily slashed any monstrous beasts. Despite its colossal size, the ape was extremely nimble and agile, so much so that no attacks could easily touch it.

Abruptly the scenery changed and the innumerous carcasses of beats disappeared, even the bloody smell stopped

Ji Bolin realm fell back to the Peak of the Heavenly Dipper Realm and he was back to that same square hall as in the beginning.

This could only mean that he survived the agreed time of an incense stick to burn.

"Congratulations. You have successfully cleared the ninth challenge of the Immortal Ascension Pagod." The weapon spirit's voice reverberated throughout the huge hall and Ji Bolin directly vanished from his original location.

Only the huge square empty hall remained.

⯁⯁⯁⯁⯁

Chiyan Peak, VIP Booth.

Thirteen peak Ascendants were seated next to each other, each on a magnificent throne of their own. They were all attentively watching the various screens and carefully taking notes on how powerful the various juniors of their respective forces were.

"Fairy Ji, the three young masters of your Ji Clan are truly interesting. Rumours have it that the youngest is only eighteen and yet about to break through the Celestial Phenomenon realm. Even more impressive is how he is speedrunning through the path of comprehension, a truly demon-level character." The one behind these words was a staunch middle aged man wearing a set of bronze armour.

He was an Elder of the Giant Spirit Sect, Giant Emperor Han. As a cultivator that followed the path of Body Cultivation, he was unmatched in close combat.

"Old Han, I find that carefree little boy more interesting. He chose the path of strength and has yet to draw his sword a second time in his fights. His astral souls are incredibly good at hiding his traces, once he becomes an Ascendent even us will have a hard time dealing with him." This time it was an old monk that talked, Frost Swordsman Xi, an elder of the Frost Spirit Hall.

The reason he favoured Ji Yuan was probably because the both of them were true swordsmen.

"Indeed!" a pale middle aged maiden seemed to agree with the judgement of Old Xi. She, Netherworld Matriarch, was an Elder of the Nine Spirit Hall.

In the Northern Province, the Giant Spirit Sect ruled without equal yet these two Halls were allowed to exist. The reason was simple: these two superpowers were constructed by the only two true disciples of the late Giant Spirit Emperor.

In the Sky Pill World, the Northern Province was the most united province with almost no grievances between the three ruling powers. Nonetheless, to ensure their supremacy, the Giant Spirit Sect would absorb the most outstanding disciples of both Halls from time to time.

"Oh, doesn't that little fellow look familiar? Watch, he is about to finish the ninth trial! He is the first to finish." the words of Old Han made a pair of ascendants' faces turn ugly.

Golden Axe Sovereigness from the Ji clan on his far left and Blueflame Emperor from the Skyflame Sect on his far right.

It was indeed true that Ji Yuan looked quite similar to Blueflame but almost nobody here dared to bring it up as brazenly as Old Han.

Blueflame was the most lunatic amongst the lunatics of the Skyflame Sect; Fairy Ji Meifen, despite her carefree temperament, was quite bloodthirsty when wielding her golden axe plus she had three doting tyrannical brothers.

Only somebody as powerful as Old Han could tease them like that.

"Hmph! What is good about hiding and sneaking around so much? Only a coward would do such a thing. Our Myriad Demon Palace juniors are much more pleasing than this little coward." The one who spoke was the Amethyst Python Emperor.

His name was Lu Long and he was one of the most powerful elders of the Myriad Demon Palace. During his human transformation he had purposely left purple scales over his cheeks, back of his hands as well as left his purple eyes slitted.

He was a transformed Purple Dragon (evolved from a Horned Python) and was extremely proficient with lightning attribute powers.

Lu Long had a tyrannical nature, probably because he was from a demonic race, he loved to run his mouth but was not what many would consider as an evil existence. He was quite admirable in fact, he was someone who remembered his roots and kept his title as Python despite ascending to a higher bloodline.

"Old reptile are saying my little boy is a coward! Are you that eager to die!"

"My bad, maybe he gets that cowardly side of him from his father!! Ha Ha Ha Ha!!"

The bickering between Ji Meifen and Lu Long was quickly going to escalate into more than an exchange of words but fortunately Blueflame stepped in.

"Lu Long, I advise you to watch your mouth or you could regret it. That youngster should be one of your descendants. He has quite a pure Jiao bloodline, in the future he should be able to transform into a true dragon as he impacts the immortal foundation. It would be a tragedy if somebody were to capture him as a mount in the future, right?" The calm words of Blueflame sent a chill down the VIP booth.

"Hmph!!"

Lu Long sneered at his words, the world may fear Blueflame but this was not his case.

An awkward silence reigned for a few breaths of time before Old Gu broke it. He was quite the jerk but still surprisingly good at dealing with human affairs so he quickly changed the subject.

"Ji Feng's daughter is really brazen, she chose the path of luck and is now facing a terrifying situation on the mere 5th floor. It seems she will be eliminated quite soon." This mellow tone was not something the tyrannical Gu Tian would usually use but he was talking about the little princess of the Ji Clan.

If Blueflame was a lunatic, Ji Feng did not know what the word "fear" meant. There is nothing he dare not do but only things he cannot do. Even killing his way deep inside the Gu Territory to die with Gu Tian because he happened to say some bad words about his precious daughter was not impossible to him.

"That little lass is not competitive in the slightest, she reminds so much of her. She has yet to understand that strength is the only guarantee of safety within this world. She is probably there just for fun or maybe Ji Feng forced her to compete." The old lady who talked was the Undying Maiden, an elder of the Medicine Mountain.

Nobody knew for how long she had been alive but the rumours have it that she was alive even before the rise of the Skyflame Ancestor.

"Maiden Xue, those two little girls have quite the strength. Your Medicine Mountain disciples reputation of knowing how to fight now is once more verified, this is quite frightening." the man who spoke projected the aura of a divine weapon, it was as if he was the most peerless armament in existence.

He was a weaponsmith grandmaster, Elder Mo Yan of the Nine Refinement Valley.

Both the Medicine Mountain and Nine Refinement Valley were powers of the Western Province, they were superpower forces alongside the Ji Clan. Their two territories combined only amounted to about slightly more than one third of the province lands and they had to refine countless pellets and divine weapons for the Ji Clan.

This was the price for their coexistence. Nevertheless, despite having the least disciples among any superpower, each disciple on top of being great alchemists or weaponsmiths had extraordinary combat strength.

Almost only passionate cultivators that did not care about anything else apart from their occupations would join these two forces.

The four other ascendants present did not talk much, they all originated from evil factions and had to tiptoe around the other superpowers Ascendants.

Those ascendants were from the Myriad Beast Mountain, Blacksword Devil Palace, Hundred Ghost Cult and Devil Puppet Sect respectively. Still, the two evil superpowers from the Eastern Province had it easier since they were sheltered by the wretched Gu Empire but ultimately they were all pretty pitiful.

"Ji Bolin who possesses such a terrifying comprehension and created a fearsome constellation in less than half an hour; Ji Yuan profound strength with his formless swordplay; Lu Yanlong with his inordinate pure Jiao bloodline; The twin Yue girls with their heaven-refining astral souls; the four young lunatics from the Skyflame sect; the Gu Clan young Vixen with her soul stirring melody; the two little Giants from my Giant Spirit Sect. All of them have already passed the ninth floor trial. This Dao Conference festival is way more interesting than the one from the previous decade."

Old Han could not help but contemplate how interesting things were. He even expected more from the two other trials since the geniuses from the Immortal Realms would participate.

In another time, the Sky Pill World did not possess such a terrifying line-up of geniuses. However, someone's reincarnation had made ripples and under the oppressive pressure of his talent many had no choice but to produce more efforts.

Those that lacked that little something to propel them to the rank of true geniuses, under more pressure made more efforts and consequently had more luck and achieved more.

In the future many of them would have a much more magnificent destiny whilst others would die much earlier.