Chapter 991: Clash of Dragons and Tigers

Chapter 991: Chapter 991: Clash of Dragons and Tigers

The more than one hundred elite cultivators of the Immortal Path who entered the Mountains and Rivers Scroll: if they were beaten to death by others or fell at the end of their lifespan, they would immediately be sent out of the Scroll Realm, and at the same time lose their qualification to become a son-in-law of the Xuanyuan Family.

However, apart from gaining an additional segment of "illusory" memory, they would not suffer the slightest damage, nor lose even a shred of lifespan!

Moreover, the experiences and memories gained within the Scroll Realm were not entirely useless; with several hundred, even up to a thousand years of cultivation experience, their future cultivation would naturally yield twice the result with half the effort. This was also a small benefit Xuanyuan Tongzhen had given these elite cultivators of the Immortal Path who were participating in the son-in-law selection ceremony.

Immediately, Xuanyuan Tongzhen channeled mana into the Mountains and Rivers Scroll, and sun, moon, and Stars began to shift and revolve.

On the mountaintop, the many guests who had come to Xuanyuan Mountain to observe the ceremony all turned their gazes toward the scroll projection hanging in midair.

Only, the flow of time within the Scroll Realm was a million times that of the Outer Realm; when one Shichen passed outside, within the Scroll Realm it was equivalent to two hundred and twenty-eight years. The various scenes in the scroll were fantastical and bizarre, their rate of change surpassing the turnover of thoughts of most minds; low-class cultivators could only see countless colors streaming past their eyes.

Only True Masters of the Golden Core Realm, with five senses, sense, and their thoughts, could barely keep up with these changes, yet even then they could only substitute themselves into the perspective of one elite cultivator of the Immortal Path, and focus on all of that individual’s experiences depicted in the scroll.

As for Great Cultivators of the Divine Bridge Realm and Formless Realm, they could more or less take in the overall situation, though it would consume a massive amount of mana.

The thirty-plus True Immortal-level figures in the Heavenly Cloud Palace, as well as Shen Mo, had no such concerns. Their souls were powerful, their mana vast; so long as they willed it, they could grasp in meticulous detail everything happening within the Scroll Realm.

Most of Shen Mo’s attention was on Cao Ren; as for the other hundred-plus individuals, he merely swept his gaze over them roughly.

Cao Ren’s luck was poor: in the second year after entering the Scroll Realm he ran into another elite cultivator of the Immortal Path, whose strength was not inferior. The two fought fiercely over a spring eye that produced Spiritual Spring, and in the end one died and one was gravely injured.

His opponent was beaten "to death" on the spot, forcibly expelled from the Scroll Realm, losing his qualification to become a perfect son-in-law!

However, Cao Ren was also severely injured and could only rely on the Spiritual Spring to slowly recover from his wounds.

In the Scroll Realm, where competition was extremely intense and resources relatively scarce, one misstep would lead to missteps at every turn. By the time Cao Ren’s injuries had fully healed, the other elite cultivators of the Immortal Path had all grown far stronger than before. He had to pay an even greater price to contend for various resources and opportunities, which made his situation extremely precarious!

Having learned from this lesson, Cao Ren changed his former rash, headstrong style, and tried his utmost to avoid clashing directly with other elite cultivators of the Immortal Path.

However, resources within the Scroll Realm were limited; constant forbearance would only let other competitors grow ever stronger, while he himself stagnated. Thus he did not blindly endure either, but instead sized up the situation and, through various means, pursued the goal of "paying the smallest price in exchange for the greatest benefit." When a truly critical moment arrived, he would bare his fangs and claws and fight with all his might!

As for the other cultivators participating in the son-in-law selection ceremony, being able to cultivate to the Divine Bridge Realm or Formless Realm, and being deemed worthy of the Xuanyuan Clan’s regard, they were naturally paragons of their generation, each choosing the strategy most suited to themselves.

Some focused on cultivation, strengthening themselves in secret; some formed alliances to eliminate rivals; some revealed sharp edges, using sheer force to suppress others; some manipulated the situation, profiting from the currents... All of them, striving to seize resources and opportunities and become True Immortals, striving to ultimately prevail and become Xuanyuan Tongzhen’s son-in-law, were like the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each displaying their own Skills, staging one brilliant drama after another of contests in wits and power!

Only the lofty True Immortal figures, even if they were merely Ghost Immortals, could sit within the Heavenly Cloud Palace, enjoying the finest delicacies and spiritual wine in the world, while smiling and chatting as they watched the magical duels among the hundred-plus elite cultivators of the Immortal Path.

Yet all that transpired within the Scroll Realm was merely a reflection of the true state of this universe world.

Watching the hundred-plus figures in the scroll staking their lives in bitter struggle, Shen Mo felt many emotions stirring in his heart.

If he did not have the achievement of suppressing the Law Body of Lord Blue Venerable, if he did not possess strength comparable to a Ghost Immortal, he feared that at this moment he would be just one of the elite cultivators of the Immortal Path within the scroll; and even though he could now sit on equal footing with True Immortal-level figures, even if one day he attained the Earthly Immortal Dao fruit, under the will of this universe world he would still be nothing more than a pawn with no freedom of his own!

He had cultivated to this day, bitterly pursuing the Immortal Path, all for the sake of seeking longevity, seeking Carefree freedom, seeking transcendence from the limits of time and space, seeking to act according to the desires of his true heart.

If after attaining True Immortality he still could not be Carefree, then in the final analysis the root cause was that his cultivation level was not high enough, his strength not great enough...

"Which elite cultivator of the Immortal Path does little friend favor?"

Jade Spring Fairy’s words broke Shen Mo’s train of thought. He pondered for a moment, then immediately named three candidates.

One was a True Dragon from the dragon’s ancestral land on Kunlun Continent.

Originally, he was a Class VI (Formless Realm) True Dragon; after entering the Mountains and Rivers Scroll his Cultivation Realm was restricted, but his Spells and Skills were at the level of a Master, and his True Dragon Body was extremely formidable.

Relying on his own strength, this True Dragon acted alone, not joining forces with anyone else. Even other True Dragons did not dare approach him. In just the first hundred years, the elite cultivators of the Immortal Path who had "died" at his hands already exceeded the number of fingers on one hand!

One was the Law Master’s disciple of the great immortal sect "Taiqing Sect" on Phoenix Continent.

This person held the supreme treasure Taqing Pearl of the sect, possessed terrifying insight in cultivation, and his cultivation speed could be called the foremost among the cultivators who had entered the scroll. When other Human Cultivators had only barely cultivated to the middle-stage Divine Bridge Realm, he had already stepped into the late-stage Divine Bridge Realm, able to rely on his profound cultivation level to crush numerous competitors!

One was a descendant of an Earth Immortal-level big demon within Cloud Palace.

This demon, like the Marine Race of Red Flame Sect, had switched to cultivating a Human Race cultivation method. His physical vitality was even more terrifying than that of a True Dragon; two True Dragons originating from the ancestral land on Kunlun Continent joined forces to besiege him, yet were torn to pieces alive by him. Moreover, while retaining the formidable flesh body of a big demon, he also mastered many powerful magical abilities.

His current battle strength was either first or second; so long as he continued to maintain a bold and diligent momentum, he had great hope of sweeping all other competitors out of the arena, thereby monopolizing all resources and opportunities within the Scroll Realm!

Cao Ren, born of Red Flame Sect and later transformed into a Pure True Dragon, had won the recognition of the dragon’s ancestral land on Kunlun Continent. His vitality, Talent, and opportunities were all quite good, yet when compared with these three he was still a shade inferior. He basically had no chance of standing out and becoming the sole "True Immortal" within the Scroll Realm!

The subsequent development of the situation did not depart from Shen Mo’s expectations.

By the thousandth year within the Scroll Realm, Cao Ren had cultivated to Class VI (Formless Realm).

By the three-thousandth year, seventy percent of the elite cultivators of the Immortal Path depicted in the scroll had either exhausted their lifespan and fallen, or been slain, because the vast majority were Human Cultivators, and the Human Race was unlike the Ten Thousand Races of the Immortal Realm: even the lifespan of a Divine Bridge Immortal Master was only three thousand years. If they could not attain Formless Realm before their lifespan ran dry, they could only die of old age within it.

By the four-thousand-five-hundredth year, Cao Ren encountered the Law Master’s disciple of Taiqing Sect...