Chapter 459

458. Chapter 453: The Treasure That Moved Ding Huan

"How dare you impersonate a disciple of Dafanxian Sect?" A woman standing not far from Ding Huan shouted at him.

Ding Huan's face was pale, clearly the result of excessive indulgence; even if he were a disciple of Dafanxian Sect, such a person could never be brought to this place.

Only core disciples representing their immortal sects are allowed to come here.

Even the guards were stunned by those words—impersonating an immortal sect disciple was punishable by immediate execution.

The guard wanted to step forward and block Ding Huan, but he hesitated; if he made a mistake, he would be finished.

Ding Huan glanced at the woman's attire—Xiao Kunlun Xian Sect. He had always been curious whether Xiao Kunlun Xian Sect had any connection to Kunlun on Earth.

Yet he ignored the woman and waved to a middle-aged man nearby, who looked anxious: "Master Mu."

Elder Ming Mu was truly anxious; the Immortal Sect Ranking Tournament was about to begin, yet the sixth one he had invited still hadn't arrived.

Yan Sha and Lu Qiansi were decent enough, but achieving a high rank in the Immortal Sect Ranking Tournament was nearly impossible for them.

They could at best survive a few rounds and earn some elimination points.

Now, hearing Ding Huan's voice, he suddenly turned around and saw Ding Huan standing outside the protective array, holding up an outer disciple identity token.

"Hah!" Elder Ming Mu burst into laughter and strode over to Ding Huan: "Sixth, I was wondering why you hadn't shown up yet. Quick, come in!"

On the surface, he showed nothing, but inside, his shock was beyond measure.

After his disguise, this sixth one had completely altered his Dao rhythm and aura; had Ding Huan not called out to him, even face-to-face, he would never have recognized this person as the sixth one who had once undergone Tribulation Crossing.

"Master Mu, is he truly your disciple from Dafanxian Sect? Here to compete in the Immortal Sect Ranking Tournament?" The woman who had scolded Ding Huan stared at Master Mu in disbelief.

Has Dafanxian Sect run out of disciples? Sending someone who's wasted himself away to compete in the Immortal Sect Tournament?

Elder Ming Mu, old and shrewd, heard the tone of her voice and saw her expression—he immediately knew there had been some conflict just now.

He coldly said: "Do my Dafanxian Sect disciples need to report to you? Come, Sixth."

Without another word, he turned and led Ding Huan and Rong Rong Xiyu into the Immortal Sect's encampment.

He wasn't deliberately acting this way—he wanted Ding Huan to see his current attitude.

The woman, seeing Master Mu's attitude, was deeply displeased; she snorted and said to her companion:

"Dafanxian Sect is really declining—look at the kind of disciples they're recruiting now! Even trash like this dares to be taken in. And now they're representing the Immortal Sect in the Ranking Tournament, hah…"

"Xi Jie, watch your tongue. Dafanxian Sect was once a Seven-Star Sect in the Great Immortal Realm; even though it's declined now, it's no worse than our Xiao Kunlun Xian Sect." Her companion quickly interrupted.

Only after the two women walked away did the two guards at the gate finally exhale.

Fortunately, they hesitated a moment and moved a bit slower.

If they had rushed forward the moment that woman shouted about someone impersonating an immortal sect disciple, they would have been dead.

This incident made them certain: even if someone was impersonating, they must wait until the situation was confirmed before speaking.

"Sorry, Master Mu, I was delayed by personal matters—did I miss anything important for the Immortal Sect?" Ding Huan apologized.

He did not introduce Rong Rong Xiyu, since he himself was only here for a transaction.

There was no need to introduce Rong Rong Xiyu to Elder Ming Mu; for her, the fewer people who knew her, the better.

Elder Ming Mu laughed heartily: "No delay at all—the Immortal Sect Ranking Tournament doesn't start until tomorrow. Come, let me arrange your and your companion's quarters, then I'll explain the competition rules."

Now Elder Ming Mu was even more convinced that Ding Huan could bring Dafanxian Sect a surprise.

Just look at that disguise—he altered even the Dao rhythm and aura, something even Elder Ming Mu couldn't do. No, better to say: how many people in the world could do this?

An hour later, Ding Huan finally calmed down.

He and Rong Rong Xiyu were given a large suite; Elder Ming Mu didn't know their relationship, so he arranged a spacious suite with six rooms.

Ding Huan didn't set up any shielding talismans himself—this was the Immortal Sect's encampment; no one could break in. Besides, he had no intention of cultivating.

Earlier, Elder Ming Mu had explained the competition rules clearly, so Ding Huan carefully reviewed the competition rules jade slip again.

The Great Immortal Realm's Immortal Sect Ranking Tournament consists of five categories: Combat, Array Duel, Pill Duel, Artifact Duel, and Rune Duel.

Almost all the core skills upon which immortal sects rely have become competition events.

Things like cultivation and metallurgy are excluded mainly because the time intervals are too long to be suitable for competition here.

According to the Immortal Court's classification, only ten sects above Seven-Star rank may exist in the Great Immortal Realm.

Among them, there are three Eight-Star sects and seven Seven-Star sects.

The rest are divided as follows: one hundred Six-Star sects, one thousand Five-Star sects, three thousand Four-Star sects, and all others are below Four-Star.

A sect's exact star rating is determined by its score in the Immortal Sect Ranking Tournament.

Any sect that scores zero points in the Immortal Sect Ranking Tournament will be immediately disbanded.

A disbanded sect, if it wishes to be rebuilt, must wait a hundred years before reapplying to the Immortal Court.

A sect that has been disbanded three times in a row is forbidden from ever being rebuilt.

More than ten thousand sects are participating in the Ranking Tournament.

The entire Immortal Sect Ranking Tournament is divided into five competition zones: Combat, Array Duel, Pill Duel, Artifact Duel, and Rune Duel.

In the first nine rounds of any competition zone, it's elimination rounds; each sect may send three participants per event.

Even with three participants, elimination rounds still require some luck—the luck being the draw.

Draw a bad lot, and you might be eliminated in the first round.

In elimination rounds, Eight-Star and Seven-Star sects may choose two events not to participate in; for those events, they automatically advance two slots to the arena stage.

Generally, by the time the arena stage begins, only about a hundred competitors remain.

Among these hundred, some are seeded competitors from Seven-Star and Eight-Star sects.

Because every sect above Seven-Star has the right to skip two elimination events.

The rest must be winnowed out from over ten thousand sects.

This reveals the brutality of the Immortal Sect Ranking Tournament.

In elimination rounds, each round survived adds ten points to the sect's total.

If the three people sent by a sect all pass the first round in a certain competition, that adds thirty points.

This also shows that earning points in the sect ranking grand competition is still quite simple—after all, you only need to get past the first round.

As for Seven-Star sects and Eight-Star sects, their advantage is much greater.

Their sects have at least two competitions where they don't need to take part in elimination rounds; each event directly advances two disciples into the arena competition, and the disciples entering the arena competition can also enjoy the maximum points from the elimination rounds.

For example, a Seven-Star sect might choose not to participate in the elimination rounds for the combat event.

And the combat event has nine rounds of elimination, so the disciples from that sect who enter the combat event will each carry ninety points into the arena competition.

It can be said that once a sect advances to a Seven-Star sect, as long as it doesn't act recklessly and isn't too terrible, it basically won't drop back down to Six-Star.

The two events they don't enter the elimination rounds for are guaranteed harvests, and the three events they do enter the elimination rounds for—surely they can still get some points, right?

The arena competition has disciples of Seven-Star and Eight-Star sects as arena masters, or disciples who scored full marks in the elimination rounds as arena masters.

Each win adds ten points, but each loss deducts ten points.

The arena competition doesn't limit the number of matches or appearances; what it limits is time.

To put it bluntly, the arena competition is a points-grinding contest.

If you're strong, you can stay on the arena continuously, or challenge your way from Arena One all the way to Arena Ten.

As long as you win one match, you add ten points.

If you feel you're not strong, then don't go up to the arena to compete—after all, the points already in your hands won't be deducted. It's only if you go up and lose that points get deducted.

Because the arena competition doesn't limit the number of matches or participants, there is a time limit on the competition—the competition time is twenty-four hours.

When the twenty-four hours are up, arena challenge matches will stop and points will be tallied.

The one with the highest score is the first place of that event in the sect ranking grand competition.

Ding Huan's gaze fell on the first-place rewards for the individual events, and sure enough, just as Elder Ming Mu had said—one high-grade immortal spirit vein, one supreme-grade Da Yi immortal pill, and one array token for entering and exiting the Immortal Court.

As for the immortal crystal rewards and the other pill and immortal weapon rewards, none of them caught Ding Huan's eye...

What attracted Ding Huan, however, was not these, but the reward for first place in the overall sect ranking.

Besides three high-grade immortal spirit veins, this reward also included a spirit treasure—the Soul-Devouring Realm Ring.

Ding Huan looked at the introduction of this soul ring: this Soul-Devouring Realm Ring can devour any divine soul. But it doesn't actively devour divine souls—rather, under human control, it devours divine souls that have already lost the ability to resist.

Logically speaking, this is nothing but a white elephant.

Yet Ding Huan's eyes lit up—this Soul-Devouring Realm Ring can find the weakest spot in a realm.

For Ding Huan, this was exactly what he needed most.

Back then in the Myriad Void Swamp, if he had had this Soul-Devouring Realm Ring, as long as his cultivation were a bit stronger, he could have found the weakest spot of the interface and figured out a way to tear it open.

Another example—when he came here, it was basically half by guessing and half by luck. If he had this Soul-Devouring Realm Ring, could he have easily traveled from one realm to another?

He couldn't let this thing slip away.

Thinking of this, Ding Huan immediately got up and went to find Elder Ming Mu.

In Elder Ming Mu's room, he was dealing with Sect Master Ji Changsi.

"Sect Master, Lao Liu really is very, very strong. If you don't believe it, ask Yan Cha—his Lei Jie was witnessed by Yan Cha with his own eyes.

Besides, he only takes up one combat slot for our sect. Apart from Yan Cha and Lu Qiansi, we really can't find any other disciple who can take part in the combat event."