Chapter 442

The Heaven-Reaching Vine began to slowly climb upward, carrying these sixteen victors, heading toward the purple-gold canopy suffused with Hong Meng Dao Qi.

Below, those survivors who had failed to seize the spots wore faces full of reluctance and despair.

"Damn it! Just a little short!"

"Are we really to stop here, watching them vie for that supreme fortune?"

"Hmph, what's the rush?"

Another quick-witted heavenly pride snorted coldly, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes,

"There's only one Sheng Xian Chi, yet sixteen people are going up; in the end they'll still have to fight to the death—especially that demon called Yuan, if he contends with them, who knows how he'll die!"

Upon hearing this, many people immediately calmed down, their eyes showing a thoughtful hue.

The earlier man immediately echoed: "That makes sense! Rather than go up and serve as stepping stones for those monsters, we should stay here. This third-layer continent is so vast; earlier we were focused on clearing the stages, surely we missed many secret immortal herbs and spirit ores. Moreover, with the Yaochi Holy Lord's earlier commotion, heaven and earth shook—who knows what ancient ruins might have been unearthed!"

This idea was like a shot of adrenaline, instantly reviving the people's previously desperate thoughts.

"Exactly! How did I not think of that!"

"Better than fighting for that illusory first place, let's first scoop up some real benefits!"

"Go, go, go, split up and search! Who knows, the opportunity we find might not be inferior to that Sheng Xian Chi!"

For a moment, everyone felt it made sense, preparing to begin searching for those possible "secondary" opportunities.

Just when everyone thought the situation was settled.

A figure abruptly appeared above this chaotic plaza.

It was a person wearing a large black robe, with a hood covering the face, making the appearance indiscernible.

His appearance came without any sign, as if he had always been standing there, yet everyone had overlooked him.

"Huh? Who is this person?"

"What does he want? The sixteen spots are already full; what use is he coming out now?"

Below, the defeated heavenly prides looked doubtfully at this uninvited guest.

On the Heaven-Reaching Vine, Lei Qianjue and others noticed nothing; their attention was wholly on the fourth layer filled with Hong Meng Dao Qi.

Only Gu Yuan's (avatar) seemed to sense something; in the depths of his gray-black pupils, a flicker of undetectable fluctuation passed, then immediately returned to that cold, eerie appearance.

Under the gaze of everyone below, the black-robed person moved.

He did not walk toward any of the arenas.

Nor did he lift his head to gaze at the Hong Meng Dao Qi in the sky.

He simply stepped forward, unhurried, directly walking toward the sixteen Heaven-Reaching Vines already carrying people aloft.

"Is he crazy? Does he intend to force his way in?"

"Without passing the arena trials, approaching the Heaven-Reaching Vine will only be pulverized by this place's Law Power!"

Everyone looked at the black-robed person with the eyes of one looking at a corpse.

However, the next moment, a scene that made everyone's eyes almost pop out occurred.

That black-robed person simply walked step by step to the base of one of those Heaven-Reaching Vines.

That vine, after having ushered the victors, should have been sealed by Law Power, refusing anyone's approach.

But at this moment, it was as docile as a little cat.

At the instant the black-robed person approached, the tip of the vine actively lowered a segment, emitting a soft white light, as if welcoming its master.

The black-robed person showed no surprise, lifted his foot, and lightly stepped onto it.

Then, amidst countless dazed, shocked, and incredulous gazes, that Heaven-Reaching Vine, carrying this seventeenth person, slowly rose.

The whole world fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone's brains crashed.

The rules……were broken.

What about the promised sixteen spots?

Why……did a seventeenth person appear?

Moreover, it was done in a way they could not comprehend at all, directly "going through the back door" upwards?

"This……this is impossible!" a defeated heavenly pride screamed hoarsely, his voice full of collapse.

"Cheating! He must have cheated! On what basis?! We here fought tooth and nail, how can he just go up directly?!"

However, no matter how noisy or angry the crowd below became, that azure vine never paused even a bit.

It bore that mysterious black-robed figure, disregarding all rules and resentment, firmly ascending toward that purple-gold canopy.

At that moment, a youth who had just narrowly lost on the arena, whose thoughts were a bit more agile than others', fixed his gaze tightly on that seventeenth figure and the sixteen victors above, suddenly lowered his voice and said to his companion:

"You say……could there be a possibility that this person is not actually a seventeenth person at all?"

"What do you mean?" the person beside him blinked in surprise.

That youth's eyes flickered with shrewdness and wariness, and he slowly said:

"He might……just be an avatar or……a hidden servant of one of those sixteen people."

Upon these words, the surroundings instantly fell into dead silence.

Perhaps only this possibility could explain it.

Why, with the sixteen spots already full, could there still be a seventeenth person.

But the result has already happened.

They now have no way to change anything.

……

Elsewhere.

When the sixteen Heaven-Reaching Vines, like sixteen azure dragons piercing heaven and earth, bore aloft sixteen top-tier heavenly prides who had fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, they slowly pierced through the purple-gold canopy suffused with Hong Meng Dao Qi.

Everyone felt the scene before them violently twist, and then a surge of ancient immortal aura, ten times denser than the third layer and even bearing a hint of immortal divinity, washed over them.

"This place is……"

Hun Yuan Xue stood atop the vines, her phoenix eyes wide open, staring in shock at the scene before her.

What appeared before everyone was no longer a desolate ruin, nor a shattered continent, but a vast, boundless expanse of immortal palaces floating above the Nine Heavens' cloud sea!

Majestic halls carved from supreme immortal gold and divine jade loomed, half‑hidden in the clouds and mist.

Immortal birds soared across the horizon, crying out crisply; spiritual springs poured down from the floating mountain peaks, forming seven‑colored waterfalls. And at the very center of these palaces stood a towering archway that pierced the clouds, upon which three large characters were written in ancient divine script with dragons flying and phoenixes dancing—【Inner Gate Island】!

Even the heavenly pride who had grown accustomed to the lavish grandeur of top lineages in the Primordial Immortal Realm were now deeply awed by the atmosphere left behind by this ancient heavenly court.

Hum——!

At the very moment all sixteen stepped onto this cloud‑sea immortal isle, a grand, solemn voice that seemed to span myriad ages echoed throughout the fourth layer.

"Having endured myriad tribulations and broken the arena trial, you sixteen all bear the bearing of kings."

"From today onward, I bestow upon you the status of inner‑door disciples of the Heavenly Court!"