Chapter 753: How Did That Sun Disappear? (First Update, Seeking All)

Zhao Rui investigated so thoroughly; it was clear he also wanted to compete for a seat in the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, which was why he came early to scout for information and increase his odds of winning.

Although the chances were slim, he still had to strive for it; that way, even if he failed in the end, he would have no regrets.

208 people were competing for ten Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seats, including a full 18 Pseudo-Kings, which showed just how intense the competition would be.

The good news was that there were no Emperor Ranks in the Southern Region, so Li Zhangsheng naturally felt no pressure; with his combat power comparable to an Emperor Rank, he could almost be said to have locked in a Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seat securely.

Ning Bizhen was also a top-tier Pseudo-King, so Li Zhangsheng did not need to worry much about her either; besides, Li Zhangsheng would soon be refining the Jade Rabbit Corpse, which would likely allow her Cold Jade Rabbit to advance further.

Moreover, although the two could not cooperate openly, they could still support each other; at the very least, they would not encounter danger.

"This is the information I have gathered. Due to the rushed timeframe, I have only collected a portion, and this information is not necessarily all true."

Zhao Rui took out a thick notebook and respectfully handed it to Li Zhangsheng.

After opening the notebook, Li Zhangsheng began to browse through it, his gaze mainly focused on the information regarding the Pseudo-Kings.

On the first page was a Pseudo-King named Xiang Yutian; he was the Second Prince of the Kailing Empire, 26 years old, his mother was the current Empress, and his maternal clan was a King Family of the Kailing Empire, so his status could be said to be quite illustrious.

Naturally, his strength had also reached the level of a top-tier Pseudo-King, possessing a full five Demon Beast-level Demon Pets.

Judging from the data, his strength was likely on par with Ning Bizhen, and he posed a significant threat to Li Zhangsheng, especially since the Kailing Empire had a full twenty people competing for Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seats, five of whom were Pseudo-Kings alone.

Although the Langya Kingdom National Tournament also had five Pseudo-Kings participating, this was entirely an isolated case; usually, there were only one or two Pseudo-Kings competing.

The Kailing Empire was different from the Langya Kingdom; every year, there were basically about five Pseudo-Kings participating, which was standard practice.

There was no help for it; the Kailing Empire had vast territories and even richer resources, so the number of Heavenly Prides could be said to far exceed that of the Langya Kingdom.

If it were an Arena match, Li Zhangsheng could naturally defeat them one by one, but unfortunately, this time it was not an Arena match, but one measured by the slaying of demons.

Although they could not cooperate sincerely in the open, they could do so behind the scenes, such as beating demons into critical condition and driving them toward others to kill, so as to ensure their results.

One must know that the Kailing Empire had a full twenty spots; excluding the five Pseudo-Kings, the other fifteen were all Sixth Rank, and their role was often to be sacrificial pawns, assisting the five Pseudo-Kings as much as possible to lock in the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seats.

Every year, the Kailing Empire almost always did this to ensure that their strongest few were not eliminated.

Judging from past results, the Kailing Empire's worst performance was locking in three Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seats, and at their best, they even reached seven.

Of course, these sacrificial pawns would also receive certain compensation; this was a certainty, otherwise, why would they spare no effort to assist?

Besides the strongest Kailing Empire, next in line were the seven medium-sized nations including the Langya Kingdom; these nations all had Double-Character Kings presiding over them and their territories were considered vast, and every year they almost always had Pseudo-Kings participating, but there was a large gap between them and the Kailing Empire, making it difficult to guarantee Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seats.

Judging from the Langya Kingdom's past results, it took about three years for one person to obtain a Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seat.

The rest were small nations; these small nations had narrow territories and resources were often relatively scarce, so not many Heavenly Prides were born, and Pseudo-Kings rarely appeared, often only obtaining one Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seat every ten or twenty years.

Among these 18 Pseudo-Kings, the Kailing Empire had five, the Langya Kingdom had four (including the fallen Liu Xuguang), the six medium-sized nations other than Langya had a total of seven, and the remaining small nations combined had a pitiful two Pseudo-Kings.

These nations had weak national power and short resources, so even if they produced incredible Heavenly Prides, they were often "poached" by large nations; thus, those competing for Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seats from these small nations were often Fifth Rank and Sixth Rank Beastmasters.

Li Zhangsheng did not pay much attention to the Fifth Rank and Sixth Rank Beastmasters; even if they progressed quickly, it was impossible for them to suddenly reach a point where they could threaten him.

It was for this reason that he mainly looked at the information on the Pseudo-Kings.

Pseudo-Kings also had levels of high and low, divided into Initial, Senior, and Top-tier, mainly determined by the number of Demon Beast-level Demon Pets.

Initial Pseudo-Kings had only one Demon Beast-level Demon Pet, Senior Pseudo-Kings had two to three, and Top-tier Pseudo-Kings had four to five.

Of course, this was a general classification and did not fully represent their combat power; after all, even among Demon Beast-level Demon Pets, there were often significant gaps.

Among the 18 Pseudo-Kings, there were four Top-tier Pseudo-Kings; besides Li Zhangsheng, Ning Bizhen, and Xiang Yutian, there was also Wu Zetao from the Shayi Kingdom.

The Shayi Kingdom, like the Langya Kingdom, was one of the seven major nations in the south.

However, this meant that although the number of Pseudo-Kings in the Langya Kingdom was not as high as in the Kailing Empire, their quality was undoubtedly superior.

Unfortunately, it was difficult for the Langya Kingdom to be as united as the Kailing Empire; Liu Xuguang had already fallen, and the Sixth Prince Dou Yuanhua was a person who cared about face, so he likely would not take the initiative to come and seek cooperation with Li Zhangsheng.

Li Zhangsheng thought for a moment and said, "Zhao Rui, when the competition starts, remember not to stray too far from me. Bizhen and I will casually beat some medium-to-high-level demons and leave them for you. As for whether you can obtain a Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seat, that will depend on your own luck."

Since he was the first subordinate to defect, Li Zhangsheng did not mind helping Zhao Rui if he could guarantee his own seat, while also ensuring Zhao Rui's safety.

If Zhao Rui obtained a Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seat, when he came out, he would likely become a Pseudo-King.

Having a Pseudo-King as a subordinate would allow him to better serve Li Zhangsheng; one must know that the number of Pseudo-Kings in the entire Dai Kingdom was less than a handful.

Zhao Rui was naturally overjoyed; this was his second purpose for taking the initiative to defect to Li Zhangsheng. At this stage, even if there was only a tiny hope of competing for a Heavenly Dao Secret Realm seat, he would not let it go.

With Li Zhangsheng's help, he could be certain that his chances would definitely increase greatly; how could this not make him feel exceptionally excited? The heartache he felt when giving the treasure naturally vanished into thin air.

"By the way, there are still two days until the competition starts. My Lord, how about I go contact the other contestants and host a trade fair tomorrow night?"

Zhao Rui had already obtained Li Zhangsheng's item list, so he naturally thought of what Li Zhangsheng thought and worried about what Li Zhangsheng worried about. Now that so many Heavenly Prides were gathered here, even if only a small portion agreed in the end, he believed there would be some gains.

Li Zhangsheng pondered for a moment and said, "A good idea. Then I will leave this matter to you. If you need me to step in, you can contact me at any time!"

After finishing, Li Zhangsheng casually handed a palm-sized shell-shaped treasure to Zhao Rui. This was a special treasure he had refined by imitating the Mother-Child Golden Conch; although the communication distance was far inferior to the Mother-Child Golden Conch, as long as both parties were within a range of three thousand li, they could maintain contact.

"Yes, My Lord, I will go do it right away!"

Zhao Rui was high-spirited, and after leaving Li Zhangsheng's room, he couldn't wait to find the other contestants.

Hosting a trade fair before the competition started might allow them to trade for treasures that enhanced combat power; he believed many contestants would choose to agree.

Taking a step back, even if the trade fair failed, Li Zhangsheng would not suffer any losses.

After Zhao Rui left, Li Zhangsheng turned his attention to the two treasures Zhao Rui had given him.

Among them, the Moke Wuliang Fruit had an effect similar to the Dragon Whisker Grass, but it could give a Demon Pet the possibility of obtaining a third characteristic; as for whether it could move within the Characteristic Space, he would have to try it to know.

Among his many main Demon Pets, those that met the conditions were Baitan, Heiye, and the Ancestral Leopard-Lin Beast, as well as Datou, who he wasn't sure met the conditions.

Datou was quite peculiar; on the surface, Datou possessed four characteristics, but no matter which form it was in, only two characteristics were activated.

When Datou transformed into the Giant Whale Kun form, only the two characteristics belonging to the Giant Whale Kun could be activated; when it transformed into the Golden-Eyed Peng form, the two characteristics of the Golden-Eyed Peng would be activated, and the two characteristics of the Giant Whale Kun would become dormant.

If it consumed the Moke Wuliang Fruit, Datou might gain two characteristics, or it might not activate any characteristics, or even possibly activate only one.

Given that there was only one Moke Wuliang Fruit in his hand, Li Zhangsheng naturally did not gamble; after all, there were still Baitan and Heiye of the Light-Dark Twin Symbiote that met the requirements.

Without a doubt, the cost-effectiveness of Baitan and Heiye was always the highest; no one could deny this.

One thing must be handled with caution: if there was a choice, it was best not to actively choose Light or Darkness-type characteristics, otherwise, even if the other one obtained the same characteristic through the special effect of the symbiote, it would likely be of no effect, and might even have negative consequences.

Li Zhangsheng first set up several Restrictions in the room, then summoned Baitan and Heiye.

"This time, let Baitan take it!"

Li Changsheng gave special instructions, as Baitian and Heiye had already heard from Aixi, Kailan, Adai, and Yuangungun about what happened in the Characteristic Space and already had a certain amount of experience.

Looking at the Moke Wuliang Fruit handed over by Li Changsheng, Baitian let out a soft, cute cry, then its body size suddenly surged by double, and it swallowed the entire fruit in one gulp.

Amidst a bout of dizziness, Baitian's consciousness appeared in the Characteristic Space.

The Characteristic Space was not much different from before; it was still a nebula, covered with thousands of light orbs flickering with different colors, orbiting like celestial bodies.

In this unknown space, Baitian's consciousness transformed into a huge light orb, larger than a planet but not as large as a star.

"Huh, why is that largest Sun Banner missing?"

(End of this chapter)