Chapter 282: Each One's Schemes

Inside Future City.

Led by Qin Ling, Qiu Wanli, and Lin Chen, hundreds of group members began to familiarize themselves with this city full of modern atmosphere.

They felt as if they had suddenly returned to their home planet; their moods were very joyful, and at the same time, they were full of anticipation for the upcoming Genius Tournament.

"Is this our new home? It's truly amazing!" Yun Yao said excitedly.

"Big Brother Qin Ling's deployment is so thoughtful!" Xiao Ling'er could not help but exclaim in admiration.

"Indeed, it feels so familiar here!" Liu Chongxiao also could not help but agree.

"Moreover, not only is there rich Qi, but there are also so many like-minded friends; I feel my strength is about to advance by leaps and bounds again!" Jiang Ye said with an excited expression.

Watching everyone's excitement, Qin Ling also felt gratified in his heart.

"Alright, everyone, let's get settled first. The Genius Tournament will begin very soon, and we must seize the time to cultivate and improve our strength," Qin Ling said.

The group members nodded one after another to show their agreement, then each found a place to settle down and began to cultivate. A calm yet tense atmosphere returned to Future City, and everyone was preparing for the challenges to come.

In Zixiao Palace, the Hongjun Daozu silently watched the situation in Future City, but the more he looked, the angrier he became.

Especially when he saw the strength of this group of Outer Realm Heavenly Demons soaring rapidly one by one, his expression became even gloomier.

Good heavens! The Hongjun Daozu really wanted to curse out loud right now!

Looking at the hundreds of "Outer Realm Heavenly Demons" that had suddenly appeared in Future City, he only felt his scalp go numb!

The Hongjun Daozu's expression was so gloomy it seemed as if it could drip water; he never expected that Lu Yun would bring so many Outer Realm Heavenly Demons at once.

These Outer Realm Heavenly Demons clearly all came from different worlds, each possessing unique powers and cultivation systems, which was undoubtedly a huge threat to the Great Desolation.

"Lu Yun, what exactly are you trying to do?!"

The Hongjun Daozu roared in his heart, but he knew now was not the time to be impulsive. He had to calm down and think about how to deal with this sudden change.

He closed his eyes and pondered, his body surrounded by rich power of the Heavenly Dao. He quickly calculated various possibilities and countermeasures in his heart. However, facing so many Outer Realm Heavenly Demons, he found himself somewhat at a loss.

"It seems I can only borrow the power of the Heavenly Dao again," Hongjun thought to himself.

He decided to increase the suppression of the Heavenly Dao, making it difficult for these Outer Realm Heavenly Demons to exert their full strength within the Great Desolation.

However, just as he was about to act, Lu Yun's voice suddenly rang out in his mind: "Fellow Daoist Hongjun, why be so nervous? These Outer Realm Heavenly Demons are merely here to participate in the Genius Tournament; they will not pose a real threat to the Great Desolation."

Hearing this, the Hongjun Daozu's expression became even gloomier.

Because he still had not detected at all where Lu Yun was currently, or how he had sent the voice transmission to him!

For him, this was naturally a terrifying signal.

If he hadn't been in the Chaos when he contacted the Yangmei Daxian, and if he hadn't been using his self-corpse, he would even suspect that his own schemes were also known to Lu Yun!

However, also because he thought of his previous deployments and thought of Yangmei and his own self-corpse already searching for Lu Yun's lair, he finally forcibly suppressed the emotions in his heart.

He snorted coldly and said, "Lu Yun, do you think I will believe your nonsense? If these Outer Realm Heavenly Demons grow up, the Great Desolation will surely fall into turmoil."

Lu Yun smiled faintly and said, "Fellow Daoist is overthinking. Since I dared to bring them to the Great Desolation, I naturally have my own plans. What's more, I am the Humanity Spokesperson of the Great Desolation; if they cause chaos in the Great Desolation, it wouldn't do me any good, would it?"

The Hongjun Daozu really wanted to say: That's not necessarily true! Now, as the Heavenly Dao Spokesperson, he was already at odds with the Human Dao Faction on Lu Yun's side and the Earthly Faction on Houtu's side, and he was finding it increasingly difficult to confront both the Human Dao and Earthly Dao simultaneously. Now, with this group of Outer Realm Heavenly Demons added, he felt things were becoming increasingly thorny.

He felt that Lu Yun inviting this batch of Outer Realm Heavenly Demons was specifically to counter his previous move of having the Heavenly Dao Faction disciples reincarnate!

He had to find a way to solve the problem! He said coldly, "Regardless, they are all outsiders. As the Heavenly Dao Spokesperson, I cannot turn a blind eye!"

Seeing that he was determined to act, Lu Yun's tone also became cold: "In that case, it seems I cannot sit idly by while your reincarnated disciples of the Heavenly Dao Faction cheat. For the sake of fairness in the competition, it would be better to directly disqualify these reincarnators!"

Hongjun fell silent all of a sudden.

After they were both silent for a moment, Lu Yun spoke again. He did not continue to persuade, but instead suddenly said: "How about this, let's make a bet, shall we?"

The Hongjun Daozu frowned and asked, "Bet on what?"

Lu Yun said, "Let's bet on the performance of these Outer Realm Heavenly Demons in the Genius Tournament. I won't stop you from suppressing them, but if, under such circumstances, many of them still manage to stand out, then you must acknowledge their existence and not suppress them in any form again, and you must also bestow rewards upon them. If they perform poorly or are even eliminated, then I will personally take action to expel them all from the Great Desolation."

Hearing this, the Hongjun Daozu pondered to himself. He felt that this bet was not a loss for him. If those Outer Realm Heavenly Demons were truly vulnerable, he could take the opportunity to eliminate these potential threats. If many of them still managed to stand out under the suppression of the Heavenly Dao, then regardless of whether he acknowledged their strength or not, he would certainly not act rashly for a period of time in the future.

It was just a matter of bestowing some Heavenly Dao merit as a reward anyway!

Thinking of this, the Hongjun Daozu nodded and said, "Fine, I will take this bet with you. However, you must not bring any more Outer Realm Heavenly Demons! And if you lose, not only must you expel those Outer Realm Heavenly Demons, but you must also come to Zixiao Palace in person to apologize to me."

Lu Yun smiled slightly and said, "No problem. Then, let us wait and see."

After saying this, Lu Yun stopped the voice transmission.

The Hongjun Daozu checked repeatedly in secret, and only after confirming that no one was watching him in the dark did he secretly heave a sigh of relief.

In fact, he did not care too much about the bet with Lu Yun. Because regardless of the outcome of this bet, as long as Yangmei or his self-corpse could find Lu Yun's lair, he could directly turn the tables! Under such circumstances, being able to make Lu Yun agree not to bring any more Outer Realm Heavenly Demons into the Great Desolation to avoid further deterioration of the situation actually made him feel a bit smug.

However, he did not get carried away, but continued to stare at the situation in Future City.

Now he had no idea where Lu Yun was, so even if he wanted to investigate Lu Yun's situation, he couldn't; he could only continue to stare at Future City while also dividing his attention to keep an eye on the movements of Houtu, Nuwa, and those fellows! Of course, it was impossible for Hongjun to know that even if Lu Yun wanted to recruit more group members to come to the Great Desolation now, he could not do so for the time being.

Because everyone in the Transmigration Chat Group, including a batch of newcomers who had just joined the group not long ago, had all been pulled into the Great Desolation by him! And what Hongjun could not possibly know was that the current Lu Yun did not care about the outcome of the bet with him at all; proposing this bet was purely to stabilize Hongjun and confuse him.

Because, while pulling all the group members to the Great Desolation, he had also opened up channels to hundreds of worlds! For Lu Yun, comprehending the rules of various worlds to make his own Cosmos Stage more perfect and improved was the top priority!

For this, even if he temporarily ignored the situation in the Great Desolation, so what?

As long as his Cosmos Stage surpassed the Great Desolation, even if Hongjun controlled the Great Desolation, he could easily take it back! Not to mention that there were Houtu, Nuwa, and the others, and even more group members like Qin Ling who had entered the Great Desolation; it would be impossible for Hongjun to succeed easily! Therefore, after making the bet with Hongjun, Lu Yun immediately focused on comprehending the rules of various worlds.

Because he was communicating with too many worlds at once, he did not have enough avatars to dispatch, so he could only comprehend the rules of various worlds while manifesting more Primordial Avatars, letting them enter the various worlds one by one.

And while Lu Yun was working hard to cultivate, the people from the Transmigration Chat Group whom he had brought to the Great Desolation were also cultivating crazily.

Among them, the batch of newcomers who had just joined the group not long ago were the most frantic.

Because they had previously deeply felt the terror of the Heavenly Tribulation in their respective worlds; although Hongjun was also driving the Heavenly Dao to suppress them in the Great Desolation, at least there were many group members helping them resist together, so they were not isolated and helpless.

In addition, these group members all had rich cultivation experience, which was much faster than them fumbling through cultivation on their own!

Moreover, after some communication with the big shots in the group, they had learned a piece of news: although the Heavenly Tribulation they would face upon returning to their worlds would strengthen as their strength improved, if they reached a certain limit of their worlds while cultivating here in the Great Desolation and the Heavenly Dao could not do anything to them, then the Heavenly Tribulation would naturally disappear! From the exchanges among the big shots, they also analyzed that most of them could basically avoid the Heavenly Tribulation once they reached the Great Luo Golden Immortal level of the Great Desolation.

There was another point, which was that the Genius Tournament itself had set up many rewards; the more their strength improved, the greater the benefits they could obtain at the tournament. By then, even if they really couldn't cultivate to the Great Luo Golden Immortal level, among the many rewards obtained, there might be some Spiritual Treasures that could help them resist the Heavenly Tribulation!

It was precisely because of this belief, combined with the powerful environment of the Great Desolation, that after a period of crazy cultivation, many of the originally very weak newcomers soon triggered the Immortal Ascension Tribulation one after another.

Consequently, Heavenly Tribulation Clouds began to appear in succession in Future City.

Because Hongjun had cast Heavenly Tribulation suppression on this group of "Outer Realm Heavenly Demons," the power of these Immortal Ascension Tribulations was naturally very astonishing one by one.

Yet even so, the members of the Transmigration Chat Group all endured it one by one!

After all, back then Lu Yun was able to survive alone in the Great Desolation by relying on the various suggestions from his group friends, let alone now, when there are hundreds of transmigrators here huddling together for warmth!

Although they do not have Lu Yun's Listen-to-Advice System, they have the Points Mall, and in order to help one another, certain powerful group members either teach the newcomers amplification secret arts and cultivation methods, help set up arrays, or directly lend out powerful Spiritual Treasures.

The result is that the newcomers have one after another passed the Heavenly Tribulation and ascended to become immortals! According to the current Heaven and Earth rules of the Great Desolation, after a living being passes the Tribulation Transcendence and becomes an immortal, they will ascend to the Heavenly Realm.

But Hongjun is not at ease letting this group of "Outer Realm Heavenly Demons" ascend to the Heavenly Realm, fearing that the other party will throw the Heavenly Realm into chaos.

Moreover, this Ascension Rule has actually long since been cracked by the Earthly Faction and the Human Dao Faction.

The method of cracking it is also very simple: it is to go directly to the door and forcibly bring the ascending immortals back to the human world or the Underworld! Because the Heavenly Court currently has a large number of Heavenly Dao Faction disciples who have been reincarnated, the number of people with mid-level strength is very scarce. The powerhouses of the Earthly Faction and the Human Dao Faction have seen this point clearly, so they go directly to the door to demand the return of those who have ascended, including those from their two factions who ascended a long time ago!

For this reason, Haotian and Yaochi were almost angered to death! Because they had previously been trying to win over the ascenders from the Underworld and the human world, not only giving them an immortal dew baptism when they ascended, but also paying many other costs to cultivate them.

Now that they are being asked back one by one by the Human Dao and Earthly Factions, they have suffered huge losses! Yet their mid-level strength is currently empty, and Haotian and Yaochi dare not refuse. After all, the people sent by the other side to demand them are only Great Luo Golden Immortals or Quasi-Saints; it is not as if their Heavenly Dao Faction side could send out a Saint to personally drive them away! In the end, after some deliberation, Hongjun could only change the Ascension Rule to allow for a personal choice. Refusing to ascend naturally means one cannot enjoy the benefits of the Heavenly Court, but once one chooses to ascend and receives the benefits of the Heavenly Court, it is implied that one cannot leave, otherwise, a Heavenly Condemnation will be sent down directly! This solved the trouble, but the Heavenly Dao Faction's plan to absorb talent from the human world and the Underworld has basically gone down the drain.

Besides this, many other living beings in the Great Desolation are also working hard to cultivate, each one fully preparing for the Genius Tournament, filled with anticipation to show off their skills.

The entire Great Desolation is in a state of cultivation frenzy, and the number of mid-level powerhouses is growing significantly. However, because the Saints have opened up dojos and Zhenyuanzi has passed down the Earth Immortal Dao, leading countless people to open up Cave Heaven Blessed Lands, the Great Desolation is continuously receiving a large amount of Chaos Qi replenishment, and there is actually no trend of triggering the Great Calamity; instead, there is a state of prosperity.

At the same time, the Great Immortal Yang Mei is constantly traveling through Chaos.

His speed is extremely fast, and his goal is also very clear, because he deduces that the world of Lu Yun that Hongjun wants to find is likely the strange world he discovered before! However, when he rushed to the vicinity of that Chaos region, he was suddenly dumbfounded: "Where is that world? Such a massive world, how has it disappeared?!"

(End of this chapter)