Chapter 2276: Contesting for Seats

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The ten seats of honor were on the left and right sides of the major stream of Destiny’s Creek.

There were ten major tributaries downstream of the major stream. Each major tributary was a hundred feet wide, and there were ten prime seats on the left and right sides. In total, there were 100 seats.

Zhang Ruochen did not fight for the ten seats of honor, but he would not let go of the prime seats.

There were 300 to 400 cultivators fighting for the 100 prime seats. Their cultivation strength was very powerful. They had broken more than ninety shackles or had reached the Great Perfection of Hundred-Shackle Realm.

The contest for the prime seats was even more intense than the competition for the seats of honor.

Beside each chair sat several top Hundred-Shackle Realm Supreme Saints who were analyzing the restrictive inscriptions surrounding the jade stones used as the seats.

The competition for seats at the Celestial-Hunting Festival was not some combat battles. The one who cracked the restrictive inscriptions on a jade stone first could sit on it.

Once a seat was taken, other cultivators could not snatch it away.

That was why every cultivator had to make an accurate assessment of their own strength. They had to choose the seat that they were most confident of taking down and the one closest to the upstream.

If one made the wrong choice, even if they were Hundred-Shackle Realm elites who had achieved Great Perfection, they might end up sitting at the fourth-tier seats at the festival. Then they would lose their faces even before the festival began.

In this way, the one could analyze the restrictive inscriptions faster, the greater their advantage.

Zhang Ruochen appeared to be in no hurry. He came to a prime seat closest to the primary stream of Destiny’s Creek. His eyes covered by Precepts of Truth emitted a dazzling light. He looked over.

He found many restrictive inscriptions in a 30-foot radius around that prime seat.

There was only one Hundred-Shackle Realm Supreme Saint of Great Perfection next to the prime seat: the Deathkin’s Lord Sinluo. Zhang Ruochen had met him once in Realm of Star Ocean. At that time, Lord Sinluo stood next to Pan Ruo.

According to Luo Sha, Zhang Ruochen had killed Lord Sinluo’s younger brother.

Zhang Ruochen had killed too many cultivators in Infernal Court, so he had long forgotten who Lord Sinluo’s younger brother was.

Lord Sinluo sensed a cultivator approaching. He sneered in his mind. ‘How dare you compete against me for this seat? Don’t you know your own strength?’

When Lord Sinluo opened his eyes and saw Zhang Ruochen, he was a little surprised at first, but then he displayed a strong hostility.

“You’d better fight for other prime seats. Don’t humiliate yourself,” Lord Sinluo said.

Zhang Ruochen didn’t leave. He said, “It’s just the restrictive inscriptions of one seat. Do you need to spend that much time to analyze it?”

Lord Sinluo stared at Zhang Ruochen as if Zhang Ruochen was an idiot.

‘This is one of the best prime seats. Of course, the restrictive inscriptions are powerful that even a Hundred-Shackle Realm elite who achieved Great Perfection will take some time to analyze and crack them?

‘Zhang Ruochen is really stupid to waste time here instead of looking for another seat that suits him.

Seeing that Lord Sinluo didn’t answer, Zhang Ruochen mobilized the power of Truth to cover the 30-feet-wide space around the seat and decipher it as quickly as possible.

Half an hour later.

“300 Divine inscriptions, 30,000 Supreme-Saint level inscriptions, and 3,000,000 Saint-level inscriptions. There are 30 types of restrictions: Dimension, Darkness, Fire, Ice, Destiny… The restrictive inscriptions are overlapping with each other,” Zhang Ruochen said.

The analysis of the restrictive inscriptions was complete.

Zhang Ruochen strolled to that prime seat. When he reached the edge of 30 feet, he stretched out a hand and pressed it forward. Instantly, the restrictive inscriptions were broken.

When Zhang Ruochen took the seat, Lord Sinluo was still sitting cross-legged on the ground. He was petrified as he stared at Zhang Ruochen’s back.

‘What kind of joke is this? He has completely deciphered the restrictive inscriptions this quick?’

Lord Sinluo was ranked 21st among the Hundred-Shackle Realm elites who had achieved Great Perfection. Although he was qualified to fight for a seat of honor, he thought it would be easy to take a prime seat. Never did he expect that when he had only deciphered a quarter of restrictive inscriptions, Zhang Ruochen, a latecomer, had already secured the seat.

‘With such a speed in analyzing inscriptions, why did he come to take my seat instead of fighting for a seat of honor?

‘He did it on purpose. Zhang Ruochen must have done it on purpose. He’s deliberately targeting me. D*mn it. I haven’t even made trouble for him, but he provoked me first.” Lord Sinluo gnashed his teeth in hatred. He felt that Zhang Ruochen was deliberately trying to humiliate him.

This time, Zhang Ruochen had just randomly picked a seat. He really didn’t mean to target Lord Sinluo.

Seeing that Lord Sinluo was unwilling to leave for a long time, Zhang Ruochen frowned and said, “Why are you still here? If you don’t speed up, I’m afraid that all 100 seats will be taken.”

“Zhang Ruochen, don’t be so smug. It won’t be long before I settle new and old scores with you.”

Lord Sinluo grunted heavily. He knew he couldn’t waste any more time, so he quickly left and went for other seats.

Zhang Ruochen didn’t care about Lord Sinluo’s threat. He looked upstream and observed the group of Hundred-Shackle Realm cultivators, who were the Great Perfection achievers, fighting for the ten seats.

After carefully identifying each of them, Zhang Ruochen shook his head. He couldn’t find a cultivator who matched the black figure practicing the Path of Oblivion.

‘Is he not a Hundred-Shackle Realm Supreme Saint? Or is he not a cultivator at all?’ Zhang Ruochen thought.

Obviously, the higher tier the seats were, the harder it was to analyze and crack the restrictive inscriptions.

There was a total of 110 seats for the seats of honor and the prime seats. Zhang Ruochen was the first to sit. Hence, he attracted a lot of attention. Some were puzzled, some were surprised, and some were envious.

“Zhang Ruochen’s speed of analyzing the restrictive inscriptions is so fast. He could have taken a seat of honor. Why did he choose a prime seat?”

“The restrictive inscriptions for a seat of honor is much more challenging to analyze than a prime seat’s.

“Moreover, even if Zhang Ruochen can analyze the restrictive inscriptions of a seat of honor, he might not be able to break it with his Neverwilt Realm cultivation.

“In my opinion, he’s not confident. That’s why he chose the second-best seat.”

…

All the cultivators watching the Celestial-Hunting Festival were talking about Zhang Ruochen.

Zhang Ruochen’s spiritual power focused on the entire Destiny’s Creek.

In order to hide their strength, Supreme Saint Yi Xuan and Gu Chenzi listened to Zhang Ruochen’s instructions. They didn’t fight for prime seats but went further downstream for secondary seats.

Zhou Zhen, Gaunt, Shentu Yunkong, and the eighteen Six-Tribulation Ghost Lords carrying Sevenstar Imperial Palace could only go to fourth-tier seats further downstream because they were only servants.

Officially, only 10,000 cultivators attended the festival in the entire Infernal Court. There were bout 1,000 attendees from each clan.

Zhang Ruochen’s main focus was still on upper reaches where Hundred-Shackle Realm elites, who had achieved Great Perfection, were competing for seats of honor. After all, they were the intimidating threats in the Celestial-Hunting battlefield.

“The two cultivators next to the top two of the ten seats of honor should be Lan Ying, who’s ranked second, and Yan Huangtu, who’s ranked third.”

One was on the left side of Destiny’s Creek; the other was on the right.

One was a Divine Fetus, and the other was a peerless talent of Yanluo clan.

No cultivator dared to compete for the top two seats of honor at the Celestial-Hunting Festival.

Below Lan Ying was the fourth-ranked Luo Shengtian. Below Yan Huangtu was Wu Jiang, who was ranked fifth.

No cultivator dared to compete for the two seats.

However, the fight along the further spot became more intense. It was no longer an uncontested situation.

Zhang Ruochen suddenly understood obvious gaps present even among the top ten Great Perfection achievers at Hundred-Shackle Realm. Lan Ying and Yan Huangtu were the strongest. Luo Shengtian and Wu Jiang were close behind.

Behind them were Xue, Supreme Saint Yanhong, and Lord Bladehell. They were far behind the four of them. Because of this gap, no one dared to compete with them.

Three Great Perfection achievers at Hundred-Shackle Realm, including Yan and Lord Xia Yu, were competing for the four seats of honor on the left.

“It seems that Lord Xia Yu is not satisfied with my evaluation and wants to compete against Xu. Women like to take things to their hearts.”

Zhang Ruochen could see that Xu’s analyzing speed was faster than Lord Xia Yu’s.

Lord Xia Yu would most likely lose this seat contest.

“If she loses to Xu, not only will she not be able to sit in a seat of honor, she might not even get a prime seat. As the strongest elite in Bloodsky Clan, if she loses so badly, it will hurt the clan’s morale.”

Zhang Ruochen suddenly felt a little regretful. He felt that he should not have let Lord Xia Yu compete against Xu.

At that moment, the Hundred-Shackle Realm elite, the Great Perfection achiever competing against Lord Xia Yu and Xu for that seat decided to give up. He left and went downstream to get a prime seat.

If he could not win, he had to retreat.

No matter what, he had to secure a seat.

As time passed, the situation became clearer. Cultivators were sighted retreating from upstream for prime seats.

However, Lord Xia Yu was still competing against Xu.

The gap of strength between them was not big. The speed of analysis and cracking was about the same. Even if Lord Xia Yu was ahead, she was still in a narrow lead.

However, Zhang Ruochen gradually realized that Xu was deliberately toying with Lord Xia Yu. He deliberately created the illusion that she would be caught up and kept her there.

Xu was trying to give her false hope and then pushed her into the abyss of despair at the last moment.

Many cultivators saw this, but Lord Xia Yu, who was in the game, could not see through it. In her mind, Zhang Ruochen’s evaluation of her being inferior to Xu kept echoing, so she kept insisting, trying to prove herself.

‘Zhang Ruochen, I ain’t weaker than Xu. This time, you are wrong!’ Lord Xia Yu thought. She bit her red lips and took another step forward.

The seat was right in front of her, only ten feet away.

Lord Mu Yang, Lord Zhiyuan, and five other Supreme Saints less than 1,000 years old also attended the Celestial-Hunting Festival. However, their cultivation had exceeded Hundred-Shackle Realm, so their feast was not held at Destiny’s Creek but in a Divine Bone Pagoda above it. From the pagoda, they could look over the entire Destiny’s Creek.

“Xu’s speed of analyzing the restrictive inscriptions is much faster than Lord Xia Yu’s. But he deliberately slowed down his speed. It’s obvious that he’s teasing her.” Lord Zhiyuan was very angry as he clenched his fists tightly.

Every time at the Celestial-Hunting Festival, Dishastan would target Bloodsky Clan. The two forces had already formed a deep hatred.

“Lord Xia Yu is the top warrior of Bloodsky Clan. If she is defeated now, not only will her state of mind be affected, but it will also affect the morale of the entire Bloodsky Clan.

“Should I remind her?

“Even if she can’t secure a seat of honor, she should at least get herself a prime seat,” Empress Xiyan said.

Heavenly Lord Muyang shook his head gently and said, “Lord Xia Yu is stubborn. As long as she is set on something, no one can change her mind.”

“I don’t think so. I think her opinion of Zhang Ruochen has changed significantly,” Lord of Spear said.

Lord Mu Yang was stunned for a moment. Then he smiled. “Then send Zhang Ruochen a message telling him to remind Lord Xia Yu. Maybe he can change Lord Xia Yu’s mind…”

“Look! What is Zhang Ruochen doing?” Lord of Spear exclaimed.

Lord Mu Yang, Lord Zhiyuan, and others stared at Zhang Ruochen.

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