Chapter 1 Shushan Road

Shushan Road, the main peak's architecture, is far more magnificent than the Southern Courtyard.

First, there are the grand halls with plaques hanging on them, each three stories high. In ancient times, the number of dougong (bracket sets) used in the eaves determined how luxurious a building was.

The dougong under the eaves of the Shushan Main Hall are layered upon layer, angled askew, which is quite imposing.

There are nine such grand halls on the main peak, one per plaza, arranged in a ladder shape leading straight to the summit.

However, under the erosion of yin energy, the paint on the nine grand halls has peeled off and turned dark black, resembling ghost towers in the underworld.

In addition to the nine grand halls, the houses and pavilions stretch in continuous patches, but most have already collapsed into ruins.

Gathered among these buildings, on the plaza filled with cracked stones and overgrown with decaying weeds, float powerful wraiths. They are male and female, old and young, some with rotten faces and eyeballs dangling from their cheeks, others with shattered heads and black blood staining half their faces, and still others dragging their intestines as they drift about.

Besides the wraiths, there are figures wandering in the plaza and among the houses. They are powerful Yin corpses, uniformly black in color, with hair as messy as withered grass.

Some have festering skin oozing pus, some have protruding fangs, and some wield rusty iron swords like swordsmen.

These spirit servants and Yin corpses were all Shushan disciples and masters in life. After death, they were eroded by Yin energy, their souls did not perish, and their bodies mutated, becoming powerful Yin creatures. However, the moment the domineering and scorching golden sun rose, they melted at a speed visible to the naked eye, like snowmen thrown into hot water.

The wraiths, without bodies, had almost no power to resist and were immediately transcended, only having time to emit miserable screams.

The Yin corpses let out hoarse "ho-ho" roars, bared their fangs, brandished their claws, and pounced toward the source of the golden light. Their bodies became increasingly thin under the sunlight, and before they could get close to Zhang Wuqing, they turned to ashes while running.

With the blazing sun rising behind his head and the mark appearing, Zhang Yuanqing strolled through the Shushan Immortal Sect, from the first grand hall to the second, and then to the third. Wherever he went, he transcended all the wraiths and Yin corpses.

He walked slowly, as if strolling in his own backyard.

*This* is the correct way to use a Day Tour Spirit, Zhang Yuanqing thought with satisfaction.

Since entering the Ruler stage, he had never felt so carefree. He had a sense of being the master of heaven and earth, with the domineering and heroic spirit that those who opposed him would die.

At level 7, because there were more powerful items to use, they covered up the special characteristics of the Day Tour Spirit, and could not show the domineering and powerful nature of the power of the sun.

Now that he had advanced to level 8, except for a few trump card items, the rest of the Ruler-quality items were not as good as his Rising Sun and Blazing Sun War God combination.

At this time, the power of the Day Tour Spirit became apparent. Yin corpses and wraiths below level 8 had no power to resist and turned to ashes in the domineering golden light.

After exploring the fourth grand hall, Zhang Yuanqing dispersed the Rising Sun and Blazing Sun War God, put on the Natal Spirit Moon, and entered Night Tour mode, sitting in the hall to rest and recover.

Although his soul had undergone qualitative changes and become a Yang God, and his solar power was several times thicker, he could not be unrestrained. Forty minutes was his limit.

The boss had not yet appeared, so he should save his spiritual power as much as possible.

War of the Gods.

After arriving at the arena, the members of the Lawful faction tacitly took to the air, overlooking the small continent suspended thirty meters above the ground from a hundred meters in the air.

Opposite them, on the other side of the arena, were the members of the Evil faction.

A distance of four or five kilometers was like a few meters to their eyes, and they could clearly see each other's expressions and eyes.

The Sect Leader of the Taiyi Sect, wearing a starlight Changpao (long robe), his eyes not flickering with starlight, glanced at the enemy and the arena, and slowly said, "Everyone, the arena's mechanism is extremely unfavorable to us. Before the first battle, we need to unify our opinions and discuss countermeasures."

As the Lawful demigods looked on, he said, "Evil professions are stronger than Lawful professions, and this is also true in the demigod realm. During the melee, our side has a numerical advantage and reasonable ability combinations, which can suppress the Evil faction. However, once it comes to one-on-one duels, our chances of winning are slim."

Hearing this, the Lawful demigods turned their attention to the Evil demigods, the strongest of whom were the Asura with a level 12 authority and the Wine God with a level 11 authority.

There was also the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons with a level 11 authority, two Zhulong (Torch Dragon) with a level 10 authority, two Illusion Gods with a level 10 authority, and the powerful Lord of Taiyin (Great Yin).

In contrast, in the Lawful faction, besides the Star Lord who had a level 11 authority, the rest of the demigods were all level 10.

Moreover, in the interlude competition, the trump card of Five Elements Fusion was useless. The only thing that could be called a trump card was the Void Demigod.

The Sect Leader of the Taiyi Sect continued, "There are currently two points to the arena's mechanism: first, to reduce the duration of both sides' array cores; and second, to reduce the number of demigods. Only when demigods are reduced will the next round of array core competition not continue to stalemate."

The Lawful demigods all had solemn expressions.

The arena's mechanism of reducing the number of demigods was aimed at the Lawful faction.

The Sect Leader of the Taiyi Sect's mixed-sound 3D surround sound effect revealed a trace of solemnity: "Compared to the instance mechanism, I am more worried about the invisible enemies."

"Invisible enemies?" Jiang Bangzhu (Gang Leader) frowned, unable to understand what he meant.

The Sect Leader of the Taiyi Sect said, "The arena competition is obviously targeting our Lawful faction. The appearance of this unfair mechanism is itself a kind of hostility, but it is not from the Lingjing (Spirit Realm), but from those existences."

Speaking of this, he raised his head and looked at the gray sky: "Everyone, please look!"

The demigods all looked up.

The Sect Leader of the Taiyi Sect waved his hand, and brilliant starlight晕染spread out in the air.

In the vision of the demigods, the sky quickly faded, and a Spirit Realm world like a galaxy appeared. Then, the Spirit Realm world also faded, and the perspective rose higher and higher, reaching an infinitely high place.

Suddenly, a pair of huge eyes opened in the darkness, as if occupying the entire world. These eyes were filled with fighting spirit, bloodlust, cruelty, and the bewitching power to drive people mad.

The field of vision was raised again, and a dark and turbid ocean appeared. In the turbid waves, a vast shadow like a city wall sweeping across thousands of miles appeared and disappeared. The huge, boundless figure reminded people of the Midgard Serpent in Norse mythology, the giant serpent that circled the world.

That figure suddenly raised its head and looked at the Lawful demigods, and a vertical eye on its forehead bloomed with a faint blue light.

The starlight collapsed, and the Lawful demigods were struck by lightning. Some had bewitching demonic纹patterns floating on their bodies, some had turbid liquids flowing out of their pores, and their primordial spirits were shrouded in shadows and stained with filth.

A golden sun appeared on the Sect Leader of the Taiyi Sect's head, and with a series of "chuan chi" sounds, the Lawful demigods' abnormalities dissipated and returned to normal.

"Did you see that? Above the Spirit Realm are these existences," the Sect Leader of the Taiyi Sect said in a low voice.

"They are the supreme existences who invaded the Spirit Realm thousands of years ago," he sighed.

"Many years ago, I noticed that the Spirit Realm instances occasionally had bugs. Some bugs the Spirit Realm would fix on its own, while some bugs have continued to this day. For example, the Lingjing Yuling Tunnel in the Night Tour Spirit Trial."

"In the past year, the number of times the Spirit Realm has had bugs has been increasing, especially after Ling Tuo disrupted the instance and shielded the Merit List, the Spirit Realm instance bugs have spread to the Ruler level."

"The reason for all this is that the invasion of those supreme existences into the Spirit Realm has deepened. Including the mechanism of this arena competition, it is mostly their will."

The Lawful demigods' expressions changed slightly. With their authority, they were already aware of the information related to the Spirit Realm.

Chairman Hui took a breath of cold air, "Those guys have turned their attention here? Will this strengthen the power of the Evil demigods?"

"Yes!" The Sect Leader of the Taiyi Sect gave an affirmative answer: "They also have to follow the mechanism of the instance, but they will look for loopholes to give the Evil demigods in the instance an increase in power and convenience."

"The administrators of the Spirit Realm have already died. We can only rely on ourselves."

"In this battle, if I cannot become the Lord of the Sun, even if we survive, the Spirit Realm will be completely controlled by the Evil faction. At that time, it will still be difficult to escape destruction."

After clarifying the stakes, he said, "Back to the topic, each interlude competition can reduce the opponent's array duration by one day. The Evil faction has occupied two arrays, for a total of six days, but in fact, we only need to win three consecutive matches."

"The Evil faction needs to win seven consecutive matches to secure victory, because we have one waiver." The Lawful faction can directly restart one of the opponent's arrays by winning three consecutive matches.

If the Evil demigods are reduced by two, it is impossible to defend that array.

In this way, the Lawful faction will have four arrays.

After that, as long as they wait for the last array's duration to pass, they can gather all their strength to compete and occupy five arrays to obtain the origin of the sun. If the Evil faction wants to win, winning five consecutive matches is the safest. Five days of duration, plus the time spent in the arena competition, is enough to allow the Lawful faction to restart two arrays.

The Lawful faction, which has lost five demigods, will no longer have the strength to fight against the Evil faction.

"Winning three consecutive matches is impossible!" Fu Qingxuan shook her head, "As long as Asura takes action, the Evil faction will definitely win a round."

The Sect Leader of the Taiyi Sect's voice was layered and magnificent, "Therefore, we must win three out of five matches."

Chairman Hui raised his hand and smiled, "I can win a round. As long as I don't face Asura, I can seize authority after killing an Evil demigod, continue to recharge, and keep winning. But I think the Evil faction won't let us take advantage of this loophole. If I don't take action, Asura won't take action."

"Then you stay on the field to restrain Asura," Jiang Bangzhu (Gang Leader) volunteered.

"I'll go first in the first battle."

The white-haired and white-bearded Liu family demigod shook his head and said, "The arena competition must guard two bottom lines: the five alliance leaders cannot play. If any of you are lost in the arena and your authority is taken away, we will lose the Five Elements Fusion trump card. But the Star Lord cannot play. If something happens to the Star Lord, the sun competition will end early."

The Lord of Midgard said, "We can decide our lineup based on the opponent's roster. Both Baihua Chairman and I can play. Jiang Bangzhu can forget it. If you play, the best outcome is mutual destruction."

Jiang Bangzhu was unconvinced and was about to retort when the Water God Official said in a soft voice, "We have two waiver opportunities. Using one waiver should allow us to achieve zero losses. I just don't know if the waiver is limited to exempting us from death battles, or if it also protects us from the duration reduction."

This detail was not clearly stated in the instance.

"Another advantage is that the Evil faction releases their roster first, and we can choose who to send based on the situation," Fu Qingxuan said.

This was very important, because there was a principle of mutual generation and overcoming among Spirit Realm professions. If the attributes were mutually restrained, even if the level was lower than the opponent, one could still defeat the enemy.

Half an hour passed quickly, and the Spirit Realm prompt sounded again, "[Please select your combatants.]"

Half an hour later, Zhang Yuanqing, who had recovered his spiritual power, left the main hall, activated the Rising Sun and Blazing Sun War God, and let the golden light once again illuminate the Shushan Immortal Sect,消弭消弭消阴尸和怨气消 (to eliminate the Yin corpses and resentment).

He pushed his way through, encountering several Ruler-level Yin corpses, which he annihilated after a fierce battle.

Before long, he arrived at the summit. The main hall here had six stories, with overlapping eaves and dougong that were dizzying to look at. It was more magnificent and grand than any golden-roofed hall.

The incense burner in front of the hall was overturned, the stone slabs were cracked, and what grew in the cracks was not weeds, but clusters of ink-colored alien grass. Even though Zhang Yuanqing was not an Earth official, he could tell that it was a very precious Yin-attribute spirit grass. The aura of this spirit grass changed the surrounding environment. "Growing spirit grass, the instance boss is at least level 9 early stage, or even level 9 mid stage," Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself.

In the Ruler stage, it was common for level 9 bosses to appear in level 8 S-rank instances.

He had heard from his uncle that the strength of a level 9 mid-stage instance boss was at the level 9 peak.

As for Spirit Realm Xingzhe (walkers) at the level 9 peak, they basically didn't have to worry about instances anymore.

Because with their authority, as long as they obtained demigod items, they could directly absorb and refine them to enter the demigod domain. The only thing that could pose a threat to them was the trial instance for advancing to demigod.

This kind of instance appeared frequently in the early days of the Spirit Realm, but as demigods were born one after another, this kind of Lingjing (Spirit Realm) gradually disappeared.

The most recent demigod trial instance appeared in the White Tiger Army's gang instance. It was said that Qingying (Green Oriole) had cleared that instance and became the new marshal.

At this time, the spirit servants and Yin corpses wandering outside had been transcended by Zhang Yuanqing, and the vast Shushan was silent. The sound of his footsteps climbing the stone steps was clearly audible.

Zhang Yuanqing ascended the steps and stopped in front of the hall. Overhead hung a plaque that was about to fall, which read: Sword Qi Hall!

He gently waved his right hand, and the劲气wind struck the tightly closed, rotten hall door.

With a crack, the hall door shattered, and the scenery inside the hall came into view.