Palace Treasure

Ye Muxuan and the others entered the hall. Facing the gazes of over a thousand people, they found a corner and sat down. Many others were also sizing up the thousand or so powerhouses in the hall, though quite a few had their eyes closed in quiet contemplation. Once the 120 powerhouses present learned that these people had obtained their places through auctions held within their respective Universe Kingdoms, many of them lost interest in talking to them.

On the path to becoming a powerhouse, those worthy of respect were the strong—the pillars who stood at the very peak. To put it bluntly, any one of the hundred World Lords from the Outer Battlefield could take on any one of the eight or nine hundred World Lords in this hall and kill them in an instant. Even Li Zheng—though he couldn't withstand Ye Muxuan's second strike, he could still slaughter more than half of those eight or nine hundred by himself. And a super World Lord like "Thunderbolt Spear" Zhendan, who had once personally killed an Immortal Deity, could slaughter every single World Lord there on his own.

It was true that quantity could bring about a qualitative change, but a mere eight or nine hundred World Lords were still no match for a super World Lord like Zhendan. So why should he spare them a second glance?

As for the World Lords who could afford to buy a place at auction, either they had an Immortal supporting them or they'd had some kind of fortuitous encounter. A place in the Outer Battlefield cost Military Merit worth twenty thousand Hunyuan Units, and places at auction would only be more expensive. Each Universe Kingdom had only one place per era, and auction prices had once doubled, soaring to nearly fifty thousand Hunyuan Units. A World Lord like Li Zheng or Ye Muxuan might casually bring out treasures worth hundreds of thousands of Hunyuan Units, but a normal World Lord was considered well-off if he had a hundred.

An Immortal's place was even more expensive.

That was why the World Lords from the Outer Battlefield looked down on those who had obtained places through auctions within their Universe Kingdoms. Likewise, these World Lords with powerful backing looked down on the lone wolves who had come from the Outer Battlefield.

Amid the mutual disdain between the two sides, seven days passed in the blink of an eye, and the last three groups arrived as promised.

Two clearly distinct circles had formed in the hall, one large and one small. Each had its own conversations, and the two sides were quietly squaring off. Just then, a man clad in a deep purple battle robe appeared out of nowhere. A pair of gleaming curved horns grew from his forehead.

Ye Muxuan looked up sharply!

His instincts told him that several things far more terrifying than his Soul-type Heavy Treasure had appeared nearby. The aura emanating from each one was like an abyss, capable of swallowing everyone present with ease!

Ye Muxuan fixed his gaze on the purple-robed man who had appeared in the hall. The several objects radiating those terrifying auras had come from him.

As Ye Muxuan's gaze settled on the purple-robed man, his heart sank. His pupils contracted, and a fine sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead.

The purple-robed man was clearly standing right there in the hall. But to Ye Muxuan's senses, he seemed like a virtual projection, as if he were in another space entirely. Ye Muxuan couldn't sense his presence at all.

"These are the people on the list for this trip to the Initial Universe?" His indifferent gaze swept across the hall. Aside from Ye Muxuan, no one had noticed his arrival.

"Yes, Kingdom Lord!" A tall, slender man in a black robe and with red eyes suddenly appeared in the hall. He answered the purple-robed man respectfully.

"Let's go." The purple-robed man's gaze remained indifferent, and then he vanished.

"Yes, Kingdom Lord!" The tall, slender man in black raised his head. His dark red eyes swept across the hall, and the faint pressure of his Immortal Divine Power made the entire hall tremble slightly.

"Everyone, follow me." His dark red gaze passed over the crowd, and Immortal Divine Power spread out, pressing down on the hundreds of Immortal Deities present.

Only twenty of the Immortals in the hall had obtained their places by exchanging Military Merit through the army: ten were Marquis Rank, and ten were army leaders. Meanwhile, a full 373 Immortals had come after obtaining places through auctions within their Universe Kingdoms, and forty-nine of them were Marquis Rank.

Within the Universe Kingdoms, the gap between the numbers of army leaders and Marquis Rank Immortals was far greater than on the Outer Battlefield.

The tall, slender man in the black robe, with his red eyes, suppressed all fifty-nine Marquis Rank Immortals and 334 army leaders by himself.

Even the Marquis Rank Immortals were completely powerless against him, let alone Ye Muxuan and the other World Lords, despite there being more than a thousand of them.

Everyone got to their feet without a word and followed the red-eyed man in black out to the lawn.

A few minutes later, the thousand or so people saw a massive, black, three-story palace with a pointed roof standing on the lawn. They looked at one another in astonishment.

The people had been here for varying lengths of time. Some had arrived only two days ago, while others had been here for months. None of them had ever seen a palace on this lawn before. And now, such an enormous palace had appeared out of nowhere.

Of everyone there, only Ye Muxuan stood with his mouth slightly agape.

He had a pretty good idea what it was.

A palace-type treasure!

He didn't know whether it was a Heavy Treasure or a Supreme Treasure, but it was something that could rival—or even surpass—a soul-type treasure of the same rank.

He hadn't expected that the being in question would possess such a treasure. That person was definitely a Venerable of immense strength, perhaps even an Overlord.

Ye Muxuan lowered his head slightly, not daring to even let his gaze fall on the tall, slender man in the black robe with red eyes.

"All World Lords, go to the first floor. Immortals, go to the second." The tall, slender man in the black robe glanced over the thousand or so people, then quietly vanished. Even with Ye Muxuan's understanding of the Space Laws, he could only faintly sense an extremely subtle spatial fluctuation.

And that was with the man right beside them, no more than a few dozen meters away. If he had been any farther, Ye Muxuan wouldn't have sensed the spatial fluctuation at all. The man's understanding of the Space Origin Law surpassed even Ye Muxuan's wildest expectations.

The slightest movement from any of the thousand people could cause a huge stir. But this was the Virtual Universe Company Headquarters, its home base. If there were places in the Primal Universe where Ye Muxuan felt safe, this one was easily in the top three. Others might not know it, but Ye Muxuan knew the starry river overhead might not be the real starry sky of the Primal Universe—and there was more than one Universe Master stationed here.

So Ye Muxuan didn't hesitate. He was the first to walk toward the palace.

The World Lords from the Outer Battlefield had practically made Ye Muxuan their leader, even though he hadn't said a word. They could still count the years back to that battle more than four years ago. Even "Blade Maniac" Li Zheng, who had cultivated the Extreme Wind Secret Canon to the eighth level, had lost. And "Rain Sword" Kong Yan and "Thunderbolt Spear" Zhendan had privately admitted they were no match for him. Which of the other World Lords would dare make trouble?