Competition

If a World Lord in the Primordial Secret Realm could break through the Sixteenth Layer, that meant that, ten thousand years later, when the World Lord-level Secret Realm Qualification Battle took place, the few most outstanding World Lords in the Primordial Secret Realm would almost certainly be able to enter the Primal Secret Realm.

Entering the Primal Secret Realm didn't mean you could rest easy. Competition was everywhere, and it never stopped.

"Born in a Universe Secret Region, entering the Outer Battlefield as a Domain Lord, fighting there for over a hundred thousand years as a World Lord, and reaching the Thirteenth Layer on his first attempt at the Heavenly Bridge—then entering the Heavenly Region of the Core Layer. As long as a genius like that hasn't committed treason, we can overlook a few minor things." White Phoenix Palace Master began with some inconsequential remarks, then continued, "I like his character and the way he conducts himself. If his talent and comprehension are up to par, what's wrong with taking on one more disciple?"

"I've only known him for a few short years, but I think he's excellent in every way. Looks like I'm going to have a junior brother." Heavenly Feather King spoke, a hint of a smile appearing on his usually expressionless face.

"Then you can tell him that if he can break through the Fifteenth Layer of the Heavenly Bridge during his three thousand years in Chaos City, I'll take him as an honorary disciple," White Phoenix Palace Master said. "After he leaves Chaos City, have him return to the Outer Battlefield. If he can hunt a Marquis Rank as a World Lord, I'll take him as my personal disciple."

"Understood, Teacher."

Time passed. Many things in Chaos City seemed almost frozen in place. After more than thirty years of cultivation there, the Genius Battle participants were taken away by a Venerable, though fewer than nine hundred of them remained by then.

The hundred World Lords from the Outer Battlefield, including Ye Muxuan, had received excellent cultivation conditions, and each had made considerable gains. A few World Lord Generals who had been stuck at Peak World Lord for some time were even able to break through their bottleneck and become Immortals!

However, in the Initial Universe, even after breaking through the bottleneck, they couldn't connect their consciousness to the Primal Universe's origin land and receive a divine power transformation. So for the time being, they were only at the "Quasi-Immortal" stage!

As soon as they left the Initial Universe and connected their consciousness to the origin land, an ocean of divine power would immediately pour into them, transforming their World Force into Immortal Divine Power.

Strictly speaking, their Heavenly Bridge levels only reflected comprehension of the lower laws at the Tenth Layer. But this was an opportunity they had to seize. After all, if they remained World Lords, they would only be Outer Members of the Five Great Powers, and might not even get the chance to enter the Core Layer. Now, as Immortal Deities, they had become official members of the End Times Secret Realm, just like Li Zheng—though, of course, only the End Times Secret Realm.

In the end, even for a World Lord from the Primal Secret Realm, becoming an Immortal was only a matter of probability; nothing was guaranteed. Of the thousand geniuses recruited from each Genius Battle and Strongest Battle, only a dozen or so would eventually become Immortals. If the participants in any given Genius Battle or Strongest Battle were below average, there might not even be ten. And in the end, those dozen or so might not achieve as much as these people.

If a Genius Battle or Strongest Battle produced a single Marquis, it was already a good deal. Producing a King was an enormous windfall. Across the countless eras of the Human Race, only about a hundred thousand had become Kings.

Time meant little. As the years slipped quietly by, a century after the Genius Battle participants left Chaos City—one hundred and thirty-two years after Ye Muxuan had arrived in the Initial Universe—he broke through the Fourteenth Layer! A hundred years later, Zhendan successfully broke through the Thirteenth Layer. Two hundred years after that, Kong Yan followed suit and broke through the Thirteenth Layer. Another hundred years later, Li Zheng broke through the Twelfth Layer.

When the thousand-year period ended for the World Lords who had obtained spots at the auction, forty-seven of the total one thousand and eight had fallen. Of those who remained, three had broken through the World Lord bottleneck and become "Quasi-Immortals."

Over the same thousand years, the hundred World Lords from the Outer Battlefield had shown far greater potential. Not only had not one of them died, but seventeen had broken through the World Lord bottleneck and become "Quasi-Immortals"! The other eighty-three World Lords had also made progress. By the end of the thousand-year period, Ye Muxuan had broken through the Fifteenth Layer; Zhendan and Kong Yan were at the Thirteenth Layer; Li Zheng was at the Twelfth Layer; and Qing Lun, Bone Hand, Blood Sword, Wei Yi, and the others had all broken through the Tenth Layer.

Among the Immortals, two of the three hundred and twenty-four Military Lord Immortals from the Universe Kingdom who had obtained spots through the auction broke through the Fifteenth Layer, their Law Comprehension advancing to Marquis Rank. Among the forty-nine Marquis Rank Immortals, one advanced from High-level Marquis to Peak Marquis. Of the twenty Immortals from the Outer Battlefield, three of the ten Military Lord Immortals broke through the Fifteenth Layer, advancing their Law Comprehension to Marquis Rank. Two Early Marquis advanced to High-level Marquis, while the High-level Marquis broke through from the Sixteenth Layer straight to the Eighteenth Layer and successfully became a King.

Although he was only an Initial King, he was still a King.

He was the first among the thousand or so people in this group to become a King. Everyone knew that, given his potential, Initial King was probably the limit of what he could achieve. Still, he had risen above the vast majority. At his coronation celebration, the World Lords and Immortals from the Outer Battlefield gathered together. Their gifts were all generous, worth anywhere from a few tens of thousands to several hundred thousand Hunyuan units. They gave everything from various materials and spaceships to simple cash gifts. But in the end, the newly crowned King was the one who spent the most, and all the powerful fighters got thoroughly drunk!

After returning from the celebration, everyone cultivated even harder. With Ye Muxuan having reached the Fifteenth Layer in just a thousand years as a World Lord, and a High-level Marquis Immortal having successfully become a King, they were all fired up and brimming with confidence.

Even so, Law Comprehension still had its bottlenecks. Before the three-thousand-year deadline arrived, only a handful of World Lords managed to advance another layer. Most of them were just treading water. At best, their comprehension grew deeper, but they still couldn't reach the next layer.

In the eighteen-hundredth year after entering Chaos City, Li Zheng was the first to make a breakthrough, reaching the Thirteenth Layer and drawing level with Zhendan and Kong Yan for the first time. In the two-thousand-one-hundredth year, Zhendan reached the Fourteenth Layer. Two hundred years later, Kong Yan reached the Fourteenth Layer too, once again pulling ahead of Li Zheng.

To the surprise of all the powerful fighters from the Outer Battlefield, War Bone, a World Lord General who had come from the Seventh Battlefield, made successive breakthroughs during his more than three thousand years of study in Chaos City. When he first arrived, he had only just broken through the Ninth Layer of the Heavenly Bridge. Then he surged forward, breaking through four layers in a row. Near the end of his three thousand years, he reached the Thirteenth Layer, catching up with Blade Maniac Li Zheng!

This caught everyone by surprise!

PS: The Chaos City arc is almost over. Hmm, I feel like I've dragged it out too.