"The Heavenly Ranking is about to change again!"
"Water Dragon Chant made the ranking before, pushing the Taotie Bowl out of tenth place. Could someone new be appearing again?"
"Look, tenth place is changing!"
The crowd could not stop clamoring.
They looked toward the vast Heavenly Ranking. Upon it, name after name was shrouded in golden light, flickering and changing without cease.
At that very moment!
Eastern Continent.
For days, the flames of war had filled the skies.
War had suddenly broken out between the Heavenly Dusk Dynasty and the Linglong Duchy!
Grand Duke Linglong had painstakingly laid his plans for decades. Attacked from within and without, the Heavenly Dusk army suffered devastating casualties!
Thick signal smoke rose everywhere. On one battlefield, the Heavenly Dusk army was routed, Murong Jue was gravely wounded, and General Jing Zhao died in battle.
At the final moment!
The imperial preceptor offered himself as a sacrifice, and Murong Jue unleashed the Taotie Bowl!
His bright yellow armor was in tatters, and his bloodstained face brimmed with the killing intent of one final, desperate gamble!
The divine artifact transformed into a Taotie!
In an instant, it swallowed a hundred thousand Linglong soldiers!
Activating the Taotie Bowl required Murong Jue to supply an endless stream of power. Seeing his strength depleted, Grand Duke Linglong's imposing face took on a trace of disdain.
Nearby, ten tribes, including Mysterious Shadow and Mengju, watched like hungry tigers, waiting for their chance to reap the spoils!
"Your sun has reached its setting; all that remains is death!
"I have coveted your throne for far too long!
"Murong Jue, I will preserve your dignity as an emperor and let you die beneath a divine artifact of the Heavenly Ranking!"
Grand Duke Linglong laughed aloud, swept his sleeve through the clouds, and produced a crown of peerless grandeur.
The Cloud Emperor Crown!
In an instant!
Dust and sand flew, Dragon Qi swept forth, and terrifying turbulence surged through heaven and earth!
Eternal Dragon Qi coiled around Grand Duke Linglong!
In Murong Jue's eyes, it was the death-dealing breath of annihilation!
"This land belongs to me, and the people of Heavenly Dusk are my subjects!
"Including... you!"
Murong Jue said.
He desperately poured power into the Taotie Bowl. His power was waning now, and he was barely holding on!
The savage Taotie beast voraciously swallowed the Linglong army!
"It is all over!"
Grand Duke Linglong raised his palm. The Cloud Emperor Crown blazed with dazzling light, nine golden dragon phantoms hanging high above it, wreathed in Eternal Dragon Qi.
Murong Jue's gaze burned like a torch.
For an emperor to die on the battlefield could be considered a death of righteous dignity.
At least he would not die a coward's death!
Then let me use this last strength to resist!
He faced death as though returning home!
"Die!"
The triumphant Grand Duke Linglong laughed arrogantly. His beautiful future lay right before his eyes.
After this battle...
He would become the emperor of Linglong!
And the man before him would die, recorded in the Linglong Empire's histories as a loser and a weakling, a towering mountain of failure!
Suddenly!
The nine golden dragon phantoms broke free of Grand Duke Linglong's control and began swimming swiftly toward Murong Jue!
Kingly majesty soared into the sky.
Even the Eternal Dragon Qi awarded by the Heavenly Ranking was forcibly torn from Grand Duke Linglong, breaking away and flying toward Murong Jue!
"W-what is happening?"
Grand Duke Linglong was utterly horrified. He thought he was seeing ghosts in broad daylight, but the golden dragons formed by the Cloud Emperor Crown had already rushed into Murong Jue's body. Eternal Dragon Qi erupted, actually becoming the latter's to command!
Impossible...
This is impossible...
Why has the Cloud Emperor Crown abandoned me...?
"Murong Jue, you used sorcery!"
Grand Duke Linglong's eyes widened in impotent fury as he roared.
Nine golden dragon phantoms circled behind Murong Jue. Eternal Dragon Qi poured into the crown of his head, and imperial majesty surged forth.
At that moment!
A black hole opened in the sky, and billowing fortune descended from above. Dragon Qi erupted as Murong Jue slowly rose, straightening his body. Amid the shifting winds and clouds, he was the true emperor!
The Linglong army was awestruck!
They knelt!
The tribes, including Mysterious Shadow and Mengju, were likewise awestruck!
They, too, knelt!
What an earthshaking reversal!
Murong Jue possessed greater imperial majesty than Grand Duke Linglong!
And so the imperial crown changed hands!
How could this happen...?
I accounted for everything, yet still overlooked this!
You actually possess greater Dragon Qi than I do?!
"I will kill you!"
Humiliation turned to rage. Sword in hand, Grand Duke Linglong lunged madly toward him.
Bang!
Murong Jue pointed a finger. Dragon Qi transformed into a sword, and with a single strike, it pierced the winds and clouds and beheaded Grand Duke Linglong on the spot!
Thud!
Grand Duke Linglong fell to his knees before Murong Jue, his severed head still muttering as it rolled!
"I will not lose!"
"I cannot possibly die!"
"Murong Jue!"
"Murong Jue, Murong Jue..."
At that moment!
The Heavenly Ranking high above released a piercing light that enveloped the three thousand worlds.
Dong!
A bell tolled as the dust settled.
The owner of tenth place on the Dharma Artifact Ranking had changed!!
[Tenth place] Name: Cloud Emperor Crown Grade: Divine artifact Owner: Murong Jue Assessment: Contains the supreme laws of emperors, the sovereign of the nine and five, cleaving heaven and earth!
"The divine artifact has changed hands!"
"Tenth place belonged to Grand Duke Linglong before!"
"Quick, look! The video has updated!"
Everyone looked toward the Heavenly Ranking. The video was showing the very battle between Murong Jue and Grand Duke Linglong!
"Murong Jue's imperial majesty surpassed Grand Duke Linglong's, so the Cloud Emperor Crown changed masters when it saw him!"
"This is destiny!"
People discussed it in a clamor, marveling.
The Heavenly Ranking bestowed its reward.
[Tenth-place reward] Holy Dragon National Fortune
The reward turned into white light and fell into Murong Jue's hands.
"National fortune...
"This is a vast kind of fortune!"
Murong Jue murmured.
His thoughts stirred, and he released the Holy Dragon National Fortune. The vast, surging fortune washed over the entire Heavenly Dusk Dynasty, bringing boundless spiritual vitality!
Murong Jue had never seen such fortune in his life.
So magnificent!
Boom-
Suddenly, an earthshaking crash rang out. Billowing spiritual resonance filled the skies, and Murong Jue's cultivation rose with a thunderous boom!
Previously, he had been trapped in the Tribulation Transcendence Realm for two hundred years before refining the Purple Extremity Realm-Breaking Golden Pill awarded by the Heavenly Ranking and breaking through to Mahayana first stage. Now, under such powerful forces, he rose three stages in succession, reaching Mahayana fourth stage!
At the same time!
Endless Dao resonance filled the Heavenly Dusk Dynasty, Spiritual Qi surging until it had become a holy land in its own right!
"A single reward from the Heavenly Ranking actually elevated my dynasty from a divine land to a holy land!
"Just like the Azure Luan Clan, the Azure Dragon Clan, and the Azure Cloud Holy Land!
"Though still in its infancy, its potential is limitless!"
Murong Jue was deeply shaken!
Xuanji Sect.
For days, Xie Feng had been teaching Sushang on Xuanji Mountain while immersing himself in contemplation. His soul power had even reached early tenth grade.
Water Dragon Chant had taken fifth place on the Dharma Artifact Ranking, earning a divine-grade pill formula-the formula for the Great Radiance Spirit-Enhancing Pill, a pill containing powerful soul power.
Xie Feng wanted to refine a divine pill!
If he succeeded, he could handle the lightning tribulation Sushang would face when advancing to seventh grade!
Sixth grade was the dividing line for alchemists. Beyond sixth grade, they met the conditions to comprehend the Great Dao, and lightning tribulations began to appear. At that point, they needed the aid of vast soul power even more.
The formula listed nearly seven hundred medicinal ingredients, with no shortage of rare and precious ones among them. These were not too difficult for Xie Feng to find. Only three ingredients were absent from the medicinal garden on the mountain behind the sect!
Dust of Eternal Night!
Unwithering Jade!
Ten-Thousand-Year Immortal Bone!
"Dust of Eternal Night, taken from the soil of eternal night...
"As for Unwithering Jade, even after searching through all the ancient alchemy books, I have no recollection of it at all.
"For the final ingredient, Ten-Thousand-Year Immortal Bone, I fear I will have to try my luck at some immortal or sacred ruins.
"The only one whose location is certain right now is Dust of Eternal Night!"
Xie Feng pondered to himself.
Just then, Sushang presented a sixth-grade pill formula for him to inspect. She could already refine early sixth-grade pills!
"Little girl."
"Here!"
"Come, we're going to the Land of Eternal Night."
"What are we going there for?"
"Treasure hunting!"