A week passed quickly without much change occurring on the surface. However, the majority of the Pavilions were in an uproar, especially ones who possessed more than one qualified or aspiring member who wished to participate.
Several bouts of infighting shook the Divine Palace once more as these immortals vented their frustrations upon each other even before the actual fighting had begun. As for Jun Meng Chen, he was relaxing leisurely in his courtyard as if he possessed no knowledge regarding this matter.
His father, Jun Dong Min, had indeed approached him one day to inform him that Jun Meng Chen would represent the Pavilion of Swords in the battle royale. Jun Meng Chen had merely nodded back then, appearing completely disinterested.
He knew why Jun Dong Min would ever approach him by his own accord. Jun Tian Ming, the eldest son, was already over twenty thousand years old, and his younger siblings, Jun Jiu and Jun Ming Yue, were confined within the Ghost Feast, their survival unconfirmed.
By process of elimination, Jun Meng Chen was to be selected, for only Holy Children of the Pavilions could participate in the selection process.
Sitting crossed-legged in a secluded room, Jun Meng Chen stared at a sheath laying on a rack before him. The room was completely bleak and devoid of furniture, boxing him and the sword in an enclosure of aged oak. The sheath was a rather exquisite craft, made of a specialized silk that was extremely thin and soft to the touch, yet could not be broken.
With crisscrossing inscriptions forming an elongated eye pattern on the surface, the sheath exuded a meek yet dangerous aura, as if representing a hidden blade. As Jun Meng Chen gazed at the sheath, his hand reaching to grasp the sheath, then pausing in midair merely centimeters away.
"Should I…"
Hesitating on whether he should grasp the sheath, Jun Meng Chen's eyes revealed an indecisive look. If he dared to grasp it, then drastic changes would follow. Some were beneficial towards his future, and others were catastrophic.
Bong! Bong! Bong!
Cutting through his thoughts was a thunderous sound as a bell within the Divine Palace rang, signifying that only an hour remained before the preliminary selection. The bell's ring suddenly caused his mind to replay his mother's words, causing the repressed indignation and anger to well once more.
Gritting his teeth, Jun Meng Chen forced his fingers to bridge the small yet mighty gap to close around the sheath.
"As long as the true form isn't revealed," he murmured. "As long as the illusion remains, it'll be fine."
Rubbing his fingers on the soft silk and tracing the inscriptions, Jun Meng Chen stood in reminiscence for a short moment. Shaking his head and releasing a light sigh, he attached the sheath to his belt, before striding out of the door.
The moment he exited the room, the sheath assumed a plain leather appearance, an ordinary steel sword housed within.
-
The selection was scheduled to be in a secluded region of the continent, outside of the Divine Palace. When Jun Meng Chen finally arrived, he found himself standing before a large cavity on the ground. One kilometer in radius and a total depth of five hundred meters, the steep incline appeared rather difficult to obtain purchase.
Glancing around, Jun Meng Chen found eighty other immortals standing in various areas of the cavity's edge, all younger than twenty thousand years of age. Swords, spears, axes, and even firearms were the chosen weapons of these immortals.
Some, Jun Meng Chen noticed to be holding either a staff or tome in their hands. The entire clearing was silent, not a single conversation incited. Closing his eyes gently, Jun Meng Chen could feel a dense killing intent agglomerating in the other participants.
"All Pavilions have dispatched their Holy Sons and Daughters for this selection. Due to the urgency of this matter, the preliminary selection will be conducted in a battle royale format, the remaining three selected as the victors. Though there is no time limit, we expect for you to finish by sunset!"
A high-pitched voice rang out, clearly from a female. Ignoring the voice's odd lint, Jun Meng Chen instead mulled over the words uttered. A preliminary selection? Wasn't the entire selection supposed to be this battle royale?
"Begin! All methods of attacking are permitted, but expansive domain abilities and techniques are forbidden!"
Before Jun Meng Chen could ponder much over his confusion, the female voice rang once more, signaling the beginning of the battle. As the immortals all rushed into the cavity, Jun Meng Chen stroked the sheath once more, before following suit.
The moment his foot had stepped onto the soft, inclined ground, he sensed a spear heading towards him from the right.
Clang!
Stepping backwards and whipping his sword to the right, Jun Meng Chen sent the spear spinning into the air, embedding itself onto the ground. Gazing towards the direction in which the spear had been thrown from, Jun Meng Chen discovered a youth grinning ferociously at him.
Bald, tanned skin, and dressed in a yellow half-robe with several large beads hovering around him, Jun Meng Chen immediately recognized him to be the Pavilion of Combat's third Holy Son, Weng Dian.
"Who would have thought, that the prestigious and mighty Pavilion of Swords would dispatch their useless scion?"
Weng Dian spoke, a feral grin displayed on his face. Clapping his palms to create a two-meter long golden spear of which he grasped in his left hand, Weng Dian entered a half-crouch stance with his left foot leading. The spear angled towards the ground, and the large beads surrounded the spearpoint.
"I wonder what your Pavilion Head will say when he sees your defeated face!?"
Weng Dian shouted as he stamped with his right foot, before leaping towards Jun Meng Chen. Although movements were not fast, rather ordinary, they generated a slight gravitational force that caused the nearby divine essence to be assimilated into the spear.
When he was merely two meters away from Jun Meng Chen, Jun Meng Chen could no longer sense any divine essence in the vicinity.
"Let's see what you can do when you don't have any divine essence to play with!"
"Who said I needed divine essence? Did your Pavilion Head not teach you how to fight?"
Jun Meng Chen lightly snorted as the sword in his hand darted out. Facing Weng Dian's golden spear, his wrist gently moved in unpredictable directions as the slender longsword lightly tapped the spear shaft.
With each impact, the spear's trajectory deviated towards the left, and completely missed Jun Meng Chen. Ignoring Weng Dian's glare, Jun Meng Chen quickly pivoted towards the left, leaving a large cut on Weng Dian's exposed chest.
When Weng Dian landed, he immediately staggered, and his expression darkened after tentatively touching his chest and examining the blood.
"You've poisoned the blade!" he scowled. "Relying on poison so dearly, do you think you're from the Pavilion of Poisons?"
"When were the Pavilion of Poisons ever the only practitioners of poisoned weapons?" Jun Meng Chen lightly laughed. "Weng Dian, did your Second Brother never teach you things outside of training? You need to see more of the world!"
Lightly shaking his head, Jun Meng Chen allowed the sword's tip to droop towards the ground. Stepping forward with his left foot, he infused divine essence into his legs, gently inciting his spiritual core to awaken. The Deity Core within Jun Meng Chen lightly rumbled, before sending a tiny but continuous stream of divine essence into his body.
"Hmph!" snorted Weng Dian. "How dare you utter Second Brother's-"
Before he could finish, Weng Dian's pupils could not help but constrict, for Jun Meng Chen had disappeared from his original position. Quickly turning around, he scanned the vicinity, only to find other immortals locked in combat, without a single trace of Jun Meng Chen.
As the slight vestiges of panic agitated his heart, Weng Dian returned to his original position before quickly turning to his back, finding Jun Meng Chen leisurely standing, fiddling with his sword.
"Surprised?" Jun Meng Chen spoke. "If your close combat techniques were a little more refined, my movements would have been seen through. Pity you chose to forsake your Second Brother's
Tossing the sword into the air, Jun Meng Chen released the divine essence compressed within his legs, quickly accelerating to an untraceable speed. Rushing at Weng Dian, Jun Meng Chen's hand drifted near his sheath, grasping onto a sword hilt. Merely a meter away from Weng Dian, Jun Meng Chen drew the sword, striking at Weng Dian's unguarded chest.
Clang!
"You!"
Initially, Weng Dian's attention was fully riveted onto the sword Jun Meng Chen had tossed into the air, anticipating a long-ranged technique. However, as befuddlement increased for the sword merely began to fall towards the ground, a sharp spike of danger ran through Weng Dian's mind, causing him to hold the spear with both hands across his chest.
As the sharp sound of his spear being sliced into two rang in his ears, Weng Dian backpedaled a few steps, regaining his balance with a panicked look. Forming another spear, he grimaced when a sharp pain blazed near his heart.
"Your poison is truly annoying," he hissed. "Those tricks of yours do you think they will ever get you anywhere? You're throwing away the face of your Jun Family!"
"Those tricks are merely tactics in combat." Jun Meng Chen spoke, holding his sword parallel to his waist. "As for my family's face, didn't you call me a useless scion? What face is even there to throw away for me?"
"Shut up!"
As Weng Dian yelled, the beads hovering around his spear darted to orbit his body, with golden lights emanating from each bead's core. The divine essence infused into the spearpoint was channeled into the beads as they whirled around Weng Dian with an increasing velocity.
Stomping heavily with his right foot, Weng Dian howled as a large array formed behind him, towering over both him and Jun Meng Chen. The beads positioned themselves at the keystones of the array, before streams of divine essence intersected to form a circle inscribed within a pentagram.
"
Wend Dian roared as he swung his right fist towards the ground. As his fist slammed into the earth, the array howled as the pentagon soared into the air before hovering parallel with the ground, directly above Jun Meng Chen's figure.
The circle disintegrated, and gravity instantly multiplied under Jun Meng Chen's feet, causing him to stiffen in place, and numbness to seep in his legs. Craning his neck to gaze upwards, Jun Meng Chen could faintly spot a massive rock falling from the sky.
"
Striking the ground to sever the flow of divine essence generating the force of gravity, Jun Meng Chen felt the fetters on his body dissipate. Rushing out, he swung the sword towards the sky, utilizing the
Eyes widened, Weng Dian could only watch as the shockwaves easily passed through the falling mountain, the supplementary effect of
Following his cry, the beads operating as the array's power source disengaged themselves, before rushing towards Jun Meng Chen.
"
As the beads approached him, Jun Meng Chen could see that their cores were emitting an unearthly scarlet glow, and the air around them combusted on contact. Standing with his feet together, left hand extended before his chest and his right hand grasping the blade in an overhead position, Jun Meng Chen closed his eyes. When he perceived the first bead no more than a few meters away, the blade within his hand flashed.
Stepping forward with his left foot, the first swing was a downward vertical strike, nestling his right fist in the cusp of his left palm. Without wasting another second, Jun Meng Chen spun on his right heel, releasing a diagonal sweep towards the ground and slicing through a bead.
Making use of the slight impulse from striking into the bead, he pivoted on his left heel in the opposite direction, cutting through two more beads in the process. Every strike, Jun Meng Chen would pivot on his heel to generate a tremendous angular momentum behind his seemingly light swings.
The sudden reversals in direction multiplied the force behind each blow as well as increasing the range of the released shockwaves. Weng Dian continued to pour divine essence into the beads to cause them to accelerate, only to have despair bloom in his heart as he watched Jun Meng Chen effortlessly scythe through multiple beads in a single swing.
By the eighth swing, Weng Dian had no more beads to channel his divine essence.
By the tenth, a sword was embedded in his chest.