"He's Zhou Mubai?"
Zhou Mubai's name was like thunder in Chen Daoxuan's ears.
He was not the only one. Zhou Mubai's name was well-known throughout the entire Guang'an Prefecture, and was even an idol in the hearts of the younger generation of cultivators in the Myriad Sea of Stars.
He reached the foundation establishment stage at the age of 21, and then broke through to the Zifu realm in less than 50 years, becoming a Zifu cultivator who was less than 100 years old.
One had to know that a Zifu realm cultivator had a lifespan of 500 years.
This also meant that Zhou Mubai had over 400 years to break through to the Jindan realm.
If nothing went wrong, Zhou Mubai's chances of breaking through to the Jindan realm were extremely high. He was also known as the most promising cultivator in Guang'an prefecture over the past 500 years.
It was not just that. Zhou Mubai's true strength was that he was a cultivator on the Zifu Prodigy List in the Myriad Sea of Stars.
The Zifu Prodigy List was one of the lists set up by the Qianyuan Sword sect in order to attract cultivators to fight against the Cloud Nation.
There were three complete lists, which were namely the Foundation Establishment Hidden Dragon List, the Zifu Prodigy List, and the Jindan Realm Cultivator List!
In Chen Daoxuan's view, what the Qianyuan Sword sect accomplished by doing this was to latch on to the desire of cultivators who wanted to make a name for themselves.
In the Myriad Sea of Stars, the largest group of cultivators were itinerant cultivators, closely followed in number by the disciples of the major cultivation clans.
Although the Qianyuan Sword sect was the ruler of the Myriad Sea of Stars, it was impossible for them to order all of the cultivators to fight to the death for them on the battlefield.
Therefore, the Qianyuan Sword sect came up with a way to use fame and fortune to attract cultivators to the battlefield.
The Chen clan of Shuanghu Island relied on battle merits to obtain the artifact refining inheritance from the Qianyuan Sword sect, the method to build the earth fire chamber, and even the wind chasing sword technique and the rainfall sword technique. These were all benefits that they had obtained from the battlefield!
As for the Zifu Prodigy List, which was famous throughout the world, it was a name list.
What was the goal of cultivators cultivating?
The primary goal was, of course, immortal ascension!
However, it had been hundreds of thousands of years since a Mahayana true immortal cultivator had ascended to the upper realm.
To the vast majority of cultivators, immortal ascension was nothing more than an illusory dream.
Apart from becoming an immortal, the second goal that cultivators pursued was naturally immortality and, if one wanted to live forever, one could not escape the pursuit of cultivation techniques and various cultivation resources.
Unfortunately, most of these things were in the possession of the large immortal cultivation clans and the Qianyuan Sword sect of the Myriad Sea of Stars.
If ordinary cultivators wanted to obtain large amounts of cultivation resources, other than trying to compete with the large immortal cultivation clans and the Qianyuan Sword sect, which was akin to snatching food from the tiger's mouth, there was only one path left for them, which was to enter the battlefield and obtain battle merits.
After a cultivator achieved their goal of immortality, they could not just live an empty life and cultivate all day for the sake of cultivation, right?
Naturally, cultivators would start to pursue other things.
For example, beauty, material enjoyment, and... the thing that cultivators valued the most, which was reputation!
In the immortal cultivation world, generally, the higher the level of a cultivator, the more they valued things like reputation.
And the three lists that the Qianyuan Sword sect had created just happened to satisfy cultivators' desire for 'reputation'.
Using the twin weapons of 'reputation' and 'rewards', the Qianyuan Sword sect tied all of the cultivators in the Myriad Sea of Stars to its war chariot.
Over the past 400 years, the Qianyuan Sword sect had driven this war chariot and rampaged all over the immortal cloud continent, turning the Cloud Nation upside down.
Even from Chen Daoxuan's modern-day perspective, the leader of the Qianyuan Sword sect was still an impressive figure.
...
When he saw Zhou Mubai standing on the frontlines with his white robe fluttering in the wind, Chen Daoxuan's heart was still rather calm. After all, he was much younger than Zhou Mubai. In terms of potential, Chen Daoxuan believed that he was not inferior to Zhou Mubai.
Wei Sihai and Chen Xianhe's eyes, on the other hand, were filled with longing.
After all, in terms of age, both of them were already close to a hundred years old.
In terms of cultivation, the white figure in the sky was on a completely different level to them.
As cultivators from the same generation, it was impossible for the two of them to not feel anything.
However, the gap between them was so huge that the two of them did not even dare to feel jealous.
Only they themselves could understand the complex feelings in their hearts.
While everyone was occupied with their differing thoughts, the battle on the frontlines began.
However, the distance between the two sides was too far, and Chen Daoxuan and the others could not extend their spiritual senses over such a distance. Moreover, they could not keep up with the speed of the battle by simply relying on their eyesight.
They could only see the sword lights flashing in the horizon, and hear the continuous rumbling noises of the battle.
Unexpectedly, they did not even have the qualifications to observe a battle of this level.
Chen Daoxuan sighed as he sensed the waves of impact from the aftershocks of the battle.
Luckily, they were far enough away.
Chen Daoxuan even saw that a row of ships at the front had been completely destroyed by the aftershocks of the battle between Zhou Mubai and the high-level merman.
The cultivators who were watching the battle also looked as if they had seen a ghost, as they fled in panic.
With Zhou Mubai and the high-level merman at the center, no one dared to approach them within a ten-mile radius.
In the end, after being struck by a sword light that was a hundred meters long, the high-level merman fled, wounded, together with the entire merfolk tribe.
The other Zifu disciple of the Zhou clan was about to give chase, but he was stopped by the pale-faced Zhou Mubai.
"Third granduncle, there's no need to chase them!"
"Mubai, are you alright?"
Seeing Zhou Mubai's pale face, the cultivator he addressed as third granduncle immediately became nervous.
Zhou Mubai was the most talented cultivator of the younger generation of the Zhou clan.
Not only had he broken through to the Zifu realm at such a young age, he was also a genius in the Dao of the sword, who had successfully comprehended sword intent at the Foundation Establishment realm!
This was also the biggest reason why Zhou Mubai was ranked on the Zifu Prodigy List—he was a sword cultivator, and a sword cultivator even rarer than a cultivator with heavenly spiritual roots!
Currently, Zhou Mubai appeared to be injured.
How could the old man not be shocked and furious?
Thinking of this, the old man who was called third granduncle by Zhou Mubai could not help but rebuke him, "Mubai, why are you still hung up about the one-on-one rule against this kind of foreign creature? Just now, if the two of us worked together to take him down, you wouldn't have been injured."
After rebuking him, the old man revealed a pained expression. "Are your injuries serious?"
"Third granduncle, don't worry. It's just a minor injury."
Zhou Mubai shook his head, "Our Zhou clan captures mermaids every year. The merfolk have always resented our Zhou clan. If we broke the rules and killed that high-level merman this time, I think that there would be no room for compromise between the merfolk and our Zhou clan."
"So what if there is no room for compromise? Is our Zhou clan afraid of a mere merman?"
Third granduncle was very disdainful.
Seeing third granduncle's attitude, Zhou Mubai wanted to say something, but stopped himself. In the end, he shook his head and did not say anything else.
It was not just third granduncle. All the cultivators of the Zhou clan felt that the Zhou clan was an invincible existence within this 100,000-mile sea region. They did not hold any force or person in high regard within their territory.
Zhou Mubai knew in his heart that this kind of mentality was ultimately not good for the Zhou clan.
In recent years, the foundation establishment clans, led by the Yang clan, had become more and more distant from the Zhou clan.
As far as he knew, the Yang clan had been secretly working with the other foundation establishment clans to build another immortal city to compete against the prosperous Guang'an Prefecture immortal city.
However, because of quarrels regarding the distribution of benefits, and fear of the Zhou clan's power, the alliance did not go smoothly.