Gu Nan slowly opened his eyes and gave Ah Xiu a cold look.
That kind of indifferent gaze felt like he was looking down on an ant, making Ah Xiu somewhat uncomfortable. No one had ever looked at her with such eyes before.
She felt a little uneasy in her heart, wondering if the matter with her martial sister gave this senior a bad impression of her.
Of course she was overthinking this, because Gu Nan looked at everyone like this.
"A natural-born child of destiny?" Gu Nan broke out of his original thoughts. With his present knowledge, he naturally knew about destiny.
Destiny was nothing more than the manifestation of the will of the plane itself—the will of the plane could be manifested, but no one could guarantee that it would be completed.
As long as the external force was strong enough, the will of the plane could be casually trampled upon.
White Mist's translation method created children of destiny in a certain area by leading around the will of a plane. It would then harvest those artificial children of destiny.
Of course natural-born children of destiny could also be used and was even a ready-made material. It would be a shame to waste it.
"Let her participate in the Martial Arts Tournament. Set her up to win first place and make her destiny peak," Gu Nan casually instructed, then quickly closed his eyes again.
"Yes."
Red Tail nodded, then turned to Ah Xiu and said with a smile, "My Lord's meaning is that as long as you can win first place, he will accept you as his disciple."
"First… place?!"
...
Gu Nan was lying alone in the courtyard after Red Tail and Ah Xiu left, basking in the lazy afternoon sunshine, but his thoughts never stopped.
The appearance of reincarnators from the Major Martial Realm made him realize a loophole in his past thinking.
Gu Nan always thought that no one would be able to find his Divine Kingdom again after he adjusted its coordinates several times, but he overlooked another possibility—reincarnation!
If the Divine Kingdom plane spontaneously disseminated its will to the outside world and issued missions, that was equivalent to broadcasting its coordinates for all to see.
Sooner or later, certain powerful figures would notice this strange plane as time went on.
Gu Nan even suspected that maybe this was the fundamental reason why Heaven and Realm Level planes were recognized as main worlds that couldn't be reincarnated into while other planes could only be reincarnated into.
"I must study the essence of a plane's will when I have time." Gu's Nan frowned slightly.
As the construction of the Divine Kingdom advanced step-by-step, he seemed to get busier again, and there was a gradually increasing number of matters of all manners that he had to handle.
It wasn't this troublesome in his previous life's game. Ultimately, it was because there were too many living beings and organizations in the Myriad Heavens Universe, and there were also too many powerful people here.
...
After letting down all the martial artists in the world once by delaying the tournament, the Martial Arts Alliance finally didn't repeat their mistake and held the World's Strongest Martial Arts Tournament as scheduled.
Such a martial arts competition really satisfied all the spectators. Countless masters they ordinarily would never be able to see fought in the arena one after another with their special skills.
Not only did the various sects' younger generations participate, but even old fellows like Suwen joined—after all, they were the ones most qualified to compete in the tournament to decide the world's strongest!
As round after round of fighting ended, the situation gradually became clear, and the top 16 were decided.
Transcendent Realm masters were indeed much stronger than ordinary Prodigious Realm cultivators. They possessed offensive and defensive abilities comparable to that of Void Cutter experts; even without the support of laws, it wasn't something ordinary people could withstand.
Therefore, this phase of the Martial Arts Tournament was basically a fight amongst Transcendent Realm powerhouses. However, this wasn't without exception.
"As expected of someone naturally blessed by destiny." Red Tail looked at the last name on the top 16 list and said with satisfaction, "Ah Xiu defeated a Transcendent Realm cultivator in the last round."
Gu Nan nodded; he also saw that match. As a mortal, Ah Xiu was only able to defeat her opponent by utilizing swordsmanship, tactics, willpower, and even some geographical advantages.
It could be said that she far surpassed her opponent in everything except actual cultivation.
"But isn't this also the limit? Not even children of destiny are without limits," Red Tail continued.
She was an expert at toying with destiny, so she knew the limitations of this power. At the very least, it couldn't raise people's cultivation realms out of thin air.
Additionally, if the person the power of destiny converged upon was too useless and incompetent, then the destiny surrounding that person would dissipate on its own.
Although Ah Xiu didn't have this problem, she was born in Crescent Moon World—the strength of her destiny held her back instead.
The plane itself was warning her that Transcendent Realm was the wrong path, so she couldn't break through Transcendent Realm no matter what she did.
"If the wrong path won't do, what about the right path?" Gu Nan asked with a smile.
"The right path…" Red Tail stared at Gu Nan blankly. The thought of using a Void Cutter as material for making a mist mirror had never occurred to her.
Even the Indigo Mound tribe, who developed this translation method, had never entertained such a crazy idea!
Gu Nan put down the document detailing Ah Xiu's background and casually said, "Her life thus far has been too smooth-sailing. How can she bring out the full power of destiny like this? Go help her."
"Yes."
...
Zhongli Sword Sect.
"Ah Xiu, you're too incredible! You actually defeated Elder Qin!" A girl around Ah Xiu's age said excitedly while tugging on Ah Xiu's sleeve.
Elder Qin was one of the elders in the Martial Arts Alliance, as well as the Transcendent Realm opponent Ah Xiu defeated in the competition.
But Ah Xiu just smiled awkwardly. Even her smile seemed a little forced, because it irritated her injuries.
She was only able to advance to the top 16 by giving it all she's got, and she was injured all over as a result. But her upcoming opponents were all stronger than Elder Qin. Winning first place truly was extremely difficult.
'What in the world is that senior thinking?'
Ah Xiu couldn't help thinking in her mind, but before she could figure it out, she heard a loud scream from her companion.
"W-Who are you guys? Who allowed you to break into my Zhongli Sword Sect?!"
Ah Xiu looked up in astonishment and saw a group of people push open the door and file in, all with sneers on their faces.
"Zhongli Sword Sect's Suwen harbored ill intentions and sent assassins after the Alliance Leader. We are also here on orders. Ladies, please don't make this hard for us," the leader said expressionlessly.
"Nonsense!" Ah Xiu's companion shouted, "Martial Grandfather is an elder of the Alliance. How can he send assassins after the Alliance Leader?!"
The leading man just replied coldly, "The Alliance will give you justice in this matter. All you have to do right now is come with us."
Ah Xiu's friend still wanted to say something, but Ah Xiu's heart sank—she did see her senior martial sister assassinate Senior Red Tail with her own eyes!
'Don't tell me the culprit they found from their investigation is actually Martial Grandfather…?'
Ah Xiu's thoughts swirled around in her head. Seeing that the other party was already rushing at them, she drew her sword on the spot without much thought.
...
The next day, the Martial Arts Alliance announced to the world that Zhongli Sword Sect attempted to assassinate the Alliance Leader, and the Alliance sent troops to encircle and annihilate the sect.
As the principal offender, Suwen was killed on the spot, and all the high-level members of Zhongli Sword Sect were arrested, including three Transcendent Realm cultivators.
Only Suwen's favorite disciple, Ah Xiu, was still at large. She became a wanted fugitive all over the world.
Three days later, the World's Strongest Martial Arts Tournament officially ended. Sect Master Qin of Venerate Heaven Sect won the title of the "World's Strongest." A mysterious senior took him to the upper world together with nine other Transcendent Realm participants, attracting the envy of countless people.
Right as the ten martial artists from Crescent Moon World reached White Bones Realm, Gu Nan's saint clone had already appeared on the frontline plane, Tiluo World.
The Time Arena was finally about to open.