Wang Wei felt that he had forgotten something, and right when he was about to try to remember, a bright light appeared in front of the room, and an odd woman wearing a mask appeared.
She had the same mask as Lord Spirit, half smiling naively and the other full of cunningness. Unlike Lord Spirit, this woman had a lower body but appeared slightly transparent, like a phantom.
She opened her mouth to speak, and a deep male voice came out: "Welcome, fellow Heaven Chosens from the Endless Void."
No one cared about the anomaly between her voice and visage; the cultivating world was full of weird and strange things.
"To make things easier for everyone, you can call me Lord Spirit, and I will be in charge of the trial. Now, before you can enjoy your dinner, I will tell you the rules of this inheritance.
"There are eight categories to be tested: fleshly body, soul, energy control, comprehension, Dao Heart, Willpower, battle prowess, and one final test that I can only say is vital."
Lord Spirit paused to give everybody time to process the information before continuing.
"Based on your result in each category, you will receive points that will determine your ranking. Be mindful that the last test is precious and worth plenty of points. It could be the determining factor of this inheritance trial.
"Any question?"
"Is it true the Deceiving Heaven Longevity Sutra is an Insurgent Scripture?" asked someone.
"That is correct. So, any lucky ones who go home with it will significantly contribute to your factions."
The aura of the room slightly changed as many people paid close attention.
"Senior Gu Xuan was from the Myriad Emperor World. He will not be biased?" asked another person, raising attention to Wang Wei's table.
"If that were a problem, the Lord would have just chosen his successor solely from Myriad Emperor World," replied Lord Spirit calmly. Many people agreed with these words, while some remained skeptical.
Nevertheless, Lord Spirit continued: "If there is no more question, let's continue to the main event."
She waved his hand, and six golden chairs appeared behind her, labeled one through six. Each stair stood slightly above the others, so the number one spot was the highest.
"For the combat aspect of this trial, things will be a little different. The Lord has chosen six seeded players who will receive a token. After the final test, the token can be exchanged for points. And you could guess that the higher the ranking, the more points it is worth."
Everyone looked at the trial spirit with fire in their eyes. As the peak geniuses of their respective world, competition has become an integral part of their characters. So, no matter what, they wanted to be the best.
"There are some rules to follow," continued Lord Spirit, not minding these people's intense emotions. "Non-seeded can challenge seeded players at all times and use whatever means necessary to take the token.
"Seeded players, however, can only challenge the person one rank above them. So, the sixth place can only challenge fifth place, fifth place to fourth place, and so on. Furthermore, the seeded challenger needed certain points before challenging another seeded player."
Everyone present is intelligent, so they understand the rules. Seeded Players could not easily challenge each other, and they needed to perform well on the eight trials before challenging each other. Meanwhile, the non-seeded players could attack the seeded players to get the token, with no restrictions on the method used.
'Essentially, a practice Heaven Will Battle with some rules and restrictions,' thought Wang Wei, and many people felt the same way.
"Now, let's begin the selection for the seeded players," said the Lord Spirit with a weird smile, fully playing in the deception persona.
"In the sixth place, we have Xu Shi from the Myriad Emperor World. Her Primordial Chaos Physique is the combination of 9 Absolute Chaos Physiques, and it is something that has never been heard of in the Endless Void."
Everyone looked at the Myriad Emperor World's table, focusing on that beautiful woman that Heaven seemed to have taken its time when creating her. Meanwhile, Xu Shi frowned after hearing she was only in sixth place. Nevertheless, she walked to the sixth throne and sat down.
Lord Spirit watched her with a smile while thinking to himself.
'It was hard to choose between her and Feng Heng. However, the latter seemed determined to hide his full strength, so he can only lose the spot.'
"The fifth spot goes to Mu Lei from the Star Beast World. The owner of the second Heavenly Physique, the Heavey Axe Physique, and a genius who has received the highest grade of Ancient Star Symbols in a hundred generations."
Mu Lei calmly walked to his spot, but many people also became nervous once they realized the criteria for these seeded players.
"The fourth spot goes to Ji Lanfang from the Immortal Ascencion World, the Supreme Swordsman with the very earned title of One Sword."
A young man with disheveled hair and a gourd on his waist stood up. Immediately, everyone could smell the intense odor of alcohol emanating from his body.
He walked wobbly to this throne while muttering: "I hope one of these people can make me swing my sword a second time. Oh, I miss the old days."
Although his voice was soft to the point of being inaudible, with all the cultivation of all the people present, they could hear him. So, a bunch of people gave him killing stares. Nevertheless, Ji Lanfang did not care or was too drunk to.
"The third spot goes to Ye Dafu from the Primordial Demon World. A demon with two Innate Demons' bloodline: the Three-eye Stone Monkey and Disaster Monkey."
A monkey wearing dark and gold armor, holding a red pole on his shoulder, looked at the people in the room.
"Your father is only third? I want to see who is so bold to be above this monkey. Anyway, they will taste my staff."
After saying that, he jumped in the air, did a flip, and landed on his chair.
Many people looked at him with a severe look. The Three-eye Spiritual Monkey and the Disaster Monkey were two Innate Demons known for their extreme battle prowess. Back in that era, in some World Communities, they were the leader of Innate Demons instead of Dragons and Phoenixes.
Now, they actually met someone with both these bloodlines, and he could only be ranked third. Everyone wanted to know who was above him.
"In the second place, we have Wang Wei from the Myriad Emperor World. Owner of the Fate Puppetteer Physique that he created himself and acknowledged by Heavenly Dao. On top of all that, he is a True Power Dao powerhouse of the second level."
Wang Wei walked to his spot, already expecting this outcome. He sat on his throne, looking at the monkey, giving him a fierce gaze. For a brief moment, he thought this monkey was Sun Wukon's clone or something because of how he behaved himself.
Mu Lei looked at his new commercial partner with a slight surprise as he did not expect the latter to be this powerful. He is also a True Power Dao cultivator, but he has only recently entered the first level and slowly walking his way up.
But to his surprise, he found someone in the same generation as him already in the second level; his fighting spirit suddenly elevated. He did not think he would lose despite the difference.
After all, the True Power Dao only determined pure physical force and did not consider things like energy, law, spells, and Battle IQ. He does not think he would lose to anyone.
The Lord Spirit ignored these people's chatter about how one could acquire their own Heavenly Physique and revealed the final seeded player.
"Chu Luo from the Emperor Dao World. An Emperor Child, born from two Great Emperors as parents. That is all I have to say about him."
Chu Luo calmly walked to his seat, not minding other people's chatter. Although he had no facial expression, his body naturally emitted an arrogant and prideful aura, and no one would argue he did not deserve to be prideful.
Emperor Offsprings are very rare because it is difficult for an Immortal creature to procreate with a Mortal. At the same time, it is a thousand times, if not more, challenging for two Immortal Creatures to give birth to offspring–especially in the lower dimension with how the world functions.
So, for Chu Luo to be created, it is very likely that his parents would have been from different World Communities and met and fell in love before luckily making him.
"I would like to preface that the seeded players were chosen based on talent and potential displayed during their rise. Many people have been hiding their strength, and we also acknowledged our decision might be wrong.
"Hence, the reason you can challenge these individuals and take the token from them."
The participants understood the reasoning behind Lord Spirit's words. For example, the Primordial Chaos Physique should be way higher in this list based on potential, but since there has been no news or information about it since its appearance, it was ranked on the lower side.
However, these people also know that Lord Spirit was also saying these words to remove any accountability on their part and encourage them to fight each other.
"Are there any rules about killing?"
Everyone looked at the person who spoke, and it was Ye Tuizhi from the Demon Supremacy World, also called Young Master Ye. He looked like an ordinary person except for his tiger pupils. An aura of fury could be seen emanating from him.
A few people knew the reason for his anger. According to their information, Young Master Ye was a Dao Child born to two Dao Ancestors. So, he was obviously not happy about not becoming a seeded player.
"We will not intervene in any of the conflicts between the participants. So, your lives are in your hands," replied Lord Spirit.
"Excellent," said Young Master Ye, looking at the seeded players, focusing on the humans and not hiding his hatred and disgust. Then, his eyes focused on Wang Wei before snorting coldly.
Young Master Ye was not the only person not happy with Wang Wei's second position. There was an Immortal Child named Shi Qian, born from two Immortal Venerable, and she felt she deserved the second spot–especially since she was a member of the Light race who fed on positive Karma.
Then, a group from the Barbarian race felt an uncontrollable hatred for Wang Wei, but they could not explain why. Even a member of the Divine Race, believed to be extinct after the Buddhist Cataclysm, appeared in this trial.
As Wang Wei sensed these malicious gazes, he smiled: 'Things were about to get interesting.'
