The stars in the Great Death Realm were dim and lacked light. Other than outside cultivators, there were only dead objects in the death realm, and even outside cultivators would become dead objects if they stayed too long.
Many cultivators could not adapt to the environment of the Great Death Realm. Their Dao hearts would be eroded by ghosts, affecting their cultivation level. Not only would they not progress, there would even be signs of regression.
Fluctuations in cultivation level would further affect combat power.
The combat power of many proud children of heaven decreased, and because their Dao hearts were also damaged after unsuccessfully battling other proud children of heaven, their combat power became increasingly weakened.
The Dao hearts of the victorious proud children of heaven became increasingly firm, and the more victories they attained, the more invincible will they accumulated. The accumulation of invincible will could play a critical role in opening the path to becoming an emperor.
This was the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak.
There was also a preliminary ranking for this round of battling in the Great Death Realm.
The Gods' Realm’s God Child, the Immortal Realm’s Xu Zhen, and the Heavenly Realm’s Young Heavenly Emperor would surely occupy spots in the top ten.
Besides them, confirmed for the top ten were the Supreme Realm’s successor of the Interface orthodoxy, the Gods’ Realm’s successor of the Great Emperor, and the Dusk Realm’s Lord of Thousand Stars.
That was six peerless proud children of heaven who could be confirmed thus far.
As for the remaining four spots in the top ten, there was greater competition and debates as various proud children of heaven had different claims, so no one knew for sure.
Based on accomplishments so far, since cultivators from the Interface Realm had broken into a Quasi-Saint Ruins, an Interface cultivator should also be ranked in the top ten.
However, there were no famous Interface realm cultivators. Not to mention being ranked in the top ten, it would be difficult for the successors of the Interface realm's Great Emperors to even enter the top hundred based on their reputation.
According to legends, the two most formidable proud children of heaven from the Interface Realm this time were called Zuo Ri and Yi Huo.
It was said that just half a year after entering the Great Death Realm, Zuo Ri was nailed to a dead star by the Gods' Realm’s God Child.
So he had no accomplishments at all and was more like a background board.
The other proud child of heaven named Yi Huo also did not have any stunning accomplishments. With a reputation on par with Zuo Ri, his combat power would likely be comparable to Zuo Ri as well, hence just one spear would have sufficed from the Gods' Realm’s God Child.
Apart from them, the most powerful existence from the Interface Realm was an old man at the peak of the Heaven Mending Realm.
The combat power of this old man was decent but not particularly remarkable. Amongst the current Great Death Realm, he could only be considered above average.
It was only due to good luck that Interface cultivators of such standards were able to break into a Quasi-Saint Ruins.
And now, the two orthodox cultivators of the Interface realm blessed by "good luck" were sitting on flying shuttles formed from concentrated flying swords, heading towards the lifeless stars without any aim.
Ma Xiaohong sat at the back, hugging half the blade of a sword. Her eyes occasionally sized up the silhouette sitting at the forefront before lowering her head again, seemingly lost in thought.
As the flying shuttle traveled on, it was about to collide with a dead star approaching from the front.
Sitting at the back, Ma Xiaohong's expression tightened slightly but she did not seem afraid.
Because the dead star quickly shattered apart.
With a casual pull of his hand, Chen Xia tore it into two halves.
This was common during their journey, with Chen Xia slicing apart countless dead stars along the way and even once directly cleaving open a galaxy to stubbornly travel through the middle.
In Chen Xia's own words:
"I don't want to take a detour."
It was simply for that reason, and indeed a simple approach.
Ma Xiaohong swallowed and did not say much, only hugging the flying sword in her embrace tighter. She knew it was a treasure, but was unsure exactly how good it was. In any case, it must have been very incredible since Chen Xia had used it to battle that Great Saint remnant.
And now Chen Xia had entrusted the custody of this flying sword to her, so he must value her greatly.
That was Ma Xiaohong's thinking.
In fact, Chen Xia did value her quite a lot, even assigning her a position with a simple title.
Sword Lad.
For the first time, softness on Ma Xiaohong's face disappeared as displeasure surfaced. Although she did not dare to voice it out, her pout was extremely prominent.
Chen Xia also keenly perceived Ma Xiaohong's displeasure. Out of humanitarian concern, he changed the title.
He addressed her as Sword Attendant instead.
Despite not knowing what the exact difference was, Ma Xiaohong accepted it and felt it sounded better than Sword Lad.
Traveling in the Great Death Realm was an extremely boring process.
There was nothing but Dead Stars and Ghosts; no other scenery.
Occasionally if they ran into other cultivators, both sides would be filled with caution and not converse much before quickly leaving.
Chen Xia had specifically instructed Ma Xiaohong:
"There is much dark erosion in this Great Death Realm. Do not let your thoughts run wild and do not daydream frequently. It is best to contemplate cultivation arts during your free time."
"What would happen if I daydreamed frequently?" Ma Xiaohong curiously asked.
"Your thinking would become dull," Chen Xia replied.
"Then what?" Ma Xiaohong continued asking.
"Then your thinking would become more and more dull," Chen Xia said matter-of-factly.
Ma Xiaohong frowned slightly and weakly asked: "But what does this have to do with dark erosion?"
"Nothing much. I'm just worried about you," Chen Xia sincerely replied.
In fact, Chen Xia used to combat dark erosion by daydreaming.
"Oh," Ma Xiaohong nodded, then suddenly asked while hugging the sword, "What do you do to entertain yourself when you're bored?"
"I play chess," Chen Xia answered.
"Why don't you play now then?" Ma Xiaohong curiously probed further. She felt Chen Xia did not seem like someone who would play chess at all, he resembled more of a table flipper.
Chen Xia crossed his arms, sitting at the forefront of the shuttle, and lightly replied,
"I lose too much."
After six thousand years, he had finally come to terms with the fact of him being a sore loser.
"I'm... not very good at it either." Ma Xiaohong suddenly said softly, seemingly to console him.
"It's alright." Chen Xia shook his head and smiled again, "It doesn't matter anyway since you have many flaws, playing chess well or not is trivial."
That was also meant to console her.
But Ma Xiaohong simply could not smile anymore.
That year, they finally entered the central region of the Great Death Realm from the edge.
And Chen Xia's inner demon issues became increasingly severe, mainly manifesting as frequent arguments with himself.
Chen Xia would pick a fight with himself every short while.
Ma Xiaohong grew increasingly worried.
Chen Xia simply explained flatly,
"It's fine, I'm going through teenage rebellion."