The starry sky was not bright.
The leader of the Twilight Realm covered himself with a grayish-white robe, concealing his appearance and aura.
He only stretched out a finger and stated his demand: "Kill one top genius from the Divine Realm, and I will give you a immortal treasure."
Chen Xia squinted his eyes and replied, "How do you define a 'top genius'?"
"Someone ranked in the top twenty of the Heaven Ranking, like you," the Twilight Realm leader responded plainly.
"There are only three people in the Divine Realm's top twenty Heaven Ranking - God's Son, Great Emperor Legacy, and False Venerable," Chen Xia replied.
"Then kill those three," the Twilight Realm leader's voice remained flat, without any fluctuation.
Chen Xia folded his sleeves, standing straight, facing the Twilight Realm leader. He slowly counted,
"False Venerable is ranked fifteenth on the Heaven Ranking. It is said he has nine external incarnations, all real yet illusory, scattered everywhere. He would certainly not be easy to kill."
"As for the Great Emperor Legacy, he has always been holding the line at the Divine Realm's main base. Surely I cannot just charge into the Divine Realm's main base and slay the Great Emperor Legacy!"
As Chen Xia spoke to this point, his eyes blinked slightly. A pure and unadulterated aura flowed within them as he continued,
"According to my knowledge, God's Son is the only one from the Divine Realm who has always been exploring outside alone. And due to God's Son's arrogant personality, he always acts alone."
"Then slay God's Son," the Twilight Realm leader's voice remained flat, without any undulation. The greyish-white robe still concealed his face and aura.
"No," Chen Xia shook his head. His crossed-sleeved hands stretched out as he clarified, "You wanted me to kill God's Son from the very beginning."
Silence.
Stillness.
After a long while, the Twilight Realm leader continued plainly, "I only asked you to slay a top genius from the Divine Realm. The payment is an immortal treasure. You can choose to accept or decline."
Chen Xia shook his head. "What I mean is, one immortal treasure is lacking for slaying God's Son. Increase it by two more immortal treasures. You should know, in this whole minor universe, only I have the guts and chance to take on a mission like this, and accomplish it."
With Chen Xia and Xu Zhen joining forces, they did have an opportunity to slay God's Son.
The Twilight Realm leader fell silent again for a moment, then nodded. "I can give you two immortal treasures."
"How to promise it?" Chen Xia asked again.
"Sign a dao heart contract. If I break my word, my dao heart will shatter instantly and cultivation vanish to emptiness!" the Twilight Realm leader replied heavily.
"No," Chen Xia shook his head again. "I don't want to sign a dao heart contract with just you, but with all top geniuses from the Twilight Realm."
That way, if the Twilight Realm leader went back on his word and did not give the payment, he could use all of the Twilight Realm's top geniuses to exchange for God's Son alone.
In contrast, it would still be the Divine Realm profiting.
The Twilight Realm leader fell silent for a long time without speaking.
Chen Xia continued saying, "If I'm not mistaken, your Twilight Realm has a fourth-ranked Lord of Thousand Stars on the Heaven Ranking who is also adept in stellar arts. In this minor universe, he should be highly valued. To slay God's Son, all that's needed is to pave the way for the Lord of Thousand Stars."
He nodded slightly and laughed. "Your Twilight Realm truly wishes to nurture a Thousand Stars Great Emperor!"
"Which realm doesn't wish to nurture a great emperor?" The Twilight Realm leader retorted, then said, "I can agree to your request, but the premise is slaying the Divine Realm's God's Son."
He had specified it was the Divine Realm's God's Son.
"Alright," Chen Xia nodded as well. In any case there was no loss. He would first accept the deal, then see how things went. Who knows, he might get to decapitate someone for free in the future and directly leech two immortal treasures.
Right now he certainly would not go hunting for God's Son.
And the Twilight Realm leader must have made the same offer secretly to many other helpers.
Now between the major realms, it was all about covertly building connections and factions, playing a game of werewolf where you think I'm a good guy when I could stab you in the back any day.
And who knows if someone had already put a bounty on Chen Xia's head.
Who could tell?
Chen Xia was not bothered. As long as he was safe for now.
Xu Zhen was also indifferent. She followed Chen Xia's lead, keeping low profile for the moment and waiting for the Great Saint vestige to finally appear.
She was competing precisely for that Great Saint vestige. That was the opportunity she sought.
The Great Saint vestige was the final obsession of a Great Saint nearing his end. It contained the Great Saint's insights into the Great Dao he had attained, as well as vestiges of the Great Saint's sublime power.
If one could obtain it, it would be the greatest opportunity on the path to becoming a saint.
Moreover, such vestiges only existed in the Great Death Realm.
Because the Great Death Realm had no restrictions from the Way of Heaven, only a few rays of celestial light shining down. This represented that past restrictions of the Great Dao did not exist in the Great Death Realm.
And if there were no restrictions of the Great Dao, cultivators would then be able to comprehend other Great Daos through the opportunities left behind by Great Saints' attainment of the dao.
They might even use this dao to attain sainthood!
And now came the most heaven-defying point - cultivators could still attain the original Great Dao they had grasped!
This meant cultivators could simultaneously grasp two Great Daos!
Duality Saint!
This was the greatest opportunity in the Great Death Realm that all the top geniuses of the major realms sought.
It was precisely to attain the blessing of two Great Daos without restrictions from the Way of Heaven in the Great Death Realm!
In fact, someone had already taken this opportunity before them.
And that was Chen Xia.
The dark purple heavenly thunder Chen Xia grasped was another Great Saint's dao. Only Chen Xia had yet to break through the Heaven Patching Realm, so naturally there was no mention of comprehending or attaining the dao to become a saint.
He could only regard the dark purple heavenly thunder as the most basic combat method.
This was equivalent to giving you a spear mounted with spiked blades, but you didn't know how to use a gun and could only use it to stab and kill.
A high-EQ way of saying this would be making do with what you have and forging a different path.
The low-EQ way of saying this would be wasting a precious treasure and having a mind pure of stupidity.
This was Chen Xia's current state - constrained by his Rebelling Ocean Realm cultivation. Although his spiritual power reserves were several hundred times that of a peak Rebelling Ocean cultivator, his cultivation level just could not increase.
He was stuck here with no good solutions other than to take it step by step.
Xu Zhen and Chen Xia were rather indifferent about it. They stood side by side every day with crossed arms atop the Minor Stars, critiquing other cultivators when they themselves were not trying.
Not nasty words, just simple commentary.
But one could see they were quite pretentious about it. Chen Xia even uttered a maxim of reason -
"Rather than strive yourself, slander others!"
Thus ninety percent of the rumors in the minor universe originated from his mouth.
For example, things like God's Son secretly meeting with the Immortal Realm and engaging in inappropriate relations between the two realms.
The Divine Realm and Immortal Realm fooling around in improper relationships and Immortal Elder still flaunting his desirability despite advanced age!
Anyway there was nothing better to do when bored than smear others a little every day for fun.
He also said one sentence.
"The sinister Twilight Realm actually wanted to hire killers to assassinate the Divine Realm's God's Son!"
It was the truth, yet no one believed it.
And so on this very day, the Minor Stars received another guest.
...
Or rather, one could not call them guests since Chen Xia had never seen visitors wielding two swords coming to call.
Moreover, one of the swords cleaved the Minor Stars in half.
Chen Xia single-handedly resisted the remaining sword aura, his expression tranquil as he said,
"Come."
In the starry sky.
A thousand flying swords hovered behind the visitor.
Dazzling bright!