What is bought with real money is genuine.
The elder of the Supreme Realm always felt there was something questionable about this saying, like it was a fallacy, but looking closely at the two flying swords he couldn't find anything wrong with them. They were no different from before. So he nodded and said,
"Alright, although you took spirit stones this time for selling these swords to the Supreme Realm, it can be considered a favor. My Supreme Realm is willing to cooperate with you."
No words, only silence at first.
Chen Xia's eyes stared into the elder's aged ones, and the light within flickered slightly.
"Go ahead, who do you want me to kill?" Chen Xia held his sleeves and asked lightly with a smile.
"Twilight Realm's pride of heaven!" The Supreme Realm elder said without surprise, then added another line, "Aside from the Twilight Realm's pride of heaven, the lives of all other Twilight Realm cultivators can be exchanged for bounties here in my Supreme Realm."
"An ordinary Twilight Realm pride of heaven is worth a million spirit stones. A Twilight Realm elder is worth two million spirit stones. If you can kill a top-level pride of heaven in the Twilight Realm, then that would be one immortal art plus half an immortal artifact."
It could be said to be quite a generous bounty.
Chen Xia laughed and asked again, "How can I be sure you won't go back on your word?"
"Any oath can be sworn, with the Heavenly Dao as witness and the interfaces as proof. As long as the oath is violated, it would mean extermination by the Heavenly Dao, unforgiven by the interfaces."
The Supreme Realm elder said solemnly. In fact, the Supreme Realm also really had no need to go back on their word. Trading one immortal art plus half an immortal artifact for the life of a top-level pride of heaven from the Twilight Realm was a gain for them in the Supreme Realm.
Because the Supreme Realm and the Twilight Realm were the two closest major interfaces to each other, and both had the existence of several Great Emperors presiding over them. The battles between them were also very intense. It wouldn't be accurate to say they were like water and fire, but it was pretty close.
This time, the struggle in the Death Domain was the last buffer between the two realms. After the struggle in the Death Domain, the two major interfaces would truly go into full scale war.
What the interfaces sought from fighting each other was just one thing - expansion. Not expansion of territory, but expansion of positions for top-level cultivators.
The opportunities within each interface were limited. Let alone Great Emperors, even the positions of quasi-emperors and great sages were limited.
Initially an interface would only have a couple great sages. In order to give rise to quasi-emperors, further developments would need to happen. And the fastest and most effective approach was to swallow other interfaces.
The current seven major interfaces had all formed over the course of millions of years by swallowing many other interfaces.
For major interfaces formed this way, it was inevitable they wouldn't remain peaceful for long. Moreover, there were also differences in strength between the Great Emperors, as the three hundred Great Emperors of the Myriad Heavens and Ten Thousand Realms were ranked.
To advance in the rankings, the best method was to absorb the fortune and opportunities of other interfaces, or even merge paths with other interfaces to form an existence similar to the Heavenly Dao.
This was the secret of supreme Great Emperors.
Almost ninety percent of the most peak Great Emperors had merged their bodies with the path to achieve primacy, fused with heaven and earth.
But the primordial origin of a single major interface was not enough for all the Great Emperors to merge with. Thus, in order to reach the pinnacle and open up more positions for Great Emperors, the various major interfaces began mutual battles.
There was more or less some enmity between the two sides, which turned into overt and covert fighting during their time in the Death Domain.
Chen Xia agreed to the Supreme Realm's bounty. After all there was no loss for him, and if he could claim some heads then he could take the rewards for free. It was nothing to lose.
He analyzed the current situation again.
The Twilight Realm had given him a bounty to kill pride of heavens from the Divine Realm. And now the Supreme Realm had also given a bounty for killing Twilight Realm prides of heaven.
Not bad, it really lived up to being an interface game of werewolf.
Chen Xia was now waiting for the other major interfaces to come looking for him too.
They definitely would come.
Because the other major interfaces would mostly also guess that Chen Xia had accepted the bounties.
The situation now could be simply put: each major interface knew there was a killer, and knew someone had gone to hire that killer, but didn't know who the killer was meant to kill.
So now there were only two good solutions:
The first was to call on other people to surround and kill off this killer together, so that everyone wouldn't need to worry.
But there was a variable in this.
Xu Zhen. Although Xu Zhen had defected, she was still strictly considered an Immortal Realm cultivator, and there were still many cultivators in the Immortal Realm who admired and respected her. As long as Xu Zhen said a word, the cultivators of the Immortal Realm would be sure to protect her.
And then Xu Zhen would also protect Chen Xia.
Going back and forth like this would be equivalent to forcing Chen Xia and Xu Zhen back into the Immortal Realm's camp, strengthening the Immortal Realm's power. This obviously wouldn't be worthwhile.
So that left only the second method - to also give Chen Xia bounties themselves, making others be more wary too.
If everyone had bounties on them, it was equal to no one having bounties.
And this was indeed the case. Merely three days later, an elder from the Divine Realm came for Chen Xia to kill cultivators of the Celestial Realm.
And then the Celestial Realm came, followed by the Immortal Realm...
After half a month, Chen Xia counted with raised fingers, "The Immortal Realm to kill the Supreme Realm, the Supreme Realm to kill the Twilight Realm, the Twilight Realm to kill..."
He counted to the end, then frowned. "Ah forget it, it loops."
To put it simply, now no matter which realm's cultivators he killed, there were rewards he could obtain.
Chen Xia also roughly tallied, if he could kill all the cultivators from the seven major realms, he could probably gain 170 million spirit stones, twenty-six immortal arts, and twenty-four half immortal artifacts.
"Retire immediately after finishing this job," Chen Xia exclaimed.
Xu Zhen stood beside him and suddenly tilted her head, "Brother Xia, your medicine youth left."
"Mm." Chen Xia nodded. If he wanted to leave then let him leave, Chen Xia wouldn't forcefully keep him..
"He said his own sect had also entered the minor heaven and earth and called him back to seek opportunities, so he left."
Xu Zhen supplemented. She normally wouldn't pay attention to such trivial matters, but was afraid Chen Xia cared, so she specially asked Bai Yi jun.
"Seeking opportunities is a good thing," Chen Xia nodded. His gaze turned towards Ma Xiaohong behind still hugging her sword. He suddenly asked,
"Play chess?"
With no opportunities to pursue at the moment, they spent their leisure time playing chess.
Ma Xiaohong hugged her sword tightly. Her gaze lifted, still gentle, but looking straight at Chen Xia she hurriedly nodded.
"Ok...okay."
Xu Zhen waved her finger, using her will and intention to conjure up a chessboard for them to begin their match.
Chen Xia had an infamous reputation for being a sore loser at chess. He played relying completely on recklessness.
Ma Xiaohong was extremely timid, not daring to attack at all and instead pulling her defense to the max. Yet her brain worked exceptionally well, at least in chess.
So Xu Zhen witnessed what could be called a stunning chess match. Chen Xia desperately tried to checkmate while Ma Xiaohong gritted her teeth and defended. The two battled evenly matched, with Chen Xia sweating buckets, more tense than when fighting top level prides of heaven.
After a back and forth tussle lasting three days, the result emerged.
A draw.
Ma Xiaohong let out a breath in relief, a smile at the corner of her mouth. She could just play chess. Relying on steel resolve she managed to draw with Chen Xia..
Chen Xia also let out a breath, exclaiming in admiration, "An opponent of equal caliber, awesome."
Ma Xiaohong bashfully smiled, "Just average."
Xu Zhen stood dumbfounded on the side, simply unable to comprehend it.
This was also a rare leisurely moment above the minor stars. With the three gathered together, it was a rare time they could chat and laugh happily.
Xu Zhen's eyes toward Ma Xiaohong flickered as she watched her.
Chen Xia remained silent, sitting in the master's seat.
His gaze looked toward the lifeless space.
As if hearing the roar of a dragon from there.