MTLNOVEL Chapter 126: "Isn't that an exaggeration..."_2
"Brother Qiu's weakness is his Divine Sense."
"As long as we grasp this weakness, there is still great hope to defeat Brother Qiu between the third and fourth layers of the Golden Core Stage."
The words fell.
This time, nobody refuted. People around glanced at one another and felt that the sect elder made some sense. The Heavenly Prides couldn't escape, but they could. Once the Thunder Dragon dissipated, they could return, and it wasn't impossible to win then.
However...
Having to resort to such a strategy to fight a Golden Core Stage at the first layer, when one was in the third or fourth, and still only having a great hope rather than certainty, was somewhat embarrassing if word got out.
No matter what everyone discussed.
Brother Qiu's success in topping the Heavenly Pride Leaderboard was now an unchangeable fact, and moreover, he was the most uncontestably worthy of all time to rank as the leader of the board without any dispute.
In the past Heavenly Pride Secret Realms, due to the mechanisms involved, there were always some accidental factors that led to the elimination of very popular competitors, which caused no matter who ended up as the leaderboard leader...
There would always be controversy, with people claiming that if it hadn't been for so-and-so's accidental elimination, how could he possibly have become the leaderboard leader.
Even the time when the scholar became the leaderboard leader, there was a great deal of controversy.
But...
This time, uniquely...
There was no controversy, no one opened their mouths to say that if it hadn't been for this or that, Brother Qiu could not have possibly become the leaderboard leader.
The crushing momentum had been etched into everyone's hearts.
There was simply no room for doubt.
...
Meanwhile, inside the Heavenly Pride Secret Realm...
Only Brother Qiu was there.
He looked curiously at the Heavenly Dao Spiritual Treasure that was gradually taking shape in front of him. Its foundation was his seven-colored fishing rod, which he truly hadn't expected to be the highest-grade amongst these treasures; an object he had initially regarded as just a handy tool.
Only... it would seem very strange if the main body were to be a short rod.
What Magic Practitioner's Lifebound Spirit Treasure was a short rod?
Even a sword would have seemed more reasonable to him.
About thirty minutes later, the Heavenly Dao Spiritual Treasure was finally fully formed. Its main body turned out to be the Seven-colored fishing rod, but... with something different about it.
Rather than a fishing rod...
It was more like the frame of an umbrella.
Yes, the Heavenly Dao Spiritual Treasure he had crafted was an umbrella, with the Seven-colored fishing rod forming its frame and the other heavenly materials forming its canopy.
At the instant the Heavenly Dao Spiritual Treasure was completed—
He activated an entry.
-
"Entry Name": Child of Heavenly Pride.
"Entry Level": Blue.
"Entry Effect": When you advance from the first layer of Qi Refinement to the Golden Core Stage within 30 days, there is a chance to randomly receive this entry. This entry is one-time use, consuming it will enhance the strength and grade of any one of your Spiritual Treasures.
-
At once...
The inscription of the entry within his Golden Core began to slowly fade away and transformed into a beam of Liu Guang that shot into the umbrella, adding an extra touch to the already Seven-colored wooden umbrella. He could distinctly feel an improvement in the grade of the Spiritual Treasure.
When the Heavenly Dao Spiritual Treasure slowly settled into his hands...
He also began to sense various pieces of information on how to refine it into his Lifebound Spirit Treasure, and how to nurture it, still unaware of its specific uses for now.
One could only know its particular uses after the Heavenly Dao Spiritual Treasure had been refined into his Lifebound Spirit Treasure.
Following that—
He felt enveloped in an extremely powerful force of rejection, and then he was instantly ejected from the Heavenly Pride Secret Realm.
The moment he appeared...
One of the six Golden Core Peak elders from the Royal Family, sitting at the center of the plaza, spoke in a clear, hoarse voice that echoed in everyone's ears, "The Heavenly Pride Secret Realm is now concluded."
"The top one hundred Heavenly Prides, please come forward to receive His Majesty's bounty."
"..."
All those present looked expressionlessly at the elder. A hundred names? There weren't a hundred, there was just one, and wasn't that person standing right beside you?
Yet the Golden Core Peak elder's expression remained unfazed; he mechanically finished a set phrase, then, using Spiritual Energy, sent a wooden box towards Brother Qiu and hoarsely stated,
"This is the bounty His Majesty prepared for the leader of the Heavenly Pride Leaderboard."
After Brother Qiu took the wooden box, the six elders disappeared from the spot.
...
The event of the Heavenly Pride Secret Realm was officially concluded.
But the crowd surrounding the plaza did not disperse; they turned their eyes to Brother Qiu, standing in the middle of the venue.
Just as Brother Qiu was about to stand up—
"Hey."
A hoarse voice arose behind him, where the Seventh Prince of Da Xia, supported by two eunuchs, was limping towards him and stared at him resolutely, word by word, saying,
"Sooner or later, I will defeat you."
"Mhm, mhm, keep it up," Brother Qiu responded encouragingly.
These geniuses simply needed to push themselves, unlike him, who also needed to consider when to really show his strength, when to act a bit weaker, or when to seem as though he wasn't cheating.
After greeting the Sect Master of Caotian Sect and others for a while, letting Fat Long and the others out from the small world, he began his walk toward the Capital.
...
In the Capital...
On Xuanwu Road, Fat Long walked beside Brother Qiu, who was wearing a mask, shaking with excitement as he whispered, "Brother Qiu, you didn't seriously look at those sect masters just now; they went stiff on the spot."
"They looked at Brother Qiu like they were seeing a monster."
"They were all dumbfounded, hahaha!"
Even though he and the scholar were in the small world, they had a clear, uninterrupted view of everything happening outside, and he had to admit, Brother Qiu had truly made a name for himself in this Heavenly Pride Secret Realm.