Chapter 191: Chapter 189: The Mysterious Venerable Competition
Heaven and earth are vast, but one’s parents are the greatest!
Though he couldn’t stand that cheap father of his, deep down, Qin Li was immensely grateful to Qin Hanyue. She had endured countless hardships to raise her son. Despite all the storms they had weathered, an old saying still held true.
A son doesn’t mind an ugly mother, just as a dog doesn’t mind a poor home!
Although Qin Li was eager to see the fiancée he had missed for years, he knew that with Shangguan Shiyu’s Innate Spirit Body, she was surely being treated like a precious treasure within her Sect. No one would dare bully her.
His mother, however, was a different story. While he didn’t want to pass judgment on the father of this body, Qin Li still felt the man was incredibly irresponsible!
This wasn’t because he had left knowing Qin Hanyue was pregnant; in fact, the man named Qin Wenxuan had been unaware of it when he departed.
What Qin Li resented was that in thirteen years, the man had never once left Profound Island to visit his mother. In his eyes, this was going too far.
The gates of Profound Island opened every year, and there were other ways for disciples to enter the secular world. Yet he had agreed to meet his mother again in twenty years... Did he not know what twenty years meant to a young woman?
It meant her prime would soon turn to white hair, that her youth would fade, that fine wrinkles would appear at the corners of her eyes!
The best years of a woman’s life had been wasted just like that!
And all because of his bullshit promise!
As for him asking Qin Hanyue to leave with him, in Qin Li’s view, that was even more absurd. Without any proper status or title, why should a lady from a good family go with you?
If you can’t take responsibility, then you shouldn’t have done such a thing in the first place!
Therefore, deep in his heart, Qin Li had always been disgusted by that cheap father of his. He had never spoken of it to anyone, however, solely because of the principle: a son does not speak of his father’s faults!
However, if he met that man and found that his mother wasn’t as happy as he imagined, Qin Li would definitely confront him and ask him to his face, "Are you a heartless beast?"
"To Fengsha City!"
Qin Li leaned back on the soft cushions of the carriage, his mood low. This was a problem he had been reluctant to face, but now he had no choice.
He was filled with conflicting emotions toward this man for whom he felt not a shred of affection.
If, as a person with the soul of two lifetimes, he could accept Qin Hanyue’s endless love for him, then Qin Wenxuan’s selfishness filled him with nothing but disgust.
Qin Li thought to himself, ’If you can make my mother happy, then I will let it go! But if my mother is living the same kind of life in Fengsha City as she did in the past, then... Qin Wenxuan, even if you are the father of this body, I will demand justice for my mother!’
’I don’t care what mysterious land or powerful family you come from.’
Linghu Feiyue sensed Qin Li’s anxiety, but she didn’t know how to comfort him. For her, this kind of thing was too difficult. And so, the usually talkative Linghu Feiyue was surprisingly quiet on this journey.
「Fengsha City, Qin Family.」
The Qin Family was considered a powerful family in Fengsha City. While not first-rate, they were by no means weaklings to be slaughtered at will.
The current Patriarch, Qinling Mountain, was over 170 years old and had already reached the Middle Stage of the Celestial Embracing Realm. His strength had reached the peak of perfection. He was one of the most outstanding geniuses in the history of the Qin Family and a Martial Artist with great hope of stepping into the Venerable Realm!
Therefore, although the Qin Family’s overall power was average, the presence of Qinling Mountain made the family quite famous within a radius of several hundred miles around Fengsha City.
Within the family, there were also three Supreme Elders at the Celestial Embracing Realm who were in year-round seclusion. They were all very old; if they couldn’t break through to the Venerable Realm, death was also inevitable.
There were also eight Elders at the Celestial Integration Realm! As for Martial Artists at the Celestial Shattering Realm, the Qin Family had over thirty!
So, the Qin Family’s strength was not weak. At the very least, the Paradise Celestial Palace that Qin Li had annihilated was far inferior to the Qin Family! Yet a family like this could only be ranked in the middle tier on the entire Profound Island. From this, one could imagine just how formidable the overall power of Profound Island was!
The Qin Family had a huge number of young people at the Celestial Level, no less than several hundred. The current generation, in particular, had several young people of exceptional talent. All had reached the peak of the Celestial Level around the age of twenty and were hailed as the star figures of the Qin Family’s new generation!
They were also the stars of hope for the Venerable Competition on Profound Island a few years from now!
On Profound Island, no one dared to underestimate the Venerable Competition.
The main reason it was held in such high regard was that its prizes were not provided by the families and Sects of Profound Island!
Every seventy years, at the highest point of Profound Island, Black Tortoise Peak, an immense palace would appear. The palace was made entirely of gold and was known as the Golden Palace!
Its origins were no longer traceable. Some said it was built by Immortals, but even on the Celestial Essence Continent, Immortals were likewise the stuff of legend! By breaking through their physical limitations and reaching certain extremes, Martial Artists could live for many years. It was said that those in the Venerable Realm could live for up to several thousand years!
But the legendary Immortals were said to be able to live forever, undying!
This was an enormous temptation for all sentient beings!
The existence of the Golden Palace seemed to be the best proof that Immortals existed in this world, but no one had ever seen one.
When the Venerable Competition began was also untraceable; it was too ancient, simply passed down from one generation to the next.
Every seventy years, a martial arts tournament was held on Black Tortoise Peak.
Moreover, the rules were very strict: Martial Artists over one hundred years old and those at or above the Venerable Realm could not participate. This rule was set by the Golden Palace! The entire tournament was controlled by the Golden Palace; all the families on Profound Island had the right to participate, but no decision-making power whatsoever! No one had ever seen a living person inside the Golden Palace, but anyone who did not meet the conditions simply couldn’t enter the arena projected by it!
That’s right, even the arena was a projection from the Golden Palace! No matter how many people registered, there was only one arena! The battles could only proceed one by one.
The competition used a single-elimination format. All who registered would enter a preparatory area projected by the Golden Palace. Then, two people at a time would be teleported into the arena. The loser would be sent out immediately! Such an opportunity only came once every seventy years, which meant that a person could participate in two competitions at most in their lifetime.
In fact, for the vast majority of people, they only ever had one chance.
Furthermore, it wasn’t a guarantee that the strongest would be the last one standing. So, if you were unlucky, you might directly encounter a super-strong opponent and be eliminated after just one fight. Similarly, there were also extremely lucky people who might get a bye every time, and in the end, meet the conditions to receive a prize from the Golden Palace and obtain immense benefits!
In history, there had been two such people. This was because the Venerable Competition would end once only ten people were left!
These ten people would be transported to different locations within the massive Golden Palace, and each would be allowed to take three treasures!
Among these were top-grade Elixir Secret Formulas, Divine-level Battle Technique Heart Methods, and Unparalleled Divine Weapons. The even luckier ones might even obtain a Divine Pill left behind in the Golden Palace!
It was rumored that after consuming it, one could charge all the way to the Venerable Realm without any bottlenecks!
Moreover, every disciple who entered the Golden Palace during the competition would receive its protection for ten years! Within ten years of the competition, if a winning disciple encountered danger, they would be transferred to another location by a sudden divine light, and the person harming them would be judged by that same divine light!
Back in the Ancient Era, there was once a very lucky disciple from a Small Sect. He was only at the Celestial Level but kept getting a bye, eventually becoming one of the final ten. Inside the Golden Palace, he obtained a Divine-level Combat Skill, a Divine Pill, and an Unparalleled Divine Weapon.
This aroused the greed of countless people at the time, because neither the young man nor the Sect behind him had any ability to protect the treasures they had obtained.
So, the entire Sect relocated, moving into one of Profound Island’s forbidden zones for humans. But even so, people still found them.
But no matter how powerful the opponent, whenever that lucky young man encountered danger, two beams of divine light would always appear. One would teleport him away, while the other would reduce his enemy to dust!
Over the course of ten years, hundreds of people from those unwilling factions had fallen because of this young man! The strongest among them was a super-expert at the peak of the Celestial Embracing Realm! Before the Golden Palace’s protection, he didn’t even have a chance to resist!
In this way, although the boy was safe for ten years, he also made deep-seated enemies of many Sects and families. When the ten-year period was over, there was no telling how many people would want his life.
Unexpectedly, in just ten years, the lucky boy from back then had charged to the peak of the Celestial Embracing Realm. When those who came seeking revenge showed up, he slaughtered them for three days and three nights!
Of the hundreds of powerful Martial Artists, not one survived!
This incident caused a massive shock on Profound Island during that era. Many families and Sects were so devastated by that one battle that they could never recover. In the end, their descendants even became the weakest commoners on Profound Island.
Thus, from ancient times to this day, very few dared to provoke anyone who had entered the Golden Palace.
Now, more than sixty years had passed since the last Venerable Competition. Most of the lucky ones from that time had likely already reached a very high realm, becoming powerful figures in their own right.
Therefore, the Venerable Competition was, for Profound Island, a mysterious grand feast... that could drive people mad!
And right now, Qinling Mountain was feeling incredibly angry and frustrated because of this very matter.
Because the Thousand Kills Sect, which had a terrible reputation on Profound Island, had recently and solemnly released a piece of news: the Qin Family of Fengsha City had produced a peerless genius of sixteen or seventeen!
His strength had already reached the Celestial Shattering Realm!
