Chapter 1659: The Gate of Sunset
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
At dawn, pale white light emerged from the eastern horizon, heralding the start of a new day.
And now, the grand event held once every ten years throughout the Dongling Region, the Sunset Heaven Selection, was finally about to begin.
Early in the morning, all disciples of the Dongling Immortal Pool were gathered together by the Hall Masters of the three great halls in preparation for ascending to the summit of Long Xiao Sacred Mountain to participate in the Sunset Heaven Selection.
The Yunluo Sacred Land was also stirring with activity.
The Wulei Sacred Land had likewise begun mobilizing.
Even before the competition officially started, the foot of the mountain was already packed with countless martial artists. Dense crowds surged like waves, stretching as far as the eye could see.
Although they had no chance to participate in this battle of geniuses, everyone still wanted to seize a good viewing position. If they arrived too late, they might not even get the chance to watch the battles in person and would only be able to hear others relaying the results from the base of the mountain.
Time flowed quietly onward.
The disciples of the three Sacred Lands gradually ascended to the summit of Long Xiao Sacred Mountain, all eager to test themselves.
Some felt nervous.
Some burned with excitement.
Some struggled to suppress their restlessness.
Yet every single person waited for the same thing.
The descent of the legendary ruins known as the Sunset Ancient City.
Buzz! Buzz!
The void trembled.
From the distant heavens came an ancient, desolate sound that echoed across the sky.
It felt as though an ancient gate from primordial times was slowly opening.
It also felt like some archaic divine temple was drifting through the eternal void of the cosmos.
Gradually, it descended toward Long Xiao Sacred Mountain.
Buzz buzz buzz...
Space shook violently.
From deep within Long Xiao Sacred Mountain came deep rumbling sounds, as though the mountain itself was responding to something.
In the darkness beyond the horizon, black mist churned and rolled as though terrified of being pierced apart by sunlight.
Blood-red radiance that once surged from deep beneath the earth gradually faded away, plunging heaven and earth back into darkness.
Countless living beings trembled.
Ancient mountain ranges shook.
Everything seemed to fall into frozen stillness, silently awaiting the arrival of that ancient existence descending from the starry heavens.
Boom!
It sounded as though the sky itself had exploded apart.
As though the Ninth Heaven had shattered into pieces.
Countless cracks spread across the sky above Long Xiao Sacred Mountain.
It looked as though some unimaginably colossal existence was crouching above the sacred mountain, preparing to tear open the heavens by force and descend directly into this world.
Crack! Crack!!
A world-shaking explosion rang out as the sky suddenly shattered apart.
Countless fragments of space scattered in every direction.
Before everyone's eyes appeared a massive rupture connected directly to the starry sky, so close that the endless stars seemed almost within reach.
And within that opening, an enormous shadow slowly descended.
Under countless shrinking pupils, an ancient bronze gate towering tens of thousands of zhang high and stretching beyond sight gradually descended from the rift in the heavens onto Long Xiao Sacred Mountain.
The colossal bronze gate was carved with dragons and phoenixes.
A coiling Canglong dragon wrapped around the left side, while a phoenix rested upon the right.
Though they were merely carvings, they still emitted the overwhelming pressure of divine beasts, enough to make all living beings instinctively tremble.
The entire gate was mottled with the marks of time, filled with an ancient primordial aura that spoke of endless years and immeasurable vicissitudes.
Boundless desolation poured from the bronze gate and swept across mountains and rivers for thousands of miles.
Shock.
Pure overwhelming shock seeped into the hearts of every single person present.
This majestic bronze gate, which seemed to have crushed through endless stars and torn apart heaven and earth to arrive here, brought forth a level of awe that most people would never experience again in their entire lives.
Even figures as powerful as the Hall Master of the Blazing Sun Hall, Saint Lady Bi Luo, and the Pavilion Master of Yunxiao Pavilion from Yunluo Sacred Land were deeply shaken.
No matter how many times they witnessed it, standing before this towering bronze gate still caused their hearts to tremble uncontrollably.
"So this... is the legendary Gate of Sunset leading to the Sunset Ancient City?"
Fairy Qingping's icy eyes widened in astonishment.
Tuoba Yan also drew in a deep breath, her breathing becoming slightly hurried.
At the summit of Long Xiao Sacred Mountain, whether they were high-ranking elders of the Sacred Lands or elite disciples, every single one of them gazed upon the giant gate with profound reverence.
As the gate descended fully, its vast aura swept through all directions.
Its boundless might pierced through the heavens and stretched across endless galaxies.
Boom!
The ancient bronze gate finally landed upon the earth.
The entire venue fell into dead silence as everyone stared fixedly at the majestic gate before them.
Azure light flickered brilliantly around the bronze gate, radiating outward for hundreds of miles.
When the light finally faded, rows of solid bronze arenas appeared before the crowd.
At a glance, there were ten arenas in total.
The combined number of participants from the three Sacred Lands alone was already close to a thousand. On top of that, many super sects from across the Dongling Region had also obtained one or two participation slots.
Altogether, the total number of contestants approached nearly ten thousand.
After all, the Dongling Region was unimaginably vast.
Just within the Tiansheng Empire alone, there were already numerous super sects.
Ling Feng himself had only recently learned this information.
Unfortunately, the Tianbai Empire had just experienced a massive internal upheaval and was still recovering from devastation. As the nation's guardian divine sect, the Cangqiong Sect likely had no spare energy to participate in this Sunset Heaven Selection.
Otherwise, Ling Feng might have encountered some familiar faces here.
These nearly ten thousand martial artists would be distributed among the ten arenas to compete against one another.
Each arena would determine its top hundred participants while eliminating the overwhelming majority.
For disciples of the three Sacred Lands, passing this round would basically pose no difficulty at all.
But for disciples from ordinary sects, merely surviving the first round and advancing further was already considered an immense honor.
Of course, compared to later stages, the first round had one major difference.
Participants could not plunder each other's fortune power during this phase.
Only after reaching the second round, the Thousand Genius Tournament, would contestants begin seizing one another's fortune.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
While everyone was still immersed in shock over the grandeur of the arenas, ten figures suddenly shot into the sky from the horizon.
All ten wore golden robes and maintained stern expressions.
Among them were none other than Divine General Cangwu and the cold-faced divine general who had previously greeted the Dongling Immortal Pool delegation outside Long Xiao Sacred Mountain.
These experts possessing demi-divine bloodlines were, in a sense, the true organizers of the Sunset Heaven Selection.
In the next instant, all ten experts simultaneously summoned disk-shaped jade treasures.
The jade disks descended one after another into the arenas below.
Boom!
The ten arenas trembled slightly.
Shua!
In the next moment, shimmering light gathered atop each bronze arena before condensing into expressionless golden figures radiating terrifying auras.
These puppet-like beings stood silently upon the arenas with icy indifference.
The conjured puppets would serve as referees for the matches, judging victory and defeat without bias.
Buzz buzz buzz...
The bronze gate released another wave of azure radiance that swept across the crowd.
Every participant who had previously received talismans from the demi-divine race experts suddenly began glowing with golden light.
At the same time, the Dragons of Fortune behind them automatically manifested.
The strength of everyone's fortune instantly became clear at a glance.
Especially Ling Feng's nine golden dragons, each measuring nine zhang in length.
Among the crowd, they resembled the aura of a supreme overlord.
Countless experts turned their eyes toward him immediately.
Just as Divine General Cangwu had once said, these experts had clearly already regarded Ling Feng as a walking treasure trove.
If they could seize even half of Ling Feng's fortune power, then this entire journey would already have been worth it.
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