Chapter 1201-1202
Chapter 1201 – Stir Between Two Realms
Zhao Hai was famous! Very famous! Everyone in the Machine Field was discussing Zhao Hai. And it wasn't only the average people who were talking about him. Even the huge powers of the Machine Field had him as a topic of conversation.
Zhao Hai underestimated the hatred that the people of the Machine Field had against the Cultivators. This wasn't just because of the Cultivation Realm's various invasions towards the Machine Field. This hatred started at a spiritual level.
People from the Cultivation Realm always looked at the people of the Machine Field with an arrogant attitude. They conducted themselves as though they were emperors looking at beggars. It was this attitude that made people from the Machine Field hate the Cultivators to the core.
This hatred only got stronger and stronger to the point where the people from the Machine Field prayed that someone would get strong enough that it made them equal to the Cultivators.
However, no Mage, Warrior, or Mech Soldier managed to achieve this goal. None of them were able to defeat a Cultivator of the same level. This caused people to hope more and more.
Although Zhao Hai only blocked three swords from Li Chuchen, the significance of this result was actually more than expected. It was a breakthrough for the Machine Field. Because of this, everyone was happily talking about it.
Nobody in the Machine Field believed that Li Chuchen was holding back. This was because the Cultivators were always impolite towards people from the Machine Field. If they ever duelled someone from the Machine Field, they would certainly go brutal. It was simply impossible for a Cultivator to hold back. With this in mind, people believed that Zhao Hai was strong enough to block Li Chuchen's three swords!
These reasons made Zhao Hai a very famous individual in the Machine Field. He was now seen as a hero of the realm.
While everyone was talking about Zhao Hai, the subject in question suddenly announced that he was closing up for practice. It was still unknown as to when he would show up again.
Upon hearing this information, everyone in the Machine Field were startled. Then rumors began surfacing everywhere. Some people said that Zhao Hai was seriously injured after fighting Li Chuchen. He just restrained his injury and was now feeling the backlash. They say that Zhao Hai was dying.
There were also some people who said that Zhao Hai was closing up in order to practice a secret technique. This way, he could defeat more Cultivators in the Six Realm Beginner Competition.
All kinds of rumors appeared and the Machine Field fell into confusion. At this time everyone wanted to see Zhao Hai. However, Zhao Hai was already out of sight.
After things slowly went out of control, the Ashley Family decided to have a press conference. They announced to everyone that Zhao Hai wasn't injured. The reason he was closing up was because he needed to prepare for the Six Realm Beginner Competition.
Originally, people were dissatisfied with the Ashley Family's response. However, what happened afterwards made them understand why the Ashley Family did it.
Just like what Desbarres said, the battle between Zhao Hai and Li Chuchen didn't only cause a huge reaction in the Machine Field. The Machine Field and the Cultivation Realm were connected in a way. Because of this, any important matter in the Machine Field would quickly be made known in the Cultivation Realm. With Zhao Hai and Li Chuchen's battle being the biggest matter in the Machine Field, it was natural for the Cultivation Realm to be aware of it.
Upon hearing about this information, the people in the Cultivation Realm were in an uproar. One must know that in the entire World of Cultivation, the Machine Field was the weakest of the 6 realms. This was also one of the reasons why others look down on the Machine Field.
And now, the Cultivation Realm's tenth place qualifier wasn't able to kill the Machine Field's first placer in three swords. This was absurd for those in the Cultivation Realm.
It didn't take long before the people from the Cultivation Realm found a recording of the battle and watched it. Although the quality of the recording wasn't good, those who knew something were still able to make sense of it. They knew that the result wasn't because Li Chuchen was holding back, it was because his opponent wasn't weak.
Because of this recording, the Cultivation Realm's people didn't blame Li Chuchen for losing. Instead, they were startled by Zhao Hai's strength.
Naturally, those who didn't blame Li Chuchen weren't those of the general public. The high-level beings in the Cultivation Realm didn't blame Li Chuchen since they knew that he was strong. On the other hand, Zhao Hai wasn't weak either. Li Chuchen didn't hold back and yet his three swords were still blocked by Zhao Hai. There was no reason for Li Chuchen to be blamed for this outcome.
Those in higher positions didn't say anything about it, but things were different for the others. After all, competition exists everywhere, especially in the Cultivation Realm.
Although the Cultivation Realm was very rich in resources, this advantage was being negated by its huge population. In this case, those who gets to use these resources were limited. Therefore, competition was brutal.
Every Cultivator had a dream, and that was to achieve immortality and live alongside the heavens and the earth. However, becoming immortal needed a lot of resources such as cultivation methods, weapons, pills, and other things. The more important something was, the more scarce they were. So in order for a Cultivator to get closer to this dream of immortality, they would have to fight for it.
And the top ten newcomers were the top existence among the lower levels of the Cultivation Realm. They were above others and enjoyed resources much better than most people. They also practice the best cultivation methods and were generally envied by a lot of people.
In the past, these experts were very famous because of their strength. Even if other people say anything to them, these words were often said in secret. In the Cultivation Realm, the right to speak depended on one's strength. If that expert heard it, then it would be a problem if they kill the one who talked. Nobody would go to the trouble of talking bad about these top ten experts to just be killed in the end.
However, this matter gave those at the bottom level an opportunity. Li Chuchen was one of the Cultivation Realm's ten great experts and was enjoying the best of treatments. But despite these benefits, Li Chuchen was still not able to take care of a kid from the Machine Field!
There were quite a few talks like these in the Machine Field. Naturally, most experts wouldn't care about this since they saw Zhao Hai's strength. However, those who had been suppressed by Li Chuchen didn't care about how strong Zhao Hai was. They just clung on the fact that Zhao Hai was from the Machine Field, and that Li Chuchen was putting mud on the Cultivation Realm's reputation.
There were also people who had strength worse than Li Chuchen that decided that it was a good idea to kill Zhao Hai. In their eyes, Li Chuchen wasn't able to kill Zhao Hai because of the three sword covenant. If this three sword covenant wasn't in place, then Li Chuchen would've easily killed Zhao Hai.
And since Li Chuchen failed to kill Zhao Hai, the others saw this as an opportunity to elevate themselves. If they could kill Zhao Hai, then they would be regaining a huge face for the Cultivation Realm.
There were quite a few Cultivators who had the same idea. They immediately went to the nearest transmission formation and went to the Machine Field. All of them were planning to challenge Zhao Hai.
Naturally, the movement of such numbers of people couldn't be hidden from the people of the Machine Field. Seeing a sudden influx of Cultivators, the Machine Field couldn't help but turn vigilant. They quickly investigated the reason why these people came.
Before long, they got their answer. All of these people were here to challenge Zhao Hai. Moreover, it seems like they had no intention of hiding their plans as all of them went to look for the Ashley Family.
However, the Ashley Family only gave a single answer, Zhao Hai was closing up and was unavailable! It can be said that this excuse was the most effective one. Closing up to practice wasn't only done in the Machine Field. Every single cultivator did this at some point of their lives. When someone was closing up, it was taboo to disturb them. Therefore, since Zhao Hai was closing up, nobody was allowed to issue him a challenge.
When this information was sent to the Machine Field, people finally found out why Zhao Hai suddenly closed up. To be honest, people became relieved upon knowing about this.
Then almost at the same time, the top 100 beginners of the Machine Field decided to close up as well. After that, a large number of experts decided to close up. "Closing up" had become a trending topic in the Machine Field's online world.
Due to the Machine Field's rogue-like practice, those experts from the Cultivation Field had no way to challenge anyone at all. Some of them thought that since there was no way to challenge Zhao Hai, they would challenge others in order to give themselves a boost in fame. However, it seems like everyone was closing up. They couldn't find anyone to challenge, this caused them to be annoyed.
These Cultivators also knew that they can only challenge famous experts. There was no significance in challenging small fry. Killing these weak Mages and Warriors was useless. Once they go back, they wouldn't be able to gain any face.
Because of this, the foreign challengers found themselves in a very awkward situation. If they remained, then they would have nobody to challenge. Most of them were also unwilling to go home. They were in a dilemma.
Just like the challengers, the high-level figures of the Machine Field were also having headaches. Although they had protected their experts by having them close up, they ended up shouldering all of the stress and pressure.
No matter what the higher-levels say, the people of the Machine Field believed that everyone closing up was just a reason to evade the challenge. This was the action of a coward. Therefore, there were a lot of people cursing online. In their opinion, they would rather have Zhao Hai die in battle than seeing everyone acting like cowards. They had lost face!
Chapter 1202 – Heading Out
Those in high positions in the Machine Field considered these public clamorings as though they didn't exist. They knew clearly that they shouldn't listen to this public outcry. If they caused the Machine Field to lose all 100 of their participants, then the Machine Field would no longer be able to fight for benefits in the Six Realm Beginner Competition.
And once the Machine Field couldn't fight for benefits, they would get weaker and weaker. Then they would be bullied even more, and then lose more in the future. This wasn't something that the higher-ups of the Machine Field wanted to see.
Actually, both the public and the higher-ups of the Machine Field don't see ascenders as someone on their own side. To them, Ascenders were merely tools. But the difference between ordinary tools and Ascenders was that there were some Ascenders that were useful while there were some that were useless.
Naturally, Zhao Hai and the other participants were useful tools in the eyes of the Machine Field's higher-ups. Therefore, they couldn't just be sacrificed like that.
Zhao Hai was also aware of the troubles happening outside, but he didn't care. For him, those Cultivators outside weren't worth his time. If he went out now, he could easily kill all of those people.
Of course, Zhao Hai wouldn't do that. There was no need to. For Zhao Hai, murder was something he would only do whenever it benefits him. There was no need for senseless slaughter.
Zhao Hai was currently practicing his spells inside the Space. After he practiced with Liquid SIlver, he proceeded to use his body tempering fist while inside the sandy region of the Space.
Zhao Hai knew that his own strength still wouldn't allow him to run amuck in the Machine Field. Therefore, he needed to strengthen himself as soon as possible; and the body tempering technique was a good method to reach that goal.
Since the Machine Field were acting cowardly, most Cultivators left. Only a small number of people stayed in the Machine Field, they were still looking for that opportunity.
Peace began to return to the Machine Field as the Cultivators retreated. It was impossible for these people to focus on this matter for too long, especially if it didn't matter much to their lives.
The winds in the Machine Field gradually calmed down, which was something that the higher-ups of the Machine Field wanted to see. They don't want the participants of the competition to be disturbed. This was because they were looking forward to this particular Six Realm Beginner Competition.
This time, the Machine Field's representatives included Zhao Hai, Streep, Xiong Li, Dongfang Yu, Zhu Chen, even Lei Xiaotian. Compared to the past dozens of years, this was the Machine Field's strongest lineup.
In the past Six Realm Beginner Competitions, there would be 600 participants overall. The Machine Field would have participants among the top 500 or 400. This was a complete loss of face for the Machine Field. They weren't able to get any good benefits by these rankings alone.
But this time, Zhao Hai was able to block three swords from the Cultivation Realm's tenth place. This was a good sign for the Machine Field. This was because, most of the time, the top ten experts of the Cultivation Realm would be the top ten experts of the entire World of Cultivation.
Although Zhao Hai only blocked against three swords from Li Chuchen, the higher-ups of the Machine Field still held hope for Zhao Hai. They wanted him to fight for benefits for the realm.
Days passed as the date for the Six Realm Beginner Competition approached. Cultivators that kept waiting for an opportunity were finally able to realize that the whole Machine Field was turtling up, so they just gave up and returned to the Cultivation Realm. After all, the Machine Field doesn't have resources that they need, staying here for long wasn't favorable for their cultivation.
Once all of the Cultivators left the Machine Field, the higher-ups were finally able to relax. The Machine Field returned to its former calm as everyone waited for the Six Realm Beginner Competition.
Zhao Hai didn't leave his seclusion just because the Cultivators had left. He still declared that he would continue with his closed door cultivation. This caused everyone who had their eyes on him to believe that he was truly injured. After all, Li Chuchen's swords weren't that weak.
This time, the Ashley Family didn't bother to clarify the matter. In their opinion, there was no need to do so. Although there were people who kept monitoring Zhao Hai, their number wasn't as great as before.
After one month, Zhao Hai finally decided to head out. It wasn't that he could no longer endure closing up, it was that he had no choice but to head out. It was time for the Six Realm Beginner Competition.
Although the Six Realm Beginner Competition was still a month away, they still needed to prepare beforehand for their departure.
When Zhao Hai announced that he was going out, Xiong Li and the others quickly visited him. Xiong Li and the others were mainly there to see if Zhao Hai was indeed injured. After all, he wouldn't have been in seclusion for that long. But after seeing how well Zhao Hai was doing, they felt relieved.
Once Xiong Li and the others left, Cadjo immediately called Zhao Hai over to his room. Cadjo looked at Zhao Hai and said, "Little Hai, how is your practice?" Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, "General Manager, rest assured, there's no problem whatsoever. This time, I'm sure that I can enter the top 100 of the competition."
Cadjo smiled and said, "Don't put yourself into too much pressure. If it's disadvantageous, then don't show your power. The Patriarch is already satisfied with your performance."
Zhao Hai nodded and said, "Rest assured, General Manager, I know what to do. Right, how do we leave the Machine Field? Do we use a spaceship? When do we depart?"
Cadjo shook his head and said, "There's no ship. This time, we'll be using a transmission formation since you need to be in the Cultivation Realm for one month. This is also the way it is done."
Upon hearing Cadjo, Zhao Hai couldn't help but ask, "We need to stay in the Cultivation Realm for one month? What kind of rule is that? Isn't that just sending us to the tiger's mouth? What if those Cultivators challenge us?"
Cadjo shook his head and said, "You don't need to worry about this. The Cultivators wouldn't challenge you. You need to stay in the Cultivation Realm because the concentration of spiritual qi there is different from the Machine Field. You would need a month to adjust to their level. It has been decided to no challenges will be made in this period."
Zhao Hai was still frowning. He doesn't believe the words of the Cultivation Realm. The Machine Field was a very weak existence among the six realms, this meant that they don't have much diplomatic influence. Although the Cultivation Realm said that nobody would make a challenge, there were innumerable means for people to accept a challenge. This was reality.
Cadjo looked at Zhao Hai and knew that he was thinking. He sighed and said, "I know what you are thinking about. Don't think too much about it, this is the rule. But just be careful once you leave."
Zhao Hai looked at Cadjo and said, "You aren't going with us this time?"
Cadjo nodded and said, "Right, I won't be going. Those who will be going to the Cultivation Realm would only number 150. There's you 100 participants, and then 50 leaders. Leading the 50 team leaders is a very famous individual from the three powers, Skybreaker Blade Ma Rulong."
When Zhao Hai heard Cadjo, he couldn't help but gawk. He knew who Skybreaker Ma Rulong was. Ma Rulong wasn't an Ascender and was a Machine Field native. Only a few Machine Field natives would want to practice martial arts. However, Ma Rulong loved martial arts ever since childhood. Moreover, the family he belonged to was an ancient Warrior Family of the Warrior Association. It was a tradition in his family to practice martial arts, but it wasn't a priority for them to practice it. However, Ma Rulong put his entire heart into practicing martial arts. In the end, he was able to become a master of fighting.
Ma Rulong established his fame using his ghost head sword. At this time, he's already become a level 7 Warrior. His strength was formidable. He wouldn't have any problems facing a Core Formation Expert of the Cultivation Realm.[1]
But unlike his fellow natives, Ma Rulong doesn't have any prejudice against Ascenders. It may be because of his love for martial arts. Because of this, he looked favorably towards Ascenders. He also wasn't afraid of offending anyone from the Cultivation Realm.
Zhao Hao nodded and said, "I didn't expect Senior Ma Rulong to be our escort. Then there's no need to worry about the travel. General Manager, when will we depart?"
Cadjo answered, "You'll leave the day after tomorrow. Although Ma Rulong will take the lead, you still need to be careful. There will be times where Ma Rulong wouldn't be able to protect you. After all, the place you'll be going is the Cultivation Realm. That is the territory of the Cultivators, we don't have much influence there."
Zhao Hai nodded and said, "General Manager, feel relieved. I know what to do. There's no need to worry."
Cadjo sighed, then he went to Zhao Hai's side and then patted his shoulder as he said, "Remember that your own safety is most important. Think about Margaret. Even if you don't get good results, the family will not blame you for it. After all, you already became the realm's champion. You already surpassed our expectations." Zhao Hai nodded, "Rest assured, I'll make sure to be safe. Nothing bad will happen."
Cadjo nodded, then he said, "Take time to go out for a walk. Let other people see you. We don't want them to think that you're really injured."
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, "Alright, I happen to have a desire to explore. I've been cultivating all this time. I haven't had much time to explore the entire planet." Cadjo smiled and said, "Alright, go go. You're currently the richest man in the entire family. You won't have any money problems."
Zhao Hai laughed and didn't say anything else. He cannot tell Cadjo that he was heading out to sell things he had no need for. Everything that he needed was already in the Space. And even if the Space doesn't have it, he could still have it made by the Processing Machine. Things made by the Space was always much better than items that can be bought outside!
- Ghost head blade https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.ebQlJuXn-0GDQWdwUZDVDwHaNl%26pid%3DApi&f=1