Chapter 112 Seizing the Flag, Joining the Three Pure Ones Sect, and Then Marrying His Wife... Heavens...

The four of them passed through the clouds and landed on this dilapidated bluestone floor. Weeds grew in the cracks between the stones, showing that the place had been abandoned for a long time.

Not far away, there stood thick stone pillars, covered with blurry and indistinct totems. Further away, there were the ruins left after the collapse of large palaces.

"Wow~ This place doesn't look like a naturally formed island at all, does it?" Bai Ye muttered to himself.

Ming Wushuang was also observing the surrounding environment. She explained, "According to the ancient records of our sect, the Outer Heaven may have been a complete world in the extremely distant ancient times. Later, some earth-shattering event must have occurred, causing the world to collapse and break into the shape we see today. This place may be a fragment of a relic left from the ancient times."

Upon hearing this, Bai Qingji looked intently at Ming Wushuang and asked, "This place is so far away from our area of ​​activity, and there's a barrier between us. Chief Ming, how exactly did you sense the fluctuations emanating from here?"

Ming Wushuang said calmly, "I am a naturally born immortal spirit."

There was no hint of boasting in her words. When she mentioned her physique, she simply wanted to tell everyone that she could sense the fluctuations in energy here because of her different physique.

Bai also looked blank. What was an innate immortal spirit body? This was outside her knowledge, but it sounded very powerful.

Curious, she pressed on, "What is an innate immortal spirit body?"

Bai Qingji, standing to the side, picked up the conversation and explained in a simple and easy-to-understand way: "Just think of it as an innate immortal spirit body where you can increase your cultivation by eating and sleeping. This kind of physique is naturally close to the Great Dao, and the power of heaven and earth is at her disposal. She is destined to achieve the Great Dao and is an invincible existence among those of the same level."

Bai Ye looked at Bai Qingji with a mischievous grin and teased her in a low voice, "Second Brother Bai, you wouldn't be so bad at beating them that you're just praising them like this, would you?"

Bai Qingji rolled her eyes in annoyance: "I'm too lazy to waste my breath on you, you foul-mouthed brat."

"Let's go." Bei Qianxue uttered a single word, picked up her sword, and with a flash, walked headlong into the depths of the ruins.

"Hey, Bei Laosan, wait a minute." Bai also quickly jogged to catch up, still muttering, "Don't walk so fast. Don't you know the rules of the workplace? The top two haven't left yet. If you, a mere third-ranking employee, rush to the front, you'll easily become cannon fodder and get targeted."

Bai Qingji and Ming Wushuang followed behind the two, listening to Bai Ye chattering away in front of them.

In truth, none of the four took the ruins seriously. After all, they were all proud and arrogant young geniuses who believed there were few places in the world they couldn't go or explore. A mere ancient ruin was naturally nothing to them.

As they walked, they carefully observed the enormous stone pillars.

Bai stopped under a particularly thick stone pillar, looked up, and carefully examined the ancient totems carved on the pillar.

As she looked at them, she vaguely felt that these twisted and eerie images and texts seemed somewhat familiar. It wasn't that their shapes were similar, but rather that the profound aura they exuded was somewhat similar to the laws and texts she had been studying.

However, the characters left behind by the Immortal Emperor of the Bai family contained the laws of the Great Dao, and one could comprehend the laws by looking at them for a long time. But these totems in front of her exuded an evil aura. After looking at them for a while, she became somewhat restless and inexplicably annoyed.

Bai shook his head, looked away, and stopped looking closely. He turned around to tell the three to leave, but then he saw that they were all standing blankly in front of the stone pillar, their eyes vacant, their arms slightly outstretched as if they wanted to hug the pillar.

"What are you doing?" Bai asked loudly.

The three men ignored her question and continued to stand there blankly.

Bai realized something was wrong. She took a deep breath and shouted, "Hey, wake up, stop looking!"

This loud shout, like the voice of the Great Dao, struck deep into the consciousness of the three people, instantly jolting them awake from their state of confusion.

The three men, like drowning people finally surfacing, tilted their heads back, gasping for breath, their chests heaving violently, and cold sweat beading on their foreheads.

After a moment, they came to their senses, turned around with lingering fear, turned their backs to the evil totems, and quickly walked towards Bai Ye.

"What did you see? Why did it look like that?" Bai asked first.

Bai Qingji shook his head and said, "It's just that there's a voice in my head that keeps telling me to give up everything I have."

“Me too,” Ming Wushuang and Bei Qianxue said in unison.

All three of them turned their gaze to Bai Ye.

Bai shrugged, a smug smile on his face: "Don't look at me like that~ You can't understand the world of the strong for now. All you need to know is that I saved your lives just now."

"Ugh! You're so annoying!! I really want to hit you!" Bai Qingji stomped her feet in anger, glaring at Bai Ye through gritted teeth.

Although Ming Wushuang and Bei Qianxue did not speak, their eyes said it all.

Clearly, they also agreed with Bai Qingji's idea. The three of them exchanged glances and tacitly formed a circle around Bai.

"Hey, stop fooling around, it's dangerous here." Bai quickly waved her hand to stop the three of them. Although she was very strong, she was still a little scared to face all three of them at the same time.

She dropped her playful expression, pointed around, and changed the subject: "Didn't you guys notice? We're surrounded. Look around."

Upon hearing this, the group abandoned their playful mood and cautiously looked around. Only then did they realize that cloud beasts were emerging from the once silent forest and deep within the collapsed palaces, slowly approaching them.

Cloud beasts are not of a single form; they come in all shapes and sizes. There are dragon-shaped cloud beasts with winding, coiling heads and horns, phoenix-shaped cloud beasts with outstretched wings that blot out the sky and magnificent plumage, as well as various other beasts such as giant bears, giant apes, and long snakes.

However, they had no flesh and blood bodies, but were formed from clouds and mist. At this moment, these bizarre and hundreds of cloud beasts gathered towards the four of them in an organized and disciplined manner, completely surrounding the empty bluestone square.

Ming Wushuang frowned slightly as she looked at the cloud beasts that were closing in: "Something's not right with these cloud beasts. Although cloud beasts have a sense of territory, they wouldn't hunt in such an organized and premeditated way."

Upon hearing this, Bai recalled the cloud beasts they had encountered on their way here. Indeed, those cloud beasts would suddenly burst out of the clouds to ambush others, displaying only the most instinctive hunting instincts and completely lacking the knowledge of camouflage.

"They're just some cloud beasts, we can kill them." Bei Qianxue was always a woman of action.

The moment she uttered the word "kill," her longsword was already drawn.

With a sharp clang, the sword technique was revived, and the dark sword light, carrying unparalleled sharpness and killing intent, slashed towards the densely packed cloud beasts around them.

"boom!"

Sword energy crisscrossed, shredding dozens of cloud beasts, which then dissipated into the sea of ​​clouds as mist filled the sky.

However, in this outer heaven, the one thing that is not lacking is the ubiquitous cloud beasts. The gap that was just opened was immediately filled by more cloud beasts.

They seemed to be enraged by Bei Qianxue's initiative, roaring as they charged toward the group.

Despite the onslaught of the beast horde, the few people in the encirclement even had time to chat.

Bai held the big black dog in one hand and gave Bei Qianxue a thumbs up with the other. "Girl, you're really too hot-tempered. You didn't become an assassin just because you like killing people, did you?"

Bei Qianxue glanced at her and muttered, "The cloud beast is a bit hard."

She was somewhat dissatisfied that she had only killed a few dozen cloud beasts with her sword, as the beasts were tougher than she had expected.

With a flick of her wrist, she swung her sword again.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

Several sword lights fell in succession, each landing directly in front of her. Under this violent sword energy, she managed to cut a vacuum area out of the dense horde of beasts.

The others weren't idle either; Ming Wushuang also made her move. She slowly raised her palm upwards, emanating a unique Daoist aura. Above the sky, a giant hand of spiritual energy appeared out of thin air, carrying an overwhelming heavenly might that suppressed everything, descending from the sky like divine punishment and striking the beast horde.

"Boom!"

The power of this palm strike far exceeded that of the dozens of sword strikes unleashed by Bei Qianxue.

The entire floating island trembled violently under this palm strike, the earth cracked, distant mountains collapsed with a roar, and the force of the palm strike reached deep into the earth. Hundreds of cloud beasts were turned into a sky full of mist under this palm strike.

The fog condensed and did not dissipate, enveloping the island. After a moment, countless cloud beasts flew out from the fog and rejoined the battle.

Bai Ye swept her sword horizontally, shattering several cloud beasts that pounced on her. She turned to the group and shouted, "Fighting like this is useless. These cloud beasts can resurrect indefinitely. It's a waste of energy."

Ming Wushuang continued, "The Cloud Beast's resurrection speed shouldn't be this fast. There must be a problem here. We should break through first and report this matter to the Sect Master."

Although it was their first time working together, the four were perfectly in sync, and acted immediately upon deciding to break through. They quickly converged, concentrating all their attacks in one place. Sword light soared into the sky, thunder roared, and various attacks poured out, instantly tearing a gap in the beast horde.

"Walk!"

The group moved with lightning speed, leaping out of the gap and escaping the encirclement of the beast tide.

Bai glanced at the cloud beast army behind her, then remembered that she still had three precious talismans left in her arms. She took out the explosive talismans and threw them all down.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three deafening explosions followed, their flames bursting through the cloud beast horde. Explosive talismans, powerful enough to destroy ordinary floating islands, struck this giant island, but only managed to collapse a few mountain peaks.

It cleared out a large number of cloud beasts, turning them back into mist. However, in a short while, the cloud beasts condensed into form again.

Seeing this, Ming Wushuang said to the three of them, "Let's go, let's leave this place first."

The four turned to fly away, but just then, the clouds below surged wildly, condensing into a gigantic hand that blotted out the sky and grabbed at the four in the air.

Faced with this giant hand, the group of people were like chicks, directly grabbed and dragged back to the floating island.

"Ouch~" Bai let out a strange cry, turned to look at Ming Wushuang who was standing close by, and asked, "Chief Ming, you wouldn't have done this on purpose, would you? Luring us, these formidable enemies, to this place so you could eliminate your strongest competitor ahead of time?"

"Shut up! Your hot breath is hitting my neck." Bai Qingji stiffened, tilting his head to the side to avoid Bai Ye's breath.

"I didn't want to either! I've already stopped breathing," Bai muttered softly. "Who told this damn hand to grip us so tightly? We can't move at all."

"Shut up!" Bai Qingji roared.

Ming Wushuang was squeezed between the two sisters, looking at them bickering without expression. "I don't need to eliminate my opponents in this way."

"Our Sanqing Sect embraces all rivers and all things. All the talented people in the world consider it an honor to join the Sanqing Sect. To stifle genius? Such behavior is unworthy of our attention."

"Hehe, so how did you join the Three Pure Ones Sect?" Bai asked gossipily.

Ming Wushuang paused for a moment, not really wanting to discuss the matter, but ultimately replied briefly, "I am an orphan that the sect leader picked up."

"Hehe, then I also want to join the Three Pure Ones Sect." Bai chuckled, thinking he could join the Three Pure Ones Sect, marry his wife, and live a shameless life every day.

"The top ten in the genius competition can enter the Sanqing Sect for cultivation," Ming Wushuang said with a businesslike expression.

"Is this the time to talk about this? Bai Ye, shut up!" Bai Qingji, who was unable to move and was constantly being attacked by Bai Ye, finally couldn't take it anymore and roared.

"Annoying, I want to go out." Bei Qianxue, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up, her voice unusually tinged with emotion.

She drew her fingers into a sword and slashed at the large hand that was holding them captive.

With a "sizzle," the sword finger collided with the cloud-shrouded hand, exploding into a series of sparks.

The sword energy dissipated, and the giant hand remained unharmed, without even leaving a trace.

"My goodness, it's so tough! Third Brother Bei, your sword finger technique doesn't seem to be very effective." Bai Ye said, looking at Bai Qingji, "Second Brother Bai, why don't you summon your ancestor and have her come to the rescue? They all know this palm technique that descends from the sky."

Bai Qingji rolled her eyes. "Do you think summoning the will of our ancestors is as simple as eating and drinking? It requires bloodline resonance and a specific ritual. I've only ever summoned it once in my entire life."

Oh~~~

"Are you being sarcastic or something???" Bai Qingji glared at her.

Bai also gave an innocent look: "No, I was just thinking that maybe it's because you got beaten up badly last time, so you can't handle it this time since no one is beating you up."

"You two are so noisy," Bei Qianxue and Ming Wushuang said in unison.

"Alright, alright, stop fooling around! I'll take you out." Bai said, stretching out his arms as if trying to lead all three of them out.

A ripple appeared in the void, and Bai reappeared on the open ground outside the giant hand, but the three people she had tried to bring out were nowhere to be seen.

"Uh...did I make a mistake?" Bai coughed awkwardly and called out to the tightly clenched hand, "Are the three inside still breathing?"

"It feels so much more comfortable without you making such a racket beside me," Bai Qingji's somewhat muffled voice escaped from between his fingers.

"Alright, alright, I'll figure out a way to get you out." Bai said as he examined Dahei's large hand, which he held tightly.

The giant cloud-like hand gripped them and pulled them back to the island, then fell silent, like a cage imprisoning them.

"Never mind, let's just cut them down first."

Bai muttered something to himself, then picked up Dahei and swung it at the giant hand. The heavy sword struck the misty giant hand, producing a metallic clang and sparks flying, but the giant hand remained completely unharmed.

"Looks like I have to get serious." Bai sheathed her heavy sword and roared at the three of them, "Those inside, put your hands behind your heads and squat down, I'm going to get serious."

“No need to worry, we have our own ways to deal with it,” Ming Wushuang replied.

"good!"

Bai responded without hesitation. She clenched her hands, and two large golden stars appeared in her palms.

"Go!" she hissed, pushing her arm forward with tremendous force. Two large golden stars, brimming with terrifying energy, spun and crashed into the cloud-like hand.

The moment the golden flames erupted, a powerful energy fluctuation also burst forth from within the giant cloud hand.

The three people inside the large hand attacked simultaneously, coordinating from both inside and outside, launching a pincer attack.

Amidst the deafening explosion, the incredibly hard cloud-like hand shattered completely amidst the blinding light and turbulent energy, slowly dissipating into mist.

The three who escaped were all in a sorry state. The true fire of the sun clung to their bodies, burning fiercely. The intense heat dissipated the thick fog on the island, exposing their disheveled appearance more clearly to Bai Ye's eyes.

"Haha, how's my fire? Is it still warm?" Bai grinned and waved his hand to dispel the remaining solar fire on their bodies.

Bai Qingji rolled her eyes and said irritably, "I think you're doing this on purpose, trying to take this opportunity to set me on fire, aren't you?"

"Thank you for your help, Fellow Daoist Bai." Ming Wushuang bowed in thanks, his every move displaying the demeanor of a top disciple from a prestigious sect.

"Thank you." Bei Qianxue nodded in thanks.

Bai waved his hand dismissively, "Why are you being so polite with me? It's good that everyone's alright. Now what do we say? The cloud beast has disappeared too. Are we still going to continue investigating this place?"

Ming Wushuang shook his head. "It seems that this place won't affect the competition for the time being. We should go back. The competition is nearing its end, and we shouldn't waste any more of your time."

"Let's go then." Bai Qingji called out, and the four of them took to the air again. This time, no ghostly things suddenly jumped out to block them, and they were able to leave smoothly.

On their return journey, they noticed that there were far fewer cloud beasts swimming in the sea of ​​clouds, wondering if they had all gathered on the giant island where they had been before.

Bai also frowned in thought as she flew. She felt that the large hand had gone to great lengths to grab them back, and then, despite the combined attack of several people, it had released them so easily. The logic was illogical, and it seemed rather strange.

She asked in her mind, "Xiao Wang, can you help me see where the plot is at? Is there any storyline about the Outer Heaven?"

No, it's just a kid.

[This part of the plot has gone off track. According to the original novel, the first test of the genius competition at this point should have been in Immortal Valley, where all the geniuses were competing to see who could run the fastest and had the best stamina. There was no floating island battle at all.]

"What about Ming Wushuang? Is she a good person in the book?" Bai asked again.

[Yes, right? She's everyone's favorite senior sister. She's strong, kind, and polite; everyone likes her.]

Bai Ye didn't ask any further questions after hearing this. She felt that Ming Wushuang was very dangerous. This kind of perfect persona, with the top scholar of a prestigious family and formidable strength, always seemed like she could be killed at any moment. In any case, she was very dangerous.

......

Outside, above Dragon Python Rock.

Zhong Jiuli stood with her hands behind her back. After listening to Bai Ye and Xiao Wang's conversation, she roughly knew what had happened in the Outer Heaven.

But just as Liu Xianyue said, even she would find it difficult to force her way into the Outer Heavens. Despite her anxiety, she could only wait for the competition to end. Fortunately, the month-long deadline was fast approaching.

Across the Nine Provinces, countless eyes were focused on one side of the light screen, where the rankings of each province's points were recorded.

The standings are quite clear. With a brilliant record of only 300 points, the Wilderness State firmly holds the last place, maintaining its position at the bottom for thousands of years. It seems that no one can shake its status as the ninth place for thousands of years.

At the top of the leaderboard remains the Central State, a state with a deep foundation and a wealth of talent. Even after days of relentless bombardment and chaotic flag-capturing battles between states, the Central State, thanks to its early established advantages and strong overall strength, still maintains a terrifying nearly ten thousand points.

He truly deserves the title of overlord of the Nine Provinces.

Following closely behind is Guzhou with 6,800 points, followed by Youzhou, Beijingzhou, Xizhou, Dongzhou, Jianzhou, and other traditionally strong states, each with several thousand points.

Even the Southern Frontier Prefecture, currently ranked eighth, boasts over two thousand points. In comparison, the Wilderness Prefecture's meager three hundred points appear particularly glaring and pathetic on this leaderboard.

Many cultivators from the desolate state shook their heads and sighed as they looked at the huge gap in points. They felt a mix of emotions, including resentment and anger at falling behind, as well as a deep sense of powerlessness.

Many people even secretly thought to themselves, "I could do that score too!"

However, there are still more discerning people. Those who can represent the Wilderness State on the stage of the Nine Provinces Grand Competition are all true geniuses who have gone through numerous selections and stood out from thousands of peers.

They were now facing the most outstanding geniuses in the Nine Provinces, opponents many times stronger than themselves. Behind that lone 300 points, perhaps was the best result these young people could achieve amidst such formidable enemies.

Even though everyone was unwilling, they couldn't say anything; this was the current situation in the Wilderness State.

Just as everyone was feeling disheartened and ready to accept the outcome and leave dejectedly.

"Look! Our points! Our points have moved!" A cry of surprise rang out from the crowd, gripping the attention of all the cultivators from the Wilderness State.

The previously listless crowd instantly perked up, and everyone's eyes fell on the light screen.

The 300 points that had been stable for nearly a month suddenly surged by over a thousand points in the blink of an eye, as if it had been powered by a small electric motor.

Meanwhile, the scores of the remaining states on the screen are declining at a visible rate.

"My God, what happened?"

"What exactly is going on with these points?"

"What's going on with this light screen? Stop watching those boring people fighting, look at the people of our Wilderness State, look at what they're doing!" someone shouted anxiously, pointing at the light screen.

As if sensing everyone's thoughts, the light screen quickly focused the camera on the people of the Wilderness State.

Bai, who had disappeared for nearly half a month, reappeared on the light screen. She led a group of cultivators from the Desolate State and rushed out of the floating island in a grand manner.

A group of people, led by Bai Ye, started a bulldozing campaign to capture flags and score points, much like bandits.

"It's her, that white-haired one, the troublemaker Wang Baiye. She led the people from the Wilderness State out to fight, and they're seizing the flag!"

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Author's Note: [Chin resting on hand][Chin resting on hand][Chin resting on hand] My wife is home on vacation, leaving me alone at home to struggle through this book. I'm wearing a mask of pain, I don't want to write. Why won't my keyboard work by itself? Why won't this book end on its own?! [Crying][Crying][Crying][Crying][Crying][Crying][Crying][Crying]