The Sword God of the Universe

Chapter 2153: A Helpless Choice

Yellow Spring Cave is extremely important to the Four Great Forces. Whether it is the Ancient Land of Morning Light, the Shadow Tower, or the other two forces, they all highly value the resources within the Yellow Spring Cave.

So when Yellow Spring Cave opens, the Four Great Forces will go all out to compete for entry slots. The leaders of the teams are figures from the leadership levels of the Four Great Forces.

The War God of the Ancient Land of Morning Light, Lord Buddha of the Shadow Tower, the Patriarch of the Xin Family, and the Inspector of Mystic Moon Trading House. These people, of course, are not the most powerful or highest-ranked within their respective forces, but they are the public leaders of these forces.

After hearing Jing Yan’s asking price, the Ancient Land of Morning Light and the Shadow Tower also gave up on the idea of hiring Jing Yan. Jing Yan’s strength might be quite impressive, but spending fifty billion Black Crystal Stones was deemed not worth it. Hiring Jing Yan for fifty billion Black Crystal Stones would be too risky.

One month after Jing Yan and his group arrived at the residence near Yellow Spring Cave, Yuantong Immortal Venerable sent out a message: the Four Great Forces’ Netherworld Points Battle will officially take place in three days.

The Netherworld Points Battle is divided into three rounds, each with the same content. The Four Great Forces each send two members to compete. This points battle is not a direct contest between cultivators, but rather an entry into a Secret Realm personally created by Yuantong Immortal Venerable. Inside the Secret Realm, there are many strong Ghost Pattern Beasts specially refined. Killing these beasts earns corresponding points.

To avoid interference, members of the Four Great Forces will enter the Secret Realm in batches. Of course, to ensure their safety, the entrants are merely illusion bodies of cultivators. These bodies are condensed by the Power of Laws, so even if they die inside the Secret Realm, the physical bodies of the cultivators outside will not be in any danger.

But since the illusion bodies need to have the strength of cultivators, they require Divine Soul Power to support them. If they die inside the Secret Realm, their Divine Soul Body will be very exhausted, needing a long period of recuperation to recover.

Once the start time of the Netherworld Points Battle is confirmed, the atmosphere among the high-level figures of the Four Great Forces clearly becomes tense. This battle determines the number of entry slots for the Yellow Spring Cave, even one more is a huge gain. The Advanced Entrance of the Yellow Spring Cave has only nine entry slots, each of the Four Great Forces wants its slots to increase by one or two.

With the battle imminent, internal discussions within the Four Great Forces become even more frequent. They must now confirm the hired contestants, and at least the candidates for the first round of the battle must be decided.

Within the residence of the Xin Family’s high-level members.

The Xin Family Patriarch and others sit here, their expressions grave; the atmosphere in the room is quite oppressive.

Because up to this point, the Xin Family has not confirmed the candidates for the first round of the battle.

Xin Family Patriarch Xin Si furrows his brows; the pressure on him as patriarch is truly enormous. Since he took on the role of Xin Family Patriarch, the overall strength of the Xin Family has significantly declined. To outsiders, it appears that the Xin Family is on a downward trend. This is not due to Xin Si’s lack of capability, but because the Xin Family underwent a split after he became patriarch.

Before Xin Si became patriarch of the Xin Family, there was another person within the Xin Family competing with Xin Si for the position of patriarch. That person was equally outstanding and had a group of loyal followers. Xin Si won the patriarch contest, but that person unwillingly obeyed Xin Si, so he secretly took his followers and divided the Xin Family. No one knows where those people went, but since then, Xin Si and his group have never heard from those who split from the Xin Family.

After this split, the Xin Family’s overall power severely diminished. The person who competed with Xin Si for the position took many of the Xin Family’s strong members, including over ten Immortal Rhythm Netherworld Realm experts and many young cultivators with great potential. Despite a long recovery period, the Xin Family cannot reach its peak period again.

Due to the decline in overall strength, in the competition for Yellow Spring Cave slots, the Xin Family is in an awkward position. In previous Yellow Spring Cave openings, the Xin Family’s slots were the fewest among the Four Great Forces. Last time it opened, the Xin Family had only one pitiable slot, which was a vicious cycle.

"Patriarch, we might have to hire some Hired for this Yellow Spring Cave battle. Relying solely on our family’s Nether Sky Realm cultivators will make it hard to compete with the other three forces," one elder of the Xin Family said, thoughtfully.

His words were quite polite; in fact, if the Xin Family does not hire Hired, it is clear they cannot compete with the other three major forces. The quality of members within the other three forces is slightly higher than that of the Xin Family’s Nether Sky Realm offspring, not to mention those three forces have already contacted the strongest Hired early.

"Xin Li, apart from Jing Yan, are we sure we can’t hire the strongest few Hired for the first round of battle?" Patriarch Xin Si looked at Chief Manager Xin Li.

The person contacting the Hired is Chief Manager Xin Li. During this period, Xin Li has contacted almost every Hired. The Xin Family wished to hire the strongest among the Hired, such as Jiao Zuoyan. But for various reasons, none of the strongest Hired were hired by the Xin Family.

Xin Li nodded and said, "Patriarch, before I contacted Jiao Zuoyan, he was already hired by Mystic Moon Trading House. Tao Bi did consider being hired by us, but when I went to find him two days ago, he said even Lian Jingyan asks for fifty billion Black Crystal Stones as a hiring fee. If we want to hire him, we also have to offer fifty billion Black Crystal Stones. And that..." Xin Li described the situation of the three strongest among the Hired, but the Xin Family did not reach a hiring agreement with any of them.

"If there’s no other way, then fifty billion it is! Xin Li, try to contact Tao Bi again." Patriarch Xin Si sighed lightly, speaking in a helpless tone.

Tao Bi’s strength is also extremely strong, comparable to Jiao Zuoyan, possibly slightly weaker in direct combat, but Tao Bi is slightly stronger in defense.

"Do we really want to spend fifty billion Black Crystal Stones to hire Tao Bi?" Xin Li was somewhat moved.

"There’s no other way! You all know the current situation of the Xin Family. Among Xin Family’s Nether Sky Realm cultivators, only Xin Qianyue is on the level of Jiao Zuoyan, while the others are weaker. Our Xin Family cannot let the other three forces pull ahead in the first round of the battle." Xin Si waved his hand, his expression somewhat desolate.