Chapter 272: A New Game

It was a vast palace, with rows of shelves on either side. On those shelves lay a dazzling array of treasures. Even more surprising was that each treasure had an explanatory label attached, detailing its name and functions.
Fate and the others were utterly dazzled—there were hundreds of treasures on those shelves.
The most eye-catching one, however, was a long sword located deep within the palace. The sword emitted a purple glow and floated atop a platform right in front of everyone, like a king among all the treasures.
“A quasi-divine weapon—Zi Qing! It was crafted by Ou Yezi, the greatest armorer in the heavens, over 81 years to create the first weapon closest to a divine weapon. It is also the first quasi-divine weapon in the heavens!”
“A quasi-divine weapon?” Everyone’s eyes lit up upon hearing this name. In the realm of cultivation, obtaining an immortal or demonic weapon was no easy task. The sudden appearance of a weapon comparable to a divine weapon naturally made everyone desire it.
“The rules of this game are simple!” An aged voice echoed from the sky. “To obtain an item, you must place it in a place visible to others. It cannot be stored in a storage ring or elsewhere, otherwise, you will be erased.”
“Within 24 hours, one point is awarded for each hour the item is held. In the last two hours, ten points are awarded per hour! Time can be accumulated.”
“After 24 hours, the person who holds the item for the longest time with the highest score will possess it. Of course, if that person dies, the item goes to the next highest scorer, and so on! Within 24 hours, any means can be used to seize the item. Once time runs out, those who still try to take it will be erased.”
Hearing the rules announced by the faint voice from the void, everyone rushed toward the long sword. The members of the Heavenly Sword Sect led the charge, acting almost frenziedly—after all, it was a treasure every sword cultivator dreamed of!
Fate shook his head helplessly and turned to Kastedio and the others, saying, “Let’s stay out of this mess. It’s obvious these rules are designed to provoke competition among everyone.”
“Whoever holds that item will surely be attacked by everyone else, as everyone wants to seize it and get their hands on it. With points doubling in the last two hours, it intensifies the competition even further,” added Lilith beside him.
At that moment, Meng Shan and Su Mo also appeared hesitant.

“Hey, you two also want to go, right? This thing isn’t that easy to get—give up!” Fat warned.
“But…” Su Mo insisted, “I want to see how this quasi-legendary artifact is crafted!”
Meng Shan shook his head with a wry smile. As a member of the Artificer Sect, they certainly hoped to obtain high-quality products for research and to learn from others’ crafting methods. But that quasi-legendary artifact was clearly the focus of everyone’s competition. To get it would require a huge price—possibly even their lives. Meng Shan wisely chose to give up.
“Su Mo, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future. It’s not worth risking your life just now!” Fat reminded her. “You should know that although there aren’t many quasi-legendary artifacts in the Heavenly Realm, they might appear occasionally. There’s no need to risk your life.”
After a long silence, Su Mo finally nodded. “Alright. If I die, I won’t be able to fulfill my father’s wish.”
“Let’s look for other items instead! Maybe there are top-grade immortal weapons here, which would be great!” Fat said with a smile.
Hearing this, everyone scattered and began searching for treasures on the shelves.
“Xiaoyu, are these weapons and armor useful to us?” Bernard seemed not very interested.
“Maybe the boss will need them someday.” Xiaoyu knew that neither he nor Bernard, who hadn’t taken human form yet, could use weapons or armor.
“I’ll go look for medicinal pills instead!” Bernard said as he headed toward the left shelf. There, among various weapons and armor, he saw a few bottles of medicinal pills.
“Alright, it’s best if we can find some transformation pills that we can use! Anyway, they won’t compete with us for those. It’s useless for them even if they try to get them.” Xiaoyu called out to Bernard. “I’ll go look for weapons suitable for the boss.”
The two little beasts divided the tasks and flew in different directions.
The shelves were neatly arranged, with various medicinal pills placed between the weapons and armor. Bernard examined each pill’s label one by one.
“First-tier Immortal Gathering Pill—a rank-up pill that can elevate a cultivator from the Immortal level to the Spirit Immortal level…”
“This one looks good. The boss, Xiaoyu, and I can all use it…” Bernard happily took the pill and hung it around his belly. A few of his hairs stretched out slightly to wrap around the bottle’s mouth, suspending it there. “Placing it where others can see it should work!”

“Second-tier Immortal Gathering Pill…”
“Third-tier Immortal Gathering Pill…”
Bernard took three bottles of Immortal Gathering Pills from the same shelf in a row. “If we consume three of them in succession, our cultivation level can directly reach the Heavenly Immortal tier, haha… I wonder if there are fourth-tier and fifth-tier ones as well…”
Bernard continued to look ahead.
Next to the third-tier Immortal Gathering Pills was a tattered set of armor, riddled with holes and in terrible condition. Compared to other items, it emitted no trace of spiritual energy at all. Bernard glanced at the other armors before picking up this one. “It clearly looks like trash! Why would it be placed here?”
With that, he put the armor back on the shelf, shook his head helplessly, and continued moving forward.
Xiaoyu, on the other hand, found nothing at all. Among all the weapons and armors in sight, hardly any caught her interest. She muttered to herself, “So-called treasure? After checking most of the shelves, there isn’t even a single top-grade immortal weapon or demonic weapon—everything is of mid-to-low quality. There are even plenty of spiritual weapons from the cultivation world…”
As soon as she finished speaking, her gaze fell on a pair of gloves. “A pair of top-grade immortal weapon gloves—Boss will definitely like them! It’s just that their grade is a bit low!”
With that, she took off the gloves and hung them around her neck.
Her gaze then swept over the pill bottle beside them.
“Form Transformation Pill, suitable for magical beasts at the cultivation level above immortals but below the Supreme Immortal tier to transform into human form. The condition for use is that the magical beast must be in its growth stage; it cannot be used during its larval stage!”
“There’s really a Form Transformation Pill!” Xiaoyu’s eyes lit up upon seeing it. “It seems that it won’t be long before Xiao Bei and I can take human form!”
…
“Boom, boom…” The seal surrounding that quasi-legendary artifact was indeed extremely strong. It took everyone a great deal of effort—nearly an hour—to create a small crack in the seal.
To a large extent, it was Tie Ban’smerit. With his Xuan Immortal cultivation level, he helped everyone bombard the artifact for nearly an hour before achieving such progress.
As the seal developed cracks, a powerful aura seeped out from within—this was the might inherent in Zi Qing itself. A quasi-legendary artifact isn’t something anyone can control, which is why it was sealed here.
The strong aura pushed everyone back several feet, causing them to stop attacking and stare at the seal. To their surprise, the crack in the seal began to tear open on its own.

Tie Man frowned slightly. He knew that it was the sealed quasi-legendary artifact breaking its seal on its own, and its level of control was evident from that.
Time passed by minute by minute. It took the group nearly an hour to break through a crack in the seal, yet it was completely shattered in just about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. A purple light shot into the sky—Zi Qing had broken free from its seal!
As the purple sword flew out, many cultivators rushed forward in pursuit.
In contrast, Tie Man, who had initially been eager for the sword, stood motionless in his place, merely watching from afar.
A moment later, the excited shouts of the crowd turned into shrill screams. Several corpses fell to the ground quickly, causing panic among them.
“A bunch of fools! This deadly weapon has just been released. Provoking it now will surely bring no benefits. Wait until it has vented enough and calmed down slightly before trying to take it!” As a blacksmith from hell, Tie Man naturally understood why this quasi-legendary artifact was enraged.
At that moment, the purple sword floated slowly in the air, seemingly scanning the surrounding crowd.
Having just suffered the loss of several people, the crowd dared not move rashly. They simply surrounded the sword from afar to prevent it from escaping.
“Huh, such strong self-control!” Tie Man couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement. “Normally, it should go on a rampage to vent its anger. Its previous owner must have been a kind person.”
Before his words faded, he disappeared and reappeared, already gripping the hilt of the sword. “Since you no longer need to vent, there’s no reason for me to wait any longer!”
The sudden appearance of Tie Man shocked the crowd, who quickly regained their composure and threw various attacks at him.
“Hmph! With you guys, do you really think you can compete with me for this quasi-legendary artifact?!” Tie Man roared. With a wave of his other hand, all their attacks vanished.
The crowd stared in astonishment at what they saw—they never expected Tie Man’s true strength to be so terrifying.
Just then, Zi Qing in Tie Man’s hand let out a shrill cry, and his right hand, holding the sword, began to tremble violently.
“He’s about to lose control. Everyone, attack together now!” a voice came from the crowd…