Chapter 37: Easily Winning the Title of City Lord

The four members of Tianfeng Camp exhausted Gongye Zhi’s divine essence with the explosion of a divine weapon at the Divine Marshal stage.
Fei Changxia, the Tenth Camp Lord, was the last to emerge. She didn’t even need to exert any effort—she only had to reap the existing advantages to win this competition for the title of City Lord of Duiciao City.
From start to finish, Fei Changxia only swung her whip once.
Gongye Zhi painfully got up from the ground. Seeing Fei Changxia’s triumphant smile, he felt hatred in his heart but lacked the courage to protest. With such a disparity in strength, any resistance was futile. Even if he possessed a divine king-level weapon, without divine essence to activate it, it was no different from a stone by the roadside.
“I surrender!” Gongye Zhi said with difficulty.
He had no choice but to admit defeat; otherwise, he would have to fight Fei Changxia, and in that case, even if Fei Changxia killed him, it would still be in line with the competition rules.
The disciples of the eight royal families valued their lives dearly and wouldn’t die easily. Thus, to save his own life, Gongye Zhi could only submit humbly.
Fei Changxia smiled faintly before turning to the referee, Jing of the Divine King Sect.
“Fei Changxia shall be the new City Lord of Duiciao City,” Jing declared, radiating joy, and loudly announced the result of the competition.
The two Divine Kings, Xu Miao and Qian Mao, immediately turned to Qu Yi and bowed to him in congratulations.
Qu Yi naturally returned the bow.
“Tenth Camp Lord, you won so easily,” Qu Yi said without hesitation as he watched Fei Changxia return to her seat, seemingly deliberately so that the Divine Kings of the Eight Realms and the Divine Marshal-level cultivators could hear him.
Fei Changxia replied with a smile, “It’s all thanks to your excellent leadership, Camp King!”
Qu Yi nodded in agreement, as if he truly believed it and accepted it gladly.
The Divine Kings of the Eight Realms watched Qu Yi and Fei Changxia’s performance with cold expressions and hearts filled with hatred. They could only remain silent, unwilling to say more.
The Divine Marshal-level cultivators from the Eight Realms, seeing the joyful scene between Qu Yi and the Tianfeng Camp members, grew furious and began to speak rudely.
“Everyone in Tianfeng Camp is so arrogant. Do they think we Divine Marshal-level cultivators of the Eight Realms are weak?”
“I reckon these people from Tianfeng Camp must have been subjected to some special spell by Qu Yi, which caused their strength to soar so rapidly.”
“The most despicable thing is that Qu Yi is a weapon craftsman. Every member of Tianfeng Camp has ten divine weapons. They surrender after detonating those weapons—how shameless!”

“Hmph, if I were on the field, I wouldn’t wait for the people from Tianfeng Fort to activate their divine artifacts. I’d kill them with a single sword.”
“That’s right. The cultivators at the Divine General stage in Ze Dai Divine Realm have brought shame to us cultivators from the eight great divine realms. Once it’s our turn to fight, I’ll definitely step onto the battle platform and grind those from Tianfeng Fort to dust.”
……
Wave after wave of resentful words poured in, reaching the ears of the 19,000 cultivators at the Divine General stage from Tianfeng Fort, yet none of them dared mock them verbally.
The ultimate form of mockery was to defeat one’s opponent on the battle platform.
Naturally, the cultivators at the Divine General stage from Tianfeng Fort had no leisure to engage in verbal sparring with those from the eight realms.
Meanwhile, in that area of Ze Dai Divine Realm, the three Divine Kings—Gongye Ming, Gongye Zhong, and Gongye Yu—had grim expressions, their eyes filled with fierce killing intent, as they pondered their next moves.
After all, the next six battles were all about competing for the positions of city lords of the last six cities in Ze Dai Divine Realm.
Given Tianfeng Fort’s performance so far, how could the three Divine Kings not understand? Even Gongye Zhi, an outstanding disciple of the Gongye family at the Divine General stage, had been completely drained of his divine essence. There was no way other disciples of the Gongye family could get any advantage.
Therefore, no matter which cultivators at the Divine General stage from Ze Dai Divine Realm stepped forward, they couldn’t compare to Tianfeng Fort.
“Second brother, third sister, give up on all the city lord positions in Ze Dai Divine Realm. But we must absolutely protect our imperial city, Dui Ping City. All disciples of the Gongye family, as well as all cultivators at the Divine General stage in Ze Dai Divine Realm, should join the competition for the position of city lord of Dui Ping City,” Gongye Ming transmitted secretly through his spiritual sense.
In terms of strength, the cultivators at the Divine General stage in Ze Dai Divine Realm couldn’t match those from Tianfeng Fort. In terms of numbers, there were only a little over two hundred of them, so there was no comparison at all. Thus, Gongye Ming was well aware of the reality and could only swallow his frustration in silence.
“Understood,” Gongye Zhong and Gongye Yu replied immediately.
The sudden emergence of Tianfeng Fort had completely disrupted the plans of the eight Divine Kings to compete for city lord positions. Who among them wasn’t frustrated now?
Soon after, Gongye Zhong transmitted the trio’s decision to all the cultivators in Ze Dai Divine Realm through his spiritual sense.
Upon receiving this secret order, the cultivators at the Divine General stage in Ze Dai Divine Realm were filled with resentment and gloom, but they had no choice but to accept this helpless reality. After all, Tianfeng Fort was so powerful and had such a large number of fighters.
Perhaps because of the unusual expressions of the cultivators from Ze Dai Divine Realm, the entire virtual battlefield suddenly fell silent.

As the host, Divine King Zong Jing didn’t need to guess the thoughts of the cultivators from Ze Dui Divine Realm. Sitting on his seat, he called out, “Next is the competition for the position of the city lord of Dui Zhou City. Any cultivator who wishes to obtain this position may come to the fighting platform now.”

As soon as these words were spoken, the cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage from the eight realms all turned their attention to those from Ze Dui Divine Realm, eager to see which of them would step onto the fighting platform this time.

Silence. Complete silence.

The cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage from Ze Dui Divine Realm sat calmly, their expressions indifferent as they stared back at those from the other realms, showing no sign of moving. It was clear that none of them intended to go to the fighting platform.

Huh…

The seven other divine kings had now understood why the atmosphere in Ze Dui Divine Realm had changed so drastically. They agreed with the decisions of Gongye Ming, Gongye Zhong, and Gongye Yu. After all, sending more cultivators from Ze Dui Divine Realm would only result in them being defeated by the cultivators of Tianfeng Fort, and they would suffer humiliation time and again—something that would be a torment for all the cultivators there. Therefore, it was the most practical choice for them not to participate in the competition.

The cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage from the seven realms also understood why those from Ze Dui Divine Realm didn’t want to enter the fighting platform. They exchanged glances, expressing their sympathy.

Seeing this, Qu Yi burst into loud laughter. “Brothers of Tianfeng Fort, since no one wants to compete for the position of the city lord of Dui Zhou City, let’s send one of our own to the fighting platform.” Qu Yi’s resounding voice echoed throughout the battlefield in the void.

Undoubtedly, this voice stirred up the anger of the cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage from the eight realms, who blamed Qu Yi for being too arrogant.

Meanwhile, the 19,000 people of Tianfeng Fort immediately cheered loudly, arguing among themselves before finally choosing one person—Zhou Botong.

Zhou Botong, with a youthful appearance, had always loved to play and got along well with the cultivators of Tianfeng Fort. So, since he could obtain the position of city lord of Dui Zhou City without competing, they decided to give it to him.

“Thank you, thank you all. I’m truly moved,” said Zhou Botong. He stood up, bowed repeatedly, and flew to the fighting platform with a smile.

Seeing Zhou Botong’s overjoyed expression, the cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage from Ze Dui Divine Realm grew even more displeased. It seemed too easy for Zhou Botong to get his hands on that position.

A few cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage from the other seven realms also wanted to rush onto the combat platform, but thinking of the unspoken rules between the eight realms, they managed to control their emotions and sat on their seats, sighing heavily.

At that moment, Zhou Botong was alone on the combat platform. Seeing that not a single cultivator from the Ze Dui Divine Realm had come up, he was overjoyed, thinking that he wouldn’t have to waste ten divine artifacts like his brothers from the Tian Feng Camp had before. Lost in thought, Zhou Botong relaxed completely. Suddenly, one side of his white hair turned black, then all of his hair turned black, before half became white and half black again…

The cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage from the Tian Feng Camp, seeing Zhou Botong performing his usual tricks, immediately applauded and cheered, treating the combat platform as a stage for his performance without any restraint.

Zong Jing watched Zhou Botong acting up alone on the platform, feeling both amused and exasperated. He pursed his lips and called out, “Is there any other cultivator who wants to go onto the combat platform?”

None. Not a single one.

Since that was the case, Zong Jing stopped calling out and declared directly, “The position of city lord of Ze Zhou City will be held by Zhou Botong.”

“Thank you, thank you, Divine King, and thank you all for your generosity. As the city lord of Ze Zhou City, I will work diligently and wholeheartedly to serve the cultivators of the divine realm. I will carry forward the good policies of Ze Zhou City and strive to improve those that were inadequate in the past…”

Hearing Zong Jing’s words, Zhou Botong became excited and began expressing his thoughts nonstop.

The cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage across the entire void battlefield were speechless. Even those from the Tian Feng Camp who often played tricks with Zhou Botong were unaccustomed to this—Zhou Botong was giving a speech like a mortal.

“Enough, Zhou Botong. This is a void battlefield, not your personal stage. Go back to your seat,” Qu Yi said, ordering him when he saw Zhou Botong’s endless stream of words.

Zhou Botong immediately shut up, shook his head in dissatisfaction, and flew back to his seat.

The same situation occurred in the next four battles—no cultivator from the Ze Dui Divine Realm went onto the combat platform. As a result, Qu Yi only needed to send one cultivator from the Tian Feng Camp to easily secure a city lord position.

Thus, out of the 108 city lords in the entire Ze Dui Divine Realm, only the capital city, Ze Ping City, still had an undetermined city lord.

“Now, it’s the competition for the position of city lord of the last city in the Ze Dui Divine Realm. Any cultivator who wishes to become the lord of Dui Ping City may come to the fighting platform to participate in the contest,” shouted Jing Gao from the Divine King Sect, the one overseeing the competition. At this moment, all the cultivators at the Divine General level in the Ze Dui Divine Realm—except for Gongye Yi, Gongye Qing, and those who had already participated in the contests—numbering 270 in total, left their seats and flew up to the fighting platform.