Chapter 42: I Can Harm Myself, Right?

The cultivators at the Divine General stage in the Mountain Gen Divine Realm understood the reality and readily gave up their positions as city lords of 107 cities.
Finally, it was time to compete for the position of city lord of the Imperial City Genyuan.
Zong Jing glanced around the arena and smiled faintly, “Now, for the competition to determine the city lord of Genyuan, any cultivator who wishes to compete may step forward and register now.”
As soon as he spoke, nearly 300 cultivators at the Divine General stage from the Mountain Gen Divine Realm immediately flew onto the combat platform. Among them were also nearly 60 cultivators from the imperial Qiu clan.
“Hmph, Genyuan must not suffer any losses!”
“If the people from Tianfeng Fort keep causing trouble, they must be made to pay.”
“This time, it’s a battle for the honor of our cultivators at the Divine General stage in the Mountain Gen Divine Realm.”
…
One after another, the cultivators at the Divine General stage from the Mountain Gen Divine Realm expressed their opinions loudly, with provocative expressions as they rushed toward the area where the 19,000 people from Tianfeng Fort were located.
The 19,000 people from Tianfeng Fort quickly became enraged.
Seeing this, Qu Yi slowly stood up, rolled up his sleeves, and smiled faintly, “Brothers of Tianfeng Fort, since the cultivators at the Divine General stage in the Mountain Gen Divine Realm are so eager to challenge us, let’s not disappoint them. There are 300 of them, right? This time, Tianfeng Fort will send 600 brothers to face them.”
Whoa…
Qu Yi’s words immediately scared the cultivators at the Divine General stage in the Mountain Gen Divine Realm. They thought Qu Yi would, like in the previous battle against Dui Ping City of the Zedui Divine Realm, send only 300 cultivators one-on-one. They never expected that such loud declarations would infuriate Qu Yi enough to send 600 cultivators from Tianfeng Fort.
If Tianfeng Fort had only sent 300 people, there would still be a high chance of internal fighting among them after drawing lots. But now that they sent 600 people, the chances of the people from Tianfeng Fort fighting against those from the Mountain Gen Divine Realm increased significantly.
They were really asking for trouble!
The cultivators at the Divine General stage in the Mountain Gen Divine Realm regretted their behavior, but there was nothing they could do—they could only accept reality now.
Soon, Tianfeng Fort selected 600 people. A gust of wind swept through the air, and those 600 people arrived on the combat platform, staring hostilely at the 300 cultivators from the Mountain Gen Divine Realm.
As soon as they landed, all 600 people from Tianfeng Fort took out ten divine artifacts each, smiling as they sized up each cultivator at the Divine General stage from the Mountain Gen Divine Realm.
At that moment, a chill filled the combat platform.

The cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage from the Mountain Gen Divine Realm felt an inexplicable chill in their hearts the moment they met the gazes of the cultivators from Tianfeng Fort, as if those ten divine artifacts were about to explode right beside them. Naturally, many cultivators at this stage had already thought of giving up the battles. Seeing that everyone had arrived, Zong Jing immediately called out with a smile, “The competition for the position of city lord of Genyuan City, the last city in the Mountain Gen Divine Realm, can begin now. Everyone, draw a card right away—those with the same color will be opponents.” Immediately afterward, a disc flew out, expanding to about 100 meters in size, containing 900 cards. Everyone drew a card and, based on its color, quickly identified their opponent for the next round. “Haha, the Fort King truly has foresight—those guys from the Mountain Gen Divine Realm will all face our brothers from Tianfeng Fort in the first round,” someone shouted loudly. The spiritual senses of the cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage were extremely strong, so everyone knew their opponents as soon as they received their cards. Naturally, one cultivator from Tianfeng Fort couldn’t contain his excitement and shouted out eagerly. As a result, the over 60 cultivators from the Qiu clan would have to face the onslaught of Tianfeng Fort’s Divine Marshal cultivators in the first round. As the leader of the Qiu clan’s disciples, Qiu Guanling’s eyes burned with fury, his teeth gritting tightly—he had clearly anticipated the brutal reality ahead. Meanwhile, the 300 Divine Marshal cultivators from Tianfeng Fort, who needed to fight among themselves, simply started playing rock-paper-scissors. “Rock… paper… scissors.” Of course, the 300 of them wouldn’t actually fight; instead, they played this mundane game out of boredom—those who won would stay to continue fighting, while the losers would give up automatically. Soon, 150 of them lost the game and flew off the battle platform. The cultivators from the Eight Realms sitting on their seats were extremely displeased to see Tianfeng Fort’s cultivators treating the battle platform as a game area, cursing loudly, but they couldn’t stop them. The cultivators from the Mountain Gen Divine Realm on the battle platform felt even more sorrowful upon seeing Tianfeng Fort’s actions, feeling as if they were in an absurd situation. Before long, another 240 cultivators from Tianfeng Fort sighed. “Sigh, since my opponent isn’t from the Qiu clan, I have no interest in continuing the fight. I give up,” they complained one after another.

Qu Yi had no interest in Genyuan City, the imperial city, but he also didn’t want a disciple of the Qiu clan to become its ruler. Therefore, the six hundred cultivators from Tianfeng Fort sent by Qu Yi were merely there to prevent the Qiu clan’s disciple from seizing the position. Thus, when these more than two hundred cultivators from Tianfeng Fort saw that their opponents were not from the Qiu clan, they lost interest in fighting.

Of course, if the cultivators from Tianfeng Fort continued to give up like this, it was still possible that a Qiu clan disciple would end up as the ruler of Genyuan City. If that happened, Qu Yi wouldn’t regret it—such was fate, and he wouldn’t insist too much.

Now, only sixty people from Tianfeng Fort remained to fight against sixty disciples of the Qiu clan at the Divine General stage.

Zong Jing watched the scene on the fighting platform with mixed feelings. Although he was glad to see this situation, as more cities fell to Qu Yi, the happier he became. Yet, as the organizer, Zong Jing didn’t want the fighting platform to turn into a farce.

But after seeing the current situation, Zong Jing realized he could no longer resolve the tensions on the platform, so he gave up trying.

“Alright, next is the fighting. The two sides can decide the order of the matches yourselves. After sixty matches, we’ll draw lots for the second round,” Zong Jing said bluntly, almost in a resigned tone.

As soon as Zong Jing spoke, Qiu Guanling, the strongest disciple of the Qiu clan present, immediately shouted, “That guy named Kaikouxiao—let’s have him be our first opponent.”

Clearly, Qiu Guanling wanted to use his strength to win the first match and boost the morale of his clan’s disciples.

“Sure, I’d be happy to take on that challenge,” replied a man who always spoke with a smile, stepping forward boldly.

Qiu Guanling and Kaikouxiao went to the center of the fighting platform, where a transparent energy shield instantly covered them both.

“I know you people from Tianfeng Fort like explosive divine artifacts. I won’t give you that chance. I’ll attack first,” Qiu Guanling declared, suddenly pulling out a divine king-level long sword.

His figure flashed as he rushed at Kaikouxiao, swinging his sword. A spatial rift appeared along with the sword, aiming straight at Kaikouxiao’s chest.

It seemed Kaikouxiao had anticipated Qiu Guanling’s attack and had already taken out a divine artifact. When he saw Qiu Guanling approaching, he didn’t hesitate to throw the artifact, causing it to explode right in front of him.

In an instant, at the center of the artifact explosion, a small spatial rift appeared, and the surrounding space trembled unpredictably. Kaikouxiao, whose clothes were destroyed by the explosion and whose body was covered in blood, flew away from the area as if unharmed. Qiu Guanling utilized the spatial rift created by the artifact to collide with the one generated by the explosion, significantly weakening its power and altering its direction. As a result, Qiu Guanling’s confident sword strike did not achieve the expected effect. “You’re truly a madman,” Qiu Guanling shouted fiercely, stopping further attacks and staring at Kaikouxiao, who was repairing his wounds in the distance. To dare detonate an artifact explosion right in front of her was sheer self-destruction. Hearing Qiu Guanling’s words, Kaikouxiao opened his mouth wide, his eyes curving into smiles, his cheeks showing dimples, and his lips forming a crescent—his face filled with laughter. “I can’t beat you, so self-harm is an option, right?” Kaikouxiao replied with a loud laugh. Qiu Guanling was speechless. In fact, she didn’t know that Kaikouxiao had ascended from the Heavy Stone Realm, possessing unique physical attributes—remarkable innate defense and almost immortal strength. Thus, although the explosion of a godly-level artifact seemingly turned his body into a mess of blood, it was like a tickle to him. “Self-harm, fine. If you want to hurt yourself, I can’t stop you. I’m curious how many times you can do it,” Qiu Guanling said, her expression turning fierce as she raised her sword again, radiating coldness. With a blur, she appeared in front of Kaikouxiao and swung her sword. “I’ll show you self-harm!” Kaikouxiao shouted once more, throwing an artifact in the direction of the spatial rift. The artifact exploded in front of him, releasing another wave of immense energy that sent him flying. At the same time, the spatial rift from the explosion diverted the rift created by Qiu Guanling in another direction. Qiu Guanling was stunned, somewhat impressed by Kaikouxiao’s determination. Someone who could use an artifact explosion to harm themselves—aside from Qiu Guanling, even the gods who had lived through countless ages had never seen such a thing. “I refuse to believe it,” Qiu Guanling said, her gaze sharpening as she shouted again and vanished in a flash. Kaikouxiao lay on the ground, too lazy to wipe the blood from his body or waste divine energy to heal it, allowing his wounds to bleed endlessly.

At this moment, Kaikouxiao saw Qiu Guanling flying over again and without hesitation took out another divine artifact.
“Believe it or not, but I believe it myself.” Kaikouxiao even shouted happily before throwing the divine artifact in his hand.
The divine artifact exploded once again, stunning everyone.