Chapter 151 - 118: Tied for First Place, Speculation

Chapter 151: Chapter 118: Tied for First Place, Speculation

"Sword Dao? What exactly is the Sword Dao?" Jiang Hao murmured to himself as he stood behind the stone door.

He had already touched the bottleneck of the Sword Dao and stepped into the Enlightenment Realm, yet he still couldn’t truly catch a glimpse of his own path.

However, his body exuded a world-shocking aura of a terrifying caliber. Entering the Dao, comprehending the Dao, and attaining the Dao. Now, the youth in white had taken the first step, and the terrifying sword power contained within him had multiplied an unknown number of times. Seeing that he couldn’t grasp anything further after a long time, Jiang Hao knew well that this was not a cultivation process that could be achieved overnight. He immediately restrained all his aura and let out a long breath of stale air.

The moment he retracted his aura and circulated the Concealment Art, Jiang Hao seemed to revert to the young man who only had the cultivation base of the Spirit Transformation Fifth Stage. However, this sight left the two elders standing outside the stone door completely dumbfounded.

RUMBLE!

As Jiang Hao withdrew his aura, the stone door opened automatically. The strange stone above flew into his palm, its light slowly fading. Storing the strange stone away, Jiang Hao took one last look at the stone walls before stepping out of the door.

The moment he emerged, the two older generation figures from Xingyue City finally snapped back to their senses and bowed deeply to him.

"Seniors, what are you doing?" Jiang Hao was caught off guard by this sudden gesture.

However, when he saw the four conspicuous large characters on the Celestial List above, he instantly understood everything.

A quarter of an hour later.

"I reached the top? Damn it, I actually reached the top. No one told me the Holy City’s selection would be like this," Jiang Hao complained frantically in his mind on the way back from the towering stone wall.

He had never liked showing off and didn’t want to attract too much attention. But now, he had somehow inexplicably reached the very top.

"Fortunately, I didn’t use my real name. The term Ghost-faced Asura is still very unfamiliar to over ninety percent of Cultivators."

This was the only thing worth rejoicing over. Although he had made a name for this title back in the Ancient Emperor Sect ruins, the geniuses present there were hardly worth mentioning compared to this endless army of Cultivators. Furthermore, not many Cultivators from Nanling had gone to those ancient ruins to participate in the struggle in the first place.

"I wonder if Ji Qingxue and the others recognized me."

Still lost in his thoughts, Jiang Hao was just wondering if Ji Qingxue’s group would suspect him when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, his expression turning extremely ugly. Looking up inadvertently, he realized that he seemed to be the only one left on the return journey from the selection. The entire void was empty, completely unlike the locust-like swarms that had entered during the selection.

"Could it be that I’m the last Cultivator to walk out of the stone door?" Jiang Hao’s mind went blank as the realization hit him.

Since he was the last one to come out, and the Celestial List seemed to have completely stopped scrolling, didn’t that mean if he just walked out like this, everyone would know who the Ghost-faced Asura was? Then what was the point of using the name Ghost-faced Asura when he registered?

Just as Jiang Hao was about to look for another route to leave this airspace, the two Cultivators from the Xingyue City Earth Realm behind him slowly spoke up.

"Child, there are restrictions in the Holy City’s selection grounds. You must not blindly change directions; you can only return the way you came."

Hearing this, Jiang Hao’s mind instantly turned to mush.

He could only return the way he came? He didn’t even need to think to know that the outside was definitely packed with a sea of people right now. If he just walked out, he would be exposing himself to the public eye. And once everyone recognized him...

"Forget it. This is Nanling anyway, and right now is the era of geniuses fighting for supremacy. So what if they recognize me? The older generation won’t dare make a move, and as for the younger generation, what do I have to fear now? At the very least, I have the strength to put up a fight."

Since it was unavoidable, he might as well face it calmly. After all, he already had a reputation, so he didn’t mind adding one more stroke to it. With these thoughts in mind, Jiang Hao took a deep breath and slowly stepped forward. With a single stride, he instantly appeared dozens of meters away.

And the reality was indeed as he expected.

In the outside world, tens of millions of Cultivators had already gathered, and the numbers were still surging. The moment the Celestial List rankings appeared, the entire Holy City was shaken. Countless Cultivators rushed toward this area, all wanting to see exactly who the newly crowned Ghost-faced Asura was.

"Ghost-faced Asura, one of the newly emerged Six Children of Nanling. I wonder who it could be?"

"To use such a codename, it must be a vicious and wicked genius, right?"

"It could also be a burly man with a full beard."

"Tying for first place on the Celestial List, it definitely has to be a local Cultivator of our Nanling."

"Nonsense! If it isn’t a local Nanling genius, could it possibly be those ants from the barren lands?"

Countless Cultivators whispered among themselves, all eager to see the terrifying entity who had just risen to the Celestial List. However, when mentioning his identity, many local Cultivators were completely outspoken and blunt.

Hearing this, the endless geniuses from the barren Earth Realms silently lowered their heads, though a small number of them held onto their expectations.

"Do you guys think it’s possible that this Ghost-faced Asura is a figure who fought his way up from barren Earth Realms like ours?"

"It’s possible. After all, if they were a local of Nanling, they shouldn’t have remained undiscovered until today."

"Stop dreaming, that’s absolutely impossible. If there truly was such a peerless freak, they would have been taken away by the Central Domain’s factions long ago. How could they remain unknown?"

"Not necessarily. As far as I know, not every peerless freak belongs to a faction. At the very least, there is someone named Jiang Hao in the Xingyue City Earth Realm."

"Jiang Hao? That name sounds very familiar."

"Do you think it’s possible that the Ghost-faced Asura is Jiang Hao from the Xingyue City Earth Realm?"

"According to rumors, half a year ago above Xingyue City, countless factions from the Eastern Domain cast a Heaven and Earth Net to seize his serendipitous fortunes, but a peerless expert rescued him."

"And rumor has it that the one who saved him was a supreme entity of Nanling, one of the Nine Saints, the South Mountain Sword Saint!"

"If that’s the case, could it really be him?"

It was plain to see. By now, the name Jiang Hao had long spread far and wide. Even the Holy Lands of the myriad races in Nanling had once been in an uproar over it. Of course, speculations aside, the gazes of the tens of millions of Cultivators remained fixed on the exit.

In the crowd, Ji Qingxue and the others were also breathing heavily, as if waiting to confirm their suspicions. Even the Saint Sons and Saintesses hovering in the boundless void gazed over, waiting for the Ghost-faced Asura to reveal himself.

Meanwhile, in an inconspicuous corner.

"Elder, could it really be him?"

A Cultivator with an extraordinary aura, his eyes filled with unspeakable complexity, spoke to an elderly figure. The old man was dressed plainly, yet his every breath felt overwhelmingly terrifying. The elder didn’t respond directly, but his deep eyes stared unblinkingly toward the exit of the selection grounds.

"From now on, do not call me Elder in Nanling. This is Nanling, not the Celestial Sword Sect. That fool Zhao Wuji—if it weren’t for him, how could Yan Nantian have brought that boy back to Nanling?"

After the old man spoke, his eyes brimmed with murderous intent, which he completely withdrew an instant later. Clearly, the old and the young men were from the Celestial Sword Sect. Moreover, the old man’s status in the Celestial Sword Sect seemed quite high, at least several levels above Zhao Wuji.

As the tens of millions of Cultivators waited in eager anticipation...

Finally.

At the end of the endless night sky, a figure in white slowly emerged, approaching from afar. In an instant, everyone held their breath.

Especially the Mu Family Siblings.

Mu Zhen and Mu Yiyi had actually long guessed that the person named Ghost-faced Asura was Jiang Hao. The three of them had agreed before registering to regroup here after the selection ended, yet right now, only the two siblings were present.

"Brother, could it be Jiang Hao?"

"It must be him. It can only be him." Mu Zhen spoke with absolute certainty, seemingly brimming with confidence.

While the siblings were talking, two City Guards who were changing shifts also merged into the sea of people. These two City Guards were none other than the Cultivators who had collected the city entry Spirit Stones from Jiang Hao and his companions three months ago. One of the City Guards still remembered that white-clad figure—the terrifying existence who had taken out twenty-four Middle-grade Spirit Stones in one breath.

He just didn’t know if he would ever have the chance to meet him again.