Chapter 251.1: Lu Changsheng Single-Handedly Crushes Ten Earthly Saints and Three Deity Transformation Cultivators! (I)

One month until the auction...

Before doing anything else, Lu Changsheng went to a business that specialized in selling and renting cave residences and purchased one with spirit stones. In Sacred Star City, ordinary people lived in houses and manors, while those of greater status generally preferred cave residences. There were no special qualifications required to own one. As long as a person had enough spirit stones, they could buy one.

After settling in, Lu Changsheng sat cross-legged and carefully went over everything he had seen and heard at the Secret World Pavilion that day.

The Secret World Pavilion says that unclaimed secret worlds have become difficult to find, to the point that their coordinates must be auctioned off to competing bidders. But that's only their side of it, and it doesn't match what the founding ancestor of the Heavenly River Sacred Land has said. I can't trust this before I look into it myself.

No matter how solid the Secret World Pavilion's reputation was, Lu Changsheng was not about to take its claims at face value just like that. And so, he left his cave residence and began making discreet inquiries about secret worlds throughout Sacred Star City.

Fortunately, information about secret worlds was hardly a closely guarded secret in the Sacred Region. Many people knew a fair amount about them, and it did not take long for Lu Changsheng to piece together a much clearer picture.

As it turned out, secret worlds were not so rare. A great expert had once compared them to grains of sand. Even if only a tiny fraction ever drifted close enough to make contact with the Immortal Martial World, the number was still considerable.

The real problem was that there were simply too many Earthly Saints competing for them. More Earthly Saints appeared with each passing year, and every one of them needed secret worlds for their cultivation. With so many people competing over a limited number of accessible worlds, the coordinates of unclaimed secret worlds had grown increasingly valuable in recent years.

On that point, at least, the Secret World Pavilion had told me the truth. If I want the coordinates of an unclaimed secret world, I'd have to obtain them at auction and outbid everyone else who wants the same thing.

Having confirmed this, Lu Changsheng returned to his cave residence and began considering the more immediate problem: how he was going to pay for one.

The Secret World Pavilion said bidding on a secret world's coordinates could only be done with deity fragments or Martial Dao fragments. I can forget about Martial Dao fragments; I don't have a single one. As for deity fragments, they can essentially only be obtained from the Divine Region...

Thinking of the Divine Region, Lu Changsheng's thoughts naturally drifted to the journey of a typical Human Saint in the Sacred Region.

Powerful factions or Earthly Saints would cultivate one supreme Human Saint after another, then send them inside to hunt deities and bring back fragments. Unless a supreme Human Saint possessed a particularly formidable background, a journey into the Divine Region was almost unavoidable...

Lu Changsheng's expression gradually grew solemn.

The more he learned about the Sacred Region, the more clearly he saw the difference between this place and the Sacred Earth. The Sacred Region truly was the heart of the Martial Dao; its martial arts was far more developed than the Sacred Earth's. Yet precisely because cultivation had developed to such heights here, Human Saints were often treated as little more than tools—valuable tools, perhaps, but tools nonetheless.

Since deity fragments were so precious, countless factions raised Human Saints for the express purpose of sending them into the Divine Region to obtain them, and many of those Human Saints met miserable ends. Some people even captured Human Saints, placed them under control, and forced them into the Divine Region.

Compared with those, the Human Saints of the Sacred Earth enjoyed far greater status and faced nowhere near the same level of danger.

Lu Changsheng then considered the dozen or so deity fragments he had left from the Divine Region.

I have just over a dozen deity fragments. Under normal circumstances that would be more than enough, but at an auction, if I actually want to win an unclaimed secret world, it probably won't be nearly enough.

He had no doubt that secret world coordinates would fetch an astronomical price. A dozen deity fragments might have been valuable, but against the wealth of the major powers and other Earthly Saints, they were unlikely to carry him very far.

However, Lu Changsheng had no intention of giving up. He had to obtain an unclaimed secret world—this was a non-negotiable he had set for himself.

But where can I get more deity fragments... He let out a long sigh.

Had he known this would happen, he would have remained in the Divine Region longer and gathered more fragments, but it was too late for regrets now. The Divine Region barred anyone whose cultivation surpassed the Human Saint level. And now that he had become an Earthly Saint, there was no way for him to enter again.

The restriction had most likely been deliberate from the very beginning. Perhaps the great experts who had established the formations had already anticipated the conflicts that would arise if stronger martial artists were allowed inside, and that was why they had sealed a cultivation limit into its formation.

By limiting entry to Human Saints and below, they ensured that the Divine Region could continue producing deities, allowing generation after generation to obtain deity fragments from it. If Earthly Saints, or worse, Heavenly Saints were free to enter, the Divine Region might eventually be torn apart and exhausted altogether.

In any case, it was precisely this restriction that left Lu Changsheng with very few options.

A cold glint flickered in his eyes. If I can't win the coordinates at auction, then I may have to take them by force.

He had climbed step by step from being an insignificant martial artist to where he stood now. He had never been the sort of person who stubbornly bound himself to a single method when circumstances changed. An unclaimed secret world was crucial to his cultivation, and if ordinary means failed, he would find another way.

One way or another, he was going to get those coordinates.

Over the following days, Lu Changsheng roamed Sacred Star City, quietly hunting for any way to lay hands on more deity fragments.

Unfortunately, deity fragments were extraordinarily rare, and almost all of them came from the Divine Region. Even if an innate deity happened to appear somewhere outside it, the Earthly Saints nearby would descend upon it at once and kill it for its fragments. And by the time news of such a deity ever reached Lu Changsheng, there would be nothing left for him to take.

Twenty days quickly flew by. Now, the auction at the Secret World Pavilion was less than ten days away.

During that time, Lu Changsheng had spent most of his days moving about Sacred Star City, searching for some way to obtain more deity fragments. And after wandering the city for that long, he came to notice something unusual.

Lu Changsheng narrowed his eyes, though his expression remained calm. All this time, I keep catching the same few gazes on me, showing and vanishing by turns. They're careful about it, but even so, my senses have picked them out after this long. Someone's set their sights on me. Cultivator robbers, maybe?

Cultivator robbers made a living by ambushing martial artists or immortal cultivators, killing them and taking whatever treasures they carried. It did not matter how powerful the cultivator was. Even Earthly Saints were not safe from them.

Lu Changsheng was a new face in Sacred Star City, and one who had walked straight into the Secret World Pavilion. Anyone who could do that had to be carrying deity fragments, which made him exactly the kind of target cultivator robbers looked for.

However, they had not attacked him yet because Sacred Star City was under the protection of Heavenly Saints. No one would dare openly kill and rob another cultivator within the city, so whoever was watching him could only wait for him to leave.

Lu Changsheng quickly considered what kind of people he might be dealing with. If these robbers have truly set their sights on me, they're almost certainly Earthly Saints themselves; a Heavenly Saint would never stoop to this kind of work. There are probably several Earthly Saints involved in this, intending to strike together. Regardless, dealing with them shouldn't be too difficult...

Lu Changsheng had spent enough time in Sacred Star City to gain a clear understanding of Earthly Saints and their strength. For most Earthly Saints, combat strength depended primarily on the power of their Earthly Saint Dao Body—and in that respect, he feared no one.

With his current strength, backed by more than a dozen forces of heaven and earth, and an Earthly Saint Dao Body forged from the Primordial Chaos Saint Body, he could crush any ordinary Earthly Saint without much trouble.

There was only one kind of Earthly Saint who might prove troublesome: those who had already refined Martial Dao fragments but had nevertheless failed to break through to Heavenly Saint. Such Earthly Saints were much stronger than ordinary ones. Even so, Lu Changsheng was not afraid; his confidence in his Dao Body did not waver.

A faint smile appeared on his face. I've spent all this time wondering where to find more deity fragments, and now the answer's about to come looking for me!

Knowing he was being targeted did not bother him in the slightest. If anything, he was glad for this opportunity. He could turn the hunt around on the hunters.

Since you've been unable to find a chance to attack me yourself, let me create one for you. I only hope none of you are too poor to be worth the trouble...

Having made his decision, Lu Changsheng stepped into the air and flew straight out of Sacred Star City.

The moment he left, several individuals exchanged words telepathically.

The target is leaving the city.

Proceed according to plan.

Don't take any chances. Send ten Earthly Saints and three Deity Transformation cultivators. We must make sure he doesn't escape.

The exchange was brief and to the point. A moment later, thirteen figures rose into the air one after another and swiftly followed Lu Changsheng out of Sacred Star City.