Volume 4, Chapter 112 – The Announcement

At that same moment, Xu Shu halted the group’s advance when he saw a Shenming disciple sprinting toward them with a phone raised in hand, shouting something at the top of his lungs.

The nearby townsfolk seemed to be affected at the same time as well. Every so often, startled cries rippled out from various corners and restaurants, and the expressions on people’s faces were changing at an almost painfully slow rate toward shock and excitement.

[Headline report, transmitted across the Nine Provinces. Hello, everyone. This is Nine Provinces Beacon Tower. We strive to bring you the most comprehensive and most detailed major news from across the Nine Provinces.]

[Our first report: the Nine Prefectures Sword Meet, which is to be held in the latter half of this month, had already been acknowledged several days ago as being on the verge of being renamed the Dao-Void Martial Tournament. This move is intended to broaden the scope and invite more outstanding talents from the Void Realms to participate.]

[And just three minutes ago, we received further news. The latest official notice released by the Sword Dao Association has already clearly laid out the overall planning and arrangements for the Dao-Void Martial Tournament series…]

The announcer’s voice, tinged with a bit of static, kept pouring out of the little television in a roadside restaurant, while many of the people lingering in the street had already taken out their phones of their own accord, gone online, found the official Sword Dao Association site, and begun checking the detailed arrangements for the tournament.

The tournament would be held in Yujing.

Strictly speaking, it would be held in Jingzhou.

Jingzhou had four circuits: Wangbei Circuit, Tongyun Circuit, Huanglong Circuit, and Yujing Circuit. The preliminary rounds would be held in the Wangbei Circuit bracket, Tongyun Circuit bracket, and Huanglong Circuit bracket, because the number of cultivators registering was simply too great. A single Dao city could never process them all on its own.

Among them, Huanglong Circuit, with its larger land area and greater prosperity, would accommodate twice the number of participants as the other two brackets. In the end, the highest-ranked dojos and sects would emerge from each bracket, and the final matches would be organized in Yujing.

It could be said to be an event of extraordinarily grand scale. Forget finding a similar precedent in history. There had never even been a tournament whose scale came close.

The Nine Prefectures Sword Meet of the past might have been famous, but at the end of the day it was still just the Nine Prefectures shutting the door and dividing up resources among themselves. Other than Qingping Dao and Suzhen Dao, the other seven lineages were often little more than runners-up filling the field.

A tournament like that did not need this sort of overwhelming fanfare. They could just pick some wild mountain ridge, or at most some famous mountain, hold the matches there, and it would all wrap up in under a week.

But this time was different. The restrictions on registering dojos were very loose. The Dao-Void Martial Tournament no longer belonged only to the carnival of the Nine Daos. Any Dao lineage in the world that met the requirements could register.

In the end, the event would probably last quite a long time. Even conservatively estimating only a thousand dojos registering, a month would likely be the bare minimum.

“No wonder they needed so many brackets and venues…”

Xu Shu let out a long breath and muttered as he stared at the information displayed on his phone screen.

What a colossal undertaking. No matter how they had tried to estimate things before, they never could have imagined this. It truly was shocking.

The Court really did want to make this as big a spectacle as possible.

Xu Shu was no longer some low-level disciple who understood nothing. Every now and then he heard bits of confidential intelligence from Bai Lianzhou, and he knew perfectly well just how irreconcilable the relationship was between his own dojo and Qianyu Palace.

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The final round is in Yujing?

What sort of crooked plan are they plotting? They wouldn’t actually detain everyone even after they won, would they?

Xu Shu was still worrying over this when many of the disciples from the two lineages behind him cried out one after another in surprise.

“My heavens! The scale is that huge?”

“It looks like it’s a global livestream too? Look at the sponsors listed under the event. Every single one is a giant corporation!”

“This is how it should have been long ago! There’s been too much crooked talk before, saying we’re apemen abandoned by the federation states. This time we’ll show them the majesty of our Sacred Dynasty! We’ll let them know that under heaven, Sword Dao is still supreme!”

These young fools…

Xia Ran listened to their excited discussion and only wanted to cover his face.

It really seemed that quite a few people still had not realized what their coming to Maozhou to seek refuge actually meant. In their hearts, they were still fantasizing about identifying themselves with the Sacred Dynasty.

Senior Brother really was right. They truly did need to be shown a harsher reality.

But from the side, this also showed exactly what kind of uproar the release of the Dao-Void Martial Tournament news had stirred up.

Jingzhou, Liangzhou, Luezhou, Xuzhou…

Across all of Great Yu’s connected regions, across the whole Nine Provinces, information about the Dao-Void Martial Tournament swiftly whipped up into a violent storm. In the span of mere minutes it swept through countless households. So long as someone was still awake at that moment and still paying any attention to outside information, not a single one of them could have remained ignorant of it.

And that storm did not stop there. It blew outward as well, sweeping through the entire world along the external network.

In the federation states, early risers stopped by the roadside and stared at the emergency news bulletin suddenly inserted on the giant screens mounted beneath the archways.

In the grey-zone nations, a group of dark-skinned children leaning against stone steps with rifles on their shoulders huddled together around a battered old phone, watching the news break before their eyes.

Everyone’s attention was forcibly redirected.

No matter what they had been doing before, at least at this moment, they were all watching the Dao-Void Martial Tournament.

And this was only the first wave of impact.

As time passed, it was easy to foresee that countless local TV stations and livestream channels would erupt into heated discussion of the Dao-Void Martial Tournament. The radio stations would probably even invite specialists to comment specifically on this event.

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In fact, there were already signs of that right now.

This was fated to become a supermassive festival and carnival.

“Well done.”

In Yujing, Li Huiran stood at the doorway, staring at the old woman kneeling before the Buddha statue inside.

“Remember, the moment the final result comes out, our cooperation ends.”

At the same time, in the southeastern sea.

For who knew how long, many silver-white giant vessels had been appearing there. All of the great ships floated on the sea, rising and falling with the waves. Meng Qiaosheng, who had once invited Bai Xiang and her party aboard, now stood at the prow, a phone in his hand playing the news.

“There is no need for worry, Young Master.”

Steward Li knelt beside him toward his master.

“This old servant offers his congratulations in advance, Young Master.”

“May your martial fortune flourish.”

“And may you return safely.”

“Ha!”

On the summit of a green peak wreathed in cloud and mist, a robust youth, naked as a wild man, suddenly snapped open his eyes. In an instant, it was as if two dazzling silver lights burst forth, splitting the sea of clouds before him in two and carving a slash-mark several kilometers long.

“The constellations have shifted again… looks like the time has finally come!”

And then there were the wilds of Luezhou.

The sandstorms of Xizhou.

The blood mist beyond the frontier.

Even on desolate islands across the immensely distant ocean, figures were gathering and moving in clusters, discussing the latest turn in the great situation.

“Good.”

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In Qiyun Circuit, a Silver-Shuttle Vessel had just broken through the void and descended. A cold, severe young man flew out of it and looked down below with delight on his face.

“Daoist Fengxu’s old eyes are dim. He failed to judge people clearly.”

“This time I’ll let the world see what right that mere woman has to contend with me!”

“So it’s finally come.”

In the Arctic, a figure walking across the desolate snowfields looked up at the sky, his gaze seeming to pierce through the darkness itself, tracking the movement of the stars.

“It’s not as if this alone will decide who ultimately earns the right to remain, but at least it marks the beginning.”

“Ai…”

“From this day on, the age of chaos has truly descended…”

Near the equator, a loud, rough laugh rang out from the smoke of an active volcano.

“Hahaha! Good! Wonderful!”

Magma churned, and out of it climbed a short, stout old man. He was utterly unaffected by the lava. His movements were so nimble it was as if he had merely gone down for a bath, reaching straight for his clothes to put them back on.

But the clothes did not share his abilities. His body temperature was already far too high. The moment his hand touched them, the fabric burst into enormous flames with a whoosh, burning to ash before the old man’s stunned gaze.

“Filthy things… rotten things…!”

He muttered to himself at first, then seemed to fly into a rage from embarrassment.

“Mere clothing! Even you despise me for being filthy?”

“Impossible! Absolutely impossible!”

“It isn’t my smell… it’s your smell!”

“You’re the ones who are contaminated! You are! You are!!!”

“Ah, dear~”

On a space station in planetary orbit, a silver-haired young man holding a folding fan let out a sigh.

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“So I’ve finally managed to survive the newbie protection period.”

“People of the main world, I wonder whether you’re truly prepared to face everything?”

“Young Master!” a voice reported from the communicator.

“Elder Qi has sent word. Everyone, including you, Young Master, is to attend the assembly.”

“Another assembly?” The silver-haired youth frowned slightly. “Ever since that old thing came to the Report Division, there hasn’t been a moment’s peace.”

“It really seems he doesn’t understand who’s actually in charge around here.”

Innumerable changes.

Innumerable movements of qi.

All of them were vibrating and spreading together through the energies of heaven and earth that filled the world.

Bai Xiang opened up her Taishang Response, and for a moment it felt as though she could hear countless shouts and cheers all at once from below the mountain. Those faces, those voices, those discussions, all gathered in her heart through some mysterious link and were faithfully recorded by the Jade Spirit.

“Dao Master?… Dao Master?”

“It’s nothing.”

Coming back to herself, Bai Xiang turned again to look at Li Sheng and Wang Ran before her.

“The plan doesn’t change. Go and return as quickly as you can.”

“Then, Dao Master, regarding this matter…”

“This matter is not important.”

Resting a hand on her sword, Bai Xiang finally rose to her feet.

“After you return.”

“Don’t forget to cultivate.”