In times like these, strength was what truly mattered. Everything else was meaningless.

Wang Sheng sat in his chair and looked at the two rows of Nether Realm generals standing before him. Deep down, he felt a little light-headed...

There were only twenty-one days left before the Nether Realm's King of Hell selection.

At this point, he had already risen to the position of deputy commander within Fengdu City's inner defense system.

He had met several Kings of Hell, seen two Ghost Emperors, and even entered the Nether Realm's core region twice. Moreover, he had personally witnessed the breathtaking sight hidden beyond Fengdu City's final wall.

The sword in his hand had carved out every step of this meteoric rise.

First of all, he truly had to thank the Asura race for their outstanding contribution. It started when one of them came to seize his sword, which then led to people seeking revenge. Later, entire groups arrived to question him.

Wang Sheng showed them no courtesy. With just his sword, he swept every one of them aside.

That immediately drew the Nether Realm's attention. They quickly realized Wang Sheng was anything but ordinary. It also convinced them even further that he had come to the Nether Realm simply to idle around—ahem, to comprehend the Great Dao of Reincarnation.

Otherwise, there was no way he would act so arrogantly or so recklessly.

Hence, the more fearless Wang Sheng appeared, and the more directly he retaliated against anyone who provoked him, the less suspicious he seemed in the eyes of the realm's upper ranks.

To top it all off, its two major factions had begun paying close attention to him.

Feng Jiu's faction secretly approached Wang Sheng and offered him favorable terms. As long as he joined their side, they would guarantee him access to the Six-Path Wheel of Reincarnation.

The Nether Realm faction soon caught wind of this and immediately promoted him again and again. Bian Zhong also hinted several times about matters related to cultivating the Great Dao of Reincarnation.

By the time Wang Sheng reached his current position, he had practically set a new record for the fastest rise through the Nether Realm's ranks.

The Asura experts he had killed or defeated ranged from the Golden Immortal Realm to the Taiyi Golden Immortal Realm. There had even been two Grand Dao Golden Immortals among them.

Fortunately, Wang Sheng had shown some restraint. Since the two had merely spoken rudely, he only chopped off their arms instead of truly pushing things to the point of irreconcilable hatred with the Asura race.

As it happened, the Asura race revered strength above all else.

A few days earlier, Po Feng had visited Wang Sheng again and secretly conveyed an invitation from her clan. They wished for him to attend one of their gatherings as Minghe's successor.

Unfortunately, Wang Sheng was currently at the most critical stage of getting close to the Six-Path Wheel of Reincarnation. He could only pretend to have no interest.

"My heart is set on the Great Dao. I don't wish to become too entangled with your people."

Po Feng expressed understanding, bowed respectfully, and hurried away.

And so matters continued until today.

With the King of Hell selection drawing near, the Nether Realm's forces in Fengdu City were about to face an intense trial. Wang Sheng, who was responsible for arranging and dispatching the inner city's patrol forces, carried out every duty with meticulous precision.

Aside from those responsibilities, he would soon be tasked with guarding one of the gateways leading into the Nether Realm's core region.

When the Kings of Hell decided to promote Wang Sheng, they had likely been gambling as well. The Nether Realm was weakening, while Feng Jiu's pressure grew heavier by the day. Hence, an expert like Wang Sheng became too valuable for them to cast aside. All they could do was give him an important but not truly critical position and gamble that he harbored no ulterior motives.

Unfortunately for them, none of them realized that Wang Sheng did not merely have ulterior motives. He practically had several layers of hidden intentions deep down.

Now that he had reached his current position, he could directly grasp the situation outside.

Order throughout Fengdu City had nearly collapsed. Battles erupted every day, and the Nether Realm could only maintain control around the inner city.

Survival of the fittest had been displayed perfectly within Fengdu City.

Wang Sheng had a vague feeling that his senior sister had already arrived in Fengdu City. It was a subtle sensation. If he knew the art of divination, he could probably follow that faint connection and locate her directly.

Unfortunately, he did not.

This kind of universally useful divine ability required immense time and effort to refine through constant study and tempering.

Still, he could confirm her whereabouts through contact with his own side.

Mu Wanxuan had indeed arrived in Fengdu City and successfully reunited with Chun Yangzi and the others. She was also one of the few people who knew Wang Sheng's whereabouts.

When Mu Wanxuan learned that Wang Sheng had risked entering the Nether Realm and was now serving there as a general while trying to approach Houtu, she reacted nothing like the others expected. She did not worry or feel uneasy.

Instead, she merely smiled gently and gazed at the towering inner walls of Fengdu City. Her eyes were filled with tenderness, while her heart held nothing but longing.

If Chun Yangzi had not sensed something wrong and concealed the Dao Rhythm around Mu Wanxuan in time, even the Great Dao of Life could have been stirred, exposing their location.

Qinghua had also hidden himself within the shadows of the Nether Realm, ready at any moment to unleash a grand feast of death.

Every faction that should have arrived was already here, and even the ones that should not have come had shown themselves. Quite a few Ancient-Era experts had already been spotted.

Clearly, the Six-Path Wheel of Reincarnation was attracting far more than just the conflict between Feng Jiu and Wang Sheng.

Beyond this struggle over the authority of heaven and earth, the Great Dao of Reincarnation drew in countless powerful figures, including those who had no desire to involve themselves in such disputes.

No matter what preparations the Nether Realm had made, the curtain was bound to rise eventually. And whether Wang Sheng wished it or not, he had to find an opportunity before the King of Hell selection concluded. He had to locate Houtu somehow.

He already had a few ideas on how to find her and had even prepared several methods, but the Six-Path Wheel of Reincarnation remained the key. At the earliest, he would make his move within the next few days.

However, on the twenty-first day before the selection officially began, Xu Zhongliang sent him a piece of news that completely stunned him.

The contents had already been simplified as much as possible. At present, this was Wang Sheng's only stable way of communicating with the outside world.

Huai Jing brought Earth's cultivators along and somehow infiltrated the enemy camp. They've successfully blended into Feng Jiu's hidden forces, which are currently lying in ambush outside Fengdu City.

Wang Sheng was rendered speechless. He really wanted to say they had done well, but this whole situation was far too risky. The words "somehow infiltrated" especially presented far too much uncertainty.

By now, he had already imagined more than a dozen possibilities of how this had happened. He had no idea how much absurdity was involved in the whole story.

Anyway, why is Feng Jiu's faction setting up another ambush outside the city?

After thinking it over repeatedly, Wang Sheng only came up with one possible explanation.

Are they planning to wipe out all the experts gathered inside the city in one strike? If they manage to do that, then once Feng Jiu unifies the Immortal Saint Realm and the endless space, she'll face far less resistance.

If so, then Feng Jiu's faction did not have complete confidence in winning this King of Hell selection. It would also mean that the Nether Realm still retained a certain degree of independence—that Feng Jiu had not fully infiltrated or taken control of it yet. Most importantly, the Six-Path Wheel of Reincarnation was still in the hands of the Nether Realm's authorities.

For Earth's cultivators, that was another opportunity.

The Nether Realm generals had only just left the tent when Ling Sheng entered quietly from outside.

"Master, a Judge delivered this letter earlier. You were arranging defensive matters at the time, so he did not come in to disturb you."

"Let me see it." Wang Sheng raised his hand and took the jade talisman. After scanning the message inside, he laughed.

They want me to serve as one of the examiners for the selection, overseeing several smaller contests involving divine abilities and combat techniques? They can do that? At the very least, it shows that they hold my Great Dao of Slaughter in high regard. Still, could this be another test?

Wang Sheng smiled for a while before casually tossing the jade pendant to Ling Sheng.

"Return this jade pendant to that judge for me. I'm not suited to being an examiner. If they need someone to guard an arena where people fight to the death, then I could do that instead."

Ling Sheng blinked but did not ask questions. She simply bowed and left.

Only then did Wang Sheng quietly relax.

The logic behind this was actually quite simple. If he accepted the role, it would easily make him appear connected to one of the factions. After all, changing even one small part of the process could influence the final outcome of the King of Hell selection.

By refusing it on his own initiative, he could completely clear away any remaining suspicion toward him. Besides, at this stage, even if something happened, it likely would not affect the overall situation much anymore.

***

Within a massive array hidden deep inside a canyon outside Fengdu City.

Having successfully joined Feng Jiu's faction under the guise of cultivators from the Ground-Fissure Sect, Earth's cultivators stayed inside two newly excavated cave dwellings at one corner of the array. They now simply waited for orders from above.

The moment this matter came up, Huai Jing felt a headache coming on.

At the time, multiple factions had blocked the passages between the Immortal Saint Realm and the Nether Realm. To enter the Nether Realm, Huai Jing had no choice but to rely on connections from his previous life and seek help from the experts of Buddhist sects.

Things had actually gone rather smoothly in the beginning. Huai Jing found a Buddhist expert and concealed the fact that he was the reincarnation of the Dragon-Subduing Arhat. He simply debated Buddhist arts with the man for a while, and the other party immediately treated him like a close friend.

Originally, Huai Jing only claimed that he and his companions from the Ground-Fissure Sect wanted to pass through this route and try their luck in the Nether Realm.

After all, no one knew for certain what awaited them. They could even stumble into some great fortune and end up connected to the Nether Realm strongly enough to become the tenth King of Hell.

What Huai Jing never expected was that the other party seemed to be speaking with hidden meaning. The old monk implied that the Nether Realm's authorities were already nearing collapse, and that the King of Hell selection would not be enough to reverse the situation.

Along the way, the old monk also introduced Huai Jing to an expert from another faction and asked whether he had any interest in joining them to accomplish something great together.

Huai Jing originally wanted to refuse, but what they offered—ahem. Opportunities like this were incredibly rare.

In the end, he thought that even if they entered Fengdu City, they might not be able to help directly anyway. Hence, he concluded that they would be far more useful infiltrating the enemy faction as spies. He hesitated for quite some time, but eventually, he reluctantly agreed to join.

Right after, he used every method he could think of to drag Earth's cultivators into the faction along with him. They even received a generous amount of resources from the faction as a result, making quite a profit. Still...

"We still haven't gotten any useful information at all," Shi Qianzhang muttered through telepathy while yawning lazily. He spread his arms and collapsed onto the stone bed. "We spend all day here doing nothing except sleeping. For all we know, they may already be fighting over there."

Liu Yunzhi snorted. "You're the one refusing to gather information, yet you're still complaining. I just finished making a rough estimate of the number of cultivators in this valley."

"Amitabha. How many are there?" Huai Jing asked.

"At least one hundred fifty thousand, and they're all strong. This place is obviously only one of the more remote sections in a massive encirclement."

Huai Jing scratched his bald head. "This really is difficult."

The Daoist elders, Daoist masters, and instructors from Earth all looked troubled as well.

"How about we make something big happen? We already managed to sneak in here. If we don't stir up some trouble, wouldn't this entire opportunity go to waste?" Shi Qianzhang suggested as he sprang up from the stone bed in one motion. His eyes practically gleamed.

Several old Daoists exchanged looks. One of the instructors asked, "What exactly are you planning to do?"