Chapter 672: Chapter 674: Begin!
During this time, Lin Zhen returned to the Alchemist’s Guild. The practice of martial arts had temporarily hit a bottleneck, and there was not much room for growth. Lin Zhen used this time to practice alchemy.
His current elixir reserve could support his promotion to World King, but the demand for elixirs above the World King level was too great and too expensive. Lin Zhen, who was somewhat short of funds, couldn’t afford it for the time being.
He was currently researching a new type of elixir, the Spiritual Power potion!
Once this potion was successful, Lin Zhen’s spiritual power would experience rapid growth.
After nearly a month of experiments, the research of the potion had made some progress.
“It is said that inside the Divine Punishment Star, Star Power is suppressed. Thus, Spiritual Power should be very useful there. However, I still lack three medicinal materials, which have already been purchased and are being shipped here. It seems that there won’t be enough time to carefully study it before entering the Divine Punishment Star.”
“If the Spiritual Power potion is successful, my Divine Infant will quickly break through to the Silver Stage, and even advance to the Golden Stage within a month, because I have the characteristics of the Black Hole Beast.”
“A Golden Stage Divine Infant with a gun will also be my big trump card in the Divine Punishment Star.”
Lin Zhen stretched his muscles and bones, recalling the scene of him and Ning Qingxuan meeting in the Dimensional Universe last night.
She was as beautiful as jade, but unfortunately still a little reserved. Otherwise, they could have satisfied their cravings in the Dimensional Universe.
But Lin Zhen was not in a hurry. Since he loved her, he would respect her and hoped that everything could happen naturally.
*********
Not until an hour before the opening of Divine Punishment Star, the registration of everyone ended.
This event of the Original World attracted great attention, and almost all places had set up live streams so that they could see the situation of the Divine Punishment Star.
The rules came out this time as well.
One hundred billion participants in the Divine Punishment Star, ranked according to points. The top 100,000 people would be rewarded.
The top one to the hundredth could obtain a chance of tempering their Divine Body. From the 101st to the 100,000th, they could obtain the Qi of Divine Transformation to break through the World King Realm and enter Longevity.
The location of the Divine Punishment Star was in the Endless Star Sea. There was a planet slightly larger than Earth, which was afflicted by divine punishment. All living beings had turned into dead spirits.
The dead people on the planet were transformed into skeletons, the living ones turned into walking corpses, and animals turned into zombie animals. Their abilities were even stronger than when they were alive, somewhat similar to the mutated beasts of Earth’s past.
Since the martial artists who participated in the competition had strong abilities, in order to balance their powers with the undead creatures, the deity had dropped divine might, suppressing all martial artists’ powers to one percent.
Otherwise, if these World King powerhouses took action, they might destroy the planet.
Killing different undead creatures could earn points, and the more powerful the creature, the more points they would get.
Killing martial artists could earn half of their points, which would be a faster way to earn points than killing the undead in the late stage.
Initially, everyone’s points were zero, and everyone started on the same finish line.
According to the ratio, there was a hundred undead creatures to one human martial artist. A total of 100 billion martial artists were on the planet, and the total number of undead creatures was 10 trillion.
When the number of undead creatures on the planet was lower than the number of martial artists, the challenge of the Divine Punishment Star would be considered complete.
At that time, the allocation of rewards would be based on the points ranking of the martial artists.
All martial artists participating in the Divine Punishment Star would be protected. The deity would grant each person a chance to be immune to death. When they received fatal injuries in the Divine Punishment Star, divine power would protect their lives without harm, but they would lose their qualifications to continue fighting and be eliminated.
This was also the reason why martial artists were eager to participate because if they were killed inside, there wouldn’t be many people daring to try.
All countries in the Original World attached great importance to this battle.
The people of the Original World had beliefs, and to enter the ranks of Longevity Warriors was actually like becoming immortal gods in the eyes of others.
Each Longevity Warrior knew that there were some supreme beings in the Original World, and the opportunity to participate in the divine challenge, if their country achieved good results, might attract the gods’ attention.
So in order to achieve good results, every country’s contestants would make full preparations before the competition, aiming to shine in the Divine Punishment Star.
First, each country would request their contestants to strive for a ranking within the top 100,000.
Even if they couldn’t make it within the top 100,000, there had to be contestants within the top one million or five million because there were only five million countries in the Original World. If a country could not have even one place within the top five million, the emperor of that country wouldn’t be able to hold their head up in front of other emperors.
As a result, many countries would have a few seeded players to participate, so that the country wouldn’t lose face.
In order to motivate martial artists to forge ahead, many countries had set up huge bonuses. Prizes started from entering the top 10 million, heavy awards for entering the top 5 million, and rewards for entering the top 2 million and one million!
This was also true for Nan Liang. Among the contestants, Liang Chen was not even considered a seed. The real top seeds were a few World Kings selected by Liang Zhihuan.
When the Divine Punishment Star was about to open, Liang Zhihuan specially encouraged all the contestants and stated that he would pay close attention to the situation of all Nan Liang participants throughout the competition.
Flipping through the list in his hand, Liang Zhihuan suddenly saw a name.
Lin Zhen!
Liang Zhihuan was stunned. Lin Zhen – wasn’t he the one who fell into the spatial rift with the queen? Could it be someone with the same name?
But when he looked carefully at Lin Zhen’s information, Liang Zhihuan couldn’t help but frown. This Lin Zhen was indeed that Lin Zhen.
The woman who was his wife but whom he hadn’t even touched. Yet this brat had held her, and Liang Zhihuan also suspected that during these two years that they had fallen into the spatial rift, Ning Qingxuan was with him all along.
Ning Qingxuan had not killed him, proving that they had already resolved their grievances. The thought of the two being together for two years made Liang Zhihuan feel a sour taste in his heart.
“Lin Zhen, sixth-grade alchemist, level eight domain king….”
“A level eight domain king would not possibly rank in the Divine Punishment Star. Among the billions of competitors, half are world kings, and a level eight domain king is nothing compared to them.”
Liang Zhihuan told himself this, but still felt uneasy, and called for an inner attendant: “Go and send some supper for the queen, and tell her that I am busy with official affairs and won’t be going to see her. Then ask her personal servant Xiaoya to come to see me; I have something to ask her.”
The inner attendant agreed and left, and after a while, he brought a palace maid back with him.
The palace maid Xiaoya was someone Liang Zhihuan trusted. In fact, everyone in the palace belonged to her, but Xiaoya was the one he particularly trusted.
“How has the queen been lately?” Liang Zhihuan asked bluntly.
“Your Majesty, I’ve also heard some rumors lately saying that you and the queen don’t get along, but don’t believe those gossipmongers. In my opinion, the queen is just not good at expressing herself, but she actually already likes you.”
“Oh? What makes you say that?”
“Hehe, this old slave has sharp eyes. Sometimes the queen will suddenly laugh when she’s alone, and her laughter is so sweet that she will captivate all of us old slaves. If she’s not in love, she wouldn’t laugh like that.”
Liang Zhihuan said nothing, but he felt an ominous premonition in his heart.
“Also, I’ve made a surprising discovery: the queen has started to pay attention to the situation in Nan Liang and has been keeping an eye on the news of the Dimensional Universe and the Divine Punishment Star.”
“What? She’s paying attention to the Divine Punishment Star?”
Liang Zhihuan’s face suddenly darkened. Even he did not have Ning Qingxuan’s Dimensional Universe number, and as far as he knew, Ning Qingxuan never paid attention to the Dimensional Universe. He didn’t believe that the queen would suddenly pay attention to a certain competitor.
Why would she suddenly pay attention to it now? Why? Why?
Was she concerned about Liang Chen? Logically speaking, that should be the case, but Liang Zhihuan instinctively felt that something was amiss.
An ominous premonition filled his heart, and coupled with the queen’s recent refusal to let him approach her, Liang Zhihuan had the strange feeling that the crown on his head wasn’t gold but rather somewhat greenish.
After deliberating for a while, Liang Zhihuan summoned several of the seed contestants who would be entering the Divine Punishment Star and instructed them to prevent Lin Zhen from ranking at any cost!
No matter what the relationship was between the queen and Lin Zhen, Liang Zhihuan was determined to nip such a bond in the bud!
*********
The much-anticipated Divine Punishment Star was about to begin.
All of the eyes in the Original World were focused here. People from every country and region were supporting their local contestants, and the various support threads in the Dimensional Universe were surging one after the other.
However, Lin Zhen did not pay any attention to these matters. He had just received the last three medicinal materials needed for alchemy.
“As expected, the star power in the Divine Punishment Star is suppressed a hundred times. Thankfully, I started preparing for alchemy in advance, and the medicinal materials have finally arrived! With these three materials, I’ll have an extra layer of protection in the Dimensional Universe, but alchemy still takes time!”
As he was thinking this, a countdown suddenly appeared in the Dimensional Universe.
This time it was a godly teleportation, directly to the Divine Punishment Star deep within the Endless Star Sea, without the need for the contestants to make their own way.
“10, 9, 8, 7, …”
Lin Zhen prepared everything and closed his eyes slightly.
“3, 2, 1, 0… Divine Punishment Star opens, teleportation begins!”
With a flash of white light before his eyes, Lin Zhen disappeared from the inn the next moment.
The space around him flowed, and the next second when Lin Zhen opened his eyes, he had arrived on a strange planet.
In the sky were eerie red clouds, a layer of yellow haze enveloped the air; this was a forbidden area for living beings and a domain of the dead!
Surrounding him were countless flickering stars, as numerous martial artists entered.
With the gathering of genius martial artists from all countries and regions in the Original World, a brutal elimination battle had begun!