"The top figure at the Eighth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm must have trump cards. During the decisive battles, they will definitely use them. I have to prepare one or two trump cards."
The Treasured Body of Three Spirits and the Ninth Realm of Sword One had originally been his trump cards. But while fighting Zhao Wuyan, those two trump cards had been exposed.
Now, other participants would definitely be on the lookout for them and take appropriate countermeasures.
Finally, Zhang Ruochen took out two golden Holy Swords and gave them to Blackie to refine and worship. He asked Blackie to change their forms slightly so that they could not be recognized.
"If I have two Holy Swords as my trump cards, I should be strong enough to deal with any emergency."
His six golden Holy Swords all had come from Yellow God Emissary.
Right now, he took out the other four Holy Swords and lined them up on the ground.
"Swoosh!"
Zhang Ruochen suddenly took out the pitch-black Ancient Abyss Sword as he touched the Spatial Ring. He held the hilt with one hand while touching the sword body with the other hand.
The Abyss Ancient Sword vibrated once and let out a cheerful sound.
"Go ahead!"
It flew out and rushed at the four golden Holy Swords.
As they sensed the danger, they vibrated and turned into four golden light shuttles, flying out of the universe.
As Holy Weapons, they naturally had Vessel Spirits. So when they sensed danger, they would certainly run away.
The Ancient Abyss Sword gave off a black brilliance and went after them rapidly.
About an hour later, it refined the four Holy Swords and flew back. It arrived in front of Zhang Ruochen and stuck in the ground. The ground was disintegrating, with long cracks extending to a maximum range of more than one mile.
Gradually, it became heavier and more powerful.
As a Hundred Inscriptions Weapon, it could almost break out the power of a Thousand Inscriptions Weapon. And when force met with force, it could even destroy some lower-quality Thousand Inscriptions Weapons.
And then, he refined Zhao Wuyan's 12th level Genuine Martial Arms combat sword with the Ancient Abyss Sword.
"Swords can eat swords, and people can eat people too. If I'm not strong enough, I'll be eaten sooner or later."
He put away the Ancient Abyss Sword and began to practice again.
Over the following half month, he refined the Source of Spiritual Fire and practiced the Treasured Body of Fire Spirit.
If he was able to practice into the "Four-spirit Treasured Body", he would become more powerful. However, it was really hard to actualize that. Without absorbing very much Source of Spiritual Fire, he had already reached saturation and could not absorb any more.
Although he was still a long way off from practicing into the Four-spirit Treasured Body, he thoroughly solidified his cultivation of the Fifth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm and his strength greatly improved by absorbing the Source of Spiritual Fire.
After about half a month, Blackie had refined and worshippeded the two golden Holy Swords.
Their forms had significantly changed. With seven arcs, they looked like two golden Spiritual Snakes. Nail-sized snake scales faintly appeared on their blades, which seemed very strange.
Zhang Ruochen asked, "What's wrong? Why do these two Holy Swords have the aura of a snake?"
Blackie answered, "You asked me to refine and worship the two Holy Swords and change their aura. Thus, I asked Xun Hualiu and Mu Jiji to go to Snakes Valley of the Fallen-gods Mountain Range to seize two fifth-level savage beasts—Golden Flying-cloud Snakes. I peeled off their beast souls and sealed them in the blades."
"That may not be a bad idea. In doing so, those who have encountered the two golden Holy Swords before should not be able to recognize them. From now on, they will be called 'Golden Snake Divine Rapiers'."
Zhang Ruochen injected Genuine Qi into them and refined and worshipped. And then, he shouted lightly, "Withdraw!"
The two Holy Swords quickly shrank to the size of a Golden Needle, flew into his glabella, and became suspended in the center of his Qi Sea, rotating around the Heart of the Sword.
After two fierce days of fighting, the top 100 heroes had been determined in the sword combat for the Eighth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.
Next, they would participate in a new round of battling and finally determine the top 10.
Once a man entered the top 10, he could not only enter the Sword Pavilion to practice but he would also represent the Yin and Yang Sect to take part in the Sword Technique Conference on the ninth of September.
There were a lot of disciples in the ashram outside the Supreme Pure Palace, including outer disciples, inner disciples, and even some Saint's disciples.
On the eighth Jade Tablet, only 100 names remained. The other participants had all been eliminated.
In the preliminary contests, the more outstanding participant was the one ranked higher.
Qin Yufan ranked first.
Qi Feiyu ranked second.
Dao Xuanqi ranked third.
Can Dong ranked fourth.
Xu Changsheng ranked sixth.
Lin Yue ranked 10th.
Zhao Wuyan, who had lost to Lin Yue in the preliminary contest, ranked seventh, three places above Lin Yue.
But the disciples of Long-living Yard were not convinced by the rankings.
"Zhao Wuyan lost to Elder Brother Lin Yue in the preliminary contest. How can he rank higher than Elder Brother Lin Yue?" Zhao Han'er was very angry and spoke out against it first.
She knew that she was highly inferior to Senior Sister Apprentice Qi in both appearance and talent. Naturally, she was no match for Elder Brother Lin Yue.
However, it did not affect her adoration of Elder Brother Lin Yue. Therefore, she could not accept Elder Brother Lin Yue being ranked behind Zhao Wuyan.
Pang Long standing nearby went out and laughed grimly. "Everyone knows that Elder Brother Zhao lost to Lin Yue entirely due to carelessness. If they really fought each other, Lin Yue wouldn't be able to defeat Elder Brother Zhao."
Suddenly, a man stood up and said, "Elder Brother Zhao made a slight mistake and lost to Lin Yue in the first round. However, he won 27 times in a row in the qualifying fights because of his powerful strength, and nobody dared to accept the challenge."
"Lin Yue just won once due to luck. Nobody knows his true strength. However, Elder Brother Zhao conquered all of us during his winning streak. Thus, it's normal that he ranks higher than Lin Yue."
Watching Pang Long, Zhao Han'er was afraid at first but quickly nerved herself and took a step forward. "It's not like that. If it had been Elder Brother Lin Yue, he would definitely have won 27 times successively and he would have been even more amazing than Zhao Wuyan."
"Another ignorant woman." Pang Long laughed and directly walked away.
"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!"
Three long bells came from the top of Zhiyu Sacred Mountain and then changed into sound waves, spreading across the 36 sacred mountains of the Supreme Pure Palace.
Upon hearing the bells, everybody knew that the first round of the combat for the Eighth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm would be held today.
All the disciples ran to Zhiyu Sacred Mountain, including Zhao Han'er and the inner disciples of Long-living Yard.
Long-living Yard had two participants that were ranked in the top 10. All the inner disciples of Long-living Yard were proud of that, so they would go to support their idols—Elder Brothers Lin Yue and Can Dong.
The sword contest for the Eighth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm had the fewest applicants. Therefore, they entered the first round of decisive combat first. All of the Saint's disciples and Cyan-robed Elders who were not taking part in the contest hurried to Zhiyu Sacred Mountain. After all, the decisive contest would certainly be fierce.
Just then, all the top 100 monks that reached the final for the Eighth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm arrived and gathered under Coliseum B.
Half-saint Jing Lan announced the combat rules: "In the first round of the final, the participants will be divided into 10 groups with 10 people in each group.
"In the preliminary combat, the 10 most outstanding participants will be arranged into 10 groups and serve as champions.
"Qin Yufan, Group One.
"Qi Feiyu, Group Two.
"Dao Xuanqi, Group Three.
"Lin Yue, Group 10.
"Aside from the 10 champions, the other 90 people will draw tokens once again. They will go into the 10 groups according to their tokens. Now, let's draw the tokens."
When Half-saint Jing Lan waved his arms, 90 white light-spots rushed out from his sleeves and flew out in every direction.
The 90 participants began to draw their tokens.
"Swoosh!"
Cyan characters flew into the sky.
The characters were flying in the sky like a sutra bridge suspended in the void space and extended to the top of the Sunset Palace on Zhiyu Sacred Mountain.
Each character was almost one meter long and sent out a faint holy light.
A "white-clothed childe" trod on the characters and walked from the horizon.
On the sixth floor of the Sunset Palace, four Half-Saint Patriarchs stood up and bowed to the "white-clothed childe".
Half-saint Jing Lan also turned back and bowed. "Saint Lady has come to Zhiyu Sacred Mountain. How can I help you?"
Saint Lady wore clean men's clothing, held a folding fan, and tied up her hair to form a childe bun. She was charismatic with rosy lips and pretty white teeth. She smiled faintly and said, "Predecessors, do away with all the formalities. I heard that the sword contest for the Eighth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm is going to the final, so I came to take a look in the hopes of witnessing the talents of the Yin and Yang Sect."
"Any talent will be overshadowed by you," Half-saint Zixia said.
Instead of being just a compliment, Half-saint Zixia had exclaimed from his heart.
Saint Lady was younger than any of the present Half-Saints. However, she was a Saint and her cultivation was much more profound than theirs.
Perhaps only those people on the "Five Heroes" were comparable to her.
As a Saint Lady, she did not look down upon the five Half-Saints present, but instead appeared to be very humble.
She ascended to the Sunset Palace and closed her folding fan. Suddenly, the myriads of characters that were suspended in the sky immediately returned to the folding fan and changed into a graceful essay.
After which, she sat with the Half-Saints, side by side. With her beautiful eyes, she sized up the top 100 monks at the Eighth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.