Zhou Bao thought that the Child-endowing Buddha was too pessimistic, even a little fatalistic. But thinking about it, if what he said was actually true, then the situation would be indeed depressingly fatal.

“So, there’s nothing we can do now but let things go along?”

“The change has already begun. It would be difficult to stop it. The best policy is to take advantage of the situation. If you insist on going your own way, something will definitely happen. So you should just give up the idea of going far away and wait until you are in the Earthly Immortal phase. Even if someone is driving a Heaven Realm World, they wouldn’t be able to stop you!”

“At the end of the day, I am still too weak!” Zhou Bao gave a long sigh. “Which means we shouldn’t act without thinking, right?”

“The torrent is unstoppable, you’ll just have to bear it!” The Child-endowing Buddha had no way out and was shaking his head. “But if you solve the problem this time, then things will definitely calm down a lot!”

“Calm? Not necessarily, this time I am vulnerable. People will inevitably come to take advantage!” Saying this, Zhou Bao knocked the stone table lightly with his fingertips. “That Tieyi has Immortal-grade cultivation, and the others are Human Immortals. If I were defeated by them, many people would be confused.”

“That’s not quite right. If people go look at the fight, you can take your anger out on someone!” the Child-endowing Buddha laughed coldly.

“Oh, that’s true! You can just banish people whenever you want, so if something happened in this Heaven Realm World, it wouldn’t go unnoticed by you, right? The last few days my eyelids have been twitching, maybe some people want to come and attack me again.”

Child-endowing Buddha was shocked that Zhou Bao had asked that. “Indeed, some people want to come and attack you!” He gave a bitter smile and pointed at Zhou Bao. “And more than a few will come. It appears several of the powers of South China will want to take advantage of this to establish power in the Heaven Realm World!”

“How strong are they?”

“Several people are about the same as the Tie Yi, some are even stronger.”

“When are they coming?”

“They are not coming.”

“Huh?”

“Their plan is to challenge all the major powers of the world,” the Child-endowing Buddha said beaming. “Those guys have Heavenly Fairy Weapons, so they are very confident about their own strength. As you know, the Heaven Realm World is full of bad people and good people. If they want to gain an advantage, they will have to show their strength and make a name for themselves. This will decide how much they will profit from the Heaven Realm World in the future!”

Zhou Bao looked surprised. “So, you mean they want to set up an arena in the Heaven Realm World?”

“Even if they don’t, they will eventually when it comes to the division of profits. This is how they used to deal with conflicts over profits in antiquity times, and it’s already prevalent in the Void Universe. When there are friction and disputes among the powers, as long as it’s not a life-or-death feud, most will choose to deal with it in this way.”

“And their first target is me?”

“Yes. You stand out in the Heaven Realm World. They want to beat you so that when it comes to dealing out the profits, they don’t have to think about the Heaven Realm World. They have already been there, so they are not very interested in it anymore. The only thing they are interested in is the passageway leading through to the Void Immortal Realm, so…”

“So I ended up harmed the first time they saw me, and they want me to suffer again?”

“Are you willing to suffer again?”

“What do you think?” Zhou Bao said wryly. “If I don’t knock the crap out of them this time, then my name is not Zhou Bao.”

The Child-endowing Buddha laughed as if he had already known Zhou Bao would react this way. “Okay then! Right now they are choosing somewhere in the endless spacetime to set up the Void Competition. Once they are done, you will be their first challenge!”

“Well, help them so that they can find somewhere a bit quicker, I cannot wait any longer!” Without thinking, Zhou Bao was rubbing his hands together, and the skeleton in his palms emitted a cracking sound like bursting beans. A slight chill completely enshrouded the small pavilion.

The chill was not strong, but the Child-endowing Buddha was not used to it and he shuddered. “And you presumably want to kill them.”

“Hah, kill them? Why would I want to kill them? Wouldn’t that be letting them get away with it too easily? They will come around at just the right moment to establish their power. That will save me from any Tom, Dick or Harry running into my territory and yelling!”

“Okay. Whatever you are thinking, just take it easy. Those South China guys have probably already spread the news. Their first opponent will be you. According to Void Universe custom, if you don’t come out to fight you will consider yourself defeated, which would be the most shameful thing in the Void Universe. So there’s no one who wouldn’t put up a fight.”

“Are you scared I won’t come out to fight?”

“I’m scared you’ll lose.”

Zhou Bao burst into laughter.

The Void Competition? What was that?

A few days later, the news started spreading all around the Heaven Realm World, and also around every macro world of the Void Universe. The knowledge of the sects of the Heaven Realm World spread around the whole Void Universe: 37 practitioners of the six great powers of South China and nine macro worlds will join together to challenge King Wuyang Zhou Bao of the Heaven Realm World.

Zhou Bao, King Wu Yang.

The first master of martial arts in the Heaven Realm World who had once resisted the Purple River King Tie Yi of the Evil Alliance. Lintong Marquis Shi Jian and Wanli Marquis Gao Qiang were one against three, so making the three masters of the formation retreat was considered a great outcome in the Void Universe even though their weapons were seized. King Wuyang was a qualified term to use not only in the Heaven Realm World, but also in the Void Universe.

But it was only an unofficial contest, not very serious and not very strict. Zhou Bao showed his strength but also revealed his weakness, and attracted the attention of those lying in wait for him, and so they issued invitations to a challenge.

The seven great powers of South China and the nine macro worlds altogether had 37 practitioners uniting to challenge Zhou Bao. Of course, this did not mean that 37 people would go. Despite the fact that they challenged him, they couldn’t match Zhou Bao’s authority. Of course, Zhou Bao had to accept all of their invitations one at a time.

In fact, this was in line with the rules. In the Void Universe, if a practitioner accepted several peoples’ challenges at the same time, of course, this would make others want to challenge him. So after one challenge had ended, another challenge could only begin after five years. This was the rule for challenging single practitioners in the Void Competition.

These were the stated rules, however, practitioners did not usually comply with them, and some paid no attention to them whatsoever, but went straight over to kill. But even then, you had to wait until your opponent had completely recovered from the last challenge before you go to attack, otherwise, you could encounter all sorts of collective resistance in the Void Universe, and that would not be fun at all.

The challenged party would generally decide who would be the first challenger accepted based on the grievances and power of the various partitioners. But this time, Zhou Bao had no grievances with the 37 challengers, and all of them were at Immortal level. Feng Wang’s strength and combat capability were no less than the Purple River King Tie Yi’s, and it was clear that this time, they had come prepared.

But the Child-endowing Buddha and Zhou Bao were not clear on what their purpose was.

The Heaven Realm World had not long re-integrated into the Void Universe, and it was unknown what the rules were that had evolved in the Void Universe for a hundred thousand years. Each one considered it very novel, and once again focused their attention on the Seven-deity Regions of the Wuyang Region.

The last time Zhou Bao lost out in the hands of the three practitioners of the Alien World, his renowned fierce iron hammers were lost, which somewhat diminished his prestige in the Heaven Realm World. But these practitioners were also fine and understood that, although Zhou Bao had suffered defeat, they also could not have withstood him. They were Immortals and Human Immortals! The whole Heaven Realm World was turned upside down. There were several Human Immortals. That Zhou Bao suffered defeat when he was one against three didn’t mean a thing. Anyone else would have been killed very quickly.

But this time that Zhou Bao accepted another challenge, the practitioners of the Heaven Realm World were new to this, and they were the ones who couldn’t help but to secretly fret, not Zhou Bao. No matter how arrogant this b*stard Zhou Bao was, no matter how vile his methods were, he still represented the great practitioners of the Heaven Realm World. You could say he was the only expert in the Heaven Realm World who could withstand the powers of the Void Universe. As he was a practitioner of the Heaven Realm World, nobody was hoping for him to lose.

Therefore, everyone was immediately concerned when they heard that someone had challenged Zhou Bao.

If one prospered, all prospered. If one was harmed, all were harmed.

“This is a list of the 37 practitioners’ names. Haha, every name has the character for ‘king’. Interesting!”

The Divine Wind Palace, Human Emperor Palace.

Zhou Bao sat boldly in his grand chair, leafing through a pile of challenge invitations with a faint smile. It was unclear what he was thinking.

In the Human Emperor Palace, every respected practitioner had come. Even the masters of the Divine Wind Palace came, and they had not been seen for a long time. These practitioners were the elite of the Heaven Realm World, and this time, every one of them was concerned. They all had various types of disagreements with Zhou Bao, but as practitioners of the Heaven Realm World with such high status, how could they not know what this challenge would mean?

“Zhou Bao, you know that we have only just joined the Void Universe, therefore we don’t have a lot of information about these 37 practitioners. At the moment, this is all we know. Have a look, and tell us how we should deal with them.” The Human Emperor Yan Yuntian sighed hopelessly with a pained expression.

It was hard to be a Human Emperor.

Even harder if your macro world was declining.

“Choose one at random.” Zhou Bao leafed through them for a while, and eventually pushed the challenge invitations to one side. “Everything will be done according to the Void Universe rules.”