"OUTRAGEOUS!" Guo Heng spat in an incredulous fury, staring at the three Mystical Judges with a piercingly searing glare. All conditions stand?! Utter poppycock!
Tianshi Ya's homely features were as pale as dead ash in a volcanic winter, unable to hide the rippling signs of terror and shock as the spiritual projection of Wei Wuyin's special condition was front and center, purposefully highlighted by those running the event.
Her plan was simple, easily executed, with a predictable result. Her condition was outrageous to an extreme: If all players Chosen suffer death, the respective player will cripple their cultivation base immediately, abolish their Spirits of Cultivation, and dissipate all quintessential sources of energy, essence, and cultivation, which must be sworn using the Seven Utmost Tower's Supreme Heavenly Treasure, the Divine Scepter of Seven Fortunes.
This should have drawn Wei Wuyin's veto without a shred of doubt. If not, their own veto would have been used for this.
Shockingly, the Mythical Punishments were not unexpected special conditions set for any game of Mystics, and this was how cultivators settled their differences with unprecedented precision, killing or severely harming their opponents. Rarely, if ever, will there be three. Even then, it was still in an acceptable range. After all, who didn't have assurances to resist Mythical Punishment relative to their cultivation bases?
She did. They all did. However, if this punishment was elevated by four stages, even capable of spewing over to the next realm? This wasn't just a simple matter any longer. This was disastrously vicious! Moreover, the urge to retreat could only remain pulsing within their hearts.
Why? The contract! The game of Mystics was not some nascent game whose rules were still being studied and navigated; the game was a mainstay of the greater galaxies, as well as a paramount method of resolution, competition, and cultivation! How could the ins and outs not have been mapped out?
The contract was extensive in detail, excruciatingly so, regarding leaving before the game's initial beginnings. If a player desires to reliably depart unharmed and unscathed, they must do so at the quantity of Chosen selection stage!
Mythical Oaths were incredibly strange. They had no strict limitations in details of the oath or the various agreements as long as both parties accepted all conditions, arbitrated by a true neutral lofty existence, and without any constraints on location or cultivation. The very concept of Heaven-Bound Mythical Oaths was only made generally common among top-tier forces to reinforce the strength of Oath Seeds, preventing easy dispelments using Alchemical Products or esoteric methods.
This lofty existence could even pinpoint karmic ties or elevate difficulties of their punishment, once again—as long as all involved parties agree prior. It was dispassionate and brutal in regard to fulfilling these punishments. If not, the reactions of those at this jade table would not have been as intense.
The Mythical Contract, an archaic form of Mythical Oaths that relied on physical Oath Seeds that retained the details of the oath in the greater world, was the alternative. The Mythical Contract to this game had been signed and sent into the Void already, lost in the endless stream of universal information and chaos.
One of the most commonly added details of these games was the clause to retreat after the game had begun, which was explicitly mentioned as having 'begun' at the decision of the Special Conditions and Rules Phase. One of these clauses were structured as an entire series of paragraphs, but paraphrasing the contents would be: "Should a participant wish to depart/surrender after conditions and rules have been decided upon, then the participant agrees to be subjected to all negative penalty conditions upon negative impacts on any Chosen or the overall game, which will IMMEDIATELY take effect."
This was not even Wei Wuyin's idea or plot. He hadn't changed a single word of the typical contract.
NOT A SINGLE WORD! This was simply the cruelty of the Utmost Purity Galaxy.
There was no backing out. None.
The panic in their hearts pounded furiously to the point their Mystic Auras were fluctuating chaotically, especially Yue Baoyue. She was the most intense. Her disbelief and fear was roughly forty percent higher than anyone else! She was a Heavenly Saint, a true Original Magistrate, and a cultivator at the sixth stage of the Mystic Ascendant Realm! Four stages above her? Was none other than the Resonant Soul Realm!
No! EVERYONE HERE HAD THE SAME LEVEL OF PUNISHMENT! Except...this foreigner who was exuding boundless confidence that he had just elevated his punishment to irresistible levels! Moreover, this wasn't her simply thinking so. Everyone thought that this foreigner was genuinely insane!!!
As a Supreme Sage, given such generic, unbiased conditions, he would be subjected to an impossibly greater punishment, perhaps violent enough to impact the entire Utmost Purity Galaxy! Moreover, there were other details and rules within the game that, if Wei Wuyin hadn't been so neutral in his condition, showcasing specific bias, they could argue its legitimacy and have it removed!
But what was this?! There was no recourse! No retreat!
Su Yi was the first to gather his inner calm, lifting a casual eyebrow as he questioned Wei Wuyin. "Are you sure you wish to have these conditions stand?" They all stared at Wei Wuyin, baffled. That was right! He still had the ability to retract his condition if they all agreed as a special exception! The rules of Mystics were extremely difficult, accounting for many scenarios. The host had the ability to change a detail of the game as long as everyone agreed.
That's right! Why would this foreigner be so foolish to doom his entire empire? It must be a prank. A scare tactic to teach them and the forces behind them a lesson!
Wei Wuyin silently stared at Su Yu, then a calm grin tugged at his lips.
"Haha! Good one, World-Saint Neo-Dawn." Seeing that grin, Guo Heng felt as if it was all genuinely a prank, clearly meant to scare them into understanding the terrifying depths they sought to play with.
His words almost instantly allowed the others to calm their raging hearts and stormy minds. Right! It would be a truly insane act to actually go through with such absurdly suicidal conditions. Just insane.
"Shall we begin the next stage?" Wei Wuyin chuckled as he moved his gaze away from Su Yi, causing a dark pit to form in everyone's stomach. It was incomparably heavy, cold, and treacherous, like a dark abyss without edges.
The upper lip of Guo Heng twitched, exuding desperation and horror.
"The Wager Bids!" Sun Jiazhen was unexpectedly unaffected by this shocking event. If Wei Wuyin died, that would disguise their glaring flaw, potentially saving their entire legacy and preventing blackmail. As for his thoughts on whether Wei Wuyin would die or not, that was irrelevant. Those who dared to play a game of Mystics with a Resonant Soul Realm expert should have expectations for the severity of the loss.
Adding to that, it was abundantly clear that there were four out of the seven that were in coordination to act against Wei Wuyin, hoping for him to suffer a catastrophic loss by suffering a Mythical Punishment at the Resonant Soul Realm level. Which could and have shaken the entire galaxy before!
He did think it was rather brutal that Wei Wuyin was opening this event for the public's viewing consumption, but he was about to push countless lives into a very stressful and lethal ordeal, and they deserved to view how their respective forces dared to play with their fates against a strange foreigner.
The panic occurring outside must be great. And as Sun Jiazhen expected, they were!
Mythical Punishment could sense karmic ties with preternatural accuracy, and as said before, the Mythical Contract was not a first day measure, and these forces were keenly aware of the result if they interfered to halt the game. They, and they alone, would be subjected to the totality of the punishment conditions.
It wasn't just one Mythical Punishments at the Resonant Soul Realm for someone like Tianshi Ya, or even three, but NINE!
NINE!!! Again, there was no recourse. Normally. The forces, however, began to desperately turn their focus on two objectives: The Mythical Contract & Winning the Game!
If the Mythical Contract was abolished, they didn't have to care about anything.
FIND IT! Two words that echoed across the galaxy, followed by another two words:
DESTROY IT! Wei Wuyin's smile was eternal.
It took a while, but the participants were all extraordinary characters. They received external spiritual messages from their respective forces, especially Grand Seer Rippledark, whose expression was only shaken for a few seconds before returning to peak serenity. He was fearless. The Seers of the Night were an organization of Seers. Finding a Contract in the Void? Child's play.
Su Yi lightly sighed. This was all their own faults, pushing themselves into this calamity. He was relatively fearless as well, feeling that those organizations would never allow that contract to go into effect, but he didn't rely entirely on them. He sent a message to the Seven Greater Spirits of Sky Harbor Mountain, Dai Yangdao, and Wu Yintian to find the contract!
Whoever held the contract held the potential fate of the Utmost Purity Galaxy's greatest forces! This was a calamity of the greatest! But simultaneously, it was also an opportunity. A blackmail opportunity!
"Understood! I should be able to find it beyond any shadow of a doubt," Dao Yangdao confidently replied. He had unique methods and scouring the Void for an object wasn't entirely impossible if one was somewhat lucky.
Su Yi felt calmer. Despite that, the Mystic Dao aura surrounding him was rapidly primed to an extreme. He wasn't the type to only have one trump card in any given scenario. His situation was sensed by the others.
"On the verge of ascension?" Qin Yingyin softly spoke, her voice innately contained a seductive charm that was pleasant to hear.
The others looked to Su Yi, but none of them said anything else. Su Yi ignored Qin Yingyin. He didn't have any good history with Shadow Veil. He had even killed a few of their assassins, and he was fully aware of how scheming they were.
The Mystical Judges lifted their hands, projecting a ray of mystical light that formed a hazy, indistinct orb, no larger than an ordinary wash bin above the jade table.
"Send your Spiritual Auras condensed as a talisman into the orb. We will draw for the first bid," Sun Jiazhen announced. This was the responsibility of the Mystical Judges.
Hao Chenguxe finally settled down outwardly, but his heart was still pounding. He felt that Imentet, whose galaxy was a vassal to the Neo-Dawn Empire, would be shocked to an even greater extent than himself, but she was the very picture of incredible calm. Her natural beauty was unshaken by the threat, perhaps even elevated as she had a bloody light in her eyes of schadenfreude and amusement that made her seem playful.
Why would she possibly be afraid?
A paltry Worldly Saint level Mythical Punishment? What would that do? She could deal with nine of those by pissing on them. She was similarly tricked by this tactic, baited into eight glorious Sages losing their galactic autonomy believing in the good intentions of a foreigner, and now the Utmost Purity Galaxy was suffering the same!
Oh how the mighty has fallen! Wei Wuyin crushed them, but his true cultivation was only at the Mystic Star Phase of the Mystic Ascendant Realm! To her, this was amusing to an extreme!
Imentet took the lead here, ready for the fun to begin: "The first bid will be crucial as it establishes the minimum and maximum bids!"
Hao Chengxue awkwardly nodded. Then, he tried to regain his former momentum as he explained what Imentet meant to the general audience that was likely still reeling from shock. The first bid would decide the minimum bid. In the example he used before, the first bid was one qi-grade essence stone, and that was the minimum bid.
Additionally, the maximum bid was seven times the overall valuation of the first bid. This was why it was extremely crucial! But more than ever, this bid was exceedingly critical! This was because of the potential for an instant loss!
They absolutely CAN NOT allow the foreigner to bid first! The issue was that these spiritual talismans of the participants were soldiers and the orb they created was the battlefield. They could be destroyed by other talismans, eliminating their chances of establishing first bids!
However, they certainly came prepared!
Wei Wuyin swept his glance as he realized that everyone excluding Yue Baoyue was communicating with the outside world, bypassing the isolation formations with exquisite methods. He could determine that those forces backing each of them were sending orders to win the first bid, preventing him from trying to induce an instant loss.
If either of them won, they would certainly shift gears, bidding a single qi-grade essence stone, and then bids would unanimously come to a halt then and there, likely at one, eleven, or eighteen qi-grade essence stones.
They withdraw all sorts of items to act as mediums for their Spiritual Auras. Su Yi was fiddling with a tiny sword, exuding remarkable spirit-sundering power. Yue Baoyue was holding a radiant spirit pearl. The others had increasingly precious spiritual treasures. Grand Seer Rippledark had the Mystic Soul of a Spiritualist refined into a stone idol of a mountain. It exuded an extraordinary weighty spiritual aura that could crush all others.
Su Yi gave Yue Baoyue a look and she, in her lingering terror, received his message, retracting her pearl and conjuring a simple talisman from her spiritual power. He did the same, weak to an extreme.
Wei Wuyin didn't use any external objects to enhance his Spiritual Strength. He simply created a tiny, flickering wisp that seemed as if a gentle wind could snuff it out. Then, he sent it into the orb.
This shook everyone immediately! Was Wei Wuyin withdrawing?!
Su Yi carefreely laughed and sent in his talisman. Yue Baoyue followed suit, her eyes still trembling. She couldn't lose. If not for Su Yi communicating with her, ensuring that the contract was going to be found and destroyed by others, she would have fallen apart at the seams. For the first time, she felt Su Yi's good intentions from earlier, warning her of the extreme chaos bound to unfold in this game.
The others imbued their maximum Spiritual Power into their objects, sufficient enough to contend with the Spiritual Talisman of a Supreme Sage. Moreover, they were not above rallying against the foreigner!
They HAD to ensure he didn't win! CRUSH HIS TALISMAN! Sun Jiazhen coldly looked on as all the talismans entered. Then, he looked to the other judges, and solemnly said: "We will begin the selection."
"UGH!!!" Guo Heng spat out copious amounts of blood, toppling to the side while groaning in agony.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!" Grand Seer Rippledark screamed hysterically, holding his head with both hands as immense pain caused his Mystic Aura to flare with stormy force.
"..." Tianshi Ya went semi-conscious as her eyes widened and her mouth went agape, threatening to leak saliva.
"..." Qin Yingyin remained unharmed. She didn't send anything significant, not even her spiritual will was attached to her talisman.
"..." Su Yi's eyes widened. His talisman was destroyed. But that was to be expected.
Yue Baoyue's countenance went slightly pale. Despite sending barely anything, she still felt the crushing force of a paragonic Spiritual Strength devastate her talisman's imbued spiritual will as if true dragons had been unleashed.
Sun Jiazhen was taken aback, but he still took out the only existing talisman within the orb.
"The Neo-Dawn Alchemic Saint will have the first bid!"
Wei Wuyin's eternal smile felt truly eternal, issuing his bid with slow yet casual emphasis on each item: "I bid two perfect Edict Seeds—Water & Earth, ten Mystic-Heaven Essence Stones, thirty-three peak-tier, peak-quality Mystic-World grade Arising Sage Elixirs, and a low-tier, high-quality Mystic-Heaven grade Soul Pill."
"..."
"..."
"..."

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