Chapter 1144: East Domain Number One

"My friend, it seems we're kindred spirits," Xiao Mo said, turning to gaze intently at Yun Che, seemingly quite excited to have met a "kindred spirit." "Are you here to slack off too?"

Slack... off?

Yun Che frowned deeply. *What did this person mean?*

"Ahem," Xiao Mo quickly corrected himself, realizing he'd said something the other person likely wouldn't understand. "I mean, you don't plan on entering the battlefield either, do you?"

"No interest," Yun Che replied flatly.

"I understand, completely understand!" Xiao Mo exclaimed. After sensing Yun Che's profound energy, his eyes lit up, and he nodded in profound agreement. "For weaklings like us, entering the battlefield would just mean getting utterly crushed. The path of profound cultivation should be about strengthening the body, prolonging life, cultivating the soul, and refining the mind. Fighting to the death is just pointless. It's much better to just admire the scenery and compose poems here – truly beautiful!"

Yun Che: "…??"

"Ah ha ha!" Xiao Mo burst into laughter. "I never expected to find someone here with profound energy even weaker than mine… Er, no, I mean, I never expected to meet a kindred spirit here. It's truly fate! By the way, my name is Xiao Mo. May I ask for your name, brother?"

"Yun Che." Yun Che's reply was tinged with a hint of coldness, as he faintly felt that this person's mind was a bit off.

"So it's Brother Yun!" Xiao Mo, instead, proactively moved closer, appraising him from head to toe. "Yun Che… hmm, what a fine name! 'Yun' — like a serene and detached cloud; 'Che' — pure and clear, penetrating the heart. Just speaking these two characters gives my soul a sense of purification. It makes me think of a beautiful poem…"

"!" Yun Che's scalp tingled. Before Xiao Mo could recite the so-called beautiful poem, Yun Che said coldly, "If you truly believe profound cultivation is only for strengthening the body, prolonging life, cultivating the soul, and refining the mind, and shouldn't be used for life-and-death struggles, then why are you here at the Profound God Convention?"

Clearly, Yun Che didn't believe a word he'd just said.

"Ah, it's a sad story, really," Xiao Mo sighed softly, a mournful expression on his face. "Three years ago, I heard that this Profound God Convention would be held within the Heaven Smiting Pearl. My heart yearned for it, thinking I could bask in the ethereal aura of that legendary Profound Sky Supreme Treasure, and I expended great effort to get here. Who would have thought it was merely a projection… That's just bloody ridiculous!"

"..." The reason was, at least, barely plausible.

"Could it be that Brother Yun shares the same idea?" Xiao Mo quickly asked, seeing that Yun Che remained silent for a moment.

Yun Che shook his head. "I'm not interested in the Heaven Smiting Pearl. I came here because I want to visit the Heaven Smiting Realm."

"Ah, yes, exactly! The Heaven Smiting Realm! I thought so too," Xiao Mo immediately nodded in deep agreement. "The Heaven Smiting Pearl is out of the question, but we can still take a stroll around the Heaven Smiting Realm. This trip definitely isn't a waste then. As for everything else – the Profound God Convention, the rankings – they're just trifles. If I had to fight day and night with these guys for a month, I'd rather just sleep for a whole month."

"..." Yun Che gave Xiao Mo a long, hard look. He was starting to feel that despite the man's somewhat frivolous demeanor, he wasn't just talking nonsense… it seemed he genuinely thought that way.

But… to have cultivated to the Divine Tribulation Realm of the Divine Way, and truly only for the sake of strengthening his body and prolonging his life?

Normally speaking, without a true pursuit of the profound way, relying solely on talent, it would be almost impossible to reach the Divine Tribulation Realm before the age of sixty.

"Since we're kindred spirits and even have the same goal, how about we explore the Heaven Smiting Realm together after this tiresome preliminary battle ends? Oh, that reminds me!"

Suddenly recalling something, Xiao Mo's eyes began to gleam. "I heard there are great figures who have reached the Divine Master realm in the Heaven Smiting Realm! Divine Masters! They are the rulers of heaven and earth! I heard a single Divine Master can effortlessly destroy a continent – they're practically gods! If I could just meet one of those legendary figures, I could die without regrets, wouldn't you agree?!"

Yun Che twitched his lips. *Divine Masters… I've not only seen them, I've even had one!*

*Never mind, he wouldn't believe it anyway.*

"Yes, it is indeed something to look forward to," Yun Che replied.

Although Yun Che spoke of "anticipation," his tone lacked genuine interest. Xiao Mo wasn't a fool either, so he chuckled awkwardly and said, "Oh, I almost forgot, Brother Yun is from the God Realm, so you're surely no stranger to the name of a Divine Master. You might have even met one before."

Yun Che could see Xiao Mo's information, and Xiao Mo could naturally see his. The origin Yun Che had inscribed before entering the battlefield was the Snow Song Realm.

"No," Yun Che shook his head. "I'm not from the God Realm. I come from a distant lower realm, a small, unknown planet."

Hearing this, Xiao Mo's eyes flashed, and he suddenly became excited. "Really? Me too, me too! I'm from a place called Earth, also a very small and distant planet that absolutely no one in the God Realm has ever heard of."

The God Realm stands at the peak; below it are ordinary star realms and star regions, and further down are planets—existences at the very bottom of the chaos, yet their numbers are vast, counting in the trillions.

"...For normal planets, it's almost impossible to even cultivate to the Divine Way," Yun Che mused. "How is your profound energy so high?"

"Well… you might not believe it if I told you," Xiao Mo said openly, without hesitation. "On the planet where I was born, there's no such thing as the 'Profound Way' at all, and certainly no profound practitioners. Even the average lifespan is very low, less than a hundred years."

"But when I was seven, I met a strange person," Xiao Mo said, raising his head, his expression somewhat complicated. "He said he was my ancestor from thirty-five generations ago, claiming my bones were exceptional and that I was a rare genius seen only once in a thousand years. He forcibly instilled many profound cultivation methods into my mind, and then he just left."

Yun Che: "…?"

"I initially thought I'd met a strange madman, but I tried cultivating according to the methods he left behind, and I felt myself growing stronger day by day. Before I knew it, I had cultivated for over thirty years, and now I'm like this."

Yun Che was greatly moved. "He merely left you with cultivation methods, and in just thirty years, you've cultivated to your current realm… It seems the person you met back then must have been an extraordinary individual."

"Looking back now, he was undoubtedly an extraordinary individual. Even his claim of being 'my ancestor from thirty-five generations ago' is very likely true. It's a pity I was young and ignorant back then," Xiao Mo sighed with emotion. "He said his surname was Xiao and called himself the 'Star Chasing Sword Saint,' but I've inquired for a long time in the God Realm since then and never heard of that title."

Xiao Mo seemed to lack a strong sense of caution against strangers, chatting idly and revealing a great deal to Yun Che, whom he had just met.

"If it weren't for cultivating the profound way, I wouldn't have known how vast the outside world truly is, and that the profound way is its dominant theme. Especially in the God Realm, the level of profound energy directly determines one's status," Xiao Mo shook his head. "Actually, I don't really like it this way. So, after this Profound God Convention ends and I've explored the Heaven Smiting Realm, I'll probably return to Earth, my home planet, and likely won't leave again."

"No matter how humble, it's ultimately one's birthplace, irreplaceable," Yun Che said with considerable feeling. In the years since he left the Blue Pole Star, he had longed for it day and night.

"Of course. And although my home planet, Earth, doesn't cultivate the profound way, it possesses highly advanced technology, definitely far beyond your imagination."

"Technology?"

Xiao Mo's face beamed with pride as he spoke effusively. "For example, here, to record images, you need a very precious Profound Image Stone. But on our Earth, a tiny pinhole camera can do it, and you absolutely don't need to worry about profound energy leaking out and getting detected."

"I heard that this Profound God Convention transmits messages to various star realms through something called a 'Stele of Stars.' But on our Earth, we can easily broadcast globally, making it a hundred times more convenient. And for transmitting sound, we don't need sound-transmitting jade at all; a mobile phone… Er, well, mobile phones have signal limitations and need constant charging, so they're indeed not as convenient as sound-transmitting jade."

"..." Yun Che listened quietly, muttering inwardly, *What the heck is this guy talking about? He's not actually insane, is he?*

Seeing Yun Che's complete lack of reaction, Xiao Mo rolled his eyes halfway and said helplessly, "I knew you wouldn't believe it. Why don't you tell me about the planet where you were born?"

"It's just a very ordinary star realm, at least far from having any 'technology' like you mentioned. It's not worth mentioning," Yun Che declined. After Mu Xuanyin's reminder, he would openly admit he was from a lower realm, but would absolutely never again mention the name 'Blue Pole Star'.

As the two conversed, one aloof and the other enthusiastic, the battlefield outside the main city grew increasingly fierce. The roars and pained cries of various profound beasts echoed from afar, one after another, shaking the space with continuous tremors, without a moment's pause.

Within the main city, streaks of white light began to descend from the sky. These were profound practitioners who had died on the battlefield and were teleported back to the main city to be revived. After reviving, most of them let out roars of frustration but dared not linger. Gritting their teeth, they rushed back into the battlefield. This was because their soul pearls would rapidly deplete if they remained in the main city area.

As time went on, the teleportation white lights increased, flashing at least ten thousand times in less than a day.

And this was only the first day, which was undoubtedly supposed to be the "most peaceful" day. Yet it was already so brutal; what would happen next was truly unimaginable.

Yun Che and Xiao Mo had clearly become two idlers who didn't belong in this brutal world.

With a flick of his palm and a thought, a light screen materialized before Xiao Mo, displaying fine print. It was clearly a ranking list.

The first name on the list was naturally the most striking.

Luo Changsheng: Origin: Sacred Universe Realm, Soul Pearls: 21600, Battle Zone Rank: 1, Overall Rank: 1.

"Holy cow! Over twenty thousand Soul Pearls!" Xiao Mo let out an exaggerated cry of alarm. "It's been less than a day! As expected of Luo Changsheng… he really is number one!"

"Luo Changsheng…" Yun Che's gaze lingered on the name for a moment. He remembered Mu Bingyun mentioning this person, who was currently ranked first overall, when she spoke of the "Four Divine Children of the Eastern Region." "I recall he's one of the Four Divine Children of the Eastern Region."

"No, no, no! He's not *one of* them; he's the *leader*!" Xiao Mo corrected him emphatically.