Chapter 157: Being an Emperor is Hard Work

While the two of them were speaking, two men walked over toward Jiang Beici.

"This must be the brother you mentioned. Being able to carve out a name for oneself in the Primeval Battlefield definitely shows remarkable strength." The slightly older man looked at Xu Chen and nodded in affirmation.

Praising first and criticizing later—Xu Chen was far too familiar with this routine.

"However, geniuses and prodigies from remote places tend to grow up wildly."

"How can they compare to my younger brother here, who has been systematically nurtured from childhood using formal Qi and Blood Foundation Establishment techniques?"

"You are very strong, but I want to say that against my younger brother, you still need to practice." The man spoke very politely, his calm tone sounding as though he were merely stating a fact.

Xu Chen, who had been completely calm initially, narrowed his eyes slightly upon hearing the final four words.

No matter how the pretense of first praising and then criticizing was packaged, Xu Chen didn't care, but those last four words instantly triggered his nerves.

It reminded him of the avatars of the Sacred Ape Six Styles.

"Normally, you seem like a pretty normal person. How come the moment it concerns your younger brother, you start acting so full of yourself?"

"You can say things like that after you win, and there won't be any problem at all," Jiang Beici said, suppressing a smile.

"My younger brother is unmatched beneath the heavens," the man said, waving his hand with a resolute gaze.

"Why don't we just fight first?" Xu Chen looked toward the slightly younger man.

The arrogant and untamed look in the eyes of this younger man gave anyone the immediate urge to throw a punch at him.

The overbearing arrogance displayed on his face while his older brother praised him made him even more unlikable.

"After I win the fight in a moment, I hope you can recognize your own shortcomings," the younger man said.

Sitting in his wheelchair, Jiang Beici narrowed his eyes, already plotting how he would mock the other side later on.

"We've been chatting for so long, and I still don't know your names," Xu Chen said.

"The older one is called Lu Bei, and the younger one is called Lu Nan," Jiang Beici piped up.

"Then let's begin." The corners of Xu Chen's mouth curved slightly upward; he hoped his opponent could take a few hits.

"Alright." Lu Bei and Lu Nan nodded simultaneously.

The four of them stepped into the arena micro-dimension.

Jiang Beici and Lu Bei took their places in the spectator stands.

"Judging by the timeline, you could have made it to the Primeval Battlefield too. Why didn't you go?" Xu Chen suddenly asked.

"I was at a critical juncture back then and couldn't afford to be distracted."

"Besides, contribution points are just something you get by reaching out a hand."

Lu Nan maintained his arrogant expression.

"He comes from a major aristocratic family, so logically speaking, shouldn't he..." Xu Chen muttered inwardly.

Just at that moment, a countdown appeared in the sky, and the instant it hit zero, both figures moved.

Both men performed hand seals at the speed of light, manifesting different spell-forged wings behind their backs as they soared rapidly through the sky.

Simultaneously, the two sides rapidly formed hand seals in mid-air, hurling spells toward each other like a torrential flood.

In comparison, Lu Nan's spells were somewhat more flamboyant and possessed greater destructive power.

However, Xu Chen's spells were greater in number and faster in execution.

Both of them began bombarding each other like mobile artillery platforms.

A sparrow-sized firebird drilled straight into the body of a water dragon and exploded.

A phoenix-like spiritual energy summon flapped its wings and swept away a barrage of water-sword spells.

Yet it was split in two by a golden saber, only to be entirely devoured by another firebird, after which all the gathered energy surged straight toward Lu Nan.

The two sides traded blows back and forth, bombarding each other continuously for half an hour before realizing something was amiss.

"Looks like I have to pull out my ultimate move."

His hands moved so fast they blurred into afterimages. A five-foot-long firebird spell resembling a phoenix, wrapped in a cluster of white light, flew toward Lu Nan.

Yet at the very initiation of the move, Lu Nan unexpectedly unleashed an instant-cast Light-Obscuring Spell.

"Boom!!"

A blinding flash of light exploded, illuminating the entire arena. The two spectators in the stands closed their eyes and recoiled simultaneously.

After this blinding burst of light, the two spectators in the stands were quite surprised to see the battle still raging on the field.

At this moment, two guardian Golden Immortals happened to bump into each other, wanting to laugh just looking at the combat below.

"What a coincidence, two hidden prodigies actually run into each other. The entire human race only has these few treasures."

"Who do you think will win?"

"If the two of them aren't idiots, it'll be a draw."

While the two Golden Immortals chatted, the battle below continued.

It lasted for a full hour, until both of their spiritual energies were simultaneously on the verge of exhaustion, at which point they both stopped fighting at the same time.

This was the first time Xu Chen had experienced the sensation of his dantian being drained after cultivating the Ninefold Origin Scripture. If they kept playing around, the Dragon-Patterned Lamp would have started unleashing its power.

The two of them sized each other up with strange looks in their eyes.

"Let's call it a draw," Lu Nan spoke first.

"Wouldn't you lose a lot of face that way?" The corners of Xu Chen's mouth curled up.

"It's not like I lost. You're very strong," Lu Nan said as he withdrew from the arena micro-dimension.

"Daoist friend, please don't take to heart what I said earlier," Lu Bei said, standing up from the spectator stands.

"What do you mean, don't take it to heart? I absolutely have to take it to heart!"

"Day in and day out, 'my younger brother is unmatched beneath the heavens'—my brother isn't weak either!"

"In the future, don't bring up your younger brother in front of me!"

Jiang Beici's tone was passionate, though he felt a bit of regret that all the witty retorts he had painstakingly prepared had gone to waste.

"My younger brother *is* very strong, and your brother didn't win either."

"Besides, going by age, my younger brother is younger than your brother. That's victory number one."

"My brother has high innate talent and immense future potential. That's victory number two."

Hearing this gave Jiang Beici a headache, and he waved his hand dismissively.

"Get lost, get lost, get lost. I'm never teaming up with you for a mission again; you're just like an old nagging mother."

Lu Bei glanced at Xu Chen and likewise exited the arena micro-dimension.

Only Xu Chen and Jiang Beici remained in the arena micro-dimension.

"Your junior fellow apprentice is formidable," Xu Chen said after a moment of silence. To be able to fight him to a standstill while sharing the exact same realm was impressive.

The most important thing was that when both of them stopped in the end, a certain suspicion faintly lingered in Xu Chen's mind.

"Formidable? No matter how formidable, he's still no match for you."

"Regardless, the objective has been achieved," Jiang Beici said.

"Alright, it's quite a pity I couldn't help you win," Xu Chen said with a hint of regret.

"A draw is sufficient. At the Treasure Body Realm stage, I can't defeat you."

"Then it seems my combat talent really is exceptional," Xu Chen chuckled.

"How do you plan to spend this month in the Human Emperor City?" Jiang Beici asked.

"What playing around? I've already indulged myself for a day; after this, I need to focus heavily on cultivation."

Xu Chen said with a solemn expression. If he had managed to pierce through the firebird spell—or even any basic spell for that matter—today's outcome might not have been a draw.

"Cultivating in the Human Emperor City only requires one hour a day. Absorbing any more than that, and your dantian won't be able to handle it."

"Since I finally have some free time, I'll take you around to explore the Human Emperor City properly during this period," Jiang Beici said. His other senior fellow apprentices were either out on missions or in closed-door cultivation, and recovering from injuries all by himself was genuinely boring.

"You should focus on your own healing instead. In the path of cultivation, to not advance is to drop back."

"Fine, if you didn't have this kind of perseverance, you wouldn't have reached this point anyway. Go on then."

As they spoke, both of them exited the Human Dao Realm.

Xu Chen sat down in his immortal cave and began cultivating the Ninefold Origin Scripture.

The spiritual Qi that had originally trickled into his body now rushed in like a flood finding a breach, and massive amounts of spiritual energy were sucked into his frame.

During cultivation, Xu Chen felt that the spiritual Qi of the Human Emperor City was exceptionally nourishing.

Cultivating within the Great Stream Sect felt like drinking plain water—bland and tasteless.

Cultivating here, however, felt like drinking some kind of sweet nectar; no matter how much he drank, it never felt like enough.

After cultivating continuously for three hours, his dantian felt a sense of fullness, and the nine-color spiritual lake within his dantian expanded outward by an entire zhang.

Xu Chen wanted to continue cultivating, but he discovered that his dantian was somewhat unable to absorb any more.

Right at that moment, however, a massive amount of nine-color spiritual liquid surged into the Dragon-Patterned Lamp, causing the multicolored candle flame within the wick to burn even more vigorously.

Feeling that the spiritual energy in his dantian was being absorbed by the Dragon-Patterned Lamp, Xu Chen resumed his cultivation.

He cultivated for another six hours before he finally felt that his dantian had reached its limit, and the Dragon-Patterned Lamp seemed to have drunk its fill as well.

Shortly after, Xu Chen discovered that the nine-color spiritual lake in his dantian had expanded by yet another circle.

"This cultivation speed..."

"They don't call this place the Emperor's domain for nothing."

Xu Chen left his immortal cave to stretch his limbs and spotted Jiang Beici near the edge of the leaf.

"How's your cultivation going? The spiritual Qi in the Human Emperor's Dao Palace is even more nourishing than that of the Human Emperor City itself," Jiang Beici chuckled.

"I used to think the Human Emperor City or the Human Emperor's Dao Palace at most just had denser spiritual Qi and better cultivation effects."

"I knew you guys ate well, but I never expected you to eat *this* well."

"In the Human Emperor City, is everyone basically at the Immortal Ascension Realm?"

Xu Chen walked over to Jiang Beici, sat down cross-legged, and looked down at the Human Emperor City below.

"It's not quite *that* exaggerated. It's just that things are exceptionally good right here in the Human Emperor City." Jiang Beici waved his hand, sitting in his wheelchair.

"Well? Do you realize now how good I was to you back then?"

"My quota for a Treasure-Holding Boy was fought over so fiercely by those aristocratic families that they nearly tore each other apart like dogs."

"And you were initially reluctant—do you realize how great it is now?" Jiang Beici laughed.

"Let me ask you a question: does your sect issue you contribution points?" Xu Chen suddenly asked.

"What are you dreaming about? Not a single one, though under special circumstances..."

"For instance, for my Suixin Fruit, the Dao Palace gave me an exchange quota, but I still had to spend contribution points from within the Daoist Sect to get it."

"However, among the missions issued by the sect, some rewards are Human Emperor contribution points, though those are the hardest ones."

"I took one on and damn near died out there," Jiang Beici said, taking out a medicinal pill from his storage bag and swallowing it.

"I see."

"I'd like to buy a courtyard here so I can bring my mom and dad over to live," Xu Chen said, feeling the omnipresent, nourishing spiritual Qi.

"Property here is extremely expensive; even I can't afford it." Jiang Beici slapped the armrest of his wheelchair.

"How many contribution points?" Xu Chen asked, having previously heard that real estate here was priced in contribution points.

"The smallest is a one-mu immortal cave courtyard. Not long ago, I saw the asking price had exceeded 2,500," Jiang Beici recalled.

"I..."

"That expensive?" Xu Chen suddenly understood the wish of Li Chengfu's grandfather.

"Don't look at how big the Human Emperor City is; it has existed for as many years as the history of the human race."

"As long as a family owns an immortal cave courtyard in the Human Emperor City, that family will never fall as long as they aren't completely wiped out. This is true heritage passed down for ten thousand generations."

These words stirred a sense of ambition in Xu Chen.

"What conditions are needed to buy an immortal cave courtyard in the Human Emperor City?" Xu Chen stood up, ready to buy property.

"No houses available. You have to join a waiting list, and the waiting time is measured in tens of thousands of years," Jiang Beici said leisurely.

"Are there any other ways?"

"Make contributions to the human race and receive a reward from the Human Emperor."