Chapter 1175: Preparations

The companions of the Thirty-Three Sky Wings had also made notable progress. With abundant life energy and Lan Xuanyu’s assistance, aside from Lan Xuanyu himself, there was no one below the Soul Saint rank among the Thirty-Three Sky Wings. And this rapid growth continued. The plant seniors brought from Shrek Academy benefited even more. This place, with its immense life energy and no suppression from the planet, was simply too suitable for their survival and cultivation. Many of those plant-type seniors had been unable to advance further on Douluo Planet due to insufficient total life energy, but here they thrived like fish in water. Grateful for Lan Xuanyu’s help, they cultivated while also channeling a portion of the life energy they absorbed to the young members of the Thirty-Three Sky Wings, assisting their training. They hid in the shadows, quietly drawing nutrients from this planet to fuel their own growth. The small amount they absorbed meant nothing to a planet as resource-rich as Celestial Dragon Planet.

Purple light flickered. Lan Xuanyu’s Purple Demon Eye had broken through the day before, advancing from the second level to the third. There was no other method for training the Purple Demon Eye; it relied solely on continuous accumulation. The qualitative change in his spiritual power was the key reason for the breakthrough of the Purple Demon Eye. At this point, he was only one step away from the fourth and highest level of the Purple Demon Eye.

Lan Xuanyu’s spiritual power had reached the stage of Spiritual Materialization. Beyond that lay the true transformation into Divine Sense. With his Dragon Rank, he only needed constant polishing, and success would come naturally. Over the past few days of seclusion, he had been contemplating when to make his breakthrough. The plan proposed by Treasure Seeking Beast was now essentially feasible in his mind. Breaking through to seven-ring was crucial, and no place was more suitable than the Rising Dragon Platform. But before the breakthrough, he needed to make more preparations. If possible, he ought to visit the Dragon Realm first and return before making his breakthrough. At the same time, he should ideally let his spiritual power undergo a transformation first—that is, convert his spiritual power into Divine Sense before breaking through. This way, splitting the process of advancing to the god rank into two parts would make it easier. Treasure Seeking Beast had told him that this next step was the most important in his transformation toward the Dragon God. Once completed, it would mean he had finished the initial stage of transformation, and subsequent cultivation would be somewhat easier—at least not as fraught with danger as before. Therefore, no amount of caution for this breakthrough was excessive. On Celestial Dragon Planet, with such abundant resources, he would continue to accumulate until he could no longer suppress it, and only then take that final step.

The distant sky gradually brightened as the sun fully rose. Lan Xuanyu took a deep breath, and the purple light in his eyes slowly faded. Beside him, Bai Xiuxiu was the same.

Deep blue halos swirled and shifted around her body. She exchanged a glance with Lan Xuanyu, a slight smile curving her lips. If someone had told her a year ago that she would reach the Title Douluo level before the age of twenty, she would have thought it pure fantasy. Yet now, she had truly done it. Nine rings—and not just ordinary nine rings. Because she had fully fused with the Demon Queen, her later soul rings were all orange-gold at the Great Beast level. She had essentially completely absorbed the Demon Queen’s cultivation and perfectly merged it with her own martial soul.

Lan Xuanyu had been cultivating on his own these past few days and hadn’t had time to check on his companions. But he knew that Tang Yuge’s cultivation was nearing the Title Douluo level and could break through at any time. Yuanen Huihui had already broken through to the eight-ring realm, and the others were also approaching. Relatively speaking, Lan Mengqin was the slowest in terms of soul power advancement, because Emerald Demon Bi Ji needed time to reshape her body for complete fusion. Once that fusion succeeded, her cultivation would surely catch up from behind.

“Today is the finals,” Lan Xuanyu said with a sudden, peculiar smile on his face.

Bai Xiuxiu’s face flushed. She snorted and turned her head away. Lan Xuanyu reached out and stroked her long hair, smiling. “Come, let me carry you on my back.” With that, he crouched down in front of her. Bai Xiuxiu paused for a moment, but soon her face lit up with a smile. She didn’t stand on ceremony and climbed onto his back. Lan Xuanyu hooked his arms under her legs and hoisted her up. Bai Xiuxiu wrapped her arms around his neck and giggled. “Giddyup! Mount Dragon Little Lan, let’s go!” Lan Xuanyu carried her back and forth across the room several times. Her laughter gradually subsided. Leaning against him, she whispered, “Actually, I’m fine with it. I’m willing to be your Dragon mount, .” Lan Xuanyu’s body trembled slightly. He crouched down and set her on her feet, then spun around and pulled her into his embrace.

The Rising Dragon Platform. Today, it seemed especially quiet, because very few were qualified to ascend the platform and continue in the Rising Dragon Competition—only the strongest thirty contestants could mount it. On this day, the silver light gate on the Rising Dragon Platform had already opened before the contestants arrived. Twice as many senior members of the Celestial Dragon Alliance as before had raised Dragon Force light pillars on the platform. Each pillar radiated different colors, yet all represented the god rank. Over a hundred god-ranked Dragon Clan experts appeared here. They formed the backbone of the entire Dragon Clan, second only to the Dragon Knights in their separate, lofty echelon.

Huang Daoqi was one of the city lords, now positioned relatively near the front. After all, his Dragon Force pillar was short—if he were further back, he’d be obscured. But that didn’t dampen the Fenglong City Lord’s good mood in the least.

One could say that since he had taken over as clan head, apart from the birth of his first child, Huang Yuanlang, he had never been in a better mood than today.

Fenglong City had earned unprecedented glory. Two of the top thirty in the Rising Dragon Competition came from Fenglong City. In the history of Fenglong City, finalists had been few and far between, and it was unknown how many years had passed since the last one. Huang Yuanlang had naturally been eliminated—he represented Fenglong City’s original caliber. But Lan and Xiuxiu had both made it to the finals. Huang Daoqi had expected Lan to reach the finals, but he hadn’t anticipated that Xiuxiu would also qualify, even if only in third place. Merely entering the finals already meant a great deal. Just moments ago, those who had once looked down on Huang Daoqi now came up to greet him warmly, chatting and laughing. This was the most obvious sign of his elevated status. His standing within the Celestial Dragon Alliance had risen because of these two young people. Even more importantly, they had signed a thousand-year contract, serving the Huang family for the next millennium. Huang Daoqi could fully believe that under their leadership, the Huang family would ascend to an entirely new level.

No Dragon Knights had arrived yet. Among the top thirty contestants, it was clear that compared to the round-robin stage, each of them appeared tense upon stepping onto the platform again, faces stern and unsmiling. They immediately sat down in the designated rest area to recuperate, absorbing the Dragon Force from the platform to replenish themselves, striving to be in peak condition and ready to compete at a moment’s notice.