If I upgrade, I can win prizes

Chapter 480: The Great Competition of Prodigies
The Ten Thousand Buddhas Realm is one of the largest fairy realms in the entire world of cultivation. It is second only to the Eastern Emperor Realm in the human realm. It is as high as the eighth level and is ruled by a Mahayana Brahma cultivator who has dominated the world for hundreds of thousands of years.

However, unlike the East Emperor Palace which occupies an entire area, the Ten Thousand Buddhas Area has tens of thousands of Buddhist sects.

Although there is also an extremely powerful eighth-level sect, the Samsara Temple, this Samsara Temple is unexpectedly low-key. Since it occupied the only eighth-level fairy vein in the fairyland, it has seldom taken action. In fact, there is often no Samsara Temple disciple walking around in the entire fairyland for hundreds or thousands of years. It also rarely controls other Buddhist sects. Only when some major events that affect the entire fairyland or the entire human race occur, the elders and masters of the Samsara Temple will show up and take action.

When the biggest leader doesn't take care of things, the younger brothers under him start to grow wildly. Sometimes when they can't win a debate, they will start a fight and attack each other. Sometimes, some small sects will suddenly collapse and be swallowed up by other sects.

Although there was some chaos, it was generally peaceful. After all, they were Buddhists from the same sect, and most of the time they would not kill each other. Instead, they would try to win over the other side's top leaders, absorb talented disciples, and expand the strength of their own temples.

The huge golden Buddha where we are is the only fairy city open to the outside world in the Ten Thousand Buddhas Realm. It is said that it was built by the Mahayana Buddha of the Samsara Temple himself. It has a solemn appearance, full of Buddha's light, and auspicious atmosphere. Since its establishment, it has never been invaded by any evil demons, and no one dared to approach it.

Lu Ang heard that, as usual, the Samsara Temple did not participate in this Tianjiao Competition. Instead, it was organized by two other seventh-level Brahma sects, the Brahma Temple and the Mahakala Temple. Each of the two sects sent a Hedao-level Bodhisattva to take charge and ensure the smooth progress of this competition.

Some geniuses from remote areas are still rushing to Jinfo Fancheng. There is still some time before the competition starts, but Jinfo Fancheng is already very lively. There are flying boats docked at the airport one after another, and they can hardly stop. Looking around, there are people and noise everywhere.

Fortunately, the Brahma sect had made a lot of preparations for this conference. As soon as Lu Ang and Hong Luan got off the flying boat, a young monk came over to act as their tour guide, introducing the various areas, historical events, and various functional buildings of the Golden Buddha Brahma City. He also led the two to the registration office.

Registration for the Tianjiao Competition is purely voluntary. As long as you are a disciple of a legitimate sect registered in the Human Realm and meet the participation requirement of being under 100 years old, you can participate, even if you are only a second-level foundation-building disciple. However, each sect only allows one disciple to participate.

Fortunately, after establishing the Xianlian Sect, Lu Ang immediately arranged for people to take spirit stones to the Tiance Domain to register according to the requirements of the external elders below. It is currently one of the sixth-level sects under the jurisdiction of the Tiance Domain, and is at the same level as the Demon-Slaying Alliance and the Beast Taming Sect. He happens to have the certificate issued by the Tiance Sect on hand.

After being illuminated by a strange magical instrument and having his real age determined, he was successfully registered.

The elder of the Brahma sect who was in charge of registration thought that the Xianlian sect was a Brahma sect and was a little excited, but unfortunately he was slapped in the face by Lu Ang's facts.

There are still about three months before the competition officially begins. Lu Ang plans to take advantage of this gap to travel around with his cheap wife and cultivate their relationship.

They did not look for an inn, but went directly to the Golden Buddha Peak to rent a fifth-grade cave and paid four months' rent. It must be said that these Buddhists are good at doing business. This cave is not only half smaller than the caves of the same grade in Tianmen Fairy City, but only one-third of it. The price is 20% more expensive. It is obvious that they are taking advantage of this wave of popularity to make money. Their behavior is really ugly.

But there is no way. If you don’t rent it, there are plenty of people who rent it. They have a monopoly and are not afraid at all.

Although he had signed up, Lu Ang didn't really know much about this genius competition. He had only heard a general outline of it on the Menglv flying boat before, which was not detailed enough. Although he was confident that he would win the championship and shock his wife for a whole year, as the saying goes, knowing yourself and your enemy ensures victory in a hundred battles, so this preliminary intelligence gathering work still had to be done.

He and Hongluan found a high-end restaurant in Foyan and ordered a table of high-end vegetarian food. Lu Ang then put his traditional skills into practice, called the novice monk to serve, and took out a few medium-quality spirit stones to start asking:
"The rules of this Tianjiao Competition are different every year, and they are kept secret. They will not be announced until it officially starts. Even if you are generous, I don't know."

"Ah? Previous sessions? I know that! For example, the last session was held by the Confucian and Taoist Haoran Academy. In the first round, we have to challenge their Six Arts Secret Realm. This is obviously unfair. Among us Buddhist monks and you Taoist monks, who knows what the Six Arts of a Gentleman are?"

"After that, there were the Heart Test, the Eight Demon Breaking Formations, and the Military Formation Confrontation. After four rounds, 99% of the geniuses were eliminated, and finally 64 geniuses were left. They performed martial arts at the Jixia Academy, which was a competition. The grouping was also very tricky. In the second round, I was paired with Brahma Buddha and Donghuang Dao. If it weren't for the destiny of that casual cultivator named Xiao, who was really powerful, the top genius might have been won by the Confucian School."

"The previous competition of the Taoist Donghuang Palace was the simplest. It was just a 33-step secret realm. Whoever reached the highest level would be the champion. Unfortunately, most of the time, those geniuses fought against themselves, and they were trying to break through themselves. It didn't feel as exciting as the one of the Confucian Sect. In this kind of competition, the champion was not surprising. It was Donghuang Daozi. Who knows how many times he had reached the highest level before?"

“But this 33rd level secret realm is truly amazing. Most of the geniuses have made breakthroughs in the competition, and several have overcome their inner demons and have been free from obstacles since then. Even if you don’t get a place in the end, it’s totally worth the trip. This top secret realm of Taoism is not something that a small family can afford. It’s truly a great opportunity.”

“As for my Brahma Sect… I really don’t know this time, but I saw it with my own eyes last time. It was also hosted by the Brahma Temple and assisted by the Great Vajra Temple. The previous rounds were respectively exploring the Demon Cave and exploring the unknown secret realm. It turned out that the secret realm was really dangerous. We were not fully prepared and were a bit careless during the survey. We didn’t expect that there was a Return to Void beast imprisoned inside. Although we intervened in time, many geniuses were killed and injured. Later, in order to make amends, we had to open the Brahma Three Dream Secret Realm to let the remaining geniuses experience their past and present lives…”

"We can't help it. Too many geniuses died. All the major sects are unwilling to let their geniuses take risks again. No winner was decided that time. They just distributed some magic weapons and resources to the geniuses who figured out the mystery of the womb and washed away their past."

"Of course, we will definitely not make such a joke again this time. The unknown secret realm is still too radical. If we do it again, other sects will definitely not agree. Even the geniuses of my Brahma Sect may not be willing to enter. The Bodhisattva Changmei has already said that the death rate of this genius competition will be guaranteed to be less than 50%. As long as we are not too unlucky and offend too powerful Taoists, and give up the competition in time to call for help, no one should die."

"You mean rewards? Of course there are rewards. Generally, only those who make it to the last round and rank high will get generous ranking rewards. The rest who were eliminated early should be given a bottle of medicine. Previously, every genius in my Brahma Sect was given a bottle of Vajra Glazed Pill from the Great Vajra Temple. This is the most top-grade body-refining pill in my Brahma Sect, and it is hard to find one even if you spend tens of millions of spirit stones."

"The last time, the Confucian sect gave me a talisman. I heard that I could choose any one of them, attack, defense, or support. It seems that the attack one contains the full force of a Return to Void Peak Venerable, and it can be used three times!"

“I don’t know about the previous session. I haven’t heard anyone talk about it. But reaching the 33rd level of the Heaven Ascension is a gift in itself. The entire competition lasted less than half a year, and one was promoted to a higher level. Many people even achieved a direct breakthrough through the Infant Pill. Such a reward is much better than any elixir or talisman.”

"This time, maybe it's the Vajra Glazed Pill? It's also possible that it's the Wonderful Sound Lotus Platform of the Brahma Temple. That's a peerless secret treasure that can open people's wisdom and inspire enlightenment! It's the Buddha fate that all my thousands of Brahma disciples dream of. If it's really the Wonderful Sound Lotus Platform, I'm afraid the Brahma Tianjiao will fight to the death this time."

"What? What's the reward for being the top Tianjiao? I'm not the top Tianjiao, how would I know? I just heard it, a rumor, not true, that the top Tianjiao will be received by the leaders of our three sects of Brahma, Buddhism and Confucianism, and the three Dao Lords will each fulfill one of his requests." "Of course, it must be a request that the Dao Lords can fulfill. If you want to achieve Dao immediately, that's definitely not possible, but that's also a supreme opportunity. What kind of divine skills manual, what kind of top-grade magic weapon, even the resurrection of the dead can be done, maybe you can get some opportunity to achieve Dao?"

"For independent cultivators, especially those with outstanding talents, like the independent cultivator named Xiao in the previous session, who are sons of destiny with a Dao body, it is possible that they can successfully merge with the Dao with three wishes, and spend thousands or tens of thousands of years to build a Dao-merging sect from scratch and call themselves the founder! Of course, if it were me, I would definitely wish to join the Brahma Temple and become a direct disciple!"

“However, speaking of it, I haven’t heard any news about that casual cultivator surnamed Xiao for a long, long time. It seems that I haven’t heard of him since the end of the Tianjiao Competition a hundred years ago. Of course, he was already at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage at that time. Maybe he has broken through to the Spiritualization stage during his hundred years of seclusion.”

"You two guests look very young. Are you also the geniuses participating in this competition? Can you leave your name and calligraphy? I don't want the spirit stones. I have already talked to the geniuses, hahaha..."

……

After finishing a vegetarian meal, Lu Ang had a basic understanding of the Tianjiao Competition. It was indeed a very formal competition with generous rewards.

Moreover, this competition actually has a death index! And it's only half, or 5%.

In this way, it would be easy to kill those little geniuses who were playing tricks on their wives. All I had to do was to fight quickly and kill them with one blow before they had time to ask for help.

There should be no punishment in this situation. After all, it's a competition and people are bound to die. Why participate in the competition if you are afraid of death? How can you be considered a genius?
Of course, whether the sects behind these geniuses will hate the Xianlian Sect and run to the human-demon border to cause trouble is something that needs to be carefully considered, and one should ask as clearly as possible about their background.

If it's from the Fanxu Sect, then just kill them directly. If it's from the Hedao Sect or even above, then look for an opportunity. I feel that these trials also have a lot of dangers, so just secretly trip them up. You have so many props, so there are plenty of opportunities.

However, if the final grand prize is really the three requests of the three Dao Lords, what should I wish for then? I feel like I have everything, so I don't have any requests.

I already have a top-grade Taoist body, and my cultivation speed has almost reached the highest level. I think even a Taoist master cannot speed up further. Even those who practice on their own may not be as fast as me!

How many magic weapons do I need? I definitely can’t get one at the Hedao level, but it shouldn’t be hard to get one at the Fanxu level. However, a Fanxu magic weapon doesn’t seem to have much meaning to me…

How about getting a set for my wife? A weapon, a piece of armor, a magic weapon to assist in cultivation? Forget it, it won't be of much use. I have a lot of sixth-level spiritual materials in my ring. I might as well go to the Jiqiao Domain and find the leader of the Mo Sect to customize a set.

What do you want? Divine skills manual? Cultivation resources? Cultivation guidance? It seems meaningless...

Forget it, isn't this competition just to show off in front of my wife? I'll just ask these three Hedao to accompany me to the demon realm and rescue Hongluan's people.

It feels quite dangerous to go alone. After all, the Phoenix Clan is not like the Dragon Clan which is naturally nemesis of themselves. It is said that the Phoenix Clan is also very good at the way of the void. They have Phoenix seal characters, which are natural patterns of the void and have a great restraint on their own spatial phase.

There are three Hedao, and they are great Hedao masters from three of the top sects. It should not be difficult to save people.

If this is the case, I will no longer be able to keep a low profile. I will be completely exposed. The three schools of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism all know that there is such a person as me. My plan to keep a low profile will completely fail, which will make many of my operations very rigid...

In addition, there are some questions about the independent cultivator who won the championship last time. Is this independent cultivator really in seclusion to break through?
Is there a possibility that this so-called genius competition is some kind of genius scrapping plan organized by Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, which is specifically designed to find the lucky ones among the independent cultivators and kill them before they grow up?
After all, a child of luck, no matter how good his luck is, cannot cultivate to a very high level in a mere 100 years. Wasn't the last one only at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage?

Even if they have some magical weapons for cross-level combat, it is unlikely that they can reach the three Dao Lords. The leap in strength after achieving the Dao is no joke. It is said that the Dao Lords can kill a large number of Return to the Void with ease.

Of course, it is also possible that they were recruited through brainwashing in various ways. After all, this kind of Taoist-level genius is a very rare resource. Facing the heavy pressure from the demons, having more strength is not a bad thing.

We can't be too conspiratorial. Maybe it's not just my guess, it's possible that he was in seclusion.

I feel that the one held by Brahma Sect before last was also a bit weird. Was it really because of negligence in the exploration that led to the death of so many geniuses in that undeveloped secret realm exploration trial?
Could it be that he wanted to kill the geniuses of the other two sects and make the Brahma sect stronger?

However, with a powerful enemy at the doorstep, it doesn’t seem appropriate to engage in infighting. Moreover, it’s so obvious, can’t the other two major sects see the unity of the Tao?
Forget it, forget it, I can’t think about it anymore. If I continue to think about it, I will completely sink into conspiracy theories.

However, it's better to take some insurance just in case.

(End of this chapter)