The Sect Confrontation was divided into two phases.
The first included Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Divine Transformation stages.
These were the disciple-level battles. For the sake of safety, these matches were held on the main city's arena, primarily to showcase sect strength while earning a modest amount of points. Even if one took first place in these rounds, the points gained were limited.
The second phase comprised Unity, Tribulation, and Mahayana battles.
These were the high-level confrontations.
Only then could a sect's true strength be revealed.
The disciple-level battles wrapped up in about a month.
The high-level battles, however, would stretch on for years.
Beyond the main city of Sky City, the world brimmed with both peril and opportunity. Some sects might fall behind at first, but if they encountered fortune, it was still possible for them to soar in a single leap.
Take the Bitao Sect, for example. Though ranked last among the super sects, it was the only sect in recent centuries to have risen from upper-grade to super-grade.
Their rise had come from discovering a rare opportunity within Sky City, which allowed their strength to skyrocket in an instant, reversing their fate.
Unfortunately, such fortune was elusive. No one could ever guarantee obtaining it.
Since then, Bitao Sect had struggled merely to cling to the tail end of the super sect rankings.
This time, including Wushuang Sect, there were fifteen sects vying for advancement.
The other fourteen had all experienced high-level battles before. Only Wushuang Sect would be entering for the first time.
What Yun Jin found rather amusing was that several sect masters from super sects had approached her privately, exchanging communication tokens and even providing her with past records of these battles.
This was their way of showing goodwill toward Wushuang Sect. And goodwill was something Yun Jin would never refuse. For now, their hearts wavered.
Soon, their stance would waver even more. By the time she truly raised her sword against Qingxiao Pavilion, she would not be standing alone.
After the Golden Core battles ended, Yun Jin returned briefly to Wushuang Sect. She had already arranged matters for both the Nascent Soul and Divine Transformation disciples.
For the group battles, they would still employ the Hunyuan Secret Method.
For the individual battles, she had selected three disciples for each stage.
With more time to prepare, all Nascent Soul participants had reached the peak of that stage.
The Divine Transformation disciples were different. Among the three chosen, two had reached the peak of Divine Transformation, while the last was only at the early stage. Yet, not a single Divine Transformation disciple objected to him taking that slot.
Naturally, Yun Jin wasn't surprised.
That lone early-stage disciple was Yue Zhao.
When Yue Zhao first joined Wushuang Sect, he had been at late Nascent Soul. He soon broke through to Divine Transformation. But instead of spending all his Trial Tower rewards to boost spiritual power, he invested heavily into raising his mastery of techniques.
Because of his dual souls, Yue Zhao cultivated a little-known mid-grade Earth-level technique: the Soul Refining Codex. This codex allowed his two souls to slowly merge, producing astonishing effects once complete.
Yun Jin had even refined the technique for him, elevating it to a high-grade Earth-level method, nearly reaching the pinnacle of its rank.
So far, Yue Zhao had only mastered one technique: Spirit Burst.
But that single technique, combined with his dual souls, was unstoppable. Among all Divine Transformation disciples of Wushuang Sect, no one had managed to withstand it. Thus, though he appeared to be merely early-stage, Yue Zhao was the strongest of the three.
These two rounds of battles didn't worry Yun Jin in the least.
Winning first place was a given.
Her real focus this time was preparing for the Unity stage battles. From the information she had gathered, these battles were nothing like the arena matches before. Each sect would need to select one hundred Unity stage cultivators to enter Sky City itself.
For other sects, this meant picking from their pool.
For Wushuang Sect, it meant every Unity stage cultivator had to go.
Sky City had descended into this world for over a thousand years, opening frequently in that time. Many sects had spent centuries exploring its mysteries. Apart from the four absolutely safe main cities, sects had slowly expanded outward from each one.
Even after millennia, barely one-tenth of Sky City's vastness had been charted. The explored regions were roughly divided by danger levels. At the top were the Hell Regions, the most perilous.
Next came the Nightmare Regions, extremely high-risk. Unity cultivators who entered either zone were essentially walking to their deaths. Therefore, the Unity battles would take place in mid-to-low risk areas. Of course, "mid-to-low risk" only applied to Unity cultivators. For anyone below Unity, the death rate was staggering.
Even Unity cultivators were far from safe.
Each year, some returned with great fortunes, while others perished with no remains left behind. In these trials, every sect's Unity participants would be scattered, descending randomly into different mid-to-low risk regions.
The competition lasted half a year.
During that time, they could seek opportunities, slay beasts, harvest rare herbs, or whatever else they dared. Each participant carried a recording jade tablet, which automatically logged their gains as points. The combined points of all one hundred participants determined the sect's group ranking.
Additionally, the top ten individuals by points would gather at a designated place for the final duel to determine their personal rankings.
In every sect, even within the Four Holy Lands, Unity cultivators were considered the backbone. Thus, the Unity battles yielded far more points than the earlier rounds.
Even though Wushuang Sect had taken first place so far, one failure here could cause their ranking to plummet. And Yun Jin had no intention of surrendering even a single first place.
Wushuang Sect would not only win—they would do so with zero casualties. Glancing at her system panel, Yun Jin smiled faintly.
Thanks to Heavenly Dao unexpected assistance, a body refinement technique was steadily feeding her vast amounts of Emotional Value. Though the rate of growth had begun to slow, the total was still staggering.
Her panel now showed over 15 billion Emotional Value. Even after spending heavily on refining techniques, she still held an unprecedented reserve.
Fifteen billion!
That gave her immense freedom.
She only needed to keep a portion for emergencies. The rest had to be spent, for unused value could never become strength.
Her Sect Master's residence was still level one. Upgrading it to level two required five hundred million Emotional Value. Once, she had hesitated.
Now?
A mere five hundred million. Spend it!
Not stopping there, she checked the cost for level three—2.5 billion.
A sharp increase, but hardly a problem.
She upgraded again.
In the blink of an eye, the Sect Master's residence reached level three. The next moment, two streaks of white light flared across the residence. Disciples of Wushuang Sect turned their eyes toward it in astonishment.