Nine Heavens Martial Emperor

All the elders of the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion looked toward the void, where there was nothing at all.

BOOM!

But a tremendous bang suddenly echoed through the void, and a great hole appeared within it.

Appearing along with the hole was an incomparably massive fist.

From a distance, it looked as if this fist had shattered the void.

Then, a figure appeared in the void.

When the elders saw the person's appearance clearly, they were all shocked, as if they had encountered a god or a demon.

Lin Hao!

The figure that appeared was Lin Hao, who was supposed to have been obliterated in the void.

The elders simply could not believe their eyes.

Among them, the youngest was nearly a thousand years old, while the oldest, the Dean of the Elder Hall, was over seventeen hundred years old.

But none of them had ever seen a Soul Gathering Realm Martial Artist survive under those circumstances.

Let alone the Soul Gathering Realm—even for them, top-tier experts at the Spirit Transformation Realm Peak, it would be extremely difficult to survive such a situation.

But Lin Hao had done it.

It was simply unheard of!

"Physical body reconstruction... Although it's not bodily sanctification, it holds infinite possibilities. How is this possible?!" The Dean of the Elder Hall's eyes were wide, nearly bursting from their sockets.

His cultivation was so astonishing that he had seen through the state of Lin Hao's physical body with a single glance.

The Dean of the Elder Hall was stunned by what he saw.

If even the Dean of the Elder Hall reacted this way, one could only imagine the state of the other elders.

The group of elders stared blankly at Lin Hao, all of them having forgotten to even react.

Fortunately, this was a forbidden area of the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion with only the elders present. If anyone else had seen this scene and the elders' reactions, they would have been scared senseless.

Although no one else was here, Lin Hao was.

Lin Hao landed in the square and saw several white-haired, white-bearded old men staring at him without blinking, leaving him somewhat bewildered.

At first, Lin Hao even thought they were statues, because when he waved his hand in front of their faces, they didn't even blink.

Thankfully, Lin Hao's Spiritual Sense was incredible, and he could hear their racing heartbeats.

"Ahem." Seeing that the men hadn't snapped out of it, Lin Hao coughed a few times.

At this sound, all the elders came to their senses. Their gazes then fixed on Lin Hao, burning with intensity.

Their stares gave Lin Hao goosebumps.

'These old masters can't possibly have some... special hobbies, can they?!'

At this thought, Lin Hao shivered uncontrollably.

Lin Hao was especially terrified when he saw the old men simultaneously reaching out their hands toward him.

At that moment, all Lin Hao wanted to do was flee.

But he immediately discovered something horrifying.

Lin Hao found that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even move his body.

Moreover, Lin Hao couldn't feel any aura fluctuations from these old men.

Lin Hao sucked in a breath of cold air.

This could only mean that these old men's cultivation had reached an unimaginable level.

"You've got the wrong person!" Unable to escape, Lin Hao could only cry out, hoping to escape their clutches.

But it was useless.

The next moment, Lin Hao found himself grabbed and held in the hand of the oldest man.

The other old men glared resentfully at the man who had grabbed him.

"I... I'm sick..." Lin Hao was on the verge of tears.

'I just barely managed to get out of the void, how did I run into this mess right after? I still need to get to the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion.'

Having just broken out of the void, Lin Hao naturally didn't know that this *was* the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion. Nor did he know that during his final assessment, his every action had been witnessed by these old men whom he suspected of having peculiar tastes.

Hearing that Lin Hao was sick, the Dean of the Elder Hall, who was holding him, stared at Lin Hao with a strange light in his eyes, his expression becoming incredibly tense.

A moment later, the Dean let out a sigh of relief and said to Lin Hao with a wide smile, "It's alright, I can cure you. Lin Hao, are you interested in cultivating with me?"

Seeing the Dean's smile, the other elders were astonished. Even they hadn't seen the Dean smile in a very long time.

"Ah..." Lin Hao was slightly taken aback by his words, but then he started to understand. He asked tentatively, "Is this the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion?"

The Dean smiled and nodded. "Correct, this is the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion. My name is Guan Zhengyang, and I am the Dean of the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion's Elder Hall. Are you interested in cultivating with me?"

The Dean first stated his name before asking Lin Hao the same question again.

The other elders were shocked to hear Guan Zhengyang say this.

The Dean hadn't used the name Guan Zhengyang in a very long time. It could be said that among the current members of the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion, only these few knew the Dean's true name.

He told Lin Hao his name upon their first meeting. He was trying to snatch Lin Hao for himself!

Although the other elders knew they were no match for the Dean, a peerless genius like Lin Hao was a once-in-ten-thousand-year opportunity. They didn't want to give up.

Instantly, the elders all started talking over each other, beginning to fight over Lin Hao.

"Lin Hao, pick me! Don't be fooled by the Dean's smile; he hasn't smiled in a thousand years. If you go with him, you're just signing up for misery. Oh, right, I'm the Second Elder, my name is..."

Before the poor Second Elder could finish, he was interrupted by another. "Go on, get out of here! Lin Hao, you should choose me. With me, you can have whatever you want. I'm sure you'll like my hobbies..."

This elder didn't escape the Second Elder's fate, as he too was cut off before he could finish. "I am the Fifth Elder, Liu Bo. I was the one who let all the Martial Artists from your Cangnan Empire enter the Upper Courtyard. You should choose me."

Fifth Elder Liu Bo managed to finish, but his words immediately drew fire from the other elders.

"Old Five, how can you be so shameless? Letting them into the Upper Courtyard was our unanimous decision!" one of the elders immediately berated Liu Bo.

"Lin Hao, do you see? He's utterly shameless! You must not choose him," another elder said directly to Lin Hao, trying to kick the Fifth Elder out of the running first.

The rest of the elders quickly chimed in with their agreement.

The Fifth Elder immediately realized what they were trying to do. Pointing at one of them, he said irritably, "Old Two, you're the shameless one! Just now, you were looking down on Lin Hao, thinking he couldn't compare to Lin Wu. What are you fighting for him now for?!"

"Who said that? Did I say that? I don't seem to recall."

"You... you..."

"..."

In their fight over Lin Hao, the elders of the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion had lost all of their decorum, practically becoming like shrews squabbling in the street.

They were elders of the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion! They had lived for over a thousand years, their cultivation had reached the Spirit Transformation Realm Peak, and now, for a single Lin Hao, they were actually fighting to this extent.

If anyone else from the Heaven-Breaking Pavilion were to see this, they would surely be scared senseless.

"Ahem. What has become of your dignity? We should let Lin Hao choose for himself." In the end, it was the Dean who spoke up, finally silencing the group of elders.

The now-quiet elders stared eagerly at Lin Hao, their eyes filled with hope. Their expressions all seemed to spell out three words: "Please pick me."