Death... and me

However, the cultivators there didn't start battling straight away or anything like that. After all, the fact that the light barrier had disappeared this early was quite unexpected. It's just that they weren't cultivating either. They were standing in their spots, ready for anything to happen.

Naturally, Rean and Roan didn't know what was happening, but they had no access to the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm at the moment. That obviously meant the situation was deemed dangerous, and they couldn't escape into the Dimensional Realm because of that.

Rean then looked at Kentucky, Celis, and Hurio after that. 'Celis, shrink yourself so that you can get on Kentucky's back. Hurio, you should come as well. We're leaving this place.'

Rean's group obviously felt unwilling to go already. After all, so much Divine Origin Energy was still available. However, Roan also said the same thing as Rean, telling the others, 'He's right. The longer we stay, the worse it'll be. Let's go already.'

The group's hesitation only lasted for a moment. With that, they quickly followed the twins' orders before Kentucky opened his wings and took flight. After cultivating for over five and a half days, Kentucky was now a Peak Stage Eight Demon Bird, a Divine Demon Bird at that. Thanks to that, he was now able to match the speed of any of the Transition Realm cultivators in the Divine Plane without problems.

It only took a few seconds for Kentucky to arrive at the portal on the ceiling. Though, he wasn't the only one. Some of the cultivators also thought that something was fishy and decided to escape straight away. Unfortunately, at the very moment they were about to enter the portal, it closed in front of their eyes.

"What?!"

"How can that be?!"

"The portal had never closed before!"

The twins' group obviously had to stop right there. Without a portal, there was no way out.

At the same time, everyone received a Divine Sense message sent by Braga. 'Only the last ten standing shall be allowed to leave this place. Also, there will be a reward for those who remain. Those who refuse to fight will die.'

Everyone was shocked to hear that. After all, Divine Sense wasn't working well, so sending messages was very difficult to do unless one was very close to the person. It was obvious that everyone in the Divine Plane spanning several kilometers in size received the message, though. Whoever did this was probably some kind of monster compared to them. Little did they know that Braga couldn't really touch them from where he was at the moment, so he was trying to make these people fight to the death by themselves.

However, that wasn't the only Divine Sense message that reached everyone's ears. As soon as Braga finished his words, Wekil's message resounded soon after. 'Everyone, I'm Wekil, the one responsible for the Lost Star Selection. Due to a certain conflict of interests, I'm now engaged in a fight with the person who just talked to you. However, you can ignore his presence. He has no power to directly interact with the cultivators of this Lost Star Realm. What I need from you is to go back and cultivate. As long as you absorb more Divine Origin Energy, the weaker the guy will become. If you don't do that, this will be the last time the Lost Star Selection happens. I believe none of you want to tell your elders that the next batch of disciples can't come here anymore, right?'

At this point, everyone was confused. However, Rean's group immediately descended before Celis hopped off of Kentucky's back. Soon after, Celis's body went back to its normal size as he spread his roots everywhere again. With that, Celis and the others in their group began to cultivate again.

That obviously caught the attention of the top ten powers' disciples, as well as Tutilin, the Divine Demon Bird in humanoid form. The thing that surprised them the most was that Celis left a big opening in his spread roots. That was obviously an invitation for everyone who wanted to cultivate closer to him to obtain more energy for their cultivation.

Eventually, someone couldn't hold back anymore and asked. It was a Transition Realm cultivator of the Lanqueas Sect called Sipla. "Why did you decide to follow the second voice's command? Are you related to this situation? You better talk right now before I force the answer out of your mouths."

Roan nodded before explaining, "The answer should be obvious, though. One of them is telling us to kill each other until only ten remain alive. On the other hand, the other one is simply asking us to cultivate. I don't know about you, but I definitely don't want to follow the orders of the first guy."

Well, there was also the fact that the twins' recognized the little boy's voice. He was the one who let them go because Rean had Light Element Affinity, so he did seem a little bit more trustworthy in their eyes since he could have killed them before. Of course, the twins' group was still cautious around him. It was just that they didn't have much of a better option at the moment.

The top ten powers' disciples felt a bit conflicted, though. Quite a few of them wanted to get rid of the twins' group since the secret of the Lost Star Selection shouldn't be spread. Now that the light barrier was gone, that would be a good chance for them to gang up on the twins and take their lives. However, the situation made everything much worse. What if they lacked the number of people cultivating for their escape? But then again, what if the guy who asked them to fight themselves was the victor in the end? Wouldn't he kill everyone instead? In that case, it would be better to fight straight away and decide who would be the last ten people alive.

But amidst them pondering what to do next, Tutilin suddenly entered the area where Celis' roots were spread. Of course, Celis didn't leave a straight path to where Rean, Roan, Kentucky, and Hurio were staying. It was just close, but not enough that their group couldn't react in time if they were attacked. Not to mention that Tutilin really wanted to kill everyone in Rean's group except Celis so that he could get his own Divine Demon Tree.