Emperor of the Thousand Flames upper realm

Of the trillion worlds of the universe a certain upper realm was experiencing a grand event. The emperor of the ruling dynasty of the Thousand Flames upper realm was experiencing his 502nd birthday as well as the 200th year since his coming to power. This glorious event had sparked a week long celebration where all the major powers of central continent to participate.

The Hu Dynasty was originally from a lower realm. However when their leader at the time and the current emperor broke through to the Crossing Tribulations realm, that lower realm could no longer handle his existence and he was forced to leave. However upon entering this upper realm he quickly established himself as a young talent and very quickly within 2 years established a foothold for the Hu clan.

From there the young emperor entered into a marriage alliance with the Creation God sect, one of the 6 super sects, and proceeded to conquer the world with overwhelming might. At the time the 6 sects have been competing over the position of realm king for thousands of years and yet it was the appearance of this emperor from a lower realm that offset the power balance.

The emperor broke through to the pinnacle of mortal lifeforms, an exalted Human Immortal, at the age of 293. While Human Immortals were no strangers to the upper realm in fact each sect had at least 3-4 Human Immortals, this emperor in particular possessed explosive power dominating his contemporaries and with the support of the Creation God sect and soon the Celestial Star kingdom, Infinity Heaven sect, and the Radiant Moon kingdom conquered the entire upper realm from the central continent to all 3 lesser continents.

In the 200 years since that event, peace had for the most part spread throughout the lands. The emperor was seldom seen delegating most tasks to the empress the former saints of the Creation God sect. Under her authority the dynasty remained stable.

Crowds of people danced in the streets celebrating the 200th year anniversary. Children ran alongside the stone paved roads playing with paper windmills. Young scholarly looking men walked browsing discounted books. Poorer families also wandered the market to browse discounted goods.

The emperor had decreed that as a national day of celebration so it was natural for stores to lower their prices. Strangely this was something introduced by the emperor as prior to 200 years ago this concept of discounts never existed and people had to barter for price drops. It was one of the many things the emperor introduced that bettered the lives of his civilians alongside an increase of schools. With the management of the empress, the lives of ordinary mortal civilians were much improved compared to their pre conquest counterparts.

On a stage not far from the royal capital, inside a gigantic arena 50metres in diameter was a bubble. Inside this bubble one could see dense foliage, elongated rivers, dry desserts, wet rainforests, tundras, and mountains. It was an entire pocket dimension created by an expert at the martial saint realm. Such a dimension was not difficult to create for powerful saints however lesser saints with an incomplete cosmos will find great difficulty in doing so. Hence the feat of the floating elder above the bubble was very impressive.

"Uncle has really improved his cultivation" a seated man wearing a Chinese crown sitting on the central seat in the VIP box said softly. He was not an ugly man and could be considered moderately handsome with shoulder length black hair and an asian look. He was dressed richly in expensive silk robes and imperial regalia.

"Indeed, fellow taoist Hu is a true genius, his progress is the envy of many" an old bald monk complimented.

The person who created and controlled the bible was precisely one of Hu imperial clan's strongest experts and previous patriarch, the uncle of the emperor Hu Wei. He was the brother of emperor Hu's deceased father and one of the few saints the imperial clan had. This was because despite the emperor's high cultivation and numerous efforts, the Hu clan only came to the Thousand Flames upper realm 200 years ago, their foundation is truely weak. Without emperor Hu's marriage alliance the dynasty would be nowhere near as stable. Of course emperor Hu was certainly strong enough to hold the fort, the Hu clan in general is incapable of ruling the world.

"Fellow taoist compliment me too much, I have much to learn still" replied Hu Wei.

"You sell yourself short fellow taoist, you're barely 700 years old yet is already a saint, this Lao Fu truely admire you" the old monk softly praised.

"Lao Fu is right, taoist Hu is a true genius" said a neighbouring Martial saint realm cultivator. Inspired by the commission many Saints, all leaders or elders of powerful factions, chimed in complimenting the slightly embarrassed Hu Wei. However Hu Wei was truely powerful, amongst all the saints present he was definitely top 20. Even the strongest saint currently Luo Guxie expressed compliments. Of course many were fake and simply a way to get in Hu Wei's good graces. With the emperor so near it would undoubtedly raise their status in his eyes.

Secretly Hu Wei though, 'jeez, these people just want to gain benefits from nephew'. Said nephew, the crowned man on the main seat remained seated his head resting on his left hand. This was not an unusual occurrence, it was but one of many attempts to get closer to the emperor. Many though that perhaps they could even get a marriage into the imperial harem because of it. After all the emperor was very young at 502 while Human Immortals can easily live upwards of 10, 000 years. Considering his status it is odd that the imperial harem is tiny with fewer then 10 women. Even the kings of lesser states had harems amounting hundreds.

"Alright that's enough everyone. Have we forgotten what we are here for?" A well dressed man rippling with indomitable might sounded his voice out. He could clearly see the emperor was growing tired of this and decided to take action. This man was very handsome, tall, and broad shoulders and long platinum golden hair. He was muscular and dressed in expensive taoist robes befitting of a power house.

This man was emperor Hu's father in law, the sect master of the Creation God sect. A Human Immortal expert named Qiang Wang. He was an old expert who reached the Human Immortal realm 2000 years ago and one of the closest individuals to the emperor.

"Your majesty, perhaps we should start the proceedings, the disciples are getting restless" Qing Wang said to the bored looking emperor Hu. Turing to him emperor Hu nodded his head.

Seeing this, the distant Hu Wei announced the rules. This pocket dimension was the gathering place of over 1200 top ranking disciples of many major factions in the Thousand Flames realm. The 200th anniversary as well as the emperor's birthday called for a tournament to be held across the week. As such these young talents arrived in droves. Such a massive tournament would undoubtedly reward many prizes and great fame.

The imperial clan did not disappoint. Under directions by the empress, the entire capital was decorated in red, the emperor's favourite colour, with images of dragons, suns, and murals of his greatness. Of course the emperor couldn't give less of a shit. "I just want to cultivate, why did you have to do something so big?" The emperor signed, there was a reason he doesn't participate in active politics. Emperor he may be but he was a cultivator first, his wife the empress on the other hand was a different story.

Qing Wang's daughter, Qing Mei Hua was one of the most beautiful woman in Thousand Flames upper realm. She was also powerful being a peak saint expert at the age of 400 prior to their marriage. Currently she is a Human Immortal as of 30 years age. Coincidentally Hu Wei also broke though to the saint realm 30 years ago. As such he was considered a top talent.

Aside from the urging of his chief wife and obligation there was another reason Hu Wenxi had to be here. His eldest son Hu Jin Shen was also participating. Hu Jin Shen was a powerful expert, at the age of 50 he experienced the first 9 thunderbolt tribulation and ascended to the crossing tribulation realm. This was even faster then Hu Wenxi the emperor who was over 100 when he ascended.

Within the bubble Hu Wei's voice can be heard. "All of you are talented seedlings. I can tell you've been eager to start so I'll keep this brief. You are all currently located inside a pocket dimension that stretches 5000 km across. Within are myriad of environments, monsters, valuable ores, and rare medicinal herbs. Your task is to collect these herbs, ores, and monster corpses."

"Each object will award you with a certain amount of points, these points will contribute to an overall score to each individual. The more rare the item the more points you will receive. At the end of the week, we will measure the amount of points each person had collected. The top 128 will move on to the finals. That will be all"

Up in the VIP box many saints and even some Human Immortals stared on with curiosity. This was certainly an odd way of doing things. Most of the time these cultivator meets will involve tournament battles, and perhaps a survival task. This complex point system did streamline the process for the final tournament. The environment was unique too, a lot of biomes were added.

Sitting on his chair Hu Wenxi leaned forwards slightly. He gazed into the pocket dimension quickly finding Hu Jin Shen and several other interesting individuals. 'Thank you monster hunter'. It was an old memory of his that the emperor thought up for this stage. Ever since he was born 500 years ago, events have been both rough and smooth. At least the Hu clan is well established now if a bit weak.

'Now I wish I hadn't accepted the chief position. I can understand why those emperors and sect masters advance so slowly in cultivation. Sure recourses plays a factor but they also have to look after their respective factions. It was bound to interrupt their progress.

Shaking his head Hu Wenxi remained in a dignified expression and began observing the tournament.

Down below many disciples headed into battle. Some explored while others decided to team up to advance. Among them was the first meridian Crossing Tribulation prince Hu Jin Shen. "Everyone prepare to move out, I have discovered a good location with rare herbs". The prince had prepared a team of his friends, all scions of noble families. This was the first tournament he is participating in, his father was also watching.

The various young men behind him bowed and followed after the prince. Hu Jin Shen's immortal sense have been personally trained by both his parents. His father was one of the best in utilising it. emperor Hu's immortal senses were much better then most scrying spells and will not lose out to even top tier scrying spells. What's more shocking was that emperor Hu didn't even know a scrying spell.

Of course prince Hu's mother had taught him many spells. As her only son Hu Jin Shen was adored and pampered as a child. Well at least till he was 18. From there his father took him on a trip around the whole Thousand Flames upper realm from common villages to majestic cities.

His father taught him a lot in that trip. "No son of mine will ever be a useless arrogant young master" he remembers his father saying.

'No I shouldn't be distracted, we have a tournament to win'.

Not far from the prince's location was a lone man with black hair. He had an arrogant vibe around him and carried a big heavy sword. 'I will see you Jasmine'.

Not far from that was another European looking man with a cocky expression. He had black dyed hair and Japanese samurai armour. 'Ha, stupid cultivators, my mangekyo sharingan and gate of Babylon will destroy all of you'.