by Tinalynge
Unlike the previous one, this one did not show respect towards Zhong Fai as one would have expected, but surprisingly enough the handsome man on top of the throne seemed as though he did not care at all about the lack of respect, instead his face was all smiles and happiness.
“I wonder how he will react indeed,” Zhong Fai agreed as he seemed to look into the distance. “Not only him,” He continued, “But as far as I am aware, our cute little boy is traveling around with a daughter of the Wang family and a son of the Deng family. They will definitely be shocked upon hearing what happened while they were gone.”
The two men were silent for some time before a loud ringing laughter sounded out within the throne room and Zhong Fai’s face showed great amusement.
“How do you think they will react?” Zhong Fai asked the frozen man next to him who only shrugged his shoulders, “How can they act?” He questioned, however his attention was no longer focused on the conversation, “No matter what they do, what is done has already been done, they can’t change anything.”
Hearing this Zhong Fai leaned back on his throne, his expressions slightly disappointed as he nodded his head. What the frozen man said surely made sense.
“I assume that the young boy you are hunting will not even get to know about the changes up here,” He said while laughing, “I mean to say you will make him into one of the Frozen Brigade long before he has anything to say.”
Zhong Fai did not answer the statement, instead, he slowly waved his hand and the frozen man bowed slightly before turning around and walking out from within the throne room.
“Frozen Brigade, huh?” Zhong Fai asked himself with a small smile on his face before he once more stared into the distance while seated on his frozen throne.
Chapter 35 – Time to Duel
Hui Yue was seated in the middle of the group at the arena waiting for their turn to participate in the next round. The fight which was currently ongoing was the masked group of five against a team of nine of which five incredibly strong men out of the nine had been chosen to get the win.
Unfortunately for the opposing team, the ones with the masks were not intimidated by the sheer size of their opponents and after releasing an attack, it was easy for Hui Yue to determine that the majority of the masked team members were Grandmaster ranked. Their cultivation base was definitely at the higher end of the Grandmaster level .
Looking at them, Hui Yue knew that they were likely to face each other later on. Although he had thought that winning would be as simple as a walk in the park, he suddenly realized that although they were only within the second cave it was obvious that these cultivators underground were far superior to those above ground.
Making a mental note, Hui Yue made sure to remind himself that he needed to get some information on these men from Xu Piao later on. Seated back in the chair, Hui Yue’s eyes landed on their leader and as if the man was capable of sensing this, he lifted his face staring straight at Hui Yue.
The stare did not go unnoticed by anyone present at the arena, silence rung throughout the many seats as everyone held their breath in excitement, waiting to see what would happen between the two masked people, but just as the atmosphere tensed to the extreme the masked man looked away, lifting his hand and barking a word in a language Hui Yue did not understand.
As soon as the word was spoken blood sprayed over the stage as the entire opposing team had been beheaded within seconds, something which caused Hui Yue’s mouth to twitch and the red mist to roil within him.
Outside no one noticed any changes. To them, Hui Yue was as cold as he had been before, but on the inside Hui Yue was struggling to keep the red mist under control, his face turning increasingly alarmed.
Having killed the opposing team in such a brutal and sudden way the entire arena went quiet for a long time before they suddenly broke out into a loud cheer. They saw the blood they had come to see.
Currently four groups were still alive and active within the tournament and Hui Yue and his group were to fight next, the final match of the day.
From the beginning, nine groups were chosen to be in the third group, the group belonging to the strongest teams in the mercenary town, however four lost the previous day. Today another group had already lost, leaving four behind, but one of these groups had drawn a pass propelling them straight into the finals the following day.
The masked men were just chosen to enter the final, and now the final group had to fight for the last position to enter the final.
The final match this tournament was going to be far bloodier than what any of the previous fights had been as it consisted of three groups going up against each other. The last group standing would be crowned the winner. Through such a battle it was obvious that many would die, and those who did not die would still lose teammates.
The only reason that Hui Yue still wished to participate was because he believed in his own power to protect his friends. Should it turn into a situation where they were about to die, Hui Yue felt that he would have enough strength because of the clashing phenomena within his dantian cave, not to mention Xie Lan’s strength and his own Velocity Flow, these should be sufficient for him to get his friends to safety.
Not participating in the final would in many ways be futile now that the mercenaries around the city were targeting him. It was about time for them to prove their strength and gain a way to enter the next tunnel-system, leading towards the next city.
The fight today was much simpler than the previous one they had fought in. It was one on one and the first team to win three times would proceed to the final.
Knowing that the fights were like this, Hui Yue had decided that he would start. Hoping that he was capable of dealing with all the opponents, keeping the abilities of his friends a secret until the final the following day.
The masked men quickly left the stage as the host announced their win their leader constantly looking at Hui Yue, his eyes shining from beneath the mask.
Hui Yue acted completely ignorant to what he was seeing and instead he looked at the messed up stage which was filled with dead mercenaries. Heads were lying far from their bodies and blood was sprayed all over.
Sobs could be heard followed by crying women who entered the stage, picking up the heads of their loved ones before they slowly went on their way.
Hui Yue was taken back by the strength of those women. They had been watching from the sidelines from the very beginning, yet they had never screamed or tried to run onto the stage to stop the fight from proceeding. Not even once had they poured out their hate and sadness over the winners.
In one way, Hui Yue could not understand how it was possible to stand by, accepting the death of one’s loved ones, but on the other side he could see that their strength was not enough to save their loved ones, nor was it enough to protect the families in case they did intervene. The only option left was to have the mental strength to support their loved ones in life and death.
A short break commenced where the Mercenary Guild went to the stage. The stage was created from concrete, yet on top of it was a layer of sand which worked to soak up blood and ensure that the participants would not skid around. Looking at the sand most of it had clumped together from the high amount of blood which was then removed before a fine new layer was sprayed upon the scene. The bodies were picked up and carried towards the homes of the fallen mercenaries.
Within moments, it was impossible to see that a bloody scene had adorned the stage just before, and Hui Yue felt a little queasy as he stepped towards the stage knowing that below him was the blood of countless people who had laid their lives down in tournaments like this one.
The queasy feeling did not come from him disliking death, but from the red mist which was roiling so hard that he almost lost control of it once more. Though with the slight help of the tranquil cloud, the red mist was finally subdued once more as Hui Yue heaved a heavy sigh of relief. To have such a strong will within his body which he could not fully control was the
one thing which made him feel the greatest discomfort.
Hui Yue’s friends were all standing behind the stage as Hui Yue went on to the stage. A loud cheer could be heard from within the arena as everyone was excited to see the leader standing up from the very beginning.
The group Hui Yue was up against sneered in anger. For Hui Yue to go up at first rather than at the end showed that he had complete faith in his own strength to win the battle without being injured so that he could also participate in the following day’s fight.
Looking at Hui Yue, their eyes shone with anger and displeasure as all of them felt like the former was looking down upon them. All of them were battling just to fight against him and prove that they were capable of taking down the cocky newcomer.
Hui Yue looked at them with pity. He would prefer to not kill his opponents, if he had the chance to neutralize them in other ways he would definitely take it. But he did not wish to be soft just for the sake of being soft.
Having looked at his opponents, all of them were Master ranked cultivators and although the strongest was a nine-star Master, none of them truly proved to be a threat in Hui Yue’s eyes. If Hui
Yue were honest, the only group which posed some threat was the masked group which had just exited the stage.
Just as Hui Yue was observing the fight between the masked group and their opponents, the masked group now sat in the front row ready to observe Hui Yue and his battle prowess.
Completely ignoring those masked cultivators, Hui Yue stood as still as a statue atop the stage, patiently waiting for the first opponent to appear in front of him.
“Don’t worry big bro,” The largest of the group said, his voice rowdy and his appearance anything but appealing to the eye. He smacked his hands together as he looked at Hui Yue with great hostility, “Let me deal with such a scrawny little shit,” He continued, as he made his way towards the stage, his size at least double the size of Hui Yue.
Looking at the giant man, Hui Yue’s neck was turned all the way up and an eyebrow was raised in surprise, but worry was something not on his face hidden under the cloak.
“Let the battle begin!” The host called out and he quickly stepped away from the stage, signaling the start of the battle.
Just as before, Hui Yue was standing completely still, waiting for his opponent to make the first move. That was what the audience saw, however, Hui Yue had already started circulating Qi through his meridians, activating Velocity Flow, and allowing for the cultivation base of a lower dantian expert to become released into the surroundings.
Once more, everyone was shocked to see that Hui Yue, the man who was considered the most challenging of all the newcomers, only used the cultivation base of the lower dantian. Some of the audience had been there the day before and knew that he had previously used the lower dantian,
but the majority were unaware of this and as such many of them began booing, laughing at Hui
Yue and even taunting him.
Sighing deeply Hui Yue blocked out sound from outside the stage and instead summoned Black Blood after which he activated the Velocity Flow Clone, having a copy standing side by side with him, instantly shut everyone up.
This was the first time it was possible to actually see what Hui Yue was doing, and the ability to copy oneself was something which usually was not possible unless you were a King or above. To see someone using such a high class skill while only having activated the lower dantian was enough to quiet everyone who had previously been talking.
Not only the loud mouths within the arena went quiet, even the masked cultivators and the other group which Hui Yue would face the following day stared at him intently, deeply shocked by what they saw. Could it be he really was an upper dantian ranked expert who somehow managed to make it seem as though he was nothing more than a lower dantian cultivator?
Hui Yue did not wait for long, as soon as the shock stunned the man in front of him, Hui Yue took action along with his copy, both of them lifting up Black Blood as they rushed towards the giant.
Jumping from the ground, Hui Yue landed on the back of the giant man with the copy right by his side. With the shaft of Black Blood, both Hui Yue and the copy slammed into the back of his neck, causing the giant man to fall instantly.
Silence swept across the arena as the fight lasted less than the blink of an eye. From the moment Hui Yue started moving to the time the man was on the ground less than a moment had passed, and everyone was stunned to see how it happened the way it did.
Chapter 36 – Next, Please
The reason Hui Yue managed to defeat the giant man so quickly was exactly because of his size. Hui Yue was small and nimble. From the tender age of five he had practiced Velocity Flow and it was a martial art which increased his speed by immense amounts. After having evolved the copy into a true clone with an equal amount of damage as him, Hui Yue could truly use his strength and his speed to beat a much larger and slower opponent.
The man was lying down still alive on the ground. Hui Yue did nothing else but hit him with the back of Black Blood and as soon as the giant collapsed, Hui Yue sheathed his dagger placing it within his memory stone once more.
The opposing team was filled with rage and hate, their eyes promising Hui Yue a world of pain as they carried their friend off the stage, but none of them dared to make a move to attack.
Hui Yue looked at them with annoyance, however, he became slightly alert as his next opponent stepped up.
This man was much smaller than his previous opponent, but he was still taller than Hui Yue. He was so slim that it seemed as if a small breeze would blow him away, but despite this Hui Yue felt as though there was something about the man he could not put his finger on.
Narrowing his eyes, Hui Yue observed the man in front of him, yet no matter what he saw everything seemed incredibly weak and not dangerous in the slightest. Looking at him, Hui Yue was more and more certain that he was hiding his strength much like he was, but this man was doing so without a cloak causing the white-haired boy to be extra careful. To mask one’s cultivation base one had to be very strong.
Looking at both men, the host could feel the sharp rise in tension and a smile appeared on his face. Although he enjoyed watching the sheer power of someone overpowering another, he still preferred watching fights where two equal opponents were clashing against each other.
Although the man opposing Hui Yue was not as strong as the latter, it was obvious that Hui Yue could not easily defeat him as he had done before. This meant that Hui Yue would have to reveal some of his true strength.
“Let the fight begin!” The host said with a big smile on his face as he quickly retreated, allowing for Hui Yue and his opponent to start the battle.
Hui Yue decided to test out this new person by releasing Black Blood from its sheath and activating Velocity Flow, rushed towards his target, only to feel how the dagger was deflected by a hand as hard as steel.
Furrowing his brows, Hui Yue instantly retreated and less than a second after retreating, Hui Yue noticed a steel hand slicing through his afterimage, cutting it in half.
Surprise was evident within the eyes of his opponent. He had clearly not expected Hui Yue to be so quick, but he was not the only one surprised. Hui Yue was shocked because his attack was deflected, and he finally started to get completely serious observing every move done by the long slim opponent.
The size of the man was the exact opposite of his previous opponent and this man specialized in speed, his ability in this aspect was even faster than Hui Yue. Even though he was faster than Hui Yue, the white-haired boy did not despair, as he knew that speed was not the only thing he specialized in.
The man knew his speciality was speed and without waiting for Hui Yue to attack, he instantly dashed towards him wielding his hand like a weapon, a metal coloured hue shone from it making Hui Yue understand that it was currently merged with the Metal element.
Knowing that, Hui Yue finally released some of his spiritual energy and with bu
t a thought an earthen shield appeared around Hui Yue.
Seeing the shield, the rushing man sneered and with a heavy slam of his palm, the shield collapsed right in front of Hui Yue. A smile of excitement appeared on his lips as he saw how he was able to deal with Hui Yue only to see that the young man was no longer behind the shield.
Shock filled his eyes. The shield was round and the only way to leave was to either dig into the stage or to fly into the sky above.
Flying was something everyone wished to achieve, but none had unless e they were gods or creators of very rare art which taught them flight.
Glancing at the stage nothing had disturbed it leading the man to think that Hui Yue had not escaped into the ground and with astonished eyes he look into the air where Hui Yue was floating on a Qi Fan.
The entire arena was dead silent. Hui Yue was still only releasing the strength of his lower dantian, yet here he was floating in the air on a small fan created from pearly white lustrous Qi.