Chapter 130: 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.
To explain the tournament, it is as following; All mercenary groups are split into three categories; the weakest, the average and the strongest. The three groups finds a winner in each group. In the strongest group nine mercenary teams has the qualifications to enter. Since they are nine there will be one team not participating in each round. This team is found by a random when the teams who will fight each other is published.
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 c*cky 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.