“Do you… mean it?” a chaotic-blood demon covered in scales, with a lower body resembling that of a boa and a sharp bone blade on his right forearm, asked.
His tongue was exceptionally long and bifurcated, making it difficult for him to talk, but Li Yao could easily make out the earnestness in his words.
The staff of the Skeleton Island smiled and said slowly, “The Skeleton Island has grown into the greatest arena of Void Turmoil City with nothing except one word—’rules’. Whoever wins five battle will be granted freedom. It is a promise that the master of this island made to the Fire Ant King. Even if you do not believe in the master of the island, you should at least believe in the Fire Ant King!”
The staff glanced over them and continued. “On the Skeleton Island, there are also a lot of free gladiators. They have won five victories and are free to come and go. If you are unwilling to be the subordinates of the nobles, you can stay on the Skeleton Island as tutors or to join the battles again. One victory is enough for you to earn more than you have earned in the last ten years! When you meet them, you can ask them if it is true!”
Maybe because they believed his words, or maybe because they realized that the Skeleton Island was a secluded place with nowhere to run to, the obstreperous demons finally calmed down and landed on an empty field at the southeast of the Skeleton Island.
The demons on the flying bay rays walked down one after another. Only a few of them were still secured in rattling shackles.
Li Yao discovered that, on another flying bay ray not far away, the ten or so mutated Red Blood Bronze Bulls were wearing the same shackles as his. They were staggering down under the watch of the vigilant staff.
The muscular demon who had a circle of white hair on his neck and a broken horn sensed Li Yao’s observation. He grinned at Li Yao, revealing teeth that were even larger than Li Yao’s toes. He then raised the shackles on his hands. There was kindness in his smile, but there was more misery.
Li Yao raised his shackles, too, and waved them at the demon.
Right then, the two workers walked to Li Yao with great wariness and observed him for a long time before they opened their mouths and said, “Hey. You must have a clear understanding about the environment here now. It is better to try your luck in securing five victories than to escape, isn’t it?”
Li Yao looked around. The Skeleton Island was essentially a primitive forest that was ten times more gloomy than the Devil Flood Dragon Island where he had fought before. The trees were standing like swords, sabers, and spears. At the end of the forest, the roars of the ocean were coming over.
The electromagnetic field of the Void Turmoil Peninsula was extremely chaotic. Invisible turbulence was everywhere above the ocean, too. For the demons who were able to fly, it was easy for them to get caught in the turbulence and fall into the ocean.
In the eyes of normal demons, it was indeed a devastating situation without any escape.
The worker spoke again. “We have been informed that you also have a sister. It will be a clean death if you get killed in the ocean when you run away, but your sister will be tortured for all eternity because of you. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
Li Yao secretly chuckled. He was certain that few, if any, in the entire Blood Demon Sector was clever enough to torture Jin Xinyue.
But on the surface, he simply nodded.
“Excellent.” The worker was quite satisfied. “Judging from your attack, I can say that you are a tough one. But the years of hunting in the wilderness were too much of a waste of your talents. Fighting on the Skeleton Island, although dangerous, gives you access to strong techniques and drugs as well as the enlightenment of real experts. I believe that your capability will improve quickly!
“After you win five battles, both you and your sister will embrace a bright future. With the protection of the Skeleton Island and Void Turmoil City, nobody would dare lay their finger on you even if you walk out in daylight! Have you thought through everything?”
Li Yao nodded for the third time.
The worker observed him for a long time and noticed nothing wrong on his face. Finally, he chose to believe Li Yao temporarily and threw a key over. “Unlock the shackles yourself!”
The key was in the shape of a frozen bug, but after it reached Li Yao’s hand, the bug was gradually woken up and wriggled about. Li Yao was quite amazed.
Although Li Yao could break the shackle after a slight struggle, the lock produced in the secret arts of the demon race was still a big eye-opener for him.
Very soon, all the dangerous newcomers had been educated by the staff. Most of the demons accepted their new reality, but a tiny proportion of them were still on a rampage waywardly.
They were mostly black-blood demons.
The black-blood demons were the lowest class of the demon race. Most of them were highly unintelligent. Without training and mutation, their intelligence might not be at the level of a seven-year-old despite their enormous size.
Therefore, it was difficult for the black-blood demons to understand the coercion of the workers, and they were still struggling hard.
But very soon, dozens of other workers sprayed narcotic drugs on them, tied them up, and sent them somewhere else for refinement.
There were standard procedures on the Skeleton Island for the processing of new blood. Very soon, the newcomers were brought to different temples made of giant, green rocks inside the primitive forest.
Li Yao noticed that the most dangerous fellows had been arranged into the same spot. It was possible that they were deemed to be the most attractive ‘items’ for the arena and were worth special treatment.
However, if Jin Xinyue was right all the time, they would also be the most noteworthy ‘candidates’ for the Blade of Chaos.
A damp smell filled the temple’s interior. A few shallow pools had been dug deep inside the temple, in which several octopus-like demons were soaking.
Their eight tentacles were holding different drugs and medical facilities, and they were examining the bodies of the newcomers, checking how strong they were and whether or not they had been heavily wounded on the trip there.
With the help of the mental devil, Li Yao had already performed a series of minor modification to his body. He had built a ‘flesh membrane’ with the primeval cells inside his body and covered up the ‘second brain’ at the end of the spine. Therefore, he was not worried that anybody would find out that his body was not right.
Other than that, his left hand could grow a sharp claw, and the back of his hand was covered in vague scales, which were the obvious features of a chaotic-blood demon.
Of course, if it were the experts of the silver-blood demons who were performing a very thorough examination on his body, there was still risk that he would be found out.
However, gladiators were nothing but expendables in this place. Why bother with such thorough examinations?
As it turned out, since there were too many newcomers waiting to be examined, the doctors merely checked their appearance and collected one drop of blood after confirming that they were not wounded on the way there.
Li Yao pushed a drop of blood mixed with primeval cells to his fingertip, which was collected as he expected. Very soon, he was let through.
Within a side room at the rear of the temple, four torches as thick as arms were burning furiously on the walls. Their warmth relaxed all the demons whose nerves had been tightened for a long time.
Li Yao could tell that the fuel of the torches had a lot of pacification constituents that were not only working on his nerves but also manipulating his mind directly. Recalling the narcotic and berserker plants that the Fire Ant King planted, he could not help but feel alarmed.
In the war between mankind and the demon race, human beings were better at the studies of spiritual energy while demons distinguished themselves in cytology. In terms of the breeding of various kinds of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and the refinement of strengthening drugs, demons maintained a slim advantage. At the very least, that was the case in the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector.
Very soon, many servants who were also chaotic-blood demons brought them buckets of bright green drugs. Depending on their body size, the dosage of the drugs was different.
One of the workers gestured for them to drink all the drugs.
Naturally, Li Yao would not obey the command so easily. He extended his thumb to the drugs first and absorbed some of the drugs with his skin into his body for analysis.
“The constituents of the drugs are rather complicated. Some of them are meant to recover the strength and repair internal and external injuries. But the majority of them are designed to bombard the cells.”
The mental devil savored the drugs and said, “The purpose of such drugs, I’m afraid, is to stimulate the potential that is hidden deep inside the cells as much as possible so that the demons can fully release their savageness and boost their combat ability in the shortest amount of time possible.”
“Are there side effects?” Li Yao asked.
The mental devil chuckled and said, “Any training has side effects. When you punch a target, your fist will somewhat hurt, too. It is just a matter of degree.
“The drugs are very delicately made. A lot of the constituents inside can help stabilize and repair the body. The side effects of the drugs should be minimized.
“That’s rather strange. By my estimation, the ingredients for the constituents that can help stabilize and repair the body should be extremely expensive. Why are they used on the gladiators who are nothing more than expendables? It doesn’t seem to be a fair deal from any perspective.”
Li Yao smiled. “Of course, it is not a fair deal to use them on gladiators, but it is very worthwhile if they are used on the candidates of the Blade of Chaos!”
He stopped hesitating and chugged all the liquids inside the bucket!
BOOM!
A bucket of scorching magma seemed to have poured into his throat and leaked into all his veins, nerves, and internal organs through his stomach. All his nerve endings and cells were broken through and unleashed boundless strength!
Hu! Hu! Hu! Hu!
With the help of the mental devil, all the essence in every drop of the drugs was injected into the primeval cells precisely, making the mitochondria inside the cells even larger in size, which meant that they could output energy at a higher efficiency. The form of the cells was more stable than before, too!
On the surface, Li Yao’s skin was bright gold, as if clusters of air currents were spurting out of his pores nonstop, wreathing him in an unpredictable, phantom-like aura!
The rest of the demon drank the strengthening drugs. In the middle of the furious roars, they underwent far more unbelievable mutations than what Li Yao had experienced!