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Yi Yi stood her ground as the burly Body-tempering Cultivator charged headlong in her direction. Refusing to budge, she fired spell after spell. Each one hit her enemy’s shield eliciting bright, blinding flashes; one was matched with a disdainful smirk from the enemy Body-tempering Cultivator whose advance was not at all bogged down by her defiant attacks.
Although that did not prevent the enemy from thinking, [Why the hell is this tiny female Spell Cultivator not running at all?]
Any other opponent weaker in both power and physical endurance would have long turned around to flee! Even if one were to stand and fight, they would at least prepare to duck! [But why is she not doing anything at all?]
But there was no more time to think. The Body-tempering Cultivator was just meters away from Yi Yi. Despair and despondency vanished from his eyes as he perished the thought of killing her. The sapling of hope for survival budded; he could catch her alive and use her to barter for his life!
He thrust his shield forward like a battering ram. At the same time, he was mindful enough to go soft; too much force and he was afraid that he might kill her instead.
But instead, he felt nothing. The moment he expected resistance, there was none. The Body-tempering Cultivator’s eyes went as wide as saucers with utter disbelief.
Just when he was about to bash his shield into the frail and lithe figure of his opponent, she had sunken right through the ground and discorporated like water seeping into soil!
[What was that?!]
[What the hell just happened?!]
As his mind misfired with chaos, the Body-tempering Cultivator could barely comprehend what in the world was going on. A living person who was still walking and talking had just vanished into the ground right before him! Yet the ground was still intact! There was no hole, no crater, or even a tunnel!
Was it all just a bad dream or just his own hallucination?
He could not make heads or tails of the female Cultivator’s disappearance, but he could not dwell on that mystery any longer; something was coming for him from behind and it was closing in fast!
He swiveled around frantically and the first thing that immediately reflected in his eyes was the scarlet luminescence that bristled the saber now falling down on his head. The Body-tempering Cultivator furiously lifted his shield.
A clumsy clang of steel shook the shield violently enough for him to stagger backward. The wounds he incurred had practically halved his physical strength.
But his opponent was already wheeling around for another exchange. The Body-tempering Cultivator mustered what remained of his strength and leaped to his feet. He needed to get out— pronto.
Thinking of dragging another enemy down into the grave with him initially, his plan was foiled the moment his target had vanished. Therefore, the Body-tempering Cultivator was only bent on escaping. Dying for nothing now was the last thing he had in mind.
Lu Ye stared as his opponent ascended into the air. The wooden weapons case hanging on his waist trembled as nine sparks of light tore out in unison, just as he finished delivering the last of his three successive lightning-quick strikes.
Three luminous crescents screamed through the air, swarming around the Body-tempering Cultivator like an enveloping maneuver.
Heavy thuds cascaded as the Body-tempering Cultivator’s lumbering girth recoiled wildly as all nine flying weapons pummeled at him from behind before the three crescent-shaped blasts slammed into him. Plummeting from fifty meters high, he crashed into a smoldering heap on the ground amid his agonizing screams.
Discombobulated by the fall, he had only just regained his sight after seconds of disorienting sparkles blinding his vision when he saw a sly and triumphant grin staring down at him. Gripping his weapon, Lu Ye unfeelingly and mercilessly sank the steel of his weapon straight through his opponent.
The tip skewered through his chest and came out his back.
The Body-tempering Cultivator spasmed and stiffened. His hand groped for Lu Ye’s face as if, in his final moments, he wished to at least see who it was who had killed him.
But it was all for nothing.
Lu Ye withdrew his weapon and deep claret ichor bubbled out of the wound. The dying Cultivator’s large hands drooped lifelessly back down as the final glimmers of life in his eyes gradually ebbed away.
A speck of red glow flew up from the dead body and into Lu Ye’s hand.
He bent down to collect the dead man’s Spirit Artifacts and removed his Storage Bag. After making sure that he did not miss any of the loot, he waved at Yi Yi, “Let’s go!”. They had stayed longer than they had supposed to here.
News of the Carnage Colosseum’s emergence must have reached the ears of those who were around and anyone entering the Colosseum would surely pass by these areas—the Colosseum’s outer periphery.
To top it off, those who possessed the confidence and courage to step into the Carnage Colosseum at this moment were those with utmost assurance of their abilities. Meeting such opponents would only spell trouble if not doom.
To say nothing of champions and elites who were already inside the Colosseum in the first place. They would be rushing to the outer periphery at this time so that they could intercept any Cultivators from opposing factions and eliminate them to ensure an early advantage!
Therefore, for a Cultivator of middling abilities like Lu Ye, he needed to get out of this place as soon as possible in the early hours of the Carnage Colosseum’s opening.
By his reckoning, this place would be the site of a massive bloodbath that he expected to last at least three days.
Yi Yi vanished back into Amber as Lu Ye sped forward with the tiger.
The latter did not choose to fly. Running on foot might be slower than flying, but the difference in speed was not far off thanks to Glyph: Windwalk.
As they sped ahead, Lu Ye spied something bright streaking across the sky.
He halted. He looked up and saw a pennant unfurling in mid-air, pulsing with a morbid-red sheen that rippled across the banner-like mysterious object like blood.
The size of the pennant was enough for every Cultivator within a radius of tens of thousands of miles—the entirety of the Carnarge Colosseum grounds—to see it clearly the moment they looked up.
The blood-red banner snapped in the high winds. Lu Ye was wondering what its purpose was before the enigma was cracked soon enough.
[That’s the Roster of the Carnage Colosseum! The Roster of Carnage!]
A sense of foreboding dread crept into him…
He had just killed a Cloud River Realm Fifth-Order… That Body-tempering Cultivator that he had just slain… His rank was higher than that of Lu Ye’s…
The gigantic pennant that was the Roster of Carnage fluttered. Rows of golden inscriptions magically appeared as if an invisible hand was doing the writing. Three columns—Names, Carnage Points, Rewards—rolled down.
The names were all listed according to rank. The first name at the top of the list would be the name of the leading contestant of this round.
The present ranking list were as follows:
Lu Yi Ye; one hundred and twenty points, a Primus-level Wisp of Sanctification and nine Golden Amulets.
Xia Liang; one hundred points; nine Golden Amulets.
Tang Ke; eighty points; seven Golden Amulets.
Yu Fumeng; fifty points; five Golden Amulets.
Tan Sheng; forty-five points; five Golden Amulets.
……
……
The corner of Lu Ye’s eyelids throbbed as he read his own name chased in gold.
That’s his name! In first place! The most conspicuous spot on the blood list!
He would have been less anxious if he were a strong and formidable Cultivator without equal. His name could be at the first place of the Roster of Carnage for all he cared and he wouldn’t even blink an eye. But right here, right now, the fact remained that he was just a Cloud River Realm Third-Order.
Having his name at the top of the list was no different from forcing him to walk the plank.
Every single Cultivator now inside the Carnage Colosseum would see and remember his name.
If there was any reason for relief, that would be the fact that the Roster did not include the names of the various sects and orders the contestants belonged to besides not mentioning their ranks of cultivation.
One mention of the Crimson Blood Sect and the entire Colosseum would be engulfed by turbulence. The rest of his fellow contestants might be oblivious to his name at the moment, but they would definitely recognise the Crimson Blood Sect.
Moreover, Lu Ye was confident that he only needed to lay low and bide his time. It would not be long before someone else had accrued more Carnage Points than him and taken his place at the top of the Roster.
The barely-a-dozen-or-so names on the Roster signified two things: the Carnage Colosseum had just emerged and the real bloodbath had not yet begun. Those whose names were listed on the Roster were the lucky ones who had found their prey and succeeded in bagging the kill.
If the Fifth-Order Body-tempering Cultivator had not appeared nearby and foolishly made his hostility known so openly, then Lu Ye and Yi Yi would not have been able to secure one kill so early.
A full Roster of Carnage should have a hundred names. At the moment, the rest of the Roster had yet to be filled up.
The “one hundred and twenty Points” that showed after Lu Ye’s name must be the points awarded to him for his kill. A Cloud River Realm Fifth-Order kill was forty points. But Lu Ye, by being a lower-rank, had defeated an enemy of superior rank, hence the bonus had brought the full figure up to a hundred and twenty,
That would mean that everyone’s points would be publicly displayed on the banner for all to see.
As for the Primus-level Wisp of Sanctification and the nine Golden Amulet; those had to be the rewards promised to the top Cultivator, which would only be conferred when the Colosseum closed. Lu Ye did not have the rewards yet.
He would though—if he managed to secure first place by the time the Carnage Colosseum ended.
But that was a hope as distant as reaching for the stars above.
Then again, the rewards had always been different every time the Carnage Colosseum opened. A Carnage Colosseum that encompassed a wider area would have better prizes. With this being a large-scale Colosseum, the rewards were rich enough.
Nine Golden Amulets would have made it so easy for Lu Ye to rise through five Orders without any difficulty.
In addition, the prize of a Primus-level Wisp of Sanctification, too, was enticing enough. A Wisp of that class could make any spot of ground extraordinarily rich with ambient Spiritual Qi.
A Tertius-level Wisp would have far lesser potency. But if he could get ahold of a Primus-level Wisp, then it would be a great boon to both him and Yi Yi.
Lu Ye looked at the second place. The rewards were rich enough—just as well as the first place, but without the Wisp of Sanctification.
The second runner-up would receive two less Golden Amulets.
Those in the fourth to the sixth places would win five Golden Amulets apiece, while the rest within the best ten contestants of the list would be awarded three.
Everyone else up until the twentieth place would still win a Golden Amulet or two.
Contestants after the twentieth place would be awarded a Purple Amulet or two.
Blue Amulets would be rewarded to those between the fiftieth and the hundredth.
That was it. The end of the Roster of Carnage. Whether those beyond the one-hundredth mark would win any prizes or not, Lu Ye couldn’t tell. There could be something—or maybe nothing.
Nevertheless, it went without saying that the first ten places—most especially the first three—offered the best rewards. Just the amount of Golden Amulets could make anyone—Lu Ye included—salivate.
So much so that the Cloud River Realm elites in this bloody tournament would bend over backwards to get as high a placing as possible.
Understandably so, since just one or two Golden Amulets could barely do them any good. Winning as many Golden Amulets as possible was very likely their only chance to further their long-hampered progress.
Across the tens of thousands of miles wide expanse, Cultivators were hurrying this way. Soon enough, the beginning of the huge slaughter known as the Carnage Colosseum would be underway. Lu Ye was not expecting himself to achieve any favorable results; what mattered above all else was survival.
He could not get out, hence he had to do whatever necessary to survive! [To survive is to win!]
Right now, he was concerned with his name being at the top of the Roster of Carnage. He could almost feel a target painted on his back and eyes watching him from the shadows. If that were true, then danger was coming and he needed to do something if he didn’t want to end up dead.
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