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Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan’s ambush had taken up all of the enemy Cultivators’ attention and the enemy Spell Cultivator did not notice another opponent behind him. By the time Lu Ye had delivered his blow, it was too late.
He instantly crashed to the ground after barely taking flight. The impact left him breathless and dizzy for a second before he saw the glint of steel descending down on him.
Frantically, the Spell Cultivator channeled his Spiritual Power and summoned his protective aura only to watch it shatter three seconds after it materialized by the blow falling on his head.
The air was rent with the sound of steel as the Spell Cultivator bore the brunt of the blows falling in interweaving flurries. The loud impacts echoed as the Spell Cultivator’s entire form trembled and convulsed under the weight of the onslaught. The protective aura’s integrity ultimately crumbled under the relentless assault, leaving him exposed and open to the next barrage of steel that easily ripped him apart, body and soul.
With his vision and life slowly ebbing away, the Spell Cultivator collapsed.
Lu Ye raced to rejoin the others. Feng Yuechan had not stopped firing spell after spell at the Body-tempering Cultivator to keep him busy while Li Baxian’s profuse shafts of light soared around like a tempest, preventing the incapacitated enemy Cultivators from being rescued.
With a wave of his hand, the shafts of light withdrew the moment he saw Lu Ye speedily approaching, and he directed them at the enemy Body-tempering Cultivator.
The pair of heavily-wounded Cultivators had not even exhaled with relief when Lu Ye was already upon them. All it took was a couple of swishes and the two men crumpled to the floor, as dead as a pair of doornails.
Lu Ye would not have been able to dispatch them both with such ease if it were under normal circumstances; both a Fourth- and Fifth-Order could easily give him a hard time. It was Li Baxian’s successful ambush that had incapacitated them badly enough for anyone or even an ordinary Third-Order to deliver the final coup de grace.
With the two finally dealt with, Lu Ye rejoined the others in dealing with the final enemy remaining: the Body-tempering Cultivator.
Mere seconds had passed since Feng Yuechan engaged the Body-tempering Cultivator and the addition of Li Baxian into the fray had left the enemy Cultivator littered with wounds all over him. The burly enemy failed to keep up with the intensity and speed of the swarming shafts of light and Feng Yuechan’s spells were not making things easier. One after another, the spells hammered into him like a battering ram that the shield Spirit Artifact that he was using had long been knocked out of his grasp.
But with Lu Ye joining in, his fate was as sealed as a fully-nailed coffin.
Seconds later, the giant Body-tempering Cultivator of a man crashed to the ground. Lu Ye bolted after the speck of white light still bobbing in mid-air and thrust his hand into it. He felt his fingers closing in on something solid and seized it, then he raced around to collect the ward flags that he had placed around the site of the battle without even a look at what he had retrieved from the white light of the Endowment.
In the meantime, Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan cleared up the dead bodies and stripped them of anything useful.
“Let’s go!” Lu Ye called everyone.
All three of them hurried back to the cave.
To remain safe would mean that they should not dawdle at the site of the battle. The skirmish might have been a short one, but the commotion it caused could have attracted the attention of anyone—or any enemies—nearby.
Fighting and moving like that might be a big hassle, but it was the safer way.
A quarter of an hour later, everyone was back inside the cave, seated on the ground.
“I’ve taken a look at the Carnage Roster, brother. The increase of Carnage Points on the first name is the same as what you should be getting after those kills. I guess that means that it really is you,” said Li Baxian.
That was true; Lu Ye had taken a quick peek at the Carnage Roster himself on the way back here.
The four enemies that he had slain—three Fifth-Orders and one Fourth-Order—should garner him four hundred and thirty Carnage Points.
Since the number tallied with the gain of Carnage Points on the leading “Lu Yi Ye” name at the first place of the Roster, that would mean that it really was him.
That was a very rewarding attempt. Most high-tier Cultivators—including the second-placed Xia Liang—could only rake in five hundred Carnage Points on average every day. Yet in one skirmish alone, Lu Ye had gotten more than four hundred Points.
An amount that almost caught up to what Xia Liang could earn in one day.
Xia Liang’s Carnage Points total was so close to catching up with Lu Ye at first. One could almost guess how Xia Liang would react when he saw himself being further down in the list again.
Never before in the history of the Carnage Colosseum since its inception where a Third-Order—not even anyone below the Seventh-Order—managed to stay so comfortably at the first place of the Carnage Roster.
The usual contenders that led at the first three spots of the Carnage Rosters were usually Eighth- if not Ninth-Orders. In fact, most of the time the top three spots were usually occupied by Ninth-Orders. While there have been champions who had tried using the handicap to have a low-tier Cultivator rake in as many kills as possible to win more points, to really pull off such a trick was easier said than done.
To capitalize on the advantage offered by the handicap, certain conditions had to be met, the foremost being that the Cultivator concerned must not exceed the Fifth-Order, as the increments gained beyond this point would be too low to warrant any significant benefit.
To say nothing of the unexpected incidents that could be potentially disastrous, even with a Fifth-Order piggybacking a Ninth-Order.
Most Ninth-Orders got into fights involving at least one or more Ninth-Orders from the opposing faction. That would mean that the Ninth-Order would not be able to properly provide enough protection for his or her weaker partner, especially during a very fierce battle. If anything were to happen to the weaker partner, the Carnage Points that had been accumulated would be lost, making the whole endeavor a fool’s errand. If not for Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan’s arrival, plus that unique Gold Amulet event the reward of which had propelled him to the top of the Carnage Roster and provided him with a sound basis for this adventurous undertaking, Lu Ye would not have conceived the idea of wanting to contest for the first prize. He would rather hide somewhere safe and wait until the Colosseum ended.
Everyone laid the booty they had collected on the ground before Lu Ye so that he could undo the magical seal of the Storage Bags.
Undoing the seals had now become as easy as drawing Inviolable from its sheath. f𝐫eewenove𝗹.𝗰o𝚖
It took just a few moments for him to finish opening all of the Storage Bags which he divided into three portions. Two of these portions he handed to Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan.
Next, he emptied the Bags of their contents; this time, there wasn’t anything valuable.
It was time he had a look at whatever it was he got from the Endowment speck of light. He had grabbed it and stuffed it into his Storage Sphere in his haste to vacate the site of the battle earlier. But when he took it out, to his surprise, it was a flower. A magical flower.
The last time he got something from an Endowment like this, it yielded a White Amulet…
But his guess was spot-on. The Endowments that scattered all over the Colosseum really did come in various types, shapes, and sizes.
Lu Ye knew little about medicine and herbs, hence he could not tell what kind of magical flower it was or what its properties and medicinal functions were. Right now, he could only surmise that it wasn’t anything rare or precious.
But whatever it was, it could wait until he had the chance to meet Shui Yuan and hand it to her.
It was to Lu Ye’s favor that the wait wasn’t too long and the battle ended quickly. Lu Ye and his companions were not yet spent, but they decided to wait out inside the cave for another couple of hours to make sure that the earlier battle had not attracted the focus of anyone dangerous. When the wait was finally up, they stepped out of the cave.
They headed for more than a dozen miles in another direction until they found a spot where Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan split off again like the last time to allow Lu Ye to begin setting up his magical ward.
Once the trap was ready, they waited to spring their trap.
Last time, success only came because of the sudden appearance of that Endowment. It attracted a bunch of Thousand Demon Ridge Cultivators that ultimately became their prey. But this time, they waited for more than a day and a night. Many Cultivators had passed by their hiding spot, but every one of them was at least Seventh-Orders and above which Lu Ye and his companions would rather give a wide berth.
It was almost evening when they finally saw a group of three passing by.
Li Baxian revealed himself first to draw their attention. But when he attacked, he realized that his Battlefield Imprint did not have any reaction at all.
He immediately withdrew his attack, much to the panic and surprise of all three strangers, although they quickly realized that this was just a big misunderstanding.
They were allied Cultivators from Grand Sky Coalition.
Now that their affiliations have been made clear, there was no reason to involve any hostilities. Li Baxian had a quick talk with them to explain everything and the three scurried away at once.
Hence the wait went on. There was no telling if any more prey would wander this way and if there were, they could be members of the Grand Sky Coalition—which was a question where the answer would be revealed only during an attack on the prey.
Nevertheless, both Li Baxian and Lu Ye did not grow weary or restless at all.
They understood very well that right now, here in the large expanse of the Colosseum, their cultivation remained their single-most glaring weakness. Third- and Fourth-Orders were the flesh that the strong feasted on. Hence, to make sure that their safety was ensured, patience and fortitude were crucial elements to their plan.
Hours passed before another group of three passed by. Li Baxian spearheaded the ambush again and this time, his Battlefield Imprint throbbed. It glowed bright and blue whilst the Imprints of the three blazed with a fiery-red luminescence.
The marauders reaped success. Li Baxian badly injured one while wounding the remaining two in the first contact and by the time Feng Yuechan joined in the fight, the victory was sealed.
This also proved Lu Ye’s earlier hypothesis that most low-tier Cultivators traveled in groups; those of the Seventh-Order and beyond usually operated alone.
The three Thousand Demon Ridge Cultivators were all Fifth-Orders and the combined element of surprise by both Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan easily trampled whatever defense they attempted in their moment of desperation.
All Lu Ye had to do during the gritting battle was maintain his cover and stealthily join in.
At the end of the battle, all that was left were three dead bodies reeking of blood and success, which had translated to a three-hundred-and-sixty Carnage Points increment.
Somewhere far away, Xia Liang lifted his head to look at the Carnage Roster, and what he saw struck such disbelief into him that the corners of his eyes throbbed.
[Is that Lu Yi Ye having a go at me?!]
He had been feeling that way since Lu Yi Ye had raked in one thousand Carnage Points and dethroned him from the first spot.
He had been roaming far and wide lately, looking for any Grand Sky Coalition Cultivators he could sink his blade into to garner more Carnage Points. Every day, he had been rushing to catch up to Lu Ye, but just when he thought he was going to overtake Lu Ye, the latter would suddenly gain several hundred Carnage Points, casting him further behind once again.
Just when the gap between their Carnage Points was only a hundred or so, it turned into four hundred plus again!
[Damn you!] Xia Liang cursed quietly.
But that was not all. As if he was not annoyed and frustrated enough, there was one more problem on his plate, a Grand Sky Coalition Ninth-Order had been hunting and harassing him.
The unknown Ninth-Order wasn’t high up on the Carnage Roster; he was somewhere in the teens. Lacking enough luck, his chance of getting within the top three places was steadily slipping out of sight.
Therefore, this unknown Ninth-Order had abandoned his earlier vocation and had somehow devoted himself to harassing and sabotaging Xia Liang, all the while keeping himself unseen as he kept closely behind the Raving Bladesmen champion.
Xia Liang would have easily defeated the Ninth-Order if it were open combat. But this mysterious Ninth-Order was smart enough to employ guerrilla tactics that even he could barely find a way around, and that annoyed him—immensely.
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