Chapter 556: Reportedly, the People in Beijing Are Going to Celebrate the Long Weekend.
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
"Senior Brother, do you really want to run the tournament?"
In the bedroom, Liu Li sat on the head of the bed and curiously asked. Her eyes were filled with eagerness.
Wang Lu said, "Of course, that's a really good opportunity. Although the majority of Moonless' harem are wastes, the number of masters is not small either. The lead concubine, concubine Xiao Yun is a Yuanying level expert, and on paper, her strength is not weaker than the head guard Han Yu. Unfortunately, after many years of harem infighting, her fighting ability had degenerated, so much that she might even only be able to use twenty to thirty percent of her ability. Now if we give them a chance to adjust their mindset and condition, after five days, we could gain endless experience.
"Great!" Liu Li could not help but touch her sword, Skybreaker.
Although most of the people in the harem were above her in term of cultivation base, Liu Li still had a strong desire to fight everyone—including Wang Lu himself.
It was good to take adventures with Wang Lu and have fun together, but if she had the opportunity to consolidate her cultivation base and refine her swordsmanship, that would be even better.
As for Wang Lu, things that he needed to consider were a bit more complicated.
From the very beginning, Wang Lu's actions were not that simple. The whimsical proposal of the harem tournament could not be passed from the result of simply relying on luck.
According to Moonless temperament, it was almost impossible to tolerate his offense. Let alone fighting with the harem members in Moon Capital, he even wounded the head guard. Not to mention that he came there with the letter recommendation from her old friend Li Yan, even if Li Yan herself was there, Moonless would still have to punish him to maintain her dignity.
Of course, the idea of harem tournament was good, but Wang Lu who proposed the idea, at most, only had to die with a bit less pain, and not be thrown into the dungeon and tortured to death.
What really made Moonless hold back was the sword strike that broke the original magical ability of Han Yu.
With the combined power of Wang Lu and Liu Li, they perfectly guided the Skybreaker. The power of that sword strike was powerful enough to make most of Daoist Master of Yuanying Stage to palpitate.
Of course, it was still far from being able to threaten a Deity Stage cultivator. If that sword strike was aimed at Moonless, she did not need to use any magical treasure to block it, her body defense alone was enough. However, the point of Wang Lu's sword strike was not to hurt the enemy, but to demonstrate something—how could a Jindan Stage cultivator unleash such a sword strike?
Although there are many Jindan Stage cultivators in this world, the ones that could unleash such an earth-shattering sword strike were simply unheard of for most of the people. Such a Jindan Stage cultivator could never be a nameless person. And the backing of one such person was likely to be even more terrifying, which Moonless would never risk provoking. The seventh rank out of the nine layers of heaven in Temple of Heaven was certainly awesome, but compared to those who could cultivate out such as a Jindan Stage cultivator, even Harmonious Heaven herself seemed insignificant.
Moonless was arrogant, cruel and opinionated, but as a political figure, she had near perfect political acumen. In the Palace of Heaven, she was like a vassal lord, so there was already no further improvement there for her. Thus, she used all of her keenness on how to preserve her current position.
Whether it was the omnipresent Moon Capital, the extravagant lakes of wine and forest of meat, or even the ridiculously huge harem, all were just means by which she showed her ambition to others. Only those who stood still without advancing could live in such extreme extravagance. Those who seek far-reaching goals would often pretend to be a moral saint. Thus, being unscrupulous in the Palace of Heaven, her goal was naturally just to remain as a vassal lord and not to look for further extravagance. At the same time, she would never offend anyone who she should not offend.
It was this complicated political move that made Moonless finally tolerate Wang Lu's impertinence, and even assigned him to complete the preparation for the harem tournament.
In these few days, it was likely that Moonless would exhaust all of her resources to dig out the bottom of Wang Lu and Liu Li. Of course, she couldn't get any result, but it was exactly because she couldn't get any result that she would instead refrain from shooting at the rat for fear of breaking the vases (to not act against an evil so as to prevent harm to innocents), not daring to act rashly.
With Moonless' wisdom, she would eventually find out that Wang Lu and Liu Li did not have any backing in Heavenly Earth. However, it was not known how long it would take. At least it would be enough for Wang Lu to utilize this time to use the resources in Moonless' hand to increase his experience.
For the current Wang Lu and Liu Li, nothing was more suitable than competing in a tournament to their heart's content. Most of the opponents were between Jindan and Yuanying, which was exactly the perfect opponents for the two of them, wherein they could fight with them seriously, and even take some risks, but not too powerful that they simply could not cope with. Moreover, according to the rules of Moonless, the life and death in the tournament was the destiny of each of the participant, meaning they could kill their opponent with impunity.
The life and death battle was unusual. In each fight, the profit would be more than ten times as many as that of an ordinary fight. Of course, the premise was not to suffer a grave injury in the fight. Thus, this could be said as a form of cultivation training in which both risk and benefit coexist.
Only with such a growth rate could the needs of Wang Lu and Liu Li be satisfied.
——
Five days later, the Moon Capital harem tournament began on schedule.
The venue was located in the middle of Moon Capital, which was part of Moonless' training area.
Under Wang Lu's careful preparation, although it was only five days, the opening ceremony still presented a series of brilliant, dazzling, and feast-for-the-eye programs. Each and every guard that surrounded the training area of Moon Capital could not take their eyes off it. Although their duty dictated that they could not show any response, their focused stance still revealed their true thought.
At the top center of the audience sitting area, even the head concubine Xiao Yun who had always been careful and calculating in her speech revealed a smile from time to time, on the one hand pointing at the performance on the training floor while on the other hand talking to Moonless. She was talking and Moonless was listening. From the beginning to the end of the ceremony, Moonless didn't even say anything.
At the end of the opening ceremony, the first round of tournament began very quickly. The actors who were still performing on the training field immediately put on their martial attire and waited for their turn.
Even the head concubine had stepped down and changed her attire into a lightweight yet gorgeous fighting suit. Thus, there was no one else in the audience area, except for a few bureaucrats trusted by Moonless and Moonless herself.
"Then, for the first match, I will fight against Xiao Murong."
Standing in the middle of the training field, as both the host and the first contestant, Wang Lu said with a smile.
At the same time, a woman with a scowling face came up to the stage and looked at Wang Lu. She was so angry that it seemed as if her eyes were about to spit fire.
Xiao Murong was the one mistaken by Wang Lu as the head concubine five days ago. At that time she was then punched by him after she took a few other concubines with her to find trouble for Wang Lu and Liu Li—this was also the custom of the senior harem members for the newcomers. Who knew that this new person was completely ignorant of what the rules were. Thus, when he landed his punches, it washed away the prestige that Xiao Murung had accumulated for many years.
After being seen in a bloody nose and unconscious, she would never have any respect from others. Even her previous backer concubine Xiao Yun no longer wanted to meet with her. Thus, Xiao Murong would never find her place in the harem, unless she could defeat this opponent in the fighting tournament, thus washing away her humiliation.
She had no way to retreat.
Five days was not enough for her to completely regain her enthusiasm as an ascetic monk of the Temple of Heaven. However, she still had the confidence that she could defeat her opponent. Because in Wang Lu's hand was the Sword of Mount Kun, and not Skybreaker. And in Xiao Murong's hand was the spiritual sword "Colorless Moon" borrowed from concubine Xiao Yun.
Without Skybreaker, she did not believe a mere middle-level Jindan could once again produce such an earth-shattering sword strike. As a peak Jindan herself, with the help of Colorless Moon, she actually dared to take a fight against a Daoist Master of Yuanying Stage for less than a day. Thus, in this situation, she was sure of her success.
In fact, when the match started, Xiao Murong immediately grasped the initiative on the scene. In her hand, the one-meter long Colorless Moon sword was as nimble as dagger, very well-suited with her own Yin and Yang Heart Protection Mirror, causing the training area to continuously alternate between day and night. From time to time the flying sword appeared in her hand and in other times, it was sent out by her to injure the opponent. The sword light was sometimes as thin as crescent moon, and sometimes full like full moon, round and flawless.
Xiao Murong had almost regained more than ninety percent of her peak strength, so the speed of her sword was dazzling, and it seemed that the newcomer was completely suppressed.
However, not long after, people found out that, regardless how Xiao Murong varied her attack, the golden sword defense remained unmoved, and the long-haired woman in the middle of the sword defense—which was the appearance used by Wang Lu—almost yawned.
Xiao Murong's face turned deep red from being ashamed. Thus, she stopped her flashy but lacking substance sword attack and started to concentrate her power on one spot.
Colorless Moon was a spiritual sword, and if the difference in the sword spirit was ignored, it was actually higher in rank than the Sword of Mount Kun. Under the full strength of Xiao Murong, it was as if the essence of pure moonlight that flowed on the surface of the sword shamed that of the real moon.
The next moment, when the sword potential was about to be completely filled, Xiao Murong suddenly unleashed it, trying to catch the opponent off guard. In her view, previously when Wang Lu could block her attack with his sword defense, there was some pre-judgment element in it. Thus, as long as she could cut off this pre-judgment of the other side, she could break the opponent's sword defense.
Xiao Murong was moving as agile as monkeys with this sword strike, while ensuring that every part of her power was squeezed into the Colorless Moon. In an instant, the spiritual sword flew, along with her. In her field of vision, the opponent on the training field was suddenly enlarged, and also with the appearance of seemingly unprepared.
Victory seemed to be at her fingertips.
And then Xiao Murong felt a vigorous explosive force coming from the sword in her hand, which subsequently surged along her arm and spread to all over her body. Under the pressure of this giant force, her repeatedly tempered Jindan Stage body appeared to be incomparably frail. Her bones broke and her muscles torn. At the last moment, before her consciousness disappeared, she vaguely saw her brains coming out from his split open brain.
The audience was shocked to see such a scene:
Xiao Murong unleashed her sword strike with all her strength, and her momentum seemed unstoppable. Then her sword connected with the sword defense. After a dull thumping sound, the sword defense shivered, but Xiao Murong's whole body turned into a mass of mincemeat.
"Phew, looks like I won."
After withdrawing his Sword of Mount Kun, Wang Lu waved his hand to the stunned-silent audience, and then, under the gaze of Moonless, stepped down from the arena.
After he stepped down, he vigorously raised his clenched fist in a celebratory gesture.
This was the first time he combined the rebound-shock ability of Non-Phase Sword with the primal chaos heaven splitting sword qi in the actual fight. When he rebounded the opponent's attack, he added his own strength with it. Therefore, at that time, Xiao Murong simultaneously received the full power strike of peak Jindan Stage plus Wang Lu's own heaven splitting sword qi. Even if she had ten Yin and Yang Heart Protection Mirrors, they still could not protect her life.
However, such an achievement could only be formed rapidly in the actual battle of life and death. It would take an unknown amount of time to perfect this skill solely relying on training in seclusion and the cultivation of primordial spirit.
Wang Lu raised his head and looked at the harem members who watched the fight from the participant's bench, but what he saw were a group of fat and plump free experience value.