The people were silent yet again, not from being shocked about Zhang Liu’s one-hit knockout. They were looking up into the highest VIP booth where Yang Kai was sitting in. Everyone here knew by now that this man had a bad temper and was quite unreasonable. He wouldn’t have set up this bet otherwise.
Everyone here just wanted to leave at this point. They weren’t allowed though as various Dark Palm Sect members poured in and already surrounded the area around the colosseum to keep people from escaping. This was their turf and one of their important elders was in the middle of something. No one from them cared what this something was, they were just there to silence the people if push came to shove.
“GET UP!… I ORDER YOU TO GET UP!”
Yang Kai shouted out while looking at his disciple that wasn’t looking all that handsome anymore. His face was caved in, a fist mark visible in that spot. The youth was out cold, his body was just twitching slightly from the abrupt ending that it had suffered.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING, I WILL DISOWN YOU, YOU USELESS TRASH!”
The man continued berating his disciple, still hoping that there was a chance to save his good name. He didn’t even care about the lost wager as much as losing face due to this whole thing. First, his disciple turned out to be weaker than some tiny Zhang Clan junior with no background whatsoever. Secondly, he would lose the bet if that disciple of his didn’t wake up making him the master of a trash like that.
While this was going on Zhang Liu was slowly calming himself down. He had managed to land a perfectly placed counter on the man’s face, but this was more luck than skill and he knew that. Deng Cai had miscalculated, thinking that his opponent was much weaker. This gave him the needed chance to use his lesser version of the Embodiment of the Thunder God to deliver a devastating finisher.
This technique was really difficult to use with his current cultivation, he could already feel his muscles twitching and his bones rattling from the strain he had suffered. He quickly breathed out while canceling the technique, his body that was covered by lightning turned back to its regular form. The youth looked a bit pale, but he was mostly okay but his battle potential was only at about 50% at this moment.
Something strange happened next. Zhang Liu was also taught his Master’s aura detection techniques so he felt a strange shift. From the small gem that was embedded in Deng Cai’s forehead a strange energy started to radiate.
Liu couldn’t really see it, but he could feel energy escaping from the chipped gem. It was as if a fountain of water shot out into the sky into various directions and small orb-like will of whisps shoot out into the distance. The places they were going were varied, some flew back into the town as if they were searching for something or someone. Some of them just launched themselves into the distance, a long journey ahead of them.
Just a few moments after this transpired at a small house there was a certain woman. She was tired, her eyes looked to be red along with her nose. The woman looked at a certain child that was laying in a bed, the boy’s was diagnosed with a strange sickness not too long ago and was fated to soon die. This wasn’t the only child in this small room, the kids were just hollow husks.
She was holding one of the children’s hands while trying not to cry. But all of a sudden she felt something, the boy’s finger twitched just a tad. The woman wasn’t a powerful cultivator so she didn’t notice, but the stolen fragment of his soul had just returned and it was embedding itself back into her comatose child.
“Little Tei?”
She jumped up with vigor and surprise as she called out the name of her child. The little one gave out a grunt in response as color started returning to his cheeks. The same thing started happening to all the other kids around her, everyone jerked a bit as they began waking up from the nightmare.
“Honey come quick!…T-the kids…the kids are waking up!”
Zhang Liu was oblivious to the fact that thanks to him, the people that Deng Cai had sucked fragments of their souls away had begun recovering. Not everyone could be saved, depending on the state their current bodies were in. But the most recent victims of the soul-sucking were all starting to recover.
Suddenly the white-haired youth felt a powerful gaze on him. His whole body trembled as some villainous aura surrounded him, not letting him move a muscle. He was somehow able to gaze upwards with only his eyes and a slight neck movement. His eyes met with the furious Yang Kai that switched his targets now. He was glancing at the person that caused him to lose the bet.
The core formation expert also had a gem ingrained in his forehead and he could see the soul fragments that were freed. That was a lot of work that went down the drain, as he knew well how the mysterious gem was used. This was something that he didn’t want to get discovered as this was clearly a technique used by demonic cultivators.
The soul fragments that were escaping couldn’t be stopped now while the soul gem was broken. The problem wasn’t that, but now there was the possibility of someone noticing that his disciple was using a demonic art.
Demonic and demon arts were characterized by a couple of things. There were mostly fashioned to increase the practitioner’s cultivation by hurting others. There were various ways, using someone’s blood, their flesh, or even their souls. A demonic art would suck your target dry and transfer part of their straight into the demonic cultivator. These arts were ghastly, cruel, and looked down upon by most people in this world.
This didn’t keep certain people from cultivating them though. These techniques and skills were inhumane but they worked. It was far easier to absorb someone’s body of work with the vampire-like demonic arts than spend millennia trying to better yourself on your own.
“Did anyone notice…should I silence them all…but first…”
Yang Kai narrowed his eyes and looked at the youth that defeated his disciple. If he decided to keep his word, he would have to declare this Zhang junior the victor and leave everyone alone. Still, he didn’t feel like he had an obligation to do that, these trash cultivators from god know where didn’t deserve any mercy, they had made a fool out of him and now they needed to pay the price.
“What is this, that young man clearly used some kind of demonic technique to win this fight, you all witnessed it!”
The man pointed out at Zhang Liu, the youth responded by looking up to the man shouting at him. The people in the area murmured among each other, not sure what the man was talking about. The person from the Zhang Clan had clearly won fair and square, the other person was also clearly the bad guy in this situation that was holding everyone hostage.
“I said… you all witnessed it, right?”
Yang Kai released his whole core formation great circle aura throughout the whole colosseum. The people that weren’t really fighters felt the weight of the world on them as they knelt down.
“Yes, elder Kai is right, I saw that child eat some kind of pill before attacking, that was clearly against the rules!”
A person shouted out, he was wearing a regular Dark Palm sect robe. This was one of the people that was guarding the area not letting people out. Due to his words the people in the audience noticed what this overbearing sect wanted them to do. The people winced from the oppressive aura that the cultivators from this sect started radiating.
“Y-yes… I saw him swallow a pill too…”
“The Senior is right, he clearly cheated!”
“He should be disqualified!”
Soon random voices were heard in the region. Everyone was willing to throw this youth under the bus just to save themselves. The people here were mostly cultivators from other clans and smaller sects. They all clearly didn’t want to have anything to do with this situation and with that dictatorial sect that was causing it. Some felt bad for the youth and the clan behind him, but it was better him than them.
Zhang Liu looked around the battle stage, the people were shouting at him. Their voices started out faint, but the longer he listened the louder it got. They even looked angry and started throwing food and other various things to the satisfaction of Yang Kai that was aiming for it. Zhang Jin and the others just gritted their teeth, the two Dark Palm sect elders moved closer and were keeping an eye on them, not letting them move a muscle.
“Hogwash!”
Huo Qiang declared while glancing at Yang Kai and all the people in the colosseum that were shouting out profanities.
“Watch your mouth!
One from the sect elders stepped over, his brows furrowed as he stared Qiang down.
“Young master clam down, you must not act!”
Huo Qiao stood up placing himself between Qiang and the Dark Palm sect member. He knew the big picture, if they acted now even their Patriarch wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. The red-haired man just clenched his fists tightly, he then sat himself down still deliberating on the best action to take.
‘What will that bastard do now…’
Zhang Jin thought to himself while looking at this helpless situation. The Feng women were to the side, they were just standing there not able to do anything besides watching things play out.
‘The boy is in danger… what am I supposed to do…’
The old man didn’t see this going anywhere positive. That Yang Kai was a typical tyrant that had to have his way. He wouldn’t budge an inch if he set his mind to it and he had the backing of nascent soul cultivators behind him.
Yang Kai smirked, he just needed to threaten the people here a bit and they all took his side. This is how the world operated here, the strong were worshiped while the weak were tossed aside. No one in their right mind would side with the people opposing him, if he wanted he even could make everyone present here disappear from the face of the planet.
“Yes, that’s right.”
He swished his sleeve and glanced down at the judge that was just standing there.
“Don’t you also think that he cheated and should be punished, honorable judge?”
The man started sweating, his palms already damp. There was no way that he could go against the young lord, but it made him look bad if he sided with him. In the end, he decided to take the hit to the face as he nodded.
“Y-yes, the young lord is right, the contestant named Zhang Liu clearly cheated… the match results are void.”
The man glanced at Yang Kai that was nodding while the judge was speaking.
“For his punishment he should be removed…”
The man that the judge was staring at suddenly moved his palm upwards indicating that he should stop talking.
“Honorable judge I think you should leave the punishment of this villain to me, he did harm my disciple.”
The judge nodded not wanting to argue with this nut case at all. The man clearly disowned his disciple a moment ago, now he was acting like a proper master who was trying to take his vengeance.
Yang Kai abruptly descended into the ring on his flying sword, the shield that was blocking Zhang Liu from leaving vanishing.
“You had your fun you little bug. You have only yourself to blame…”
Zhang Liu tried to move backwards but he couldn’t. His feet felt like they were glued to the ground and he felt a heavy burden on his whole body. He tried circulating his cultivation but it was to no avail, this man was just too powerful for this youth that was only in the foundation establishment realm.
Yang Kai just stood there, tiny orbs that looked to be made from earth hovered in front of him. The moment the man pointed with his finger one of those orbs shot forward at an astonishing speed. The rudimentary attack rapidly struck the white-haired youth’s thigh, penetrating it.
Zhang Liu gritted his teeth, blood gushed out but he was unwilling to show weakness even in this dire situation. This only made the Dark Palm sect Master angrier as he continued shooting the rock marbles at the defenseless youth. His shoulder, his other leg, his knee, and even his feet were the next targets as the young man was getting pelted with no remorse. If this continued for long, the youth would surely be dead…