Chapter 20
Li Mumin took it and scanned it with his spiritual sense. There was just enough blood essence for half a month.
Initially, he was worried that Zhang Chen would not be able to exchange for five bowls of essence blood a day, but over the past two months, he had completed it without any shortage. Instead, it was Li Mumin’s demon blood that was almost unable to keep up with the supply.
If it weren’t for the news of his promotion to the inner disciple had already spread, and many people had given him gifts and tried to curry favor with him, he would not have been able to obtain enough demon beasts and demon blood.
After putting away the blood bag, Li Mumin asked, “Tomorrow is the inner sect competition. Do you have confidence?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem to advance to the inner sect.” Zhang Chen was very calm. If he wanted to, he had the confidence to take first place, but he didn’t want to attract too much attention, and he also didn’t care about the reward of a small amount of essence blood.
“Okay, I will also be there tomorrow. I hope it’s as you said.” Li Mumin still had some doubts about Zhang Chen’s refusal to become his servant.
“Senior brother will come to watch me compete?” Zhang Chen was surprised. He didn’t think he held such a high position in Li Mumin’s heart.
After two years of contact, he knew that Li Mumin was very proud and indifferent. If someone could exchange for more blood essence for him, he wouldn’t mind changing his spokesperson.
Li Mumin shook his head, “I’m not going to watch you, but the sect arranged for me to preside over the competition and show my face in front of the disciples of the inner and outer sects, letting them know that another direct disciple has been born in the sect.”
“I see.” Zhang Chen nodded.
“Alright, focus on the competition these few days. After the competition is over, exchange for demon blood for me.” Li Mumin had no intention of continuing the conversation.
“Then I won’t bother you anymore.” Zhang Chen bowed and left.
The next day at dawn, many disciples had already gathered in the square, surrounding the arena and occupying the best viewing positions.
Not long after, 10 red figures landed on the stand. They were the direct disciples who had come to maintain order.
Li Mumin was among them. He was wearing a red robe that symbolized his status as a direct disciple. His face was expressionless as he coldly scanned the crowd below, as if he was searching for something.
Soon, his gaze stopped on Zhang Chen standing among the crowd.
Zhang Chen was also looking at Li Mumin. The two of them exchanged glances.
Then they looked away without any indication, like strangers.
Meanwhile, the people around Zhang Chen started to discuss in a buzz.
“The person who looked over just now was Senior Brother Li Mumin, who had just broken through to the Foundation Establishment realm and became an inner sect disciple, right?”
“I’ve seen him before. He’s indeed Senior Brother Li Mumin.”
“I wonder when we will also be able to break through to the Foundation Establishment and become inner sect disciples!”
…
Suddenly, everyone quieted down because a blood river appeared in the sky and in the blink of an eye, it was floating above everyone’s heads.
The smell of blood in the air was so strong that no one dared to take a breath.
Zhang Chen recognized this scene. It was the same phenomenon that occurred when Patriarch Blood River appeared during the sect assessment.
“Welcome, Elder Blood River!” The 10 direct disciples bowed to Patriarch Blood River.
It was indeed Patriarch Blood River.
Like everyone else, Zhang Chen bowed to Patriarch Blood River in the sky. “Welcome, Elder Blood River.”
Patriarch Blood River gathered and condensed into a figure that landed on the stands. “Let’s begin.”
“Under the command of the Elder, the Inner Sect Competition begins!” The 10 inner sect disciples announced loudly using their magical powers.
“Clang, clang, clang…” The sound of the bell echoed throughout the sect encampment.
Li Mumin jumped into the center of the arena. “A total of 280 outer sect disciples above the seventh level of Qi Refinement will participate in this inner sect competition.”
“To get into the top three…”
“…The first match, Lu Zhongping versus Liu Guangsheng.”
After Li Mumin finished reading, two figures came to the arena.
The two introduced themselves and exchanged greetings. Then, Li Mumin announced the start of the match and left the arena to activate the formation.
The inner sect competition went on in an orderly manner. Some matches were extremely intense and exciting, while others were one-sided and extremely boring.
Zhang Chen was both excited and nervous as he watched from the audience.
Although he had cultivated six magical spells and had reached the level of completion, he was still a little nervous since it was his first time fighting against someone.
While waiting nervously, Li Mumin finally read his name.
“The 32nd match, Zhang Chen versus Xu Zihua.”
It’s finally my turn!
Zhang Chen took a deep breath, exerted force with his feet, and jumped onto the arena.
Across from him was a man in his thirties, strong and fierce-looking with a muscular build, also at the seventh level of Qi cultivation.
As Zhang Chen appraised the other man, the man also appraised him.
“Outer sect disciple Zhang Chen (Xu Zihua), greetings to the elders and fellow brothers and sisters.”
“The match begins!”
Having witnessed many matches, Zhang Chen understood the principle of striking first to gain the upper hand.
The moment he heard the signal to start, he took a step forward and charged towards the other man, gathering his blood into a blade in his hand.
The other man’s reaction was not slow either. He raised his hand and condensed a stream of blood into the shape of an arrow.
“Swoosh~”
The blood arrow turned into a beam of light and shot towards Zhang Chen’s face.
Blood Arrow Technique?
Seeing the blood arrow, Zhang Chen recalled the description of the Blood Arrow Technique he had seen in the Technique Exchange Pavilion. It condensed blood into arrows that could pierce through rocks and boulders within a hundred feet.
I can’t take it head-on!
Zhang Chen shifted his body to the side and tilted his head.
The blood arrow cut through his nose. He could even smell the blood from the blood arrow.
“Wow! He dodged it!” The people below the stage exclaimed.
How is that possible!
they wondered.
Xu Zihua was also somewhat incredulous. With the speed of the blood arrow, an ordinary person would not be able to dodge it at such a close range.
That was indeed the case, but the Blood Burst Technique was even faster.
Zhang Chen, who often practiced the Blood Burst Technique, had greatly improved his reaction speed, which allowed him to dodge the arrow.
Xu Zihua hurriedly retreated, while raising his hand to try to condense another blood arrow.
At this moment, Zhang Chen was only two steps away from him.
Therefore, Zhang Chen attacked.
At the moment he raised his knife, an indescribable sense of madness and ferocity emanated from the blade.
As Xu Zihua faced the madness head-on, he felt like a lunatic had barged into his mind, yelling and slashing madly.
It made his head ache, and he was filled with murderous intent, wishing to smash his head and drag out the lunatic.
“Get out! Get out of my head!”
To others, Xu Zihua suddenly held his head and yelled loudly, not dodging the blood knife that was about to fall.
What happened? Why didn’t he dodge?
Everyone looked at this scene with puzzled expressions.
“Thud…”
The blood saber landed on Xu Zihua’s chest.
“Splurt!”
The blood knife fell and slashed Xu Zihua’s chest, sending him flying backwards, motionless, and with his life in the balance, with blood continuously flowing from his chest.
As everyone looked, they saw Xu Zihua had been split open by the knife, and his organs were clearly visible.
“How ruthless!”
The crowd couldn’t help but gasp, but the air they breathed in was filled with the smell of blood, causing them to swallow their saliva.
“Is this the Mad Blood Saber Technique?”
“I never thought that there were still people practicing such a crazy technique.”
In the stands, a direct disciple recognized Zhang Chen’s saber technique.