BXBX NOVEL Chapter 70 Competition Prelude, Three Clusters
DUE TO THE shock the crowd had experienced, somehow, they had all quietened down. Only when the Annual Death Competition finally commenced they did start t to clamor.
Xia Jieke was amused with the crowd’s behavior. Although he was ruthless and usually indifferent, he still found pleasure in making people submit to him. What made him puzzled, however, was Cao Nima. This guy was actually eating along with the other participants.
Yang Lujia had left Long Guang, along with Feng Huang and Brownie. With the two beside the little dragon, he believed that nothing could be safer than their side. Moreover, within the room where they were sleeping in, an array formation was already laid out. He also asked Fortuniel if it was safe for him to leave the three of them and reassured him.
His only goal in the Valley of Gods was to find the whereabouts of the Echinemon Race. It would even be better if he could directly kill Zhao Dilao, but Yang Lujia wanted Long Guang to do it personally, so he restrained himself from doing so.
When he found Zhao Dilao, it didn’t matter if he could escape from his grasp, as long as he could know their location. That would be enough. Besides, he still had to help Feng Huang’s sister. Otherwise, that little girl wouldn’t accept him as her master.
And he even had to help her solve some problems she encountered in the Nether Phoenix Clan. He believed that it would not be so simple. Just like Long Guang’s case. It took him several days, no, months, before he was finally close to his goal.
“Okay, everyone, buckle up!” Xia Jieke began and scanned the participants at the side of the arena. “In the Annual Death Competition, deaths are allowed. If you are weak, you can only have yourself to blame. Once someone from the territories tries to save their participants, I will personally make a move and kill without hesitation. Rules are rules.”.
When the crowd heard this, they were not shocked. Naturally, since this event happened every year, the rules had not changed. During the previous year, some participants died because of their opponents’ ruthlessness. It was more especially with Xia Jieke who only let his opponents live if they could make him fight to his full strength. Among the crowd, his previous opponent who came in second had already become an elder from one of the territories. But he had yet to break through the God Emperor Realm and reach the Saint Realm.
With this, Xia Jieke ignored him. To his eyes, other than his father, no one could stand toe-by-toe with him. He wasn’t arrogant. It was just a fact that no one could refute.
“Like before, the competition will be held in three clusters: the Talent Cluster; the Prowess Cluster; and the Knockout Cluster,” Xia Jieke said. “We will use a stone tablet for the first cluster. This stone tablet was coincidentally found by my father in the depths of Da Sishen’s edges during the previous months. He called it the Talent-Measuring Pillar.”
With that, he took out the stone tablet. It then fell from his grasp and landed heavily in the middle of the arena. It had the shape of a downward parabola, and it was relatively thin. However, its height was 12 feet high.
“On its middle part, there were horizontal lines. Each line is hollow. What you all needed to do is channel your spiritual qi of heaven and earth to the stone tablet. Then, these lines will eventually light up. When you light up the most bottom line, it meant you only have a Grade-1 Talent.
“We only accept people in the competition who could reach the Grade-5 Talent, which was the fifth line from the bottom. What’s above the Grade-5 Talent, you ask? It’s the King-Grade Talent. Above it was the Emperor-Grade Talent. If you reached these lines, it only means you’re very talented. By then, I can only say you keep it up.”
“What about you, young lord? What’s your talent?” Runic Demon asked all of a sudden. It silenced the whole arena, with only the wind drumming into everyone’s senses.
“My talent?” Xia Jieke said as he smirked at Runic Demon. His smirk made some of the girls faint. Xia Jieke was just too handsome!
Runic Demon smiled.
“Naturally, it’s Emperor-Grade.”
People gasped.
Runic Demon’s face darkened. He then looked at his participants. He could only wish they would have an Emperor-Grade Talent.
“Okay, Northern Territory’s participants, please come forward. You will be the first ones to be tested,” Xia Jieke ordered as he looked at the participants’ faces.
He didn’t need to know the names of the participants. After all, in the end, there could only be ten winners.
From start to end, it had been smooth-sailing. The Talent Cluster ended with fifteen of the participants who had the Emperor-Grade Talent. Xia Jieke was even surprised to find out that the Eastern Territory really came strong this time. Among them, there were actually three with Emperor-Grade Talents. Two of them were naturally Yang Lujia and Lin Diyu. The other one was Lu Daiyu.
It even surprised Yang Lujia. However, this Emperor-Grade Talent was really of low grade. If he didn’t have Fortuniel suppress his talent and Lin Diyu’s, they would break the stone tablet. He didn’t want to be blamed for breaking something precious to these people.
As for the Prowess Cluster, it was only to measure the prowess of every participant by using their most powerful attacks at Xia Jieke. No one could even make him step back, except for one participant called Lin Diyu. After all, Lin Diyu could cross-level fight. With this cultivation reaching the Sixth Stage of the God Emperor Realm, it was no wonder he could hurt Xia Jieke a bit.
Others only snickered seeing this. There were still others who managed to budge Xia Jieke, but the most frightening was Yang Lujia’s. Without proper control of his strength, he could directly pass this cluster. However, no matter how he tried to suppress his strength, it still overflowed and made Xia Jieke take a couple of steps back.
Everyone was shocked. Especially those who once mocked him, the three participants from the Northern Territory. These three demons trembled when they thought of facing Yang Lujia in the ring.
“Hah, serves them right for looking down on us,” Wang Lao smugly thought as he crossed his arms.
“Alright, now that the Talent and Prowess Clusters were already done, we will now proceed to the last round of this event, the Knockout Cluster. As for those who didn’t pass the Talent and Prowess Clusters, you may come back again next year. However, your talent is helpless if you will not encounter a fortuitous encounter.”
Xia Jieke stopped for a while, then he said, “Now, let me tell you the rules of the third cluster, the Knockout Cluster. As its name suggests, it is a cluster where knockouts could happen, even death could equate to knockouts, so always be wary.”
Yang Lujia’s face was solemn when he heard this. He then looked at Lin Diyu. Fortunately, he had already equipped his first disciple with everything before they came here to participate.
“Master, what are you doing in the middle of the night?” Lin Diyu asked as he rubbed his eyes. He heard the clanging sounds of a hammer banging onto something.
Yang Lujia looked at his first disciple with sweat all over his body. He then answered with a smile plastered on his face, “I’m just making a weapon for you to use tomorrow. In fact, I was expecting you to wake up. I will help you comprehend some techniques, so you won’t always use the same technique in the competition. I can’t deprive my disciple of anything, right?”
Lin Diyu was moved. Thoroughly moved. Ever since his master accepted him as his disciple, he always felt like he was lucky. Back then, when he was still the Crown Prince of an empire, he was busy with worldly affairs that he didn’t find himself able to cultivate for a long time anymore. However, Yang Lujia gave him this opportunity.
He even reached the God Emperor Realm! It was above several major realms!
Unknowingly, he already knelt, with some tears crawling down his cheeks. “Master…” he called out.
“You’re such a crybaby,” Yang Lujia said and laughed.
However, Yang Lujia, at this time, was only doing this to really move Lin Diyu, preventing any possibility of Lin Diyu betraying him in the future. In his previous world, he never liked using tactics to move people to his side. He’d always pursued them by force.
“But always remember what I taught you. Among the two of you, Long Guang, you are the one who knew all the rules of our group. When you meet your opponents tomorrow, don’t bother talking to them. Directly attack them. Stop wasting your time.
“The moment the presider says “the battle begins” or whatever they would say for the battle to begin, attack your opponent. Don’t wait for him to finish all his or her talks. Kill them when you feel some killing intent from them.
“Do not spare anyone who wants to kill you. Burn them to ashes. Suck their blood to death. Make sure they won’t be able to retaliate, even in the next life, by obliterating their souls.”
Yang Lujia looked at his disciple who was expectantly looking to battle others. He could even feel his battle intent. Then, he sent a voice transmission to him, “Diyu, don’t forget what I told you. Don’t look down on your opponents. Always be wary when fighting them.”