The next day, Rocky and Eunice went to the entrance of the Black Abyss Cave, where the second
round of the newcomer contest would be held.
At the moment, the entrance was already packed with people, as some disciples went early to prepare
for the second round of the fighting. Many other disciples and masters from the school also came early
to watch the contest.
"To all the participants, please enter the cave now. The second round of free-for-all fighting will begin
after one hour!" the elder in charge of the contest announced loudly, urging the people to come inside.
"Let's go," said Eunice, nodding at Rocky beside her.
Then, the two of them followed the other disciples who were participating in the fighting into the Black
Abyss Cave.
The first thing they noticed when they arrived at the cave was that it was dark inside. There was a dim
light coming from several holes on top of the cave, but they were too small to be of much help. Worse,
the sound of the wind howling echoed from the depths of the cave from time to time, and it sounded
like ghosts wailing from the underworld, which added to the creepiness of the dark cave.
As soon as the disciples entered the cave, a ghost-like figure suddenly appeared in front of them.
"Welcome, participants! Allow me to briefly explain the rules of the melee that we are about to do.
When the contest officially begins, that's the time that you can go deeper into the cave where the
fighting will take place. By the way, this is a free-for-all fight, which means that you can do whatever
you want to win. You can ambush, assassinate, or even use a trap array to defeat your opponents.
However, be careful not to deliberately kill or severely injure your opponent to the point of death. Of
course, if a mistake is made accidentally, you may be pardoned.
For the battle rules: if you feel that you are no match for your opponent, then you can quit at any time. If
you do surrender, an official representative will appear and send you to the cave's designated safe
areas, where you will wait for the melee to end.
Do you understand?" the figure explained lengthily.
All the participants nodded at once.
The figure waited for a few seconds to see if anyone would ask a question and then turned to look at
the lighted incense in the cave. Seeing that the incense was almost burnt out, he said to the
participants, "You can start now. Good luck!" After that, he abruptly disappeared.
The disciples were stunned for a moment and glanced at each other as if to see what the others would
do. Some hastily left, while some lingered a few minutes more. Before long, the cave was empty.
All the disciples had used their bodily movement skills, going deeper into the Black Abyss Cave.
Rocky and Eunice tried to find an advantageous spot in the cave immediately. In such a place, the
fighting tested not only their strength but also their personal abilities.
Due to the dim light and the irregular terrain, the cave was extremely suitable for all kinds of ambush,
assassination, and trap arrays. If the disciples were good at those aspects, they obviously had an
advantage in such a terrain. On the other hand, if they had incredible strength on their side, the rough
environment wouldn't affect them much.
In other words, the stronger ones could take the initiative to attack, while the weaker ones would have
to rely on their intelligence and abilities to make up for their weakness in strength.
Furthermore, the rules didn't explicitly forbid the participants from working together to attack others. Of
course, they couldn't be too blatant. If only two or three people worked together, it would probably be
overlooked, as compared to four or more people attacking one person, which could be looked upon
unfavorably as bullying.
Therefore, some disciples that had good personal relationships and those who were from the same
forces had secretly allied with each other before they went into the cave.
But even though their alliance gave them an advantage in fighting together, only thirty-two people could
enter into the third round. That opened up a great possibility of the "allies" turning on each other at the
last moment, or they could even kill each other the first chance they got just so they could enter the
third round. Therefore, teaming up had both advantages and disadvantages. Every disciple needed to
weigh the pros and cons carefully, as they were the only ones who could decide what path they would
take.
Not long after, Rocky and Eunice found a relatively secluded area that was surrounded by rocks. Water
constantly dripped from the stalactites above their heads, causing puddles to form around the ground.
Rocky thought that they could quickly sense the others' movements by observing the puddles.
"So, what should we do next? Any ideas?"
Rocky asked, narrowing his eyes warily at their surroundings.
"Let's just wait here. If someone comes here alone, we can work together to deal with him. And if there
are some people cooperating with each other, we'll let them go," answered Eunice. It seemed that she
had already come up with a plan beforehand.
"Okay, we'll do as you say. I'm going to rest while we wait."
After saying that, Rocky found a corner and sat down with his legs crossed, meditating. He didn't have
any problem with her plans, so following them would be the best course of action.
Meanwhile, Eunice looked around them cautiously. Then she glanced at Rocky, feeling slightly envious
at how relaxed he was.
Not long after, a disciple at the primary stage of the Spiritual Infant suddenly appeared.
"Shh!" Eunice immediately spotted the man and looked at Rocky meaningfully, raising her finger to her
lips.
Rocky opened his eyes, nodded at her, and looked through the gap. He saw that although the disciple
seemed to act alone, one of his hands was always behind him, as if he was ready to make a secret
signal at any time.
"Let's go!" Apparently, Eunice didn't notice that. She hissed a signal to Rocky and quickly took off.
In the next breath, she reappeared before the lone disciple.
However, instead of getting frightened, the disciple had a cunning smile on his face.
It was at that point that Eunice realized something was wrong.
Two more figures soon appeared, and one of them was at the medium stage of the Spiritual Infant.
'So this guy is just the bait!' Eunice thought as her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"We hit the jackpot, boys! She is a beauty!"
the disciple at the primary stage of the Spiritual Infant immediately remarked, snickering.
"She is, indeed, a beauty, but she must be stupid to have been fooled so easily. However, she doesn't
feel weak at all. Her strength is at the medium stage of the Spiritual Infant!"
The man clad in a grey robe, who was at the medium stage of the Spiritual Infant, took one glance at
Eunice and immediately sensed her strong aura.
Eunice noticed that Rocky didn't follow, so she acted like she was really alone and sneered, "I can deal
with you three alone!"
"Don't be so stubborn. You can save yourself a beating and surrender.
Anyway, we are as strong as you, so there's no way you can win if the three of us join hands." The
grey-clothed man dissuaded her from fighting back.
"Enough of this crap. Let's fight!"
As soon as Eunice's spiritual power rose, a pair of silver shining daggers instantly appeared in her
hands. Her delicate body moved gracefully as if she was dancing and turned into a delicate white
feather. She then rushed toward the three people, fighting against all of them at once with
overwhelming momentum.
Rocky, who was still shrouded by the darkness, remained calm and waited. He didn't intend to help, not
unless she needed it.
Although Eunice was fighting against the three opponents on her own, she was not at a disadvantage.
Moreover, she purposefully avoided engaging with the man in grey, as she aimed her attacks at the two
disciples who were at the primary stage of the Spiritual Infant instead. It seemed that she intended on
defeating them first.
They paused at a stalemate. The good news was that the fighting power of the two disciples had
evidently decreased, but the bad news was that Eunice couldn't resist the attacks from the grey-clothed
man. A moment later, she was suddenly forced into a predicament.
Almost at the same time, a figure silently crept under the cover of darkness and appeared behind one
of the disciples at the primary stage of the Spiritual Infant. A sword shadow passed through the air.
A pained scream suddenly echoed in that section of the cave. When Eunice spared a glance, she saw
the disciple wounded and covered in blood. Although the wound wasn't that deep, a stream of spiritual
power had forcefully collided in his body.
"No! How dare you hurt my friend?!"
Seeing that, the other disciple at the primary stage of the Spiritual Infant grew enraged and immediately
rushed forward recklessly.
"Shadowless Swordsmanship!"
The sword shadow disappeared and reappeared, spearing through that disciple's chest.
Bang!
The impact sent the disciple flying into the air.
In the blink of an eye, two of the three disciples had already been defeated.
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