Chapter 573 - Targeted
The hundreds of Academy Plaques placed before his eyes truly possessed a slight shock factor. Even with Mu Chen’s character, the scene before his eyes caused him to slightly gawk.
Mu Chen stared at the Academy Plaques. If he was able to obtain all of those points, his group should have enough points to catapult themselves into the Top 8 …
Beside him, the eyes of Xu Huang and the others turned scorching hot, similarly showing their shock due to the presence of so many Academy Plaques.
Standing by his side, Luo Li didn’t say a word, while Wen Qingxuan crossed her jade-like hands before her chest as she cast her beautiful eyes towards Mu Chen.
Behind Lin Zhou’s back, the dozens of groups were also staring at Mu Chen, complicated feelings filled their eyes. However, they did not make any noise in the end. That’s because they knew that if not for Mu Chen appearing here today, they would be hard-pressed to escape the calamity they were in earlier.
According to the rules, Mu Chen would absolutely obtain the majority of the spoils of war. As for them, being able to obtain the bits that trickle down would in fact be an exceedingly good deal by itself.
Hu.
Under the glare of everyone present, Mu Chen continued staring at the Academy Plaques as he deeply pondered for a bit. Finally, a smile appeared on his handsome face. This smile was entirely different from the dark and sinister one that Lu Tian wore earlier, being able to cause warmth to appear in the hearts of people.
It had to be said that the smiling Mu Chen possessed quite some charm, shown by the gradually relaxed expressions on the faces of the groups behind Lin Zhou.
“Captain Lin Zhou, you’ve truly given me a hard problem to solve,” said Mu Chen as he looked towards Lin Zhou.
Hearing that, the latter gawked, before scratching his head and replying, “You don’t need to worry about it. In fact, matters like weak groups being eliminated by powerful groups are too much of a common thing in the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament. There’s no one that would say anything about it.”
“Of the points here, I’ll take a one portion, with Wen Qingxuan and her group taking another. As for the last portion, you can distribute it among everyone here. After all, these points are your spoils of war,” replied Mu Chen within a smile.
Hearing Mu Chen’s reply, Lin Zhou and the rest immediately gawked while blankly staring at Mu Chen as they felt slightly inconceivable towards the former’s decision. After all, they had collaborated with some powerful groups before. However, those so-called “collaborations” were in fact those powerful groups wanting to utilise them as cannon fodder or meat shields. Furthermore, when it came to the distribution of points, the powerful teams would seemly seize half or more of them. Only the rest would be distributed to the groups that were in collaboration with them.
Therefore, when Mu Chen had only taken a taken portion, all of them seemed to be slightly unable to believe what they just heard.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’ve not gotten to the stage where points don’t matter. On the contrary, I rather love snatching points from them as opposite to those weaker ones.” replied Mu Chen with a faint smile as he pointed towards the Lu Tian who was buried in the sand.
Exchanging glances with each other, a slightly unconcealable look of gratitude emerged from the eyes of Lin Zhou and the others after deeply pondering for quite a while. Their groups weren’t strong or weak, causing them to feel extremely awkward in the current situation of the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament. Generally speaking, upon reaching such a stage, they would seemingly become point banks in the eyes of those powerful groups. Such a status could be considered as low and pitiful. Therefore, Mu Chen giving them such an extremely large choice was a first for them.
That’s because all of them knew what Mu Chen was giving them wasn’t just a choice, but respect, too.
“Thank you, Captain Mu Chen.” the groups standing behind Lin Zhou cupped their hands towards Mu Chen as they said their thanks in deep voices.
The dozens of group captains cupped their hands towards Mu Chen while saying their thanks, with gratitude present within their eyes. During this period of time, their emotions were truthfully not quite good. Could anyone’s honor not be hurt by being exploited by powerful groups one after another before having their points snatched away from them?
Mu Chen was somewhat stunned and amazed by their responses. Giving an awkward laugh, he turned his gaze towards Wen Qingxuan before saying, “Take two portions of the points. I’ve said before that I’ll try my best to let you regain your Numero Uno place again.”
Panning her head to shoot a look at Mu Chen, Wen Qingxuan raised her red lips before replying in a low voice, “I never knew that Captain Mu Chen also knows quite a good move to buy the hearts of people.”
Unable to tell whether Wen Qingxuan had any intent of ridiculing him with her reply, Mu Chen wrinkled his forehead as he said, “That’s not my intention. I purely dislike doing something like that.”
“Okay, okay. I never said that you were like that.”
Wen Qingxuan replied with a faint smile, with her voice unexpectedly turning somewhat gentle. Looking deeply at Mu Chen with her beautiful eyes, she said, “If you had truly devoured all of those points, I would have become slightly disappointed in you, although this truly is no concern of whether it's right or wrong. I know that power is the say in this place, and that there’s no one that’s able to criticise or find fault with what you do. Nevertheless, if you’re unable to even resist such a temptation, I’d truly be unable to believe that you’d be able to walk far in the path ahead of you.”
Shooting a look at Luo Li, she said in a profound manner, “If you’re unable to walk that far, don’t destroy such a lustrous girl as her.”
“Everyone has their own interpretations of the truth. However, it seems as if you’re praising me,” replied Mu Chen as he rubbed his nose. Truthfully speaking, his thoughts were extremely simple, as he did not want to use such a way to obtain points. That’s because he knew that this wasn’t the original intent of the creation of this Great Spiritual Academy Tournament. The groups that relied on the weak groups to obtain a large quantity of points would not be able to truly stand at the peak at the end.
“Your skin’s quite thick, huh,” said Wen Qingxuan as she rolled her eyes towards Mu Chen. The gentleness that was present within her voice was instantly gone, and she regained her arrogant, phoenix-like appearance once again.
As she spoke those words, Wen Qingxuan waved her jade-like hand, before taking out two portions of the points present on the Academy Plaques. As the thick brilliance rose up, the points on her Academy Plaque drastically rose by 20,000 points, inching closer towards the Numero Uno, Ji Xuan.
After taking those points, Wen Qingxuan tossed the Academy Plaques towards Lin Zhou and the others, who hastily took over and distributed the remaining points.
After a moment of chaos, order was regained in the surrounding area, while the gazes shooting towards Mu Chen were filled with gratitude.
“Brother Mu Chen, there’s no words that can describe our thanks for this great kindness. All of us will remember your kindness,” said Lin Zhou as he slightly bent his waist. Without saying anymore roundabout words, he waved his hands, before turning around and leaving. After expressing their gratitude to Mu Chen once more, the other groups had also started to leave.
Seeing their leaving figures, a faint smile appeared on Mu Chen’s face.
“What about that fellow? From the looks of it, he seems to not have any good feelings towards you,” said Wen Qingxuan as she pointed her slender finger towards Lu Tian. At this moment, the latter appeared to have clenched his teeth, clearly possessing an extreme amount of hatred towards Mu Chen.
Upon hearing that, Mu Chen’s eyes slightly narrowed. A person of such strength as Lu Tian was considered somewhat of a threat towards him and his group. If he was to let the latter go so easily, upon regaining his stride, the latter would definitely cause some trouble for him and his group.
“Mu Chen, you’ve already taken away my points! What else do you want? Could it be that you want to kill me?”
“I won’t go as far as to kill you,” replied Mu Chen with a laugh. As his eyes sparkled, faint black light suddenly surfaced within his palm, with an extremely strange and mysterious power present within it.
This was the power of sealing that came from the page of the “Undying Blueprint” present within his body.
Mu Chen pressed his palm onto Lu Tian’s chest, causing the sealing power to rapidly drill within the latter’s body. In the next instant, Lu Tian discovered to his horror that the Spiritual Energy within his body had unexpectedly started to decline at an astonishing speed.
Within the short span of a few breaths, Lu Tian, who was already heavily injured, had his strength decrease to roughly the realm of Human Body Disaster, while the Spiritual Energy fluctuations radiating from his body were being supressed to the extremity.
“What-what have you done to me?!” Lu Tian was finally terrified. That’s because he could feel that the Spiritual Energy within his body appeared to have been suppressed, causing him to unexpectedly be unable to circulate it at will.
As he probed with his mind, he discovered black rays of brilliance sparkling within the meridians of his body. It was precisely those strange and mysterious black lights that had caused him to lose the absolute control he had over the Spiritual Energy within his body.
“I’ve only temporarily sealed your Spiritual Energy, that’s all.”
With Lu Tian’s current state, wanting to dispel the sealing force within him would take a month, at the very least. During that time frame, the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament would have already reached its conclusion.
Lu Tian’s face lost all colour, with his eyes brimming with unbridled anger and fury.
Nevertheless, Mu Chen did not continue caring about him as he calmly turned his body around. Looking towards Luo Li, Wen Qingxuan and the rest, he said, “Let’s go. We should find the next target now.”
As his voice rang out, his figure started to rise to the sky, with Luo Li and the rest following suit, leaving being an exceedingly miserable Lu Tian roaring in fury and anger…
The matter of Lu Tian’s group suddenly dropping out of the Top 16 had caused quite the big ripples within the vast central region. After all, within this place, Lu Tian was still considered to be a rather famous expert. Who would have expected that his defeat would happen so quickly? As people took in this set of news, all of them could not help sighing and lament. There were truly crouching tigers and hidden dragons within this Great Spiritual Academy Tournament.
On the top of a green mountain peak.
Looking at the Academy Plaque, faint wrinkles started to appear on Ji Xuan’s forehead.
“Lu Tian’s been defeated,” said Mu Feng, who was standing behind him. “Could it be that there are people wanting to deal with us?”
“There’re crouching tigers and hidden dragons in this place. With him being too rampant, Lu Tian’s defeat was inevitable.” On the contrary, Ji Xuan did not appear so overly concerned. After all, rising and falling with the current phase of the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament was all too common.
Hearing that, Mu Feng nodded his head, without adding anymore words.
Clearly, the two of them had not placed such a common matter so heavily within their hearts.
However, their current frame of mind only lasted for a day, before being abruptly broken. At that moment, even with Ji Xuan’s state of mind, his face had started to turn dark.
That’s because they had heard yet another shocking piece of news on the second day that was circulating around the vast central region.
It was from the Myriad Beasts Spiritual Academy. The group led by Wang Jiang that had obtained the inheritance of the Demonic Alligator Palace had similarly been defeated, with the person doing so being known as Mu Chen.
On the mountain peak, Mu Feng looked towards the dark-faced Ji Xuan. At this moment, they could clearly feel the feeling of being aimed at. That Mu Chen had already started to launch a challenge towards Ji Xuan.