Chapter 55: Fickleness of Human Nature
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Everyone in the audience held their breath, their eyes on the Coliseum.
In the coliseum, two blurry figures collided in silence. The contact between the two was brief before they crossed each other.
After that, they separated at a higher speed.
With their positions exchanged, they stood still.
“Why are they so still? Has a victor emerged?”
“What fearsome speed!” From under the stage, Shui Wenxin stared at Zhang Ruochen and Le.
With his cultivation, he was able to barely follow the tracks of their swords. But he was only 40% certain that he could intercept any of their swords.
The 60% was the certainty of death.
“Who won?” Lin Ningshan stood up. With her beautiful pair of eyes, she stared expectantly at the Coliseum.
A standing Le took at his chest and felt a pain burning from inside. Blood gushing from his wound, staining a good portion of his clothes red.
“Bang!”
Unwillingly, he fell down to the ground. One of his hands was tightly gripping his sword and the other was clutching his chest. His gaze was still on Lin Ningshan who was under the Coliseum.
In the end, he lost and broke his promise to her.
A thin streak bloodstain appeared on Zhang Ruochen’s neck. It was a shallow wound; his skin was merely grazed.
“Why didn’t… you… kill me?” Le was lying on the ground, eyes now on Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen, in fact, could have ended the battle unscathed. To do so meant he had to kill Le in a single strike.
But he did not. The moment he made his strike, he forcibly altered the direction of his sword, so it was just slightly off. That was why Le’s sword managed to graze his neck.
Zhang Ruochen looked at him and said, “I never kill!”
In fact, he omitted the latter half of his sentence: “Unless I meet someone who deserves to be killed.”
“I owe you my life… in the future I’ll…” Le clenched his teeth like a stubborn lone wolf. He crawled down the Coliseum, leaving a bloody trail behind him.
Zhang Ruochen frowned and glanced towards the direction of Lin Chenyu and Lin Ningshan.
The Lin family was indeed cruel and merciless. They actually refused to send any servants to come down and help a heavily injured Le. Instead, they watched him drag himself off the Coliseum alone.
Of course, that had nothing to do with him. After all, everyone had their own paths to take.
Coming up was the 10th battle.
There were two warriors of the Yellow Board in the Yellow Fighting Palace who had not joined the battle yet. They were Sikong Di and Yun Tian who ranked the fifth and 21th respectively.
It was Sikong Di who would fight against Zhang Ruochen as he had stronger cultivation.
Sikong Di was as strong as a warrior of the Initial Stage of the Black Realm. But with both Shui Wenxin and Le losing against Zhang Ruochen, he naturally stood no chance.
Without any suspense, Zhang Ruochen defeated Sikong Di with ease. He became the first warrior who obtained 10 winning streaks in the Yellow Realm on the Yellow Board.
Not only did Zhang Ruochen win the new Iron Token of the Yellow Board, he was also rewarded with one million silver coins.
There were words carved on the new Iron Token: “Zhang Ruochen, the first of the Yellow Board, the Yunwu Commandery.” It was definitely an honor for him.
As for the one million silver coins, he exchanged them for one thousand Spiritual Crystals. After all, it was more convenient to carry Spiritual Crystals than one million silver coins.
Zhang Ruochen deposited 800 thousand silver coins to the Three-Star VIP Card of Martial Market Bank. With 200 Spiritual Crystals, he went and bought some pills at Qingxuan Pavilion as preparation to enter the Black Realm.
“Ninth sister, you seem to harvest a lot?” Zhang Ruochen walked towards the Ninth Commandery Princess who was cheerfully counting her Spiritual Crystals.
“I’ve only won 20 Spiritual Crystals. It’s completely incomparable to you!” With half-lidded eyes, the princess looked overjoyed. After all, both she and Zhang Ruochen had won.
For a Commandery Princess, 20 Spiritual Crystals were considered a large sum of money.
Zhang Ruochen asked, “I’m on my way to Qingxuan Pavilion to buy some pills now. Do you want to come?”
“Sure! It so happened I hit a jackpot. I can buy a Triple-Purity Genuine Qi Pill to break through the Final State of the Yellow Realm with these Spiritual Crystals,” the Ninth Commandery Princess replied happily.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Since I won one million silver coins, naturally it’s my treat. Ninth sister, let me know if there are any pills you want.”
“You’re amazing, ninth brother!” She threw himself at Zhang Ruochen, giving him a kiss on his face.
“Boom!”
Thunder boomed in the sky, followed by violent gusts of wind and pouring rain.
By the time Zhang Ruochen and the Ninth Commandery Princess walked out of the Yellow Level Coliseum, there was a downpour.
The streets were flooded with water. A fallen leaf swirled in the air, before falling into the murky water. It was then crushed into the mud by a passing carriage.
“Hit him! People, hit him until his legs are broken! This is too infuriating! How useless are you that you can’t even defeat a measly Zhang Ruochen?!” Standing in the rain, Lin Ningshan coolly admonished.
A maidservant held an oiled paper umbrella for Lin Ningshan.
After receiving the order from Lin Ningshan, the four strong and powerful guards wore grinning expressions and repeatedly hit Le with iron rods.
“Bang, bang!”
Le flopped onto a pool of rain water, with his both legs broken and his head cracked. His body was badly mutilated from the beating.
“A deadly swordsman? Bullshit! You’re just a slave! If the mistress hadn’t picked you up, you’d have starved to death in the snow!”
“Aren’t you very powerful? Where’s your sword? Come on, kill me! Haha!”
“Hit him! Kill this useless thing!”
…
The four guards spared no effort in brandishing their iron rods, cackling as they did.
Lin Ningshan stood on one side. With a tall and slender body, paired with a beautiful face, she stared indifferently at Le. There was a hint of contempt in her expression when she said, “If it weren’t for your talent in martial arts, why would I’ve taken you home? Now that your meridians have been broken by Zhang Ruochen, what use I have for you? Hit him! Hit him until this good-for-nothing dies!”
Lying in the muddy water, Le stared at Lin Ningshan with wide eyes. Then he closed them.
His blood flowed out, staining the rain water around him red.
A strong guard held a bloody iron rod and walked to Lin Ningshan. Bowing, he said, “My lady, I think he’s dead!”
“Truly a useless thing!” Lin Ningshan spat coldly, eyes on the man lying in the pool of his blood and rain water.
“Clank!”
A luxurious carriage sailed through the rain before stopping in the middle of the street.
Lin Chenyu lifted the carriage curtain and poked his head out. With a sneer, he said, “Ningshan, we should go home!”
Lin Ningshan nodded and got on the carriage without looking at Le who was lying in a pool of blood.
The luxurious carriage began to move again and disappeared at the end of the street.
Shortly after, a vintage carriage drawn by snow-white Lightning Rabbits pulled out of the Yellow Level Coliseum and stopped next to Le.
Zhang Ruochen left the vintage carriage and looked at a blood-drenched Le. He reached out his finger and put it underneath Le’s nose.
“He’s still breathing. He’s not dead,” Zhang Ruochen said.
The Ninth Commandery Princess lifted the carriage curtain and said, “Ninth brother, all his limbs are broken and he’s so heavily injured too. He’ll definitely die in a short while. Even his master didn’t save him, why should we bother?”
“If we don’t bother, he’ll definitely die. Send two guards to take him back to the palace. Whether he lives or not depends on his will.”
Zhang Ruochen took out a bottle pill containing 10 Saint Stone Pills, a second-class healing pill. Each of the pills was valued at 2,000 silver coins.
He put one into Le’s mouth and put away the bottle.
The Ninth Commandery Princess immediately sent two guards to carry Le into another carriage. The vintage carriage then headed back towards the direction of the palace.
Zhang Ruochen and the Ninth Commandery Princess then drove the cloud rabbit lunar rover to the Pill Market.
“Tick, tock!”
The rain had not stopped.
There were fewer people and vehicles on the street. Finally, they had arrived at a desolate street.
In the dark, a figure darted past in a flash, falling onto the eaves of a four-storeyed loft from a wooden tower.
It was Han Qingluo, one of the Queen’s four disciples.
Her green clothes were drenched by the rain, outlining her graceful body with a perky bosom and a slender waist. It was as if a beautiful ghost was haunting in the night.
With a veil over her face, only revealing a pair of beautiful eyes, she stared at the vintage carriage.
“Boom!”
Her hand went to her belt, removing it from her waist. With a flick of her arm, the belt turned into a green Soft Sword.
She stepped on the ground, flew off, and caught up with the vintage car.
She then leaped and fell from the sky, stopping seven meters above the carriage, and slashed it.
“Bang!”
The vintage carriage split into two, flying towards both sides.
The body of the driving maidservant was split into two.
But the vintage carriage was empty. There was no trace of the prince’s body inside.
“Did he escape in advance?” Han Qingluo fell onto the ground, before standing in the middle of the street with a puzzled expression.
Just as Han Qingluo was still in shock, Zhang Ruochen and the Ninth Commandery Princess walked out from a distance in the rain.
“Who are you?” the Ninth Commandery Princess asked angrily.
“Eh?!”
Han Qingluo gasped. She really could not understand how they managed to escape her killing strike.
The truth was they had been staying in the carriage throughout the ride, not expecting a killer. Yet, Zhang Ruochen felt a murderous feeling when Han Qingluo unleashed her power.
Thus, he took hold of the Ninth Commandery Princess, broke out of the carriage through the wall, and escaped from the back.
Zhang Ruochen gave Han Qingluo a once-over and asked, “Are you a killer at the Black Realm?”
Han Qingluo carried a heavy murderous air and her eyes were ice cold. She was most definitely not a common warrior, but an assassin who had killed countless people.
Assassins were fearsome as the master all kinds of killing skills and it was impossible to defend against them effectively. They could even kill a warrior of a much higher realm.
A killer at the Black Realm was, naturally, even more frightening!