Chapter 140: Desperate Melee
A loud, rough rumble resonated from the rocky statue. Everyone's eyes were trained on the floating object.
The first statue was slowly dragged on the character “heaven.” The floor slightly vibrated as it did so.
As he watched the scene unfold, Zen briefly remembered that Chase once wrote the number “three” beside “heaven” in his book. Thus, he assumed that three statues should be moved to the word “heaven”.
Once the long-haired woman finished putting the first statue in place, she lowered her head and began to calculate again. When she got the result, she sent a second statue to where “heaven” was for the second time.
Shortly after, the woman had done the next calculation and moved a third statue to “heaven” for the last time.
A slight nod was given by Zen. It seemed that she appeared too modest when she claimed that she was not skilled at the Eight Diagrams. Her calculation on the first character was exactly the same as the book written by Chase. He only hoped that she could calculate all the next succeeding characters correctly.
When the three statues were finally placed on the character “heaven,” the big “heaven” name carving emitted a golden light--the woman had done it right.
The positive outcome made everyone brim with confidence.
“Sandra's knowledge of formation is extraordinary!”
“How could she merely be proficient? She is qualified to be a formation master!”
The rest of the Illuminating Soul Realm masters showered her with flattery and other words of praise.
In return, Sandra only shook her head and slicked back her long hair. “Don't count the chickens before they hatch. It's the easiest to work out the first character of the formation. Deciphering a formation becomes harder and harder along the way. The chances of failing become bigger as the calculation gets more complicated,” she said.
After she finished her talk, her head lowered once again. Then she continued to work on the calculations.
Six statues were next struck on the character “Earth,” and this step she performed was also exact the same as stated in Chase's book.
This correct move gave Zen a confidence boost as well, as she got two consecutive calculations right.
Next, Sandra placed two statues on the “Water” character, and then nine statues on the “Fire”.
The calculations she did for the first four characters were all correct, as bright golden rays of light emanated from all of them. The light was dazzling, but the real excitement came from the characters as everyone was firmly transfixed on them.
“It seems that this adventure will fare well after nearly so many misses. We can get the supreme treasures of the immortals soon,” one Illuminating Soul Realm master exclaimed in excitement.
The calculations for the next four characters proceeded.
The next one up was the character, “Valley.”
If Zen remembered correctly, Chase wrote “four” beside “Valley” which meant four statues were to be moved to the character.
Life vitality was unceasingly released from Sandra's being, and she struck four statues in a row towards “Valley.” After the fourth statue was in place, she proceeded to drag a fifth one.
“Stop!” someone yelled abruptly.
It was Zen, and the moment Sandra began to drag a fifth statue he wasted no time in stopping her.
It was a crucial calculation that allowed for no mishaps, so Zen didn't want her to make any mistakes that would trigger the trap of the fairy palace and bring them all to perdition.
However, one of them did not seem to agree.
“You stinking brat! What are you doing?” Wilson Huang stared at him and asked angrily.
Yet, Zen paid him no mind and shifted his attention to Sandra. “On the 'Valley' character, you should only put four statues, right? Are you sure it's correct to strike one more statue?” he asked.
A frown made its way to Sandra's face and she looked a little hesitant. She paused momentarily and thought about her calculation.
“I did the calculation and I am also not sure whether my answer is right. I'm not very sure whether it's four or five statues…”
At her response, Zen shook his head and firmly said, “Then it should be four.”
However, Sandra still looked a bit doubtful.
“Was I wrong? But the result I calculated seemed to be five,” she said with uncertainty.
Just then, an Illuminating Soul Realm master suddenly said, “Then just move five statues there. Sandra, don't listen to the trash of this brat. He's so disturbing!” “Stinking brat, we are already very gracious not to have killed you. If you continue to talk nonsense and interrupt Sandra, I will kill you immediately!” he added.
Wilson again echoed his sentiments and nodded in agreement. “Don't be muddled by this brat. He only wants all of us to die with him. What a vicious boy!” he shouted.
Anxiety crept its way to Zen's thoughts when he saw these two people act so unreasonably against him. “We sink or swim together. What makes you think that I will lie to you?” he asked incredulously.
“Shut up!” Wilson yelled and cut him off.
Life vitality constantly flashed on his body, “Stinking brat, talk one more time and I'll kill you immediately!” he angrily added.
Now, Seymour and other several Illuminating Soul Realm masters also activated the life vitality within their bodies. Their figures emitted bright flashes of light and terrifying power.
Zen felt pressed, so he had no choice but to shut up.
After a bit of hesitation, Sandra bit her bottom lip and finally chose to believe in herself.
Once again, a rocky rumbling sound was heard from a statue.
A fifth one was moved towards “Valley.” Once it was placed into position, a click sound was heard, followed by the sight of “Valley” turning into a blood red glow instead of the supposed golden flash of light.
Everyone's faces were drained of color, and only then did they realize that Zen was right.
Then again, it was already too late for regrets. There was no use crying over spilled milk.
They felt the ground shake a bit as the Eight Diagrams suddenly began to rotate. When they gradually came to a halt, a white and black mist came out from the Eight Diagrams and formed several characters.
The writing read, “Desperate Melee!”
“What does it mean?”
“It's ominous! We must have fallen into a trap!”
All the Illuminating Soul Realm masters exclaimed in horror, their faces ghastly pale. The fairy palace was a dangerous place, and they were doomed this time.
The characters disappeared into thin air. Shortly after a strip of life vitality was shot from the Eight Diagrams and was directly aimed at Sandra. She was instantly trapped, then in the next second the life vitality targeted the Illuminating Soul Realm master who stood beside Sandra and trapped him as well. It quickly trapped Wilson Huang too.
When the life vitality attacked Zen, he jumped in an attempt to dodge it. However, the life vitality's speed was just too fast like the speed of light, and the moment Zen jumped upward the life vitality seemed to sense his move and swerved accordingly. It successfully trapped Zen into its spell.
After all of them were trapped, everyone in the pavilion was connected by the strip of life vitality.
“What's it doing by locking us together?” one of them asked in panic.
Meanwhile, Zen lowered his head. Dumbfounded, he looked at the life vitality that had him tied up around the waist.
Suddenly, an idea struck his mind and he realized what the life vitality was doing to them.
The so-called “Desperate Melee” meant that all the people who were connected by the life vitality strip were to fight against each other--and in the final round, only one person would be left alive.
The rest of them seemed to realize this too, and they visibly trembled with shock.
They were all deep at loss, and cast anxious looks at each other.
It was really true that they were pitted in a killing game now!
Although the top seven noble clans held deep grudges against each other and competed against each other for their own benefits, they were now comrades in the adventure of exploring the fairy palace. It would be extremely difficult for them to kill each other when they were currently united as a team now.
It was true that they found it hard to kill each other in the noble clans, but it was easy for them to work together and fight against the outsiders that did not belong to the noble clans.
Today, there was at least one outsider that they thought would be easy to deal with, and that one was surely Zen.
“What is the Desperate Melee? Let's kill this mask brat first!” Wilson screamed. He definitely itched to kill Zen ever since the start of the journey, so they would all be rid of him. Now, there was a justified reason for him to do so. As soon as he finished talking, all the bones in his body cracked. The life vitality within him burned madly and came at Zen.
Of course, Zen would not stand there motionlessly and wait for death. He hurriedly backed to avoid the attack.
Once Wilson lunged at Zen, the piercing sword intent came sharply at him. It stabbed Wilson on the back with a resounding crack, and penetrated right through his chest!
Wilson's head lolled to the side and he looked backward. He was flabbergasted when he saw Seymour, who held an exquisite jade sword in his hands and stood behind him. “Sorry. This Desperate Melee will only allow one survivor and it will definitely be me!” he said lightly.
He had analyzed the situation more thoroughly than Wilson did. Only one person could live in the end, and he clearly knew that the other Illuminating Soul Realm masters were his real opponents. Zen on the other hand, was merely a nobody who was only half-step into the nature level in his eyes. He was doomed to be killed by the others, so Seymour would let them do the work and didn't bother to do anything to him.
Thanks to Seymour's course of action, Zen got a narrow escape from death.
Just moments ago, the Illuminating Soul Realm masters all thought to kill Zen first. Now, they began to kill each other.
Even Sandra, who helped them to decipher the Eight Diagrams, was targeted by two of the masters as well.
Except for Zen, all the other people were Illuminating Soul Realm masters. Life vitality constantly burned through their bodies and made them move lightning fast in the fight. Thus, even if the huge pavilion was expansive, there seemed to be not enough space for them to dodge the attacks.
Different colors of light which represented different types of life vitality suddenly bathed the whole pavilion in a myriad of glowing and dazzling shades. The Illuminating Soul Realm masters of Huang Clan, Yu Clan, and Yun Clan all exerted their efforts to show their unique skills of killing people. All kinds of life vitality gleamed brightly and tangled in the air, while they emitted thunderous noises.
The people who had reached the Illuminating Soul Realm were all wise people. They knew it was a choice between to exert all their efforts to kill others, or to be killed.
Now that everyone was busy and focused on killing each other, Zen became the least to be threatened.
The masters attacked and dodged each other, and many of them shot small glances at Zen. However, with the knowledge that Zen was only half-step into the nature level, they brushed past him and didn't bother to attack him at all.
They all thought that once they finished killing the others, it would be a piece of cake to get rid of this weakling. If they fought Zen now, they also had to risk being attacked by the other Illuminating Soul Realm masters behind the back, so they all decided to ignore Zen first.
A helpless look was etched on Zen's face as he looked at the life vitality that connected him to other people. No matter how this fight would end up, he would undoubtedly face one Illuminating Soul Realm master when it finished.
He almost killed Hugh by taking advantage of his Five-clawed Golden Dragon last time, but that was largely attributed to his good luck.
When it came to real strength, he was afraid that he would be no match against the powerful Illuminating Soul Realm masters.
“What should I do?” he muttered to himself. As he watched the Illuminating Soul Realm masters fought fiercely against each other, he brooded deeply in his thoughts. He got quite a lot of time to think as nobody was currently attacking him.
At this exact point of time, an Illuminating Soul Realm master suddenly summoned a giant hawk. The giant bird of prey squawked loudly and ferociously came at Seymour.
In turn, a green light flashed on Seymour and his jade sword glowed brightly. As he dodged the giant hawk, he waved his sword at the Illuminating Soul Realm master who summoned the giant hawk.
The aggressive battle Seymour had him in left no time for the Illuminating Soul Realm master to manipulate his giant hawk, which was formed from his life vitality. Thus, the great bird just hovered aimlessly above Zen's head.