Chapter 368: Arena Deathmatch
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Edited by Aelryinth
At night, in Bei Du, the Zhen family’s main courtyard…
Lights were shining brightly.
Every important member of the Zhen family in Bei Du was present, their complexions ugly.
They received two pieces of news, one after another, and both of them were bad news.
Before the informant could relay his information, Grandpa Huang came first and “cried foul”, directly telling the Zhen family’s elder about this matter, clearly indicating that the Huang family would protect Zhang Che to the end.
For this matter, Old Man Zhen nearly vomited blood from anger, cursing Elder Huang.
Although Zhen Long wasn’t the most outstanding child among the third generation of the Zhen family, he was Old Man Zhen’s grandson, after all. He could have definitely advanced into a high-tier beastmaster in the future and become an important piece of the Zhen family.
Now that he was killed just like that, Old Man Zhen could not take it lying down, no matter what.
Even so, the cause and ending of the matter was communicated by Grandpa Huang clearly. Zhang Che was indeed not the party at fault. It was his grandson who tried snatching other’s prey and got himself killed in the end. No matter who was looking at this matter, the finger couldn’t be pointed at Zhang Che.
Of course, if Zhang Che was only an ordinary beastmaster with no background to speak of, the Zhen family could go ahead and exact revenge without care.
The problem was, the Huang family had indicated where they stood on this matter very clearly: they would stand behind Zhang Che no matter what. The Zhen family had no choice but to take that into consideration.
“Manting, how is the questioning of the informant going?” Elder Zhen asked with a dark expression. A cold aura emanated from him, forcing everyone present to act carefully, not daring to make any noise. Even Zhen Long’s father, Zhen Jinbei, didn’t dare to make any noise, despite feeling the ache of his son getting murdered and a burning desire for revenge.
“Father, we’ve investigated clearly. The matter is as the Huang family had said. It was indeed Xiaolong’s group who tried to snatch that Zhang Che’s prey first. Two other men who knew about this matter are in the custody of the Huang family right now; it’s impossible for us to turn this case around.”
Zhen Manting had a dark expression, too. She hated Zhang Che for killing their men, but was also frustrated at the incompetence of their younger generation.
It was fine if they wanted to snatch others’ prey. In any case, such matters were commonly seen. But, not only did they fail in doing so, they even forfeited their lives! This was truly too shameful…
“Xiaolong and the others were indeed the ones who crossed the line first, but how can we allow that Zhang kid to not pay any price for killing our Zhen family’s men?” Elder Zhen demanded fiercely. “Does he think we can do nothing against him with the Huang family at his back? Immediately order the seventh squad to enter the beast world at Bei Du’s western suburbs and head for the Five Poisons Mountain Range. I want that kid surnamed Zhang dead no matter what!”
However, Zhen Manting furrowed her brow and said, “Father, we’ll be starting a war with the Huang family then! The brass won’t be happy about this. I’m thinking why not apply for an arena deathmatch? That way, we can put that Zhang Che to death openly and the Huang family won’t be able to get any dirt on us.”
“That’s right, father! Sister is right. Although we want to kill that Zhang brat right away too, we’ll get ourselves into an irreconcilable situation with the Huang family. It’s not advantageous to us.”
“Father, I’m in favor of that, too.”
Among the Zhen family members present, three of them were Zhen Manting’s older brothers. Other than Zhen Long’s father, the remaining two spoke out in favor of her suggestion.
Ultimately, this matter was Zhen Long’s fault, after all. Although everyone wanted Zhang Che dead, they had to consider the clan’s interests.
Elder Zhen furrowed his brow once more. In the end, he nodded slightly. “Alright, I’ll go apply with the brass personally then. No matter the right or wrong, ultimately that Zhang kid killed Xiaolong. How can they not account for that?”
The matter was decided just like that.
Unbeknownst to Zhang Che, he was about to find himself between life and death.
—
The night passed peacefully. Just as the sky was starting to brighten up the next morning, the area became lively again. Countless beastmasters packed their belongings after waking up and had a simple breakfast, then went to look for the Nirvana Snakes again.
Zhang Che naturally didn’t want to fall behind the others. However, when he ordered the Nirvana Snake King to start looking for the Nirvana Snakes nearby, to his surprise he discovered very few Nirvana Snakes were left in this area.
“Do I go further in?” Zhang Che was a little hesitant. Although the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon had recovered, the two swords were unusable after all. He wasn’t confident in going too deep into the unknown areas of the beast world.
-I’ll go a thousand kilometers deeper; if I can’t find the Nirvana Snakes, I’ll go somewhere else and concentrate on raising my beastmaster tier…-
In the end, Zhang Che decided to advance a thousand kilometers further. It’d be best if he could obtain more Nirvana Snake cards. If not, he’d find a deserted area as quickly as possible and go around massacring mid-tier exotic beasts.
After that battle yesterday, although Zhang Che had wiped out his enemies perfectly, he knew that it was because there weren’t any real experts among the teams of beastmasters, allowing the Purple Crystal Tortoise to get them all with a single skill.
If there was a beastmaster among them with an epic-quality subdued beast, it would be hard to say which side would have emerged victorious.
As long as Zhang Che hadn’t risen to Tier Six and refined the epic-quality Earthen Rock Demon, he wouldn’t be considered as having truly stepped into the ranks of the experts.
This matter was closely linked to his safety!
With the Nirvana Snake King’s help, Zhang Che didn’t have to venture too far in. He advanced just shy of two hundred kilometers before he came across a huge group of Nirvana Snakes, and he basically hunted them all, obtaining a large amount of beast cards.
With this, Zhang Che was finally satisfied.
Even if he wasn’t satisfied, nothing more could be done. Let alone that it was getting extremely difficult for the Nirvana Snake King to find more Nirvana Snakes, if he continued heading in this direction, heavens knew if he would run into an epic-quality or higher exotic beast…
As such, Zhang Che changed directions and flew off on the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon.
——
At about the same time, the group of men Huang Juyun sent entered the Five Poisons Mountain Range and started looking for Zhang Che’s trace in secret.
Alas, after a day’s search, none of them found anything.
At Bei Du, the Huang family also received an extremely surprising piece of news.
The Zhen family had actually applied for an arena deathmatch with the brass and had obtained their approval.
Grandpa Huang was extremely furious about this, but there was nothing he could do.
This was a method for the upper echelon of Hua Xia to resolve conflicts. It was especially suitable for such situations. It was to prevent the large clans from getting into overly intense struggles due to some conflicts, leading to instability in their society.
The rules of the arena deathmatch was very simple. The party that applied for it could specify any individual they desired and send someone with comparable strength according to the specified individual’s beastmaster tier. The specified individual would be granted the choice of the location of the match, and the two would duel one another, until one of them died.
The side that proposed the arena deathmatch was forbidden from sending a beastmaster whose tier was a realm higher than the opponent. In other words, if the specified individual was a low-tier beastmaster, then the proposing party could only send out a low-tier beastmaster for the fight.
—
“Father, how could the brass agree to the Zhen family’s request? They were obviously in the wrong, and Xiaoche was only acting in self-defense! Does he have to take responsibility for Zhen Long’s death?”
Huang Juyun was very dissatisfied. However, since the brass had already agreed to the Zhen family’s proposal, the arena deathmatch was already unavoidable.
Grandpa Huang sighed and said, “Although Xiaoche killed Zhen Long and the others out of self-defense, they have an arguing point too… That is, Zhen Long’s group hadn’t made a move yet. The Zhen family are holding onto this point and demanding the brass uphold justice. If we don’t agree to it, I’m afraid they’ll really make some moves in the dark. It’ll be disadvantageous for Xiaoche’s safety in the future either way.”
After a short pause, Grandpa Huang continued, “The only question now is exactly how strong Xiaoche is? Although judging from this matter, his subdued beast seemed very powerful, it is only limited to legend-quality. Without an epic-quality beast, he can’t be considered a true expert.”
Huang Juyun furrowed his brow, and worry could be seen in his eyes as he said, “Epic-quality subdued beasts aren’t much; our Huang family can gather a few of them. The key thing is if Xiaoche can reach Tier Six in one month’s time. If not, he’ll only be able to employ five-star subdued beasts. It’s too much of a disadvantage.”
Huang Juyun’s worry wasn’t without reason.
The Huang family could pool together a few epic-quality beasts. As a whole, the Zhen family, who were slightly stronger than the Huang family, could definitely do that, too.
Also, their representative would definitely be a Tier Six beastmaster. With that, naturally they’d have a greater advantage.
After all, a six-star epic-quality beast was way stronger than a five-star epic-quality beast. It’d have no problem taking on two epic-quality beasts at once.
With that, even if Zhang Che could wield two more subdued beasts than other beastmasters of the same rank, he’d definitely be no match for his opponent with such an absolute difference in power.
“There’s still a month’s time. We can only hope for Xiaoche to advance to Tier Six successfully,” Grandpa Huang sighed, then said to Huang Juyun, “Whether or not Xiaoche can advance to Tier Six is his own problem. What we have to do now is to prepare as many powerful six-star epic-quality beasts for him as we can. You go take care of this matter with haste. It’s not an easy matter to gather sufficient six-star epic-quality beasts in a month, either.”
“Rest assured on this, father, I’ll definitely gather enough epic-quality beasts for Xiaoche to use within a month.”
If it were in the past, Huang Juyun might not have such confidence. Now was a different matter, however.
If he spread news of that gigantic spiritual jade around, the clans that wanted to cultivate their top-grade spiritual herbs would naturally come forth to offer help.
As such, the problem remained the same… Could Zhang Che achieve Tier Six in a month’s time?
They could only hope for Huang Hai and the others to find Zhang Che in the beast world and inform him of this news, and to fully support him in hunting exotic beasts.