There was a myriad of gazes on Liang Chen, practically prickling his skin as the various pairs of eyes swept over him. But he managed to detect one that felt a bit off, so ethereal and faint that it was hard to pick out from amongst the others. His pupils moved slightly, just barely able to spot Tien Shih's blue eyes within one of the doorways located on the Enlai family's side of the arena.
He doubted that she had seen the entire battle, she had probably just come forward because she noticed the commotion. And since she definitely noticed all the gazes focused on him, he also guessed that she was now fully convinced that she had done the right thing in requesting his help. She didn't reveal herself further than she already had, not even daring to glance at the leader of the Enlai family for fear that she would be discovered, she simply vanished from sight after checking out the commotion.
The strangely silent commotion luckily died down rather quickly when no one saw that Liang Chen had any interest in speaking, the fact that Tien Bao didn't say anything about the situation also helped. The Zun twins kept sneaking glances at him, feeling nothing but astonishment at the might that their newly found big brother had so casually shown. And of course, as the commotion died down, the sparring matches resumed.
The contestant from the Tien family stepped out from one of the doorways built into the seating area, but his appearance made it clear that he was in no condition to fight. He had a large bruise on his face that made the left side of his face swell up so much that it forced his eye shut, he was also limping so much that he was practically dragging his right foot.
He didn't even bother stepping onto the stone stage, heading directly for the seating area while Tien Bao's brows furrowed slightly. The fighter from the Enlai family was perfectly healthy as he left the doorway, and seeing that his opponent was too wounded to fight he knew that there was no point in stepping onto the stage. But as he was about to step away, the Enlai family matriarch called him over.
The crimson-haired woman spoke to the startled youth in a hushed tone before throwing him an interspatial ring and sending him away. The youth stepped onto the stage and walked straight across it before hopping down again, stopping right in front of the Tien family seating area. His gaze landed on Liang Chen as he flung out his arm, tossing him the interspatial ring.
"You have protected the life of one of ours, please accept our gratitude."
Liang Chen caught the interspatial ring and sank his mind into it, taking stock of the various items that had been packed into it. The Enlai family knew nothing about him or his laws so they had kept the more specialized resources at a minimum, only including a single fire-element resource and one metal-element resource. There were however quite a few Spirit Stones and non-elemental resources in the interspatial ring, most of the resources belonging to the type that was filled with a vast and pure Qi that could be freely absorbed.
Liang Chen was a tad surprised that the Enlai family was actually willing to reward him, but he had no reason to refuse them so he stored away the ring with a nod of his head. The youth from the Enlai family walked away after finishing his task, the match getting written up as a win for the Enlai family.
The atmosphere around the Enlai family's section of the arena became much more relaxed as the youth once again vanished into the doorway he had just left, a faint smile appearing on the matriarch's mother. She turned around and beckoned forth a cloak-covered youth that had been sitting amidst the other Enlai family members, quietly exchanging a few words before allowing him to enter the stage.
The youth hopped onto the stage in a casual manner and then removed his cloak, allowing his energy to burst forth at the same time. The energy surging forth from his body belonged to a cultivator at the early stage of the Primordial Immortal realm, and thanks to his own cultivation, Liang Chen could also sense that there was an equally powerful Anima Essence mixed in with the energy.
And as if to match his powerful energy, the youth had an equally striking appearance. His frame was surprisingly delicate and his features sharp and handsome, his dark pink hair hanging loosely down to his shoulders. The strands of hair that would fall in front of his face and cover his gleaming yellow eyes had been swept to the side and fastened using two pins, one shaped like a tiger and one like a dragon.
The youth's gaze was sharp as he swept the people from the Tien family, an excited light glinting in his eyes as his fingers fiddled with the handle of a sword he had fastened at his waist. As they looked at the youth, the gazes of some of the people from the Tien family sharply narrowed in shock, Tien Bao turning to the Enlai matriarch.
"The Prince of Dreamy Lust, is this your trump card, Enlai Yuan-Hah?"
Liang Chen made a mental note of the Enlai matriarch's name, but he was more interested in the title that Tien Bao had used for the youth. He checked his Bloodwind Code just to make sure, and just as he suspected, there was someone on the Multiverse Bloodwind list with that title. Shen Fei, Prince of Dreamy Lust, it was a rank that was one step above Liang Chen's Lord rank.
Of course, Liang Chen's law of the void made it hard for the Bloodwind Code to classify him, so he had no idea whether or not his rank was currently set correctly. Shen Fei finished letting his gaze sweep over the members of the Tien family, giving a fractal bow and introducing himself.
"Shen Fei, early-stage Primordial Immortal Qi cultivator and early-stage Soul Lord Soul cultivator. Please send out your strongest fighters so that I can have at least one good fight."
Shen Fei didn't beat around the bush in the slightest and made his desires very clear, he wanted a good fight. As to whether or not that was the only reason he helped the Enlai family, no one but him would know. Shen Fei's words were directed at the Tien family, but his gaze was locked squarely on Liang Chen, so it was exceedingly clear exactly who it was that he wanted to fight. But if that was what he hoped for, then Liang Chen could only leave him disappointed.
"Don't look at me, I'm not here to fight, I'm just an observer by coincidence."
Shen Fei seemed to practically deflate when Liang Chen shrugged his shoulders, his disappointment palpable. But he luckily didn't seem intent on pushing Liang Chen, spitting out a puff of air and waiting for the contestant that the Tien family would send out.
But with Shen Fei taking the stage, the sparring contest had lost any suspense that it might have had in the past. The Tien family had more than one member that had reached the early stage of the Primordial Immortal realm, but they were far from good enough. Shen Fei was someone granted the Prince title on the Multiverse Bloodwind List, this alone was enough to prove that his strength and potential were far above others.
As such, each person who stepped onto the stage was swiftly beaten back down, not even the early stage Primordial Immortal disciples capable of lasting more than six or seven exchanges. Shen Fei easily had the strength to kill his opponents, but he would halt his attacks each time to make sure that they weren't killed.
His movements as he did this looked a bit stilted, as if he wasn't too familiar with having to hold back like this. He would also cast a quick glance at Enlai Yuan-Hah each time, looking somewhat aggrieved. But the only response he got was her shrugging her shoulders and gesturing towards Liang Chen, who maintained his stance as an observer.
Her own stance was made clear through these actions, it was better to let sleeping dogs lie. They had the victory in the pocket if they kept going like this, there was no point in needlessly antagonizing an unknown variable, thus forcing it to move.
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The victor was as clear as day, but Tien Bao didn't halt the sparring match. It wasn't to save his pride or the like, it was more so for the fact that it wasn't every day that you could spar against someone holding a Ruler title on the Multiverse Bloodwind List, this was a good chance for the Tien family disciples.
Shen Fei himself seemed to start getting bored of things after winning the 15th match in a row, once again beating Tien Huang down. But it was at this time that another unexpected change occurred. A ferocious pressure suddenly covered the entire arena, crushing down on everyone present while a voice descended from above.
"So this is where you've skulked off to, This King has had to spend a fair bit of time looking for you."
The gazes of everyone present immediately shot to the sky, landing on a middle-aged man with faintly ashen skin and dark grey hair. The man was standing in the air, Qi gathering and hardening beneath his feet to create a platform for him. The man had dark black eyes flashing with a poisonous light as he looked down at the people present, his pupils sweeping over the leaders of the two families.
"Tien Bao, Enlai Yuan-Hah, I may have kicked them out of my herd, but that does not mean that you are free to hunt my clansmen. I might be fine with it if it was the two of you that did it, but the energy lingering in the place was so pathetically weak that it can't have been the two of you, but just some random kids. I'm not going to make things difficult for you, none of us want an all-out fight, just hand over those that dared hunt my clansmen."
The man's voice was a bit raspy and dark, but the arrogance within it couldn't be hidden, his eyes continuously sweeping over the people present, as if searching for something. Liang Chen was rather quick-witted, and the middle-aged man didn't do much in an attempt to hide it, so he managed to quickly guess at his identity. If it came to hunting, then Liang Chen could only think of one hunt that had taken place recently, the one where Tien Huang killed the Stone-Soul Scorpions.
Tien Huang and his group had mentioned that the scorpions were thrown away by their king, so it stood to reason that the man standing in the air above them was exactly that king. Liang Chen allowed his gaze to roam over the body of the Stone-Soul King, his pupils shrinking somewhat. The Stone-Soul King had reached the middle-stage of the Primordial Immortal realm, but the horrid pressure it was radiating made its status as a true Divine Beast more than clear, so its strength should be a fair bit above its realm.
The pressure of a Divine Beast was not an easy thing to bear, it was much easier for Liang Chen, who had a bloodline that transcended a Divine Beast. But for the rest of the people present, especially those who didn't have any bloodlines, it was far harder, some were unable to even move at all.
Enlai Yuan-Hah heaved a stealthy sigh of relief when the Stone-Soul King finished talking, they hadn't hunted any Stone-Soul Scorpions lately so he wasn't talking about them. Tien Bao, on the other hand, his expression distorted violently. Tien Huang had just hunted some Stone-Soul Scorpions, they had been abandoned by this very king so it should have been fine.
But now it seemed like this king was far more unreasonable than he had ever acted in the past, even caring about members he had abandoned. Normally, he might be able to be convinced to hand over a few people, the Stone-Soul King would just have to add over enough resources to pay him off so that he didn't lose too much face. But the problem was that one of the people that had taken part in the hunt was his own grandchild, and he couldn't exactly send him out to be killed.
"You abandoned them, so you can't just go around seeking justice against us for killing them, that's not how it works when you abandon something. I'll not hand over a single person."
This was the only course of action left to him, standing his ground. The Stone-Soul King had definitely memorized all the energy that still lingered in the area after the hunt, he would be able to detect all those who had taken part in it the moment they showed themselves. As such, just handing over the others and hiding his grandchild wasn't really an option, the Stone-Soul King would realize that someone was missing.
There was also Liang Chen, Tien Bao's instincts told him that handing over Liang Chen would be a terrible mistake, one of the greatest he could ever make. The atmosphere in the area immediately froze as Tien Bao made his declaration, the expression of the Stone-Soul King not changing in the slightest, he just gave a simple nod of his head.
"I thought as much, one of the energies present was fairly similar to the one that jabbering fool had, so I already guessed that one of the hunters had familial ties with you. But when I want to kill someone, you are not capable of stopping me."
The Stone-Soul King pushed down his hand as he spoke, the air rippling as a tremendous amount of energy was pushed downward. Tien Bao shot into the sky and intercepted the mass of energy, but the scattered pieces that slipped past him were still enough to make the coliseum fall apart.
Chaos immediately broke out as the elders of the various families did their best to maintain order, the expression of Enlai Yuan-Hah morphing a few times before she stood up and shot into the sky to aid Tien Bao. They were rivals, but if either family was destroyed in such an abrupt manner like this, the void left behind by them could not be filled fast enough for the city to resist the beasts lurking in the desert. If Tien Bao fell here, the Stone-Soul King might even take the chance to launch a full-blown attack on the city straight away.
Everything instantly became even more chaotic when Enlai Yuan-Hah joined the fray, just the remnant waves of her energy were enough to crack open the earth and launch shrapnel everywhere. Even with the elders doing everything they could, panic was inevitable in a situation like this, especially when the first injuries due to the shrapnel and collapsing coliseum appeared.
The Zun twins flocked to Liang Chen, trembling like leaves in a storm, their faces so pale that they looked bloodless. Liang Chen himself raised his head and looked at the chaos going on around him, his gaze eventually landing on a large chunk of the coliseum that was crashing down upon some of the people from the two families. The chunk was several tens of metres wide and descended upon the fleeing group, already so close that they had no chance of escaping.
Liang Chen closed his eyes and let out a long sigh as the sound of panic and chaos echoed throughout the surroundings, so much for hoping that things would pass peacefully. But since things had already gone this awry, there was no way he was going to just sit by idly, a simple word slipping out from his lips.
"Yumao."
The shadows of the fleeing youths immediately exploded as the word sounded out, thick tendrils of darkness rising into the air and tearing up the chunk. Several more such tendrils appeared all around the coliseum, shattering any chunks that were about to hit people who couldn't defend themselves.
All the tendrils then shot over to Liang Chen, spinning around each other until they formed a single tendril that coiled around him. And as the tendril coiled around Liang Chen, it solidified and turned into Yumao, his black feathery wings extending from behind Liang Chen while Yumao himself raised his horned head and let loose a loud roar to proclaim his and Liang Chen's presence.