Chapter 556 - 555: Carelessness

Hong Xin sneered, casually sidestepping with his hands behind his back. The wings on his back fluttered, keeping his body agile and out of his opponent’s reach.

Zhi Le was incredibly fast. With his Thunder Sword in hand, he launched into a relentless flurry of slashes, his movements blurring into afterimages as lightning wove itself into a net.

At first, Hong Xin was relaxed, intending to toy with Zhi Le. He planned to wait until his opponent’s Spiritual Power ran out, then cripple him with a single, stylish move and leave his personal mark.

But Zhi Le’s speed only increased, forcing Hong Xin into a sorry state just by dodging. Every now and then, a few feathers would detach from his wings and drift down onto the fighting stage.

A warrior can be killed, but not humiliated. To Hong Xin, losing even a single feather was an insult.

He ground his teeth. "You’ve managed to piss me off!" With that, he stopped dodging and went on the offensive.

He had an Earth Element Ability, allowing him to spit out sharp stone spikes. More than ten spikes shot out each time in a full-scale barrage, making it nearly impossible for any Beastman on the stage to escape injury.

But as he spat them out, Zhi Le didn’t retreat. Instead, he advanced with a sidestep and actually dodged the attack!

Si Shuo led the applause, cheering loudly. The stone spikes radiated outward, so the closer one was to Hong Xin, the smaller the impact zone. Zhi Le had used this to dodge.

Hong Xin’s eyes bulged with rage as he unleashed a continuous barrage of stone spikes at Zhi Le. Transforming into a Snow Leopard, Zhi Le zipped away with incredible speed. Hong Xin wanted to put Zhi Le in a desperate situation, but unfortunately, his own Spiritual Power began to fail him first.

It had been a long time since he’d felt this humiliated. Narrowing his eyes, he began to charge up his ultimate attack, determined to level the entire stage. His two-level advantage in cultivation was enough to ensure that even if he didn’t smash Zhi Le to death, he would at least severely injure him!

Zhi Le stood his ground, letting him charge up. But just as the giant boulder came smashing down with thunderous might, Zhi Le’s figure flashed. He appeared behind Hong Xin and kicked him forcefully under the descending boulder.

Hong Xin barely had time to frantically summon a Protective Shield, but he couldn’t channel enough Spiritual Power into it. The massive boulder, imbued with fifty percent of the Level 15 Beastman’s power, crashed down.

The Protective Shield shattered with the crisp crack of an eggshell, and the impact knocked him out, blood spraying from his mouth!

Zhi Le exclaimed, "Seriously? He’s already out? I barely did anything. Is the match over?"

The crowd was stunned, their expressions utterly speechless. Hong Xin had knocked himself out with his own attack.

After a moment of silence, the One-horned Bull Beastman counted to ten as per the rules. Hong Xin remained unconscious. "The winner of the first match is Zhi Le!"

The crowd erupted at the unexpected result. Hong Xin had instinctively raised his arms to shield himself, and now his limbs were bent at grotesque angles. A bone protruded from one of his knees, and blood pooled on the ground around him. The sight alone was painful to look at.

"We were careless," one of the Red-winged Black Oriole Beastmen said through gritted teeth, shocked to have stumbled on the very first match. ’It must be because Zhi Le is too captivating,’ he thought. ’It made Hong Xin misjudge his opponent and let his guard down.’

"It’s just one guest cave. Hmph, we can afford to lose. Let’s continue!" They carried Hong Xin off the stage, and the second Beastman, Hong Huo, leaped up.

He was at the Peak Fifteenth level, his cultivation a Half step higher than Hong Xin’s. Within his clan, he was considered an expert.

This time, Xu Chi leaped onto the stage. Before he could even steady himself, his opponent began to spew fire! A Fire Dragon instantly encircled the stage, slowly closing in.

Xu Chi just smiled. With a lift of his hand, a tornado formed, sucking up all the flames and redirecting them toward Hong Huo.

The tornado was immense. Before it even reached him, Hong Huo was already swaying, struggling to keep his footing.

Hong Huo’s expression turned grim. The Fire Ability was formidable; many Wild Beasts and even other Beastmen were instinctively afraid of it. But who would have thought his opponent would have a Wind Ability and had even mastered tornadoes!

Xu Chi’s apparent cultivation was Level 13, yet he easily unleashed the power of a Level 15. A tornado like this, infused with half of the Power of Nature, was a disaster-level threat that no ordinary Beastman could hope to resist.

Hong Huo used nearly all his Spiritual Power to resist, but he felt it being rapidly siphoned away. Soon, he could no longer hold on and was swept into the tornado. He spun and spun in the air along with his own flames, the fur on his body burning away completely until a charred smell filled the air...

"Stop, we surrender!" Since the outcome was irreversible, the Red-winged Black Oriole Beastmen had to prioritize saving Hong Huo. He was, after all, a Level 15 Beastman. Nurturing such a warrior required immense resources and luck, far more than a single guest cave was worth.

Xu Chi didn’t press the issue, immediately withdrawing his Spiritual Power. The tornado vanished in an instant, and a furless, pale Hong Huo crashed to the ground!

The spectators couldn’t help but size up Si Shuo and his companions again. If Zhi Le winning the first match was a fluke or an accident, then winning two in a row... now that was interesting.

Ji Liang was up for the third match. He had an Ice Ability, and his opponent was of the Gold Element. This time, the Red-winged Black Oriole Beastman had learned his lesson, immediately raising a Protective Shield for fear that Ji Liang would pull a fast one.

But Ji Liang always managed to dodge his opponent’s attacks, flash behind him, and hammer the Protective Shield with ice cones. By focusing his attacks on a single point, he caused cracks to appear in just a few strikes.

The damage to the Protective Shield caused its owner to suffer from the backlash...

One match followed another. The males on Si Shuo’s side took turns fighting, and after each match, the fighter would go meditate inside a Protective Shield enchanted with the Time Law to recover. The twenty-fold time dilation was enough to ensure they entered every fight refreshed, energetic, and with their Spiritual Power completely restored!

Never had the Red-winged Black Oriole Beastmen suffered such a humiliation. They lost every single match, yet they were powerless to stop it. They could only watch as they became stepping stones for Si Shuo’s group to establish their dominance, forfeiting guest cave after guest cave as their clansmen were defeated in increasingly pathetic ways. It was all their own doing, and their miserable states were horrifying to behold, yet no one could call Si Shuo’s group ruthless, as they always stopped short of causing permanent harm.

The one hundred matches lasted from early morning until midnight. The Beastmen in the later rounds were even easier to deal with. They were either scared witless and utterly demoralized, or their Levels were so low they posed no challenge at all.

When the One-horned Bull Beastman announced the complete victory for Si Shuo’s group and their prize of one hundred guest caves, the entire arena exploded with excitement.

"These outsiders are incredible, aren’t they? They’re fighting opponents above their Level and making it look easy! Have our lives really gotten so comfortable that we can’t compare to those who fight Wild Beasts all day?"

"This feels so unreal. I’ve lived a long time, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen the Red-winged Black Oriole Beastmen get utterly trounced. Haha, this is so satisfying...!"

"Let’s see how the Red-winged Black Oriole Beastmen are going to hold their heads up in the city after this... It’s hilarious! Before this, they were so confident of victory, saying even if they lost it would only be a few caves and acting like they didn’t care. Now it’s not just a few, or even a dozen, but a hundred caves! Good heavens, these outsiders have only been here two days, and they already own so many guest caves?"

"I hear they only have seven males... Tsk, tsk. This is our chance!"

"Every male is incredibly powerful, which must mean that little female of theirs is good at training them... Becoming Couple Brothers with a group like that... that wouldn’t be half bad..."