Chapter 498: Slaughter

At the north end of A Zone, the seventh batch of teams had just entered when a thick, inescapable stench of blood rushed toward them.

Cheng Feng stepped onto the slightly sticky bluestone ground, a faint sensation of tackiness coming from beneath his feet.

He lowered his head to scan the ground; blood from previous rounds was still pooling in the cracks between the stone slabs, dark red and turning black, mixed with fine gray dust. The air held a mixture of lamp oil and rust, pressing down until one's chest felt stifled.

Wang Ji's team number was 793, and the twenty teams entering in the same batch were divided into designated grids at the north end of A Zone.

Between each team were only a few waist-high vermilion-painted wooden stakes and a buffer zone less than three paces wide.

As soon as Cheng Feng entered the arena, the teams on both sides cast their gazes over, like a pack of starving dogs smelling meat at the same time.

"Ignore them," Wang Ji said in a low voice. "Wait for the signal."

Cheng Feng steadied his breathing and quickly scanned the nearby teams.

The team to the left wore uniform gray-brown martial attire with black wolf heads embroidered on the cuffs; they were retirees from the Great Zhou border army, surrounding a young nobleman.

The four of them stood extremely steadily, and the man in the lead had an old scar running across his face from his eyebrow to his chin, currently using an oilcloth to wipe his spearhead.

To the right was a ragtag group cobbled together from a small sect; their clothes were not even worn properly, and their footsteps were unsteady—clearly there just to make up the numbers.

What truly caught Cheng Feng's attention was a team diagonally to the right.

Those five were dressed simply in gray-white short tunics and were all on the thin side, yet their footwork was highly methodical.

They stood in two staggered rows, front and back, maintaining a half-arm's distance from one another like a set of precisely meshing gears.

That was a well-trained military formation, and not an ordinary army at that.

"Liu Yu, that team." Cheng Feng pointed lightly with his chin.

Liu Yu had already noticed them; without turning his head, he said in a low voice, "The formation technique of the Yunzhou Zhe Family, they have some fame in the pugilistic world. Two hold shields, two hold short spears, and the one in the middle is the formation master, skilled at adjusting the Array Eye. Don't charge them head-on if you encounter them, or you'll be ground up."

Just as he was speaking, drums suddenly sounded from the high platform, each beat more urgent than the last, making Cheng Feng's chest tighten. As the final beat fell, an aged yet resonant voice came through the Amplification Artifact: "Seventh batch, begin—"

Before the sound had even faded, a chorus of battle cries erupted from beside the vermilion-painted wooden stakes on both sides.

The Black Wolf Head team on the left moved first, but not toward Cheng Feng and his group; they headed straight for the ragtag team on the right.

With a flick of the oilcloth from his spearhead, the scarred man was the first to strike, flipping over the person at the head of the opposing line; the spear tip pierced through the chest, bringing with it a spray of blood.

The three men behind him fanned out, their saber lights intersecting, and in the blink of an eye, they had shredded the ragtag team. The screams lasted only a few moments before they ceased.

Cheng Feng did not look much longer. He stood in front of Wang Ji's left, one hand held horizontally before him, knees slightly bent, ready to exert force at any moment.

Huo Luan was to his right, her Steel Saber already unsheathed, the tip pointing slightly at the ground like a leopard crouching low.

Gu Niangzi stepped back two paces, her Red Armored Beetle already flying up from her hair, spinning rapidly above her head.

Liu Yu was at the very front; his Narrow Saber was not yet drawn, but he held the scabbard horizontally before him, his eyes scanning the surroundings.

Suddenly, the Yunzhou Zhe Family team diagonally to the right moved. They did not charge the nearest team, but instead cut diagonally toward Cheng Feng's side, the five of them moving in unison like an iron curtain slowly pressing forward.

The two in front raised their shields simultaneously, the bottom edges of the shields scraping against the ground and emitting a teeth-gritting friction sound. Behind the shields, the short spears were already held level, waiting only for the moment of intersection to thrust out.

"They're coming," Liu Yu's voice turned cold. "Cheng Feng, front left; Huo Luan, front right. Don't take them head-on!"

Cheng Feng rushed out almost the moment his voice fell.

He cut in diagonally to the front left, stepping one pace to the side-front of the opposing shield-bearer, avoiding the frontal shield bash, and backhanded a punch toward the side edge of the shield. With a dull thud, the iron shield was knocked half a foot off-course by his punch, the shield-bearer's web of his thumb went numb, and he retreated a step.

Cheng Feng did not give him a chance to adjust; his right palm slashed like a saber toward the exposed forearm, the edge of his palm grazing the skin and flesh, drawing a line of blood beads.

The shield-bearer let out a muffled groan, and a short spear thrust out from behind the shield at an extremely tricky angle, aiming straight for Cheng Feng's ribs.

Cheng Feng dodged sideways, the short spear grazing his lapel; the wind generated by it sliced through his outer robe, but his body remained completely unharmed.

Huo Luan's side was even more ferocious.

She struck her Steel Saber hard against another iron shield, sparks flying everywhere, the blade carving a deep groove into the shield's surface.

Her strength was more than a notch greater than that shield-bearer's; with one strike, she actually sent the opponent, along with his shield, reeling backward.

The short spearman behind seized the opportunity to thrust toward her waist and abdomen; Huo Luan reached out with her left hand and actually caught the spear shaft barehanded, pulling it toward her, while her right hand followed through with an upward slash of her Steel Saber, the blade slicing across the man's wrist, severing tendons and spraying blood.

The short spear was knocked out of his hand and kicked away by Huo Luan.

Seeing the front row torn open, the Zhe Family formation master's expression did not change; he let out a low shout, and the left and right sides shifted formation.

The two shield-bearers retreated simultaneously, the short spearmen filled the gaps, and the three of them formed a row, long weapons on the outside, short weapons on the inside, closing in on Cheng Feng and Huo Luan.

This formation change was extremely fast; Liu Yu narrowed his eyes and finally drew his saber.

The Narrow Saber left its sheath, bringing with it only a sliver of extremely fine silver light, and Liu Yu was already inside the opponent's formation. The saber light cut in along the edge of a shield, precisely grazing the shoulder of the short spearman on the left; the man's hand loosened, and the spear fell to the ground.

Liu Yu did not stop his pace, and the saber light flashed again; the second short spearman's belt was severed, his pants began to fall, and as he scrambled to grab his waistband, Huo Luan kicked him in the chest, sending him flying backward to knock over the formation master behind him.

"Scatter!" Wang Ji's voice rang out at the right moment.

Cheng Feng and Huo Luan immediately retreated, once again guarding in front of Wang Ji.

Three or four of the five Zhe Family members were injured, their formation was in disarray, and they could no longer afford to linger; they reorganized in a panic and retreated toward another direction.

The Black Wolf Head team nearby had just finished clearing the ragtag group, and seeing an opportunity here, they actually brandished their sabers and spears and bore down on Cheng Feng and his group.

But before they could get close, Gu Niangzi lifted her finger. Two Black Bees flew over silently; one landed on the shaft of the scarred man's spear and crawled up the shaft, moving so fast it was almost invisible.

Just as the scarred man was about to raise his spear, he suddenly felt a sting on the back of his hand; he looked down to see a tiny red dot rapidly expanding on his hand. His expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly channeled his Blood Qi to force out the poison; the four men behind him also stopped simultaneously, with two of them already showing black energy on their faces.

"Get lost," Gu Niangzi spat out coldly.

The scarred man gritted his teeth; he was a man who had seen blood, after all, and he made a decisive choice, pulling a dagger from his bosom and carving the piece of flesh from the back of his hand in one stroke, then retreating with his men, dripping with blood.

Gu Niangzi gave a light huff, recalled the Black Bees, and did not pursue.

In no more than a few dozen breaths, a thin layer of sweat had already broken out on Gu Niangzi's back.

Cheng Feng scanned the surroundings; nearly half of the twenty teams in this area had already fallen.

Some teams had been wiped out, while others had only two or three people left, back-to-back, clinging to life.

And their team, having injured several opponents without a single serious injury of their own, naturally became a thorn in the eyes of the teams still standing nearby.

"Let's lean against the edge first and catch our breath," Wang Ji said softly.

Cheng Feng nodded, and with Huo Luan on his left and right, they shielded Wang Ji as they moved toward the edge of the arena.

There was a broken section of stone railing there, with a deep trench behind it, so at least they wouldn't be flanked from the rear.

Liu Yu and Gu Niangzi followed on both sides; the three of them were all breathing somewhat rapidly, but compared to the teams all around them who were covered in blood from the slaughter, their condition could be considered composed.

Cheng Feng's physique was there, so he felt no pressure at all.

"This is only the beginning." Wang Ji leaned her back against the stone railing, her gaze sweeping across the entire Great Drill Ground, her voice cold and steady, "The more ruthless parts are still to come."