Chapter 499: Slaughter II

After the Black Wolf Head team retreated, the north end of A Zone became surprisingly quiet for a moment.

Cheng Feng leaned his back against the stone railing, slowing and lengthening his breathing.

The high-speed strikes had consumed a portion of his mental energy, but his heartbeat had now basically stabilized.

The recovery power brought by the Flood Dragon Body was fully manifested in this kind of high-intensity wheel battle; while others had exhausted most of their energy, he could recover most of his own just by standing for a while.

"Are you alright?" Wang Ji glanced at him sideways.

"No problem." Cheng Feng pulled up his torn lapel, "It won't affect my fighting."

Wang Ji said nothing more, only casting her gaze back into the arena.

The corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

A hard-training Martial Artist is indeed very useful.

More than half of the twenty teams at the north end of A Zone had already been wiped out.

The ground was littered with people in disarray; some were motionless, while others were still twitching in pools of blood.

The corpse collectors trotted in from the edge of the arena carrying stretchers, bending down to drag those still breathing onto the stretchers, and grabbing those who had already stopped breathing to toss them onto the carts behind them.

The corpses on the cart beds were piled like stacks of firewood, and an arm or two would roll off with every bump.

The spectators at the edge of the arena were still shouting, their voices even more frantic than before.

Some were cheering for the teams they had bet on, others were cursing their luck after losing silver, and a few half-grown children climbed onto the railings, only to be poked down by soldiers with long poles, climbing back up while cursing and swearing.

The entire Great Drill Ground was like a pot of boiling water, kept churning by an invisible fire burning beneath it.

Cheng Feng did not pay much attention to the faces of the people in the stands. His focus remained on the few teams still standing in the arena.

Far to the left, the Black Wolf Head team had retreated to the edge of the arena, four people surrounding that young master in the middle, whispering something.

The scarred man's left hand was crudely wrapped with torn cloth strips; the black aura on his face had receded somewhat, but his complexion was frighteningly pale.

He leaned on his spear shaft while speaking, clearly having suffered greatly from that strike by Gu Niangzi.

Further away, the Zhe Family team had withdrawn to the other side of the north end; four out of the five were injured, and only the formation leader could still stand straight.

They no longer clashed with anyone, simply planting their shields in front of them and sticking their Short Spears diagonally into the ground, looking as if they only sought self-preservation.

"Neither of these two teams is a concern anymore," Liu Yu said in a low voice. "That formation leader from the Zhe Family is a tough nut, but he knows that without men, the formation is just an empty shell. He won't take the initiative to target us again."

"I'm just worried someone will deliberately crowd toward us." Huo Luan tapped the ground lightly with the tip of his Steel Saber. "We are the only team in this area that is still intact; if we are focused-fired, it will be quite difficult."

Wang Ji did not respond, only raising her hand to tuck a stray lock of hair from her temple behind her ear.

Her expression remained indifferent, as if the slaughter before her was separated from her by some kind of barrier.

"Don't move," Cheng Feng suddenly said in a low voice.

Everyone tensed up, subconsciously gripping their weapons tighter.

Cheng Feng's gaze was fixed on the crowd to the front right. There, several "wounded" wearing gray cloth martial attire were slowly moving toward them.

They were covered in blood and limping, looking like stragglers who had just been defeated.

But Cheng Feng noticed that as these people moved, their feet never truly left the ground, and their centers of gravity were kept extremely low, like snakes slithering through grass.

"Faking injury to get close." Liu Yu also saw it, his voice as cold as a blade. "Don't let them come over."

Just as Cheng Feng was about to move, those "wounded" suddenly erupted. The first one flicked a soft Sword from his sleeve, the blade shaking out a string of silver light in the air, aiming straight for Gu Niangzi's throat.

The second snatched a short axe from the ground, rolling toward Huo Luan's ankles to hack at them.

The third was empty-handed, but spat out a cloud of black smoke, which was thick and fishy, heading straight for Cheng Feng's face.

"Gu!" Gu Niangzi shrieked a warning, while three small, bright red insects flew from her sleeve, pouncing straight at the face of the attacker.

Cheng Feng had already held his breath. He flipped his right palm, bringing up a gust of wind to strike at the mass of black smoke.

The smoke was split in two by the palm wind, but suddenly dispersed, circling behind him like a living creature.

Liu Yu stepped forward, his Narrow Saber unsheathed; the blade light was like a silver thread passing through the black smoke, aiming straight for the throat of the man spitting the smoke.

The man did not dodge or evade, but brought his hands together, actually clamping Liu Yu's blade between his palms, the edge only two inches from his Adam's apple.

Liu Yu frowned and twisted the hilt, the blade forcibly turning half a circle in the opponent's palm; blood gushed from between the man's fingers, yet the opponent refused to let go.

"Huo Luan!" Liu Yu barked.

Huo Luan had already understood; he caught the man wielding the short axe with his Steel Saber, kicked him in the lower abdomen, sending him flying three or four steps back, then spun around and struck the shoulder blade of the guy with the soft Sword with the back of his blade, sending him stumbling.

Cheng Feng held his breath, his fists swinging like the wind, each punch striking the back of the smoke-spitter's head and spine.

He did not need to breathe; the Flood Dragon Body allowed him to hold his breath underwater for half a day, and this bit of toxic smoke could not suffocate him.

After three punches, the man's back had already caved in, and the black smoke from his mouth became intermittent, unable to be spat out again.

Liu Yu took the opportunity to pull his blade out, the edge withdrawing from the man's palms and bringing out two sprays of blood mist.

The smoke-spitter's eyes rolled back, and he fell backward.

The black smoke lost its source and was soon blown away by the wind. Seeing the situation was bad, the ones with the soft Sword and the short axe abandoned their companion and turned to flee, disappearing into the crowd after a few leaps.

"Should we chase?" Huo Luan asked, panting.

"Don't chase," Wang Ji said decisively. "Their goal is to advance; the monk may run, but the temple cannot. We'll deal with them in the next round."

Liu Yu sheathed his blade and rummaged through the corpse of the smoke-spitter, finding a Black Iron waist token from his belt.

He took a look and handed it to Wang Ji. Wang Ji took it and saw a half-bloomed Red Lotus carved on the token, with an extremely tiny character for "Outer" in the center of the flower.

"It's still the outer circle of the Red Lotus Sect." Wang Ji tossed the waist token in her hand, her gaze cold and sharp.

"Choosing to act specifically during a chaotic battle, they certainly have a good plan."

"They won't have come with just these few people," Liu Yu said. "There might be more behind them. Especially if we keep walking so conspicuously, it's even easier to be targeted."

Wang Ji nodded, her gaze sweeping back to the arena: "Let's play it more conservatively from now on. Just keep our spot, don't take the initiative to stir up trouble."

She said it lightly, but among these opponents, who wasn't blinded by bloodlust? Even if you don't stir up trouble, others might not necessarily let you go.

Cheng Feng had just tightened the torn cloth strip on his lapel when he heard a mountain-shaking roar from the stands at the edge of the arena.

He turned his head to look and saw that in the center-west of the drill ground, two groups of people were colliding, both with large numbers, fighting until the ground shook.

Saber light flew chaotically, flesh and blood splattered everywhere; a burly man wielding twin hammers was pierced through by three long spears simultaneously, and before his corpse could even fall, it was trampled to the ground by those behind him. Another man had just cut someone down, and before he could even withdraw his Steel Saber, three sabers greeted his body at once.

"That place is a meat grinder," Huo Luan said, shaking his head with a tsk. "When there are too many people, it's just a mess."

"Chaos is good," Cheng Feng suddenly said.

Wang Ji looked at him, a hint of approval appearing in her eyes: "That's right. The more chaotic it is, the easier it is to hide. Let's not dive into the crowds; we'll just roam along the edges and wait until they've killed each other off enough, then head toward the places with fewer people."

Their team began to move along the edge of the field, sticking to the side of the deep trench and squeezing into the less crowded areas.

Occasionally, some blind stragglers would try to come up and take advantage, only to be knocked over by the tip of Liu Yu's Steel Saber or hacked back by the blade of Huo Luan's Steel Saber.

Cheng Feng stood on the outer side of Wang Ji the entire time, taking a few more hits from sabers and Swords, but they only shredded his clothes and didn't even count as decent wounds.

His body was indeed as hard as iron.

After about two incense sticks' worth of time, the total number of people on the field had plummeted by more than half.

The teams still standing were mostly groups of three or five formed into formations; everyone was covered in wounds, yet their eyes were terrifyingly bright.

Those weak teams had basically been wiped out, and those remaining all had some tricks up their sleeves, so no one dared to easily make a move against anyone else.

The aged voice on the high platform rang out again: "The first round of the general melee has twenty-eight teams remaining. If twenty are not decided after half an incense stick of time, there will be an indiscriminate overtime."

As soon as these words fell, the atmosphere on the field tightened suddenly.

"Eight teams too many," Huo Luan clicked his tongue. "This is forcing us to fight again."

"Not necessarily," Cheng Feng narrowed his eyes. "We don't need to make a move. Others will."

Sure enough, as soon as the half-stick of incense was lit, several teams that only had two or three people left and were heavily wounded became public enemies.

It was unclear who made the first move, but in the blink of an eye, several groups surrounded them and quickly cleared out the teams with the fewest people.

Cheng Feng and his group just stood there, and no one approached them.

By the time the incense ash fell, there were exactly twenty teams left on the field.

"We made it," Huo Luan plopped down on the ground and exhaled a breath of stale air toward the sky.

Everyone who could come here was a genius.

Whether it was age, cultivation techniques, martial arts, or realm, they all started at the Organ Refining stage.

Organ Refining stage Martial Artists who usually reigned supreme in their local regions—

In this meat grinder here, without special talent and foundation,

Were no different from a stray dog on the side of the road.

With a "clatter," Huo Luan tossed his Steel Saber at his feet, not caring about his image, and stretched his legs out wide.

Cheng Feng did not sit, only leaning more tightly against the stone railing.

He looked up at the high platform; the nine-colored fire pillars were still burning.

Those people from the Immortal Sect remained quiet, as if the death and injury covering the ground had nothing to do with them.

"The first round is over," Wang Ji said softly. She turned to look at the three of them, a very faint smile finally appearing in her gaze.

"Our joint training didn't go to waste; from here on out, we just need to play it steady."