Chapter 470: The Monarch Takes Notice

"Many thanks."

Zhou You cupped his fists toward the Fist Intent Puppet; the puppet's expression remained wooden as it nodded and retreated into the void.

Looking again at Mudahan in the net, his last shred of hope had vanished, and he was on the verge of death, gasping his last.

He was worthy of being an Advanced Martial Master, with extremely strong recovery; the wounds from the dagger stabs had mostly healed, and aside from the massive loss of blood that could not be replenished, he showed no signs of being in a sorry state.

"The highest tribute to an enemy is to use every means to annihilate them."

"No need to hold on any longer, die!"

Zhou You gathered all his strength, thrust the dagger into Mudahan's chin, and stirred it twice against his brains, killing him thoroughly.

After Mudahan breathed his last, his body turned completely cold, and because of his spontaneous healing while alive, the wounds on his skin had all disappeared.

This corpse could be said to be a treasure from head to toe; the human skin and bones could be used to refine Blood-Qi Divine Weapons, and even the eyeballs and teeth were useful.

It was worth noting that the blood-red Totem on his chest disappeared after his death.

It seemed that the way to resolve a Blood Pact was not limited to killing the enemy; the death of the avenger was also effective.

To the side, the massive corpse of the Witch Beast was like a small hill, its long fur swaying uncertainly as the wind blew through it like withered grass in the wilderness.

In pouches woven from long fur on the Witch Beast's belly and back were heavy ores and medicinal herbs.

"Wu Ya Cao Tou—hasn't this item been recorded as extinct in the Medicine King Canon?"

"And these two dou of Water-Refined Silver granules are excellent materials for reinforcing Blood-Qi Divine Weapons; my wooden staff is a bit thin, and it needs some accessories added to both ends—this is just right."

"The Winter Seat Marrow that Feng Zi has been longing for cannot even be gathered in a single qian in Fucheng, yet here there is over half a jin—a hundred times the amount."

"And these beast skins are comparable to those of a Martial Master; how about using them to refine a Hunger Pouch?"

"Hmm, these Gu Insect eggs are interesting; I wonder what they will grow into if used to feed the Golden Money Scorpion!"

"Blood-Sinking Ink is top-grade ink not only for drawing Totems but also for writing Seal Script; ordinary Witch people only carry one or two bottles, so how did he manage to carry half a vat at once?"

This Witch Beast was practically a massive treasure trove, giving Zhou You the joy of opening over a hundred loot boxes at once, with every single one worth the price of admission.

After the inventory was finished, all the spoils, along with the corpses of the man and the beast, were packed into the Hunger Pouch.

A settlement notification from the panel sounded in his ears! "Trial Project (Five-Star): Ge Er Bu Han's Blood Pact, completed, Experience Points +45000."

"Key character Mudahan, new mission triggered..."

"Trial Project (Six-Star): Battle of the Grandmasters, you killed a Witch Tribe prodigy and have obtained the qualifications to participate in the war; the specific route is as follows..."

Hmm? After reading the massive amount of information, Zhou You felt a tightness in his chest.

The Monarch leading the elites of the noble families in a great battle against the upper echelons of the Witch Tribe was the true main battlefield of this war between the two races.

The skirmishes between them—the martial artists—and the tribes were merely a tug-of-war surrounding the main battlefield, intended to deplete the opponent's vital strength.

Others were fighting a tournament, while he was playing a battle royale; no matter how he thought about it, it wasn't fair! But after he killed Mudahan, he had gained the opportunity to participate in the high-end matches of the main battlefield.

Clearly, the upper echelons of both races had left a gap, allowing low-level martial artists the chance to level up.

"Go, why wouldn't I go!"

Without needing to think twice, Zhou You immediately made up his mind to rush to the main battlefield and fight a high-end match.

The fierce battle with Mudahan just now, aside from the rich spoils, had brought thrills and dangers where he had nearly been killed several times, causing his bottleneck to loosen slightly.

Although there was no response afterward, Zhou You could be certain that fighting against strong enemies was absolutely useful.

In order to break through the bottleneck of an Intermediate Martial Master, he was going all out.

... The Monarch was a handsome middle-aged man with the charm of a mature man, carrying the faint dignity of someone in a high position; even with empty hands, he exerted a pressure that made people afraid to approach, his whole body shrouded in a naturally generated invincible state of mind.

Opposite him sat a Witch person wearing an ancient-style robe, looking like an ancient human who had stepped out of an old painting; not a trace of the Witch people could be seen on him.

He was the commander of this invading Witch Tribe, the Witch Chief Gaoyang Clan.

The two Grandmaster-level figures sat facing each other, looking at each other from a distance; in the space between them, the air seemed to crack and turn into a honeycomb, with hexagonal fragments emerging to display different scenes of duels.

These fragments were images from every corner of the battlefield, captured from the void by their great power.

When martial artists fought, their Blood-Qi erupted, entangling and clashing inseparably; as long as a single thread was captured by a Grandmaster, the scene of the battle could be reconstructed, with every detail as if it were right before their eyes.

Only a Grandmaster possessed such means, which were nearly divine!

"Hmm? Mudahan is dead!"

The Gaoyang Clan saw one of the images, which was precisely the scene of Zhou You killing Mudahan.

The reconstruction of Blood-Qi had its limitations; it could only replay the scenes of the battle, while other events unrelated to the fight could not be seen.

Therefore, in the honeycomb fragments, one could only see Zhou You using his methods to win, with the subsequent looting of the corpse completely absent.

He nodded, "The human race has prodigies too!"

As a Grandmaster, the Gaoyang Clan had the necessary composure; the prodigies he had seen, just within the Witch Tribe alone, numbered at least eight hundred if not a thousand in the same era.

The death of one Mudahan did not cause a ripple in his heart.

He pointed to another image, which was strikingly of a youth wearing a Flying Tiger shirt, holding a sharp blade and cutting a Witch person in half at the waist.

"This person is a fierce general of Dayin Mountain, Wu Kui."

The Monarch kept his hands in his sleeves and introduced him indifferently, "The expedition to the Beijing of Dayin Mountain lost a large number of elites, so later they recruited disciples widely and selected him from a martial arts hall in a certain city."

"Wu Kui is a heaven-sent talent; after joining, he rose from a Zhang General to a Hu General in one year, and it only took him two years to rise from a Hu General to a Biao General."

"He is worthy of the title of a human prodigy." The Gaoyang Clan pointed to Zhou You, "What about him?"

"Zhou You of Daqian Martial Arts Hall; although they are of similar age, he established his own sect and is the master of a hall, so he cannot be compared to him."

The implication was that Wu Kui was a disciple of the mountain, while Zhou You was a master of a sect; their statuses were different.

"Then, is this Zhou You of the same class as Yan Shan?"

The Monarch smiled and waved his hand, "Not to that extent yet, let's not compare!"

Among the martial arts circles of Fucheng and other cities, there were many outstanding individuals who had stolen the spotlight in this battle.

Newcomers like Bian Zhou and Pei Li stood out, successively killing the hunting experts of the Witch Tribe, and even elites of the Gu-path strong armies.

Yan Wanjun, despite his youth, already had the bearing of a master; with a Bawang Shu in hand, he charged back and forth, and no Witch expert could withstand a single blow from him.

Although Zhou You was outstanding, he had not yet pulled too far ahead of these people.

What's more, he suspected that Gu Lao, who was behind Zhou You, had also come and was secretly guarding him along the way.

In the Monarch's view, Zhou You was cheating at the game, making his ranking seriously inflated, but this was not something that could be said in front of rivals.

The Monarch changed the subject, pointing to scenes within the honeycomb fragments where certain Sorcerer-people were shining brilliantly.

"There are peerless geniuses among the Sorcerer-people as well."

In one fragment, a thin and short Sorcerer-person had blades spring from their palms, flipped open the skull of a High-level Martial Master, then threw their body onto them, wrapping around their limbs and pulling tight, directly strangling them into a pile of mush.

This Sorcerer-person was only at the Primary Martial Master level, yet they were already capable of killing enemies across ranks.

(End of this chapter)