Chapter 700: Preliminaries Finale (3/2, Autumn Subscription)

After confirming that Fang Yue was still in 【Chunuan City】, Lin Ling let out a breath of relief and couldn't help but touch his right eye.

This eye belonged to Lord Han...

Every time he thought about how his lack of strength was the reason Lord Han couldn't be revived, he felt deep self-reproach, and even felt too ashamed to face Fang Yue.

But between his pride and helping Fang Yue, he chose the latter.

If he could, Lin Ling would even want to transfer Lord Han's eye to Fang Yue.

But Qing Chen had said a whole bunch of things that Lin Ling didn't understand — something about compatibility — and the bottom line was that Fang Yue couldn't inherit Lord Han's eye. Moreover, the longer the eye stayed on Lin Ling, the more it fused with him, and there was simply no way to remove it for transplant.

Only then did Lin Ling give up on the idea.

"Strength — I still need to raise my strength!"

Perhaps because of Lord Han's transplanted eye, Lin Ling's recent improvement in strength could truly be called a leap forward.

The Acquired Third-rate Realm, which had been stuck tight for ages, had in recent days broken through in one go to the Acquired First-rate Realm.

Although he was still quite a distance from the Xiantian Realm, it was already a great comfort to him — a fellow whose growth had always been at a snail's pace.

So whenever there was time on the road, Lin Ling would practice martial arts and cultivate, not daring to waste a single moment.

Compared to players weighed down by laziness, Lin Ling's diligence was plain to see.

Jing Yan beside him suddenly seemed to think of something and let out a snicker.

"When we see Ye Ge, we have to give him a real shock!"

For various reasons, aside from a few people, they hadn't let anyone else know about Lord Han's situation.

After all, nothing was certain yet. Even Qing Chen herself wasn't very confident — if Lord Han couldn't be revived, they'd just be giving people false hope and asking for a beating.

As the distance closed, 【Chunuan City】 up ahead drew nearer and nearer.

But from afar, they found 【Chunuan City】's gates tightly shut, and there were figures pacing back and forth atop the walls — the defenses seemed extremely tight.

All three of them froze for a moment.

"Didn't they say 【Chunuan City】 is a commerce-oriented great city that normally doesn't restrict the flow of people in and out?"

"... Then that means something's happened."

Qing Chen narrowed his eyes slightly — a researcher's train of thought was indeed clearer.

"So are we still going in?"

"If we can get in, we go in. If we can't, we find a way in."

"Alright then..."

In principle, Jing Yan wasn't too keen on wading into Chunuan City's muddy waters. After all, it wasn't even certain whether Fang Yue was in the city, and getting tangled in someone else's trouble was completely unnecessary.

But if Fang Yue really was in the city, and something really was happening inside, they had to step in to help — even though... they probably wouldn't be much help.

He recalled that night — Fang Yue soaring into the sky and slaying Bai Xiaoya, like a mortal killing a god!

Given Fang Yue's strength, if something came up that Fang Yue couldn't handle, the three of them going in would most likely just be delivering themselves as a meal.

"Let's get into the city first and scout the situation."

First they openly requested entry, and after fishing out some intel through small talk, they were turned away at the gate.

This was within the three of them's expectations. Leaving the alert range, they circled around and began looking for a back door into the city.

For the three of them, getting into the city wasn't hard — the hard part was doing it without being noticed, sneaking in.

……

Martial Arts Duel Plaza.

Half a day's time slipped by in a flash.

The time was already drawing close to the end of the preliminaries.

Fang Yue realized that no one was coming up to challenge him on his arena anymore.

Everyone was driven by profit in participating in the martial duels, not by the love of a good fight.

The martial artists competing all had merchant caravans backing them.

Merchant caravans fought in the arena to secure a ranking slot, not for the thrill of battle or to have their fighters pick duels.

Generally speaking, they picked soft persimmons to squeeze — opponents that guaranteed their own fighter would still be standing on the arena at the end.

As for Fang Yue's arena — after so many painful lessons, his strength had been confirmed.

He was absolutely someone they couldn't afford to provoke. Given that, there was naturally no need to invite trouble; just steer clear.

But among peers, there were inevitably those who turned sour.

These merchant caravans of theirs were all ranked similarly to the Dayang Merchant Caravan, yet the Dayang Merchant Caravan had actually invited a Human-rank powerhouse to anchor them — how could anyone not be envious, jealous, and hateful?

Of course, sour as they were, they still had to curry favor when it was time.

After all, everyone knew that with a Human-rank powerhouse anchoring them, the Dayang Merchant Caravan's ranking in this martial duel was bound to climb.

Although some time ago, Dayang Fu had suffered an incident and been badly weakened, this time hiring a top expert to anchor them both displayed their financial muscle and their strength. For a while, the peers grew somewhat confused about the Dayang Merchant Caravan's actual power, unable to pin it down.

Whether deliberate or casual, probes were everywhere — but Yang Hongxia fended them all off, not letting slip a single detail of her own side's situation.

Amid all the polite pretense, Yang Hongxia once again felt how hard her father's and Hai Guanjia's days had been.

To parry and maneuver among these old foxes, these shrewd veterans, the energy spent was no less than that of martial arts training.

Fortunately, as the time gradually reached the appointed hour, the surrounding merchant caravan Regimental Commanders each dispersed to attend to their own affairs.

On all 100 arenas, the final victors had each taken their stand.

By numbering, a dozen-odd Human-rank powerhouses firmly held the top spots, and only after them came Xiantian Realm martial artists. As for Acquired Realm martial artists, there were only three, making them quite conspicuous.

Of these three, one was a fairly young junior — a true genius, promising for his age.

As for the other two, they were veteran First-rate Realm experts of the Acquired stage, practically half a step into Xiantian, and so had barely claimed their spots.

That young junior even glanced over at Fang Yue's side several times, his eyes flashing with nothing but the desire to challenge, as if his hot blood were ablaze.

"Youth!"

Fang Yue couldn't help sighing.

Too bad—he hadn't even gotten to experience "don't look down on a poor youth" before he became the old-grandpa monster in everyone else's eyes.

Among those present, the dozen-plus Human-Rank powerhouses drew the most discussion, followed by that Postnatal Realm genius youth called Shadow, whose merchant caravan behind him was basking in reflected glory.

As for the remaining Xiantian Realm powerhouses, the buzz around them wasn't high.

After all, with Human-Rank experts ahead and genius juniors behind, the Xiantian Realm was stuck in the middle—neither up nor down—looking plain and ordinary.

Those Human-Rank experts guarding the arenas all seemed to know each other.

Seeing that no one was stepping up to challenge anymore, they called out greetings across the arenas and even started chatting.

And the one they discussed most was Fang Yue, the unfamiliar face—only they seemed rather cliquish, not letting Fang Yue join in, just chatting among their own little circle.

Fang Yuejian saw this and couldn't be bothered to care—a bunch of early-stage Human-Rank martial artists; even the three mid-stage ones weren't worth Fang Yue's attention.

As the final moment drew near, each arena had basically locked in its final champion.

The remaining challengers began picking fights according to their own whims.

Only then did someone finally leap onto Fang Yue's arena.

But when Fang Yue opened his eyes and looked at the other party, he froze for a beat.

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(End of chapter)