The rest were about to leave, but Tianming said, “Don’t go just yet. I haven’t even said that I’d be the one to duel you to the death. Don’t be so scared that you piss yourself while you’re running, got it?”
They all turned back and looked at Tianming. “Then who’ll it be?” Long Wangyu coldly asked.
Tianming pushed Lingfeng and Xiaoxiao forward. “These two. They only defeated the likes of Li Ruoshi and Long Youyou and are still way stronger than any of you from the celestial orderians or Veildragon Palace despite not being even half your age. Pick one.”
Long Wangyu looked closely at the two.
“I wouldn’t pick a woman if I were you, though. Even if you defeat her, that won’t prove that you aren’t trash, Long Wangyu,” Tianming teased. It was a psychological tactic. It appeared that he was giving Long Wangyu a choice, but there was more to read between the lines. “So the Voiddragon Emperor’s grandson doesn’t even dare to pick a seventh ranker on the ranking who isn’t half your age… stop pretending you’re hot shit. If you’re afraid to die, stop asking for it,” Tianming said with a shrug.
“Brother Yu, it’s a trap!” someone beside him said. However, Tianming’s words had left him little choice. He had already compromised so much, and he wouldn’t even be the one to fight. Lingfeng and Xiaoxiao had only defeated seventh-level constelliers so far.
“Alright, I’ll pick her!” Long Wangyu said amidst the teasing looks.
“Hahahaha!” Everyone behind Tianming laughed at and mocked him. Picking the weaker-looking Xiaoxiao was a clear sign of cowardice on his part. He was far from the badass he wanted to be seen as.
“Alright, Voiddragon Emperor’s grandson….” Tianming joined the others in laughter. “Xiaoxiao, go ahead. Show us what these forty-odd-year-olds of the Veildragon Palace are made of.”
“They’re nothing but older bullies,” Xiaoxiao said, rolling her eyes.
Long Wangyu and the rest looked even worse off than before. “Wait!” he said as he pointed at Lingfeng. “I changed my mind. I’ll pick him. He’ll be the one to die.”
“Oh.” Tianming shot him a thumbs-up. There was no way the grandson of the Voiddragon Emperor would completely abandon his pride. Apart from Tianming, who was so famous that even people twice his age wouldn’t dare to fight him, Lingfeng and Xiaoxiao didn’t have much to their name. At the very least, their names hadn’t appeared on the radar of the celestial orderians or Long Wangyu.
A few other youths on Long Wangyu’s side exchanged glances. Soon, someone sent a transmission stone to notify their seniors about this fight to the death. However, the instant Long Wangyu pointed at Lingfeng, Lingfeng already charged in for an attack. Long Wangyu was completely taken aback by the unexpected assault.
“Move it!” He felt particularly pissed at being underestimated. He shooed his minions away as a wave of dark green appeared from his body. A huge simian beast with three heads and six arms appeared behind the youth that charged toward him. While it was clear that it wasn’t a totem, it didn’t seem like a lifebound beast either. It was none other than the Soulfiend! The fierce aura coming from it immediately instilled a sense of fear into its target. Like Ye Chen’s guardian spirit, it could absorb Lingfeng’s power to grow in strength, but it also differed in some fundamental aspects.
“Aren’t you a specter? Why’re you calling for outside help in a fight to the death?” Long Wangyu said with a mocking look. As far as he was concerned, things aside from totems and lifebound beasts didn’t count.
“Outside help?” Lingfeng smirked and had the Soulfiend return. Then he took out his black Evil Suppression Pillar and glared at Long Wangyu, his eyes even redder this time. His Primordial Gate began spinning faster and faster underneath his chestplate, sucking up all of the nova source in the area to manifest his primordia constellation! The constellation created a vortex of wind around him, causing his hair to wildly flutter. Traces of blood began seeping into the whites of his eyes, giving him a really terrifying appearance.
“What’s the deal with him?”
“It looks really ghastly… Specters are weird after all!”
“Look at Long Wangyu.”
They saw nothing but a frozen expression on his face as he said, “A specter who isn’t physically tough and uses illusory tricks, huh?” Though it was meant as an insult, Long Wangyu wasn’t laughing in the slightest. He had a bad feeling about making it a fight to the death, but he didn’t know why. This should have been a great opportunity to get rid of them—it was even proposed by his enemies themselves!
“Brother Yu, do you want to back off?”
“Buzz off!” Long Wangyu couldn’t afford the humiliation of backing out of the fight before it even began. His five eightwing ghouleye voiddragons flew to his side from the mountains below. They were dark dragons covered in dark green flames, each of them sporting four pairs of wings. Their growls were dark and insidious. Their arrival caused the temperature in the surroundings to fall, ostensibly thanks to the frosty-looking fire. What made them even more eerie was the flaming green eye on each of their wings, each one around a hundred meters across. There seemed to be countless smaller eyes in the large green eyes that measured around a centimeter wide.
The moment the eyes locked on to Lingfeng, Tianming understood where Long Wangyu’s confidence stemmed from. If it weren’t for the Soul Tower, merely looking at the wing-eyes of the five dragons would have made him distraught and disoriented.
The five dragons began breathing fire, leaving a trail of green frost across the entire battlefield. “So voidflames can freeze the soul as well as the body…. Looks like those dragons are really capable at soul attacks.”
Tianming already knew all of that. Even though he had just arrived, he’d already found out about a lot of secrets through Yin Chen’s eyes. As such, he had chosen the perfect match for Long Wangyu.
