Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The moment Mo Wen appeared on the sky square, a graceful silhouette appeared. It was none other than Gu Jingman.
“Gu Jingman.”
A look of surprise flashed through Mo Wen’s eyes. He had never expected to bump into Gu Jingman here. Moreover, she had even arrived a day earlier than him. The contestants who could appear in this place were all of a certain caliber. From his memory, Gu Jingman had attained the Blood Kindred’s Blood God’s heritage. However, at that time, she was barely of the Golden Elixir Realm. That had only been a little while ago. Could she have possibly improved so drastically?
Mo Wen was not too familiar with the cultivation methods of the western world. However, the cultivators from the eastern world focused a lot on developing their successors, to ensure continuity in the long run. Hence, most of them would first focus on guiding their successors and only move on to transformative progressions after they had achieved a certain standard.
Meanwhile, the cultivators of the western world prefer to pass down their power and bloodline. They would directly transfer their powers to their successors so that the successors could grow strong within a very short period of time. They would even achieve a level with unbelievably strong powers.
However, there was a pitfall in such a method. This method would mean that the successor would be overly influenced by the predecessor, which made it difficult for the successor to ever surpass the master. Therefore, it would not be very beneficial for future growth. For example, if a Blood Kindred Duke passed on their heritage to a Blood Kindred Baron, the Baron would become very strong within a short period of time. However, because this Baron did not explore the path on his own, and was strongly influenced by the Duke all his life, it would be very difficult for him to ever surpass the Duke. In fact, in most cases, they would never even be able to achieve the same level.
To a cultivator with average talent, such a method of passing down talents would be ideal. It would allow them to grow strong within a short period of time. Their own talents were limited and if they did not attain the heritage, they would not achieve anything much either. However, to a highly-talented cultivator, such a method had many drawbacks. It would very possibly limit the growth of their great talents.
Gu Jingman was not a person with exceptional talent. Hence, such a method was very suitable for her. Moreover, hers was the only Blood God’s heritage of the Blood Kindred. Hence, even if she could not surpass the Blood God, she would be the most revered and respected in the Blood Kindred and one of the top masters in the world. Therefore, there was also a difference between her heritage and the average one.
Mo Wen did not understand all that, so he did not know why Gu Jingman was so strong all of a sudden. Moreover, Gu Jingman was not of the Blood Kindred. If she was, she would have attained the power even faster, and her strength would be even more frightening.
“How did you force your way in here?”
Mo Wen looked Gu Jingman up and down several times as though he could not wrap his head around the fact. This area was where the top talents in the world gathered. He wanted to gauge the aura from Gu Jingman’s body. However, he noticed that there was a hazy and mysterious power enshrouding her, which prevented him from doing so.
It could even defend against the Deified Soul Power, and that made him even more shocked.
“Why can’t I be here? You shouldn’t be looking down on me. The first place on the Heaven List will definitely be mine.” Gu Jingman rolled her eyes at Mo Wen. Just what was the meaning of this? It was as though he was saying that she did not deserve to be there.
“Of course, if you behave better and I am in a good mood, I may just let you have the first place,” Gu Jingman said with a solemn expression as she patted Mo Wen on his shoulder.
Mo Wen was rendered speechless. It was a good thing that there was nobody around or it would be too embarrassing. How could anyone say such a thing? She made it sound as though getting first place was as trivial as eating or drinking. The competition for the Heaven List this time was particularly fierce. Even he did not have the complete confidence of getting first place.
“What on earth is this death corner fighting ring?”
Mo Wen looked all around curiously. The entire sky square was especially big. To his surprise, he noticed that the square defied gravity, as it could actually fly. Moreover, there were at least a few thousand people in the entire square. There were actually so many people in the area. It was probably even more than all the contestants combined.
However, Mo Wen used his Deified Soul Power to scan the area and found that there was a reason for it. He noticed that more than 90 percent of the people were actually criminals from the Red Stone Forest. There were actually not that many contestants at all.
Why would the criminals who were supposed to be in the Red Stone Forest appear here?
“The death corner fighting ring is the last round of the selection event. The strongest criminals of the Red Stone Forest are gathered here. Contestants can obtain a lot of points from getting into life or death battles with them…” Gu Jingman explained.
No wonder, after the Mechanized Maze City was launched, the strongest criminals of the Red Stone Forest all gathered at the death corner fighting ring. Their motive was very simple – beat the contestants and attain the jade insignia.
Mo Wen looked out into the space and could see at least 50 floating fighting rings. The way those fighting rings were arranged was very mysterious. It allowed anyone in the square to view every single one of them at once, no matter where they were situated.
This was definitely not something that someone with normal vision could do. It must have something to do with the mysterious structure of the sky square. As he stood on the surface, Mo Wen was able to watch each and every one of the battles. There was an unblocked 360° view which was beyond clear.
“Little brother, with your current points, you have officially fallen out of the top 20. If you don’t buck up, I’m afraid you won’t even be in the top ten. There are still quite a few empty fighting rings set up by those criminals. Why not go and give it a shot? But if you lose, you will face terrible consequences.”
Gu Jingman pointed at those floating fighting rings. There were a few of them that were still unoccupied.
After their conversation, Mo Wen already knew some of the rules of the death corner fighting rings. Those criminals had come over to set up these fighting rings which allowed the contestants to challenge them. If they won, they would attain a lot of points. However, if they lost, they would get a huge amount of points deducted.
These battles were like a bet on points. The wager of these battles was the points. The criminals who could appear here had a lot of points in their hands. Those points consisted of those given by Huatian Palace, as well as those that had been obtained by many other methods such as robbing, buying or trading.
To those criminals that could appear here, collecting points was also of rather high importance. That was because the Huatian Palace had stipulated that a hundred thousand points could be exchanged for a jade insignia. It was difficult if they wanted to obtain the contestants’ jade insignia. However, it was possible if they exchanged their collected points for one.
However, if a hundred thousand points would only allow them to gain one, getting five would require five hundred thousand points. Not a single one of the criminals nor the criminal organizations would have so many points on hand. Hence, they had to make use of the death corner fighting rings to earn the points from the contestants, or even win a jade insignia directly.
After understanding the rules of the death corner fighting rings, Mo Wen finally realized that it was no wonder that within just a few days, he had dropped from fifth to 28th place. Since he had been stuck in the Cold Pool Valley for two days, many of the proficient contestants had already earned a significant number of points from the death corner fighting rings. That had squeezed him out to his current 28th position.
On the leaderboard, the person with the highest points was still the one called “Good Woman”. Her points had actually exceeded four hundred thousand. That was a scarily high number and it was 20 times as much as Mo Wen’s.
Meanwhile, the one in second place had never been seen before. The person had never appeared on the leaderboard but was now in second place, with a hundred and twenty thousand points.
Wine and Meat Monk, who was previously in second place, had now dropped to third place, with just over a hundred and ten thousand points.
As for Water Deity, she was in fourth place with just over a hundred thousand points.
In fifth place was Sword Addict White Dust, who had about eighty thousand points. Mo Wen knew exactly who it was the moment he saw the name.
Lord Merciless, who was previously in fourth place, had now dropped to ninth place with about sixty thousand points.
…
“How is this ‘Good Woman’ so insane!”
Mo Wen was silently very shocked. The first position’s points were at least four times that of the person in second position. It was simply a little… He wanted to know just which deity this “Good Woman” was.
“The death corner fighting rings are open for five days. Two days have already passed so there are three days left. You have to grasp the opportunity, or you may not even be able to be in the top ten by the end,” Gu Jingman laughed darkly as she said.
“You make it sound as though you are already in the top ten.”
Mo Wen quickly scanned the leaderboard and noticed that none of the names within the top 30 fit Gu Jingman’s image. Hence, she should not be on there.
“How do you know that I am not in the top ten?” Gu Jingman glared at Mo Wen.
“I can tell.” Mo Wen burst out laughing as he realized that he had guessed correctly.
Gu Jingman looked at Mo Wen and really wanted to kick him.
“You just wait here. Let me show you how I’ll make it into the top ten.”
Mo Wen stomped his foot and his entire person flew into the air. He flew towards the floating fighting ring above. After a quick scan, he noticed that 20 out of 50 of the fighting rings were occupied with a battle, about 10 were occupied but did not have an ongoing battle, and another 10 plus of them were entirely unoccupied.
Mo Wen did not even take a second glance at the occupied ones. He simply flew to an empty one, intended to initiate a battle himself.
If criminals could set up their own battle rings, so could the contestants.
There were many methods of setting up a battle. Some used points as a wager while others bet on the jade insignia, which was a more extreme method. That was because the moment the jade insignia was lost, it would also mean the end of the Heaven’s List journey for the Cultivator. A criminal would naturally hope that contestants would bet their jade insignia. After all, it was worth a hundred thousand points.
The moment Mo Wen stood on that fighting ring, he became the center of attention. All of a sudden, there were a few peculiar glances directed at him.
“This little b*stard, I thought you had died in the Red Stone Forest. I can’t believe you’re actually here again.”
On one of the lower fighting rings, there was a boy dressed in red with a venomous glare. It was none other than Lord Merciless. The yes-man who was standing next to him was Shao Ji. His eyes were filled with indignance and anger. How could he end up as a slave serving Lord Merciless, while Mo Wen simply went on to stand on that coveted fighting ring?
That fighting ring was not one that anyone would just dare to stand on.
“In the end, you still came.” A figure that was shrouded in fog directed his gaze at Mo Wen who was on the fighting ring.
“You still owe me half your points. When are you intending to return them?” a figure dressed in white said calmly. It was none other than Sword Addict White Dust.
