Tongue-tied, Golden Armor stared at Qing Di.
The cultivator solemnly nodded back. “Would we be staying here for the show otherwise if we hadn’t suffered at their hands?”
Being robbed by another was incredibly humiliating, but since everyone present had been robbed, then everyone was on the same level. Only the arcane beasts hadn’t suffered from Lu Yun yet.
“All… all of you… The Champion Duke robbed all of you?” Golden Armor asked dumbly. The Magma Beast next to it also gaped at the cultivators.
They nodded back in unison.
Of course, Dragon Butterfly and the seemingly delicate, yet actually domineering Long Batian didn’t count among the victims. They were being ignored by everyone present.
“Heh heh heh, who would’ve thought that cultivators would be so useless that two people would be able to rob all of you! No wonder the ones that died before didn’t have any seed storage,” smirked Golden Armor. “This part of the void will vanish into the sea after roughly seven days. You’ll have to let us try the dragon gate then.
“What, are you going to kill us if we don’t give you our seed storage and treasure?”
Though no one had told the contestants what to do, they suddenly all knew what they needed to do after arriving here.
The appearance of the dragon gate meant an end to fighting on the seventh floor. Killing others was forbidden here—if Lu Yun continued killing arcane beasts, he would be punished by the rules.
“Oho, is that so?” Lu Yun chuckled. “I just can’t kill people here, right? I don’t necessarily have to kill you. C’mon minions, surround these beasts!”
Whoosh!
One thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine cultivators rushed over, surrounding the arcane beasts. After seven days of cultivation, their strength was much stronger than before and they were all at the titled duke level. Acting in concert, their momentum was so domineering that they immediately suppressed the arcane beasts.
The beasts cowered on the ground with groans and whines.
“What do you want?!” shrieked Golden Armor, the Magma Beast, and other descendants of arcane beast kings.
“This is a robbery!” Qing Ting flung out her arm imperiously. “Hand over your seed storage and treasures!”
Though arcane beasts couldn’t cultivate, they also possessed nascent spirits and internal power. Thus, they could use treasures and refine seed storage.
“If not, I’ll confine your internal force and feed you to the black dragon king!” Lu Yun proclaimed.
The black dragon king within the wave shyly poked out its head and looked expectantly in their direction.
The arcane beasts collectively shuddered with horror.
“Don’t believe me? I’ll make an example out of one of you.” He set his eyes on the Magma Beast next to Golden Armor and stretched his lips in an evil grin.
“No, no example! You can have mine!” The Magma Beast almost burst into tears and reluctantly handed over its storage seed and refined treasures.
Though arcane beasts couldn’t refine treasures, there were also supplemental kings among their brethren. Given the sheer amount of territory and lion’s share of resources that they controlled in the realm, that meant they absolutely had goods to offer cultivators in trade.
Many human supplemental grandmasters built their riches through transacting with arcane beasts. In their eyes, arcane beasts were short on brains and awash with wealth.
Arcane beasts didn’t lack for treasures—some of the ones here possessed even more highly ranked weapons than what cultivators wielded. After all, the ones still in the Dragonling Assembly were either geniuses of their race or descendants of kings.
The ones that’d been eliminated earlier were just the hangers-on. Only the ones left were the true elites. Lu Yun had wanted to rob them a long time ago, but hadn’t found the right opportunity to. There was no place for them to retreat to now, so it was the perfect timing to take these beasts for all they were worth!
Many of them possessed precious items that cultivators lacked and could never get their hands on—the blood essence of their kind, arcane beast blood, skins, bones, and other valuable pill ingredients from zones of incredible danger.
Setting the precedent for its kind, the Magma Beast jumped into the Hongmeng Sea with a tragic expression. Free of all of its possessions, it was almost swallowed by the black dragon king.
It managed to pass safely in the end, followed by Golden Armor and other arcane beasts leaping over the dragon gate.
……
“Magma Beast! To think it’d be the third through the gate. Wonderful, fantastic!” Arcane beasts within the secret realm celebrated happily. After it passed through, other arcane beasts followed in close succession, wiping smiles off of the faces of merry cultivators.
“What’s going on… why are there only arcane beasts and no cultivators?” Menacing glowers began to darken expressions. There were already more arcane beasts than cultivators listed on the Dragonling Ranking, so cultivators had hoped to see more of their own leap through the gate and salvage the situation.
Arcane beasts were the enemy, but only the enemy was making it through the gate!
There wasn’t a single cultivator!
“It’s… kinda weird,” Li Yiran remarked in an odd tone. “Why do the beasts look so sad and some are gnashing their teeth? Did the black dragon king do something to them?”
“Maybe… this is how they express their excitement? Passing through means they have the right to be part of the Dragonling Ranking.” The red-haired youth from Ingress Blood Island also found it strange. “They must be too excited! Perhaps arcane beasts look sad when they’re actually happy and grind their teeth.”
“What’s going on? Why are you like this?” asked a beast that vaguely resembled a dragon and threw off fiery sparks. It was stronger than Golden Armor, but didn’t dare show anything other than respect since Golden Armor was the son of a king.
The arcane beasts naturally didn’t think these expressions were ones of positive emotions. Grinding teeth and hanging heads were obvious signs of having been bullied too badly for words.
“Nothing!” Golden Armor set its jaw and shook its head. It was the Golden Armor King’s only son! If these geniuses knew that it’d been robbed… that would be a tremendous loss of face for its father.
More and more arcane beasts barrelled through the gate. There were more than five hundred now, and they were in the same spirits as the first ones to pass through.
“Is… the black dragon king going easy on them? Why are so many successfully making it through?” Everyone had discovered that something was off. Of the arcane beasts that’d leaped over, many of them were too weak to manage the feat. The top one hundred of the ranking had also previously faced the black dragon king and was well aware of its strength.
Damn it’s nice to be home. Starting le quarantine today~
