6 weeks ago.
The Mad Saints had joined hands with the Flying Tigers and had just finished an arduous battle against a clan of bloodthirsty Demonic Blood Eagles.
These creatures had the features of both humans and eagles. They could walk on two legs and had two hands, but they had beaks and the overall shape of their heads was almost identical to that of an eagle's. Their arms were 4 times the size of the rest of their bodies and had feathers coming out of them which allowed them to fly at low altitudes.
By their very nature, they craved and sought out blood. They had no empathy for even their fellow blood eagles and any one of them that was injured would either be left behind if he was lucky, or eaten alive if unlucky.
This specific clan had conducted numerous crimes against a small 3rd grade Kingdom, wiping out almost half of its population over the span of several months.
They were left here to guard one of the 15 dungeons. Although the Mei Cultivators won, it was a pyrrhic victory. They managed to wipe out the Demonic Blood Eagles but lost almost 30% of their total forces. This was an unacceptably large number of casualties, especially because the competition had basically just begun a couple of weeks ago and would not be ending anytime soon.
Guo Bao called Hao Xuan over as he was about to open the purple chest that was being protected by the blood eagles.
"How do you want to split this one?" Hao Xuan asked while sitting down in a corner of the room. He was covered in blood from head to toe and had several open wounds on his abdomen.
Guo Bao glanced at the bloody wounds and couldn't help but look away guiltily. Those wounds were meant for him, yet Hao Xuan pushed him aside in the midst of battle and got injured in his stead.
It was also the Mad Saints that had done the most in this battle. They set up a gravity formation outside the dungeon which sent out random bursts of gravity and made it so the Blood Eagles wouldn't be able to fly. If not for that, the battle might have had far more dire consequences than just this.
"This one is all yours. I'll take 60% of the ones from the next battle. Sound good?"
Hao Xuan looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You sure? We don't even know what's in it yet."
Guo Bao simply turned around and walked out of the room, "Yeah yeah, I'm sure," leaving Hao Xuan and the purple chest alone.
Hao Xuan got up and opened the chest which was inlaid with numerous protective formations. All the formations opened the same way and every participant was given detailed information on how to open them, but the only problem was that the chest couldn't be moved before the formations were opened.
This meant that either the dungeon had to be completely cleared first or its inhabitants held back while the chest was opened, which was harder than actually killing them.
A few minutes later the chest opened and revealed a shining golden and black armored breastplate. That was the only thing inside the chest and it seemed like it was specifically made to contain that breastplate.
Hao Xuan's expression turned to one of joy when he realized the information he had received was correct. He brushed the top of the breastplate and it let out a barely audible screech.
"It really is alive…"
2 weeks ago when he first severed Jia Tu and brought him under his influence, he got a ton of information from him.
Jia Tu said that the Empire backing the Jia Kingdom had given the crown prince detailed information regarding each dungeon and what they contained.
They said that almost half of the dungeon rewards were only meant to be used to clear the last, 15th dungeon. That it contained the best reward of all and the biggest challenge. They didn't say what was in the golden chest in the 15th dungeon but only that no one would be able to defeat the beast guarding it without the full living armor and the 'Binding Chains'.
Hao Xuan was, of course, angered to no end after hearing that but after listening to Baracus's proposal he calmed down and came up with a plan to use it for himself.
That was why he 'urged' Guo Bao to take out this dungeon first. It contained one of the parts of the living armor without which victory was not possible.
After that, he proceeded to Sever a few other people and used them to clear out the remaining dungeons that contained everything related to the 15th one.
And now he had almost all of the armor pieces other than the headpiece.
The Scorpion King was at Profound Realm Stage 3. Currently, there was no one in the entire competition that could take him on without any outside help.
After adding in the effect of the 'Binding Chains' that suppressed his Qi and overall power by around 20 times, he was now at the same power level as a Pinnacle Stage Spirit Realm expert.
This obviously was not a coincidence and was done so on purpose by the powers that were.
Hao Xuan, on the other hand, had broken through the 4th Stage of the Spirit Realm and had almost the full Living armor on his self. This further increased his defense and raised his power by four more stages, putting him at the top of Stage 8 of the Spirit realm, just two realms behind the Scorpion King.
Now it was all up to him.
He channeled the Chaotic Qi he had been developing for the last 2 months and activated the full range of his Physique abilities which allowed him to do a few other things he was previously unable to.
During a fight with Cia Kang, he realized that he had never truly utilized the full extent of the Immortal Devouring Demon Physique.
Because Cia Kang was another person that had a unique Physique and their fight came down to a simple Physique versus Physique battle.
His was called the "Black Moon" which made him invulnerable to any attack that was as powerful as his strongest ability multiplied by 5.
Hao Xuan was not able to damage him at all during their fight and had to retreat. It was then that he started experimenting with his own physique and it turned it was much more than what he initially thought.
Brandishing the Glaive with both his hands he activated Emperors Qi to further increase his power and reduce the Scorpion Kings before using 'Heavenly Blare'.
