Chapter 425 - 245: 2nd Place Eliminated

Chapter 425: Chapter 245: 2nd Place Eliminated

If Zhong Yi wanted to get more points, he had to prioritize killing the high-ranking participants.

This would make them drop the supplies they had collected.

That was the only way for Zhong Yi to maximize his gains!

First, Zhong Yi commanded the Resurrection Celestial Lord to heal Ice Glaze. Then, he had the Endless Wood Demon stop expanding the scene it was creating.

Instead, he used the Endless Wood obtained from devouring the towering ancient trees and activated the Skill Wood Casting Concealment to enhance the scene’s stealth within the environment and increase its realism.

Zhong Yi was still like a spider, diligently weaving a great web for the other participants.

Among the other participants, Zhong Yi’s soaring points and Jin Zhan’s elimination caused a massive uproar.

Although the vast majority of people didn’t know that the person previously in second place was Jin Zhan, some did have access to that information.

Qiao Shuyu, for one, wore a look of astonishment after seeing the data on the leaderboard.

The person Qiao Shuyu feared most in this Secret Realm was Jin Zhan.

She had once run into Jin Zhan and silently cursed her bad luck.

It was precisely for this reason that when Gong Lei had proposed giving her side an extra spot, Qiao Shuyu had suggested that if they couldn’t come to an agreement, Gong Lei should just give one of his team’s spots to her.

In Qiao Shuyu’s eyes, Gong Lei was no match for Jin Zhan.

Jin Zhan was the one who would ultimately have the right to set the rules.

But who would have thought that Jin Zhan would be eliminated so anticlimactically!

Just a day ago, Qiao Shuyu had run into Jin Zhan.

Jin Zhan’s team had over 30 people, more than the participants gathered around her and Gong Lei combined.

Qiao Shuyu couldn’t imagine who Jin Zhan, with more than 30 people, could possibly lose to in this Secret Realm.

Even if he was ambushed by a large group, and even if he couldn’t win, couldn’t he at least escape?

Judging from the leaderboard, Jin Zhan had been killed by that most mysterious person in the top 10!

This allowed that person, who had never even shown their face, to leap into first place on the leaderboard.

At this moment, they were still about 40 minutes away from the location rumored to hold a great treasure.

Qiao Shuyu carefully studied the current situation and noticed that Gong Lei’s group was also heading toward the treasure’s location.

Qiao Shuyu felt that with Jin Zhan eliminated, the most logical choice for their mutual benefit was for her, the third-ranked participant, to cooperate with Gong Lei, the second-ranked.

This first-place person was too mysterious. If they had the Ability to kill Jin Zhan, they surely had the Ability to kill her and Gong Lei as well.

Qiao Shuyu didn’t doubt the first-place person’s strength for a second.

But she also secretly wondered, ’What kind of injuries did they sustain after fighting Jin Zhan?’

Qiao Shuyu refused to believe that the first-place person would have only suffered minor injuries after battling Jin Zhan.

If the first-place person was already injured, her and Gong Lei’s chances of winning together would be very high.

As long as they eliminated this person, the top 10 spots would be completely up to her and Gong Lei to divide.

With this in mind, Qiao Shuyu said to Cui Zhi, who was beside her.

"Ah Zhi, take my place and lead the team forward for now."

"I’m going to find Gong Lei and have a talk."

Cui Zhi despised Gong Lei, but she was no fool.

After seeing the change in the rankings, Cui Zhi also realized that cooperating with Gong Lei’s group was the best option.

"Sister Shuyu, we should stick together."

"If we decide to work with Gong Lei, there’s no need for us to rush to the treasure area first."

"If you go talk to Gong Lei alone, I’m afraid he’ll get some wicked ideas about you."

"If Gong Lei suddenly attacks you with his people, I won’t be able to hold this team together by myself."

Qiao Shuyu nodded at her words and thought to herself.

’I was so rattled by this suddenly rising number one and Jin Zhan’s elimination.’

’I’ve lost my composure!’

’Given Gong Lei’s character, he really can’t be trusted.’

Since they were still forty minutes away from the treasure area, Qiao Shuyu had the team slow down, deciding against communicating with Gong Lei the moment she learned of the situation.

’When Gong Lei’s side gets the news, they’ll surely think of cooperating with my group too.’

Qiao Shuyu decided to wait for Gong Lei to come to her.

The party that is sought out for cooperation will always have more leverage!

If Gong Lei didn’t make a move, she would take the initiative and bring it up with him after they reached the area.

Qiao Shuyu waited for about ten minutes, and sure enough, Gong Lei couldn’t hold out any longer.

He caught up to Qiao Shuyu’s group with his team and once again extended an invitation to cooperate.

This time, Qiao Shuyu did not refuse him.

Although she knew the party being courted had more leverage, Qiao Shuyu didn’t make any demands.

Because Qiao Shuyu was well aware that she and Gong Lei had to defeat the first-place person to gain control.

’If I haggle over too many conditions with Gong Lei now, then when we encounter number one,’ Qiao Shuyu was afraid Gong Lei would immediately switch sides and choose to cooperate with the first-place person.

If that happened, her group would have to face the combined assault of Gong Lei and number one.

In Qiao Shuyu’s mind, the first-place person had most likely also gathered a large number of people.

’After we defeat number one, if Gong Lei is willing to give me six spots as we discussed before, my side will take six of the top ten spots, and his side will take four. Everything will be perfect.’

’If Gong Lei isn’t willing, I’ll just take my people and fight him for it.’

Qiao Shuyu and Gong Lei were each making their own plans, with people in both teams pointing the way.

Suddenly, Qiao Shuyu realized the faint chirping of insects in her ears had disappeared.

But the surrounding environment looked no different from before.

Just as Qiao Shuyu was wondering where the chirping had gone, she suddenly noticed the people around her were dwindling.

The scene around her began to distort, like looking through a kaleidoscope.

Just then, Qiao Shuyu violently yanked Cui Zhi, who was standing next to her.

She found that she and Cui Zhi had been transported to an environment with no one else around.

This made Qiao Shuyu immediately realize she had been tricked.

’In this Secret Realm, the person who could suddenly trick me like this is most likely that first-place person who has never shown their face.’

Qiao Shuyu didn’t even have time to communicate with Cui Zhi before five people appeared in front of them.

After these five people appeared, they first looked around at their surroundings in a daze.

Then they launched an attack on her and Cui Zhi.

This meant that these five people were clearly a group.

There were fewer than 200 people left in the Secret Realm now; no opponent was a pushover.

Although it was hard to say how many Zhenxing C Level Talents were currently in this Second Level Divine Wood Secret Realm, at least one-fifth of the remaining 200 or so people were C Level Talents.

The cost to participate in a Secret Realm opened by the Wanyu Gambling Company was exorbitant.

The factions backing the participants wouldn’t be willing to pay the hefty entry fee for anyone who didn’t meet the strength threshold.

Zhong Yi was commanding the Endless Wood Demon, doing his best to sort the participants using the Exclusive Trait, Wood Realm Prison.

Thankfully, the Divine Wood Secret Realm was filled with so many towering, ancient trees that the Endless Wood Demon could use as food to restore Energy and create more Endless Wood.

Otherwise, the Endless Wood Demon would have been completely exhausted long ago!

Zhong Yi’s scheme was a great success; large numbers of participants were flocking to this area from all directions.

However, the two groups led by Qiao Shuyu and Gong Lei were proving to be quite a headache for Zhong Yi.

Zhong Yi tried pairing up several participants from the two groups.

Zhong Yi discovered that when participants from the two different teams were left alone in the same environment, the two participants didn’t immediately attack each other.

Instead, they chose to investigate their surroundings together, forming a cooperative relationship.

This made Zhong Yi immediately realize that the two teams had already been cooperating before they arrived.

Fortunately, there were more than enough participants who had stepped into the scene created by the Endless Wood Demon.

Zhong Yi decided to pull two participants from outside and match them with the two from the allied teams.

After a battle, the surviving party would also be heavily injured.

And that’s when the test of human nature would begin!