Soaring the Heavens

Chapter 417: Pi Junzi is a Burden

Translator: SoupHunter Editor: Milkbiscuit

'No wonder this person dared to fight against a group of ten on his own!'

All the other participants slowly calmed themselves down from their state of shock, and they exchanged glances with the people beside them. Who among them could block this person's spear without their transcendent artifacts? Not to mention, the other party had only launched his spear once. What if he were to make a few more attacks? Who could withstand it then?

"WAHAHA!" With both hands on his waist, Yun Feiyang raised his head up high and laughed wildly. He was unbelievably conceited at the moment.

The other party was the one who challenged his camp. Meanwhile, he had only sent out one man. And this one man decimated their entire group in a single move, shaking the whole crowd with his spear. Yun Feiyang felt he had really earned face big time!

Yun Feiyang believed that Miao Yi was venting frustration on his behalf. Back when he had fought against Yue Yao, he lost not because he was weaker than her, but because his transcendent artifact was simply weaker than hers. 'Do you all see now? If no transcendent artifacts are allowed, who among you could fight against us?!'

The sound of Yun Feiyang's arrogant laughter and the way Miao Yi pointed the spear at him earlier on made Bai Ziliang feel as though he had just been brutally slapped in the face. His expression turned dark and gloomy, and his body felt incredibly tense.

"No wonder this guy can still be alive and kicking after jumping into Lie Huan's mighty fire array. He is indeed a highly capable individual. Kong Zhi, this is bad news. If the competition continues like this, even with eight thousand of us, it won't be enough for that guy to kill! We can't let this be. We have to think of a way to change the rules somehow!"

Kong Zhi disdainfully rolled his eyes at Ba Jie, thinking, 'What do you think this is? With so many people watching, do you think you can change the rules as you please just because you said so?'

"Why is such a capable cultivator from my Celestial Nation in the Devil Nation's camp?" Yue Yao asked Lan Ruo with a tense expression on her face.

Lan Ruo was speechless. How the hell would she know?

"There are few spear arts across the realm that are more powerful than the 'Venomous Spear Technique'. I had previously thought that Sister Shuangshuang was simply boasting because of her infatuation with this guy. But now it seems like she was right after all! This guy's spear art is truly impressive. It can easily outclass Sister Shuangshuang's spear art." With both hands on his waist, Yun Feiyang was trembling with excitement as he transmitted his voice over to his subordinate, "With him going up to battle for us, we've pretty much got this in the bag!"

His subordinate was also quite speechless, thinking, 'Weren't you against sending him out to battle just now?'

Miao Yi tried his best to stabilize himself and not reveal any signs of his actual condition. Underneath him, Charcoal slowly walked back to the Devil Nation's camp to Yun Feiyang's side. As for the belongings of the ten people he had killed, even if Miao Yi wanted to jump down and pick them up, he didn't dare to as he was afraid that it would reveal his fatigue.

However, that didn't mean that someone else wouldn't pick them up. With a wave of his hand, Yun Feiyang commanded, "Go and pick up our things!"

Two people immediately rushed out from the side, carrying back all the armor, weapons, storage rings and the like from the ten corpses on the ground.

Several dozen Geotranscendence Bangles were also collected. Yun Feiyang raised the pile of golden bangles in his hand, lightly chuckling as he flaunted his spoils.

As per the rules of the competition, all the belongings of the ten riders besides their Geotranscendence Bangles were handed over to Miao Yi. However, he just casually accepted them, lacking the energy even to tally them properly.

Naturally, there were people to clean up the corpses lying on the arena. After that, it was time for the next battle to begin.

The Celestial Nation's camp, meaning Yue Yao's forces, was the next in line to battle. A group of riders then stepped up to the arena and started circling around.

Miao Yi had only opened his eyes slightly. He didn't have the energy to pay attention to the fight even if he wanted to. Tossing a few Orbs of Will into his mouth, he shut his eyes and slowly started to refine them, gradually replenishing his exhausted transcendence energy reserves as well as his severely depleted stamina.

As they circled the arena, the Celestial Nation team had only cast a brief glance at Miao Yi before shifting their gaze away. Who would dare challenge such a terrifying person? Not unless they were sick in the head and tired of living, that is.

The Celestial Nation team eventually decided to challenge a group of people from the Buddha Nation, and after an intense series of battles, they managed to eliminate all the members of the Buddha Nation team.

Yue Yao's side had lost four members, but still, she had won the first battle, netting all the Geotranscendence Bangles from both the victor's side as well as the loser's. Naturally, the Buddha Nation didn't gain anything from the battle, and they even lost a whole group of people in addition to all their belongings.

With eyes closed as he recovered, Miao Yi quietly sat on top of Charcoal, oblivious to all the commotion around him. Before he knew it, it was already time for the fifth round to go underway. Now it was the Devil Nation's, or more precisely, Yun Feiyang's turn to send out challengers.

"Ahem! Umm, Yan Beihong? Would you care to help this young master take this match?" Yun Feiyang asked, making a couple of dry coughs as he looked to Miao Yi, who was beside him.

His actions immediately drew the attention of every single person in the other five nations. Many of them felt a nervous tension in their hearts as they thought, 'It looks like that young master is going to send out that Yan Beihong again. Who in the world would be able to stop that guy?!'

Yan Beihong immediately pulled out his longsword from the ground, and he was prepared to step up to the arena alongside his teammates. Yun Feiyang had specially enlisted the help of nine Blue Lotus Ninth Grade experts and assembled this team for him. After seeing how Miao Yi wowed the whole crowd just now, Yan Beihong too wanted everyone to recognize the might of his longsword!

However, Yun Feiyang suddenly rolled his eyes and said to him, "What are you in such a hurry for? I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about 'Yan Beihong'!" He then pouted his lips at Miao Yi's direction.

Yan Beihong was taken aback. In his moment of carelessness, he had nearly forgotten that his name was no longer his own.

Meanwhile, Yun Feiyang stared mischievously at the Celestial Nation's camp and cast a devious grin towards Yue Yao. It was obvious what he was scheming.

Yue Yao secretly gnashed her teeth in frustration. How could she not understand what Yun Feiyang was implying? He clearly wanted to humiliate her as payback!

However, Miao Yi shook his head and replied, "Young Master Yang, please look for someone else instead!"

With a conceited look on his face, Yun Feiyang was immediately dumbfounded by Miao Yi's response. After all, the guy had been so eager to fight just now, stepping up to the arena the moment someone challenged him. Why was he so uninterested now? Confounded, Yun Feiyang asked, "You're kidding, right? This is like child's play to you! What exactly were your words again?"

Yun Feiyang then turned to look at his trusted subordinate, who immediately responded for him, "'I will be back soon enough!'"

"That's right!" Yun Feiyang slapped his thigh and praised him, "This is something that will only take you a little bit of time. All you need to do is just go out there and make a couple of thrusts with your spear. It won't take too much effort. Go on, go on. This young master will cheer you on!"

How could Yun Feiyang possibly know that it hadn't been easy for Miao Yi to make that move just now? Rather, it had taken him a great deal of effort to execute it. Ever since Miao Yi walked onto the path of cultivation, he had been in countless savage battles, but he had never once felt as tired as he did today. One could say that he had never felt this tired before in his entire life even. It was nowhere near as simple as 'just a couple thrusts' as Yun Feiyang had described it.

Miao Yi still shook his head, asking, "Young Master Yang, is the Devil Nation devoid of skilled participants?"

There really was no way Miao Yi could fight anymore, so he had to try and taunt Yun Feiyang into picking someone else.

Yun Feiyang's eyes immediately widened. These were the kind of words he didn't like hearing at all. Abruptly turning his head around, he asked, "Who will step up to the battle?"

No one responded. Eventually, under Yun Feiyang's commanding gaze, a group of people gritted their teeth and stepped up to the arena.

Within the Celestial Nation's camp, Yue Yao heaved a sigh of relief as she turned to Lan Ruo and whispered, "It seems like deep down that Yan Beihong is loyal to my Celestial Nation after all. That's why he refused to step up to the battle. I wonder why he's in the Devil Nation's camp though. Nonetheless, with him around, there will be a higher chance for more of my Celestial Nation participants to enter the top one hundred. Since he is willing to help out this much, I should look for an opportunity to try and recruit him back to my camp!"

Within the Yao Nation's camp, Bai Ziliang too sighed in relief. He was worried that Miao Yi would challenge his Yao Nation's cultivators the moment he stepped up to battle. If that were to happen on every rotation, the results would be disastrous. Every time it was the Devil Nation's turn to send out challengers, Miao Yi could just step up and pick his victims from the Yao Nation's camp. If that were to occur, Bai Ziliang worried that all the participants on his side would be singled out.

The participants from the other camps more or less felt the same way. They were simply too astounded by Miao Yi's performance in the first battle, so they all hoped he wouldn't step up. If they were to judge solely on the current rules of the competition, Miao Yi definitely had an unshakeable spot in the top one hundred already, so there was no need for him to bother with people like them anymore.

From issuing challenges to accepting challenges, then to full-out battles, the competition proceeded round after round, starting from daybreak, to midday, to sunset, and finally to nightfall. It was only when the stars dotted the night sky that the killing came to a stop.

The entire time, Miao Yi sat on Charcoal with his eyes shut, unperturbed by all the commotion around him, giving the impression of being bored and reclusive.

In one day, fifty battles were held. And in each battle, all the losers perished, whereas the victors were not completely safe of casualties themselves either. There were even some instances where there was only one person remaining on the victor's side!

After fifty battles, the number of casualties had already surpassed seven hundred, while about two hundred participants managed to emerge victorious and survive the day. And on the arena, a faint, bloody stench loomed in the air.

Under the night sky, all the participants were moving about, returning to their respective camps in order to prepare themselves for the next day. There were many teams who had suffered casualties and thus needed new members to replenish their numbers.

The party led by Gu Sanzheng was one of the lucky ones to have avoided all fifty battles held today. However, how long could that last? Even if they managed to avoid fighting today, there was no guarantee that they could do the same tomorrow. Then there was still the day after that, and the day after that.

At the moment, there was only seven of them in this team. Under such circumstances, it was obviously better to have as many members as they possibly could. Only with ample numbers and preparation could they increase their chances of surviving.

Once the battles were over, Gu Sanzheng led their group towards one of the parties who had suffered casualties today. There were only three people left in this group, making them a perfect fit for Gu Sanzheng and the others. Not to mention, they had already seen how powerful these three people were from the battle earlier on. It would be best if they could get them to join their party.

Both parties greeted each other courteously, then proceeded into the cave together.

"Brother Gu, what are your cultivation levels?" asked one of the trio, a person called Hong Jian.

Gu Sanzheng turned to Zhao Fei and the others, and he gently nodded. The seven of them then revealed the mark of cultivation on their foreheads.

Hong Jian and his group had no problems with the cultivation levels of Gu Sanzheng, Zhao Fei, Sikong Wuwei, Tan Lao, and Ye Xin, as the three of them were also at the Blue Lotus Ninth Grade. However, they couldn't help furrowing their brows when they noticed Tao Yongchun's Blue Lotus Seventh Grade cultivation and Pi Junzi's Blue Lotus First Grade cultivation.

Pi Junzi had a sheepish look on his face. The reason their team hadn't been able to find anyone to pair up with all this time was because he was holding them back.

"Yao energy? These two are Yao cultivators?" Hong Jian asked with creased brows.

Gu Sanzheng nodded and replied, "Indeed! However, the main issue isn't whether they are Yao cultivators or not, but whether we can work together and survive until the end!"

In a somber tone, Hong Jian said, "Brother Gu, I'm not against working with Yao cultivators. But you should all be well aware of the battle we had today. It was precisely because we were held back by two of our Blue Lotus Third Grade fellow disciples that we suffered such heavy losses. Once a member of the team is down, the other party will immediately gain an extra set of hands, creating a scenario where one person would have to fight against two enemies. I'm worried about the consequences from such a chain reaction. Forgive me for being blunt, but if you kick out this Blue Lotus First Grade Yao cultivator from your team and find a more suitable candidate to take his place, then the three of us will be willing to join your group!"

Suddenly, another group of seven entered the cave. As the leader noticed Gu Sanzheng and the others, he chuckled and said, "Sorry to bother you, I didn't know someone was already here. That said, Hong Jian, you might as well have a look at the strength of my team before making up your mind."

Judging from his tone, this person seemed to be acquainted with Hong Jian.

All seven of them then revealed the mark of a Blue Lotus Ninth Grade cultivator. The leader then continued, "We even kicked out the other three members from our team to accommodate the three of you. Brother Hong, you should give us some consideration!"

When life and death were in the balance, there was no need for further consideration. Hence, Gu Sanzheng and the others became the ones to leave the area quietly.