Chapter 296 Chapter 296 – End of the Battle Royale
In the hours of the battle royale, Ken sat on the back of a dolphin he had paid to remain behind and serve as his seat, all while beasts came with the corpses of different disciples, creating a red trail in the water behind them. He did notice that many of them never returned, meaning they died, but he never even thought about caring.
Perhaps his dolphin helped him spread the word about his business or maybe more sea beasts were drawn to the scent of the blood he had poured into the lake around him, but he often found himself repeating the details of his offer to groups of sea beasts.
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On the mountains outside the platform:
"You can do that?!" Many disciples gaped at Ken's tactic. His enemies cussed him while his allies praised his wit. They did not know how he achieved the delicate balance of fear and enticement to make mature beasts work for him.
"That bastard!" One man shouted when a group of 10 sea beasts ambushed a group of his juniors and reaped them into shreds after a short fight. The beasts then turned to fight among themselves until only four of them remained, claiming a corpse each.
"His companion is also killing too many of our juniors!" Another woman remarked with gritted teeth as she watched spikes of ice claim her fellow sect members' lives.
"Is it possible they're both at the fifth stage? Sect Seeds are not supposed to participate in this bracket!" Someone else shouted in anger.
"We would know if they were sect seeds, so they can't be ones. Say, do you think this might be the Devil's Heir? His height is slightly taller, but the red eyes match. Besides, he is still young and growing, so it makes sense if he got taller after a few months."
Many angry voices were heard among nineteen of the top 20 sects, raging every time they saw beasts cooperate to hunt their cultivators in a frenzy.
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On a mountain's summit where elders of unranked sects stayed:
"Haha, how interesting!" A human with smooth pink hair laughed at the sight.
"We are losing disciples too, you know," a burly man with short hair replied grumpily, "He is strong enough to kill them himself, so why is he acting like a coward?" The man evidently was not pleased by Ken's tactics.
"That's called using his brain. He is an alchemist; he has no reason to fight head-on like a brute."
"If he did not have the strength to fight like a brute, these beasts would long consume him and steal his pills. If he can fight head-on like a man, he should just do that!" Harken insisted.
"Relax, the righteous sects are taking more damage than us, and we don't even care about how many of our disciples die," Sable shrugged. Even Harken did not care about the death of his sect's disciples; he was only exasperated about the way Ken had got them killed.
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On the highest peak around the valley:
"Huh, this boy is indeed as troublesome as the rumors say. He is killing much more than I expected. Is he trying to drain all the Immortal Qi Stones from our sect?" Supreme Elder Layla said with a weird expression that seemed to be a hybrid of an amused smile and an annoyed frown.
"Are you going to pay him?" Grand Elder Yuhua asked.
"Of course, he earned it."
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Ken was busy taking storage rings and throwing corpses back to the beasts as food when Steve's voice resounded again. By now, he did not even have to bring out any meat to lure the sea beasts outside; the lake had many red patches from dead humans and beasts all over it, making the animals much more active.
"The battle royale is over, in ten seconds, you will be teleported out of the platform!"
They gave the participants 10 seconds to loot their victims and even their breaths before bringing them back. Ken used this interval to pay his "subordinates" with the Bloodline Refining Pills and say goodbye to his dolphin.
He was soon teleported outside to where he began, Tiara and the other two girls by his side.
"How many did you kill?" Ken turned to Tiara, dismissing the thankful two girls with a nod.
"A few hundred. You?"
"Slightly over a thousand."
"I don't know if to call this thrilling, horrifying, or tragic, but today's competition had the highest death ratio in the past millennium! Out of 10944 disciples who entered the tournament, 4013 were killed!" Steve announced.
Normally only one person per pair would get killed if at all, since the partner would break their tokens to escape or survive until 10 seconds passed and they were automatically teleported outside, but this time, disciples were fighting to kill. The winners did their best to finish off the remaining disciples before they could escape.
"You guys caused almost half of the casualties," Alaric commented when the two stood next to their group. Ken simply shrugged. After his bloodlust was satiated, he did not take pleasure in killing others. It was all done for resources, part of his journey to gain strength.
"What about the girls I helped, did they manage to take anyone down?"
"Yes, three pairs accidentally entered the formations you inscribed, and the girls finished off 5 of the enemies, and only one managed to escape using his token."
"I'm surprised so many couldn't activate their tokens on time and got killed," Ken remarked.
"Oh, from here the reason was quite obvious. The Infinite Wisdom Sect tried to play dirty and set up the tokens in a way that they would take 7.5 seconds to teleport the fighters outside. They probably believed it'd cost the Serene Lotus Sect many lives, but they ended up causing trouble to everyone," Alaric explained what he witnessed from outside.
"I see. So, what was the cost for our sect?" Ken inquired. He knew their scheme might have caused many losses on their side. The righteous sects always knew how to bend the rules with pretty words and excuses so they could appear righteous even when performing murder and other atrocities.
"We did lose many. 193 of our fellow disciples were killed in battle, which is the highest number among the top five sects. However, the rest did not fall behind us by much, and the Peaceful Demon Sect which is neutral and does not have enemies is the only sect with less than a hundred deaths."
Before Ken could ask more questions, Steve shouted again, pulling everyone's attention back to his commentating.
"With that, the first round of the 2v2 bracket for the youngest age group is concluded, and now for the results!" He paused for a moment to let some suspense build up, "From the Serene Lotus Sect…" A line was projected into the air with Light Qi, "77 pairs continued to the next round! From the Peaceful Demon Sect…" Another line appeared underneath the first, "22 pairs moved on to the next round! From the Four Seasons Sect…"
The top five sects held 652 spots out of 1024, showcasing their superior strength compared to the rest of the continent. However, everyone found it a surprisingly low number for the top five sects!
"112 groups from unranked sects had survived this round, this is unprecedented! Are we witnessing the rise of new sects to the top 20?!" Steve shouted when the results were projected entirely. The crowd made a surprised "Oh!" sound, echoing Steve's words.
"Are you eager to hear the rules for the next round? Because I can't wait to tell you about them! The next round will consist of two elimination battles in which every team will be assigned to a fight randomly. There will be no in-sect fighting in the next two rounds!"
The crowd was just about to cheer when Steve continued his speech, prompting a collective groan of disappointment.
"However, our competitors must be tired after a long day of fighting, hence, the competition will continue in twelve hours! Don't fret, during the break, we will project the greatest moments from the tournament to keep you entertained."
Ken and his group left the mountain's base and climbed to their tents near the summit, planning to spend the long break there.
"I will cook something, I already drained the meat's blood," Ken said and brought out one of the corpses he used to lure sea beasts. He used a cheaper cauldron in order to avoid showing his Golden Sun Cauldron in public, knowing it was good enough to arouse greed.
"Hey, Team Leader, it's you." George pointed at the sky where Ken's image was shown dashing between four opponents. It was played in slow motion, allowing the weaker cultivators to perceive Ken's movements. The five bit into the juicy steaks as they watched Ken's sword swing and claim the lives of the opponents.
There were a few other interesting battles other than Ken's and Tiara's; there were beautiful genderless people who seemed to charm their enemies, one of them especially stood out with their purple hair and soft facial features. Their enemies barely fought back while they slaughtered them.
Another pair of Darkness Qi cultivators from the Four Seasons Sect was shown often in the air, the special tool allowed the spectators to see through their disguise and understand their movements as they slit the throat of a Serene Lotus Sect's disciple by surprise.
Another man caught their eyes, a Sound Qi cultivator from the Serene Lotus Sect who used a flute to trap his enemies in illusions.
Overall, many interesting scenes could be seen in the air, granting the audience one more chance to watch the best moments of the tournament if they were busy looking somewhere else while they happened.
"It's time for the next round, let us accept the participants with applause!"
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