Chapter 284: Imperial Martial Tournament – Part 3
Ma Moxi suddenly had a chill running down his spine. He looked at the crowd below in wary, having goosebumps.
"ACHOO!"
"Bless you. Wait a minute. Can cultivators catch a cold?"
Ma Moxi wasn't the only one who had sensed something weird, Miaomiao's right eyebrow pulsed and twitched as well, but he ignored it since he was with so many strong elders. He still had the mood to tease Ma Moxi.
"That's not a cold. Someone is definitely talking bad behind my back!"
"Obviously, they will talk shit about you if a pretty loli fox is doing that."
Miaomiao pointed at Ku'er, who had been acting like a baby monkey latching on her monkey mama, hugging Ma Moxi with her arms and legs from the front. She unintentionally revealed her red G-String underwear and her smooth round butt, which attracted many horny eyes as well.
Ju Shoufen also glanced at them and snorted, "At least, Moxi has some decency. Had it been you, you would have started fornicating with whoever hugging you and showing their butt."
"Err, I wouldn't do that. I'm not into exhibitionist kink."
"Liar! Last night… never mind."
Ju Shoufen coughed and stopped talking about their sexual experience as she was in front of Jia Shan and Ma Ping. She, too, had a bit of decency.
The group passed through several checkpoints and reached the imperial palace. Dong Zhongying and Li Wenyou guided them to a guest house, located at the far east of the imperial palace.
The place was a one-story wooden building. The roof was made of golden plates, refined yin stones, and paper arrays. By standing inside the building, they could feel the circulating flow of cold air as if the entire building was air-conditioned.
The building was also partitioned into seven rooms, which was more than enough for everybody here.
Miaomiao's party was relieved that they got their personal room, so they could use this place to cultivate peacefully.
Seeing that everyone liked the place, Dong Zhongying was delighted. He promised them that they would notify them when the event started. All of their candidates, regardless if they had an invitation edict or not, would automatically enter the top 64 round without going through the preliminary rounds.
Before everyone could enter their room to rest, Dong Zhongying glanced at Ju Shoufen and Ku'er, asking everyone to confirm the number of participants, "Kind sir, would all four children be joining this event?"
Ju Shoufen raised her right eyebrow slightly as she wasn't planning on joining the tournament. Yet, Jia Shan and Ma Ping laughed and nodded, "Of course. We hope these children can get to play in the tournament. You don't mind, right?"
"We definitely don't mind! It's our honor to have so many talented youngsters participating in our humble tournament! Your presence will bring hope and joy to the emperor!"
Jia Shan and Ma Ping winked at Ju Shoufen while the latter's face twitched in disgust.
The two old men laughed, "Just kidding. Those two women aren't qualified to enter the tournament. Only our disciples will participate!"
"Oh?"
Dong Zhongying was taken aback. For a moment there, he thought that Jia Shan and Ma Ping had monster-like geniuses as their disciples.
"A-Ahem! E-Excuse me. For a moment there, I thought you would allow your best disciples to join the event. Having two 6th-stage geniuses in this lowly tournament will definitely intimidate other contestants."
"Nah, we don't want to bully youngsters. It will be pointless if we let the girls join. Only these two idiots will participate."
Ma Moxi and Miaomiao stared at the elders, protesting with their eyes for calling them idiots.
Dong Zhongying nodded. Then, they turned toward the two young men. He stared at Miaomiao's face as he felt like he had seen him somewhere before, but he couldn't remember.
"Very well then. Could I have your name so I can register you for the tournament in advance?"
Miaomiao was about to say his real name. But then, he changed his mind as he didn't want to disclose his real name to attract the attention of the Xu Clan.
"Cao Mao. Register my name as Cao Mao."
The elders didn't look surprised as this was Miaomiao's common alias that he had been using for a while.
Ma Moxi glanced at his grandfather for a moment. Since they showed no reaction when Miaomiao used his fake name, he decided to use one, too.
"I'm Ma Chao."
Miaomiao choked and coughed, surprised by Ma Moxi's bold proclamation. Although he was aware that Ma Moxi's name in his previous life was Ma Mengqi, which was the courtesy name of Ma Chao, he never expected him to use the actual name here.
"Alright, Sir Ma Chao and Sir Cao Mao, we shall register your names to the tournament. Both of you are automatically qualified to enter the top 64 round. We shall come back and inform you when we need your presence. Oh, we will summon maids and servants to assist you if you need them."
Dong Zhongying and his people gave their clan token and left in a hurry as if they panicked.
…
After outsiders were gone, Miaomiao and Ma Moxi had a private conversation.
"Moxi, the other reincarnators and transmigrators will pay attention to you if you use that name."
"Too late. Well, don't worry, boss. That will actually work in our favor since we won't have to find them, but they will find us. It will be fun!"
"Yeah, yeah, it will be fun, you jinx! Next time, don't forget to tell everyone that Ma Shoucheng is Ma Teng, so even the most stupid otherworlder can guess about our background."
"Hahahaha! I didn't think about that. Should I start calling you Cao Mengde from now on as well?"
"Cao Mao is not Cao Cao. Besides, Wei Huang and Wei Cao seem to be the counterpart of Cao Cao, not me."
"Your alias sounds the same as Cao Cao, though."
"…"
…
Several days later
The number of candidates was staggering as the local cultivators had been enticed by the 10,000 essence core prize. By the time that the registration period ended, over 5,000 youngsters from Red Sun City and neighbor towns gathered here, wanting to get the delicious cultivation resources.
Over 20,000 parents and guardians of these candidates also stayed in Red Sun City, waiting if they could spectate the event. However, all of them were not allowed to enter the inner city area.
A day after the registration period had ended, Dong Zhongying summoned all registered contestants to the imperial palace. Even Miaomiao's party was invited to observe the event.
When Miaomiao's party arrived at the imperial palace, a butler guided them to the throne room.
The throne room had been renovated for this event as well. Instead of having a single throne and an empty room, it had been changed into a banquet room.
Miaomiao spotted a young boy in gold robes and a crown, standing next to the throne, looking flustered. Next to him, Dong Zhongying sat on the boy's seat and crossed his legs, looking at everyone as if they were below him.
When Jia Shan and Ma Ping arrived, Dong Zhongying stood up and rushed to greet them.
"Welcome! Welcome, great masters! Come, take a seat. We shall observe the event from here!"
Dong Zhongying pointed at the large orb at the center of the throne room, which was projecting the images of the battle stages at the imperial training ground.
At the training ground of the imperial palace, 64 round stages had been arranged beforehand. Each battle stage was half the size of a soccer field, and it was five meters high. Had someone with a bad physique fallen from that height, they might have died.
Looking from below, the contestants could only see the tall elevated ground. The only way they could go up there was to climb a stair.
Despite seeing the grand stages, Miaomiao's party wasn't impressed. On the other hand, their attention was on the poor child, who was sobbing as he was standing with wobbling legs.
From a glance, he was only 3 to 4 years old. He looked pitiful standing there alone with all the heavy robes and a loose crown.
Jia Shan and Ma Ping's faces distorted in disdain. Just by seeing the state of this poor child and his emperor uniform, they managed to figure out who it was.
"Dong Zhongying, can you explain? I heard from the maids that the emperor has died and Liu Xie has become the new emperor, but why is he treated that way!? Why is he standing next to his throne, but you're the one sitting on it!?"
Jia Shan and Ma Ping didn't waste their time when they had been staying in the guest house. They had secretly gone out to investigate and probed around the imperial palace.
As they were the only nascent soul cultivators around here, nobody dared to obstruct them. These two elders roamed the palace and learned about the previous emperor's death and the identity of the new emperor.
Jia Shan and Ma Ping didn't care who would be the next emperor since it had nothing to do with them. However, bullying a 3-year-old child was distasteful and disgusting. Even Miaomiao, who was a brat-hater, had the urge to beat this fat 6th-stage cultivator to a pulp.
Ma Moxi muttered to himself, "I know that Dong Zhongying is the counterpart of the historical tyrant "Dong Zhuo", but man, seeing this asshole in person ruins my mood."
Miaomiao groaned, "Same. Well, I understand why "Dong Zhuo" from our timeline did it since political power was involved, but why this "Dong Zhuo" is keeping the young emperor alive? Is there a point of keeping him alive?"
"Maybe he has a treasure or a bloodline on him? I don't know."
Both otherworlders were curious why Dong Zhongying had enthroned Liu Xie and had been keeping him alive. As fellow cultivators, it was more logical to kill weaklings and steal everything, not playing around with political power.
It made them curious what kind of secrets that Liu Xie had.
"By the way, do you happen to have a seven-star sword that I can assassinate this fatass?"
"I thought you're not Cao Cao's counterpart."
"I don't mind roleplaying him."
"Too bad, boss. I don't have the sword."
"I thought you are Gilgamesh's counterpart. Can't you just use that Gate of Babylon and create me one?"
"Gold element Qi ain't cheap. By the way, can't you just summon your stand and touch him to get this over with?"
"Killer-Queening ain't cheap. Hell, do you want to wage war against the Dong Clan and the Imperial Family in the open? Explosion attracts too much attention."
"Messing with historical events is fun, boss. C'mon, let's kill this fatty. Say the word, and we'll slaughter every motherfucker here."
"What's the butterfly effect if we kill Dong Zhuo's gang before the coalition event?"
"We can be forever remembered as heroes, maybe?"
"Not interested. Let's stay here and watch what happens."
"But heroes are usually popular among bitches. Chicks dig heroes, and you can dig the holes of those chicks."
"… Sounds interesting, but I already have too many wives."
"I see. Very well, then. Come to think of it, I think Dong Zhuo in history collected a bunch of pretty sex slaves in his house. Do you mind if I kill Dong Zhuo and take Diaochan and his hidden concubines for myself?"
"Over my dead body! I'll kill this motherfucker right now!"
Miaomiao and Ma Moxi chatted in a hushed voice, but they still messed around like bratty children.
While the two bored otherworlders had been plotting the assassination, Jia Shan and Ma Ping slapped the back of their heads as they had heard everything. The elders transmitted his voice to their minds.
Ma Ping warned Ma Moxi, 'Don't start a fight here! Be patient and let the adults deal with the uncertainties first. I know that Dong Zhongying deserves a beating, but not now!'
Even Jia Shan didn't want his disciple to be reckless, 'Stay your hand, disciple. Even I can't be reckless in an enemy's territory. In this world, there are hidden arrays, poison, guardian beasts, familiars, or irregular techniques that can even kill immortals. Being strong doesn't mean you can be reckless!'
Miaomiao and Ma Moxi withdrew their killing intent. They sulked and shrank as if they were naughty children being scolded by their parents.
While everyone's attention was on the elders, Ju Shoufen already approached the child emperor and gave him a pill candy.
"Are your legs hurt? Why don't you sit on the throne? There's a wool cushion there, no?"
Liu Xie, the child emperor, sobbed while he looked at Ju Shoufen's face with teary eyes and shaking legs. He wanted to sit there as well, but he was afraid of Dong Zhongying, "I'll be lashed again."
"Who was it? I'll beat them to death."
"… It's that scary man. He said that he will kill me and pluck my fingernails again if I don't do what he told me."
"…"
Ju Shoufen paused and looked at the child's fingernails. A few of them had been pulled off recently as the fingers were swollen in red.
God knew what kind of infection and the pain that the child might be experiencing at the moment!
Ju Shoufen's bloodshot eyes reddened. She fed the emperor child a healing pill before she slowly turned around to glare at Dong Zhongying, to whom Liu Xie had pointed his finger.
"Boy, just sit."
"But he-"
"If I said you can sit, that means you can sit. Trust me."
Liu Xie hesitated at first, but he followed Ju Shoufen's instruction and sat on the throne anyway. When the boy finally rested his legs, he sighed and stopped crying.
Suddenly, Dong Zhongying yelled, "WHO TOLD YOU TO SIT ON THAT CHAIR!? GET THE FUCK OFF!!"
Liu Xie shrank back. He got flustered and was about to hop down from the tall chair.
However, Ju Shoufen stood before the young emperor and summoned her sun crow avatar, getting ready to unleash her wrath, "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, DONG ZHONGYING!?"
At that moment, Jia Shan, Ma Ping, Miaomiao, and Ma Moxi's faces turned into a pokerface.
"Uh-oh."
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