Chapter 286: Imperial Martial Tournament – Part 5
Sexy Pills were Miaomiao's weird creations. Each pill could temporarily transform the consumer's gender into the opposite sex for several minutes.
However, these pills had severe side-effect for necromancers like Liu Bian.
Normally, cultivators developed pill resistance over time, and the pill effect always degraded as they consumed more pills of the same type. However, in Liu Bian's case, it was the opposite.
Liu Bian had been cultivating the energy that his system had given him - The twilight yin yang essence, which was the foundation of his necromancy abilities. It allowed him to manipulate dead bodies, bestow lives to corpses, and convert natural yin yang essence into twilight yin yang essence.
Meanwhile, Miaomiao's Life Essence was the bane of Liu Bian's Twilight Essence. It weakened his essence, natural immunity system, and physical strength.
Every sexy pill contained Miaomiao's Life Essence. Thus, every time Liu Bian ate it, his pill immunity was weakened permanently, and he could sense it.
Last week, Liu Bian ate the first pill, and its effect lasted only five minutes. There was nothing wrong with that.
However, after he had consumed the second pill, the effect lasted longer. The second pill lasted 50 minutes, while the third pill's effect went on for 500 minutes.
Liu Bian had eaten four pills so far to maintain his female appearance during the registration process and the physical examination, hiding from the sharp sense of many 5th-stage and 6th-stage cultivators and royal guards in the palace. Currently, the fourth pill's effect was gone, and he might need to eat the fifth pill tomorrow.
Liu Bian had a headache as he could see the template here. Had he eaten the fifth pill, the effect might last for 50,000 minutes.
50,000 minutes were 35 days! Living a month and five days as a girl was too long!
Then, Liu Bian instinctively imagined the sickening scenario. What would happen if he were to eat the sixth pill, seventh pill, or eighth pill onward?
The sixth pill translated into 500,000 minutes or 348 days!
The seventh pill would be ten years!
The eight pill? He might as well live as a woman for the rest of his life!
What would happen if he were to eat all 10 pills in that bottle?
Liu Bian had goosebumps. He immediately destroyed all sexy pills in the pill bottle, leaving only two pills for tomorrow and the emergency use.
He swore that he would never eat any pill after this.
'If it weren't for the pylon tower, I wouldn't have reduced to this! Damn you, Dong Zhongying!'
…
Meanwhile, Miaomiao and the gang relaxed and watched the show from the sideline. The preliminary round had started.
Sixty-one 3rd-stage cultivators leaped onto the tall stages and seized the flags, declaring themselves as the chosen ones.
Over 4,000 weak 1st-stage and 2nd-stage rookies hesitated if they should climb the tower and fight for the flags at the moment since they could only choose one platform to be their battleground.
Still, many talented youngsters resided in this capital city. Five hundred 3rd-stage cultivators also jumped onto the platforms and challenged the flag carriers.
Chaos ensued. They brandished their wooden weapons and began attacking each other, fighting for supremacy. Fortunately, the qualification round forbade participants from using real weapons.
Unfortunately, cultivators were savage creatures. Their random techniques crippled young men and women, ruining their future forever. The referees had their hands full dragging injured teenagers off the stage and healed them.
Despite the chaos, Miaomiao and Ma Moxi were bored. The skills of these contestants were weak, slow, and inefficient. They lost count of how many times they killed every participant in their mind.
"Boring."
"I know right?"
Miaomiao and Ma Moxi yawned at the same time. They sighed and closed their eyes, using this free time to meditate and cultivate.
Several contestants had been paying attention to the VIPs, and many rookies with sharp ears heard the remarks. They were frustrated.
"It must be nice having strong backers. Goddamn rich bastards."
"What do you know? They have nascent soul seniors with them, and their cultivation base surpasses ours. They have the right to be arrogant."
"Tsk! This tournament is rigged. We have no chance from the very beginning."
Most muscle tampering realm and bone refining realm cultivators forfeited the tournament when they noticed the people on the VIP platform, who had been spectating the tournament.
No one wanted to fight a 4th-stage or 6th-stage cultivator in this tournament! They were too strong!
Among the contestants on the ground, who hadn't joined the fight, Lu Fengxian gazed at Miaomiao, Ku'er, Ma Moxi, and Ju Shoufen with a bright smile.
'Soon, you silver-pant frog-in-a-well will experience what it feels like to battle a real immortal. I wonder what kind of face you'll be showing me when I beat you to a pulp. Will you be one of those arrogant idiots, or are you worthy to be my disciple?'
Lu Fengxian hummed as he jumped onto the nearest stage.
Upon standing on platform number 21, twenty young men and five young women were still exchanging their martial techniques, trying to get a hold of the flags. Five 3rd-stage cultivators stood on the sideline, watching the fight while they were keeping the distance from the chaotic battles.
Lu Fengxian snickered and stood there, waiting for them to exhaust themselves.
Five minutes later, the furious battle subsided. Seven contestants remained on the stage, including the five people who had been observing the battle from the sideline and Lu Fengxian.
Four men, who hadn't make a move throughout the fight, rushed at the last contestant at the center of the stage.
As for Lu Fengxian, he simply stood there, waiting if someone wanted to challenge him.
"What a bunch of idiots. Why are they fighting for the flag instead of trying to eliminate the strongest guys on the sideline?"
Lu Fengxian could hear Ju Shoufen's comment from afar. It seemed that the loli grandma had been watching his platform.
'I agree. Well, they're just kids, so they're inexperienced and impulsive. Cut them some slack!'
Lu Fengxian grinned and refuted Ju Shoufen's remark in his mind.
As Lu Fengxian was relaxing, one of the remaining fighters sneaked behind him.
Surprisingly, it was Niu Fu, who cheated his age and joined this event.
"HAHAHAHA! DIEEEE!!"
Niu Fu sent a palm strike toward Lu Fengxian from behind, yet, he laughed and announced his attack out loud.
"… Another idiot."
Ju Shoufen and Lu Fengxian said at the same time. The latter sidestepped and avoided Niu Fu's palm strike.
Then, Lu Fengxian used his index finger to flicker Niu Fu's forehead.
PA!
As if Niu Fu's forehead was shot by a .50cal rifle, his head exploded, and his brain shattered to pieces.
"Err, whoops."
Lu Fengxian frowned. He thought that he had limited his strength enough to flicker him out of the platform ring, but he ended up killing him in one hit.
"Sorry. I meant, why is his physique so weak!? Are you sure you cultivated your physique and foundation properly? You're a 3rd-stage cultivator, for dao god's sake!"
"…"
The referees and all contestants on Lu Fengxian's platform froze. They stared at him as if they were seeing a monster.
The 5th-stage elder, who had been overseeing the number 21 platform, descended and examined the brainless corpse. He bitterly smiled and sighed before he moved the dead body out of the ring. Then, he gazed toward Dong Zhongying's direction, waiting for his verdict since this contestant violated the rules of no-killing.
…
Ding
[Warning, one of your potential campaign targets, Niu Fu, has been killed by a protagonist.]
Hearing the notification, Miaomiao snapped open his eyes and stared at the system panel, reading the message in shock.
'Wait, what!? How!?'
[A reminder, campaign protagonists don't consist of only Ma Moxi and Liu Bian.]
[As this is your first campaign quest series, the system hasn't included the real list of all protagonists, neutral characters, and villains. Many protagonists have entered this world before you. Also, as time passes, more protagonists may enter this world and start their stories.]
[Be warned that protagonists, neutral characters, and villains may kill each other when their stories intersect. Please be mindful of your progress and actions to maximize the quest rewards.]
Things began to get complicated. While he was in the middle of hunting Liu Bian, another protagonist had appeared!
Moreover, the unknown protagonist had stolen his bounty!
Miaomiao's eyes flared as the pressure forced him to change his mentality. His mindset reverted back to when he was still being enslaved by Xu Xiuying, scanning through every elder and thinking of every possible scenario that might happen in the future.
'First thing first, who killed Niu Fu?'
Miaomiao looked around and noticed the weird expression on everyone's faces. They were looking at something on a certain platform below them.
He also followed their gaze and spotted the murder scene on platform number 21. Someone's head had been blown off.
"LI WENYOU!" Dong Zhongying suddenly bellowed, "WHO IS THE BASTARD THAT KILLED MY SON-IN-LAW!?"
Miaomiao's attention was piqued.
'Son-in-law!?'
In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Niu Fu was a military general of Dong Zhuo, the tyrant. The latter trusted Niu Fu to the point that he betrothed his daughter to him.
After Lu Bu's betrayal and Dong Zhuo's death, Niu Fu fled with his soldiers, but he was killed by his men, who used his head to surrender to another lord.
'Oh, right. Niu Fu is the name of Dong Zhuo's son-in-law. Since Dong Zhongying is the counterpart of Dong Zhuo, is Niu Fu the dead guy? Then, the one standing next to him…'
When Miaomiao put his mind to it, he could be sharp sometimes. He remembered the historical record and connected to this world.
Although the historical trend was different, the connection between Niu Fu and Dong Zhongying was unchanged.
With such conjecture, Miaomiao figured who the killer was. He squinted his eyes and turned his attention to a 3rd-stage cultivator, who stood next to the dead body.
'It's him! What kind of protagonist are you!? System, will I get rewards if I kill him or steal his heavenly fate fragment?'
Ding
[You cannot take another campaign quest. Please kill Liu Bian before you start another protagonist hunt campaign.]
'... You don't even bother giving me a side-quest, eh?'
…
Meanwhile, Jia Shan and Ma Ping turned their attention to Lu Fengxian after he displayed such an overwhelming physical strength. They were familiar with physique cultivators, who focused on developing their physical body to its limit and used their physical strength as a dao foundation.
In the past, a certain immortal that they knew walked this path, and he was considered a war god among mortals.
Immortal Fengxian!
"How was the guy killed? I didn't pay attention," Ma Ping was curious how Lu Fengxian killed Niu Fu.
"I didn't pay attention either. Probably a strong punch to the face, I guess."
Ju Shoufen corrected them since she had seen everything, "It was a finger poke."
"A finger… poke?"
"Yeah. See that physique cultivator over there? He lightly poked at the guy's forehead, and he's dead."
"… This… seems interesting."
The elders were interested in Lu Fengxian now. Since he somehow offended Dong Zhongying, they thought of inviting him to Siren City and recruiting him as their disciple.
They planned to collect a bunch of monstrous youngsters and establish a new sect with these rash teenagers as their core disciples. Then, they might see great things in the future.
"You think of what I think, Senior Ma?"
"You think so, too? Friend Jia?"
"Hehehehe."
"Huhuhuhu."
…
Dong Zhongying couldn't sit still. After he had learned the identity of Ding Bu, he whispered to Li Wenyou, ordering his subordinate to disqualify the protagonist.
However, Wang Yun was close by. He overheard the conversation, and he disagreed with the bias treatment.
Wang Yun stood up and cupped his fist, "Please wait, Minister Dong. This murder seems to be an accident since the perpetrator didn't seem to use much force. He tried to go easy on your son-in-law, but he didn't know how to control his strength properly. Please give him a second chance."
Dong Zhongying glared at Wang Yun with bloodshot eyes, "Then, what about my son-in-law's death!? Who is going to take the responsibility!?"
"Death is a common thing for us, cultivators. It comes sooner or later, but your son-in-law meets his end sooner than the others. At least, he gets to experience a painless death. Please be optimistic, Minister."
Dong Zhongying wanted to scream, "Optimistic, my ass!" However, he didn't dare to offend a nascent soul cultivator.
As such, he only stomped and threw tantrum for a moment before he sat down.
Dong Zhongying shouted, "The event continues! That was an accident! You maggot over there! If you kill anyone again, I'll disqualify you on the spot and kill you myself!"
Hearing that Dong Zhongying compromised, Wang Yun was relieved. He turned toward Lu Fengxian and grinned at him.
'Ding Bu, son of Ding Yuan. Ha! If I were an idiot, I wouldn't have figured out who you are! Are you the counterpart of Lu Bu, Ding Bu?'
Wang Yun was a step ahead of Miaomiao. He had learned about the background of Lu Fengxian by eavesdropping on the conversation between Dong Zhongying and his aide.
He, too, planned to recruit Lu Fengxian as one of his followers. Then, they would turn on Dong Zhongying first. After that, Liu Bian would be next!
'Sorry to say this, Liu Bian, Dong Zhongying, but that Pylon Tower will be mine! For the greater good, you all will be the sacrifices!'
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