Chapter 290: Imperial Martial Tournament – Part 9
"Oh, boy."
Miaomiao, Ma Moxi, Ju Shoufen, and Ku'er observed the fight from the sky. At first, they had planned to enter the stadium along with the two elders. But suddenly, a fight broke out, and they couldn't enter the arena.
Fortunately, they were out of Xu Xiuying's force-choke power range.
"Should we help?" Miaomiao pondered if he should jump into the fray and ambush Xu Xiuying when she wasn't looking.
"Don't get cocky. That's a nascent soul succubus, not a human cultivator. They can use racial abilities or unknown techniques."
Ju Shoufen warned Miaomiao about the danger of veteran demons, such as Xu Xiuying. This succubus queen's combat prowess might potentially be stronger than her actual cultivation base.
By Ju Shoufen's rough estimation, Xu Xiuying was on par with a mid-stage nascent soul human cultivator if she utilized her unique bloodline, racial abilities, her unique domain power, and other sinister techniques that she had yet to reveal.
Miaomiao and Ju Shoufen could tell from a glance that the forced choke skill was an application of Xu Xiuying's miasma gas, which Jiang Lan and other succubi had been practicing. Ju Shoufen and Miaomiao used to ask the girls about what it could do, and they had discovered about its dangerous traits and abilities.
Anyone who had inhaled the pink gas would be infected by tiny parasites, which were embedded within the cultivator's blood cells, Qi, and meridians.
However, the traits of these microorganisms varied depending on the source of the miasma.
Jiang Lan and others used these parasites as "Semen Converter", transforming the victim's blood cells and Qi into semen and multiplying the parasites.
Meanwhile, Xu Xiuying's miasma parasites acted as manipulators. As long as the parasites had multiplied and occupied various parts of the victim's body, she could command them to do anything as long as the infected cultivator hadn't purified the contaminated muscle strands or blood cells.
In this case, Xu Xiuying sent a mass command to force all victims' necks to contract as if they were being choked. As for how they were lifted into the air, it was a simple telekinesis trick that every 3rd-stage cultivator could use to manipulate objects from a long distance. Instead of controlling one object, Xu Xiuying pulled some of the human cultivators off the group to make the technique intimidating.
Although Miaomiao's party didn't know the detail of Xu Xiuying's actual skills, they believed that most spectators in the stadium had been infected and was being controlled.
Ju Shoufen, Ku'er, and Ma Moxi's face darkened. They simulated various scenarios in their mind, trying to figure out how they could efficiently rescue the captives and help the two nascent soul cultivators.
On the other hand, Miaomiao had no F to give to the spectators. He simply observed Xu Xiuying's eyes and body language, analyzing her action and preparing for her future moves.
If Xu Xiuying were to show an opening, Miaomiao would strike without fail! He didn't care about the strength difference as he had OTHER trump cards in his system inventory.
Wei Yuan had opened the supply box of OG-Buddha when they were in the ITS. Three Light Element Spell talismans, three Domain Sealing talismans, three OG's Blessing talismans, and a set of heaven-grade monk robes were inside the box, and they had been transferred to his system inventory.
As for Kunwu's supply box, it contained a teleportation talisman. There was no manual or explanation where it might take the user to, but Miaomiao deemed it as a dangerous item. Wei Yuan kept it with her for now.
'If I can get close to her, I can seal her! Just one opening is enough!'
…
On the arena, the tournament participants were unaffected by the force choke as they arrived after Xu Xiuying had appeared. They didn't inhale the invisible miasma gas that she had secretly released to the air.
Despite not being infected by Xu Xiuying's microorganism viruses, they didn't run away from the stadium.
They couldn't run as their legs were frozen because of fear. Even Liu Bian stood still, watching the fight, and gritting his teeth in frustration, resenting his powerlessness.
On the other hand, Lu Fengxian was smiling.
When Lu Fengxian had seen these two nascent soul cultivators the day before, he didn't see their faces. But now, Lu Fengxian recognized one of the two nascent soul cultivators as he had fought alongside him in the previous war against demon god's underlings on this continent.
'Ma Ping, you're still alive! You've recovered your power, too!'
Lu Fengxian regretted that he wasn't on Aves Continent when the Liu Clan and the Poison Pavilion backstabbed Ma Ping. Seeing that Ma Ping had restored his dantian and gotten stronger, Lu Fengxian was proud of his old comrade.
'Immortal realms need someone like you, Ma Ping! And that person beside you, too! But, damn… should we save these scums or should we simply kill that bitch and get this over with?'
Although it would be nice if he could save these local cultivators and reeducate them, eliminating a succubus queen benefited humanity more than saving a few thousand random weaklings.
If Lu Fengxian still had his former strength, he would rather ignore her threat and behead her on the spot.
'Come on, Ma Ping. A succubus queen is a calamitous demoness. Kill her before she kills more humans! We can't let her grow up and become the second Xu Chu… Wait a minute, I think I forgot something very important.'
Lu Fengxian frowned as he tried to recollect his old memory when he was an immortal. He had read a secret document from Kishin Douji's private plane, but he didn't remember what it was about.
Still, he vaguely remembered that it related to this world.
And it related to a certain aristocrat clan with the surname… Yuan.
'Yuan Clan? Who was the Yuan Clan's dao god again? Yuan… Yuan Hee? Yuan Hoo? Yuan… Hua?'
Then, something came back to his mind. Lu Fengxian remembered important info, which might be the reason why Kishin Douji chased him for seven planes just to kill him.
It wasn't about revenge.
It wasn't about what he did to Kishin Douji.
It was about this entire planet and the real motive behind the human-demon war that he had taken part in!
'SHIT!'
…
Realizing that Xu Xiuying had resorted to a petty trick to threaten him, Jia Shan burst into laughter. He wondered if she had forgotten what kind of person he was.
The Mountain Goose Sect's brutal annual assessment test was his idea!
If he didn't care about random commoners, weak cultivators, and fellow humans, would he help the strangers?
The answer was "NO". He would use them as meat shields to kill Xu Xiuying any day!
'You've threatened the wrong person, bitch! Now die!'
Jia Shan circulated his power into the soul sword. It glowed in brown light, absorbing metal Qi from his hand.
His domain suddenly got stronger. It pushed back Xu Xiuying's miasma domain and enveloped her. Several illusions of geese's heads surrounded Xu Xiuying.
HONK!
HONK!
HONK!
"YOU!!"
Getting caught off guard, Jia Shan's geese tongue technique weakened her dantian and her power. She lost her body balance as if she had received an uppercut from a professional boxer.
"DIE!!"
Jia Shan slash down his sword with his full force, aiming the cleave Xu Xiuying in half!
WHOOSH!
The floor below Xu Xiuying's feet suddenly sucked her body underground. Then, a nascent soul cultivator inside a box room pulled her and her disciples out of his shadow.
Wang Yun teleported all succubi and Luo Cheng to his side!
The disguised old man winked at the succubi. Then, he stepped in front of them and shattered the room's glass wall, so he could talk with Jia Shan and Ma Ping directly.
Although everything happened so fast, Jia Shan and Ma Ping had seen everything.
They were infuriated. This was the second time that Wang Yun provoked them!
"WANG YUN! WHAT'S THE MEANING OF THIS!!?" Jia Shan bellowed and corrected his combat stance, getting ready to unleash his full power and destroy the entire city for the sake of killing Xu Xiuying.
"Senior Jia, please calm down."
"SCRAM OR I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, TOO!!"
"Senior Jia, do you want to kill her that badly? What did she do to deserve your resentment to the point that you are willing to abandon commoners and local cultivators for her head?"
"THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!! IF YOU DON'T GET LOST BY THE TIME I COUNT TO THREE, I'LL KILL YOU, TOO!!"
The sword saint's killing intent was unique. Just by directing his killing intent and sword intent toward Wang Yun, the latter's clothes were cut, and shallow wounds appeared on his body.
Yet, Wang Yun was calm. He cupped his fist and bowed toward Jia Shan and Ma Ping.
"I'm sorry that I have to intervene in what you're about to do, but humans can't afford to offend the demon sects right now."
"NONSENSE!"
Jia Shan and Ma Ping frowned. As Wang Yun suddenly brought up the topic, it confused them how it related to their grudge against the succubi clan.
Ma Ping patted Jia Shan's shoulder and took over the role of negotiation, "Explain. If you make this up to buy time or sprout irrelevant excuses, we'll kill you and your granddaughter."
Wang Yun coughed and glanced at Xu Xiuying, "I'm sure that this demon woman over here has a life brand, and Xu Lanying is aware of your secret hideout at Siren City. If you were to kill her here, Xu Lanying and her demon allies will be your forever enemy! Do you want to start a racial war on your own? Did you forget that the human alliance has just been dissolved because of the crown prince's necromancy issue? Do you think you can bear the fate of humanity of this entire world with just you two?"
Ma Ping and Jia Shan snorted. They had Mao Xueyan and Zhao Fan at their base, so they had nothing to worry about if Xu Lanying were to knock on their front door.
"Ha! We can't offend them? It's more like they can't offend us! Now, die!"
Ma Ping summoned his knight avatar, getting ready to turn these two nascent soul experts into potholes.
But Wang Yun didn't give up. He revealed a bit of secret information about the political issues in the higher realms, "You misunderstood my point! Our true enemy isn't the succubi but the Yuan Clan, the Poison Pavilion, and Kishin Douji's underlings! Their dao gods are planning to convert this planet into a human farm and sell us off to Kishin Douji!!"
Jia Shan and Ma Ping didn't buy it, "Bullshit! Go to hell!"
"Tsk!"
Wang Yun expanded his shadow and covered for Xu Xiuying, her disciples, and Luo Cheng.
As Ma Ping was about to complete his domain skill, someone in the arena shouted and called Ma Ping by his secret nickname.
"TOOTHPICKER, STAY YOUR HAND!! HE'S TELLING THE TRUTH!!"
Despite being in the mid-motion of throwing a javelin, Ma Ping widened his eyes in shock and stopped moving as if someone had stopped time. He slowly turned toward the source of the voice.
The nickname "Toothpicker" had been given by Immortal Lu Fengxian a few hundred years ago. At that time, Ma Ping was just an early-stage nascent soul cultivator, who pursued the dao of spearmanship.
One day during the war, Ma Ping got cocky and went out to subdue earth drakes alone. However, his spear failed to penetrate through their thick skin and their terra element essence, resulting in his defeat.
When Lu Fengxian found Ma Ping running for his life, he titled the spear saint as "Toothpicker".
Toothpick represented Ma Ping's spears. The entire name was a friendly mockery that he could only poke the drakes with his toothpick-like spears.
Aside from Lu Fengxian, no one was aware of this silly nickname!
"BRAT! WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?" Ma Ping looked at Lu Fengxian with bloodshot eyes.
"I haven't seen you for years, and you've become cocky, little Toothpicker Ping. Have you forgotten the defeat that day when you ultimately poked earth drakes and ran for your life?"
Ma Ping's face reddened in embarrassment. Then, he snapped back to his sense as something didn't add up.
"You… Who are you!?"
Lu Fengxian grinned and drew a strange skeleton with a spear post. It was the posture of a spear technique that Lu Fengxian had taught Ma Ping in the past.
"Remember this move? Have you mastered "One Strike" yet? I hope you weren't slacking when I was away."
"!!!"
…
Miaomiao had been observing the development from the beginning. At first, he thought that they could kill Xu Xiuying today since nothing could have stopped those two hot-headed elders.
And yet, that protagonist somehow stopped Ma Ping with his words.
The background story was so cliché and predictable to the point that Miaomiao wanted to curse his system sponsor and several dao gods out loud.
'A 3rd-stage cultivator with the knowledge of Ma Ping's past? That smells like a godly cultivator being regressed back to a mortal!! First, he's a protagonist. Second, he knows Ma Ping's past. After this event, he will definitely recruit Ma Ping as his ally and use him as his plot armor for decades!'
Miaomiao was never afraid of cliché protagonists. However, he feared the uncertainty and the randomness of this development.
Ma Ping was Ma Moxi's grandfather.
Yet, Ma Ping was acquainted with another protagonist.
Two protagonists were related!?
Although Miaomiao was shocked by the insane series of events, he kept calculating what he should do with this new protagonist, who intruded into his business.
He also didn't miss the hint when Lu Fengxian shouted that Wang Yun's story was the truth. Some conspiracy crap was going on, and he had clue about it.
Miaomiao needed more information, but he couldn't trust the system!
While Miaomiao was thinking, Ma Ping already cupped his fist and saluted to Lu Fengxian. He even forced Jia Shan to be respectful toward the young man.
It seemed that Ma Ping already acknowledged that the protagonist was his former colleague or something. It didn't look good as Miaomiao's family was being stolen right in front of his eyes.
Seeing the progress of this protagonist's storyline, Miaomiao made his decision. He ignored Xu Xiuying, Wang Yun, Jia Shan, and thousands of eyes from the stadium. He descended and landed next to his elders.
Miaomiao cupped his fist and bowed toward Lu Fengxian, showing his utmost respect and revealing his true name.
"Junior Mao Miaomiao greets senior. I didn't know that you, my mentor, and my grandfather-in-law are colleagues. Please forgive my rudeness for not introducing myself earlier."
"Oh?"
Lu Fengxian was surprised as he didn't expect someone this young to be respectful toward him when he was still weak. Moreover, they were in the middle of the conversation, and this youngster picked up the hint so fast.
The first impression was important, and Miaomiao nailed it!
Lu Fengxian had a good opinion of Miaomiao. He was young, but his essence was dense. Also, his demeanor and the distortion in the air showed that Miaomiao had practiced a killing domain.
"You're humble, smart, and talented. I like you. Wanna be my disciple?"
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