Chapter 472: Qualifier Round - Matching Pictures
'Multiple contestants have stepped on the red tiles. Therefore, everyone will be forced to join this challenge. The second challenge will be…'
RUMBLE
Suddenly, the red and white tiles on the ground flashed. Then, images of various animals, fruits, and objects appeared.
From a glance, each tile showed a different picture. However, if one were to hover over the platform, they would notice that some of the pictures were identical.
In addition, five giant TV screens emerged. Four of them orbited around the platform while the other one faced the platform from above, acting as the ceiling.
'The second challenge is… the Matching Image!'
"What!?"
Everyone stopped fighting to pay attention to the mysterious voice.
'On the floor, there are a total of 1,000 pictures. Each picture has 1,000 identical images, but they are randomly placed. Your job is to locate the matching picture that shows up on the screens and stand on it. If you can't locate the tile and stand on it before the countdown ends, your cultivation base will be destroyed!'
"!!!"
Everyone scanned through the images on the ground in a panic. Still, the game hadn't started yet.
The flashing images on the floor disappeared, replaced with dark tiles. Then, blurry images of a million pictures moved and swapped places.
The contestants were alarmed. They tried to memorize and locate each picture.
As everyone was memorizing the moving images, the tiles turned black again. Then, they revealed the new images of fruits, people, objects, and animals.
'You have 10 breaths to memorize everything. After the time is over, I shall cover the images, and the real game will start!'
…
Miaomiao blankly stared at the floor while he was sweating profusely.
Memorizing a hundred pictures was already hard enough. But now, he had to memorize the locations of over a thousand images.
He glanced at one of the screens. Currently, the digital number, "00.00.10", was stopped there.
It hinted that the real game's time limit was also 10 seconds.
Miaomiao shook off his thoughts and scanned through the images with his Qi senses.
Qi strands of everyone created a messy web of energy. Visually, everything was in chaos.
While everybody was trying to memorize the images on the ground, Ling Tianlong ignored the game and kicked the ground.
He charged at Miaomiao and brandished his dark sword!
Sensing the sharp killing intent, Miaomiao kicked the ground and backed away from Ling Tianlong. He cursed the protagonist.
"Are you nuts!? You're going to get us crippled!"
Ling Tianlong sneered, "I'll let you have a taste of your own medicine! Even if I'm crippled, I'll drag you with me!"
"You're insane!"
Miaomiao unsheathed Killer Queen and blocked flurry sword strikes.
Dian Wei glanced at Ling Tianlong and snorted. She vanished and reappeared behind the protagonist with her war ax overhead. Then, she activated her soul domain.
Ling Tianlong's mind shook as the soul domain of Dian Wei tricked his perception. He had fallen into a realistic dream while his body was frozen.
Using this opportunity, Dian Wei swung her ax down!
"NOT A CHANCE!!"
Huang Hansheng also activated his soul domain and overlapped with Dian Wei's territory. He pulled his great bow and unleashed a hundred energy arrows at Dian Wei.
CLANK
Five of them hit Dian Wei's war ax, changing its trajectory. As for the others, they went for Miaomiao and Dian Wei.
BANG
The war ax hit the floor, a few centimeters away from Ling Tianlong.
She missed!
"GEEZER!!"
"Fuck you, Huang Zhong!!"
Dian Wei and Miaomiao cursed at the archer. The latter honked and equipped Lu Bu's war god suit to protect his body while Dian Wei easily caught the oncoming arrows with her spider webs.
Under the barrage, Dian Wei and Miaomiao were busy protecting themselves.
Tick
Five seconds had passed. They wasted so much precious time because of Ling Tianlong and Huang Hansheng.
The archer burst into laughter as he continued sending more arrows toward Dian Wei and Miaomiao.
But he forgot about another variable.
Nearby, Zhou Gongjin was there!
The commotion also distracted Zhou Gongjin, who had been memorizing the tiles on the floor. He looked up and found Ling Tianlong, standing still in a daze.
Seeing such a golden opportunity, Zhou Gongjin clenched his fists. He stopped gazing at the tiles and transformed into a demi-Qiongqi. A long white tiger tail extended from the area above his buttock, and his pupils turned crimson. A purple aura came out of his nostrils and mouth.
Instantly, Zhou Gongjin activated his soul domain and injected microorganism ticks into Ling Tianlong's body.
The creatures were Zhou Gongjin's creation. They acted like common blood-sucking ticks that could be found on animals. However, the purple ticks at the size of a thousandth of a millimeter consumed Qi to grow.
Depending on the consumed Qi, their powers would be based on the victims.
A second later, Ling Tianlong's body trembled as he had a light seizure. The ticks already started eating him from the inside.
Zhou Gongjin smiled and leaped away from the chaos.
He could have killed Ling Tianlong right here, but he figured that Huang Hansheng would attack him next. Then, he might not have enough time to memorize the images on the floor.
Zhou Gongjin was not like Miaomiao. He chose to secure his exit plan before he pursued his primary goal.
Meanwhile, Miaomiao noticed that Zhou Gongjin sneaked an attack at Ling Tianlong. He smirked and hid behind Dian Wei while he turned to the protagonist.
The golden opportunity had arrived.
'Die, motherfucker. I don't believe that your plot armor can protect you!'
Miaomiao unleashed Holy Flame of Life Qi, activating his elemental domain, similar to Xie Tian's flame domain.
The fire dome expanded forward instead of covering Miaomiao like a barrier dome. It enveloped Ling Tianlong.
Without hesitation, Miaomiao closed his right hand as if he was holding a switch.
Then, he pressed the button.
Killer Queen, Holy Flame of Life!
CLICK
The holy flame in the domain condensed at the center, inside Ling Tianlong's body. Then, it was detonated.
BOOM
The incendiary bomb created a tall mushroom cloud in the sky, but the blast radius also affected everybody on the platform. Everybody had to stop looking at the ground and circulated their Qi to resist the strong shockwave.
Because of Miaomiao and Ling Tianlong's fight, the countdown timer reached zero before they could memorize everything.
'Time's up.'
The pictures on the floor vanished, and the five giant TV screens showed a picture of a yellow duck toy.
'There are one thousand identical images within the one million tiles. Stand on the right tile, and you shall win this game. Of course, only the first one who steps on the right tile can claim the prize.'
"Aw, shit."
Miaomiao gazed at the giant screens and scratched his head.
He forgot where the yellow duck toy image was!
"Here!"
Fortunately, Dian Wei was nearby. She grabbed Miaomiao's robe and pushed him to a tile, 20 blocks away from where he had been standing.
Then, Dian Wei rushed toward the blast site, where Miaomiao just detonated Ling Tianlong.
Only then, Miaomiao realized that Dion and Devil hadn't confirmed the kill yet. He shouted, "BE CAREFUL!! LING TIANLONG ISN'T DEAD YET!!"
"I know!"
Dian Wei jumped into the black smoke and brandished her war ax at the silhouette inside.
CLANK
CLANK
Miaomiao couldn't see what had happened in there, but loud noises of metal hitting each other was resounded in the void space.
He also didn't have the luxury to listen or look at the fight. Behind him, Huang Hansheng already secured a tile and pulled his bowstring again.
"Shit!"
Ten arrows came for him, and the speed was faster than Zhao Yun!
"AMITABHA THE FUCK OFF!!"
Suddenly, a giant golden hand slammed at the flying arrows, stopping them from reaching Miaomiao.
Zhao Bao appeared and stood between Huang Hansheng and Miaomiao. Also, he firmly maintained both his feet on a certain block.
The monk came in with his battle form. He had already transformed into a Buddha statue, who had a hundred arms and a hundred weapons.
BOOM
Behind Miaomiao, Ling Tianlong horizontally shuttled away from Dian Wei! He vomited several mouthfuls of blood as he fled.
Chasing after Ling Tianlong was Zhou Gongjin and Dian Wei, who coincidentally wanted him dead.
Miaomiao didn't know how Ling Tianlong still survived after taking his powerful detonation. He widened his eyes and cursed his backers.
"Damn fucking plot armor! Just die already!"
Miaomiao pressed the switch one more time to force Ling Tianlong's dantian to detonate.
But this time, nothing had happened.
Ding
[Warning, Ling Tianlong's Death Qi has devoured all of your Holy Flame of Life Qi inside his body.]
[Warning, Death Qi is the bane of Life Qi. Ling Tianlong is immune to Life Qi, Holy Flame of Life, and Life Essence attacks.]
[Warning, Ling Tianlong has devoured some of Dian Wei's Soul Qi. His mental strength has increased.]
[Warning, some of Ling Tianlong's soul injuries have been healed.]
"I call this bullshit!!"
Miaomiao was enraged. He could easily kill protagonists' clones in ITS, but he couldn't finish off real Ling Tianlong?
Moreover, Ling Tianlong could self-heal his soul with his opponent's energy!? This was blasphemy!
This wasn't a level 5 plot armor. It was like a level 9,000!
BOOM!
Miaomiao didn't have enough time to curse or observe the others. Huang Hansheng ceaselessly attacked Zhao Bao and tried to bypass his defense with his homing arrows.
Twenty arrows, which had flown over Zhao Bao's head, suddenly made a U-Turn and came after Miaomiao!
"Tsk!"
Dian Wei stopped chasing after the protagonist and projected a dome of spider web around Miaomiao.
CLANK
The arrows hit the spider web and failed to hit the target. However, the web sealed Miaomiao inside.
Huang Hansheng sneered as he successfully trapped Miaomiao in one place. He turned his attention to Miaomiao's wives and bellowed.
"Well done, Mao Miaomiao! Since I can't kill you, I'll kill your men and your wives instead!"
After saying that, Huang Hansheng turned to the southeast corner, where the group of Miaomiao's wives had already occupied as their home base. All of them had already picked their tiles, but they weren't ready for the fight.
Huang Hansheng sent ten arrows at them!
"BASTARD!!"
Aside from Zhao Bao and Dian Wei, there was no one that could be Huang Hansheng's match.
His wives and the other teams were vulnerable!
That was what everybody had thought. They underestimated a certain woman.
Wei Yuan suddenly summoned a vortex shield between the girls and the incoming arrows.
And the arrows pierced it!
However, arrow injuries suddenly appeared on Ling Tianlong's body! The ten arrows just now hit the protagonist instead!
Wei Yuan, who had been standing on her chosen tile 500 blocks away, swallowed her bloody saliva as the Chaos Element Shield consumed 90% of her Life Essence in the tank.
Nobody noticed the same arrow wounds that had appeared on Wei Yuan's body. She calmly brought out the OP spring water and drank it.
Then, both her middle fingers pointed at the sky.
"Take that, moron!"
Huang Hansheng widened his eyes in shock. A second later, he realized the danger of his arrows and shouted, warning Ling Tianlong about his arrows.
"TIANLONG, PULL THOSE ARROWS OUT!!"
Death Qi practitioners had many weaknesses. Although they could easily defeat Life Qi and Life Essence cultivators with their unique immunity, they were weak against basic elemental Qi attacks.
Life was the ultimate form of combined elements. Death was the end of it, so it countered Life.
However, basic Elements were a part of a life composition. Even though Death defeated Life, the components of Life were immune to Death as it had no life from the start. Only the power of Destruction or Decay could destroy them!
Unless the practitioners had mastered the higher form of Death Qi, such as Decay Law and Destruction Law, weak elemental attacks could still trouble Death Qi users.
And Huang Hansheng, who had cultivated his elemental energy and Soul Qi to the limits, had indirectly attacked Ling Tianlong, whose body was made of Death Qi.
It was too late. The Soul Qi, Lightning Element Qi, and Wind Element Qi within the arrowheads already entered Ling Tianlong's body and started rampaging inside him.
The protagonist's body shook as if he was electrocuted, and his Death Qi was weakened.
"AHHHHHHH!!"
Zhou Gongjin, who had been pursuing Ling Tianlong, wouldn't miss this opportunity. He ordered his parasites to destroy the protagonist's body.
"KILL!!"
BOOM
Ling Tianlong's arms and legs were shattered and were disintegrated into dust. Countless ticks flew out from his body.
Still, ticks were lifeforms. They were not the right power to be used against him.
Ling Tianlong glanced at Zhou Gongjin with a sneer, "Thanks for the help. I need those bugs to heal my soul damage."
WHOOM
The ticks suddenly flew back and merged with Ling Tianlong's body. Every pest inside him turned into his food.
Just like that, Ling Tianlong regrew his arms and legs. Moreover, more Death Qi was generated as his body had consumed Zhou Gongjin's power.
"I don't even know who you are and why you attacked me. But since you're my enemy, I won't leave you alive. It's over for you."
Ling Tianlong pulled the arrows out and approached Zhou Gongjin. The latter faltered, but he suddenly glanced at the giant screen behind Ling Tianlong.
Zhou Gongjin smirked. He took several steps back and stood there, "Yeah, it's over. But not for me."
The countdown reached zero.
The matching tile game countdown was over.
"It's over for you, Ling Tianlong!"
The tile that Zhou Gongjin was standing on was revealed. He was on the yellow duck toy tile while Ling Tianlong was stepping on an apple tile.
All one million tiles were revealed at the same time. Then, everybody stopped fighting as they were busy staring at their feet.
'There are a total of 57 contestants that failed to stand on the right tiles. Their cultivation will be crippled as a punishment!'
…
= Void Space, Macho Joshua Constellation District =
While the Selection Tournament Qualifier Battle was in chaos, Devil observed the fight with interest. His attention was on Zhou Gongjin instead of Miaomiao.
He thought to himself.
'Zhou Gongjin died in the previous timeline. He didn't even have the providence of a protagonist. Come to think of it, Kishin Douji was killed by Xie Tian and regressed into this timeline by destroying the previous one. Every time he regressed, irregular or a soul from that timeline entered the new timeline as a price of the karma law, and they became protagonists or were degraded into neutral characters. I invited Miaomiao here to kill Xie Tian, so that's the variable under my part since I also came from that place. As for this guy...'
Devil smirked at Zhou Gongjin.
'So, you're the variable of Kishin Douji in this timeline. Because of you and the previous timeline's karma, Ling Tianlong's star is no longer a protagonist star but a stepping stone for you, the newborn protagonist!'
Devil deduced Zhou Gongjin's fate with his experience. He had so much inspiration and ideas in his mind that he forgot about Miaomiao.
'Well then, Zhou Gongjin. Will you be useful to me, or will you be like the other annoying protagonists? Can you disable Kishin Douji's regression ability?'
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