Chương 123: King and queen ascending the stage.
The last two days swiftly passed, all the passengers on the Tripartite Ship tense with excitement and hope. Battles in the arenas were bloody and deadly, unless your opponent was a merciful person you would be killed when you lost. There was no telling how many of the current passengers would still be alive after a year, or even just a month within those towers.
Ten Thousand Hearts city was incredibly large, it had to be if it wanted to house one of the three grand towers after all. As Liang Chen and Yan Ling learned, the tower in Ten Thousand Hearts city was given the name Endless Heart Tower, while the two other towers were Heaven Reaching Souls Tower and God Piercing Fang Tower.
Even though the city was called Ten Thousand Hearts city and was considered the main city of the Fiendgod race, it was home to countless others from the Undead race and the White Orchid race. This led to the city having a very varied architecture, with very few of the houses resembling each other. Some were made using a strange black stone and resembled castles, others were simple wooden shacks, while some were even built using the bones of Demonic beasts.
The yellow-brick paved roads that ran through the city were very wide, able to fit at least three carriages side by side, making it easy for many people to traverse them at once. Surrounding the entire city was a black metal wall that was almost 50 meters in height and two meters thick, covered in countless runes to strengthen it. At the far end of the city, there was a road that stretched beyond the wall, connecting the city with the two other distant cities.
And of course, the centerpiece of the city was Endless Heart Tower, the lower part of its ivory frame carved with delicate and exquisite decorations that depicted a battle that not even the oldest history book had information about. The tiger-shaped Tripartite Ship easily moved past the large gates that were built into the wall, quietly following the roads and approaching the tower. The citizens of this city knew what this ship was so there was no one that blocked its path.
The ship arrived in front of the tower, stopping in front of two massive gates carved directly into the tower. The doors to the ship opened and the various passengers stepped out, looking at the massive tower in silent awe while the gates in front of them were slowly opening. Once the gates were fully opened, Liang Chen and Yan Ling could see several people from the various races standing ready inside the towers, each one carrying a small book as they called out to the people who had just left the ship.
"Any new arrivals must come over here and give us their names, they will then have to participate in a quick group battle to showcase their strength."
The passengers who had left the ship started to flood into the tower, Yan Ling dashing ahead and taking care of delivering her own and Liang Chen's name. Since she handled the signing up, Liang Chen swept his surroundings with a few glances, inspecting the first floor of the tower.
The first floor was so vast that Liang Chen was unable to see the end of it, so he found it likely that the entire fang that was this tower was completely hollowed out. He could see a ceiling painted to resemble a clear blue sky above him, they had even used an array to simulate the sun so that they could illuminate the inside. Past that blue sky was likely the second floor of the tower, just waiting for new people to reach it.
He could see a large number of people from the various races spread out through the surroundings, countless buildings dotting the area. The inside of the tower was like a city of its own, the only thing setting this city apart from the city outside the tower being the various arenas spread through the area. Even from his position at the entrance Liang Chen was able to hear screams come from the arena, the scent of sweet blood tickling his nose. A few minutes after she dashed ahead of him, Yan Ling came skipping back.
"Alright, I've finished the sign-up and asked a few questions about the tower. After we participate in this one group battle we can live inside any of the houses in the area. If anyone else wants the same house as us, we have to defend the house on our own. This place is kinda like a small city, so there are markets spread around, with the currency being the same Gibbings used everywhere else. On the four lowest floors, we have to take part in at least one battle every year, if we don't, we get kicked out of the tower. If we want to reach the second floor, we have to win 10 straight battles, with each subsequent floor requiring double the wins of the previous one. To go from the second to the third floor requires 20 wins, then 40, then 80, then 160, then 320, then 640, and then 1280 wins to finally reach the last floor, the mythical 9th floor where the top 100 rankers live. It's pretty excessive so I can see why there has only ever been one person to reach the top rank in all three towers."
The towers were somewhat lawless areas, with killing, robbing, and raping a very common thing in the streets. The only places were fighting was forbidden were the various marketplaces spread around, as well as some special areas on the higher floors. But even though the towers were this lawless, there were still some rules. The main rules were that one had to fight at least once a year on the lower floors and that there were places where fighting was forbidden. As for who enforced these rules, that would be the Tower Kings, the subordinates of the Tripartite Slayer. They have been given special authority and a corps of elite soldiers they can command as they wished. As for who enforced these rules before Sun Cailin became the Tripartite Slayer, that was so long ago that no one remembered any longer.
After telling Liang Chen everything she had learned after asking the one who noted down her name, Yan Ling led him to the closest arena, a simple stone stage surrounded by a raised seating area. There were already quite a few other people on the stone stage, almost 100 people in total, and all of them had cultivation around the early or middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm. There were a few people Liang Chen recognized amongst the 100, but only one he had ever actually talked to, Yin Weijing.
There were also a few people that Liang Chen didn't recognize, so they likely arrived at the tower in a different fashion, or by using a different Tripartite Ship. The female from the White Orchid race that had noted down Yan Ling, and thus Liang Chen's names was standing at the side of the stage, nodding her head when she saw the two of them.
"With the arrival of these two, we have gathered the necessary 100 people. You will now start a battle amongst yourself, and only the 10 people standing in the end will be allowed to actually enter the tower today. Anyone else that survives will have to wait at least half a year before they can try again."
They had earlier called it a chance to showcase their strength, but this group battle was nothing more than a way to weed out the weak. There were thousands of new people arriving at each tower every day, if they had to house all of these people then even the towers would run out of space. Thus, a system like this had been set into place, at least somewhat limiting the number of people that entered the tower every day.
The atmosphere on the circular stone stage immediately grew tense after the woman finished talking, the 100 people standing on it eyeing each other and doing their best to come up with a plan. While the others were wracking their brains to come up with a plan, Yan Ling simply stretched her arms high and let out a highly exaggerated yawn.
"Ah man, I am beat after having to do all that sparring. Little Freak, I'm too tired to do anything, I'll leave it all to you."
The moment she finished her sentence, she leaned herself against Liang Chen's back, resting her chin on his shoulder and putting all her weight on him. Clearly, she had no intentions of even moving during this first group battle. But she could not be blamed, the people on this stone stage were all around the early or middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm. With how strong she and Liang Chen were, no one on this stage could challenge them.
Her actions and words, as if she didn't put any of the people on the stage in her eyes, caused her to receive quite a few annoyed glares. Liang Chen could only look at her from the corner of his eye, giving a light shake of his head.
"Of course, just dump all the hard work on me."
Tired after sparring so much? What she had done wasn't sparring, it was bullying, plain and simple. There was no way something like that would tire her out. Hearing his retort, Yan Ling let out a light snort and poked his cheek, giggling slightly.
"Of course, that's what a brute like you is good for after all."
Liang Chen once again shook his head and let out a light breath. He cast his gaze onto the other people on the stage, who were currently looking at the light-hearted chat the two of them were having with rather angry expressions. It seemed like they weren't too fond of being disregarded like that.
They locked eyes for a quick second, seemingly coming to the mutual conclusion that they would get rid of Liang Chen and Yan Ling before they properly started this group battle. The others here might be their opponents, but at least they didn't disregard them like Liang Chen and Yan Ling did. Besides, in the end, only 10 of them would be standing anyway, so it didn't matter if they teamed up at the start to get rid of a few people.
With those thoughts in mind, they drew their weapons and prepared to attack Liang Chen and Yan Ling like a furious tidal wave. But the moment they tried to take their first steps, several of them collapsed to the ground, blood pouring out of their orifices. Before they even had the time to properly react to what just happened, more people among them started to collapse, their blood staining the stage.
Before long, the only people left standing were Liang Chen, Yan Ling, and Yin Weijing. Everyone else had collapsed and died, not quite sure just what it was that ended up killing them. Liang Chen gave a quick wave of his hand, storing the corpses into his interspatial ring to save them for future cultivation. He then turned to the woman who had started the battle.
"Alright, can we leave now?"
Liang Chen had started spreading his poison the moment he and Yan Ling stepped onto the stage, mixing it with his Anima Essence so that it could even deal with the people from the Undead race. Even if these people were all weaker than him and Yan Ling, there was no telling what might happen in such a chaotic group battle, dealing with them all at once was the best option.
Yin Weijing, the only person other than Liang Chen and Yan Ling who was still standing, felt a horrid chill crawl down his spine. When Yan Ling said that they'd regret making her cry, insinuating that Liang Chen would get revenge for her, a small part of him thought that she was just bragging about her man. But seeing the scene in front of him, how could he not realize how wrong he had been?
Never before in his life had he thanked his cheerful and open nature more than he did now, as it was this nature that had caused him to strike up a chat with Yan Ling and Liang Chen to begin with, causing him to slightly hesitate when everyone was showing their killing intent. He also knew that it was this hesitation that ended up saving his life right now.
The woman in charge of the battle was clearly a professional, as her only reaction upon seeing the scene was a short twitch of her eyebrow before she calmly responded.
"Yes, you may leave now. The winners of this battle are Yin Weijing, Scourge King, and Wolf Queen."
Liang Chen was just about to start walking down the stage when he suddenly stopped. The names she had just used for him and Yan Ling caught his attention. And remembering that it was Yan Ling who had volunteered quite rapidly to sign up their names, he couldn't help but turn his head slightly to glance at Yan Ling, who was still leaning against his back and resting her head on his shoulder. When his eyes landed on her, he immediately noticed her smirk, which he knew could only mean one thing.
"Aren't the names nice? King and Queen? They fit us quite nicely, don't they?"
Liang Chen wanted to say something, but faced with her smirk he could only let out a defeated sigh. It seemed like not even now, after ending up on a completely unknown planet, would he be able to escape that embarrassing title he had received. Since things had come to this, he decided to get revenge in a way only he could.
He spun around slightly and picked up Yan Ling before she got the chance to react, lifting her up into a princess carry. He then started to walk down the stone stage so that they could look for a house, all the while ignoring her protests and continuing to carry her in a princess carry. She was good at teasing, but public displays of affection like this were still quite embarrassing to her so it was the perfect way for Liang Chen to get his revenge.
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