Sage of Humanity-Chapter 609 - 607: Fight to the Death

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"Deathmatch Arena!"

Tan Sheng, who was resisting the assault of the demon wolves, exclaimed in surprise as he looked at the gleaming square object, realizing an instant later, "So that’s it!"

No wonder Huo Liaoyuan’s performance was so bizarre today; he intended to use this artifact all along. Everything made sense now—their side had launched a ferocious attack, but ended up on the defensive the whole time. Huo Liaoyuan had seemed to lose his reason, but aside from shouting, he showed no other signs of irrationality.

All of it was an illusion, laid out just for this moment.

"Indeed..." Xia Liang murmured softly, the truth of the matter aligning with his suspicions—Huo Liaoyuan indeed possessed a Deathmatch Arena.

His realization came partly from Huo Liaoyuan’s odd behavior and partly because the Qi machine locked onto Lu Ye was just too abnormal.

That Qi machine wasn’t from Huo Liaoyuan at all, but extended from the Deathmatch Arena, which explained why it surpassed Huo Liaoyuan’s own limits.

There are many exotic treasures in Nine Provinces, each with bizarre and fantastic effects. The tracking disc used by Tan Sheng to trace Lu Ye’s movements is an exotic treasure; the Golden Body Token that Lu Ye used to save his life is one, too, and so is the Deathmatch Arena.

It has but one function: to pull the holder who activates the Deathmatch Arena, along with the targeted enemy, into a separate Death Combat Arena for a fight to the death!

In terms of value, naturally the Deathmatch Arena is not on par with the Golden Body Token that Lu Ye had used before, which was an absolutely lifesaving treasure. The Deathmatch Arena is not for preserving life but for forcing an enemy into a decisive death battle, hence it has significant limitations in its use—it only works if the enemy’s strength is weaker than one’s own.

Moreover, there are prerequisites to using it. The Qi machine released by the Deathmatch Arena must fully lock onto the enemy. In other words, the distance between Huo Liaoyuan and Lu Ye couldn’t be too great, and it needs a bit of time to build up momentum. If Lu Ye moved beyond a certain range during this time, the effect of the Deathmatch Arena couldn’t be activated.

This was why Huo Liaoyuan decided to launch a strong attack today, and why he didn’t bother to inquire Xia Liang for the exact location of the Heaven’s Augury Pillar.

What does it matter if there is a Heaven’s Augury Pillar or not? As long as he successfully activated the power of the Deathmatch Arena, Lu Yiye would undoubtedly die.

All his previous behavior was just a ruse, meant to let Lu Ye lower his guard. Now it seemed his planning had been successful, for Lu Ye only realized the impending crisis at the very last moment.

However, it was already too late by the time he noticed, for as the two beams of light from the Deathmatch Arena locked onto him and Huo Liaoyuan, the exotic treasure fully unleashed its power.

Li Baxian’s flying sword and Feng Yuechan’s magic and spells continued to bombard the Deathmatch Arena tirelessly, but the tiny Deathmatch Arena remained unaffected.

As the light shone brilliantly, the figures of Lu Ye and Huo Liaoyuan, along with the small Deathmatch Arena, disappeared all at once.

"Junior Brother Lu!" Li Baxian cried out, utterly unable to stop Lu Ye’s fate from being drawn in.

"Move!" Xia Liang ordered in a low voice, swiftly retreating.

Tan Sheng, already warned by him, quickly followed suit.

At the same time, all the cultivators from Sacred Universe Spirit Ground also fought while retreating, orderly and well-disciplined.

Although Li Baxian and the others, driven by rage, continued to pursue the wolves, their efforts bore little fruit. They could only watch as the cultivators from Sacred Universe Spirit Ground withdrew from the coverage of the Great Sky Prohibition Array and then soared into the sky, turning tail and running.

The wolf pack chased to the edge of the spirit ground, howling intermittently, but did not proceed further.

With the Great Sky Prohibition Array in place, they could still battle it out with the cultivators from Sacred Universe Spirit Ground, but once they went beyond the range of the array, they would become living targets.

Li Baxian, though angry and worried, still maintained his rationality. He halted his chase and immediately checked Lu Ye’s battlefield marking.

In the current situation, with Lu Ye and Huo Liaoyuan drawn into the space transformed by the Deathmatch Arena, no matter how many techniques he had, he could not lend assistance. He could only determine Lu Ye’s life or death through Lu Ye’s battlefield marking.

"Senior Brother..." Feng Yuechan came over and called out softly, reassuring him, "It might not be bad, you’ve forgotten that in the hunting grounds, Junior Brother Lu, when at Level 3, killed a Level 7. Now he is already at Level 5."

Even though that battle was not solely Lu Ye’s accomplishment but that of three people exerting their full strength, still, upon hearing Feng Yuechan’s words, a glimmer of hope sparked in Li Baxian’s eyes.

He nodded repeatedly, "Right, Junior Brother Lu may not be in trouble as long as he can unleash his final trump card..."

As he spoke, his complexion turned grim, and raising his head to look at Feng Yuechan, his eyes lost focus, "Amber… is in slumber!"

The trump card Lu Ye depended on required cooperation with Amber, but ever since it swallowed a demonic pill of an Overlord level last time, it had fallen into deep slumber, still unawakened to this day. Not only was Amber sleeping, but Yiyi had also fallen into silence.

In other words, Lu Ye currently had no assistance from external forces!

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Alone, against an opponent four minor levels above his own cultivation level...

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Li Baxian’s figure wavered, and he couldn’t help but stagger a step, his complexion suddenly turning pale.

The space of the Deathmatch Arena was an area roughly three hundred zhang in length and width, with a void overhead and restrictions around.

It’s not that the space of Deathmatch Arena is only this big, but it varies according to the user’s cultivation level, and so does the size of the arena.

With Huo Liaoyuan’s cultivation at the Cloud River Level 9, the range is such after activating the Deathmatch Arena, but if a strong cultivator of the Divine Sea Realm were to use it, the range could cover dozens of miles or more.

When Lu Ye’s figure suddenly appeared here, the invisible force locked on him also suddenly vanished, restoring his freedom.

His first action was to observe his surroundings, and at a glance, he saw Huo Liaoyuan standing at the other end of the Deathmatch Arena.

The environment around him felt familiar; he had been to such places before, more than once.

During the Spirit Stream Ranking challenges, some opponents chose terrains like this, and when others challenged him, he also picked such terrains, albeit smaller in scale, because it was convenient for combat cultivators to demonstrate their skills.

This being said, is this place similar to the Spirit Stream Ranking challenges? Only that Huo Liaoyuan had used an exotic treasure to bring both of them here.

He stimulated his spirit force without any hindrance, lifted off the ground, and tried to fly outwards, but the restrictions around prevented him, and feeling the solidity of those restrictions, he realized they were simply beyond his ability to shake.

Being trapped in such a small space with an enemy from the Cloud River Level 9, the situation was unprecedentedly dire!

Although his strength had greatly increased from the time in the hunting grounds, he never believed he was a match for a Level 9 cultivator. With his current abilities, he might stand a fighting chance against Level 8, but facing Level 9... he would have to activate the Beast Transformation Secret Technique.

But Amber was in slumber, so the Beast Transformation Secret Technique was out of question.

So the only trump card he had left to deal with the enemy was a single stroke of the Fire Phoenix Spirit Runes, but even that required time to gather momentum, and in this not-so-spacious area, the enemy certainly wouldn’t be foolish enough to let him slowly gather momentum. The moment he tried to activate the Fire Phoenix Spirit Runes, he would face a storm-like assault.

Trouble!

"Stop wasting your effort," Huo Liaoyuan’s leisurely voice rang out as he saw Lu Ye making a move to escape, "Inside the Deathmatch Arena, it’s a fight to the death. Today, only one of us can live. Only with one’s death will the Deathmatch Arena be lifted!"

Deathmatch Arena? Lu Ye frowned slightly upon hearing this; he hadn’t heard of such a thing. Although he was now a cultivator of the Cloud River Realm and had reached the Cloud River Level 5, his knowledge and experience were ultimately too shallow compared to an average cultivator.

There was no helping it; he had begun his cultivation too late.

But based on his own experience and Huo Liaoyuan’s previous actions, the so-called Deathmatch Arena must be an exotic treasure with special functions.

"Who do you guess will be the one to die?" Huo Liaoyuan, with his hands behind his back, hovered about a dozen zhang above the ground, looking down at Lu Ye with cold eyes.

Lu Ye glanced at him indifferently, his thumb rubbing against the handle of the Boulder Mountain Saber.

The silver lining in this misfortune was that the Level 9 cultivator who had used the Deathmatch Arena against him was from the Sacred Fire Order!

The cultivators of the Sacred Fire Order, ninety-nine percent of whom were fire attribute magic cultivators, were something he feared the least!

If it had been Xia Liang or Tan Sheng who had used the Deathmatch Arena today, then he would have been undoubtedly doomed. But it just so happened to be Huo Liaoyuan, so the situation was not that desperate.

"Lu Yiye!" Huo Liaoyuan shouted angrily; Lu Ye’s silence had undoubtedly infuriated him. With an angry expression, he said, "You better surrender to your death obediently, otherwise I have countless ways to torture you!"

In the Deathmatch Arena, outside forces and others could not interfere; he was a full four minor levels above Lu Ye in cultivation, and he was confident of his victory, but even so, he could not suppress the anger in his heart.

The loss suffered by Sacred Universe Spirit Ground this time was too severe; more than sixty people had died on the very first day, and nearly twenty more in today’s assault. Such losses were almost half the number of people he had brought with him, and he was forced to use the Deathmatch Arena, such a precious exotic treasure. Even if he killed Lu Yiye today, the sect would surely hold him accountable.

He only hoped that he could compensate for his actions; otherwise, his future would surely be ruined.

He should be able to make up for it, after all, the bounty on Lu Yiye’s head was simply too substantial. As long as he killed Lu Yiye, not only would he be blameless, but he would likely be credited with a great achievement. Which of the major 1st-grade sects in Ten Thousand Demons Ridge would not want Lu Yiye dead?

In response, Lu Ye launched an assault, his body darting out like a nimble cheetah, leaving a trail of afterimages behind as the Move-Like-The-Wind enhancement kicked in, rapidly closing the three hundred zhang distance.

Combat cultivator versus magic cultivator, the first tenet: close the distance, engage in close combat. Even though he was only at Level 5 and Huo Liaoyuan was at Level 9, as long as he could get in close, it was uncertain who would live and who would die. After all, magic cultivators spend years studying magic and spells, and are always relatively physically weak.

So even though stalling for time held no disadvantage for him, he still took the initiative to attack.