Chapter 00405: Bloody Struggle
# Bloody Struggle
Chapter 405
Novel: Abandon The Universe
Chapter 405: Bloody Struggle
In the center of the vast plaza outside the Void Stone, a dueling platform had already been erected.
To Lan Xiaobu's surprise, the first one to rush onto the platform was Hu Mingzhi.
Hu Mingzhi performed a respectful salute to the numerous Immortal Court Kings and said, "I challenge the Qingfang Immortal Domain. Please send someone from Qingfang Immortal Domain to the stage."
Hu Mingzhi represented the Xingluan Immortal Domain.
Because he arrived late, he hadn't secured a single spot.
Of course, he wasn't the only one; some of the earlier arrivals also hadn't secured spots.
Many were stunned.
A latecomer from an Immortal Domain was actually challenging the Qingfang Immortal Domain, which was practically the host?
However, it didn't take long for everyone to understand.
Hu Mingzhi might have arrived late, but he knew the situation well.
The Qingfang Immortal Domain was indeed strong—before.
But now, it was nothing special.
Dozens of Immortal Emperors had died, and three semi-divine realm experts had been killed.
It was possible that the Qingfang Immortal Domain couldn't even compare to ordinary weak Immortal Domains now.
That was the first point.
The second point was that the Qingfang Immortal Domain's Immortal Court King, Shen Sen, had clearly offended Lan Xiaobu, the Immortal Court King of the Five Realms Immortal World.
In this place, the Five Realms King's word was law.
Offending Lan Xiaobu wouldn't end well.
By challenging the Qingfang Immortal Domain now, Hu Mingzhi was showing that the Xingluan Immortal Domain stood firmly on the side of the Five Realms King.
Many admired Hu Mingzhi's decisiveness.
Although the Qingfang Immortal Domain had suffered heavy losses, it was still strong.
The best course of action now was to avoid offending them.
Yet, Hu Mingzhi took the initiative to provoke them, clearly showing his unwavering stance.
Shen Sen's face was dark, not because he was angry that the Qingfang Immortal Domain's Ten Kings hadn't arrived, but because a small Immortal Domain he had never even heard of dared to challenge the Qingfang Immortal Domain in the first round of the competition, slapping the Qingfang Immortal Domain's face in front of everyone.
These small Immortal Domains dared to act so arrogantly, all because of Lan Xiaobu.
If he didn't kill Lan Xiaobu, he might develop a heart demon.
"This Hu Mingzhi is quite fearless. Judging by his cultivation, he should be at the sixth level of the Immortal King realm, yet he dares to step onto the platform to compete for a spot," Gong Yunqi, standing beside Lan Xiaobu, chuckled.
Lan Xiaobu shook his head, "He's not fearless. It's because the Xingluan Immortal Domain only has him left. If he doesn't compete for a spot, his position on the Void Stone is useless."
Lan Xiaobu didn't think Hu Mingzhi was destined to lose.
He himself was an Immortal King, and he had killed a late-stage Immortal Venerable when he was only at the early stage of the Immortal King realm.
Strength and cultivation level weren't always directly correlated.
What made Lan Xiaobu optimistic about Hu Mingzhi wasn't his fearlessness, but the fact that the Xingluan Immortal Domain must have had several Immortal Emperors and Immortal Kings.
Why was Hu Mingzhi the only one left, with even the Immortal Court King dead? Surviving the interception of the Void Road Bandits showed that he had some tricks up his sleeve.
"Some Immortal Domain from a remote corner of the void dares to challenge my Qingfang Immortal Domain? Let me, Xi Qiao, teach you a lesson," a tall man stepped onto the dueling platform.
After speaking, he took out a Jade Talisman for entering the Chaos Secret Realm and placed it on the Void Disk at the edge of the platform.
This was the rule.
Every challenger had to put up a spot.
If the challenger had a Jade Talisman for entering the Chaos Secret Realm, they also had to place one on the Void Disk at the edge of the platform.
The winner would take both Jade Talismans.
If the challenger didn't have a Jade Talisman, then after killing them, their storage ring and other belongings would go to the challenged.
Xi Qiao? Lan Xiaobu immediately remembered.
Wasn't this Xi Chenshui's uncle? He should be the city guard commander of Jinyun Immortal City.
Xi Chenshui had been killed by Gong Yunqi, so this Xi Qiao was probably waiting to challenge the Five Realms Immortal World.
The competition seemed to have rules, but in reality, there were none.
As soon as you stepped onto the platform, you could attack.
If you died, you lost.
As for fouls? They didn't exist.
If you didn't want to die, you had to surrender in advance.
Hu Mingzhi didn't pay any attention to Xi Qiao.
As soon as Xi Qiao stepped onto the platform and placed his Jade Talisman, Hu Mingzhi's spear erupted with a flurry of spear shadows, enveloping Xi Qiao.
Xi Qiao's weapon was a pair of cymbals, a rather peculiar weapon that only the strong could wield.
As the spear shadows closed in, Xi Qiao's cymbals transformed into a storm of cymbal lights.
In the next moment, the dueling platform was filled with the clash of cymbal lights and spear shadows, with Immortal Qi exploding everywhere.
Fortunately, the platform had been built by Immortal Emperors, so despite the intense battle, it remained intact.
Seeing Xi Qiao's cymbals, Lan Xiaobu inwardly praised the man's skill.
Once the cymbal technique was activated, the entire space was filled with cymbal lights.
An ordinary Immortal King wouldn't even be able to resist; they would have been sliced to pieces by the cymbal lights.
What impressed Lan Xiaobu even more was Hu Mingzhi.
No wonder the Immortal Emperors couldn't escape the Void Road Bandits, but this guy managed to escape and even arrived at the Void Stone with other Immortal Court Kings.
The cymbal lights completely obscured the spear shadows, but Hu Mingzhi still managed to weave through them.
He moved like the wind, finding gaps in the cymbal lights no matter how tightly they filled the space.
Everyone present was an Immortal Emperor, so they naturally saw that Hu Mingzhi was at a disadvantage.
Even Lan Xiaobu thought Hu Mingzhi was at a disadvantage.
However, when Lan Xiaobu's divine sense landed on Hu Mingzhi's spear, he realized he was wrong.
Hu Mingzhi wasn't at a disadvantage; he could kill Xi Qiao at any moment.
The reason he hadn't done so was probably to avoid suspicion by instantly killing someone of a higher cultivation level.
An Immortal King in the mid-stage killing a peak Immortal King wasn't unusual, but killing them instantly was.
That would definitely raise eyebrows.
Back when Lan Xiaobu killed Ji Leng in the Ancient Battlefield of Mo Xuan, no one dared to come after him because he was with Zhao Gongming.
Zhao Gongming killed Immortal Emperors as easily as slaughtering chickens, which scared off the stronger cultivators.
Later, when Lan Xiaobu returned, he single-handedly wiped out the Nightmare Demons of the Mo Xuan Immortal Domain.
Who would dare to mess with him after that?
Lan Xiaobu was certain that he wasn't the only one who saw through Hu Mingzhi.
Hu Mingzhi couldn't keep hiding his strength, or it would backfire.
The spear in Hu Mingzhi's hand was brimming with killing intent, but it hadn't been unleashed yet.
Given Hu Mingzhi's ease in navigating Xi Qiao's cymbal lights, he could easily slit Xi Qiao's throat with his spear.
Just as Lan Xiaobu thought this, the spear within the cymbal lights twisted like a spring, suddenly changing position and piercing through Xi Qiao's forehead with ease.
Clang! Xi Qiao's cymbals fell to the ground.
Hu Mingzhi casually collected Xi Qiao's storage ring and weapons, then walked to the edge of the platform and took the Jade Talisman for entering the Chaos Secret Realm.
Everyone knew that, barring any surprises, Hu Mingzhi wouldn't challenge anyone else.
However, since he now had a Jade Talisman for the Chaos Secret Realm, he would have to face one more challenge.
Only after winning that would the spot truly be his.
With Hu Mingzhi's skills, it was unlikely that anyone other than the Qingfang Immortal Domain would challenge him.
Sure enough, Hu Mingzhi performed another respectful salute to the crowd and said, "The Xingluan Immortal Domain's challenge ends here."
This statement was appropriate.
If someone challenged him and he won, he wouldn't continue to challenge others.
If he lost, he would be dead, so there would be no more challenges.
Everyone had seen Hu Mingzhi's strength, so no one challenged him.
However, many others challenged different Immortal Domains.
Even the Weixing Immortal Domain, which had a hundred spots, was challenged numerous times.
By the seventh day, only fifty to sixty spots remained, and dozens of Immortal Kings had lost their lives.
(End of Chapter)