Chapter 118
Chapter 118
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 118
Chapter Title: One Stroke Ends the Preliminaries
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“Waaaaah—!”
It was the roar of cheers spilling from the Southern Colosseum.
After the thirteenth [Trials' Arena] had begun, its backdrop was the Southern Beast Palace.
The timing was right before the Southern Colosseum opened.
As such, a day passed, and the very next day, the Southern Colosseum opened.
To earn recognition from all 1,250 members of the Southern Beast Palace took quite some time, leaving players with no choice but to linger here awhile.
A single day was nothing in comparison, and once it passed, the colosseum gates swung wide.
However, the colosseum that opened for Hae-jin was different from the one other players entered.
The standard Southern Colosseum required ordinary players to compete among dozens of Southerners in the preliminaries, advance to the round of 32 in the main bracket, and claim victory.
Only then could they complete the hidden trial.
But they couldn't be a Palace Lord to do it.
Hae-jin had inherited everything from Joo-hyuk and was already a Palace Lord.
From the start, Hae-jin had been barred from entering the Southern Colosseum.
He had no choice but to agonize over it.
“How can I, as a Palace Lord, participate in the Southern Colosseum?”
After much deliberation, the plan he devised was to persuade the Palace Master and join the colosseum that way.
“Fortunately, it hooked him right away.”
The scheme Hae-jin pitched to the Palace Master was precisely...
“Kahaha! Warriors of the palace! At last, the Southern Colosseum to crown a new Palace Lord has begun! Let all roar in acclaim!”
“Kroaaaahhh!”
The palace warriors of the Southern Beast Palace, gathered in the colosseum, bellowed cheers at the Palace Master's cry.
They had every reason to.
The Southern Colosseum only opened when a Palace Lord's seat fell vacant.
To every warrior in the Southern Beast Palace, it was both spectacle and opportunity.
A chance to claim the Palace Lord title for some; for others, pure entertainment watching the boldest warriors clash.
But this time, the format had changed.
Thanks to Hae-jin.
The Palace Master laid out the new rules.
“For your information, eleven Palace Lords will compete this time. First, my choice for Palace Lord—the man himself, Park Hae-jin.”
“Kroaaaahhh!”
The warriors grew even more frenzied at news of Palace Lords joining the fray.
They couldn't help it.
The colosseum always featured only warriors vying for an empty Palace Lord seat.
Ordinary warriors almost never witnessed Palace Lords in combat.
The Elders or Palace Lords only emerged if the Southern Beast Palace came under attack.
Yet here they were, Palace Lords entering the arena.
The eleven participants were backed by the Palace Master and ten Elders, no less.
On the surface, a colosseum showcasing Palace Lord battles—but the stakes loomed far larger.
No fool could miss it.
“Isn't this basically a showdown of power between the Palace Master and the Elders?”
That was the thought rippling through the sharper palace warriors.
Not that many pondered it, of course.
Most Southerners led blunt, straightforward lives.
Far more remained oblivious.
Anyway, that wasn't the point.
Once the Palace Master finished introducing all the Elders' chosen Palace Lords, Hae-jin mused.
“Now it starts?”
As Hae-jin anticipated, the Palace Master outlined the revamped colosseum rules, then declared the matches underway.
“Come, mighty warriors of the South! Prove your strength and seize the mantle of new Palace Lord!”
He had already detailed the preliminaries format.
All that remained was surviving them.
The qualification: stay alive and combat-ready.
Until thirty-two endured.
And so the Southern Colosseum preliminaries kicked off.
“I'll end it in one go.”
Hae-jin's resolve.
End it in one go.
Naturally, he meant wiping out the preliminaries instantly.
No—not just the preliminaries.
Chaos energy erupted wildly from the twin swords gripped by Hae-jin.
Sword qi so potent anyone could sense its ferocity.
No—those with keen instincts and true mastery recognized it instantly.
From the Palace Master and Elders to the mightiest Palace Lords, they all shot to their feet at the sight of the energy cloaking Hae-jin's blades.
How could they not?
Sword Aura.
Swordsmen and martial artists who honed their blades relentlessly could channel energy into their weapons.
That energy's genesis: sword qi.
By wulin standards, third-rates and second-rates couldn't muster it, but upon crossing into that realm, they could.
The stage of sword qi—infusing one's essence into the blade.
Wield it more solidly, and one ascended to first-rate.
Make it unyieldingly firm, manipulable at will: the peak realm.
Peak experts wielded sword qi dubbed “Sword Aura.”
Thus, Sword Aura marked a peak expert—and the colosseum's elite Palace Lords stood at that pinnacle.
Stronger still among them, the Palace Master himself, and certain Elders even he dared not provoke: transcendent peak masters.
Hae-jin manifesting Sword Aura implied at least peak realm, stunning everyone in the Beast Palace.
Regardless, Hae-jin's display plunged many Elders into deeper quandaries.
‘Do I send my strongest backed Palace Lord?’
No Elder backed just one.
Obviously.
One hundred Palace Lords, ten Elders.
From their vantage, with a backed Palace Lord already entered, who else to deploy?
Pride on the line, naturally their mightiest.
Yet some Elders harbored different notions.
‘It's merely selecting a new Palace Lord—no need to bare my aces to the other Elders.’
When the Palace Master first proposed it, the Elders had thought:
‘Intriguing. A chance to test my backed Palace Lords' mettle.’
Unanimously, they agreed to field one each.
But now, on the cusp of commitment, second thoughts stirred.
No need for the absolute strongest.
Not every Elder wavered, though.
Southerners craved strength above all.
Even seasoned Elders, tempered by years, clung to that fire.
‘Send our strongest—let them witness our house's might.’
Some did dispatch their top-backed Palace Lord.
Not mere bragging rights, either.
‘Luck turns; my pick could die. Better send the strongest to shield him and endure.’
Thus, the Elders' ten Palace Lords were set.
Some sent their finest; others middling picks; a few, the weakest.
Into this reshaped colosseum preliminaries came Sword Aura.
Small wonder the Palace Master and Elders reeled in dismay.
Judging by Hae-jin's Sword Aura, the Palace Master discerned:
Sword Aura began at peak realm, true.
The sword qi Hae-jin unleashed.
Sword Aura-level power, yet beyond what peak could muster.
He could distinguish peak from transcendent at a glance.
Hae-jin's true caliber.
Elders who grasped it grappled with turmoil.
‘A Palace Lord attained transcendent realm?’
‘And the Palace Master's own pick?’
‘Damn—transcendent trumps even peak?’
‘Lucky I sent the weakling?’
‘No good. Can't lose a Palace Lord. Forfeit now.’
‘Damn it! Order the forfeit...’
Some Elders concluded: forfeit at once to preserve their groomed champion.
But they couldn't force their Palace Lords to withdraw.
Simple reason.
Hae-jin, having drawn forth the energy once deemed Sword Beam, whirled and slashed with his spinning twin swords.
The Sword Beam of chaos energy ravaged the entire Southern Colosseum.
Hae-jin's blade spun like a windmill's full rotation.
Every preliminary entrant cleaved clean in half and perished.
The colosseum's spectators froze, as if time itself had halted.
“…….”
In utter silence, bereft of shouts, only the hollow wind whispered through the colosseum.
One strike from Hae-jin had butchered every soul gunning for the Palace Lord seat—Palace Lords included.
Who could utter a word?
Bewilderment reigned.
While they gaped, Hae-jin sheathed his blades.
Why?
Preliminaries demanded a battle royale until thirty-two survived for the mains.
But that one slash had exterminated every participant.
No further need for his swords.
Twin blades holstered, Hae-jin turned to the Palace Master.
Meeting his gaze, Hae-jin spoke.
“How's this? I'm the sole survivor. Makes the main bracket pointless, no?”
Sole prelim survivor—mains irrelevant?
Irrefutable.
The Palace Master faltered at Hae-jin's words before replying.
An incredulous chuckle escaping.
“Ha, what in the...”
From his perch, the Palace Master could only gape at Hae-jin's handiwork.
A grand colosseum, Palace Lords and all.
Its purpose? Obliterated.
Hae-jin had culled every entrant in the preliminaries.
To the rattled Palace Master, Hae-jin pressed.
“Winner?”
Palace Master pondered Hae-jin's query.
‘Can't deny it—not really.’
Matches needed foes; Hae-jin had culled them all in prelims. Stalemate.
How deny victory now?
At length, the Palace Master proclaimed it.
“The winner of this Southern Colosseum—Palace Lord ‘Park Hae-jin’!”
“…….”
The colosseum lay hushed.
Inevitably.
Winner announcements typically unleashed a thunderous ovation from the palace warriors, shaking the Southern Beast Palace.
Not this time.
All eyed each other warily.
No fools ignored it: every participating Palace Lord save the Palace Master's pick had been Elder proxies.
Yet ten Elder-backed Palace Lords fell to a single stroke.
Warriors had Elders to appease.
That was when it came.
“I won't accept this!”