Translated by Jouissance of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
When You XiaoMo and Qiao WuXing arrived at the Mage Association, Ling Xiao had yet to return, but their room had been prepared already. The three of them chatted in the room about the possible contents of the future rounds, for around an hour before leaving.
Waiting for Ling Xiao, he sat on the bed, meditating. When the sky outside grew dark, he couldn’t help but yawn. Ling Xiao still wasn’t back. You XiaoMo couldn’t resist the allure of sleep, falling back onto the soft quilt, into sleep.
Midnight, the tightly shut door suddenly opened by a sliver, and a dark shadow silently approached the bed. Looking down on the person there, a hand reached out towards him, mere centimeters away from contact.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed the shadow’s wrist and a rush of wind brushed past his ear, a leg raised, aimed right for his head. Moments from impact, the shadow gripped his wrist and tugged harshly, instantly negating You XiaoMo’s attack. You XiaoMo fell against the other, his nose slamming against a hard chest.
You XiaoMo cupped his reddened nose, tears filling his eyes as he looked at the other accusingly.
Ling Xiao pulled the other onto his own body and patted his cheek comfortingly, smiling. “You’re a grown man, how can you cry just because of something like this? If someone else sees, they’ll definitely laugh at you.”
“And who’s fault is it?!” You XiaoMo scowled when the other refused to admit his wrongs and instead accused him back.
Ling Xiao shrugged, saying without care, “You suddenly attacked me. I acted in self defense.”
Self-defense your ass!
You XiaoMo’s entire face was puffed up in anger, “You returned in the middle of the night. I didn’t know if you were a thief or something. I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. I acted in self-defense, too!”
He sounded righteous, but actually he was being rather shameless. After all, what idiot thief would sneak into the Mage Association? They would be caught by the guards before they even got close.
Ling Xiao very wisely didn’t point this out, otherwise You XiaoMo would definitely get mad again. “Alright, it’s my fault. I, your husband, apologize. Forgive me, my dear wife.”
You XiaoMo was stunned by his serious tone of voice. He had seen too much of Ling Xiao’s shamelessness, so he really didn’t know how to react upon seeing Ling Xiao so sincerely admitting to his own mistakes.
The two returned to the bed, You XiaoMo lying down on the other’s chest, his legs around Ling Xiao’s waist as he drew circles with his finger on Ling Xiao’s chest.
Just as the room sunk into silence, Ling Xiao suddenly spoke up, “How did today’s match go?”
It was then that You XiaoMo remembered that he hadn’t asked Ling Xiao about today yet. He summarized the contents of the match today and the priest’s head they had found after leaving the plaza.
“Has the TongTian Emperor still not been caught?”
Ling Xiao patted the side of his head, bored, and replied, “He’s being very careful, only sending out that priest, but keeping himself well-hidden. However, he’s lost many people, so he won’t be able to do much.”
“However, he’ll always be a worry so long as he’s still out there,” You XiaoMo said. It was always like that in shows. After the final boss escaped, he’ll always cause trouble for the hero at the worse times, possibly even endangering the hero’s life. Though they didn’t live in a tv show, it was still a possibility.
Ling Xiao felt that his wife was becoming more and more like him, even understanding what it meant to not leave roots when getting rid of weeds. In the past, he’d rarely think in such a direction.
“Don’t worry, they won’t be a problem for much longer. It won’t be long before the whole TongTian Continent will undergo a cleansing. None of them will be able to escape.”
It had been far too long since the ancient war. No matter where, a situation wouldn’t be able to be maintained forever, just as dynasties fall and new ones take its place, the current situation had been the result of years and years of pile up spilling over.
He didn’t know why, but Ling Xiao’s words made him think of the Almighty.
The Almighty was the master that ruled over all worlds. Any ambitious person would aim for this position. Plus, the previous Almighty had disappeared, so as soon as the new Almight ascended to the Almighty Realm, then they could replace the previous one and become the new ruler of all worlds. There would be no need to fight the old Almighty over this power.
You XiaoMo didn’t believe that no one would have their eyes on such a great opportunity. Perhaps, there were plenty of others like the TongTian Emperor conspiring in secret for a shot at such a position, such as Lin ShaoYi from the Qilin Clan. You XiaoMo hadn’t forgotten his existence. It was clear that Lin ShaoYi was aiming for the position of Almighty from his creation of Black Spider.
Right now, he didn’t know yet, but not only would Lin ShaoYi join forces with the TongTian Emperor, but he would even contact You ZhenTian
You ZhenTian wanted nothing more than to destroy You XiaoMo. At first, with his strength, he still had the chance to defeat Ling Xiao and capture You XiaoMo, but he was overconfident and the two managed to escape. When he got another chance, Ling Xiao had grown stronger than before.
The second time they fought, Ling Xiao managed to escape under his nose once more. Yet, not long later, word came of how Ling Xiao had destroyed the TongTian Palace to save You XiaoMo, and even critically injured the TongTian Emperor. The TongTian Emperor’s strength was equal, if not stronger than his own, too.
You ZhenTian almost fainted at this news. His opportunity had passed. He had a feeling, a gut instinct, that told him he would never get the Inheritance Jewel from You XiaoMo. However, he didn’t give up, continuing to send people to search for an opportunity, all until rumors began to spread about the Vermillion Blood Clan.
You ZhenTian was enraged, but he had no choice. The elders in the clan that he had been keeping suppressed then decided to cause trouble for him. To deal with them and continue the war against the Cang Alliance, he didn’t have any energy to focus on anything else.
In the few years of fighting against the Cang Alliance, the Vermillion Blood Clan had won a few battles, but losses were more common, costing them a lot of manpower and money. Those old men had wanted to drag him down from the position of family head for a long time, and now they had an excuse.
You XiaoMo should probably thank them. The biggest reason You ZhenTian hadn’t come to cause them trouble was because of those elders in the Vermillion Blood Clan that had supported his dad in the past.
The next day, they got up and went to the plaza with Jiu Ye. Qiao WuXing wasn’t living in the Mage Association, so he wasn’t with them.
There were only a hundred something people for this last round. According to Qiao WuXing, the victor would be decided this round, as well as the top ten, thus it was very important. You XiaoMo was very curious as to what the contents of today’s competition would be.
For the final round, the number of spectators had practically doubled. When they arrived, You XiaoMo was shocked by the number of people squeezed into the stands. Some people couldn’t even get seats, and could only stand outside on their tiptoes, trying to get a look.
At this stage, the remaining participants were practically all rainbow grade mages, though there were a few lucky level ten mages to advance. The last round had to do with soul power. Pill refining ability had already been tested in the second round, and combat strength in the first. Now, there was only soul power left, and so the content wasn’t hard to guess.
As everyone knew, the crux of a mage’s soul power wasn’t quantity, but finesse. Those who had better mastery of their soul power would do better at refining pills, and their soul power would grow in strength as well, so this round was very special.
When the contents were announced, everyone was shocked, because they had never seen such a method of competition. Though soul power would be important, so would luck.
There was a massive rock placed in front of everyone. The rock was translucent and one could vaguely see the many tunnels dug through it, like an extremely complicated maze. If it wasn’t for the explanation they were given, they wouldn’t have guessed what it would be used for.
The Institution head stepped forwards, explaining calmly, “The stone in front of you all is a special kind of stone called exquisite jade. It’s as clear as crystal. Though it’s beautiful, it will suppress and deplete soul power, and this match will be held within this exquisite jade…”
Hearing what the institution head had to say, everyone was dumbstruck. Simply put, the exquisite jade was a massive maze, but it had ten exits, and only one person could go through each exit. Once each of the ten exits were used, then the competition would end, and those ten people would be the top ten, with the victor being the first person to exit.
Ten exits meant that mages would meet within the maze, and that was when it was time to compete. Whoever was more competent, they could get to the exit first. The mages that were defeated inside would fail the competition and be forced to give up.
However, because of the special effect exquisite jade had on soul power, this round would be extremely difficult, and if you were too slow, and your soul power was used up, rendering you unable to continue, that counted as a fail as well.
This was the first time everyone had heard of such a competition, and they couldn’t help but exchange looks. This round would test a mage’s competence, but luck was also a large part of it.
Not only did You XiaoMo furrowed his brows, but so did Zu Ma, who was aiming for first place. With a maze as the battleground, she wouldn’t know where the exits were. However, the institution head then announced some good news.
Though there were only ten exits to the maze, there weren’t just a hundred entrances, but three hundred, which meant that if you didn’t have confidence in finding an exit before anyone else, then you could split your soul power into several streams. That would increase your chances, but there was a con to this method: your strength would decrease, meaning that you could only fail if you met a strong rival.
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