Chapter 145: The Duel
"Since we're here, there's no better option," Leo said with a shrug. "Let fate decide who lives and who dies."
After walking around and finding nothing particularly valuable, he still had his doubts. But he had no way out.
So he supported Ethan and Draven's proposal. Drawing lots in front of everyone was fair enough. And if his name came up in the first ten, and he had to face either Ethan or Draven — well, then he'd have no choice but to lay all his cards on the table and fight for his life.
The other cultivators understood this too. With no other options, they reluctantly accepted this desperate measure. The ordinary disciples could only pray their names weren't drawn. Even the core disciples were far from comfortable — after all, of the ten who stepped onto the Teleportation Array, only one would walk away alive.
Some rejoiced, others despaired. Two core disciples ended up among the first ten. The Palace disciples, for now, were the lucky ones — none of them had been picked. But everyone knew this was just delaying the inevitable. According to the rules the core disciples had hammered out, the ten would fight in a two-by-two elimination format. Five duels in the first round, then another draw. The lucky one might get a bye — a precious chance to recover.
The rules were simple. Brutal.
Those whose names had been called had no way out now. With so many cultivators watching, there was no backing down.
The First Match
The first to step onto the Array were a tall, silent youth from the Seven Kill Sect and a small, thin woman from Void Heaven with a striking green hairpin stuck in her hair.
Neither said a word. The moment their feet touched the Array, they sized up their angles and unleashed their fiercest attacks.
The tall youth hurled thirteen blue-glowing poison darts in a single breath, then whipped out a three-section staff. He leaped through the air, aiming a crushing blow at the woman's head.
The green-pinned woman didn't flinch. She snapped out a piece of red cloth — thin as a whisper, but actually a formidable high-grade spirit artifact. The cloth rippled like waves, and the poison darts struck it as if punching a mattress. With a flick of her wrist, she sent all thirteen darts flying back at their owner.
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The tall youth's face went cold. His staff came down like a waterfall, knocking the returning darts aside one by one. Then he thrust the staff straight at her head.
The woman wrapped her red cloth around the staff. With a twist of her slender hand, the cloth spun like a top, locking the staff in place. The youth tugged once, twice — couldn't pull it back. Rage flashed across his face.
The woman smirked, ready to finish him off. But then her eyes went wide with terror. Too late to dodge.
The supposedly enraged youth had quietly pressed a small button on his staff. From the tip, a smaller but much sharper chain dart shot out. At point-blank range, there was no time to react. It pierced straight through her skull.
The woman's eyes stayed wide open as she collapsed — dead, but refusing to accept it.
A wave of murmurs swept through the watching cultivators. The green-pinned woman was clearly no weaker than her opponent. And yet she had died so easily.
But as she fell, Leo's eyes sharpened. The blood pooling from her wound flowed along shallow grooves in the Array's floor, drawn by some unseen force toward a cluster of dark, shimmering light.
What was that dark light for? Leo wondered. He had seen a Teleportation Array once before — in the underground palace where Hann had refined the Demon Binding Rope. And the Golden Core Masters of the various sects had used a massive Array to send them into the Bloody Battlefield. According to the inscription, this Blood Soul Teleportation Array required the blood and souls of cultivators to activate. A truly bizarre Array. Leo was troubled. They're both Teleportation Arrays — can they really be so different? If he ever got out of here, he needed to learn more about formations. Otherwise, next time he ran into something like this, he'd be just as helpless.
No one among the three hundred cultivators knew anything about formations. That wasn't surprising. Studying formations was tedious, time-consuming. Few Qi Refining cultivators risked delaying their cultivation, missing their best chance at Foundation Establishment. Most who mastered formations were Foundation or Golden Core cultivators — they had the lifespan to go further.
The Second Match
While Leo was lost in thought, the second duel on the Array ended quickly. An ordinary male disciple from Star Palace against a core disciple from the Raksha Sect. No contest. The Raksha disciple split him in half with a single blade strike.
The Third Match
Another ordinary disciple against a core disciple from the Shadow Gate Sect. Just as one-sided. Two exchanges, and the ordinary disciple's head rolled across the Array.
The Fourth Match
The last match was different — two core disciples facing off. This one actually drew the crowd's attention. A fierce battle, evenly matched, both sides about equal. But to someone like Quincy, who wielded multiple magic artifacts, or to Ethan and Draven, it was still nothing special.
Leo watched with apparent intensity, but inwardly he was yawning. The two core disciples fought for over half an hour, neither able to gain the upper hand. Their spiritual energy drained.
After swallowing a handful of pills, the Shadow Gate disciple had the edge — more spirit stones meant he could last longer. As his opponent's energy ran dry, he struck off his head with a single slash. Then, ecstatic, he scooped up the fallen disciple's magic artifact.
Ten had entered. One remained. The conditions for activating the Blood Soul Teleportation Array had been met.
Everyone held their breath. Ethan, Draven — all eyes were locked on the Array.
Before long, Leo saw a flicker of spiritual light within the dark mass where the blood had flowed. Then the entire Array was bathed in radiant light. The Shadow Gate core disciple vanished — teleported away. When the light faded, the Array stood empty.
"It's real," someone gasped. "It actually teleported him."
The gathered cultivators erupted. Yes, the cost was horrifying — nine dead for every one who escaped this desperate place. But for cultivators who had searched every inch of this region, who had found no other way out, even a path paved with blood was better than waiting here to die.