Chapter 822 - Semi-Finals

“The Seven Lords were the subordinates of the Five Emperors, so their inheritances were supposed to be ours. This is an insult to us, the descendants of the Five Emperors...”

“If we had even one of their inheritances, we never would’ve lost. Their victory is due to their luck ...”

The other patriarchs from the Five Element Alliance were dissatisfied.

“Enough. We should focus on our goal, which is the secret realm that our ancestors left for us. The inheritances of the Seven Lords might be great, but can they rival the treasure inside the secret realm? Prepare yourselves and don’t lose sight of our goal.”

The others nodded at the Gold clan patriarch’s words.

After Long Chen defeated Jin Ling, the results of the remaining fights were very predictable. After all, their match had been the highlight of the day, and everyone had been anticipating their fight.

Now they were looking forward to the match between Long Chen and Wu Guangyu. As for the disciple of the Five Element Alliance who made it into the semi-finals, no one expected anything from him. Suxue wasn’t a favored candidate either because she lacked a Divine Weapon on the level of the Three Thousand Star Cluster and the Azure Lotus Sword.

Rather than calling it a match between Long Chen and Wu Guangyu, it was more of a match between the Seven Star Lord and the Azure Lotus Lord. Both of them were part of the Seven Lords, and they were considered the strongest ones.

After the battles concluded, Long-bearded Guest looked around excitedly and smiled. “The matches today were incredible, and it was an honor to serve as the referee! Tomorrow is the day of the semi-finals, and we must now decide the matches for tomorrow. You, the four youths, are you ready? Come over here!”

Suxue was still gloating to Long Chen when they heard the Long-bearded Guest calling for them. While the two made their way over, she asked, “There’s only four of us now. What if we are chosen to fight against each other?”

“Then we can only fight. What else could we do? Do you think I’m afraid of you?”

Suxue rolled her eyes. “Screw you. Don’t you take pity on women like me? You should let me win and be a gentleman instead.”

Long Chen found that he liked teasing her after getting to know her better.

Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

Soon, the two of them reached the Long-bearded Guest. Long Chen and Wu Guangyu were glaring at each other, especially since they were only one to two meters apart. Suxue felt a cold bloodlust emanating from both of them.

“Alright, that’s enough. No need to fight in front of an old man like me. Here, draw your lots. Let’s see how good your luck is.”

The Long-bearded Guest chuckled. He then showed them the wooden box with the numbers in it.

“I can’t wait. I hope I get to fight you tomorrow.”

Wu Guangyu reached into the wooden box and took out a ball with the number two on it.

He then smiled coldly. “Your turn.”

There were only three balls left in the box. Long Chen had a one-in-three chance to fight against Wu Guangyu tomorrow. That would merely make their fight sooner rather than later, so Long Chen didn’t mind. He reached in and grabbed a random ball.

“What number is it?”

Everyone craned their necks to get a look at the number on the ball with anticipation.

Long Chen saw the number one on the ball.

It was the same number that he had taken last time. He would be in the first match tomorrow. Unfortunately, that meant that he would be fighting against either Suxue or the person from the Five Element Alliance.

Wu Guangyu laughed, and he squinted dangerously. “Consider yourself lucky. You get to survive for another day.”

“That’s what I should say to you. Don’t overestimate yourself. I won against Jin Ling today, and the next loser will be you.”

Long Chen rolled his eyes and ushered Suxue to pick a ball.

Suxue was relaxed even though there was a fifty-fifty chance of fighting against Wu Guangyu tomorrow. She reached into the box and took out a wooden ball with the number one labeled on it.

The matches for tomorrow had been set. Long Chen would face Suxue, while Wu Guangyu would be fighting against the person from the Five Element Alliance.

“Alright, tomorrow’s matches are set. As per the rules, we will rest for today and start the matches tomorrow afternoon. I won’t keep you around, so go back and rest! There are quite a few women waiting for me. The Ancient Graveyard is so dangerous that a few women will sleep with me just to guarantee their safety. I didn’t want to agree to it, but unfortunately, they are beautiful ... I mean, I have to save their lives out of mercy, so I have no choice but to do it ...”

The Long-bearded Guest ran away after he said that.

The people from the three factions had no reason to waste anymore time here and left without speaking to each other. The Five Element Alliance was ultimately the loser today. None of them were happy when they left.

“There’s one more key, the Black Emperor Key. It will be ours! We will then have four spots, and we will send in four Heavenly Martial Realm experts. Let’s see how the other four clans compete against us! The Five Emperors’ Secret Realm and the treasures in there belong to us, the descendants of the Five Emperors!”

The Gold clan’s patriarch glared at everyone before leaving.

The Thunder clan and Demon clan returned to their original gathering location. Because Long Chen and Suxue had entered the semi-finals, all of them were celebrating with joy. The tournament wasn’t just a method to decide who would be able to compete to get the Yellow Emperor Key, but also a way to showcase the strength of each faction.

If the tournament had been held in the Ten Thousand Nations Territory, the Nine Clans would even pitch in a lot of treasures for the different winners. But because of how short they were on time, and due to them being in the Ancient Graveyard, where treasures were considered to be sensitive issues, only the winner would be able to win anything this time.

Still, those who had participated in the previous tournaments knew how different this one was.

Even though the Five Element Alliance had managed to send in a lot of candidates, only one of them had made it to the semi-finals. Their performance had been the worst. The Demon clan had sent two candidates, and two of them managed to reach the semi-finals. Their performance was the most brilliant. If the Divine clan did not win the tournament, the Demon clan would undoubtedly become the strongest of the nine clans.

The rankings of the Nine clans affected a lot of things, such as the allocation of resources and land. Most of their resources were affected by the Nine Clan Martial Youth Competition. However, land and resources paled in comparison when the Five Emperors’ Treasure was just in front of them.

Amidst everyone’s congratulations and cheers, Long Chen returned to where the Demon and Thunder clans were.

The Eight Sect Elders had no more objections in regards to Long Chen. In fact, they admired him now because they knew they were weaker than him. The Eight Sect Elders were almost as strong as the experts from the Five Element Alliance. In fact, even if the Seven Thunder Elders were to attack Long Chen at the same time, they would still fail to defeat him.

This was the gap between experts.

An expert at the Heavenly Martial Realm was comparable to an army numbering in the thousands. Even though Long Chen hadn't reached that realm yet, he was already considered undefeatable in the Earthly Martial Realm, except against Wu Guangyu.

Jin Ling was strong. He had an intermediate Emperor-tier Body Tempering Method, various Emperor-tier martial techniques, and even the ability to merge different Emperor-tier techniques. He even had the Gold clan’s strongest treasure, the Golden Emperor Armor.

Despite all that, he had lost to Long Chen.

The members of the Thunder Demon Faction weren’t worried at all since Long Chen was going to fight against Suxue tomorrow. In their eyes, the two of them were already husband and wife. Everyone expected that Suxue would lose to Long Chen and were instead more excited for Long Chen’s fight against Wu Guangyu.

Bai Lan advised Long Chen, “I won’t talk much about your fight with Suxue tomorrow. You can just play around if you want. But go all-out in your fight with Wu Guangyu the day after tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to tell me that. I’ve been waiting to fight Wu Guangyu for a very long time.”

Long Chen was bullied by Wu Guangyu when he first entered the Ancient Graveyard. He had almost lost his life. This time, he would pay Wu Guangyu back for all of the resentment he had kept bottled up. He was also doing this for Mo Xiaolang’s sake and also to make Wu Guangyu regret his actions.

“I won’t say more, then. You and Suxue are still young, so make sure to talk to each other more, hahaha...”

Bai Lan and Lei Ji laughed as they left. They brought out some good alcohol while the others grilled a lot of delicious beast meat. Bai Lan and Lei Ji laughed as they played chess. Long Chen had indeed improved their reputation greatly today.

“That ...” Suxue was awkward when Bai Lan told her to stay with Long Chen tonight. Her father’s whims had always been random and mysterious.

“What’s wrong?”

Long Chen found a clean boulder and sat on it. The moonlight gave his skin a light gray hue.

He then started to cultivate. His battle with Jin Ling had injured him lightly and cost him a lot of essence. He needed time to recover, and he expected to make a full recovery by daybreak tomorrow.

“Let’s talk a bit.”

Suxue braced herself. She still remembered the first time she met Long Chen, when she had thought that he was lying to Suyan. Suxue had been harsh on him back then even though that wasn’t who she was. But after spending four months with him, she still couldn’t quite figure out who Long Chen was.