Chapter 1359: Not Worthy

Shi Rong just happened to be the representative who had gone over to pull the bamboo sticks for the Lion race. When he saw what had happened, he said with a laugh, “A clash between enemies really is inevitable! You must now be feeling regret over how arrogantly you were acting a few days ago, right?”

Zu An sighed and said, “I always thought that villains spoke way too much when I read fantasy stories before. I didn’t expect that to be the case in real life too. We’ll just fight on the stage later, so why do you have to make noise here like a woman?”

Yu Yanluo was speechless. She felt somewhat offended.

Shi Rong was a bit stunned. He had thought that a look of nervousness or fear would appear on Zu An’s face, which would give him a chance to show off a bit. However, he hadn’t expected that kind of reaction at all! He didn’t have any chance to feel good about himself!

You have successfully trolled Shi Rong for +355 +355 +355…

Shi Rong took a deep breath to calm himself down. He replied with feigned composure, “Tsk, with your strength, you might not even make it out of the group matches, and yet you want to face us? Who gave you this much courage? Pah!” He spat on the ground and turned around after speaking.

There were too many races among the fiend races, so there was no way they would immediately enter a knockout competition. They had to win in group battles before they would advance to the next round. They would save a lot of time that way. Meanwhile, the Lion race’s princes and Snake race’s candidates weren’t in the same group. They would face each other once they entered the knockout competition.

Zu An almost laughed out loud. He remarked to Yu Yanluo, “This Shi Rong is normally pretty rude and impetuous, but he actually learned to use some psychological attacks this time? Looks like a stupid person really does have one decent thought out of a thousand terrible ones.”

Yu Yanluo smiled and said, “He is a prince, after all, and was raised carefully. How could he be as unsightly as you make it sound?”

Zu An’s expression turned serious as he said, “Even though I’m fine with the results of the drawing of lots, this is too much of a coincidence. Someone clearly did this on purpose.”

Yu Yanluo said analytically, “Even though the Lion race is powerful, they don’t have that much power in the Fiend King Court. It’s definitely someone else pulling the strings.”

“That Heichi Fei from earlier?” Zu An asked, immediately recalling the man’s sinister smile.

Yu Yanluo shook her head and replied, “Even though Heichi Gu died because of us, they don’t have any proof. Furthermore, I looked into it over the past few days. Heichi Gu is only a child of the Black Teeth race’s branch family. Heichi Fei wouldn’t go all out for the sake of the child of a branch family in such an important competition. There’s clearly someone else involved.”

“The Golden Crow Crown Prince!” Zu An immediately responded.

“It seems he’s still suspicious about whether you really have returned to the human world after the assassination attempt in the imperial palace. That’s why, since he knows that we and the Lion race share a grudge, he made things like this on purpose to see if he could force you out,” Yu Yanluo said.

“That guy is surprisingly crafty,” Zu An said in admiration.

Yu Yanluo replied with a slight smile, “You’ve bullied him so much, so of course he’d scheme to get revenge on you.”

“It’s his fault for doing such despicable and shameless things,” Zu An said, thinking back to that night. If he hadn’t appeared in time, Snow would have already been defiled. The only thing he regretted was that he hadn’t been able to take the Golden Crow Crown Prince’s life quickly enough back then.

…

When they returned to their seats, Yan Xuehen and Yun Jianyue’s eyes immediately widened in disbelief when they heard the results of the lottery. They were still grandmasters, after all. How could they have expected that someone would be so eager to act against them one day?

“I’m already finding it a bit hard to hold myself back. I’ve been feeling so stifled, this is the perfect chance to vent it all out,” Yun Jianyue grumbled. She had felt quite down as of late, having experienced so many wrongs she had never experienced before in her life.

Normally, with her personality, she would just burn anyone who offended her to ashes and be done with it. However, the one who had seen her was Zu An, so she couldn't do anything. However, things had gotten more and more out of hand afterward. Now, these Lion race guys had tried to take advantage of them again and again, so she had already decided that she had to teach them a proper lesson for some time.

Yan Xuehen glowered, saying, “Witch, you had better not do anything reckless. You cannot willfully slaughter the innocent.” She was still brooding over what had happened the previous night. So many people had been killed just like that.

“Hah, just false righteousness. I didn’t plan to kill them, but now that you’ve said that, I’ll just kill them. So what?!” Yun Jianyue snapped, her voice carrying a hint of viciousness.

“Can you be reasonable for once? We are here to help the Snake race obtain delegate positions, so what if your whims end up troubling the Snake race?” Yan Xuehen replied, shooting her a glare.

Yu Yanluo said softly, “Actually, even though this kind of meeting forbids killing, it’s difficult to stop things from going too far. There have been quite a few instances where people were crippled badly. So, as long as it isn’t too cruel, it won’t have too big of an impact.

“It’s just that there are quite a few powerful cultivators watching this competition. If you make a slight mistake and they’re able to recognize that you two are human, or your real identities are exposed, they’ll all attack you together. You two are also injured, so…”

Yun Jianyue laughed and said, “Don’t worry. I was just saying that to piss off that stone cold woman. We from the Holy Sect always spend time on the battlefield, our blades licking the blood of our enemies. We understand how to judge the hour better than anyone. It’s this stone cold woman who’s the stupid one, taking me for a fool.”

“You…!” Yan Xuehen was so angry she turned around and ignored Yun Jianyue.

Zu An chuckled inwardly. He felt that Yan Xuehen had always been bullied badly by Yun Jianyue. As expected, the gentle ones were always the ones who were easily bullied.

…

Then came the first round, a free-for-all, winner-takes-all battle. The plaza was extremely vast, containing over a hundred sites that were quickly divided up.

The Fiend King Court sent out several Golden Crow Guards to each location, along with an official whose task was to record things. Zu An wondered if such a small number of people would be able to keep things under control if any real trouble broke out.

However, Yu Yanluo explained to him that in a place like the fiend race territory that highly valued strength, there were countless pairs of eyes watching, making it hard to play any tricks.

Furthermore, competitions of this sort were simple and straightforward. It wasn’t like the group matches held by soccer teams in Zu An’s previous world where two teams fought, and then they calculated all the points in the end. Instead, several hundred candidates would fight together at the same time in a free-for-all. The final ten would be the victors and have the qualification to enter the next round.

Zu An had a strange expression as he thought to himself, We were all worried about anyone being too violent… but in this kind of battle, you actually can’t make it without being pretty violent.

No wonder the Golden Crow Crown Prince had sent the Lion race to snipe the Snake race in the following bracket. It was probably to borrow the situation to justify seriously injuring, or even killing, the Snake race’s candidates.

Wait, are they not afraid that the Snake race’s candidates won’t even make it past the preliminary round?

He suddenly realized something. If they could arrange for the Snake race to meet the Lion race in the knockout tournament bracket, didn’t that mean there could be undercover agents even in the free-for-all?

Sure enough, at first, people were careful when they first entered the battlefield. If they showed that they were too strong, they could just end up drawing attacks from all sides instead as others teamed up against them.

Furthermore, many races had previously already privately discussed among themselves, agreeing that if they ended up in the same group, they would work together. After all, a lone pair of fists couldn't fend off all enemies. The more helpers one had, the easier it would be to have the last laugh.

In the end, while most people in Zu An’s arena were busy vigilantly observing their surroundings, a group of more than ten people quickly rushed directly at them with sinister smiles on their faces.

Zu An wanted to tell Yun Jianyue to hold back, but he saw her roll her eyes, as if she had no intention of doing anything. She said, “These nobodies aren’t even worthy of us. I’ll just leave them to you.”

Zu An was speechless.

Then, Yun Jianyue said to Yan Xuehen, “Apart from these guys, there’s that Giant Maggot race’s candidate. He doesn’t seem that weak, and we’ll probably have to fight him. However, I firmly refuse to fight against something so disgusting.”

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Yan Xuehen nodded in deep sympathy, saying, “Indeed. We can just leave him to Zu An as well.”