Chapter 391 - 391: Elders Intermission

"Sidi!!!"

Qian Fusha shot to his feet in shock. His serious face was grim, but he didn't completely lose his composure over the drastic turnaround and decisively saluted towards the sun disc.

"Elders, we forfeit this round!"

At his words, the pale-faced Jin Shamo who was about to deliver the finishing blow seemed to hit an unseen wall.

Knowing his chance was gone, Jia Shamo's face twisted into an unhappy sneer.

But he still obediently backed off and stood aside, condescendingly staring at the now shriveled body builder laying in a pool of blood.

The situation didn't look good at all. Not just the fighter, but the overall situation as well.

This round... was a bloody loss!

That meant they had to win the two other rounds to clinch a comeback!

But there's a problem: there's only a single Qian brother left in fighting condition! The others were still recuperating!

Even if the wounded forced themselves to stand up now, what are their chances at winning? Not high.

It seems the game was set with this one brutal twist. Unless…

Bubai felt some anticipation flash through his heart. Will it be his turn to step in soon? Wonder how much he'll earn this time!

Alas… he was happy too early because that stable old second wasn't ready to place the fate of their Qian Clan in the hands of others just yet.

With jaws tightened and spine rigid as a spear, Qian Fusha cupped his fists to address the elders once more.

"Our Qian Clan requests permission to invoke the Sacred Torch Ritual. Esteemed elders, please approve."

Sacred Torch Ritual? Bubai searched for the key words in his memory and quickly found the details of this age-old tradition of the sect.

Normally, clan competitions involves winning a standard number of rounds in a set.

To conserve strength and clinch victories with the least cost, a lot of tactics and schemes ruled these sort of matches.

But not everybody is willing to accept the outcome of such a... rule-bound competition, especially since it didn't favor certain clans that only had one strong man holding up the sky.

Then there are those sore losers who are unwilling to accept any outcomes that will push their clan into the abyss.

That's where the Sacred Torch Ritual comes in!

In this competitive mode, both parties will still send out all available warriors to face off one-versus-one...

But instead of only going for one round, winners can carry on the torch to the next round!

Only when they fall will the torch get passed on!

The victory condition? The last man standing!

In other words: this was elimination mode! And, this wasn't anything new that just got dished out for the sake of the plot.

This was actually the original style of competitions in ancient eras.

But due to its cruel and brutal nature, new rules were established every generation and the competition gradually evolved into what it is today.

But this age-old rite was still retained and any competitor can apply to start such a battle so long as there were suitable reasons like...

An unbridgeable gap in the number of available fighters. No dense forest is willing to share sunlight with a weed at its trunk.

Rules are only for those standing at equal heights. Those below have to climb the hard way!

As for other reasons? Mainly, it was cheating—whether it be the use of banned items or through any unfair external influences.

In the case of these Qian brothers, anybody can see the foul play in the previous rounds and that was more than sound enough reason.

But there's still the biggest question: will those elders and that esteemed one agree?

On the sun disc platform.

Sensing the eunuchs hurrying in to carry out the loser, Mo Badao calmly blew on his cup of tea and glanced over to his buddy.

"That ending… Old Stallion, what do you make of it?"

"Hohoh…" Ma Pei stroked his beard with a smile.

"It should've been the blood poison seed secretly planted back in the earlier round. Those little devils are quite hard to detect once they mix into the blood stream..."

"And once they stew long enough, they can get detonated from within to drain the victim's blood. But to pull it off this cleanly… hohoh, that bloody skirt-chasing brat must've had a hand in it."

A loud scoff came from the scarecrow. "Gah! Isn't that obvious? This is exactly why I keep saying all these external means should be banned!"

Ma Pei rolled his eyes. "Old Thief, then we should ban your broken dolls first."

"Nonsense! What does my cute dollies have to do with this?! They're magic tools controlled by those juniors themselves and that's perfectly within the rules!"

"Hohoh. Using the seeds cultivated by others shouldn't be against the rules either. It's no different from swallowing pills and using talisman made by others, isn't it?"

"But that bloody seed is different! Anybody that can grasp even a shred of the bloody seed's source can plant and detonate it! That's practically almost every sicko dollie that cultivates your bloody nasty Dao!"

"Hohoh. It's not nasty, it's art. Stinky Thief, you won't understand."

"Fart! I understand art better than you because my dollies are the real art!"

"Bah! What fart art! Isn't it just forcing women to accept your skincare?"

"What do you know Stinky Fart!"

Seeing the two old geezer getting ready to go at it again, Grand Elder Jia Wunan finally can't help but interrupt.

"Alright, alright, you two… you've been arguing from yesterday till now. Aren't you tired of listening to yourselves? Instead of wasting time doing that, let's vote on whether we should pass that junior's request or not?"

"Humph!" Both old geezers turned away from each other with a huff then both cast their votes at almost the same time.

"I vote for!"

"I vote against!"

Hearing an answer different from his own, Tai Yinjun snapped back to stare at Ma Pei with squinted eyes.

"Stinky Fart, you're voting for? You're not gonna favor that bloody dollie that practices the same path as you?"

Ma Pei sneered. "Hah. Why should I? It's not like we're familiar. If anything, doesn't that bloody skirt-chasing brat have closer ties to your Stinky Thief's faction?"

"Gah! What nonsense! You Old Fart can still lie with your eyes wide open!"

"Hohoh... whether I'm lying or not—don't you know in your heart?"

Several other elders quietly looked over in interest, each trying to see through the truth…

As for what they saw? None bothered pointing it out.

Instead, the vote said it all.

"Yoh, I'll vote against. It's too boring if the farce drags on too long."

Clearly, Tai Yinsu gave an excuse to support his uncle's stance.

Naturally, Mo Badao should know who to support, but he didn't say anything yet. Instead, he looked to the other elders and politely smiled, waiting for them to go first.

Keeping her ever-emotionless face, Feng Lupeng flatly dropped her vote for the pair. "One for, one against."

That's basically just saying nothing.

It was then the Jia brothers' turn.

The younger exchanged a glance with the older sage. Nobody knows what message got passed between them, but the baldie Jia Gufan grinned.

"Youth should be more wild, shouldn't it? I'll always support a manly fight between men!"

Grand Elder Jia nodded along. "Indeed. I'll also like to see where this is headed."

It seems the general trend was already decided, but everybody still looked at the last speaker.

Mo Badao chuckled. "Why are you all looking at me? Isn't my choice obvious? But…"

He flashed a sly grin. "Let's not forget—this year, the sect already lost plenty of blood. If more of those young blood goes to waste here…"

"At this rate, there will be unrest in our outer territories. This really is... no small matter. So this old skull believes it's still best to see… what his majesty thinks."

This single reminder made all the elders turn their eyes back towards the king on his throne.

What stance will the heaven of this sect have? As subjects, they were always interested to know.

A thought can last an eternity, yet a matter of life and death was decided by just a single word: "Permitted."

The bloody deathmatch became official. Game on!