Chapter 295 - 276: Gladiatorial Arena

Chapter 295: Chapter 276: Gladiatorial Arena

This was no rare occurrence on Greed Wolf Island. In fact, it was a frequent drama, with similar incidents rocking the entire island almost year after year.

At first, it might have only been minor clashes between Qi Cultivation Cultivators, and the environmental damage was still limited. But as the conflicts escalated, Foundation Establishment Cultivators began to join the fray.

Once Foundation Establishment Cultivators unleashed their full power, the destructive force was no longer a minor squabble. It was enough to severely devastate the island’s landscape.

In large-scale conflicts, it was common to see dozens of Foundation Establishment Cultivators striking all at once.

Their Magic and Magical Artifacts clashed, the attacks sweeping through like a storm. In their wake, vegetation withered and rocks shattered. The once beautiful island landscape was instantly ravaged beyond recognition.

As a result, Greed Wolf Island’s ecosystem and cultivation resources suffered immense damage.

Faced with the escalating clan conflicts on Greed Wolf Island and their severe consequences, the Seven Stars Association could no longer sit idly by.

So, they intervened decisively.

From that point forward,

all disputes—from wars that determined a clan’s survival to something as minor as an argument between mortals—had to be resolved fairly through the Gladiatorial Arena. Private battles were strictly forbidden.

The Seven Stars Association made it clear that any clan found violating this rule and fighting in private would face their merciless punishment.

Of course,

that was the official line.

The Seven Stars Association wasn’t about to make a federal case out of an argument between two mortals.

It was merely a statement of the Seven Stars Association’s position.

Thus, on Greed Wolf Island, the various clans gradually grew accustomed to using the Gladiatorial Arena to handle their conflicts.

Every so often, young disciples and even some elders from the clans would be dispatched to the Gladiatorial Arena to compete and settle scores.

The Sound Transmission Talisman Jiang Xu had received was about just such a situation.

This time, however, the matter was a major one, involving a small-scale Spirit Vein Mine.

For a Foundation Establishment Clan that didn’t yet have a Golden Core Cultivator, every Spirit Vein Mine was the very foundation of the clan’s survival.

Even a small one was no exception.

A small-scale Spirit Vein Mine could yield approximately one hundred thousand Spirit Stones.

However, these hundred thousand Spirit Stones were buried deep underground, and it would likely take a clan twenty years to fully excavate them.

That was equivalent to mining only five thousand Spirit Stones per year.

It also required a great deal of manpower and material resources.

But you couldn’t beat the slow and steady income. There was nothing else to worry about, no concerns about profit margins.

You just had to bring some Low Tier Disciples to mine every day. It was a comfortable, easy life.

That’s why every clan placed great importance on Spirit Vein Mines.

This particular Spirit Vein Mine was a newly discovered deposit.

It was completely intact, showing no signs of having been previously mined.

However, the discovery of this Spirit Vein Mine was somewhat coincidental.

On an ordinary night,

with the sky full of brilliant stars, a dazzling pillar of starlight suddenly shot down from the heavens, precisely illuminating a desolate patch of land on the border between two clans.

The starlight was brilliant, and the disturbance it created was so great that the Sun Clan and Huang Clan Cultivators stationed near the border all clearly witnessed the spectacle.

Both sides arrived at almost the same time.

Amidst their shock, the cultivators from both sides grew hostile at the sight of each other.

But constrained by the strict rules of the Seven Stars Association, neither side made a rash move. Instead, they each cautiously approached and began to observe.

After a period of observation, both sides came to the same conclusion.

There was definitely treasure in the spot the starlight had hit!

Upon learning this, the cultivators from both clans swiftly reported back, and both sides subsequently launched large-scale search operations.

After several days of searching, despite sensing the rich Spiritual Qi in the area, the cultivators from both clans failed to find any obvious signs of treasure.

It wasn’t until high-ranking cultivators from the clans personally arrived and directed their members to dig deep into the earth that they finally made a breakthrough.

After digging several yards down, translucent chunks of raw Spirit Stone ore gradually began to appear.

The Spirit Stones that Cultivators use for trade are actually all processed and refined.

What’s dug out of a Spirit Vein Mine is actually raw, unprocessed ore.

And once you find raw Spirit Stone ore, it’s highly likely that there’s a Spirit Vein deposit nearby.

The problem was, this Spirit Vein Mine had been discovered by both the Sun Clan and the Huang Clan.

Furthermore, it was located right on the border between their territories.

This naturally led to a major dispute over the mine’s ownership.

Neither side wanted to share such a huge fortune with the other—this was a hundred thousand Spirit Stones!

Who wouldn’t want to take it all for themselves!

Thus, the two sides began to fight over the Spiritual Ore, while simultaneously and tacitly agreeing to keep the matter a secret.

But their efforts were futile. For one, the initial discovery of the Spiritual Ore had caused too much of a stir.

For another, the Seven Stars Association was simply too powerful and seemed to be everywhere.

So even with both clans trying to conceal it, word still reached the ears of the Seven Stars Association.

And so, the Seven Stars Association stepped in and immediately took a twenty percent cut of the Spirit Stones for themselves.

Since the mine was discovered simultaneously and lay on both their borders, the association decreed that the two clans would each get a thirty percent share.

As for the ownership of the remaining twenty percent—a total of twenty thousand Spirit Stones...

...it would be decided, as always, through the Gladiatorial Arena.

The Sun and Huang Clans first had to agree on the specific rules for the duel.

Would it be no-holds-barred, or restricted to only Magic Cultivators, Body Cultivators, or other specific types?

Would it be best two-out-of-three, or a king-of-the-hill format?

And what were the conditions for victory? The opponent’s death? Surrender? Or being forced out of the ring?

After a round of negotiations, the rules for the duel were finalized.

The two clans would compete in three divisions.

The first division was for Qi Cultivation Late Stage Cultivators, the second for Qi Cultivation Great Perfection Cultivators, and the third for Foundation Establishment Early Stage Cultivators.

Each division would consist of three matches.

It would be a best-two-out-of-three format to win a division.

However, there was no rule preventing a single person from fighting all three matches in their division.

A clean sweep by a single combatant was allowed.

Victory was achieved either by the opponent’s death or their verbal surrender.

...

Jiang Xu’s expression was calm, not a single ripple of emotion showing on his face.

He turned invisible as he slipped out the door, releasing his Divine Sense to gather information about the competition from around the clan.

The reason Jiang Xu was so interested in this competition...

...was that he had been shocked to find Liang Fan’s name among the competitors.

’This is ridiculous.’

’Liang Fan is a Qi Cultivation Middle Stage Cultivator.’

’The minimum requirement for this duel is Qi Cultivation Late Stage.’

’Something is obviously wrong here!’

’And this competition is for a valuable Spirit Vein Mine.’

’Liang Fan is a Seed of Evil, a Qi Cultivation Middle Stage Cultivator.’

’How on earth did he get selected?’

’Were the people in charge of selections kicked in the head by a donkey?’

Jiang Xu was deeply suspicious.

Sure enough,

The upcoming duel was a hot topic of conversation within the Sun Family.

And the name that came up most often was, of course, Liang Fan.

’No, wait. They would be mentioning the name "Sun Fan."’

He had changed his name to Liang Fan after leaving Sun’s Immortal City, but the people of the Sun Family didn’t know that, so they still called him Sun Fan.

But as Jiang Xu listened in, he spotted two familiar figures.

They were the very same two brothers who had broken into Liang Fan’s house to steal from him, and who had then tried to burn it down when they failed.

Jiang Xu had cut off their hands, but these two scoundrels hadn’t learned their lesson. They were actually going around the clan, spreading the story of what Jiang Xu had done to them—with plenty of embellishments, of course.

They completely absolved themselves of any wrongdoing.

According to them, they had simply seen Liang Fan leave and, worried his house might attract thieves, had kindly decided to stand guard.

But when Liang Fan returned, he had, for no reason at all, immediately tried to kill them. They claimed they were lucky to have escaped with their lives.

The two of them did everything they could to paint Liang Fan as a brute, even claiming that he must have reached the Qi Cultivation Late Stage by now—or at the very least, possessed the strength of one.

He definitely met the requirements to participate.

Still, some people expressed their doubts.

They felt this duel was too important, and that Liang Fan simply wasn’t strong enough to be worthy of a spot.

But the two brothers just laughed, leaned in conspiratorially, and said one thing:

"Sun Long will be fighting too!"

Just that one sentence was enough to instantly silence the entire crowd.