Chapter 548: Contest

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A red-tailed beast! It was a red-tailed beast! Ye Chong could not believe his eyes. This was the creature, alright. It was a juvenile, with a pair of light red eyes on its angular head. It was young, but the eyes betrayed its vicious nature. The creature looked worn out. The five-meter tall cage was too small for it, such that it must curl in on itself to fit inside. There were no visible injuries on its body. The light red colored arrowhead tail was not fully mature yet. The red-tailed beasts that Ye Chong had seen before had arrowhead tails that were crimson red in color. The maturity of a red-tailed beast was not determined by its size, but by the color of its tail – the redder the arrowhead tail, the stronger the creature.

The only thing that surprised Ye Chong currently was that this creature had five fingers. By his experience, an eight-fingered red-tailed beast was the pinnacle of strength, while six-fingered red-tailed beasts were equivalent to a human tribe's chieftain. Five-fingered red-tailed beasts were not very strong, but they were still quite capable of destruction. This particular red-tailed beast he was looking at had a blue tinge on its body, and he had never seen anything like it before.

Why would there be red-tailed beasts here?

Ye Chong was intrigued. He never expected to have red-tailed beasts in this world. He heard it clearly from the ambassador – Darkniss, the place where the creature was from. Ye Chong had heard of Darkniss a few times. He knew that there were metals there, the so-called gravestones that Sha Ya and the others had told him about. There were also plants like Gold Leaves in the place.

Suddenly, a bold idea came to Ye Chong – could the red-tailed beasts have entered He Yue Galaxy from Darkniss? Was Darkniss home of the red-tailed beasts?

Ye Chong found himself face with many questions.

Sun Sieha did not recognize the red-tailed beast. He asked with faint surprise, "So it's a mysterious creature. Call Xuan Ning here, perhaps he'd seen it before."

The other councillors were also curious of the creature. Few of them had ever seen any animal as big as this. The red-tailed beast looked worn out, but they could still imagine the strength that came with it.

Mu Chen maintained a thin smile on his face throughout.

After a moment, Xuan Ning arrived. He was a man in his thirties, with thick eyebrows on a pair of large eyes. He looked like an honest and respectable man.

"Xuan Ning, reporting for duty!" Xuan Ning saluted in military fashion.

"Alright. You're here because I'd like you to have a look at this strange creature. It was captured in Darkniss. Have you seen it before?" Sun Sieha asked gently.

Xuan Ning looked towards the huge cage placed in the centre of the assembly room, and then quickly averted his gaze. "I have, Your Majesty."

"Oh, tell us more." Sun Sieha grew interested. He had travelled far and wide when he was young, but had never been to Darkniss, known for its dangers.

"Five years ago, when I had just reached Level 8, I decided to visit Darkniss. Darkniss is known to be home to many strong creatures, and is a good place for training. I invited two friends to come along. They were Level 7 shooters. The three of us made our preparations for the visit."

Xuan Ning recalled what happened back then. Everyone in the assembly room was absorbed in his story.

"We entered the Desert from Dual Forest. The journey was smooth at first. The sandlizards did not hinder us. We moved quickly. Later, we encountered sandscorpions. That was horrible. The sandscorpions always appear in hundreds or thousands, spread out for dozens of kilometers. Fortunately for us, there were no sandstorms, or we would have laid down our lives there. After that, we entered the Mist, where a perpetual purple mist covered the area."

Ye Chong felt his heart tightened. He had heard of the Desert and the Mist, but he never knew that the mist was purple in colour. However, even he was aware of it earlier, he would not have associated it with the red-tailed beasts, for he had not seen the creature here yet. For now, it was still too early to tell I the purple mist was the same as the one he had seen in his own world.

No one noticed Ye Chong's unsettled look. They were all absorbed in Xuan Ning's story.

"Visibility is low, but as shooters, our parapsychic sense helps us to navigate. In the Mist was a thick forest. Vines and branches surrounded us. Humidity was high, and there was no sunlight. It was a place that was difficult for shooting. We were lucky to have avoided anything really troublesome. There was only a pack of gliresaurs we had to deal with."

Xuan Ning described his experience mildly, but his audience could imagine how terrifying the battle must have been.

"After we crossed the Mist, we finally entered Darkniss. There is no sunlight in Darkniss, but there are strange plants that give off light in there. There is also flowing lava that glows a fiery red here and there, painting a red tinge on anything you see in there."

When Xuan Ning began to talk about Darkniss, his voice turned low and serious.

"Once we entered Darkniss, we proceeded carefully. We knew the place was dangerous. We walked along one of the lava flows that was about 20 meters wide. However, we had our first dangerous encounter on our first day in Darkniss. We were attacked by 14 black-striped gray dragons. They were huge, standing up to about seven or eight meters tall. The creatures were fast in the air, and had strong and sharp beaks and claws. All three of us were injured from that battle. The dragons swooped down from above. We shot them to death, but they were coming down too quickly. We were injured by the gravestones that were sent flying from their crashing into the ground. Fortunately, we were not too heavily injured, and the experience taught us to be more careful. We would never have survived the visit otherwise."

Xuan Ning looked like he had not fully gotten over the encounter yet.

"After that, we encountered other creatures, but none were as strong as the black-striped gray dragons. On our 13th day in Darkniss, we lost our way. We were panicking. That was also the day we met one of this strange creature. Our records don't have anything on it, so that was our first time seeing it. The one we met was stronger than this one in the cage. It was fighting against a pack of black-striped gray dragons. There were no less than 30 of the dragons dead on the ground when we saw them. The black-striped gray dragons were fast, but not as agile as the unknown creature. Its arrowhead tail was quick and deadly. The sharp beaks and claws of the dragons did not leave any marks on the unknown creature. We stayed in our dark hiding spot until all the black-striped gray dragons were killed by the unknown creature. We counted the number of dragon bodies on the ground. The tally came up to 55."

The people in the assembly room were disturbed by Xuan Ning's story. They realized now how powerful the creature in the cage was. Some of them almost called out for the guards. The red-tailed beast seemed to notice the fear and panic of the people around it. Its light red eyes gleamed condescendingly.

"Oh, so this officer did not catch the strange creature," Mu Shen commented with mock surprise.

Xuan Ning ignored him entirely and continued, "This creature is not yet mature, but no human can catch it alive. I don't think it's possible without deploying a huge fleet of fighters."

"Then how do you think this particular animal was caught?" Mu Shen asked Xuan Ning with a smile.

Xuan Ning replied coldly, "Aside from strong creatures, Darkniss also has all kinds of poisonous things. Any shooter who visited Darkniss would know that water puddles found in the place are not safe to drink from. I've seen a tumoric bear drank from a puddle where tiny blue flowers were growing. After that, the tumoric bear became weakened. Its body had a shade of blue, just like this creature we have here. I would guess that this creature had drank the same kind of poison, and was later found by someone. The fact that there are no visible wounds on this creature supports my theory. What do you think, Sir Mu?"

Xuan Ning spoke confidently, supporting his argument with sound evidence. He looked at Mu Shen sharply.

Mu Shen squirmed inside and replied with a softened tone, "As mentioned earlier, I know nothing about these things. Sir Xuan Ning has opened my eyes. Sir Xuan Ning is truly knowledgeable." Xuan Ning's deductions were accurate. The creature was not captured by them. It was a tribute from a few shooters who entered Darkniss to the King of Western Frost.

Xuan Ning was not interested in exchanging further words with Mu Shen. He bowed to Sun Sieha. "Your Majesty, I take my leave."

Sun Sieha was pleased to see Mu Shen intimidated. He was familiar with the temperament of this particular subordinate of his. "Alright, you may leave."

Xuan Ning turned to bow to the other nobilities in the assembly room. The nobles returned the gesture before Xuan Ning left the assembly room.

"Who is he?" Ye Chong asked the person next to him.

The noble recognized Ye Chong. He immediately replied respectfully, "Master Ye, he is the Commander of King's Guards, one of the strongest shooters in Eastern Cloud. He reached Level 8 by the age of 25, and a man of great experience. He is said to be the shooter closest to reaching Level 9 in the past five decades."

"I see." Ye Chong nodded and turned away.

The noble finally had a chance to talk to Ye Chong, but Ye Chong did not give him a chance to continue the conversation. He simply closed his eyes again.

The remainder of the meeting was dull and uninteresting. Ye Chong began to feel sleepy.

Nonetheless, there was something important he had to do later – his demonstration show for the National Combat Tournament.

Ye Chong kept his word to Sun Sieha, and did his part to the letter. Sun Sieha admired this side of him.

That afternoon, the National Combat Tournament officially began.

…

Duan Qian had arrived in Su City five days ago. In these five days, he got to know the flourishing city. Duan Qian had delicate features, and an air of naivety typical of young people. However, he had a certain steadiness in him. Unlike other shooters, his gait was confident. He was here for the National Combat Tournament.

He had his eyes opened in these few days. Su City was crowded with people. There were Level 6 and 7 shooters everywhere. Half the people on the streets were shooters, and half of these shooters were at least Level 6.

Strong fighters from all over Eastern Cloud had come to gather in Su City, but no one dared to cause trouble. Duke Warren had assigned Xuan Ning, a close aide to His Majesty, to be in charge of security in Su City. Xuan Ning was a big name known to all shooters. He was the strongest of the strong, known not only for his strength that was close to Level 9, but also his ruthlessness. Thus, Su City became even safer than usual.

Duan Qian had registered for the Combat Tournament and received his schedule. He was due in the first round of the Tournament, for better or worse.

Where there was a competition, there would be a betting pool. However, no one could find any information on Duan Qian. To everyone's surprise, the Shooter Association did not have his name in their records.

Duan Qian was not a shooter.

He was born in a family with combat history. His father was a nameless combat expert, who worked as a merchant. Since he was prone to sickness when he was young, he began to learn a few moves from his father. They were not particularly powerful moves, but they kept him healthy. Later on, he was found to be talented in parapsychic control, and sent to study under a capable shooter.

He was everything people expected from him. Even though he was the youngest student of his teacher, his parapsychic energy was the strongest. His teacher hoped that he would achieve Level 6 by age 16. That would be an achievement worthy of a prodigy in the world of shooters.

Duan Qian was not interested in being a shooter, however. His interest lay in combat. Once, he channeled his parapsychic energy into a combat move without intending to, and crushed a rock with his fist. That made him even more eager to study the combination of combat and parapsychic energy.

With this objective in mind, Duan Qian trained hard. His inborn talent helped him grasp some key points in this endeavor. However, his decision to go down this path was met with strong resistance from his parents and teacher. His father, who taught him combat in the first place, was against him. They thought that a shooter who could reach Level 6 by age 16 would have a much better future than a combat expert.

Nevertheless, Duan Qian persisted. He trained even harder so that his combat skills could one day be good enough to prove them wrong.

He did not give up on parapsychic control for combat. Instead, he trained his parapsychic control just as hard. Currently, his parapsychic control was just as good as that of a Level 6 shooter. Since his parapsychic control was strong, he could quickly detect his opponent's intentions and changes in their parapsychic waves. Besides, his own parapsychic waves could interfere with other shooters effectively.

To qualify for the National Combat Tournament, he had fought his way from early local matches to Su City. His teacher and parents were shocked by his achievement.

Young people were often ambitious. Some wanted fame, others wanted money. Duan Qian wanted to let the whole world know that shooters were not the only strong fighters!

Duan Qian was now in the Tournament resting area. The Tournament would begin with a Demonstration Contest before his turn came.

The idea for a Demonstration Contest was conceptualized since long ago. It was mostly participated by long-time and well-known combatants, who would fight against each other and explain the intricacies captured within the battle. The concept was popular amongst the audience. For this national level tournament, the participants were most likely the top combatants in the country. True experts would have better insights in combat compared to amateurs – all shooters knew this. It was a rare opportunity to listen to these experts talk about their specialty.

…

(In Eastern Cloud Combat Stadium.)

The Combat Stadium could house 200 thousand people at a time. In terms of area coverage of any building structure, it was second only to Su City's landing field. The national Combat Stadium was now filled to the brim with people. Sun Sieha's arrival brought on the first wave of excitement in the stadium. The crowd cheered, and Sun Sieha felt invigorated by his people. He waved to them in greeting as his image was displayed on a huge screen for everyone in the stadium to see.

"Long live the king!" The voices from 200 thousand people thundered like a tsunami wave.

Sun Sieha's body shook a little as his emotions overcame him. No king would be unmoved by the strong passion of his people.

Mu Shen was also invited to watch the tournament. He was briefly unsettled by the thundering cheers, but quickly composed himself.

"My brave warriors, let the fighting begin!" Sun Sieha's short and powerful announcement marked the beginning of the National Combat Tournament.

Prince Desnio was tasked with hosting the Demonstration Contest and the first match by the king himself, probably because of his colorful narration of Ye Chong's match last time.

"Alright, my friends, the wildly anticipated National Combat Tournament has just begun. I know that many of you have been waiting for this. Let me just say that that is exactly the same for me.

"First up is the Demonstration Contest. The Demonstration Contest this time is the most special out of all the ones we've held. I think you can all guess which two masters will be going on stage, right? Haha!" Prince Desnio grinned slyly.

"Let me ask you all, who is the most popular person recently in Su City? Is it His Majesty? Oh, no it's not, even though it's His Majesty's birthday today." Prince Desnio joked about Sun Sieha, but Sun Sieha did not mind his uncle's jest. He smiled in return.

"It was one man against 12 Level 6 shooters, and that man now has 20 thousand students under him. The first Master in close range combat in our country, and possibly in the whole wide world – Ye Chong! Let me tell you, Master Ye is not only a Master in Close Range Combat, but also our Chief Weaponsmith. Today, you will all get to witness a form of combat that was never seen before. I guarantee that you will be surprised. Truth is, I'm a big fan of Master Ye, not just because he's a strong fighter, but also because he'd won 10 million ao each from Legion Legate Ming Xiao and Duke Warren in a bet." Prince Desnio added with humour.

"A Master in Close Range Combat? What kind of title is that?" Mu Shen thought to himself with disinterest.