Chapter 44: Hunter, Die.
Defiant Martial God
Chapter 44: Hunter, Die.
Qin Yu didn’t have enough time to finish his thoughts on the conspiracy of the illusionary battlefield. The black-faced youth had already finished what he wanted to do and had now fixed his cold gaze on Qin Yu. A strange smile spread on his face as the corpse under his foot slowly disappeared into the earth.
Just now he had ignored Qin Yu’s existence and focused on doing his own thing as he wasn’t worried about Qin Yu suddenly attacking him. He was confident that even if Qin Yu tried to launch an attack, he would be able to counter his strikes easily. Hs strength was actually even higher than the white-faced youth’s.。
Qin Yu could also see that although both of them were at the initial stage of the Immersion Realm, the black-faced youth’s aura was a lot stronger and naturally, his combat prowess should be greater.
Even in the same realm, there were people with varying levels of fighting strength.
On the road of cultivation, the most fundamental thing that cultivators relied on was their fighting strength. A high cultivation realm was worthless if a cultivator did not have the corresponding fighting strength. Once this kind of person reached the later stages of their development, their cultivation wouldn’t be able to grow any further.
Qin Yu was somebody who advocated fighting strength. While he was in the forbidden area, he had the opportunity to break through to the Immersion Realm, but he had chosen to suppress his cultivation. He still had the same fighting strength as an Immersion Realm cultivator, and that was why he didn’t take the chance to attack while the black-faced youth was busy and instead chose to face his opponent with dignity.
“I have to say, you really surprised me.” The black-faced youth stared at Qin Yu as he spoke with a trace of arrogance in his indifferent voice. While he was standing in front of Qin Yu, he was filled with an endless feeling of superiority, “However, I’m not the same as that white-faced guy…”
“This young master isn’t interested in what you are.” Qin Yu interrupted him, his eyes sharp: “Just make your move.”
The black-faced man was startled for a moment before bursting into loud laughter, “Hahaha…….. An insignificant Origin Realm trash dares to act so arrogantly in front of Laozi! You’re the first person I’ve seen who does that.”
“You really like to speak nonsense. Die!” Qin Yu suddenly shouted loudly and sent out a palm strike. A loud “rumble” like thunder resounded through the air, causing the black-faced youth to jump in fear.
The black-faced youth hurriedly drew back, his pitch black longsword slashing through the air.
The pitch black longsword chopped down with frightening power, creating chaotic airflows in its surroundings. Qin Yu was certain that, judging by the blade’s strength, this person had the same fighting strength as a middle stage Immersion Realm cultivator. These hunters were actually a group of monsters.
“Wind, retreat!” Qin Yu hastily evaded the blade of sword qi by relying on the wind to carry him backward.
“Hm?” The black-faced youth saw Qin Yu fly with the wind and was momentarily startled, “How could you have comprehended the spiritual nature of wind? Impossible!”
Nevermind a mere Origin Realm cultivator, it was hard for even a Transformation Realm master to fully understand an element’s spiritual nature.
“Blood Piercing Through the Vast Sky, attack!” Crimson light blossomed from the saber in Qin Yu’s hands as he raised it to the sky, unleashing waves of blood-red sword qi.
The other youth’s face changed. He didn’t have time to continue pondering if Qin Yu had really comprehended the spiritual nature of wind and could only swiftly wave his longsword, as he shouted loudly: “Die!”
“Clang, clang, clang…”
The two blades clashed, releasing an ear-splitting cry. The crimson sword light fended off each of his strikes. Now, he no longer dared to look down on Qin Yu.
At the apex of Origin Realm, Qin Yu was actually able to compete with him, a monster who possessed fighting strength at the level of a mid-stage Immersion Realm cultivator. He was a monster, but Qin Yu was a monster amongst monsters.
Qin Yu’s face also changed slightly. This person was powerful and was able to completely block his attacks.
“Who are you, and where did you come from?” The black-faced youth didn’t continue to attack. He grasped his longsword and stared at Qin Yu vigilantly with a solemn face as he asked.
“Fighting is fighting, there’s no need to ask so many questions.” Qin Yu’s fighting spirit surged. What he needed was precisely a strong opponent to temper himself with. This person was the best option for him to grow through danger.
He chopped again with his blood saber and released more shocking streaks of crimson sword light into the air.
“Hmph, you think you’re so strong huh? Laozi will let you experience the strength of an immersion realm cultivator! Die!” The black-faced youth’s response was fierce. They were both young and vigorous men and weren’t afraid of attacking anyone.
The blades clashed fiercely, red against black, creating gales of wind that blew around them in all directions. Bits of grass and leaves flew everywhere.
When the two had separated again, bloodstained both their bodies. Qin Yu’s clothes were sliced open and his bamboo hat was also chopped into a few pieces, falling onto the ground in a scattered mess.
“My friend, you have very good sword techniques. Neither of us has any deep grudges against each other, so how about we stop fighting now?” The black-faced youth was gasping for breath, and he spoke in a more amicable tone.
Earlier, when the black-faced youth had killed the white-faced youth, he had already collected enough fire bugs to complete his mission. There was simply no reason for him to stay here and have a deathmatch with Qin Yu. Naturally, if Qin Yu’s fighting strength was weaker, he absolutely wouldn’t have been polite. After all, the more fire bugs he obtained, the better.
Qin Yu laughed mockingly, “Ha, just now, didn’t you treat me as prey? What, now that you can’t kill Laozi, you want to give up? Do you think it’d be that easy?”
“Hmph.” The black-faced youth’s expression tightened and he continued to speak proudly: “What, don’t tell me that you think you can kill me? If you give up now, you can still leave with your life. Otherwise, I’ll let you be buried here.”
“Since you want to kill me here, why are you still saying so much nonsense? It's just wasting time. Waves of Blood Overflowing Heavens, attack!” Waves of blood, carrying intense killing intent, surged forth violently, tearing through the sky.
The black-faced youth’s expression changed. F*ck, although Qin Yu’s cultivation realm wasn’t very strong, his sword arts were simply too monstrous. He had an evasive technique, but the surging, bloody waves simply didn’t leave him any time to dodge. He could only clench his teeth, his eyes turning red as he roared. A black shadow dashed towards the waves of blood and was swallowed up in a flash.
“Clang, clang, clang…”
This time, the ear-piercing clang of blade against blade was even more fierce! All of a sudden, a pained scream echoed in the air.
The next moment, the waves of blood dissipated and the black-faced youth’s sword fell on the floor. An ice-cold sword was being held at his neck.
“W-What do you want?” The black-faced youth’s voice was filled with fear, trembling.
Qin Yu also seemed to be in a somewhat sorry situation, with several more cuts on his body, his worn out robe even more ragged than before. However, he had long stopped caring about that and was currently staring icily at the black-faced youth. A disdainful sneer was on his delicate and pretty face. This sort of person, when his opponent was weaker, he would treat them as prey, hunting and killing them for glory. Now, it was his turn to face life and death, to experience that fear.
“Speak, what’s this thing with the fire bug? What does it have to do with the ‘hunters’” Qin Yu asked icily.
“No, no, I can’t tell you.” The black-faced youth’s expression turned fearful, seemingly afraid to tell the truth.
“In that case, you can just die.” Qin Yu’s face suddenly sunk into a cold expression.
“No! Wait!” The youth shouted loudly, “I, I can only tell you that right now, we’re in a slaughterhouse, an illusionary battlefield formed by the joint powers of several extremely powerful masters and it was already opened ten days ago. This time in the Martial Exam, all of the elites participating in the preliminaries were all delivered here to be slaughtered.”
“Whenever a contestant enters, a fire bug would be secretly implanted in their dantian. If we behead them, we would be able to take their fire bugs. The stronger the person, the deeper the color of the fire bug would be. The strongest would be a red fire bug.
After hearing this, Qin Yu finally understood. Earlier when he had entered the battlefield, he had felt something moving in his dantian. Unless you paid special attention, nobody would notice it. So what happened that time was actually the feeling of the fire bug entering his dantian.
Luosang City’s Martial Examination’s preselection had been delayed for ten days and Qin Yu could be considered one of the last batch of people who entered. Otherwise, he would’ve encountered these hunters earlier.
“Continue.” Qin Yu still wanted to know more secrets.
Seeing Qin Yu’s icy gaze, cold sweat dripped from the black-faced youth’s forehead as he bit his lips and clenched his teeth before continuing to speak: “Inside, there’s a total of a hundred people like me. After they enter here, they have to complete the mission and get fifty ordinary fire bugs before being able to leave.”
Qin Yu’s heart shook, his cold face instantly revealing a dreadful expression, “Fifty firebugs, so in other words, each of you must kill 50 other people. A hundred killing five thousand people? Is that right?”
Who the hell planned such a wild slaughter? Back when he was Xie Di, although he had killed countless people, he still hadn’t indiscriminately committed mass slaughter and mowed down people like they were grass.
5000 people, and all of them were youths who hadn’t even reached twenty. It was too brutal.
Qiongxi was such a huge country and all of the youths who had gathered here from all over the place were the crèmè de la crème of the country. They were the future hopes of Qiongxi Country. If these elites were all slaughtered here, it would no doubt be a catastrophe for Qiongxi Country’s future.
This plot didn’t seem to just be that simple either. They weren’t just targeting the chosen elites of the Martial Exam, they were also aiming against the entire future of Qiongxi Country.
‘No, not necessarily. A superior ranked fire bug is equivalent to the strength of about ten ordinary fire bugs.” Seeing the awful expression on Qin Yu’s face, the black-faced youth added on, shivering.
His meaning was that if they killed the stronger ones, just five people were enough and there was no need to kill 50.
Qin Yu cursed in his heart. Killing five of the stronger ones? How many ‘stronger ones’ are there for you to even kill? He wasn’t some savior, or a soft and compassionate being, but towards such a thing, he would still be unhappy when he saw it. Then again, wasn’t he also a ‘prey’ right now? He naturally loathed being thought of as prey.
“Why do you guys want to do this?” Qin Yu interrogated.
“This, we also don’t know. We just came in as hunters to hunt. After we finish our mission, we can leave and receive our payment.”
“Who gave you guys the mission to come?”
“This…” The youth’s face turned frightened again, seeming very afraid of that person. He stuttered for a long time before finally being able to get the words out, “I-I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Qin Yu’s gaze turned cold. The corners of his lips pulled down revealing an icy sneer, “You should at least know the number of people you’ve slaughtered, right?”
The demonic, charming sneer that flitted past Qin Yu’s face made the black-faced youth feel a burst of fear. He felt a chill go down from his spine to his heels.
“I, I don’t remember, p-probably several dozens.” His voice trembled.
“Several dozens? Well, then it seems that killing you for dozens of times is something I should do—die then!”
“No, ah——!!”
Blood splashed in the air as his head tumbled down. The hunter had died!
Qin Yu watched the corpse collapse and gathered his internal energy on his hand. He sent out a palm strike at the corpse’s dantian region and suddenly started to breathe in.
“Buzz, buzz…”
A series of buzzes sounded as multicolored “fire bugs” came flying out of his dantian. In their densely packed, small groups, they seemed just like houseflies.