THE MARTIAL KING - Season 8 Episode 17

“Brat? Brent, that’s rude! Zen’s older than you. Don’t be so impudent!” Xander said, unable to remain silent any longer.

Proper etiquette and manners were important to members in the Ethereal Spirit Sect. Brent’s face reddened at Xander’s reminder, and he said in a low voice, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“As a body refiner, Zen can use his body refining techniques to raise his level and withstand the consummate sword intent. So, we can’t underestimate him,” commented Xander emotionlessly.

One of the Ethereal Spirit Septuplets said, “The martial artists from the Central Region mainly train their life vitality, so, we’ve never seen such a strong body refiner. The Cloud Hall doesn’t seem to have any powerful body refining techniques either. Accordingly, we don’t know that brat’s methods.”

“Huh!?” Xander cocked a brow when he heard the two words, that brat, and he frowned again.

Although the Ethereal Spirit Septuplets were core members of the Ethereal Spirit Sect, they had to abide by the rules laid out by the sect too, and they couldn’t say anything rude.

“I’m sorry…” said the Septuplet, when he saw how upset Xander became.

“It’s no wonder he passed the pre-qualifying match despite his low level. It turns out he’s a body refiner!”

“I never heard of a body refiner being so strong! I’ve seen many body refiners, and the strongest of them couldn’t even defeat an ordinary warrior who’d reached the Illuminating Soul Realm. Why’s this guy so strong?”

“How many acupoints did he refine? Do you think he’s refined dozens of his acupoints?”

In body refining, the most important thing was refining acupoints.

Body refining wasn’t popular in the Central Region, so, until now, no one had refined all one hundred and eight acupoints. However, Zen had done just that, and he did it in just a few days.

“He refined his body this much in only a matter of days?” Letitia’s eyes reflected her shock.

When she’d watched Zen secretly a few days ago, she discovered he was refining his body. She didn’t expect that in the few short days, he would have refined his body to such an extent that even she had never heard of!

Naturally, Letitia didn’t know Zen’s body was specially refined with the red dragon’s technique, using primordial energy. Moreover, the purest power of thunder and fire was also used to hone his acupoints. Even the Upper World forces couldn’t utilize this unique advantage. That was Zen’s secret to refine himself so quickly.

“Zen, of the Cloud Hall, wins!”

After Xiao made the announcement, the World Commercial Alliance members went to remove the half-dead Alex and clean his blood from the arena.

In the stands, Alex’s family glared at Zen viciously, as if any one of them planned to personally strangle him.

Sensing the intense killing intent directed at him, Zen turned and looked up at them, but didn’t care in the slightest.

“Zen, according to the rules, you can draw a card!”

As Xiao finished explaining, someone carrying a box approached and placed it in front of Zen.

Zen shoved his hand blindly into the box, and after moving it around, he took a card out. When he opened it, he saw a small wooden plate with the word ‘exemption’ written on it.

“You’ve drawn an exemption card, which means if you draw a fight again and you don’t want to, then you can use this card,” Xiao explained to Zen.

Zen nodded in understanding. Surprisingly, he pulled an exemption card the first time. If he had drawn the challenge card, he would have been able to challenge Marilyn.

However, when he thought about it, even if he drew the challenge card, he couldn’t have challenged Marilyn right away. If his technique was obvious, Eddie would be able to see right through him.

After he put the first card down, Zen walked over to the independent warriors.

At this moment, Letitia’s calm voice drifted over as she said, “Zen, you are a disciple of the Cloud Hall. There is no need to stand over there!”

The Cloud Hall had a grandstand of their own beside the arena, and everyone knew Zen was a disciple from Cloud Hall. If Zen remained in the area for independent warriors, then it would be embarrassing for the Cloud Hall. It would appear as though there was an issue between Zen and Cloud Hall, which would lead to others ridiculing the hall.

Zen didn’t have any issue with Cloud Hall, but, he was in trouble with Letitia… When he proposed to participate in the Martial Arts Contest, she didn’t agree with him. Now, as he heard her, he looked back at her and said, “I entered the main draw match through the pre-qualifying match. I think it’s better for me to stay over there!”

After he spoke his mind, Zen turned and walked over to the side stand where the other independent warriors stood without looking back.

Letitia looked slightly embarrassed. Even though she was young, like a little girl in the eyes of the old masters, she was the leader of Cloud Hall, one of the strongest sects in the Central Region.

This was very embarrassing to her!

Letitia drew an icy mist over herself, making it difficult for anyone to see her face. However, everyone could see how stiff and unnatural the cold fog made her.

“Dick!” Blake’s face darkened because he’d considered Zen a member of Cloud Hall, and he didn’t think Zen would embarrass their leader the way he did.

To the disciples of Cloud Hall, along with the rest of the Central Region warriors, Letitia was nothing short of a goddess.

Admittedly, they were all crushing on her. However, the most of the disciples hid their feelings deep within their hearts.

After all, they believed themselves inferior and unable to match her in terms of either strength or status, so none of them dared to reveal how they felt.

They couldn’t stand how Zen, a disciple of Cloud Hall, humiliated their goodness, Letitia, in public.

“If I fought you in the arena, I wouldn’t show you any mercy!” said Benson scowling disgustedly.

The jade case lots were drawn randomly. So, even if the name tags of two disciples from the same sect came out from the case, they’d have no choice but to enter the arena and fight each other, unless one of them surrendered immediately and admitted defeat.

The candidates from other sects were discussing what happened amongst themselves.

They hadn’t thought Zen would actually dishonor the Cloud Hall’s leader.

However, this was an internal matter of the hall. Apart from cursing Zen, they couldn’t say anything.

Xiao and the others were becoming increasingly confused. What the hell was the deal between Zen and Letitia?

When Zen fought during the pre-qualifying match, Letitia came and watched. After the match, she asked them not to tell Zen that she had been there.

From the looks of it, Letitia and Zen were on bad terms. What was this drama about?

Xiao couldn’t understand and shook his head once again, before shaking the jade case. After two name tags were pulled, he loudly shouted, “Independent warrior, Pablo Zhao versus Quincy Qiao of the Bloodwood Cliff!”

The Martial Arts Contest was a round-robin tournament, and the tempo of the battle was extremely fast.

The first and second rounds were one-horse races, but the third one was a difficult one. Pablo and Quincy were both in the primary level of the Internal Elixir Realm, so their cultivation and strength were similar. The fight continued for five minutes before Quincy finally won by a narrow margin.

Then came the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth fights.

Every winner drew a card afterward. What was strange was that almost all of them had the same one, an exemption card, and none of them had drawn a challenge card.

At first, everyone thought that the chances of getting an exemption card and a challenge card were fifty-fifty, but now, it seemed the chances of drawing a challenge card were astonishingly slim.

In the end, Xiao came forward to explain that there was only a one-fifth of a chance to get a challenge card.

Other than the first fight and the second one between Zen and Alex, which were quite fierce, the rest of the fights were a bit dull. The Martial Arts Contest had no rules. Even if one killed the other, there wouldn’t be any consequences. Because of this rule, the martial artists were more cautious.

In order to make it to a higher rank, one had to maintain his strength to the very end. If they were to fight hard at the start, life vitality would be greatly depleted and the combatants might even lose an arm or a leg. If that happened, what chance would there be to make it to the top ten?
The World Commercial Alliance was rich, so, they prepared a small gift for each martial artist participating in the contest. In fact, the gift wasn’t really small at all, but, if it was compared to the top ten rewards, it was indeed tiny.

Many martial artists didn’t have high hopes of obtaining the Dragon Soar Arena. Even if the independent warriors were able to obtain it, they wouldn’t have any chance to use it, so, their goals were to reach the top ten.

When it came to the seventh round, the atmosphere in the arena became chaotic. The arena was in an uproar when the announcement sounded, “Blake Zong of Cloud Hall versus Edgar Situ of the Ethereal Spirit Sect!”