THE MARTIAL KING - Season 8 Episode 40

Marilyn had kept an extremely low profile the entire time. Prior to the battle, she radiated no presence and was almost insignificant as she stood behind Eddie on the elevated platform.

However, when she spoke, her body suddenly began to radiate with power.

“Owen from the Woollen Grassland, also known as the killer of Shadow Wolf King,” she declared, the mocking lilt in her tone masked by her charming smile.

“If I’m guessing it right, that one there is your love, right?” Marilyn pointed at the woman beside Yan with a smirk. That woman looked like a statue, expressionless and still, but that was mainly because of her sealed six senses. Despite that, however, one could still feel the refined aura that emanated from her body.

Buzz…

Owen’s hand that had been holding his scimitar trembled, and the scimitar whistled softly. His eyes looked up at Marilyn, eyes flashing dangerously with repressed fury.

“What’s it to you?” he hissed.

Raising his scimitar, Owen directed his rage to Eddie. “You!” he addressed him.

“The one who ranks number one in the Central Region. You went ahead and snatched away my love. Prepare to die for taking her away from me!”

Silence befell upon everyone with Owen’s words.

His declaration was bold, especially since it was directed to the number one warrior in the Central Region. It equated to a challenge if anything. Eddie, however, remained unfazed. He turned up his nose with a smirk as if amused that Owen even had the audacity to talk to him. To someone of Eddie’s rank, the so-called Shadow Wolf King killer wasn’t even worthy of a single glance, so he saw no need to respond to what he considered incessant babbling.

Marilyn giggled at Owen’s words. “Aren’t you being childish?” she asked him with the innocence of a fair child. “As a warrior, shouldn’t you be aware of the fact that power always comes first? How can you blame us for taking away your love when you were too weak to protect her in the first place? Aren’t you supposed to be a divine-level talent?”

“What? A divine-level talent?” The arena was suddenly abuzz with whispers at Marilyn’s words.

“Another divine-level talent? And he is an independent warrior?!”

“He should’ve joined a great sect! I’m sure they’d be clamoring for someone like him!”

“A divine-level talent is one in a million. They are bound to rule the world. Why would they even bother joining a sect?”

“Before he becomes a powerful warrior, he has to keep it low key. But, he doesn’t know about this. Alas! He shouldn’t have provoked Eddie. Now he’s dead meat for sure!”

Marilyn smiled upon hearing the bystanders’ words. “You’re a divine-level talent, but you don’t know how to keep a low profile. If I were you, I would’ve just hidden somewhere to cultivate and kept away from the world. Once strong enough, I would then reveal myself and take revenge,” she said. “To be honest, even if you aren’t able to avenge yourself, you could still steal someone else’s woman. It was a really stupid move to come out and court death.”

Owen’s face scrunched up in anger. “Do you think that everyone is like you?

Shameless!” he roared. Unable to bear it any longer, Owen swung his scimitar towards Marilyn, summoning a green, glowing tornado from nowhere. The tornado whooshed across the platform and towards the woman.

Marilyn’s brows twitched at the suddenness of the attack. Thinking quickly, she waved her lily-white hands and a stream of pure black life vitality burst forth from her, condensing into a vortex and completely eliminating the tornado.

She smiled at Owen. “Don’t be so hasty,” she teased, pouting cutely. “I know you want to kill me. It’s not like I’m not giving you this chance.” She floated to the center of the arena. “In fact, even if you do manage to kill me, you won’t be able to save your woman anyway. Although the Purple Power Body is rare, Eddie can always find other women with this kind of body. Do you understand? I’m disposable!”

Owen glared hard at Marilyn. “At least I can spin things out after killing you,” he said coldly.

Marilyn nodded, as if in understanding. “You want to spin things out until you become powerful enough to fight Eddie right?” she said, but then roughly shook her head. “Ah! What a pity! Even if you are a divine-level talent you can never hope to be a match for Eddie.”

Owen smirked. “You can never be too sure. Since you’ve stepped into this arena, I will definitely kill you,” he snarled. He raised his scimitar and roared, a cold burst of killing intent emanating from his body.

Upon the elevated platform of the Ethereal Spirit Sect, Xander was shaking his head as he looked down at the scene. He regarded Owen with disappointment. “This person’s talent is on par with Brent’s. His temperament is also steady and determined. What a pity! Young people are just too impulsive.”

Brent pouted at his words. “Is it really worth it to risk so much just for a woman?”

Xander smiled. “Ah Brent, you are still too young,” he remarked. “There are just some things you have yet to understand. The relationship between a man and a woman is just too complicated”

Brent huffed, “I just don’t think it’s worth it…” He was still young and all he really cared about was cultivation. The romantic affairs between a man and a woman were unknown and uninteresting to him.

“Don’t talk about things you don’t understand,” Philip snapped. In his eyes, Owen was a hero.

A man who was willing to die all for the sake of his beloved—how many warriors in this world were willing to do such a noble thing?

Their world was cruel. Every man was wholly concerned with himself. Masters and disciples would fight against each other for a single rare treasure while brothers were willing to kill one another for glory. However, here stood Owen, willing to risk it all in the name of love.

The audience was silent, all waiting with bated breath for what would happen next. Perhaps, in their hearts, some of them already began to root for Owen.

But was winning even truly a possibility?
Marilyn was at the middle stage of the Internal Elixir Realm while Owen was only at the ultimate stage of the Illuminating Soul Realm. There was a minuscule margin of possibility for him to win. But even if he did defeat her, the Evil East Lord remained a problem. He was the number one warrior of the Central Region after all!

Zen had provoked Eden earlier with his words, and Eddie had been caught off guard when his son’s warrior spirit was destroyed. Right now, Marilyn was the most important person for Eddie to be able to set up the Lustful Demon Array. He would not idly sit by and watch her get killed.

Whether he defeated her or not, Owen was doomed to fail.

A protective, luminous curtain gradually appeared, separating the audience from the arena for protection. Meanwhile, the curtain between Owen and Marilyn disappeared—it was time to turn threats into reality. “Let’s see how you plan to kill me.” The smile on her face was gone and replaced by a cold, piercing glare.

Owen did not reply. Since this woman had given him the chance, then he must seize it.

The match officially began. Owen was the first to make his move. Using his scimitar, he summoned fierce, green winds that swirled violently around his body. This wind armor would protect him and in turn, deal damage to his opponent. With a roar, he swiftly rushed towards Marilyn, pressing his body as close to the ground as possible. He was reminiscent of a cheetah, hurtling through the Savannah for his prey. In no time at all, he was already in front of Marilyn, sword raised and ready to send her to her doom.

“Full Moon Chop!”

Owen brought down his blade, drawing a perfect arc in the air as he swung it down towards Marilyn.

A series of soft laughs rang in the arena as Marilyn simply floated backward. Owen’s strike was heavy, but his opponent merely floated away from his blade—like a leaf blown away by the gentle wind.

Distance was key. No matter how strong or devastating his blade was, it was reduced to nothing since Marilyn knew how to utilize the space and maintain a certain distance between her and Owen.
Marilyn giggled, “You won’t be able to kill me with just this.”

Owen gritted his teeth and continued to chase after her, slashing relentlessly but never hitting anything but air.

It was almost as if Marilyn was teasing him. All she did was dodge, but she never retaliated with an attack of her own.

“Come on, Owen! Kill her! Kill her, Owen!”

“Owen, we support you!”

“That woman is too arrogant! I don’t like what she said! Get rid of her and I’ll be happy!”

A lot of the warriors in the audience were already on Owen’s side. Many of them were touched by his motive while also aggravated by what Marilyn had said moments before.

Naturally, Marilyn spoke with the perspective of a powerful warrior. It was true that strength was a very important thing to consider, but was it necessarily above everything? Did one’s strength justify trampling over other people? Did one’s strength justify stealing someone else’s woman?

Many of the warriors saw themselves in Owen’s shoes. If they were faced with the same situation and were told such things, then they too would also itch to kill this woman. So, though Marilyn was a beauty, none of them really liked her anymore.

In the world they all lived in, killing one another for treasure, betraying a close comrade, inciting conspiracy within the sect—these kinds of things were commonplace but that didn’t mean one could simply openly acknowledge it just like that. They did such kind of evil things and still dared to admit it in front of so many people. That was truly shameless.
At that moment, however, in the midst of cheering and fighting, Zen was feeling extremely nervous.

Owen’s appearance completely disrupted all of his plans.

Zen had originally suppressed his trump card and tried his hardest not to reveal his true capabilities.

Destroying Eden’s warrior spirit was only the first step, and he did it to provoke Eddie. If Eddie did not recognize him, then his second step would be to kill Marilyn by surprise. He had even gone as far as to tamper the enchanted barriers around the arena to ensure that everything would be under his control.

But Owen’s sudden challenge to Marilyn was an unforeseen hitch. It was fine if he was strong enough to kill her, but if he wasn’t, then he would merely injure her.

She might not be able to fight again or she might become paranoid and stay on alert which would be extremely troublesome for Zen. Owen had been chasing after Marilyn for about one minute. Groaning in frustration, Owen stopped and stood still in the middle of the arena.

The audience fell silent and waited with bated breath at what their hero was about to do next. Owen’s eyes suddenly began to glow as green spots appeared on his face. His ears grew and became sharper while his fingernails elongated and became extremely sharp—almost like claws.

“Beast transmogrifying?!” Zen’s eyebrows furrowed at Owen’s transformation. Were they finally going to see a real fight now?