Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 145: Making Waves

Furious, Li Luo exclaimed, “Don’t you fear the Slaughtering King’s wrath?”

“Miss, please don’t talk nonsense.” The manager innocently overlooked Li Luo’s angry gaze. “I’m simply following the rules set by the Yuelu Villa. If the Slaughtering King objects, surely I’m not the one to blame?”

The Yuelu Villa was itself a special existence on the Chenyuan continent. Although it wasn’t as superior a force as the Kongming Academy, it still possessed enough power that none of the four kingdoms could afford to neglect its existence.

The host of the Yuelu Villa, Dong Tiehe, was the de facto head and representative of the governing body for human cultivators, as well as the grandfather of the fourth prince, Li Qianyue.

As a result, even Li Mo had to tread carefully in the Yuelu Villa. It was this backing that allowed the manager to ignore Li Luo’s threats so blithely.

The two lion-type beasts had split up and surrounded Duan Tianyun from left and right. They bared their canines, eyes gleaming red.

Duan Tianyun’s eyes were grim, despair emanating from his face despite his effort to remain calm and collected. Having survived years of shame and injustice, was he now to die to these two lions without getting his revenge?

And yet his feral eyes remained bright as he stared at the two lions.

Frightened by his primal aura that eclipsed even their own, and having seen their fellow kind being slaughtered in his hands, the two lions were actually somewhat hesitant to attack the man.

“Well? Come on, bite him!” The crowd outside the fence was growing impatient by the lack of movement and blood.

“These two bastards aren’t frightened by that man, are they? Useless beasts!”

“Attack, attack, kill him!”

When he heard the commotion rising all around him, the masked crowd shouting for his death, Duan Tianyun couldn’t help but seethe with rage.

“Argh!” With a thunderous roar, he lifted the carcass of the lion he had just killed and slammed it against the fence.

Bang! The massive carcass slammed against the fence, momentarily frightening the crowds which had been clamoring against it.

A momentary silence befell the crowd before angry cries erupted.

“This beastkin actually dared provoke us humans?”

“Kill him, he can’t be allowed to live!”

“You think you’re safe in that little arena of yours?!”

“We’ll play with your corpse once those lions have had their fill!”

Li Luo, still standing on the manager’s dais, clenched her fists as she looked at the scene. At this rate, even if Duan Tianyun somehow managed to kill these two magical beasts, the frenzied crowd surely wouldn’t allow him to leave with his life.

She ignored the manager and began walking down from the platform.

“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Miss!” You think the Slaughtering King’s name works here in the Yuelu Villa? No matter how great his personal strength, he’s still a vassal of the emperor—and the host of the villa’s the emperor’s own father-in-law!

The manager turned back to the crowd to find them clamoring to send the arrogant beastkin to his death. Sneering, he began waving a little black flag toward the bottom of the dais, causing two more doors of the arena to open. Another two lion-type beasts emerged, and the four lions trapped Duan Tianyun among them.

Four lions against a single beastkin? It would be a slaughter!

The crowd began to jeer and cheer in equal measure, eagerly anticipating the bloody affair.

Yun Moxiao was still looking all around him in search of Li Luo when he saw her familiar green silhouette from a distance. Li Luo was rushing in the direction of the arena, and Yun Moxiao followed her.

With superiority in numbers, the four lions no longer had even a shred of fear against Duan Tianyun. Amidst the crowd’s cheers, they bared their fangs and pounced on the beastkin.

Duan Tianyun leaped up, climbed onto the neck of one beast, and pounded on its head.

Awooo!

The lion began to howl in pain and frantically shook its body, trying to expunge its beastkin rider. However, Duan Tianyun was prepared and was gripping its mane tightly. The other three lions wedged the saddled lion in the middle, trying to but finding no means of attacking the beastkin.

Realizing that its shaking was to no avail, the lion decided to roll on the ground instead. It took three or four tries before Duan Tianyun finally fell to the floor of the arena. The other three lions seized the opportunity to pounce on the prone beastkin. Two bit at his legs, and the remaining at his head.

Duan Tianyun gritted his teeth, bearing with the pain in his legs, as he stretched out his arms to force the lion’s jaws to remain open around his head. The remaining lion, having regained its freedom, clamped down on Duan Tianyun’s shoulder.

With a pained grunt, Duan Tianyun redirected the intense pain into physical power as he tore apart the jaws of the lion trying to bite on his head. This sight threw the crowd into a stunned silence.

“The beastkin are truly ferocious and physically gifted,” someone gasped.

Even if those lion-type beasts were low-tier, they were still horrendous existences for those without sufficient cultivation.

“And to think that the beastkin sent to the duelling arena have their cultivation sealed!”

“This beastkin was injured from the very beginning, and he was still a little sluggish when facing the first beast. Now, however, he seems to be getting more and more worked up.”

“How on earth did the Slaughtering King manage to defeat a race with such frightening physicality? No wonder the Slaughtering King chose to slaughter them to the last—if the beastkin were to rise up in rebellion, the human race would surely be endangered!”

Hushed murmurs spread across the crowd like wildfire.

Within the arena, after Duan Tianyun expended a considerable amount of strength to rip apart a lion’s jaws, his remaining vitality began to flag. After seeing their kind get killed, the other three lions clamping down on various parts of his body became even more ferocious.

“Arghhh!”

Duan Tianyun’s left arm had been entirely severed and torn off, and the unimaginable pain almost caused Duan Tianyun to faint.

In a haze-like vision, he thought he could see the wuye flowers blooming at the peak of the Yueli Mountain, reaching out toward the sky and covering the entire mountainside in a fiery blaze…

No longer would he have a chance to return to his hometown. Duan Tianyun slowly shut his eyes, refusing to put on a show for the bloodthirsty crowd to the very end.

“Senior brother!” Li Luo’s heart wrenched as she saw the scene of Duan Tianyun’s impending death. Heedless of the danger, she pushed off someone’s shoulders and leaped into the arena.

When Yun Moxiao saw the green silhouette in the arena, his heart thumped.

Li Luo quickly pulled out a sword and thrust it at the three lions still attacking Duan Tianyun.

One of the lions howled as it slumped onto the ground. The other two, wary of the newcomer, pulled Duan Tianyun’s prone body behind them as they stared at Li Luo. When Duan Tianyun heard Li Luo’s voice, he struggled to open his eyes.

“Junior sister, leave me be! You’re no match for them!” Duan Tianyun cried out hoarsely.

“Senior brother, I’m here to save you. No matter what, I’ll get you out of this cursed arena!”

Awooo!

The two lions howled as they pounced on Li Luo, who barely dodged to the side. Without giving her any time to relax, the two beasts chased after her in hot pursuit. Li Luo could only use her footwork to dodge their attacks by the barest of margins, with no opportunity to strike back.

As she depleted her spiritual energy, Li Luo’s agility left her. The two lions got in a pincer formation, one in front and one behind her, and pounced as one.

Duan Tianyun tried to climb up to defend his junior sister, but he had wholly exhausted his strength. He had lost far too much blood from the gaping wound by his left shoulder, and it was already an incredible feat that he remained conscious as he watched the two lions brutalize his junior sister.

Li Luo blocked the lion in front of her, but the lion behind opened its gaping maws wide as it pounced at her back.

“Junior sister, behind you!” Duan Tianyun called out. Li Luo turned around to see the lion’s sharp claws about to rake at her defenseless body.

But just as Li Luo’s death drew near, a man jumped out of nowhere and shielded her body. The man seized her by the waist and expertly twisted both of them away from the lion’s claws.

Peng!

Then, he kicked at its head with his bare feet.

“Can you stand?” He was dressed in a dark-red robe and wearing a black-ghost mask. Li Luo nodded, her head still somewhat dazed, and Yun Moxiao removed his hand from her waist.

Yun Moxiao turned to face the last lion, his body emanating so concentrated a beastmaster’s aura that the lion slowly prostrated in front of him.

“You’re far too weak,” Yun Moxiao sneered. “Wholly unfit to be one of my contracted beasts.”

He raised a fist, imbued it with spiritual energy, and smashed the lion’s head into the ground.

“My thanks for your timely assistance, savior.” Only then did Li Luo react, thanking Yun Moxiao and running hurriedly to her senior brother.

Duan Tianyun’s body was filled with all sorts of wounds. His left arm had been bitten off entirely, and viscous blood pooled beneath his body.

“Senior brother, how are you?” Li Luo took out a pill from a porcelain bottle and fed it to him.

“I won’t die just yet.” Duan Tianyun swallowed, gasped, and passed out.

“He needs immediate treatment,” Yun Moxiao advised. “I’ll bring the two of you out.”

“What’s going on? Where did those two fellows come from?”

“Are those the beastkin’s companions?”

The crowd was startled by their sudden appearance.

“Seize them!” the manager shouted from atop his dais. The guards stationed around the arena hastily unlocked the fence and surrounded the trio.

Yun Moxiao leaned down, hoisted up Duan Tianyun on his back, and gripped Li Luo by her waist. A yellow sword aura gleamed from beneath his feet as the three of them soared into the skies amidst the crowd’s outraged hubbub.