chsdbacks Chapter 239: The Colosseum, the Sect Token
Chapter 239: The Colosseum, the Sect Token
A deafening roar resounded throughout the arena. A black-armored tiger demon, over ten meters tall, stood upright. Its scales were as if cast from black iron, and each sharp spike gleamed with a chilling light. It opened its blood-red maw, and jet-black demonic fire erupted forth, instantly engulfing the ground within a hundred meters radius. The acrid smell of burning flesh swept across the entire arena with the wind.
Opposite stood a burly man wielding a large sword. Seeing the demonic fire approaching, he calmly tapped his toes, his body floating dozens of feet backward, barely avoiding the wave of fire. At the same time, he gripped his sword with both hands and slashed upward! A solid, silver-white sword light shot out from the air, slashing down hard onto the tiger demon's back, forcefully breaking through its tough scales and leaving a deep wound that exposed bone.
Dark demonic blood gushed from the wound, instantly igniting the emotions of the entire audience. The crowd in the stands went completely mad; some roared and pounded on the stone steps, while others stamped their feet, beat their chests, and cursed incessantly.
Zhang Ping vaguely heard a burly, red-faced man next to him slapping his thigh and wailing, saying that he had placed the wrong bet and should have bet on the cultivator to win.
Zhang Ping looked at the frenzied crowd around him and sighed silently. The allure of gambling knows no boundaries. Even cultivators who are obsessed with achieving immortality cannot resist the temptation of overnight riches, and often fall deeper into it than ordinary people.
This is the arena of Penglai Immortal City, where dozens of battles are held daily, and occasionally life-or-death duels between cultivators are also arranged. There are no fixed matches here; all battles are live and real. Even spectators can join the fray at any time with the organizer's permission.
Zhang Ping didn't know who the organizer of this arena was, but he guessed it must be a powerful figure with connections throughout Penglai Immortal City. Three battles were specially reserved each day for the cultivators present to freely challenge each other.
He came here today not to become a plaything for others' amusement. His purpose was to obtain a sect token.
Establishing a sect in Penglai is both easy and difficult. The area boasts abundant spiritual energy, vast territory, and stunning scenery, attracting a constant stream of cultivators—almost a chosen place for establishing a sect. However, the drawbacks are equally apparent:
Most of the territory of Penglai is under the control of Penglai Immortal City, with only the peripheral areas being unrestricted. However, those areas are either poorly endowed with spiritual energy and have harsh environments, or they are already occupied by sects of all sizes, making it extremely difficult for new sects to squeeze in, and the competition is fierce.
Through his reconnaissance over the past few days, Zhang Ping has identified several prime locations not far from Penglai Immortal City. However, to establish a sect in these places, he must first obtain a sect token officially recognized by Penglai Immortal City.
Of course, he could also choose not to obtain the sect token and directly establish his own sect by acquiring land.
However, this made them a notorious "illegal sect" in Penglai, hindering their actions at every turn. They couldn't even openly recruit disciples in Penglai Immortal City, let alone publish sect information in the Penglai Gazette.
While officially established sects are subject to the control of Penglai Immortal City, this place is located in the center of the Taihu Lake region and is peaceful and free from war year-round. Apart from paying a certain amount of spirit currency tax to Penglai Immortal City every year, they have almost no other affairs.
The Immortal City will never interfere with the internal development of a sect. More importantly, with the sect holding the order under the protection of the Penglai Immortal City, other sects will never dare to attack it at will, ensuring its stability.
However, if it's an unregistered sect, this protection is lost. Surrounding sects are happy to break through the sect's gates and loot everything in the dead of night.
In addition, illegal sects can only recruit disciples secretly, which not only slows down the accumulation of disciples, but also results in a wide variety of good and bad disciples being recruited, making it impossible to find any good prospects.
As for the beautiful female sword immortal that Zhang Ping occasionally jokingly imagined, that was absolutely impossible.
There are only three ways to obtain the sect token.
The first option is to establish connections with influential figures in the city and directly approach them to request the item. This path is clearly unsuitable for Zhang Ping, who is alone.
The second option is to purchase them directly with spirit coins. However, sect tokens are extremely rare in the market, and they are snapped up instantly whenever they appear, making it very difficult to keep any. Zhang Ping inquired for several days but didn't hear any news about sect token auctions.
As for the last path, it is to win five consecutive matches in the Penglai Colosseum.
Anyone who can win five consecutive matches will receive a legitimate sect token directly from the organizers. This rule has been in place for decades, but very few people have actually managed to win five consecutive matches.
The rules of the arena are extremely strict: in the first match, the opponent is a demon beast of the same cultivation level as the challenger; in each subsequent match, the difficulty increases progressively.
If we consider Zhang Ping's cultivation level at the early stage of the Divine Harmony Realm, the fifth opponent he would face would be a demonic beast at the peak of the early stage of the Divine Harmony Realm. Moreover, it would not be an ordinary demonic beast, but rather a top-tier and extremely troublesome species among demonic beasts in terms of killing power.
It is said that since this rule was established, over the decades, no more than ten people have successfully obtained the sect token by winning five consecutive matches.
Because of the risks and difficulties involved, most cultivators who want a sect token will choose to cultivate connections, find a way in, or wait for an auction opportunity.
But Zhang Ping didn't have that much time to wait, nor did he want to wait.
……
Outside the arena, a group of young cultivators were arriving together, with Xiang Chunyuan and Xin Yuhan leading the way.
Xiang Chunyuan smiled and introduced the person to the people around him:
"This is the most famous arena in Penglai Immortal City. Every day, cultivators fight against demonic beasts. The scene is extremely intense, and challengers mostly have to face demonic beasts with higher cultivation levels than themselves."
"The battles were extremely fierce, with cultivators often being no match for the demonic beasts and dying on the spot. However, some cultivators managed to win multiple battles in a row, winning huge amounts of spiritual items and spiritual coins, and rising to the top in one step."
Everyone else had heard of the Penglai Colosseum to some extent, but standing in front of this magnificent building and listening to the deafening noise inside, they couldn't help but feel excited and their faces were full of excitement.
"Brother Chun, we're all here, why don't we just go down and fight the monsters?"
Lin Lun glanced casually at Xin Yuhan beside him, then patted his chest and shouted loudly. Young people are always hot-blooded, and between showing off and showing off even more, they will always choose the latter.
A few people nearby echoed his sentiment, but most of them hesitated. They had long heard of the arena's fearsome reputation. When they were gathering information before, they heard from those cultivators who had witnessed the arena that, while there was excitement and anticipation, there was also a hidden fear of bloodshed.
Cultivators are not afraid of bloodshed, but few can watch their fellow beings being torn apart by demonic beasts on the spot without showing any fear.
Just then, Xiang Chunyuan clapped his hands and smiled as he smoothed things over: "Let's go in and take a look first. As for the fight, it's not that serious yet."
He calmly took over the conversation, glanced at Xin Yuhan beside him, and then led the way into the arena.
There is no entrance fee, but there is a minimum requirement for the cultivation level of those who wish to enter. The group of people were all cultivators at the Divine Integration Realm, so they easily passed the check.
Upon entering the arena, several rounds of beast fighting had already taken place, and the seats on the stone steps were almost completely filled, with only a few empty spaces remaining in the corners. Xiang Chunyuan glanced around and quickly spotted an empty space in the right corner, just big enough for their group, so he led everyone over.
As soon as the group sat down, Xin Yuhan's gaze suddenly stopped and fell on a figure not far to her right.
She slightly opened her beautiful eyes, a sense of surprise rising in her heart.
Isn't this the person on the flying boat who recited "Ten thousand taels of golden scales fall to earth"?