Chapter 991: Winner Takes It All
Starting with Kong Luoyue and Shi Bujia, the Supremes in the Residence of Nine Supremes stepped into their respective battles. The shock that there were dozen of sects waiting to challenge them was tremendous.
The Residence of Nine Supremes had only been recently erected. The registered leader was a newly Ascended bumpkin. The school had only been established for less than half a year. This was the softest doormat one could step on and walk over!
Why were famed tough figures like the Demiurge-Flawed Ten popping out like mushrooms after the rain once the sect had been challenged?
It was understandable if they showed up, but why were their capabilities two times higher than what was rumored? No, they were several times more skilled than rumors would have it - this was basically a nightmare. It was a collective nightmare of all the sects wishing to challenge the Residence of Nine Supremes!
Their confidence had soared upon their arrival, high enough to warrant their qualifications but they had become the ones sending the qualifications to their targets instead. What the heck?
The Demiurge-Flawed Ten had been identified as the whetstones by notable schools, but to these mediocre sects, each one of them was still a masterly expert. Moreover, their cultivation base and capability had doubled.
When it was Shi Wuchen's turn to fight, the four remaining sects outside no longer had the spirit to do battle.
As the Demiurge-Flawed Ten made headway one after another, a total of seven sects were exterminated before the Residence of Nine Supremes' mountain. The spectators were almost numbed by the massacre; how could they repeat the mistake and turn themselves into the next casualty? This was no different than committing suicide!
"Don't attack - we're only here to watch, only to watch!"
The members from five or six sects outside said simultaneously, "We don't plan to join the Celestial Luck Banner contest anyway... We're only here to observe the differences in strength..."
The leaders of those sects felt their hearts bleed as they spoke. Here to observe the differences in strength? What was the difference of personally denying their qualifications from dishing their qualifications to others?
It felt absolutely horrible and they had to put up a front, hiding any hint of unhappiness, lest the other party seize the opportunity and secure the accusation with evidence. In spite of this, taking in the sight of corpses piled up outside the Residence of Nine Supremes and the thicker stench of blood, everyone felt more alert than ever.
At least being exasperated and angry was better than turning into a corpse!
The first few batches of men from the Residence of Nine Supremes were devils reborn. They had no mercy at all, landing lethal strikes each time they dealt an attack.
There were at least thirty people sent by each sect from the seven schools that came forward to challenge the Residence of Nine Supremes, but none of them was lucky enough to survive, all of them laid out before the school's mountain gate lifelessly.
They had the same purpose; to subdue the Residence of Nine Supremes, to take the Residence of Nine Supremes as their stepping stone, to achieve the warrant to the Celestial Luck Banner match. Instead, all of them had become the sect's stepping stones!
Perhaps, the sects that began the challenge were relatively weaker, but everyone else had stepped forward, assuming sufficient confidence after that. After all, why embark on the conquest of the Celestial Luck Banner without any confidence?
The end was the same, however. The Demiurge-Flawed Ten in the past, the eight Supremes of the Residence of Nine Supremes currently, were each stronger than the other. Their skills were so intimidating that the rest of them lost the ambition to fight! They would rather lie to themselves and give up, hoping to survive by assuming the submissive and pitiful front.
This was capability speaking. The blood that streamed before the Residence of Nine Supremes and the two hundred bodies of martial world experts that laid scattered across the area was evidence of it.
Shi Wuchen squinted.
He had not expected these fellows to surrender when it came to his turn... Should the schools that lasted to the end not be the strongest? Why were they caving in? This was unreasonable!
How was he going to train his pupils when they relented?
"Never mind, clean up these corpses."
Shi Wuchen ordered, "Search each dead body carefully. They were the challengers this time, the rule on killing but not robbing is void... Everything here is our loot, without a doubt."
"Our sect is new. We cannot waste any resources, including weapons and clothes."
The five schools that were lucky to stay out of the battle summed up to about two hundred people. They stood rooted to the ground like clay statues as they watched the ten soft children search and pat down corpses in the bloody battleground. Everyone felt a rushing impulse to vomit.
A leg and an arm were flipped over and turned in the effort to recover anything that was valuable... It felt as if the kids were rummaging through them instead - if it were their sect that attacked just now, would they be the ones that would be ransacked instead?
The spectators could not help the sense of nausea that ran through them, but what about the ten young disciples who were executing their master's command?
The ten of them were just young and naïve children!
Shi Wuchen's ten pupils were pale, not looking any better than the pupils of the seven Supremes who came out just now, but none of them slowed down in their actions. They did not even look hesitant.
Shi Wuchen's words were cold and forbidding.
"If it were the Residence of Nine Supremes that lost, the ones laid on the ground now will be all of you, the ones desecrated will be you as well."
"Winner takes it all. This is the martial arts world's law of elimination."
"The winner will become stronger to survive and once he loses, he'll become the loot of the land he was defeated on. If you don't want to be defeated and killed, if you don't want to become other's loot, you must grow to be powerful from now on and always be stronger."
"I can determine the battle's end for all of you today, but you'll have to roam the martial world on your own sooner or later, you'll have to face the cruelness of the reality on your own."
"Kindness can exist in your hearts, but unnecessary sympathy must be discarded."
"This is the martial world."
"The reality will not yield to you because of sympathy and grief. Remember today and don't forget it throughout this lifetime!"
...
The members of the remaining five schools stood aside, listening to Shi Wuchen's teachings like they were not there. Each of them felt a chill that crept up and lingered within them. There was only one emotion left for them.
Regret.
The Residence of Nine Supremes felt like a pack of famished wolves, famished wolves that were savage. What they taught the disciples was bloody, it was the reality.
Shi Wuchen eventually left with his pupils, but the blood and the corpses on the ground were left as they were, even more striking and nauseating than before. This was because Yun Yang had yet to step out. What was left were tools, excellent tools to educate their disciples.
Although these were living flesh and blood prior to being killed and their remains exposed, they had to pay the equivalent price, since they had chosen to try to annihilate the Residence of Nine Supremes. The price was not only their lives, but they had also become the Residence of Nine Supremes' devices.
They were tools to be used before and after their death; as were their lives, so were their corpses!
There were no more challenges. The five schools that were long terrified left quietly, afraid that any noise or large movements would be interpreted as a provocation.