An Unfair Contest
The hostile confrontation at the village free from materialistic greed continued. The cultivators stared at the white ape fiend king as they awaited his response.
“I have with me five Primordial Infant and five Body Severing Realm youths with me. How about you select twenty cultivators among your ranks? We can have a fair twenty-man battle, Primordial Infant Realm against Primordial Infant Realm and Body Severing Realm against Body Severing Realm? If we win two rounds, we shall have ownership over the spiritual qi core for a month. If we win twenty matches, we shall bestride the village for ten months. If our score is an odd number, we will give up on it,” proposed the white ape fiend king.
Humanity was clearly given an advantage. The fiends would have had to fight two matches each, while humans only had to fight one each. Even if humanity lost, they could still use the village for, at least, two months. If humanity declined, they gave the fiend race an excuse to pick fights. After all, the handicap was apparent.
The white ape fiend king obviously wouldn’t have given himself the handicap if he didn’t have faith in his ten fighters. If the fiend race won, humanity would have to be wary of the fiend race, and any future negotiations would be doubly troublesome.
“That’s the most arrogant thing I’ve heard all week,” responded Cang Wanzi.
“Needless to say, if you think your people can’t hold a candle to ours, there’s nothing I can say. That said, it’ll count as our win, and the village will be ours.”
“And if we refuse?”
“In that scenario, I’ll just take the spiritual qi core by force. What can you do about it?”
Humanity was the party to break the agreement between their races, giving the fiend race justified grounds to make things hard for humanity. That was why the fiend race wasn’t afraid. Frankly, Cang Wanzi didn’t have as much confidence as he tried to let on.
“Let’s make it fair, then. We will send just ten to match your numbers. Otherwise, people will accuse us of bullying you,” suggested Daoist Yuan Hua, taking the possibility of the fiend race labelling the wager unfair in the end if they lose.
“Fine by me. So, will today do?” The white ape fiend king smirked, knowing he was imposing an undesirable circumstance on humanity. “Surely there must be plenty of impressive young talent present. Humanity should be able to easily find ten elites, right?”
The white ape fiend king had a point. Humanity, after all, came to the village in droves for the spiritual qi core. However, lacking confidence, Cang Wangzi asked the others in a soft voice, “What do you say?”
“They’re clearly not giving us time to find suitable participants,” replied Daoist Yua Hua.
“What if we drag out the discussion to stall for time? Once our prodigies show up, they will be burying themselves,” asserted Goddess Piaomiao.
“They will probably have another bag of tricks for that occasion,” scoffed Cang Wangzi.
“You have my vote. If we stall for time, he will try something else knowing him. He’s not the all brawn and no brains type.” Daoist Yuan Hua paused before he went on. “I’m sure a lot of people are to find out more about the spiritual qi core. From what I can tell, we have plenty of commendable young individuals here. We can find ten capable candidates.”
“I agree. We can’t let them call us cowards,” concurred Cang Wanzi. “All right, give us a moment to assemble our team. How about we commence at noon? You fiends have spent days waiting, so you can wait a few more hours, can’t you.”
The fiend king mulled over the plausibility and then nodded.
The cultivators made room for the three respected cultivators and kept their mouths zipped. Better to say nothing than say something wrong.
Loudly and clearly, Cang Wanzi took charge and inquired, “Ladies and gentlemen, we need to step up to the challenge since the fiends have issued us a challenge. May I ask who would be willing to represent us?”
“Me!”
The young cultivators feared the white ape fiend king. Howbeit, they didn’t fear the younger fiends. They enthusiastically offered to take on the fiends because it was also a golden opportunity to prove themselves and possibly score a handsome reward.
“Please let me finish. We must defeat them, which is why we need candidates who have the highest chances of winning. Accordingly, please step forward if you are at Primordial Infant Realm or Body Severing Realm’s Ninth Layer.”
They could hear dirt moving along the ground.
“Primordial Infant and Body Severing Realm Ninth Layer cultivators, please step forward,” Cang Wanzi repeated, fingers fidgeting.
Woeful silence again.
There were cultivators in both realms at the scene. Having said that, Ninth Layer youths would’ve been training at home instead of loitering at a village and trying to break bones with words.
“Mu Yu, we going to sign up? How about we go teach those whipper snappers a lesson?” suggested Xiaoshuai.
Aware that troubles succeeding the fights would bring him more troubles than it was worth, Mu Yu responded, “Not interested.”
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