Chapter 1861: Five Viscera Temple
Half Saint Jinwu suddenly spoke as he watched the scenes inside the Saint Tower, "Half Saint Zangxue, do you think this lad resembles Fang Lie?"
A figure slowly stepped forward from behind him. It was precisely Half Saint Zangxue of the Luoxue Alliance. She had chosen not to return to her own Inner Domain, opting instead to watch the battle from within Half Saint Jinwu's Inner Domain.
Half Saint Zangxue replied calmly, "The way he does things is somewhat similar. He'll use any means necessary to achieve his goals."
"He has also awakened a sword divine ability," said Half Saint Jinwu. "He suppressed and killed dozens of foreign race peers with a single sword strike. The methods of those foreign races were far from weak. With this kind of talent, had he been born into one of those powerful races, he would have undoubtedly become a figure like Longsheng in the future," muttered Half Saint Jinwu softly to himself.
Half Saint Zangxue cast him a glance. "What are you trying to say?"
Half Saint Jinwu said, "One Fang Lie is enough for the human race. Having one more person of his caliber brings absolutely no benefit to us."
Half Saint Zangxue pondered for a brief moment and said indifferently, "What do you plan to do? We have no way to manipulate the battlefield inside the Saint Tower."
Half Saint Jinwu's tone was grave. "If he dies inside the Saint Tower, then so be it. But if he comes out alive, the two of us shall join forces to keep him here permanently."
"Then we would have to strike against Half Saint Zangling. Her backer is Saint Wandao. Whether in divine abilities or background, that person is likely to be even harder to deal with than Fang Lie. Saint Luoxue might not necessarily approve of me doing this," said Half Saint Zangxue with a frown.
Half Saint Jinwu said, "Fang Cangyue died by your hands back then, and Fang Lie stood by and watched without saving you. You and the Fang Clan are already as incompatible as fire and water. As for Saint Luoxue's side, he won't censure you either. After all, both you and I possess the opportunity to become a Saint."
"We shall see when the time comes," replied Half Saint Zangxue.
Hearing that, a smile surfaced in Half Saint Jinwu's eyes, and he nodded. He didn't press further.
***
The Vajra Race woman was finally besieged to death.
Immediately, everyone turned toward Fang Chen with anger, wanting to settle the score for his slacking.
A divine ability user sneered. "You enjoyed fishing in troubled water earlier? You wanted to preserve your strength and attack us once our energy is depleted?"
The remaining four also tacitly surrounded Fang Chen. One of them said, "Kill him first, then the four of us will fight in pairs to determine the final victor."
"Very well."
"It's a deal."
In an instant, the five launched a simultaneous attack against Fang Chen. In their eyes, if even the Vajra Race woman could not withstand their combined attack, how long could this shameless opportunist who fished in troubled waters last? At most, he would last three or five exchanges.
***
Three to five exchanges later, the five divine ability users were killed one after another.
At that point, Fang Chen was the sole survivor left in the deathmatch zone.
The massive Deathmatch Token instantly transformed into a streak of golden light and shot sharply toward Fang Chen. Fang Chen stood perfectly still, watching it quietly. The golden light circled around him once before transforming into a faint halo that floated behind him.
Fang Chen frowned slightly. "The Saint Tower Battle is really not that simple. This is a form of restriction and weakening imposed on those with extraordinary strength."
The halo signified that he was the victor of a deathmatch. If he survived two, there would probably be two halos. Because of their presence, everyone would be able to tell he had survived deathmatches before. It would be hard to play weak and catch people off guard anymore.
At the same time, however, it could save him a fair amount of trouble. Weak opponents would now flee upon seeing him rather than forcibly attack. But they could also band together and besiege him.
"No wonder it's said breaking into the top 100,000 is difficult. Anyone with enough talent could still die beneath a joint siege. This is one of the vetting processes the Qingming Supreme Alliance uses to select talent. Their requirements for talent... are even higher than I imagined."
Fang Chen glanced at the faintly visible Inner Domain gateways in the void. His figure suddenly transformed into a streak of light and sped into the distance.
Meanwhile, deathmatches were erupting one after another throughout the other regions of the Sacred Tower.
Participants were constantly perishing and being eliminated. It could be said that within just a few days of the start of the Saint Tower Battle, at least seventy to eighty percent of the contestants had already died. The primary reason lay in the sheer volume of participants, making this level of elimination an absolute certainty.
***
"Fang Han, those from the Fang Clan are doomed to die this time! Stop running and face death like a man, haha!"
***
"Wang Chongsong, you didn't expect us to cross paths so quickly, did you? Weren't you incredibly arrogant back in Longsheng City? Keep being arrogant now!"
"Xian Hong, you absolute bastard!"
***
"Fang Qianxue, you and I are bound to fight a life-and-death match today."
"Everyone fears you, Little Jinwu, but do you think I do? If you want to fight, then fight. What's with all the nonsense!"
***
"Listen up, everyone! Slaughter every single one of these Foundation Realm cultivators from the Fang Clan, leave absolutely no survivors!"
"Everyone, fight it out with these little brats from the Jinyang Alliance!"
***
The conflicts occurring among the human race inside the Saint Tower were merely some of the most ordinary incidents in this Saint Tower Battle. Similar occurrences were widespread among the foreign races as well, so they did not attract much attention from the onlookers.
***
Fang Chen walked along the mountain path.
"Half a year has passed..."
Not far ahead, a temple seemed to loom indistinctly.
Behind Fang Chen hovered three faint golden halos. In just half a year, he had experienced three consecutive deathmatches. Aside from the first one, the remaining two were simply a result of terrible luck. He happened to be passing by when the Deathmatch Tokens locked him squarely inside the zones.
The number of foreign competitors who had died by his hands was already beyond count, yet he had still not crossed paths with a single human divine ability user. Going through these deathmatches had, however, allowed him to witness a great deal of the divine abilities mastered by various foreign races. Aside from an extremely rare few individual exceptions, everyone's divine abilities looked somewhat different on the surface but were fundamentally the same.
Soon, Fang Chen arrived before the temple. Instead of entering, he dissolved into the shadows to observe silently.
Meanwhile, a group of Flame Race divine ability users walked over unhurriedly.
"That was a truly satisfying slaughter. The number of human divine ability users we killed is at least eight, right?"
"Just about there. You could say we have helped the Flame Race sever the human race's future line of geniuses. If those people didn't die here, every single one of them would have had a chance to enter the Breaking Limit Realm in the future."
There were eight of them in total, and every single one was a peak sixth transformation with a robust foundation. Fang Chen faintly sensed that their strength had already come infinitely close to the level of someone like Xie Aman.
From their conversation, it was clear that this group of Flame Race cultivators had killed quite a few human race divine ability users.
"There's a temple here. Let's go in and take a look. Maybe there's something unusual inside," one of them suggested upon spotting the temple ahead.
"More like some hidden danger."
The others shook their heads.
"Let's not tarry here for long. Although the eight of us fear no one if we join hands, we must still be careful of being ambushed or forced into a death match zone."
"What if Longsheng left a treasure inside the temple?"
"Then we might as well take a look."
The group of Flame Race members exchanged glances and began walking toward the temple.
However, halfway there, the eight reached an absolute tacit understanding and unleashed their attacks directly, launching their most powerful offensive against the temple.
The next instant, a massive tongue shot sharply out from within the temple, striking toward the eight Flame Race members.
A Flame Race member burst into wild laughter upon seeing this. He was filled with delight rather than alarm. "Haha! I knew it was a divine ability user from the Chenxiang Alliance! This is the Five Viscera Temple divine ability, isn't it? Today, you are doomed to die at the hands of us brothers!"