Chapter 45: Who Gave You the Chance?

The title of city lord for Liyuan City would soon be decided, taken by a cultivator from the Huoli Divine Realm named Huozhen Da.
The final contest for the city lordship of Lifei City was also approaching.
Zong Jing stood up, glanced around the arena, and saw that all the cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage from the Eight Realms were staring at Qu Yi, while the Divine Kings of the Eight Realms looked at him with murderous intent in their eyes.
Especially those ten experts—Qiu Guanyi, Tian Chaoyi, Bai Feiyi, Sang Yunyi, Gongye Yi, Jin Ziyi, Yan Tianyi, Wu Zhuangyi, Qiu Guanyu, and Gongye Qing—all held a fierce killing intent toward Qu Yi.
“The last individual battle among the Divine Marshal stage cultivators is for the city lordship of Lifei City. All those who wish to compete for it may go to the battle platform now to register,” Zong Jing said calmly, creating a solemn atmosphere.
As soon as he finished speaking, the Divine Marshal stage cultivators from the Eight Realms erupted in cheers, their eyes all fixed on Qu Yi.
Qu Yi remained motionless.
The Divine Marshal stage cultivators were stunned and grew uneasy. Could it be that Qu Yi didn’t want to compete for the city lordship of Lifei City, as everyone had expected?
If Qu Yi refused to participate, no one could blame him—there was no rule requiring every cultivator to take part in the battle.
“This Qu Yi is really cunning. He let the people from Tianfeng Fort take all the city lordships, while he stays hidden and avoids taking risks.”
“If Qu Yi doesn’t participate, he can just send a Divine Marshal stage cultivator from Tianfeng Fort. Why would he take risks?”
“Yes, after seeing the murderous looks from the ten strongest people of the Eight Clans, Qu Yi has every reason to avoid the battle. After all, this battle platform isn’t like the Divine Realm, where he could escape at will. If he surrenders, he’ll be plagued by inner demons in his cultivation, making it hard for him to progress. Then he won’t pose a threat to the Eight Clans either.”
…
In just a moment, various guesses arose among the cultivators of the Eight Realms.
“Qu Yi, are you going to participate in the battle or not?” A cultivator from the Huoli Divine Realm spoke up, his voice filled with anger.
At that sound, the Divine Marshal stage cultivators once again turned their eyes to Qu Yi.
A cold glint appeared in Qu Yi’s eyes as he stared at the cultivator who had asked. It seemed as though the latter’s soul was instantly emptied; he trembled violently, appearing insane.
“Why should I answer you?” Qu Yi replied indifferently.

Upon hearing this, the cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage of the Eight Realms became furious. From Qu Yi’s words, it seemed he might come or might not, which was tantamount to no answer at all. As the cultivators of the Eight Realms waited for Qu Yi to make a decision, such an answer only filled them with sorrow.

“Hmph! Whether you come to fight or not, I’ll register first and wait for you, Qu Yi.” Suddenly, Gongye Qing flew up from his seat and was the first to reach the fighting platform.

This move immediately alerted the other nine masters, who then—Qiu Guanyi, Tian Chaoyi, Bai Feiyi, Sang Yunyi, Gongye Yi, Jin Ziyi, Yan Tianyi, Wu Zhuangyi, and Qiu Guanyu—also took off and headed to the fighting platform.

If Qu Yi came to fight, all ten of them would go all out to kill him. If he didn’t show up, they would still defeat the cultivators from Tianfeng Fort who came to fight, leaving Qu Yi haunted by guilt.

These ten believed firmly that Qu Yi would never back down and would definitely appear on the fighting platform.

“Well done!” The cultivators at the Divine Marshal stage of the Eight Realms cheered loudly, their voices thundering through the air.

Seeing the behavior of these ten, Qu Yi understood their intentions all too well. He wasn’t refusing to register for the fight; he just didn’t want to be the first to step onto the platform. Now that the ten had already arrived, there was no need for him to wait any longer.

“All brothers of Tianfeng Fort who haven’t been to the fighting platform yet can follow me and join the competition for the position of City Lord of Lifei City.” Qu Yi rose swiftly and called out loudly, a fierce fighting spirit surrounding him.

In an instant, the Divine Marshal cultivators of Tianfeng Fort who had been prepared earlier all stood up. Then, 16,000 other cultivators from Tianfeng Fort who had never fought before also took off and flew to the fighting platform.

Qing Wugui, Wu Yuan, and the nine other leaders of Tianfeng Fort except Fei Changxia also followed and arrived at the fighting platform.

After everyone had gathered there, Qu Yi calmly took off and slowly landed on the platform. Standing in front of all the cultivators from Tianfeng Fort, he faced the ten most powerful Divine Marshal cultivators from the eight royal families.

“Qu Yi, you’ve finally come up,” the ten said excitedly, licking their lips and shouting loudly.

Clearly, these ten had already received orders from the divine kings of their respective families. The purpose of this individual battle was to kill Qu Yi. Now that he had finally appeared on the platform, their mission seemed within reach—how could they not be excited?

Qu Yi glanced at the ten of them indifferently, shook his head, sighed, and said calmly, “You ten don’t hold any grudges against me, do you? Why do you look at me so viciously? Since you’re determined to kill me, that means you’ve chosen to be my enemies. You’re doomed to die at my hands.”
Qing Wu Gui and Wu Yuan started to sneer darkly.
The 16,000 cultivators from Tianfeng Fort who participated in the battle also burst into laughter, looking at the ten of them as if they were pitiful creatures.
“Enough talk. Since Qu Yi, you’ve already come onto the stage, we’ll eventually fight. Now, let’s wait for the host to announce the start of the battle,” Qiu Guanyi said calmly, putting an end to the conversation between the two sides.
Seeing that both sides had calmed down, Zong Jing smiled and said, “The rules remain the same—draw lots to determine the opponents.”
Immediately, a disc the size of 200 meters appeared, already containing over 16,000 cards.
All those on the battle platform immediately reached out and grabbed a card from the disc, flipped it open, checked the color at the bottom, and quickly determined their opponents.
“Haha…”
Suddenly, Wu Zhuang started laughing wildly while holding up his card.
Purple!
Qu Yi’s card was also purple. Undoubtedly, Wu Zhuang was thrilled to have drawn Qu Yi right from the first draw, completely immersed in the excitement of killing him.
Qu Yi shrugged and gave Wu Zhuang a pitiful look.
At that moment, Wu Yuan also exclaimed, “Haha! I drew Gongye Qing, that guy who was tenth on the rankings the day before yesterday. He should be able to help me improve my spear skills.”
“I’ll fight Qiu Guanyu, the ninth on the rankings. His strength should be pretty good too,” Qing Wu Gui added.
With over 16,000 cultivators from Tianfeng Fort participating in the battle, it was astonishing that Qu Yi, Wu Yuan, and Qing Wu Gui all drew opponents from the top ten of the rankings the day before yesterday.
Gongye Qing and Qiu Guanyu looked at Wu Yuan and Qing Wu Gui with cold expressions. Since they didn’t have a chance to kill Qu Yi in the first round, killing the two people around him would suffice.
At this point, Zong Jing retrieved the disc and said calmly, “The drawing is complete. The opponents can now begin the battle.”
In an instant, the battle platform expanded rapidly, and over 8,000 transparent light shields appeared. Everyone on the platform understood Zong Jing’s intention and went into one of the shields, ending up in the same shield as their opponent.

Naturally, among these more than eight thousand combat arenas, only ten people were fighting against the top ten fighters from the previous day’s rankings. In the other arenas, it was members of Tianfeng Fort fighting among themselves.
“Brother, let’s play rock-paper-scissors,” said two cultivators from Tianfeng Fort, approaching each other in one of the arenas with easy smiles.
Since they were all from Tianfeng Fort, there was no need to waste time fighting, so they decided who would stay and who would leave the arena through a game.
In no time, eight thousand cultivators from Tianfeng Fort left the arena, none of them showing any regret or dissatisfaction—clearly, they had come just to watch and have some fun.
The remaining eight thousand cultivators stood together, watching the battles between Qu Yi, Wu Yuan, Qing Wugui, and the other ten.
Wu Yuan was in the same arena as Gongye Qing, who ranked tenth from the previous day’s list.
“We don’t need to talk nonsense. Let’s fight now,” Wu Yuan said, pulling out his Jiukong Staff and waving it a few times with a smile.
“Alright,” Gongye Qing immediately took out a long sword that emitted a green glow, with a sound like flowing water.
As one of the top ten from the previous day’s rankings, Gongye Qing was known to possess as many as two hundred million spiritual entities within his body. As one of the most promising disciples in the Gongye family to become a Divine King, he naturally owned the finest divine artifacts—this sword in his hand was one such artifact.
“Watch my staff technique!” Wu Yuan rushed forward, swinging his Jiukong Staff with force.
The “Hundred Staves as One Stave” technique involved combining a hundred staves into one, with each stroke containing one million spiritual entities. Thus, this single strike gathered one hundred million spiritual entities into a hundred-meter-long staff that struck at Gongye Qing’s head.
“It’s useless,” Gongye Qing said indifferently, with a look of disdain, before swinging his Green Water Sword.
In an instant, a spatial rift appeared, cutting the hundred-meter-long staff in half and rendering it ineffective.
At that moment, Wu Yuan’s lips curled into an unusual smile as he suddenly pulled out a sharp cone—It was the mid-tier innate spiritual treasure, Luoxin Cone, given to him by Qu Yi.
With a whoosh, the Luoxin Cone traveled through space and appeared right in front of Gongye Qing, piercing into his body.
“You!” Gongye Qing never expected the Luoxin Cone to fall into Wu Yuan’s hands. He had just swung his sword, and with its spatial traversal ability, it arrived instantly—his Divine King-level defensive armor was completely useless.

The Heart-Piercing Cone, a mid-tier innate spiritual treasure, entered Gouye Qing’s body and directly reached his internal world. After causing chaos there, it actually shattered Gouye Qing’s internal world. Naturally, his cultivation was completely ruined.
“Impossible! How could I lose this fight?” Gouye Qing cried in frustration and pain.
In fact, Gouye Qing had a trump card he reserved for dealing with Qu Yi, so he didn’t use it right away. But he never expected that the Heart-Piercing Cone, which was in Wu Tanxin’s hands after the collapse of the Central Island, was actually in Wu Yuan’s possession, leading to his immediate defeat.
Wu Yuan waved his Nine Heavens Rod and walked toward Gouye Qing, laughing.
“I really regret it. If I had used my trump card from the start, you would be dead in my hands by now,” Gouye Qing cried in pain.
“Who gave you a chance? Losing means losing. I’m going to kill you now,” Wu Yuan sneered.