Chapter 233 – Legend of the Masked Children (III)

Chapter 233

Legend of the Masked Children (III)

Long Tao crouched and planted the final flag; a burst of energy was short and minimal but the last sign that the array’s bond had been established.

Looking up over the overcast eaves of the rundown buildings, his eyes gazed upon the strangely blue sky as his lips curled up into the faintest of smiles. Though he felt bad for lying to his Master–something he pretended wasn’t happening–he wasn’t lying… completely.

He really did arrange it all for the kids, but not because of the rewards they would reap by winning the competition. It was also a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing, as he only got the idea to do it when he killed that young woman who guarded the vine as well as whoever was on the other end of her, controlling it all.

Though it seemed like the act ended in a silent whimper, he hadn’t lived for countless years for nothing; he’d directly challenged them, and they wouldn’t take it lying down.

They’d retaliate.

And he could practically feel it today; the Qi was abuzz, as it always was when danger was approaching him, like his personal tool of warning. Today would be less so a competition and more so a battle royale for survival–and the kids… they’d be the centerpieces.

Though they’re all advancing relatively quickly (for this place) in their cultivation, it wasn’t quick enough, and it wasn’t good enough. Diamonds needed polish, no matter how perfect they seemed dug out of the dirt.

Confirming once again that he’d finalized the array, he spun around and left, joining the lengthy procession of people trying to enter the colosseum stationed at the far western end of the city. It housed six arenas in its central complex, with a wide cast of seats spinning around it in a full circle.

Most of these people, he mused silently, were likely to perish today. Some, perhaps, while fighting and trying to overcome their fate; some purely because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time; and some as a direct result of his actions.

But… he couldn’t care.

Even if he tried, his ability to care for the lives of the ordinary masses had been extinguished from him countless generations ago. His Master, though, was a different thing…

Haah.

He sighed rather deeply, extracting himself from the crowd and going back to the heart of the array. He’d made so many uncharacteristic choices, all due to how that would affect that man, choices that, in theory, even slowed down his cultivation speed, something he sacrificed for almost no one even in his past life.

Then again, ‘in theory’ held the heavy weights, as his speed hadn’t actually slowed down by much, if at all. The bottleneck, as it turned out, was the one he expected–lack of advanced resources and the rather unremarkable body that he inhabited. If anything, his speed of advancing was ever so slightly quicker, and it most definitely had to do with his Master, though he had no means of even figuring out how exactly, let alone any means of proving it.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Reinforcing the array and adding another layer–layer of isolation so that battles would mostly be self-contained, resulting in fewer casualties as long as people ran away quickly enough–he once again joined the circus and headed inside.