Chapter 1185 – Provocation

Iron Tower died without much attention. And besides a few unlucky referees, almost nothing happened.

The Machine Field just passed through a huge chaotic event. They wouldn’t want to enter another one at this time. Whether it be the Machine Field Army, Church Alliance, or the Warrior Association, nobody wanted to see the Machine Field turn chaotic. Because of this, everyone took a step back. The Machine Field Army was hit with light sanctions while the Church Alliance and Warrior Association stopped making noise.

But in this small event, the Machine Field Army managed to lose the most. While they were able to keep their five seeded participants, they didn’t manage to gain anything. On the other hand, they lost a lot due to the penalties. This caused them to hate Zhao Hai even more. After all, he was the reason why their two plans failed.

Zhao Hai didn’t care about this. The Machine Field Army would no longer dare to make a move on him now. If the Machine FIeld Army decided to make another move, then the Church Alliance and the Warrior Association would no longer let them off.

If it was a one-on-one fight against either the Church Alliance or the Warrior Association, then the Machine Field Army would have no reason to be afraid. However, if the two groups were to work together, then the army would have a hard time. Therefore, they wouldn’t dare to make a move at this time.

Zhao Hai was well aware of these matters. The entire Machine Field had already been mapped by the Space. He can see whatever he wanted to see and there were no equipment nor magic that can stop him. Because of this, he was able to know the decision made by the various powers.

Zhao Hai wasn’t disappointed with the verdict. This was within his expectations. If the Machine Field didn’t do it this way, then that would be very suspicious. After all, these people weren’t idiots. They were still on guard against the Cultivation Realm. The Cultivation Realm had no comments about the Yin Yang Sect’s actions. So if the Machine Field Army suddenly turned chaotic, the Cultivation Realm’s Cultivators would certainly make a move. In this case, all three major powers would suffer the same bad luck. Therefore, they had to find a peaceful way to solve this matter.

But in the end, none of these matters affected Zhao Hai. If he met people from the Machine Field Army, he would still kill them.

Since the Army already hated him, there was no need to curry favor with them. It was better to be ruthless to them since they were already on bad terms. But there was one thing that made Zhao Hai disappointed. He could no longer meet the people from the Machine Field Army who were among the seeded ones as well as those in the top 100.

However, Zhao Hai changed his mind after thinking about it. If he could still meet those from the top 100, then this meant that he might be setup to meet Donfang Yu or Xiong Li. It would be troublesome when that time comes.

Another three days of competition passed by and the final 100 have already been chosen. And as expected, the 20 seeded participants were among these 100 people. And at this point, nobody dared doubt Zhao Hai’s strength.

After the top 100 were selected, the following event would be the ranking tournament. In this ranking competition, no casualties were allowed. If one kills or severely injures someone, then that person would be removed from the top 100. They would then be replaced by those who were close to being in the top 100.

This rule was kept in place in order to protect the top 100 strongest people. This would ensure that the Machine Field would be in its best combat state during the Six Realm Beginner Competition.

Zhao Hai had no objection to this new rule. After all, he was now considered to be a participant of the Machine Field. Moreover, it can be said that the top 100 were the most powerful beginners in the Machine Field in the past five years. Each injury to these 100 people was an injury to the Machine Field’s benefits.

But even if Zhao Hai didn’t object to this rule, this doesn’t mean that he appreciates it. In fact, Zhao Hai despised the rule. This rule was mainly enforced so that the ascenders would work harder for the Machine Field. If they were truly afraid of loss, then they wouldn’t have made such brutal elimination rounds.

Compared to these 100, the 100 thousand participants should also be paid attention to. Relative to the strength of the Cultivation Realm, the power of these 100 participants was simply meaningless. On the other hand, if those 100 thousand people were trained well, then they might provide ample strength to the Machine Field.

Naturally, Zhao Hai wouldn’t voice these thoughts for now. Because even if he did, people wouldn’t listen. On the contrary, it would just attract the attention of everyone in the Machine Field. With the Machine Field Army being the main combat arm of the realm, the benefits involved was too great. This cannot be changed in a short time.

While the undercurrents was till surging, the 100 ranking competition finally started. This was one of the liveliest days in the stadium. This was because these 100 people represented the strongest beginners in the past 5 years. And this ranking competition would decide on who the strongest one of them was.

People seem to be born with a hint of competitive spirit. This was more evident in this ranking competition, which ignited the enthusiasm within everyone. This caused the ranking tournament to be the liveliest part of the realm qualifier.

Most importantly, the top 100 ranking tournament would be broadcasted to the realm. This was because there wouldn’t be a lot of bloody accidents that would happen. This would allow the majority of people to be able to watch it.

Not far from the arena, the 100 strongest participants were assigned their own special seats. Xiong Li, Zhao Hai, and the others were sitting together. Xiong Li turned to Zhao Hai and said, “Little Hai, are you excited to face Streep and the others?”

Zhao Hai just smiled and said, “Not really. What I want to fight are those from the other realms. Fighting Streep and the others is simply useless.”

Xiong Li glared at Zhao Hai and said, “Get out. Are you saying that you aren’t taking us seriously? But since you’re powerful, then you might as well help us when we face the other realms.”

Zhao Hai smiled bitterly, then he turned to look at Dongfang Yu. Seeing Zhao Hai, Dongfang Yu smiled and said, “The Six Realm Beginner Competition starts just like the realm qualifiers. It would also start with an elimination round. But this time, the scale is much smaller. After all, each realm could only have 100 participants each. Generally, they would find a place and then give each person a number plate. Then the participants would snatch each other’s number plates. These number plates would decide the seeded participants of the competition. Those who reached the top ten would be seeded while the others would become ordinary participants. Seeded participants would be exempted from the first and second round of the competition, they would enter in the third. The first two rounds would be the elimination battles while the third round is the battle for points. And the one with the most points wins the first place.”

Zhao Hai nodded and said, “And those placed beyond 100 would also be ranked?”

Donfang Yu nodded and said, “Right. Everyone from the first to the 600th will be ranked. From 600-500th position, they would obtain some consolation prizes like weapons as well as pieces of precious ores, herbal medicines, and so on. 500-400th position would obtain ten of these items, 400-300 will get 50 precious items, 300-200 will get the rights to some mines. The prize gets more valuable as the rank gets higher. Naturally, the most valuable prizes belonged to those ranked 100 and higher. These rewards include mineral rich planets, and things of equal or greater value. However, it must be said that the most money one could make in the Six Realm Beginner Competition wasn’t in these prizes. Instead, it was from betting!”

Zhao Hai gawked and asked, “Betting?”

Dongfang Yu nodded and said, “Yes. There’s a huge gambling scene whenever the Six Realm Beginner Competition draws near. Some of these gambling centers offer their services to individual bets. They would bet on players and see how long they could last. Naturally, the odds for each participant is different. There’s also gambling for major powers. A group from the Machine Field, say the Ashley Family, could send a representative to bet using some planetary resources or other valuable items. If they win, then they would gain a lot. Actually, we, the top 100, already have some bets placed on us.”

Zhao Hai nodded, “So it’s like that. Interesting. It seems like the other realms are going to bleed a lot this time.”

Dongfang Yu understood what Zhao Hai wanted to say. He looked at Zhao Hai and couldn’t help but gently shake his head. He really didn’t know where Zhao Hai got his confidence. Although he knew that Zhao Hai could almost dominate the Machine Field qualifiers, it was a different story when it comes to the experts from the other realms. The other 5 realms were on a completely different level compared to the experts of the Machine Field.

At this time, the computer had made its pick. Zhao Hai looked at the display to see who the two competitors were. One of them was a seeded participant from the Machine Field army. While the other person wasn’t seeded, he was still a level 4 expert. In fact, almost all of the top 100 participants were level 4.

The sight of so many level 4 experts was also the reason why Zhao Hai believed that the Mages and Warriors could have the power to fight those in the other realms. With 4 years of practice on average, these people were able to reach level 4. If they kept practicing in optimum conditions, then who knows what they can achieve.

It’s just a pity that nearly a hundred thousand Ascenders had either been killed or crippled with no hopes of recovering.

With this thought in mind, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but feel anger deep in his heart. This was a complete suppression of the Ascenders by the Machine Field Natives. And since the Ascenders were the minority, they simply had no way to rebel.

At this moment, the fight had begun. The seeded participant from the Machine Field Army was a Warrior who had a long spear his hand. He was nicknamed Iron Lancer!

The reason why he was called this name was because he was a rare cavalry Warrior!

And since Iron Lancer was a cavalry warrior, he also had his mount from the lower realm. This magic beast was a special species of horse that had formidable strength. Iron Lancer’s strength as well as his mount made him a famous expert in the Machine Field army, which allowed him to be selected as one of the seeded participants in this competition.

In the previous matches, Zhao Hai was able to see Iron Lancer’s strength. He looked formidable, especially when he was on top of his mount. The mount wasn’t any worse than magic beasts from the Machine Field. The result of the coordination between beast and man was more than adding the two together.

Iron Lancer’s opponent was a Mage. This Mage was wearing dark robes, it seems like he was a Dark Mage. The Mage was thin, almost as though he was a skeleton. From what Zhao Hai saw in the previous battles, this Dark Mage specializes in summons. He could use 100-layer formations that could summon dark creatures to fight for him. His strength was also very formidable.

The current arena was now 500 meters long and 200 meters wide. This way, everyone could exert their full strength.

Iron Lancer and the Dark Mage were now about 300 meters away from each other. Iron Lancer was already on top of his mount. His mount looked very special. It had a horn on its head, a long and black body covered in scales, hooks on its tail, and fangs in its mouth. It doesn’t look like a horse, more like a wolf-horse hybrid.

When the signal to begin the fight was heard, Iron Lancer immediately held his lance and pointed it towards the Dark Mage. Then he tapped his horse’s belly twice with his foot, causing him to careen towards the Dark Mage.

At the same time, the Dark Mage held his hands to release a layered formation. Then in front of him, a giant wolf immediately appeared. This giant wolf wasn’t any smaller than Iron Lancer’s mount. Seeing the enemy, the giant wolf roared and charged.

After releasing the giant wolf, the Dark Mage quickly retreated. Simultaneously, he also waved his hand as he mumbled. Another magic formation appeared, this time it was a 30-layer formation. A rhinoceros appeared from this formation. However, the rhinoceros didn’t immediately charge towards Iron Lancer. Instead, it stood before the Dark Mage, acting as a hulking shield.

When the Dark Mage was about to chant another incantation, Iron Lancer had already dealt with the giant wolf. Iron Lancer waved his lance and then sent sword qi towards the rhinoceros. The rhino roared and released a dark shield to cover itself. And at the same time, it lowered its head and charged towards Iron Lancer.

But at this moment, Iron Lancer clamped his mount with his two legs, causing the horse to neigh and leap. It caused Iron Lancer to vault over the rhino and appear directly in front of the Dark Mage. The Dark Mage didn’t move. This was because Iron Lancer’s lance was already pointed at his throat. The Dark Mage was defeated.

After defeating the Dark Mage, Iron Lancer withdrew his weapon and then turned his gazes towards the stands. Nobody knew who he was staring at except for Zhao Hai. Iron Lancer was looking straight into Zhao Hai with a heavy look of provocation.