Chapter 396 - 396: Rising to the top

The sphere of light below them rose higher in the air and carried them along.

The spheres were floating 15 meters above the ground.

"What the heck is happening?" Long Chen muttered with a frown.

As they were high in the air, a change occurred on the ground.

A square box appeared on the ground that seemed similar to a chessboard and had smaller boxes of black and White Color. But instead of having a composition of 8x8, it had a composition of 25x25.

"That?" Long Chen muttered with a frown as he looked at the ground.

He was still wondering what was going to happen when 2 of the floating spheres landed in the ground over the square box.

Amongst the 50 disciples, only two were on the ground as the barrier and sphere disappeared from below their feet.

Both of them just stood there confused as they wondered what they had to do. The others also watched them in confusion.

Amongst the two people on the ground, one was from the beast hall, whereas the other person was from the Profound Yin Snatching Sect.

They waited for 10 minutes for something to happen, but nothing happened.

"Eunli! Kill the other kid! I'm sure that is what it's about. It's a battle arena, and you need to be victorious! Do it! Kill that evil remnant!" Jichuan told his fellow disciple.

The others also thought of the same thing. The Head Disciple of the Profound Yin Snatching Sect also commanded his fellow disciple to kill his opponent, but he was too slow to react. Before he could attack, he was stabbed in the chest by Eunli.

A sphere again appeared below the feet of Eunli and made him rise high in the air. Now his position was higher than the others. While the others were 15 meters above the ground, Eunli was 20 meters above the ground.

"So this is a pyramid battle scheme. Each victory brings one higher. I am not sure that we need to kill the opponents, though. Immobilizing them should be enough to gain victory," Long Chen muttered as he saw the dead body on the ground.

It was Manxiang Li's turn next as he landed on the ground. His opponent was his own fellow disciple, who was a girl.

As soon as the girl saw Manxiang Li as her opponent, she dropped down to her knees and started crying.

Even Manxiang Li was stunned as he didn't know what to do. He could never attack his own Junior Sister.

"Come on, you trash! Finish the battle! You're wasting all of our time!" a few people from other sects started screaming at Manxiang Li as they saw none of them attack each other.

"Don't worry. I won't kill you," Manxiang Li said as he sat down on the ground as well.

"You don't have to kill her! Tell her to step out of the boundary!" Long Chen told Manxiang Li.

"Hmm?" Manxiang Li heard Long Chen's words.

"Lin, try stepping out of the box," Manxiang Li told the girl.

The girl nodded her head as she stood up and left the boundary of the box.

A sphere again appeared below Manxiang Li's feet and took him higher as well. He was now at the same height as Eunli.

"Thank You!" Manxiang Li told Long Chen. Long Chen nodded his head.

"So that's a way as well," Yang Sen muttered as he smiled.

Just like that, battles continued. Sometimes enemies were paired for battles, and other times, they were fellow sect disciples.

Whenever there were two different sects in the arena, there was a battle to the death, whereas when it was fellow sect mates, the fight simply ended with one of them stepping out of the arena.

Whenever it was fellow disciples in the ring, the head disciple of that sect decided on who should step out.

After some time, it was Yang Sen's turn. His opponent was the head disciple of the Blood Demon Sect, but his opponent simply stepped out of the ring as he didn't consider himself as Yang Sen's opponent.

It was the same for Tang Jin, whose opponent stepped out despite being someone from the opposite faction.

Finally, Long Chen's turn arrived as he landed on the ground. His opponent was the head disciple of the Profound Yin Snatching Sect, Zi Zhan.

"You know, I consider the Profound Yin Snatching Sect and the Dual Cultivation Sect to be the worse of the worse. What you do really irks me, and I really hope that you won't step outside. I want to enjoy the fight to the end," Long Chen told Zi Zhan.

"Kekeke, you are really overconfident, aren't you? Do you really think that you are Yang Sen or Tang Jin for me to step out willingly? Naive Kid!" Zi Zhan said before he ran towards Long Chen with his blade in his hand.

He thrust the blade towards his chest, but he missed as Long Chen moved to the side.

Long Chen didn't stop and continued his step work as he twisted his body and thrust his sword towards Zi Zhan's back.

Zi Zhan dodged the sword, but a Qi Knife appeared in Long Chen's hand that he threw towards Zi Zhan's head.

Zi Zhan was so focused on Long Chen's Sword that he didn't notice the knife coming towards him.

The knife penetrated his head, killing him instantly.

"Idiot," Yang Sen muttered as he saw Zi Zhan die.

Long Chen also reached the same level as Yang Sen, Tang Jin, and Manxiang Li.

The fights continued until there were 25 victors. Those 25 stood at the same level.

Everyone was expecting there to be the same format of battle until only one of them remained. They thought that they would keep fighting and getting higher until the last remaining person would be able to get the Flute of War, but reality turned out to be different.

The Square Box disappeared on the ground, and the ground returned to normal.

As everyone was wondering as to what was happening, a bow and three arrows appeared in front of each of them.

"A Bow and arrows? Is the second round about shooting?" Long Chen muttered as he took the bow and arrows.

He set up the arrow in the bow and waited.

After a few more minutes, a bright beam of light shot towards the sky, which took the form of a hundred birds that were made entirely from Qi.

"Looks like we need to shoot the birds!" One of the disciples let out loud as he shot an arrow towards one of the birds, but since the birds were too fast, the arrow missed their target.

He tried again and missed again. Now he only has one arrow remaining, and that arrow also missed the birds that flew like Lightning.

The Sphere of light disappeared from below his feet, and the man fell down to the ground.

Contrary to that man, another disciple had managed to hit the bird on his last try. His sphere started flying higher, and he rose ten more meters in the sky.

Everyone else followed that as well, but not many succeeded as the birds were as fast as lightning and flew unpredictably. The test was about skill and luck as well.

Only a rare few of them succeeded in hitting their target, and that too only once.

Amongst the 25 remaining disciples, 22 had spent all their arrows, and only 7 of them managed to hit the birds once.

Tang Jin, Yang Sen, and Long Chen had also shot an arrow, and all three of them managed to hit the bird on their first try.

The second try missed for Tang Jin and succeeded for Yang Sen, whereas the 3rd try missed for Yang Sen and succeeded for Tang Jin.

Both of them rise 50 meters higher.

Long Chen still had 2 of his arrows remaining.