The cheering crowd suddenly fell silent as they stared at the two figures on the stage.
Most of them didn’t have good eyesight, so they couldn’t see through the mysteries of the two people just now.
Only a few people’s eyes narrowed as they stared at Yang Kai solemnly.
Victory had been decided!
There were no restrictions in the arena battle. Whether it was barehanded or wielding a sword, the victor was king, so Yang Kai’s saber did not violate any rules.
Lu Anguo didn’t fall to the ground, instead reaching out to wipe his neck, which was still wet. Looking down, his hand was covered in blood.
Only now did he feel a slight pain on his neck.
His expression changed drastically. Although he knew that his opponent had been lenient just now, otherwise it wouldn’t have been as simple as just lightly injuring him, but rather cutting off his own head, he still couldn’t accept such an outcome.
In that split second just now, he didn’t even see how Yang Kai had attacked.
This stunning blade strike was as fast as lightning, cutting off his chance to resist.
The old man with the goatee from before must have heard someone’s advice and rushed onto the stage, loudly declaring, “Yang Kai wins!”
Saying so, he didn’t say anything else and simply let the two of them leave the stage.
For the next half a day, more people jumped onto the stage to fight, some of them displaying some of their true abilities.
Yang Kai observed and found that this arena seemed to be selecting something, but as for what it was, he wasn’t too sure.
Fortunately, the people nearby were whispering amongst themselves, so Yang Kai was able to piece together a rough idea of what was happening.
The Meng Family is a well-known big business in White Jade City, and their family’s wealth was comparable to that of a country’s, so many people coveted them. A few days ago, a group of bandits from Treasure Field Peak nearby announced that the Meng Family have to pay a hundred thousand taels of silver and ten beautiful maidservants every month, otherwise they would exterminate the Meng Family.
Treasure Field Peak originally had a small group of bandits occupying it, but since it wasn’t a big deal. Suddenly, a group of desperate bandits had appeared out of nowhere. Treasure Field Peak's strength had suddenly grown, and these newly arrived bandits wanted to make a name for themselves, so they directly sought out the most famous and wealthy Meng Family nearby.
Although White Jade City had its own City Lord and its own guards, the Meng Family didn’t dare place all their hopes on others, so today, they had set up an arena, offering great benefits and recruiting many masters as guard.
After piecing together these pieces of information, Yang Kai began to understand his current situation. He had come here to seek shelter.
Senior Sister Qu is in the Meng Family? Yang Kai couldn’t help making this guess, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to explain why he had participated in the group arena as soon as he entered the Samsara World.
Thinking of this, Yang Kai began to look forward to it.
It was almost evening when the group arena finally ended.
The Meng Family had its own masters who had been hiding and observing the skills of the cultivators participating in the group arena. Those who passed would be brought back to the Meng Family, and those who failed would be sent away with some money.
Yang Kai’s performance was quite good. The old man with the goatee stood on the stage and called out his name, indicating that he had passed.
Lu Anguo, who had been defeated by Yang Kai, was also present. Although he had been defeated, his strength was not to be underestimated. He had only encountered an even stronger opponent, that is Yang Kai.
The masters of the Meng Family still had some eyesight and didn’t simply use the outcome of a single arena battle to decide who to recruit, instead choosing their own candidates.
Those who had been eliminated didn’t have any complaints. They were well aware of their own abilities and participating in this group arena was only to earn some money from the Meng Family to buy wine. Now that they had received the severance fee, they were naturally grateful.
There were about forty or fifty people left behind, and under the lead of an azure-robed servant, they entered a side door of the Meng Mansion and entered a courtyard.
Here, they will be trained for half a month, and the leader of the Guard would tell them which places they could go to, which places they couldn’t go, what rules they had to abide by, and what consequences they would face if they broke the rules.
On the first day, there was a person who had broken the rules. For some reason, this person had taken the wrong path when he was searching for the thatched cottage and ended up near the Inner Court, only to be captured by the guards there.
The leader of the Guard wanted to make an example out of this man, so after bringing him here, he crippled him in front of everyone and threw him out.
Those who entered the Meng Mansion with him were all silent. Only now did they realize that the Meng Family’s money wasn’t so easily earned. Here, rules were everything, and those who didn’t abide by them would end up miserable.
The Meng Family is rich and had a huge mansion, but Yang Kai and the others had always lived in that small courtyard, after the first day’s events, no one dared to run around.
Three days later, another internal competition was held and more than a dozen people were eliminated.
After familiarizing himself with this place for three days, Yang Kai decided to take action. He wasn’t interested in the Meng Mansion's Guard, since he guessed that Qu Huachang might be in the Meng Family, he naturally wanted to search for her.
Qu Huachang is a woman, so although Yang Kai didn’t know her identity in the Meng Mansion, since she is a woman, she would definitely live in the Inner Court.
Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, Yang Kai quietly walked out and entered the inner courtyard.
In the corners of the Meng Mansion, many guards had hidden themselves, but they were easily detected by Yang Kai, so it wasn’t difficult for him to avoid their eyes and ears.
When he was preparing to enter the Inner Court to investigate, an accident occurred. The Inner Court’s defenses were obviously much tighter, and he could sense that there were many pairs of eyes secretly observing his surroundings. Although he could sense them, with his current strength, it was impossible for him to enter the Inner Court without anyone noticing.
He quietly lay in wait for more than two hours, but still couldn’t find an opportunity, so in the end, he decided to take his time.
Just as he was about to leave, a figure flashed past the corner of his eye in the dark night. This person seemed to have the same goal as him, but he was unable to find a suitable opportunity to enter the Inner Court and could only give up.
However, he had given up a little earlier than Yang Kai, so Yang Kai had noticed.
Even the pitch-black night couldn’t conceal the burly figure of this man.
Yang Kai frowned as he recognized this person!
What was he doing here? When did he arrive?
The other party obviously didn’t notice him, so Yang Kai acted very carefully, not exposing anything.
After the man left, Yang Kai quietly retreated.
Returning to his room, he climbed through the window and entered. The others in the room were still asleep, not noticing his return.
During the day, they were still undergoing training, and the requirements of the Guard's leader became more strict. A few more unruly people were injured and thrown out of the Meng Mansion.
When they first arrived, there were forty or fifty people, but now only thirty remained.
At night, Yang Kai pretended to be asleep and waited quietly. No matter what the person’s goal was last night, he had definitely not succeeded. Today, he would not be able to endure.
Sure enough, in the middle of the night, Yang Kai heard a slight movement. If he hadn’t been paying attention, he wouldn’t have noticed it.
After confirming that everyone in the room was asleep, Yang Kai quietly got up.
After exiting the courtyard, they soon saw the burly man shuttling through the night towards the Inner Court.
Yang Kai followed closely behind!
However, he still didn’t discover anything that night. The man remained in hiding like he did yesterday and left two hours later.
For the next half month, apart from daily training, Yang Kai had gained nothing, not even entering the Inner Court.
Within half a month, less than twenty people remained, nearly half of them eliminated.
The Guard Leader, however, was quite satisfied with this result. Standing in front of these twenty people, he swept his eyes over the crowd and said, “Those who can remain are all quite skilled, the weak ones have all been driven away by me, and your backgrounds are all clean and innocent, able to withstand the test. Since you have passed today’s test, you are now a member of the Meng Mansion. As long as you remain loyal to the Meng Mansion, the Meng Mansion will naturally not mistreat you. As a guard, we must always be prepared to fight to the death for our Master. If you cannot accomplish this, you can leave now, and I will not blame you.”
No one left.
No matter what the purpose of the people who came here was, the conditions offered by the Meng Mansion were indeed excellent, and it was difficult to find such a good job.
The guard leader became even more satisfied and nodded slightly, “It seems that none of you are willing to leave. Very well, I have one last question. Who among you harbors ill intentions towards the Meng Mansion? If you tell me, I will spare his life!”
After a moment of silence, when no one answered, the guard leader smiled lightly, “It seems you don’t want to come out yourself.”
Turning his head, he looked towards a cold-faced young man and asked, “Lin Xiaoshan, how are the masters on the mountain?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the guards who had been standing behind him all this time suddenly moved and surrounded Lin Xiaoshan.
A trace of panic flashed across Lin Xiaoshan’s face as he stared at the guard leader, “What do you mean?”
The guard leader said lightly, “You know what I mean!”
Lin Xiaoshan frowned slightly and suddenly smiled, “How did you find out?”
The guard leader slowly shook his head, “The Meng Mansion has their own methods.”
Lin Xiaoshan nodded, “The several masters have all underestimated the Meng Mansion. Since you know, if you want to kill or rob, do as you please.”
The guard leader said, “In my opinion, we should naturally kill you and send your head up the mountain. However, the Old Master doesn’t like killing, so he has ordered you to leave here alive, but you must bring a few words to the leaders.”
“Please speak!” Lin Xiaoshan replied, neither servile nor overbearing.
The guard leader said, “Old Master said that the Meng Mansion has established its roots based on business and is unwilling to become enemies with the heroes on the mountain, so why don’t we become friends?”
Lin Xiaoshan grinned and asked, “How to make friend?”
The guard leader clapped his hands and a package was delivered to him. He tossed the package to Lin Xiaoshan and said, “This is the sincerity of my old master. In the future, there will be a similar amount every month.”
Lin Xiaoshan didn’t try to avoid and directly opened the package. Inside was a pile of silver tickets worth about twenty thousand taels.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Martial Peak