Chapter Five: The Mysterious Voice

Chapter Five
A Mysterious Voice at the Beast Arena in Lishui City

Many of the talented young men who had arrived in Lishui City wandered its streets, while just a few secluded themselves in inns, burying their heads in rigorous cultivation. Among them, some had the habit of idling away their days, only scrambling at the last moment. Small groups of youths gathered together. Many of these promising youths held their heads high, arrogant and self-assured, bolstered by their impressive family backgrounds, which gave them reason enough for such airs. Those with less fortunate backgrounds appeared far more modest. Indeed, birds of a feather flock together. The sons of wealthy families banded together, and ordinary youths found companionship with their own kind.

The girls, especially, loved shopping and joining the crowds; it seemed almost an innate trait among them to delight in browsing and buying trinkets.

Within Lishui City stood a beast arena. Since registration for the city’s grand contest had not yet begun, the young elites flocked here to watch the beast battles. The spectators around the arena, swept up in the savage clash of creatures, seemed to feel as though they themselves were engaged in the fight.

“Get up!”
“Bite its neck!”
“Dodge, quick—dodge!”
…and so on. Shouts of tension, triumphant screams from the victors, curses, and sighs from the losers—all rose and fell in a cacophony.

Li Hao and Lu Yao reached the edge of the crowd. Both were rather short and could see nothing at all. Lu Yao’s curiosity swelled, and she bounced up and down, trying to catch a glimpse of the action within. She jumped several times with no luck, her heart sinking with disappointment. They had sneaked out this time and dared not show any identification.

Li Hao noticed Lu Yao’s eager curiosity and began to ponder how he might take her inside. As his mind raced through various possibilities, he settled on a rather commonplace but effective method.

“Yao’er, would you like to go in?” Li Hao asked, a mischievous smile playing at his lips.

“Of course! Do you have a way, Brother Li Hao?” Lu Yao asked excitedly.

Li Hao replied, “There is a way, but it might mean you’ll have to suffer a little.”

Her reason having long since been overpowered by curiosity, Lu Yao cared little for any inconvenience. She agreed readily, “It doesn’t matter! As long as we can go inside, I don’t mind at all.”

Seeing her so thrilled, Li Hao put any hesitation aside. He led Lu Yao to a deserted corner. Lu Yao had no idea what he intended, but she was soon to find out. With quick movements, Li Hao produced several small bottles of medicine from his clothes. Inside were spirit medicines with a pungent odor, recipes he had learned over the years now finally put to use. Mixed together, these concoctions gave off a nauseating stench. However, they also had the property of repairing the skin.

Once his medicine was prepared, Li Hao swiftly smeared it on both his face and Lu Yao’s. Two beautiful faces were instantly transformed into hideous, grimy visages, reeking of rot. When he applied it to Lu Yao’s delicate, doll-like face, she resisted inwardly, but ultimately curiosity won out.

Everything ready, Li Hao took Lu Yao’s little hand and headed for the beast arena. As they approached the crowd, the foul odor engulfed them. The self-important young men who saw two filthy, stinking children quickly gave them a wide berth. Thus, Li Hao and Lu Yao slipped inside the arena unimpeded.

At that moment, in the center of the arena, a jet-black three-thousand-year-old scorpion with a hundred-foot tail was locked in furious combat with a purple-red three-thousand-year-old eight-legged venomous spider.

“Brother Li Hao, who do you think will lose? I think the scorpion will win,” Lu Yao asked.

Li Hao couldn’t judge the strength of the two vicious beasts either.

“The spider will win, the scorpion will lose.”

Suddenly, a strange young man’s voice echoed in Li Hao’s mind, startling him so much he blurted out, “Who’s there?”

The voice answered unhurriedly, “When your cultivation reaches the Wandering Stage, you’ll know who I am.”

Li Hao had always been rather lax about his cultivation, but this mysterious voice piqued his curiosity and ignited a sudden desire to improve—he wanted to know the voice’s true identity as soon as possible.

Distracted by the voice, Li Hao fell into deep contemplation…

Beside him, Lu Yao asked, “So who do you think will win, those two ugly beasts?”

Li Hao snapped back to reality. His conversation with the mysterious voice had been mistaken by Lu Yao as words meant for her. Hurriedly, he covered his tracks, following the mysterious voice’s prediction: “I think the spider will win.”

Lu Yao was skeptical. “But that ugly scorpion looks way fiercer. Why would it lose?”

“Because the spider is a mutated species. You can’t judge it by ordinary standards—its true fighting power far exceeds the usual.”

The mysterious voice in Li Hao’s mind belonged to the Nine-Headed Variant Dragon, Little Nine. Little Nine could hear their conversation, but only those above the Soul-Refining Stage could sense it when he spoke. So when Little Nine spoke with Li Hao, Lu Yao, at her current realm, couldn’t perceive a thing.

Li Hao relayed Little Nine’s words, adapting them slightly for Lu Yao: “The spider is a mutated species. You can’t judge it by appearances, and I have a feeling it’s stronger than the scorpion.”

Today, Lu Yao felt something was odd about her Brother Li Hao, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

Meanwhile, the battle in the arena grew ever more intense, the two venomous beasts attacking and evading in turn. Shouts, cheers, and curses from the crowd rang out ceaselessly.

The scorpion opened its jaws and spat a cloud of venom at the spider. The spider shot out a strong silk thread to the left, anchoring it in the ground several hundred feet away, as if instantly taking root. As the thread landed, the huge spider’s body contracted several times in size, and, borrowing the momentum, it used the thread to catapult itself to the left, narrowly avoiding the scorpion’s poison. The scorpion, missing its mark, whipped its iron-black tail with a piercing whistle toward the spider. The spider swung itself again by its threads, dodging to the scorpion’s left and leaving a toxic thread wherever it landed.

Thus, the scorpion pressed its attacks without respite, and the spider kept dodging, anchoring more threads as it moved. To the audience, it appeared as though the spider was at a disadvantage, unable to confront the scorpion head-on and only intent on fleeing.

Those who had bet on the scorpion grew furious, cursing the spider’s cowardice. Those who had wagered on the spider watched anxiously, finding little hope in its performance and losing heart. Only a few with keen insight remained calm, as if victory was already theirs.

Lu Yao, too, believed the spider lacked courage and would soon be slain by the scorpion. Li Hao began to doubt the mysterious voice—how could the spider possibly win in such a situation?

Lu Yao said to Li Hao with satisfaction, “See? The spider is going to lose. Looks like I win this time!”

As the crowd watched with different expectations, Little Nine’s approving voice sounded in Li Hao’s mind: “Not bad, not bad—smarter than I imagined.”

Li Hao was bewildered, lost in the fog of Little Nine’s cryptic words. He asked offhand, “What do you mean by that?”

Lu Yao replied, “The spider doesn’t dare fight the scorpion head-on.”

Li Hao, unsure how to converse with the mysterious entity, could only ask aloud. He meant to address the voice in his mind, but Lu Yao thought he was still speaking to her. Li Hao wanted to explain, but didn’t know how, so he could only slap his forehead in frustration.

Little Nine watched his young master struggle and found it all quite amusing. Then, with an air of mystery, he said, “You’ll see soon enough.”

Li Hao could only mimic the answer for Lu Yao: “We’ll find out soon. I still think the spider will win.”

Lu Yao was unconvinced and challenged him, “Brother Li Hao, do you dare to bet with me?”

“What are the stakes?” Li Hao asked.

“If you lose, you have to promise me three things,” Lu Yao declared.

Cornered by her challenge, Li Hao could only pin his hopes on the mysterious voice, praying he wasn’t being set up. “And if you lose?” he countered.

Lu Yao blushed, her cheeks rosy. “If you win, Brother Li Hao, I’ll give you a kiss.”

Li Hao was stunned, never expecting such terms from Lu Yao. Before he could recover, she pressed him, “Well? Do you dare to bet or not?”

To refuse would seem cowardly; to accept felt like cheating, knowing what he did. He was torn.

Seeing his hesitation, Lu Yao pouted, her pretty lips pursed in annoyance. “Brother Li Hao, you really have no confidence. You think you’ll win, yet you’re afraid to bet me.”

She almost called him spineless, but, not wanting to hurt his feelings, changed her words at the last second.

Forced into a corner, Li Hao had no choice but to retort, “Alright, I’ll bet with you, as long as you won’t regret it.”

Confident of victory, Lu Yao agreed without hesitation.

As they spoke, the two venomous beasts in the arena had been at it for hundreds of rounds, their battle sending sand and dust flying, the air thick with haze. The spider had woven its threads into a massive web, anchoring it all around the arena. The scorpion, growing ever more frustrated, saw the spider only dodging and hiding, never daring to confront it.

Yet the scorpion failed to realize it had slowly wandered into the spider’s trap. Once again, the scorpion launched a violent assault. This time, the spider did not evade, but stood motionless as if waiting for the scorpion to approach. The scorpion sensed its chance. The gamblers and spectators who had not seen through the truth believed the spider was exhausted and doomed. The moment of reckoning had come.

Those on the scorpion’s side were wild with excitement, while those supporting the spider—among them Li Hao and Lu Yao—were dejected.

Lu Yao, brimming with confidence, was all smiles, and even Li Hao had resigned himself to defeat. But in the next instant, everything was turned on its head.

Just as the scorpion closed to within several yards of the spider, the spider suddenly sprang high into the air, powered by its eight legs and the threads anchored all around. The threads snapped taut, and in a blink, the unfortunate scorpion was wrapped up like a dumpling. The spider’s web tightened, its toxic silk corroding the scorpion’s iron-like body with a sinister sizzle. Above, the spider spat another blast of venom, dousing the scorpion again. Within a few breaths, the scorpion perished, ensnared in the spider’s web.