Chapter 98 - Death Walk (1/2)

Hao Xuan sat in the restaurant digesting all the information while Zhurong and Fourth ate like starved beasts.

”Little cat, you are far too young to be able to compare to me!” Fourth said proudly while downing an entire fish, bones and all.

”Meow Meow!” Zhurong replied with a challenging tone and started attacking what seemed like an entire rabbit but it was several times bigger than the ones found on earth. He ate through its behind and entered its body and started eating from inside out.

”Woah! I see you're no pushover,” Fourth's expression suddenly turned serious looking at Zhurong's ”technique”.

Hao Xuan just stared at them speechless, ”Both of them, morons,” he said inwardly.

”Um, brother, I need to break through to the next realm, are there any challenging missions available?” he asked after some hesitation.

”Hmm? Oh, yeah of course. Hundreds but you don't have to take them. Just go to to the Arena [CH33] and start a ”Death Walk”. It sounds ominous but it's not that bad. You will basically be pit against one opponent after another, with some humans mixed in as well and they will all be one realm higher than yours.”

”So its perfect for breaking through. Since you're at the top of the Earth Realm, you will have 10 opponents back-to-back. The first one will be at Origin Realm stage 1, next at stage 2 and so on until the end where the last one will be at the top of Origin realm. The great thing is that you can choose to record the session or even live-broadcast and all the money from people tuning in will go to you. Honestly, for someone in your situation its perfect.”

Hao Xuan thought about it and it really was a great idea. After coming out of the cocoon he hadn't fought at all. He could feel that just his physical body alone was much more powerful than before, this would let him test it out and also with the added pressure of higher realm opponents, he could break through to origin realm and then even refine his Qi during the fights.

”Alright, let's do it!” he agreed after thinking it through.

”Great!” Fourth was ecstatic as well because he would be able to get a piece of the action. He knew what Hao Xuan had just gone through and judging from the changes in his physical appearance alone, he must have gotten stronger. So making a few extra spirit stones by betting on him was basically free money.

They finished up the lunch and left for the arena, but Zhurong was still making pitiful faces so Hao Xuan got a few roasted beasts to go and brought them with.

They reached the Arena in 30 mins or so and went straight in.

”Brother Feng!” Fourth and Hao Xuan both went up to meet the man at the counter. They told him what the plan was and he looked at Hao Xuan for a bit and warned him, but didn't manage to change his mind.

”It will take a few minutes to set it all up so take this key and go to VIP room 4. I'll call you when it's time,” he said handing Fourth a purple card that looked like it was made out of glass.

”Wait, do you want to broadcast the fight live?” he asked with a glint in his eye.

”Yes!” Before Hao Xuan could reply, Fourth chipped in.

”Alright, I'll release some information about your rank to get more viewers, is that okay?”

”Sure sure, you know whats best,” fourth replied once again in Hao Xuans place and then tried to drag him away, but Hao Xuan turned around and looked at Feng.

”Can I add more opponents?” he asked with a questioning gaze.

”Add? You want even more?” Feng was stupefied. The opponents would already be a rank higher, and he wanted more?

”Yes, for the first fight, I want Nine origin realm stage 1 opponents, Eight for second and so on. Can that be done?”

”Can it be done? It's not a question of whether or not it can be done, but SHOULD it be? This has never happened before, are you sure? You might actually die you know,” Feng warned him once again. This was suicidal.

”Yes, if it's not too much trouble,” Hao Xuan casually smiled at him and walked off with Fourth, leaving him speechless.

Death Walks were considerably rare and they had to announce it over the network so everyone that had turned their notifications on for the event would get an alert. At the minimum, it would take two hours to get the opponents ready.

*Bzzt*Bzzt*

Spirit bands all over the kingdom were buzzing with notifications. A Death Walk had been initiated and at the Origin Realm at that. The higher the realms, the rarer the Death walks were since no one would want to show off their secret moves in front of billions.

Also, the mortality rate was more than 70% since the last opponent would be exactly an entire realm higher.

”Hey, wake up, there's a Death Walk happening soon!”

”Did you get the notification? Let's go home and watch on the main screen!”

”I wonder who is stupid enough to start one of these again, poor guy. Must be desperate for money.”

Conversations like that could be heard throughout the kingdom. It was a set fee for each person to tune in for the Walk and considering that they would either get to see an idiot jump to his death or a monster beat all 10 opponents, it was worth every spirit stone.

Hundreds of millions of people tuned in from all over the kingdom, which had the population of more than 20-30 billion.

______________________

*Bzzt*

In a military camp, a few miles outside of Fortuna city a soldier shouted, ”Everyone, gather up! A Death Walk is starting!”

”Death walk? so what? It's not that special,” said another soldier sunbathing.

”Apparently its someone from Red Legion! I heard its one of the captains,” replied the first one.

”What?! How did you know that?”

”They just released the information, I'm still not sure whether or not its true though.”

”The arena is co-managed by the Royal family and the military, if they said it, then its true,” came another voice from the side.

”Lieutenant!” all of them stood up at once and saluted.

”At ease. I just want to watch, same as you,” he said taking a seat in front of the large screen. ”And call in the newbies as well, they should see what the best of the best our Kingdom has to offer look like,” he told one of the men.

”Yes!” the soldier ran out and came back a few minutes later with several people in tow, one of them stood out with a gigantic sword on his back and the body size comparable to a bear.

If Hao Xuan was there he would recognize the figure, it was Maaz, the oldest of the Khan family.

”SIR!” all of the newcomers saluted.

”Relax, sit down and watch. There's about to be a good show,” the lieutenant smiled and casually waved his hand.

______________________

In a jungle on the opposite side of the kingdom, a man was sitting in a meditative pose in a lake. There was thick spiritual energy all around him and wisps of Qi came out of his body, circled around a few times and then went back in. This was being repeated every few seconds.

”Sir!” a voice woke him up.

”What's the matter?” the man asked with closed eyes.

”One of the Red Legion captains is going through a Death Walk. Its the newest one,” said the voice again.

”Hmm?” the man suddenly opened his eyes and the world around him dimmed for a second.