962 Chapter 962 — Schemes
A woman with whitish—grey hair stepped out of the portal. She wore the typical purple robes of the Lightning Manor, and her demeanor seemed quite similar to the Starlight Queen.
She seemed to be filled with pride but didn't seem too distant.
However, the Emperors could feel through her deception.
The woman was shocked, infuriated, and scared.
She knew how powerful her opponents would be, and she knew that she wasn't ready to participate in the tournament yet. Even more, due to Shang participating, she also knew that this would be a death tournament!
If the Emperors were in agreement, they could agree to let everyone fight to the death.
Usually, fights erred on the side of life, which meant that if two opponents were not in agreement, killing someone was prohibited and would result in the execution of the killer.
But if the Emperors agreed to a death tournament, that would shift.
It would mean that if two opponents were not in agreement, the fight would be to the death.
So, the loser would only be able to survive if both teams decided to make this a benign fight.
Naturally, the woman was not happy at all that she was here.
She would have become a Mage King in the future!
But now, she would die because the Lightning Emperor sacrificed her just to get a tiny chance at getting his favorite young master to become a Warrior King or whatever!
Of course, the majority of her hate was focused on Shang, but as soon as she saw him, her hatred vanished, replaced by fear.
What even was this?!
The Mage had been incredibly prideful. After all, she was the only Mage Lord with a fivefold Spirit Sense in the Lightning Manor currently!
She was the most talented Mage in an entire Empire!
Yet, when she felt Shang's Aura, she just felt inadequate and inferior.
It was like a Mage King was floating near her.
In the end, she could only accept her destiny.
"Hello, I am Cynthia Steelbright," she transmitted to Shang, "and I am a Peak Mage Lord with a fivefold Spirit Sense. I have a Dual Affinity for Metal and Lightning."
"Attack, defense, speed, versatility," Shang transmitted back. "Which is your best?" Shang's voice felt extremely dark and threatening to Cynthia, but she could still handle it.
"Attack and speed," she answered. "You?"
"Perfect," Shang answered but didn't elaborate.
"Perfect? What do you mean?" Cynthia asked.
Shang didn't answer.
Cynthia became frustrated, but she didn't dare to annoy Shang, which was why she remained quiet.
At the same time, the Emperors were giving their teams instructions on how to proceed in this tournament. After all, the goal wasn't to win but to kill Shang.
"Benign or malicious tournament?" Kali asked.
"Malicious," Amon Gus answered first.
"Malicious," Brutus Cesare continued.
"Malicious."
"Malicious."
"Malicious."
"Benign," Jenny Greenhouse said with a helpless smile.
"Benign," Linastra Boomwitch said with a snort.
"Malicious," Gregorio said, eliciting a couple of glances from the Emperors. "Malicious," Kali finished.
"We are in agreement. This is a malicious tournament."
"Both parties will decide if their fight will be benign or malicious."
"If both of them say it is malicious, it is malicious."
"If both of them say it is benign, it is benign."
"If one says it is benign and the other says it is malicious, it is malicious."
Jenny and Linastra were not the biggest fans of the current development.
Jenny Greenhouse was generally an honest person that liked working together with others, and she really wasn't the biggest fan of this entire two-faced plotting.
While Linastra Boomwitch was the opposite of a conflict-averse person, she also preferred direct confrontations.
Now, if everyone would genuinely start going at each other's throats, she wouldn't mind, but she knew that almost all the fights would be benign since they didn't want to lose their powerful Mages.
"As always," Kali continued, "the opponents will be chosen by the Void of Death."
Kali summoned a huge cloud of Death Mana that floated in front of her.
"Throw in your tokens."
The Emperors all took out a couple of small balls and threw them into the void.
Shang could tell that the Void of Death was a Spell that made the level five Concept of Exodus become excited, which would essentially turn it into a huge whirlpool of destruction.
The excited Death Mana would rapidly move around in random directions, pushing the tokens around.
This kind of movement couldn't be controlled by any Mage since it was simply far too chaotic.
'However...' Shang thought as he looked at the silent Kali. 'She is not just any Mage.'
The other Emperors hadn't complained about this way of drawing lots, which meant that they believed that Kali had no control.
And yet, What if she actually did?
Maybe she had hidden it very well all this time?
Shang inspected his opponents while the lots were rapidly getting shuffled in the Void of Death.
Most of the teams were made of two Mages with fourfold Spirit Senses. In fact,there were seven of these teams, which meant that there were only two teams with different configurations.
One of them was Shang's team.
The other one was Brutus Cesar's team. His team had someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense and someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense.
Someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense that had comprehended a level six Concept could fight two enemies with a fourfold Spirit Sense.
The gap in power was huge.
This meant that Brutus' team would win under normal circumstances.
However, Shang wasn't too worried.
A moment later, all the tokens shot out of the Void of Death and landed in the Emperors' hands.
And then, everyone realized something. Kali definitely had control over the Void of Death!
These fights were too perfectly orchestrated!
The Emperors looked at Kali with narrowed eyes, but she didn't respond to the looks.
Everyone had already agreed that the lots would be drawn this way. If they wanted to change it, they needed to wait for the next tournament and change the rules.
So, what did it look like?
Well, the Lightning Manor got the free ticket.
However, getting the free ticket was bad in this tournament.
If one got the free ticket, they wouldn't get to skip a round but would get to fight an additional one.
The first fight would be between two teams, and the winner would advance to the quarter-finals, the round of eight.
Who was the Lightning Manor's opponent?
The Tower of Climate's team.
Jenny Greenhouse's team.
One of the two teams that voted for benign.
And if the Lightning Manor's team won, they would face the Sungod Mountain Empire's team.
Linastra Boomwitch's Empire.
The second team that voted for benign.
Obviously, Kali was throwing these two teams in front of the Lightning Manor as fodder.
The Judgment Palace, Land and Sky Empire, and Twilight Dusk Family had all been allied for a long time, and these two Empires had always kept themselves out of the fight between them and the Lightning Manor.
Well, now they would need to get involved. Cynthia looked with fear at the team she was about to fight against.
A bit later, she threw a glance at Shang, who didn't seem to feel any different from before.
Which was true.
Shang wasn't worried about this fight at all.
The moment Kali had decided that this would be a team tournament was the moment she had essentially declared Shang's team the victor.
However, since nobody knew a lot about Shang's power, nobody realized the truth.
The only two people that knew that Shang would win were Kali and Abaddon, and Shang was certain that Kali had made this decision because of Abaddon.
Abaddon knew a frightening amount about Shang, and he also knew that fighting as a team would make this tournament very one-sided.
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