Hot.
Scorching hot.
Li Shen felt a heatwave bombard him from all sides, which almost made him think he suddenly landed in the deepest depths of the underworld. And as he looked around, he was slightly convinced that was so.
The sight of lakes lowly with molten lava. Enormous volcanoes far off in the distance emitting black gaseous smoke. And this was with a red artificial sun in the sky that cover the world in a red hue.
This was the dimension Li Shen appeared in with the other members of the Fire Empire.
“Whoa! What is this place?”
“Is this where the Chosen Tournament is being held? How come it’s not on the Star Bound Continent?”
“This is awesome! I bet this has something to do with our Fire Empire! And here I thought we had to fight those bastards from the Water Empire while they were empowered by the extreme Yin Energy.”
“Yeah, but with this we’ll have the advantage no doubt.”
Li Shen listened to the dozens of disciples from the Fire Empire as they yelled in excitement.
‘Were they not told this was where the Chosen Tournament begin held? That must be the reason why I didn’t see anything in this Sigil’s memories.’
Li Shen frowned deeply.
‘This is too shameless. These bastards are practically fishes in a body of water here. The persons who cultivate Spiritual Qi that's not the Fire Element are going to be slaughtered as easily as chickens when they enter here; especially since they are already prepared to fight in the Star Bound Continent’s snowy climate. At least the Star Bound Continent had the other elements along with the extreme Yin Energy, but here, the other elements are basically non-existent!’
“Huh? Sigil, why here are you the only one frowning?”
The bastard of a friend said as he slung an arm around Li Shen’s shoulders.
Li Shen realized his mistake and he immediately wore a smile and said with a laugh.
“I was frowning because I realize with so many people here I won’t be able to kill as many of those bastards from the Water Bound Continent as I liked.”
The bastard of a friend let out uproarious laughter when he heard LI Shen’s words.
“That’s right, our Fire Empire will sweep this Chosen Tournament and be the only ones to enter that Hidden Fragment! And that’s all while we kill those bastards from the other Contients!”
Li Shen laughed along with this bastard of a friend, but inside, he was fuming with uncontrollable rage.
“Everyone quiet down!”
A shout suddenly rang out in the surroundings causing everyone slowly become silent.
As the crowd parted ways, Li Shen saw Gu Jin and Shiming appearing together with those that had entered first.
After looking around at the faces of everyone who just came, Gu Jin's serious expression fell into a vicious grin as he asked.
“Who's ready to kill?”
“AHHHH!!”
The disciples from the Fire Empire immediately released a war cry before they all began chanting the word Kill.
“KILL!!”
“KILL!!”
“KILL!!”
“KILL!!”
“KILL!!”
The bloodlust in the air was thick, and one could almost smell the putrid stench of blood permeating the surroundings and see the mountain of dead bodies that were to come.
Li Shen did not chant along with everyone around him. His expression was neutral, but it took all the willpower he had not to show his anger.
After the war cry filled with murderous intent went on for a few breaths of time, Gu Jin finally raised his hand to calm everyone down.
When the cries died down, Gu Jin said.
“I assume I don’t have to explain the entire situation to all of you. Simply, my Master wants the Fire Empire to be the only ones that qualified to enter the Hidden Fragmented Realm. In order to do that we must first destroy everyone's Token. Each individual who enters this Dimension will automatically receive a Token from the Dimension itself. If that Token is destroyed, the person will be teleported out. Though the better option is just to kill them, it will be all the same. However, the Tokens will only be distributed once everyone enters. But even before that, we'll carry out our ambush.”
After saying that, Gu Jin then paused and took out six jade slips. He announced the names of six people who immediately came forward from the crowd.
Li Shen saw that they were two female and four male disciples.
After handing the jade slips to these six, Gu Jin said.
“You six have been chosen as squad leaders to lead your own team. Follow the instructions on the jade slip and head towards the designated location. At each of those locations kill anyone who appears.”
Li Shen hearing this had anger appear in his eyes; he was unable to fully hide his emotions.
‘So that’s their plan.’
When Li Shen was observing the teleportation circle, he not only realized that it was created using Dimensional Spatial Runes, but that it was structured in such a way that everyone would be teleported to different locations in the Dimension.
With this, he initially thought this was just so the Fire Empire could split everyone up from their group, but now he realized it was much more sinister than that.
‘If I allow them to continue, a lot of people from the Maple Continent might die. And even though I’ve warmed Tai, this is beyond what I was expecting the Fire Empire to concoct.’
But Li Shen was also surprised. If the Fire Empire indeed went along with this plan, wouldn’t they become public enemy number one?
‘Are they really that confident in going against every Major Power on the three Continents?’
As Li Shen was in his thoughts, Gu Jin suddenly said.
“Sigil, step forward as well.”
Li Shen froze at that.
‘Is it another Sigil?’
Li Shen thought, but nope.
As he looked up, he saw that Gu Jin was staring directly at him.
“In order to not draw suspicions of our plans, we chose a few low-ranking members to carry the formations we need to complete our goal.”
Gu Jin said, explaining to everyone in the crowd. He then called on five more people, all of who stepped forwards with hesitant expressions. After saying a few things to them, they hurriedly presented their storage rings with a bow.
After the last person went back to their positions, Gu Jin frowned and turned to Sigil.
“What are you waiting for? I said to step forward.”
Gu Jin was visibly annoyed.
“Stupid Sigil, what are you doing? Don’t you see the Young Master is calling you?”
The bastard of a friend next to Li Shen said nervously as he pushed him forward.
Li Shen stumbled forward before he regained his balance and began slowly walking towards the still frowning Gu Jin.
As Li Shen walked, all the gazes of the Fire Empire disciples were on him.
Though he still had on his calm and neutral expression, Li Shen’s mind was anything but.
‘Damn it. What is this? I never saw anything about this in this guy's memory.’
Li Shen was panicking a little.
Even though he hadn’t fully read the memories of this person named Sigil, he was 90% sure that this Sigil wasn’t chosen to hold any Formations.
Li Shen’s eyes almost narrowed in suspicion, but he managed to stop himself.
‘Is this a trap? Was I found out?’
Li Shen’s steps involuntarily slowed down even more, and he went on high alert.
Gu Jin seeing that Sigil had slowed down frowned and said.
“I know you're confused but just hand over your storage ring. To further keep this a secret from the Water Empire, my Master personally erased your memories. If we hadn’t, those bastards from the Water Empire would have caught on to what we were doing.”
“Ah! Is that why they were snooping around our Inn?”
One member of the Fire Empire from the crowd said aloud in realization.
Seeing this questioning look from those around him, he explained.
“Haven’t you all noticed that Mai Rong was frequently visiting our Inn? They must have suspected we planned something, but not only were they fooled, but even we were in the dark about this plan.”
“Was Young Master the one who came up with this plan?”
Another disciple asked, and when he saw Gu Jin nod, he and the others started singing praises at Gu Jin for coming up with such a brilliant plan.
Li Shen who was watching all of this frowned in his heart.
‘Is this not a trap?’
**
Hey guys! Here to remind you again of my new book 'The Growth of a Titan!' With thirty chapters already out you need to go check it out. You can type it in the search bar, or just go to profile! Hope you guys show that book some support as well!
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