Chapter 248: I’ll Even Leave You Two More Of These Transformations
City of Light Chasing, city center.
On the skyscraper of steel towering into the clouds, flying cars shuttled back and forth. As one flying car slowly docked on the rooftop, Lin Qi stepped out of the car and instantly became the focus of everyone present.
The rooftop of the association building, which normally should not have had many Bone Forging Realm experts, was now crowded with more than two hundred Bone Forging Realm experts. These experts were of various races, each with strength at Bone Forging Realm Intermediate and above. The cold aura they released was so intense that not only would ordinary Bone Forging Realm experts tremble, but even martial artists who had reached the Extreme Advanced Level Bone Forging Realm would not be able to suppress a shiver in their hearts upon seeing them.
“Why have people from Star Tower City come here?” Lin Qi swept his gaze around, filled with astonishment.
Although the Bone Forging Realm experts before his eyes belonged to different races, the Tier 2 Battle Armor they wore all bore the insignia of the Star Tower City Guard, proving that these Bone Forging Realm experts should all be from the Star Tower City Guard.
Just as Lin Qi was feeling puzzled, a tall human man stepped out from the crowd.
This man was none other than Wu Zhuoqun, the captain of the City of Light Chasing Defense Group. However, Wu Zhuoqun was no longer merely a Peak High-Level Martial Artist, but a genuine Bone Forging Realm martial artist. It was obvious he had only just broken through; his surging qi and blood could not be restrained at all, as if he could start a fight with someone at any moment.
“Hall Master Lin, Lord City Lord and the others have been waiting for a long time,” Wu Zhuoqun came before Lin Qi and said respectfully. “The situation in the city is somewhat special right now. Elder Xiang arranged for me to come and lead the way for you.”
“A special situation? Is it because of these people from Star Tower City?” Lin Qi followed beside Wu Zhuoqun, glancing at the surrounding Star Tower City Bone Forging Realm experts, whose expressions were all unfriendly.
“Mm.” Wu Zhuoqun nodded, his expression a little grave. “Just half a day ago, the City Lord of Star Tower City suddenly brought a large group of Bone Forging Realm experts to the association and demanded that the City Lord abdicate and lead his race away from the City of Light Chasing. The other races must hand over half of their existing resources, so they can retain control of the remaining half of their original territory and continue living in the City of Light Chasing. Otherwise, they will directly start a full-scale war.”
“If they do not compromise, it is full-scale war. Is Star Tower City so certain they can swallow the City of Light Chasing?” Lin Qi was also slightly surprised upon hearing this.
Although from Fred’s information he already knew Star Tower City intended to move against the City of Light Chasing, he had not expected it to be this fast, not even waiting for winter’s arrival and the outbreak of monsters. This truly exceeded his expectations.
Among the various cities of the Wushan Region, the strength of each city had always been balanced. One could even say no one was much weaker than another. Even if Star Tower City had gained an additional Blood Condensation Realm expert, the City Lord of the City of Light Chasing was no fool. He would certainly pay a price to join forces with the City Lords of other cities to resist.
After all, if Star Tower City was not satisfied after devouring a second city and then went on to swallow a third, as long as the other City Lords were not stupid, they could not possibly allow Star Tower City to grow too large.
“One day ago, the Domain City side issued an order. In this city struggle, strong experts at the level of the City Lords are not allowed to make a move,” Wu Zhuoqun said with a sigh. “At first, this was a good thing. In terms of the number of Bone Forging Realm experts, our City of Light Chasing is about equal to Star Tower City. If both sides really fought only at the Bone Forging Realm level, neither side would gain an advantage. Even if they won, it would definitely be a tragic victory, which would be bad for both our cities. But we did not expect Star Tower City to hire outside reinforcements.”
“Star Tower City hired outside reinforcements, but we did not?” Lin Qi asked in puzzlement.
With Blood Condensation Realm experts forbidden to act, if they wanted to avoid catastrophic losses to the city, hiring outside reinforcements was indeed the best option. Since Star Tower City could hire them, there was no reason the City of Light Chasing could not.
“After the people from Star Tower City arrived, our City Lord immediately went to hire help,” Wu Zhuoqun said with a bitter smile. “But no one was willing to come.”
“No one was willing to come?” Lin Qi was surprised. “The City Lord is not being that stingy at a time like this, is he?”
As a City Lord in charge of a city, the entire Large Energy Vein was under his control. Even the mined Energy Ore and Energy Crystal, sixty percent of it went into the City Lord’s pocket, and only the remaining forty percent was distributed among the various races.
Previously, even though the human race had Elder Liu sitting in town, they were still just an ordinary race in the City of Light Chasing. Each year, the Energy Ore and Energy Crystal they received from the Large Energy Vein was just one percent of that forty percent.
The top ten powerful races received half of the forty percent, that is, twenty percent of the total. And this was only the profit from the city’s Energy Vein. For all kinds of taxes in the city, the City Lord also took half, with the rest used for various city expenditures. One could imagine how wealthy a City Lord was.
As for hiring Bone Forging Realm experts, as long as one was willing to spend, it was not a problem at all. Just like Isaka, the Gang Leader of the White Feather Gang, who could invite the Red Moon Merchant Guild to act with some Energy Crystal.
If the City Lord could not hire Bone Forging Realm experts, it could only be said he was unwilling to spend money.
“It is not that the City Lord is unwilling to spend money. This time, in order to oppose Star Tower City, the City Lord has put up half of his entire fortune, but once they learned the specific situation, all the invited Bone Forging Realm experts refused,” Wu Zhuoqun explained.
“Half of the City Lord’s fortune, and still no one is willing to come?” Lin Qi could not help but be shocked.
Such wealth would be enough to hire even a Blood Condensation Realm expert. It was hard to imagine that those Bone Forging Realm experts would not be moved.
“It is the Holy Blood Mercenary Group!” Wu Zhuoqun said with a sigh. “I do not know what method Star Tower City used to hire that Holy Blood Mercenary Group. Once those invited Bone Forging Realm experts learned that Star Tower City had hired the Holy Blood Mercenary Group, none of them dared to come. Now the City Lord and the various races have no good solution. They can only stall for time while waiting for the City Lord’s people to go to Domain City to seek outside aid.”
“The Holy Blood Mercenary Group, huh?” Lin Qi could not help but suddenly understand.
In the entire Wushan Region, apart from the three untouchable factions, there were also some very powerful forces. Among them, second only to the three untouchable ones, was the Mercenary Alliance.
The Mercenary Alliance was a rather loose organization, composed of many mercenary groups who made their living in the wilderness. Even many assassination jobs for martial artists inside the cities were handled by these mercenary groups.
Within the Mercenary Alliance, the Holy Blood Mercenary Group was legendary. They had once been hired by a City Lord to destroy a branch of the Red Moon Merchant Guild in that City, which enraged the Red Moon Merchant Guild.
Under the fury of the Red Moon Merchant Guild, that City’s City Lord died the very next day, but the Holy Blood Mercenary Group was not exterminated. As for the reason, besides the Holy Blood Mercenary Group and the Red Moon Merchant Guild, no one else knew.
It was only known that from then on, the Holy Blood Mercenary Group and the Red Moon Merchant Guild stayed out of each other’s way in the Wushan Region.
Now that Star Tower City had hired the Holy Blood Mercenary Group, it was extraordinarily difficult for the City Lord to hire other Bone Forging Realm experts or other mercenary groups.
After all, even if there was money to be earned, one had to live to spend it. The fact that the Holy Blood Mercenary Group could still be alive and kicking in the Wushan Region after destroying a branch of the Red Moon Merchant Guild already said a great deal.
While Wu Zhuoqun was explaining the current situation in the City of Light Chasing, he quickly led Lin Qi to a top-floor hall in the Martial Artist Association.
As Wu Zhuoqun opened the doors, they saw a vast hall almost the size of a football field. At this moment, hundreds of Bone Forging Realm experts were standing on either side. At the head of each side stood a burly, half-white-haired man of the Three-eyed Tribe, and an old man of the Mountain Ridge Race whose hair was completely white.
The qi and blood of these two were clearly more than just a bit stronger than that of the Bone Forging Realm. The clash of their qi and blood was like an egg striking stone. Just sitting there quietly, they made the Advanced Bone Forging Realm martial artists around them feel suffocated.
“So this is the Blood Condensation Realm?”
Looking at the two, Lin Qi felt that their qi and blood compared to Bone Forging Realm martial artists were like a stream compared to the sea, completely on a different level.
He even suspected that if they wished, they could suppress all the Bone Forging Realm experts present so they could not move.
As Lin Qi arrived, the people on both sides all looked toward him.
“So he is your City of Light Chasing’s new Vice City Lord.” The old man of the Mountain Ridge Race, whose figure was close to six meters, glanced at Lin Qi. “He is quite young and has potential. In the future, he may well replace you and become the new City Lord of the City of Light Chasing. Unfortunately, even with one more Vice City Lord, nothing will change for your City of Light Chasing. You might as well obediently abdicate. That way, at least you can take your accumulated wealth with you, instead of wasting time and life here.”
With this praise from the Mountain Ridge Race elder, whether it was the Bone Forging Realm martial artists of the City of Light Chasing or those of Star Tower City, all of them looked at Lin Qi with a trace of envy and jealousy.
As the City Lord of Star Tower City and an established Blood Condensation Realm expert, this Mountain Ridge Race elder had seen countless geniuses in his life. For such an old Blood Condensation Realm expert to offer praise, and even assert that Lin Qi was very likely to reach the Blood Condensation Realm in the future, proved that Lin Qi’s odds of becoming a Blood Condensation Realm martial artist were extremely high.
Blood Condensation Realm.
For Bone Forging Realm martial artists, this realm was the dream of a lifetime.
Yet even among the genius martial artists who graduated from the Genius Training Camp, fewer than one in a thousand could ultimately become Blood Condensation Realm martial artists.
But for Lin Qi, it was clearly not so difficult to reach this realm. How could that not inspire jealousy and admiration?
“So he is that Hall Master Lin?”
In the crowd, Xiong Yuedie could not help but size up the approaching Lin Qi, her heart filled with curiosity about him.
She had carefully read Lin Qi’s information.
After reading it, she found that Lin Qi’s growth was extraordinarily inhumanly fast. From the start, when he drifted through the Abandoned Area, then later established the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, he had successively defeated gangs in the wilderness and the suburbs. With each move he made, his strength improved by a large margin.
Not long ago, she had even suggested to Elder Xiang that they should support the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall more. Yet in such a short time, Lin Qi had become a Vice City Lord she now had to look up to.
With this growth rate, even as someone hailed as a prodigy herself, she could not help but be impressed.
“Good, good, good! Our human race finally has hope!” At the side, Elder Xiang looked at Lin Qi, his eyes full of excitement.
In the past, the human race of the City of Light Chasing had relied on Liu Tianzong alone to hold the line. Old fellows like them were only Advanced Bone Forging Realm and had no way to influence the fate of the race. They even struggled just to guard their tiny patch of land.
But now, Lin Qi was not only a top Bone Forging Realm expert who had mastered Extraordinary Martial Skill, he had also been acknowledged by Hu Lei, the City Lord of Star Tower City, as having a great chance of becoming a Blood Condensation Realm expert. In that case, even if the Mountain Ridge Race seized the City of Light Chasing, as long as Lin Qi was given time, the human race could completely build a city of their own again and restore the former glory of the human race.
“The human race really has good luck. After losing someone like Liu Tianzong, they can still produce such a monster,” the golden-haired middle-aged man of the Ape Clan looked at Lin Qi and sighed. “Unlike our Ape Clan, where it is now difficult to produce even a single top Bone Forging Realm expert.”
“There is nothing to be jealous of,” a noblewoman of the Winged Tribe curled her lip unhappily. “If we cannot hold the City of Light Chasing this time, their human race may have Vice City Lord Lin Qi, but their situation will not be good either. Without the city’s resources, becoming Blood Condensation Realm would simply be a fantasy.”
The golden-haired man of the Ape Clan did not refute her and shifted his gaze to the two people on the arena in the center of the hall.
On the martial path, talent and hard training were the foundation, but to climb higher, resources were essential. This was especially true for the level of the Blood Condensation Realm. The resources required to reach that step were something an ordinary faction simply could not afford.
As the Clan Leader of the Winged Tribe had said, if the City of Light Chasing changed hands, neither the human race nor their race would have good days ahead.
On the arena, a middle-aged man of the Three-eyed Tribe in deep black Battle Armor was fighting a Flame Horn Tribe youth in blood-colored armor. The youth was more than three meters tall, with skin smooth as jade and twin horns on his head.
The two exchanged deadly blows, each move aiming to kill. The violent clash of their qi and blood made the air continuously explode, yet the fluctuations of their battle did not spread beyond the arena, as everything was blocked by a semi-transparent Energy Barrier.
This arena was a combat arena built at great cost by the Martial Artist Association. As long as Energy Crystals were spent, martial artists below the Blood Condensation Realm could fight freely without worrying about destroying anything.
But at the very moment the golden-haired man of the Ape Clan looked toward the arena, when the two fighters who had been evenly matched were still locked in combat, the Flame Horn Tribe youth in blood-colored armor suddenly pulled away. With a loud shout, his body shot up by a large margin, transforming into a figure nearly five meters tall. His entire body turned dark red, like a demon born of fire.
With a single sweeping strike of the spear in his hand, he directly blasted the Three-eyed Tribe middle-aged man away, slamming him heavily into the Energy Barrier. A mouthful of blood spewed out, and his hands holding the weapon were shaken so badly he could no longer grip it.
Before this Three-eyed Tribe middle-aged man could stand again, the Flame Horn Tribe youth thrust his spear once more. The middle-aged man instinctively tried to evade with his footwork, but the youth caught up even faster and delivered another sweeping blow.
This time, with his weapon lost, the Three-eyed Tribe middle-aged man could not block with martial skills using only his hands. His arm and neck were brutally broken, and he died on the spot.
With the death of the Three-eyed Tribe man, the people of the City of Light Chasing all wore dark expressions, their eyes filled with despair.
Because the Three-eyed Tribe man on the arena was none other than the long-established Vice City Lord of the City of Light Chasing, publicly recognized as the number one expert beneath the City Lord. Yet he had just been killed like this on the Death Arena…
“City of Light Chasing, who is next?” Hu Lei smiled as he looked at the half-white-haired Three-eyed Tribe man. “If no one comes up and you still refuse to surrender, do not blame us for launching a full-scale war right now!”
“So this is the rumored transformation ability that only the Flame Horn Tribe possesses?” Di Luoya, the City Lord of the City of Light Chasing, stared fixedly at the Flame Horn Tribe youth on the arena, deeply shocked.
The Flame Horn Tribe was an extremely rare race in the entire Wushan Region, but they were acknowledged throughout the region as a battle race, born for battle and dying in battle.
It was said that if a Flame Horn Tribesman awakened their bloodline, they could undergo transformation and greatly increase their combat power. But this had always been treated as just a story. Even as a City Lord, he had never truly seen a Flame Horn Tribe transformation. He had not expected to witness it today.
“Yes, transformations of the Flame Horn Tribe are quite rare,” Hu Lei said with a smile. “And for such transformations, I have kept two more for you!”
“Next, who among you will come up?”
(This chapter is complete.)
