In the arena…

　　Shi Mu stopped only after he had reached hundreds of feet away from the previous spot.

　　He then looked towards the stage only to find that Liu An was no longer there. This made him heave a sigh of relief.

　　Shi Mu knew only a few pages of Liu An’s life so far. Even so, he had an intuition deep in his heart that this man was very dangerous. In addition, he had a gut feeling that Liu An’s strength wasn’t as simple as it looked on the surface. He felt so because of his experience in the Heavenly Yu City’s auction.

　　Moreover, Shi Mu had realized something after he had thought about that matter meticulously. He had realized that he had been deliberately made incapable of severing ties with this man in an inexplicably clever manner. And, this had been accomplished by having the two major Sects issue an order for his arrest.

　　Liu An had previously tried to recruit Shi Mu in his cult. However, Shi Mu had been reluctant to join the Dark Moon Cult since he had wanted to stay far away from this Liu An.

　　“I’m going to the Western Continent. I think I shouldn’t bump into him again afterwards,” Shi Mu thought so.

　　“Brother Mu, what are you looking at?” Yu Yi and the other people had also walked over by now.

　　“Nothing,” Shi Mu retracted his gaze.

　　Many of the people in the arena had found their targets by this time.

　　Therefore, many battles had sprung up in this previously peaceful arena. Sounds of people fighting were constantly ringing from all directions… so much so that the scene had become increasingly chaotic. However, the participants had been confined by the rules of the competition. So, they weren’t allowed to use a heavy hand to injure others. Consequently, very intense conflicts hadn’t burst out in the arena so far.

　　“Let’s go and find the next target.” It seemed that Shi Mu had become the leader of this group of five people by now. His cursory glance swept around the arena once. Then, he walked forward along with the other four people.

　　The competition became even fiercer with time. Some people had been able to seize their target-hats with great difficulty since they had only relied on their sheer strength. However, some people had been clever enough to snatch away their target-hats skillfully by using other ways. There were also some people who had used the exchange-of-interest way to obtain their target hats. They had simply exchanged the hats that they wore with each other. Moreover, it seemed that the Dark Moon Cult’s managing disciples that had been stationed around the arena didn’t prevent them from doing so.

　　Nearly two-thousand people had already left the arena even though only half-an-hour had passed since the beginning of this competition.

　　Less than half of these people had turned out successful in seizing hats. This was because some of them had inadvertently violated the competition rules, and had been led to a nearby building by the Dark Moon Cult’s managing disciples who stood under the platform. The disciples who had lost in the competition had also been taken away along with the rule-breaking disciples.

　　“Bang” a loud crashing sound was heard since a black-dressed man was struck and sent flying. Then, he crashed to the ground heavily with a loud sound.

　　That man didn’t sustain any serious injuries, but his complexion had turned pale. Also, his hat had disappeared from his head.

　　The black-robed man crawled to his feet, and shot a resentful look at the people in front of him.

　　Yu Yi held a hat in his hand, and his face was glistening with a blissful look.

　　A number was gleaming on the surface of this hat. It was “three-thousand-six-hundred-and-five”. This was Yu Yi’s target.

　　“What’s wrong? Does Your Excellency still wish to fight back?” He turned his hand and took the hat while his eyes gazed at the black-robed man.

　　A few black-robed silhouettes stood not far from them. A hint of fear crawled across their faces as they saw this scene… so much so that they didn’t dare to approach them.

　　Shi Mu stood in front of a small group of people at this time. He held the black blade in his hand.

　　The black-robed man shot another resentful look at Yu Yi. But then, his eyes turned to look at Shi Mu, and a petrified look flashed through his face.

　　He took a long and deep breath. Then, he turned around, and started to walk away.

　　Several other people in the surroundings also retreated and moved far from Shi Mu and his team.

　　Half-an-hour had passed since the beginning of the competition. And, this group had just accomplished another task with ease. They then continued to push their way through the arena under Shi Mu’s leadership.

　　Shi Mu’s group had also confronted two other teams during this period that had been trying to seize Hou Sai Lei and Yu Yi’s magic hats.

　　The competition’s rules didn’t allow the participants to inflict injuries on the opposite party to obtain their hat. So, Shi Mu’s group had no other choice but to rely on a method that could force the opposite party to retreat. However, this method didn’t involve any difficult tasks. They simply had to shoot down the magic hat that their opponents wore. This was enough to get their opponent disqualified. Thus, it was an easy way to defeat the people who aimed for these five people’s magic hats.

　　Yu Yi and his two friends’ target hats had been collected by this time. Now, they had to seize only Shi Mu and Hou Sai Lei’s target hats.

　　“Thanks to Brother Mu that we could collect these three hats so quickly.” Yu Yi looked at Shi Mu with gratitude and said.

　　“This is only a trivial matter,” Shi Mu replied.

　　“We three people’s targets have been taken care of. Brother Mu, we have to look for your and Brother Hou’s targets now. May I know the location of your target?” Yu Yi said.

　　“Come with me.” Shi Mu waved his hand, and walked in a particular direction along with them.

　　His and Hou Sai Lei’s target had been under his close watch this entire time. Therefore, Shi Mu had been very relaxed and carefree in this regard.

　　Shi Mu stopped, and then looked straight ahead after a moment.

　　There was a small team of 7 or 8 people in the front. They were a few hundred feet away from them. A red-robed man seemed to be the leader of this group. He was a tall man with a fairly robust stature. He held a red-hilted blade in his hand.

　　Hou Sai Lei’s eyes lit up when he saw that the hat on that red-robed man’s head contained his target number.

　　However, the opposite party had also sensed the presence of Shi Mu and his team members. Therefore, they had also tightened their guard.

　　“Let’s begin!”

　　Shi Mu shouted in a low voice. Then, he turned his hand, took out a stack of brown magic charms, and crushed them.

　　Expansive yellow lights converged together, and took the shape of a light screen that was several feet in size. Then, Shi Mu threw it toward the red-robed man and his team members.

　　The red-robed man became startled. However, he jumped to the side at a lightning speed, and escaped the yellow screen.

　　However, his companions’ strength was inferior to him. Their bodies tightened as soon as they got enveloped by the yellow light screen.

　　Then, a thread of the yellow light coiled around their bodies in such a manner that they found it extremely difficult to even raise their hands. In fact, it seemed as if they had fallen into a quagmire.

　　“Earth Prison Magic Charm!” The red-robed man’s complexion changed.

　　The Earth Prison Magic Charm was cast right before the enemy confrontation in order to catch the enemy off guard and lock their lower halves. It was a very practical magic charm, and was classified as one of the rarest magic charms among the middle-grade magic charms. In fact, there was often no market price for this charm. But, the person in front of the red-robed man had drawn out so many of them, and had trapped all of his companions in one fell swoop.

　　The red-robed man’s eyes flashed as if he was about to take an action.

　　But then, a mass of mist gushed out in front of him. It was followed by a lofty ten-feet-tall human skeleton that appeared amid the mist. It held a large pitch-black bone-blade. The blade was almost half the size of a human, and was curled-up in a mass of black smoke. A pair of blue soul flames were gleaming in that skeleton’s eyes. This skeleton was a Dead Spirit creature that possessed the strength of a Xian Tian-ranked warrior!

　　Hou Sai Lei then mumbled something, and pointed his finger at the red-robed man.

　　The gigantic skeleton issued a low roar. After that, it stormed toward the red-robed man while brandishing its black blade.

　　Yu Yi stood on the sidelines at this moment. He also recited an incantation, and a streak of green light darted from his hand the next moment. The light then turned into a wind blade, and hacked toward the red-robed man.

　　A stern look flashed through the red-robed man’s eyes when he saw this scene. He turned his hand and pulled out a red blade. The edge of his blade was smeared with a hint of blood-red color.

　　The long red blade exuded a dazzling red radiance the next moment, and a dreadful blade Qi pervaded the air.

　　After that, the red-robed man stamped his foot on the ground in a fierce manner, and disappeared from the place.

　　Puff Puff Puff!

　　Consequently, the wind blade that had been shot by Yu Yi hacked in the void where the red-robed man had stood, and ended up empty-handed.

　　Then, the red-robed man reappeared in front of the Xian Tian-ranked human skeleton like a ghost, and brandished his blade to chop it down.

　　His blood-red blade hacked at the left shoulder of the skeleton. An arc-shaped blood-red blade-light flashed out of the blade, and cleaved the skeleton’s body.

　　The skeleton’s body shook, and divided into two parts with a crisp cracking sound. Then, its two halves fell to the ground.

　　Hou Sai Lei was profoundly shocked when he saw this scene.

　　“You want to seize my hat? Then, you’ll have to pay the price for it!”

　　The red-robed man’s eyes flashed with a trace of cold look. Then, the blood-red blade in his hand radiated bright light once again, and hacked toward Hou Sai Lei’s head in a very vengeful manner. It seemed as if the red-robed man had stopped caring about the rules of the competition.

　　Hou Sai Lei was startled. He immediately flew backwards in retreat. Then, a grey light flashed in front of his body as he had summoned a bone-shield before his body to block the attack.

　　Ka-cha!

　　However, the blood-red blade-light slashed the bone-shield in two halves with a flash of light. Moreover, the momentum of the blade-light didn’t reduce a bit after the impact. On the contrary, it increased and shot toward Hou Sai Lei once again…

　　But then, Shi Mu’s silhouette flashed and appeared beside Hou Sai Lei like a ghost. Shi Mu grabbed Hou Sai Lei’s body, and pulled him backwards. Simultaneously, he raised his black blade with his other hand to receive the blood-red blade-light.

　　“Clang” a loud metal clanging sound rang out!

　　The red-robed man’s body received a powerful jolt because of the impact, and he was forced to move backwards. He retreated a few steps in a continual manner before he was able to stabilize his body to stand on firm footing.

　　This incident shocked him profoundly. He shot a look at Shi Mu who had abruptly appeared in front of him, and a look of surprise surfaced on his face.

　　“Thank you… Brother Mu, you saved me.” Hou Sai Lei said. A faint trace of fear was still lingering in his heart. He then expressed gratitude to Shi Mu while keeping his voice lowered.

　　However, Shi Mu looked somewhat absent-minded at the moment. His eyes were stuck to the black blade in his hands, and there was a thoughtful expression on his face.

　　Shi Mu then lifted his head, and looked at the red-robed man who stood not far from him.

　　“Don’t let them escape!” Shi Mu had barely finished his words when his silhouette flashed, and he dashed toward the red-robed man. Simultaneously, his black blade turned into a dark shadow as he hacked it towards that man.

　　Yu Yi and the other people heard these words, and rushed towards the red-robed man’s companions who had been trapped by the Earth Prison technique.

　　The red-robed man naturally couldn’t sit back and wait for his death. He thundered loudly, and the Xian Tian Real Qi in his whole body surged up and gushed straight into his blade. Then, a dazzling blood-red luminescence bubbled-up on the surface of his long blade as he wielded it to meet Shi Mu’s attack.

　　“Ping” a loud sound was heard!

　　Two blades — one red and the other black — collided with each other in the air.

　　Shi Mu’s eyes were fixedly staring at the black blade in his hand. The fact was that he had noticed that the surface of his black blade had flashed, and a wisp of strange black light had appeared on it when it had collided with the red blade.

　　The red blade had been exuding a blood-red light. But, Shi Mu had noticed that the greater part of this blood-red blade-light had gotten gobbled up as soon as it had come in contact with that wisp of strange black-light. And, the red blade-light had dimmed after that collision…

　　The red-robed man felt as if an immense force had surged up in a violent manner to render a severe jolt to his body. He drew a few steps back after the impact. Even his arm had experienced such a powerful shock that his long red blade had nearly been sent flying.

　　Shi Mu didn’t chase him. Instead, he simply gazed at the black blade in his hands.

　　The strange radiance that had just appeared on his black blade had vanished by now. However, his blade’s weight seemed to have increased.

　　Shi Mu’s heart overwhelmed with ecstasy since he had discovered something wonderful. His black blade seemed to possess a strange power now. It could devour his opponent’s Real Qi-based attacks!

　　His heart thumped as he related this incident with Yan Luo’s matter from before. The material of this meteoric iron seemed to be a treasure indeed!

　　“You’re courting death. So, I’m going to be merciless now!”

　　A spurt of ominous glint gushed into the red-robed man’s eyes as he thundered at the top of his voice. After that, his body inflated and his skin became dark-green. Moreover, a layer of thick black hair sprouted over his entire body.

　　He had transformed into a zombie!

　　The red-robed man bellowed after the transformation. Simultaneously, the long blade in his hand exuded bright rays of light. He then dashed toward Shi Mu like a raging storm along with the blood-red blade-light and a plentiful amount of Real Qi.

　　“Brother Mu, watch out!” Yu Yi and others weren’t far from the scene. They suddenly called out in alarm to alert Shi Mu.

　　These people knew that Shi Mu practiced both the martial art and the magic art. In fact, they had seen both of his arts in action while they were seizing the hats. Moreover, they had found out that his martial strength wasn’t inferior to that of a Xian Tian warrior. However, their complexion still changed when they saw that the opponent in front had resorted to Zombie Art.

　　It could be said that the Zombie Art lacked intelligence. However, it rendered the caster an iron-like solid body once it was practiced to the Xian Tian realm. In addition, it also strengthened the caster’s Real Qi to such an extent that an ordinary magic tool would fail to inflict any injury. Furthermore, it also increased the caster’s strength by a big margin… so much so that it exceeded that of a Xian Tian primary stage warrior by far.

　　However, Hou Sai Lei was familiar with Shi Mu’s real strength. So, he was calm and composed.

　　Shi Mu revealed a mischievous smile, and a strange gleam streaked across his eyes. He didn’t draw back. Instead, he moved forward to receive the attack.

　　He had discovered only a few secrets of his black blade during this fight. So, he obviously wanted to seize this fortuitous opportunity to dig out a little more information in this regard.