Chapter 81: 81
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The night before the competition, Bary Casfiu came to talk with Krune's group, some people saw that but no one paid much attention, he the left a few minutes after, only the Yule Continent Contestant were a little puzzled, but they couldn't simply go ask what it was about, not to mention that Krune's group probably wouldn't tell them anyway.
The next day came fast, soon the contestants were already close to the arenas prepared just for it, each continent formed a group of their own and waited by the sides, all the Guild Heads came forward with their elders and took their position, it was then that a man came forward to announce the rules, surprisingly, it was Bary Casfiu, the Yule Continent Guild Head.
"There is a total of 229 contestants for the five available slots, we will separate you into eight groups of thirty two, obviously, there isn't enough people for each group to have thirty two participants, so a few of you will receive a free pass to the next round, luck is also part of one's strength, so we will draw lots to decide which Mercenaries who won't be battling in the first round, to make sure that the contestants with the highest chance of getting the five slots won't battle each other before the finals, we have decided on eight seeded Mercenaries, each one of them will be put in a different bracket."
He looked at everyone and then continue.
"To make sure that things like cultivators or demon beasts of the same continent going easy or losing on purpose won't happen, we separated the five continents contestants as bests as possible so that they will hardly fight people of their own continents, of course, sooner or later they will end fighting each other, but at least you won't need to be afraid of that happening in the first stages of the competition."
So far it was pretty much as everyone thought.
"Additionally, after the victors of the eight brackets come out, they will battle every single winner of the other brackets, the five with the highest number of victories will be the representatives of the Mercenary Guild Alliance this time."
He then looked at some of the Mercenaries and said.
"The eight seeded mercenaries are:"
"Lina Jue, Makui Continent, First Arena."
"Rog Werer, Sky Fall Continent, Second Arena."
"Tasier, Borle Continent, Third Arena."
"Lofa Harcken, Ice Continent, Forth Arena."
"Arlan Rosier, Makui Continent, Fifth Arena."
"Shad Forgon, Sky Fall Continent, Sixth Arena."
"Jack Biurer, Ice Continent, Seventh Arena."
Bary then paused for a while and looked at a woman's direction.
"Yusa Shen, Yule Continent, Eighth Arena."
"Those are all the seeded players who are going to be put one in each of the eight groups, that's all for the seeded players, now I will draw the names of those who are not fighting in the first round."
Everyone found it strange that Yusa, an 8th Stage Foundation Establishment got the Yule Continent Seed Slot, there is quite a few people in the Yule Continent side with cultivations at the peak of the 9th stage, but those who were the most confused were obviously the Yule Continent Contestants themselves, they know that Krune is probably the strongest between them, even if not him, it should have been Ao Sulian at least, after all, they saw his strength first hand back in the Headquarters, so the decision of putting Yusa Shen as a seeded player puzzled them greatly.
Going back to the last night, Bary Casfiu had visited Krune's group to talk about this issue exactly, in the end, Krune and the others decided for Yusa to take the Seeded slot, Bary was taken aback with that decision, but then Ao explained.
"Between the three of us, Yusa has the lowest attack power, her skills are more focused in support, of course, she is very strong too, but for the three of us to get a better change to enter the Martial Gathering together, it will be better to have her as seeded player, I'm a lot more focused in attack, while Krune could be said to be all rounded."
Yusa heard the last part and couldn't help but laugh.
"Can Krune even be considered a normal all rounded? He is overpowered in both attack, defense and movement, I'm only a little better than him in support and that's because I mostly focus on it."
Shinja and Ao heard that and laughed as well, after so many spars between them they had to admit that it was true, Shinja only had the advantage at moment basically because of her much higher cultivation, and even so it wasn't easy to beat Krune.
Krune heard that and got a little embarrassed, he thought that maybe he should take it easier on Yusa and Ao next time they spar.
Bary Casfiu was taken aback, it was obviously that their confidence on Krune was as high as it could be, but since they decided that it would be better to have him take a normal role, then he will follow their requests, besides, if Krune can't even beat the seeded players of the Mercenary Selection, then let's not even mention the Martial Gathering contestants.
After a few draws, the name of the people or demon beasts who got to not fight the first round was decided, Ao got lucky and was exempt from battling the first round, Krune and Yusa were not so luck so they would need to go forward with it, Bary could be said to have made a great job with the position of the contestants of the Yule Continent in the brackets, the three of them wouldn't get any seeded players, until they get close to the end, while Yusa avoided fighting the strongest one other than her in her bracket.
There was eight arenas, after everyone found out their groups, they gathered beside their own fighting stages and waited for the referees to come, to make sure that no one would need to hold back, each referee was at least in the Divine Soul Realm Early Stages, only when a fatal move was about to connect would they move to stop it, the reason why the competition is made in a Danger Zone is because sometimes, even a Divine Soul realm cultivator wouldn't be able to stop the fight in time and someone would die, they are all the best Mercenaries of the five continents, their skills are obviously much higher than ordinary cultivators.
In case someone died, the Danger Zone rule would apply, the killer wouldn't be blamed and no one would try to take revenge, it would instead be considered as idiotic, if you are participating in this competition and don't even have the confidence to keep yourself alive, then what did you come here for?
The eight referees from various continents took on the stages and called the name of the first Mercenaries, Krune's fight was the second one of his group and he was part of the sixth arena, while Yusa was the fifth one to fight in the eighth arena, Ao wasn't going to fighting in this round, and he was part of the second arena.
Everyone's eyes was focused in the battle of the Fifth and First Arenas, that's because the seeded players of both were fighting in the first round.
In the first arena, Lina Jue was fighting a man from Borle Continent, both of them were peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, Lina was a Fire and Lightning Elements user, as mentioned before, all cultivators and demon beasts can use any elements they want, but they would usually specialize in one or two while they are on lower realms, her opponent was an Earth and Water user called Hao Foese.
Right from the start Hao used Metal Element, a branch of the Earth Element, to strength his armor and spear tip, only then he charged forward, he knows that Lina is a seeded player so he went all out from the very start, unfortunately for him, Lina wasn't taking him serious at all, Lina disappeared from his sight with a Lightning movement and appeared right above him, on both her hands, a fire ball had appeared, the strange thing is that they had some sparks coming out, she was obviously able to merge fire and lightning together, most impressive was the fact that she summoned those fire-thunder balls in the time she took to move above Hao.
Without any other choice, Hao could only switch his Water Element to Earth Element and use both Earth and Metal to try to resist the attack, after all, there was no time to dodge anymore, the two fire-thunder balls hit his body and an enormous explosion could be heard, Hao couldn't take the attack and was sent flying outside the arena, Lina had hold herself back so Hao was only badly injured, as long as he receives the right treatment he will be fine.
On the Fifth arena, the battle was over even faster, Arlan is a Fire, Wind and Lightning user, it's already impressive that he can control three elements at the same time while still in the Foundation Establishment, one must remember that he doesn't have Spiritual Energy Meridians like Ao and Yusa, this is the Prof of how talented he is.
He didn't even leave his spot, with a single Fire-Wind slash of his sword, his opponent was done for, the Divine Soul Referee had to block the attack, otherwise, Arlan's attack would have killed him, in the end, Arlan didn't even use his lightning element in that fight, one move and everything was done.
Krune saw that and couldn't help but get surprised, if he doesn't consider the wind element, Arlan's Fire Element control is at the same level as his one, it was really impressive.
It was then that he received a Divine Sense message from Guild Head Bary.
"Did you see that? Arlan Rosier has a Pure Yang Body, his fire element control is far above any of the other contestants, he is the cultivator that everyone thinks to definitely get one of the five slots."
Krune heard that and finally understood the reason, with Shinja's Pure Yin Body, she too has a Water Element control as good as his and it was even before she got her Spiritual Energy Meridians, so now he can understand why Arlan can do the same with fire, not to mention that he could feel it, Arlan's Divine Sense is very strong too, he definitely doesn't lose to Yusa or Ao, he probably has some way of training his soul as well, although Soul Techniques are very rare in Makui Planet, it doesn't mean that they don't exist.
But soon, Krune put this matter to the back of his mind, Arlan hasn't showed his real abilities yet, so there was no point in paying attention to that now.
The other six arenas battle took a lot more time to finish, the competitors were fairly even considering combat power, one of the battles on the seventh arena even took over ten minutes to finish, although there was a victor, the guy wasn't the least bit happy, he used a lot of his strength in the battle and received quite a few injuries, if his next opponent doesn't go through the same problem, his chances of winning it are very low, nonetheless, he immediately took some healing pills and started to recover.
The next round came and it was finally Krune's time to fight, but other than the Yule Continent Mercenaries, no one was paying attention to him, that's because in the third arena there was another seeded contestant, it was the Thunder Hawk Tasier, his opponent was one of the Yule Continent Mercenaries, his name was Kaile Ford, a 9th Stage Foundation Establishment who was also part of the Carnage Team that Turi Belane is Leader.
Tasier was both Lightning and Wind element user, a pretty obvious combination for a Lightning Aerial Demon Beast like him, as soon as the battle started, Tasier took the skies and started to bombard Kaile from above with Lightning Element Attacks, although the arena was closed by a protection formation, it was still very big and had a lot of aerial space, more than enough for him to show his abilities, Kaile immediately flew after him but it wasn't long before he was utterly defeated, although Foundation Establishment Cultivators can also fly, Kaile obviously couldn't match the Thunder Hawk, Tasier showed no mercy in his attacks and the Divine Soul Realm Referee had to intervene to save Kalie's life.
On Krune's arena, he was looking at Tasier Battle, the problem was, he was doing that while battling his opponent, which made his adversary burst in rage, Krune wasn't paying attention to him at all, unfortunately for him, Krune was too fast, doesn't matter what kind of attack he used, not a single hit, let alone hit, the moment that he made an attack, Krune wouldn't be in the place where the attack was aimed anymore.
Krune wasn't doing that on purpose, he was simply interested in the Thunder Hawk lightning element control, he wanted to check the difference between the both of them, and for that, he couldn't pay too much attention to his opponent, in the end, a scene where it looked like Krune was playing with his opponent started.
Only when the third arena battle was over did Krune finally pay attention to the guy in front of him, but he kept dodging the attacks anyway, it was only when most of the battles were over that he finally made his move, he saw another attack coming his way and just sighed, using the flaws in the attack itself, Krune launched some Blazing Wind Blades that sliced his opponent's attack as if they were made of paper, the blades didn't stop and just as they were about to hit his opponents, they suddenly exploded.
His opponent was ready to resist the slashing effect of the blazing wind blades, but he really didn't expect them to explode on his face, the blast shook wave sent him flying outside the arena, just as he was about to hit the ground outside, he focused on his spiritual energy to stop mid-air, the shook wave of the explosions didn't do much damage in the end, he was just about to fly back on the arena when suddenly, several roots appeared on the ground and caught him, before he could even react, he was pulled to the ground, the referee saw that he touched the ground outside the arena and announced Krune's victory.
Shad Forgon, the seeded Mercenary of the sixth arena, looked at that and his face went dark, Krune showed an ability far above than he had expected, and it was obvious that he didn't take his fight serious at all, he started to think that he might have found a dark horse, worst of all, this dark horse just had to be in his group.
Krune came down from the arena and noticed that the people on his group and even those outside were all looking at him, this battle had made everyone acknowledge that Krune was extremely strong, but Krune got puzzled instead.
'That doesn't make sense, I made sure to wait for the other battles to be over before finishing mine, I was planning to lay low until the end and then strike it hard, but how come I became the focus all of sudden?'
He just forgot to account for the fact that not only had it looked like he was purposely playing around with his opponent, he also controlled three different elements in the end of the battle while his cultivation is obviously at the 7th Stage of Foundation Establishment, it would be weird if no one paid attention to him instead.
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The night before the competition, Bary Casfiu came to talk with Krune's group, some people saw that but no one paid much attention, he the left a few minutes after, only the Yule Continent Contestant were a little puzzled, but they couldn't simply go ask what it was about, not to mention that Krune's group probably wouldn't tell them anyway.
The next day came fast, soon the contestants were already close to the arenas prepared just for it, each continent formed a group of their own and waited by the sides, all the Guild Heads came forward with their elders and took their position, it was then that a man came forward to announce the rules, surprisingly, it was Bary Casfiu, the Yule Continent Guild Head.
"There is a total of 229 contestants for the five available slots, we will separate you into eight groups of thirty two, obviously, there isn't enough people for each group to have thirty two participants, so a few of you will receive a free pass to the next round, luck is also part of one's strength, so we will draw lots to decide which Mercenaries who won't be battling in the first round, to make sure that the contestants with the highest chance of getting the five slots won't battle each other before the finals, we have decided on eight seeded Mercenaries, each one of them will be put in a different bracket."
He looked at everyone and then continue.
"To make sure that things like cultivators or demon beasts of the same continent going easy or losing on purpose won't happen, we separated the five continents contestants as bests as possible so that they will hardly fight people of their own continents, of course, sooner or later they will end fighting each other, but at least you won't need to be afraid of that happening in the first stages of the competition."
So far it was pretty much as everyone thought.
"Additionally, after the victors of the eight brackets come out, they will battle every single winner of the other brackets, the five with the highest number of victories will be the representatives of the Mercenary Guild Alliance this time."
He then looked at some of the Mercenaries and said.
"The eight seeded mercenaries are:"
"Lina Jue, Makui Continent, First Arena."
"Rog Werer, Sky Fall Continent, Second Arena."
"Tasier, Borle Continent, Third Arena."
"Lofa Harcken, Ice Continent, Forth Arena."
"Arlan Rosier, Makui Continent, Fifth Arena."
"Shad Forgon, Sky Fall Continent, Sixth Arena."
"Jack Biurer, Ice Continent, Seventh Arena."
Bary then paused for a while and looked at a woman's direction.
"Yusa Shen, Yule Continent, Eighth Arena."
"Those are all the seeded players who are going to be put one in each of the eight groups, that's all for the seeded players, now I will draw the names of those who are not fighting in the first round."
Everyone found it strange that Yusa, an 8th Stage Foundation Establishment got the Yule Continent Seed Slot, there is quite a few people in the Yule Continent side with cultivations at the peak of the 9th stage, but those who were the most confused were obviously the Yule Continent Contestants themselves, they know that Krune is probably the strongest between them, even if not him, it should have been Ao Sulian at least, after all, they saw his strength first hand back in the Headquarters, so the decision of putting Yusa Shen as a seeded player puzzled them greatly.
Going back to the last night, Bary Casfiu had visited Krune's group to talk about this issue exactly, in the end, Krune and the others decided for Yusa to take the Seeded slot, Bary was taken aback with that decision, but then Ao explained.
"Between the three of us, Yusa has the lowest attack power, her skills are more focused in support, of course, she is very strong too, but for the three of us to get a better change to enter the Martial Gathering together, it will be better to have her as seeded player, I'm a lot more focused in attack, while Krune could be said to be all rounded."
Yusa heard the last part and couldn't help but laugh.
"Can Krune even be considered a normal all rounded? He is overpowered in both attack, defense and movement, I'm only a little better than him in support and that's because I mostly focus on it."
Shinja and Ao heard that and laughed as well, after so many spars between them they had to admit that it was true, Shinja only had the advantage at moment basically because of her much higher cultivation, and even so it wasn't easy to beat Krune.
Krune heard that and got a little embarrassed, he thought that maybe he should take it easier on Yusa and Ao next time they spar.
Bary Casfiu was taken aback, it was obviously that their confidence on Krune was as high as it could be, but since they decided that it would be better to have him take a normal role, then he will follow their requests, besides, if Krune can't even beat the seeded players of the Mercenary Selection, then let's not even mention the Martial Gathering contestants.
After a few draws, the name of the people or demon beasts who got to not fight the first round was decided, Ao got lucky and was exempt from battling the first round, Krune and Yusa were not so luck so they would need to go forward with it, Bary could be said to have made a great job with the position of the contestants of the Yule Continent in the brackets, the three of them wouldn't get any seeded players, until they get close to the end, while Yusa avoided fighting the strongest one other than her in her bracket.
There was eight arenas, after everyone found out their groups, they gathered beside their own fighting stages and waited for the referees to come, to make sure that no one would need to hold back, each referee was at least in the Divine Soul Realm Early Stages, only when a fatal move was about to connect would they move to stop it, the reason why the competition is made in a Danger Zone is because sometimes, even a Divine Soul realm cultivator wouldn't be able to stop the fight in time and someone would die, they are all the best Mercenaries of the five continents, their skills are obviously much higher than ordinary cultivators.
In case someone died, the Danger Zone rule would apply, the killer wouldn't be blamed and no one would try to take revenge, it would instead be considered as idiotic, if you are participating in this competition and don't even have the confidence to keep yourself alive, then what did you come here for?
The eight referees from various continents took on the stages and called the name of the first Mercenaries, Krune's fight was the second one of his group and he was part of the sixth arena, while Yusa was the fifth one to fight in the eighth arena, Ao wasn't going to fighting in this round, and he was part of the second arena.
Everyone's eyes was focused in the battle of the Fifth and First Arenas, that's because the seeded players of both were fighting in the first round.
In the first arena, Lina Jue was fighting a man from Borle Continent, both of them were peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, Lina was a Fire and Lightning Elements user, as mentioned before, all cultivators and demon beasts can use any elements they want, but they would usually specialize in one or two while they are on lower realms, her opponent was an Earth and Water user called Hao Foese.
Right from the start Hao used Metal Element, a branch of the Earth Element, to strength his armor and spear tip, only then he charged forward, he knows that Lina is a seeded player so he went all out from the very start, unfortunately for him, Lina wasn't taking him serious at all, Lina disappeared from his sight with a Lightning movement and appeared right above him, on both her hands, a fire ball had appeared, the strange thing is that they had some sparks coming out, she was obviously able to merge fire and lightning together, most impressive was the fact that she summoned those fire-thunder balls in the time she took to move above Hao.
Without any other choice, Hao could only switch his Water Element to Earth Element and use both Earth and Metal to try to resist the attack, after all, there was no time to dodge anymore, the two fire-thunder balls hit his body and an enormous explosion could be heard, Hao couldn't take the attack and was sent flying outside the arena, Lina had hold herself back so Hao was only badly injured, as long as he receives the right treatment he will be fine.
On the Fifth arena, the battle was over even faster, Arlan is a Fire, Wind and Lightning user, it's already impressive that he can control three elements at the same time while still in the Foundation Establishment, one must remember that he doesn't have Spiritual Energy Meridians like Ao and Yusa, this is the Prof of how talented he is.
He didn't even leave his spot, with a single Fire-Wind slash of his sword, his opponent was done for, the Divine Soul Referee had to block the attack, otherwise, Arlan's attack would have killed him, in the end, Arlan didn't even use his lightning element in that fight, one move and everything was done.
Krune saw that and couldn't help but get surprised, if he doesn't consider the wind element, Arlan's Fire Element control is at the same level as his one, it was really impressive.
It was then that he received a Divine Sense message from Guild Head Bary.
"Did you see that? Arlan Rosier has a Pure Yang Body, his fire element control is far above any of the other contestants, he is the cultivator that everyone thinks to definitely get one of the five slots."
Krune heard that and finally understood the reason, with Shinja's Pure Yin Body, she too has a Water Element control as good as his and it was even before she got her Spiritual Energy Meridians, so now he can understand why Arlan can do the same with fire, not to mention that he could feel it, Arlan's Divine Sense is very strong too, he definitely doesn't lose to Yusa or Ao, he probably has some way of training his soul as well, although Soul Techniques are very rare in Makui Planet, it doesn't mean that they don't exist.
But soon, Krune put this matter to the back of his mind, Arlan hasn't showed his real abilities yet, so there was no point in paying attention to that now.
The other six arenas battle took a lot more time to finish, the competitors were fairly even considering combat power, one of the battles on the seventh arena even took over ten minutes to finish, although there was a victor, the guy wasn't the least bit happy, he used a lot of his strength in the battle and received quite a few injuries, if his next opponent doesn't go through the same problem, his chances of winning it are very low, nonetheless, he immediately took some healing pills and started to recover.
The next round came and it was finally Krune's time to fight, but other than the Yule Continent Mercenaries, no one was paying attention to him, that's because in the third arena there was another seeded contestant, it was the Thunder Hawk Tasier, his opponent was one of the Yule Continent Mercenaries, his name was Kaile Ford, a 9th Stage Foundation Establishment who was also part of the Carnage Team that Turi Belane is Leader.
Tasier was both Lightning and Wind element user, a pretty obvious combination for a Lightning Aerial Demon Beast like him, as soon as the battle started, Tasier took the skies and started to bombard Kaile from above with Lightning Element Attacks, although the arena was closed by a protection formation, it was still very big and had a lot of aerial space, more than enough for him to show his abilities, Kaile immediately flew after him but it wasn't long before he was utterly defeated, although Foundation Establishment Cultivators can also fly, Kaile obviously couldn't match the Thunder Hawk, Tasier showed no mercy in his attacks and the Divine Soul Realm Referee had to intervene to save Kalie's life.
On Krune's arena, he was looking at Tasier Battle, the problem was, he was doing that while battling his opponent, which made his adversary burst in rage, Krune wasn't paying attention to him at all, unfortunately for him, Krune was too fast, doesn't matter what kind of attack he used, not a single hit, let alone hit, the moment that he made an attack, Krune wouldn't be in the place where the attack was aimed anymore.
Krune wasn't doing that on purpose, he was simply interested in the Thunder Hawk lightning element control, he wanted to check the difference between the both of them, and for that, he couldn't pay too much attention to his opponent, in the end, a scene where it looked like Krune was playing with his opponent started.
Only when the third arena battle was over did Krune finally pay attention to the guy in front of him, but he kept dodging the attacks anyway, it was only when most of the battles were over that he finally made his move, he saw another attack coming his way and just sighed, using the flaws in the attack itself, Krune launched some Blazing Wind Blades that sliced his opponent's attack as if they were made of paper, the blades didn't stop and just as they were about to hit his opponents, they suddenly exploded.
His opponent was ready to resist the slashing effect of the blazing wind blades, but he really didn't expect them to explode on his face, the blast shook wave sent him flying outside the arena, just as he was about to hit the ground outside, he focused on his spiritual energy to stop mid-air, the shook wave of the explosions didn't do much damage in the end, he was just about to fly back on the arena when suddenly, several roots appeared on the ground and caught him, before he could even react, he was pulled to the ground, the referee saw that he touched the ground outside the arena and announced Krune's victory.
Shad Forgon, the seeded Mercenary of the sixth arena, looked at that and his face went dark, Krune showed an ability far above than he had expected, and it was obvious that he didn't take his fight serious at all, he started to think that he might have found a dark horse, worst of all, this dark horse just had to be in his group.
Krune came down from the arena and noticed that the people on his group and even those outside were all looking at him, this battle had made everyone acknowledge that Krune was extremely strong, but Krune got puzzled instead.
'That doesn't make sense, I made sure to wait for the other battles to be over before finishing mine, I was planning to lay low until the end and then strike it hard, but how come I became the focus all of sudden?'
He just forgot to account for the fact that not only had it looked like he was purposely playing around with his opponent, he also controlled three different elements in the end of the battle while his cultivation is obviously at the 7th Stage of Foundation Establishment, it would be weird if no one paid attention to him instead.
The night before the competition, Bary Casfiu came to talk with Krune's group, some people saw that but no one paid much attention, he the left a few minutes after, only the Yule Continent Contestant were a little puzzled, but they couldn't simply go ask what it was about, not to mention that Krune's group probably wouldn't tell them anyway. The next day came fast, soon the contestants were already close to the arenas prepared just for it, each continent formed a group of their own and waited by the sides, all the Guild Heads came forward with their elders and took their position, it was then that a man came forward to announce the rules, surprisingly, it was Bary Casfiu, the Yule Continent Guild Head. "There is a total of 229 contestants for the five available slots, we will separate you into eight groups of thirty two, obviously, there isn't enough people for each group to have thirty two participants, so a few of you will receive a free pass to the next round, luck is also part of one's strength, so we will draw lots to decide which Mercenaries who won't be battling in the first round, to make sure that the contestants with the highest chance of getting the five slots won't battle each other before the finals, we have decided on eight seeded Mercenaries, each one of them will be put in a different bracket." He looked at everyone and then continue. "To make sure that things like cultivators or demon beasts of the same continent going easy or losing on purpose won't happen, we separated the five continents contestants as bests as possible so that they will hardly fight people of their own continents, of course, sooner or later they will end fighting each other, but at least you won't need to be afraid of that happening in the first stages of the competition." So far it was pretty much as everyone thought. "Additionally, after the victors of the eight brackets come out, they will battle every single winner of the other brackets, the five with the highest number of victories will be the representatives of the Mercenary Guild Alliance this time." He then looked at some of the Mercenaries and said. "The eight seeded mercenaries are:" "Lina Jue, Makui Continent, First Arena." "Rog Werer, Sky Fall Continent, Second Arena." "Tasier, Borle Continent, Third Arena." "Lofa Harcken, Ice Continent, Forth Arena." "Arlan Rosier, Makui Continent, Fifth Arena." "Shad Forgon, Sky Fall Continent, Sixth Arena." "Jack Biurer, Ice Continent, Seventh Arena." Bary then paused for a while and looked at a woman's direction. "Yusa Shen, Yule Continent, Eighth Arena." "Those are all the seeded players who are going to be put one in each of the eight groups, that's all for the seeded players, now I will draw the names of those who are not fighting in the first round." Everyone found it strange that Yusa, an 8th Stage Foundation Establishment got the Yule Continent Seed Slot, there is quite a few people in the Yule Continent side with cultivations at the peak of the 9th stage, but those who were the most confused were obviously the Yule Continent Contestants themselves, they know that Krune is probably the strongest between them, even if not him, it should have been Ao Sulian at least, after all, they saw his strength first hand back in the Headquarters, so the decision of putting Yusa Shen as a seeded player puzzled them greatly. Going back to the last night, Bary Casfiu had visited Krune's group to talk about this issue exactly, in the end, Krune and the others decided for Yusa to take the Seeded slot, Bary was taken aback with that decision, but then Ao explained. "Between the three of us, Yusa has the lowest attack power, her skills are more focused in support, of course, she is very strong too, but for the three of us to get a better change to enter the Martial Gathering together, it will be better to have her as seeded player, I'm a lot more focused in attack, while Krune could be said to be all rounded." Yusa heard the last part and couldn't help but laugh. "Can Krune even be considered a normal all rounded? He is overpowered in both attack, defense and movement, I'm only a little better than him in support and that's because I mostly focus on it." Shinja and Ao heard that and laughed as well, after so many spars between them they had to admit that it was true, Shinja only had the advantage at moment basically because of her much higher cultivation, and even so it wasn't easy to beat Krune. Krune heard that and got a little embarrassed, he thought that maybe he should take it easier on Yusa and Ao next time they spar. Bary Casfiu was taken aback, it was obviously that their confidence on Krune was as high as it could be, but since they decided that it would be better to have him take a normal role, then he will follow their requests, besides, if Krune can't even beat the seeded players of the Mercenary Selection, then let's not even mention the Martial Gathering contestants. After a few draws, the name of the people or demon beasts who got to not fight the first round was decided, Ao got lucky and was exempt from battling the first round, Krune and Yusa were not so luck so they would need to go forward with it, Bary could be said to have made a great job with the position of the contestants of the Yule Continent in the brackets, the three of them wouldn't get any seeded players, until they get close to the end, while Yusa avoided fighting the strongest one other than her in her bracket. There was eight arenas, after everyone found out their groups, they gathered beside their own fighting stages and waited for the referees to come, to make sure that no one would need to hold back, each referee was at least in the Divine Soul Realm Early Stages, only when a fatal move was about to connect would they move to stop it, the reason why the competition is made in a Danger Zone is because sometimes, even a Divine Soul realm cultivator wouldn't be able to stop the fight in time and someone would die, they are all the best Mercenaries of the five continents, their skills are obviously much higher than ordinary cultivators. In case someone died, the Danger Zone rule would apply, the killer wouldn't be blamed and no one would try to take revenge, it would instead be considered as idiotic, if you are participating in this competition and don't even have the confidence to keep yourself alive, then what did you come here for? The eight referees from various continents took on the stages and called the name of the first Mercenaries, Krune's fight was the second one of his group and he was part of the sixth arena, while Yusa was the fifth one to fight in the eighth arena, Ao wasn't going to fighting in this round, and he was part of the second arena. Everyone's eyes was focused in the battle of the Fifth and First Arenas, that's because the seeded players of both were fighting in the first round. In the first arena, Lina Jue was fighting a man from Borle Continent, both of them were peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, Lina was a Fire and Lightning Elements user, as mentioned before, all cultivators and demon beasts can use any elements they want, but they would usually specialize in one or two while they are on lower realms, her opponent was an Earth and Water user called Hao Foese. Right from the start Hao used Metal Element, a branch of the Earth Element, to strength his armor and spear tip, only then he charged forward, he knows that Lina is a seeded player so he went all out from the very start, unfortunately for him, Lina wasn't taking him serious at all, Lina disappeared from his sight with a Lightning movement and appeared right above him, on both her hands, a fire ball had appeared, the strange thing is that they had some sparks coming out, she was obviously able to merge fire and lightning together, most impressive was the fact that she summoned those fire-thunder balls in the time she took to move above Hao. Without any other choice, Hao could only switch his Water Element to Earth Element and use both Earth and Metal to try to resist the attack, after all, there was no time to dodge anymore, the two fire-thunder balls hit his body and an enormous explosion could be heard, Hao couldn't take the attack and was sent flying outside the arena, Lina had hold herself back so Hao was only badly injured, as long as he receives the right treatment he will be fine. On the Fifth arena, the battle was over even faster, Arlan is a Fire, Wind and Lightning user, it's already impressive that he can control three elements at the same time while still in the Foundation Establishment, one must remember that he doesn't have Spiritual Energy Meridians like Ao and Yusa, this is the Prof of how talented he is. He didn't even leave his spot, with a single Fire-Wind slash of his sword, his opponent was done for, the Divine Soul Referee had to block the attack, otherwise, Arlan's attack would have killed him, in the end, Arlan didn't even use his lightning element in that fight, one move and everything was done. Krune saw that and couldn't help but get surprised, if he doesn't consider the wind element, Arlan's Fire Element control is at the same level as his one, it was really impressive. It was then that he received a Divine Sense message from Guild Head Bary. "Did you see that? Arlan Rosier has a Pure Yang Body, his fire element control is far above any of the other contestants, he is the cultivator that everyone thinks to definitely get one of the five slots." Krune heard that and finally understood the reason, with Shinja's Pure Yin Body, she too has a Water Element control as good as his and it was even before she got her Spiritual Energy Meridians, so now he can understand why Arlan can do the same with fire, not to mention that he could feel it, Arlan's Divine Sense is very strong too, he definitely doesn't lose to Yusa or Ao, he probably has some way of training his soul as well, although Soul Techniques are very rare in Makui Planet, it doesn't mean that they don't exist. But soon, Krune put this matter to the back of his mind, Arlan hasn't showed his real abilities yet, so there was no point in paying attention to that now. The other six arenas battle took a lot more time to finish, the competitors were fairly even considering combat power, one of the battles on the seventh arena even took over ten minutes to finish, although there was a victor, the guy wasn't the least bit happy, he used a lot of his strength in the battle and received quite a few injuries, if his next opponent doesn't go through the same problem, his chances of winning it are very low, nonetheless, he immediately took some healing pills and started to recover. The next round came and it was finally Krune's time to fight, but other than the Yule Continent Mercenaries, no one was paying attention to him, that's because in the third arena there was another seeded contestant, it was the Thunder Hawk Tasier, his opponent was one of the Yule Continent Mercenaries, his name was Kaile Ford, a 9th Stage Foundation Establishment who was also part of the Carnage Team that Turi Belane is Leader. Tasier was both Lightning and Wind element user, a pretty obvious combination for a Lightning Aerial Demon Beast like him, as soon as the battle started, Tasier took the skies and started to bombard Kaile from above with Lightning Element Attacks, although the arena was closed by a protection formation, it was still very big and had a lot of aerial space, more than enough for him to show his abilities, Kaile immediately flew after him but it wasn't long before he was utterly defeated, although Foundation Establishment Cultivators can also fly, Kaile obviously couldn't match the Thunder Hawk, Tasier showed no mercy in his attacks and the Divine Soul Realm Referee had to intervene to save Kalie's life. On Krune's arena, he was looking at Tasier Battle, the problem was, he was doing that while battling his opponent, which made his adversary burst in rage, Krune wasn't paying attention to him at all, unfortunately for him, Krune was too fast, doesn't matter what kind of attack he used, not a single hit, let alone hit, the moment that he made an attack, Krune wouldn't be in the place where the attack was aimed anymore. Krune wasn't doing that on purpose, he was simply interested in the Thunder Hawk lightning element control, he wanted to check the difference between the both of them, and for that, he couldn't pay too much attention to his opponent, in the end, a scene where it looked like Krune was playing with his opponent started. Only when the third arena battle was over did Krune finally pay attention to the guy in front of him, but he kept dodging the attacks anyway, it was only when most of the battles were over that he finally made his move, he saw another attack coming his way and just sighed, using the flaws in the attack itself, Krune launched some Blazing Wind Blades that sliced his opponent's attack as if they were made of paper, the blades didn't stop and just as they were about to hit his opponents, they suddenly exploded. His opponent was ready to resist the slashing effect of the blazing wind blades, but he really didn't expect them to explode on his face, the blast shook wave sent him flying outside the arena, just as he was about to hit the ground outside, he focused on his spiritual energy to stop mid-air, the shook wave of the explosions didn't do much damage in the end, he was just about to fly back on the arena when suddenly, several roots appeared on the ground and caught him, before he could even react, he was pulled to the ground, the referee saw that he touched the ground outside the arena and announced Krune's victory. Shad Forgon, the seeded Mercenary of the sixth arena, looked at that and his face went dark, Krune showed an ability far above than he had expected, and it was obvious that he didn't take his fight serious at all, he started to think that he might have found a dark horse, worst of all, this dark horse just had to be in his group. Krune came down from the arena and noticed that the people on his group and even those outside were all looking at him, this battle had made everyone acknowledge that Krune was extremely strong, but Krune got puzzled instead. 'That doesn't make sense, I made sure to wait for the other battles to be over before finishing mine, I was planning to lay low until the end and then strike it hard, but how come I became the focus all of sudden?' He just forgot to account for the fact that not only had it looked like he was purposely playing around with his opponent, he also controlled three different elements in the end of the battle while his cultivation is obviously at the 7th Stage of Foundation Establishment, it would be weird if no one paid attention to him instead.
