Chapter 1453: The Soul Dueling Arena
When Tang Feng heard this, his eyes also lit up, and he immediately clapped his hands and laughed. Li Yan’s suggestion was indeed to his liking, but he still had other suggestions.
Upon hearing this, Li Yan asked with some confusion.
“Oh? Where is Fellow Daoist going?”
“I came over early in the morning to ask if Fellow Daoist would be willing to go to the ‘Soul Dueling Arena’ to have a look?”
“‘Soul Dueling Arena?’ You mean the place where those Evil Spirit Cultivators fight?”
Upon hearing this, Li Yan was first stunned, but he quickly reacted.
He had been in the Soul Suppression Palace for quite some time now, and he knew about some of the important places in the sect.
As the power of the Soul Suppression Palace continued to expand, it had long since become the sole hegemon in the “True Earth Domain.”
Later, when foreign cultivators were pulled into the “True Earth Domain,” apart from some beautiful female cultivators who would still be used as breeding tools or cultivation cauldrons, the male cultivators were basically all killed. The ore veins here would no longer be mined on a large scale in the later stages. Therefore, the Soul Suppression Palace cultivators only needed to go over periodically and mine some themselves.
Those extra foreign Evil Spirit Cultivators, on the contrary, seemed to have no need to exist.
But there were also some foreign cultivators who, for various reasons, were not killed on the spot, but were captured alive and brought back.
Generally, after being questioned about the situation in the outside world and having their last bit of usable value squeezed out, they would be killed.
But after some back and forth, these soul cultivators still felt that it was a bit too wasteful to execute those cultivators just like that.
So, they came up with more ways to execute these cultivators, which would bring them more pleasure. For example, watching them being torn apart by wild beasts bit by bit, or cruel methods like skinning them alive, lighting soul lamps, and so on.
Among them, some soul cultivators thought of a method that brought them double the fun, which was to plant a soul seal in the bodies of the Evil Spirit Cultivators they held, turning them into soul slaves.
Then, they would order these soul slaves to fight to the death with other soul slaves.
The fights were bloody, with limbs flying and screams shaking the heavens. Watching these Evil Spirit Cultivators die so miserably made the soul cultivators feel even more excited.
And this kind of primitive slaughter, which was just for fun at the beginning, slowly evolved into fights between multiple soul cultivators, each bringing out their own soul slaves to compete. And they would add stakes to these competitions, gambling on them, letting those soul slaves fight for the final benefits for them.
Because there were many benefits to this, the stakes that the soul cultivators gambled were often very tempting to the other party. So, slowly, the “Soul Dueling Arena” was formed.
And with the passage of time, and the expansion of the “Soul Dueling Arena,” the various rules and gambling methods inside also became more and more perfect.
Now, in the Soul Suppression Palace, not only is there a dedicated dueling arena, but the situation of those soul slaves is also very different from before.
As long as they have strength, they can continue to live. Moreover, those powerful soul slaves also have their own cultivation chambers, cultivation resources, and so on.
Even, these soul slaves can have their own subordinates and their own women. These subordinates can be other foreign Evil Spirit Cultivators, or mortals in the “True Earth Domain” who have lost the protection of their ancestors.
These powerful dueling soul slaves, apart from only being able to move around in a designated area, even live more freely than many soul cultivators.
The soul slaves who participate in the “Soul Dueling Arena” competitions have a combat ranking. The higher the ranking, the more generous the various conditions they enjoy.
In this way, those foreign cultivators who did not want to die worked even harder to cultivate, in the hope of killing their opponents in continuous battles with others. On the one hand, they worked hard to keep themselves alive, and on the other hand, they could also enjoy a life of debauchery.
So, among the foreign Evil Spirit Cultivators participating in the “Soul Dueling Arena,” some of the powerful ones have been living here for hundreds or even thousands of years.
Li Yan was also aware of this, but he had no interest in it. He would rather spend his time inquiring for more news or cultivating.
“Oh? Going to the ‘Soul Dueling Arena’? This…”
Hearing Tang Feng’s proposal, a look of hesitation appeared on Li Yan’s face.
“Fellow Daoist Li, this dueling event only happens once every ten years. Through these people’s duels, we can still gain some experience from them, which is of great benefit to our cultivation. Once you encounter Evil Spirit Cultivators outside, you will also know their usual tactics. For cultivators like us who were born in the ‘True Earth Domain,’ even if we have fought with some Evil Spirit Cultivators, we still don’t know much about the methods of cultivators from the outside world. This is an opportunity to give us more life-saving means.”
Seeing Li Yan’s hesitant expression, Tang Feng couldn’t help but show a look of surprise.
You should know that although there are similar “Soul Dueling Arenas” among the powers outside the Soul Suppression Palace, there are not many foreign Evil Spirit Cultivators inside. The fighting methods there have long been familiar to others.
It’s not like here, which is only open to the internal disciples of the Soul Suppression Palace. There are many powerful Evil Spirit Cultivators here. Moreover, they will constantly send people out to look for Evil Spirit Cultivators, on the one hand, to look for foreign cultivators who may be pulled in here at any time, and on the other hand, to arrest many escaped Evil Spirit Cultivators in the “True Earth Domain.”
All these keep the duels in the “Soul Dueling Arena” at a very high level. Even some soul cultivators in the Soul Suppression Palace will buy soul slaves from other powers outside to increase the intensity of the duels.
When Li Yan heard this, a smile appeared on his face.
“Hehehe, I have seen this when I was outside. It’s just that after I came to the sect, I spent most of my time cultivating, and I’m still not confident about the hundred-year missions. I don’t know the difficulty and the approximate time it will take, so I’m anxious to complete the missions. What Fellow Daoist Tang said is right, how can I miss such a good thing!”
Li Yan chuckled and nodded in agreement.
Just now, when he saw Tang Feng’s expression, his heart suddenly tightened. He immediately knew that his previous reaction might have been wrong.
Tang Feng’s reasons were all to the point. The soul cultivators here hated foreign cultivators the most. Of course, they needed to have a better understanding of their methods.
The duels in the “Soul Dueling Arena” might not matter to the old disciples of the Soul Suppression Palace. Anyway, they had seen them many times and were already familiar with the methods of many of the Evil Spirit Cultivators here.
But for someone like him, who had just entered the sect not long ago, how could he not be interested?
You should know that he was a “native-born True Earth Domain cultivator.” He had been instilled with hatred for Evil Spirit Cultivators since he was a child. With such a good opportunity, if he wasn’t even willing to take a look, it would make people feel a bit strange.
“Oh… the hundred-year missions. If there are multi-person missions, I’ll just go with you, Fellow Daoist Li. The difficulty of the missions is not too harsh. For example, there are multi-person missions to capture those escaped ‘Evil Spirit Cultivators.’ It’s actually better to go and see the ‘Soul Dueling Arena’ first. It can only be more beneficial, hahaha…”
Tang Feng let out a hearty laugh.
This Li Yan before him, a former rogue cultivator is a rogue cultivator. After being restricted by the sect’s rules, it was really difficult for him to adapt at first…
The “Soul Dueling Arena” was also located in the public area, but its position was in a corner of this area, covering an area of a hundred li. Such a large venue was for the convenience of cultivators fighting. In fact, a hundred-li range was too small for cultivators at the Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation stages and above.
But this place was not for you to escape. But for a duel, it was enough, and it would make the fight more intense.
The duels here were held once every ten years. Each time, there were duels at three levels: Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Spirit Transformation. There would basically be ten to twenty duels.
The duels here could be divided into life-and-death duels and win-lose duels.
A life-and-death duel, without a doubt, meant that one of the two soul slaves would definitely die. Often, the ones who signed this kind of contract were the soul slaves themselves. In repeated duels, they would develop deep hatred with other soul slaves. For example, if their relatives or fellow disciples were killed by a certain soul slave, then of course they would want revenge.
In this kind of duel, there was no ending the duel by admitting defeat, and no one could stop the match until one side was killed.
In a win-lose duel, the duel ended as long as one side admitted defeat.
This was not because the soul cultivators were soft-hearted towards the soul slaves, but because there were not too many Evil Spirit Cultivators who could survive in the “True Earth Domain” in the end.
If every match was a life-and-death duel, perhaps after one or two openings, these soul slaves would be almost dead. Would they still want to open the field for gambling duels next time?
Now, when soul cultivators watched the “duels,” the focus was no longer on the soul slaves killing each other for their pleasure. The important thing for them was the gambling, to win what they wanted from other soul cultivators.
However, people also often died in win-lose duels. The soul slaves would also have situations where they “couldn’t hold back.” As for whether it was true or not, it depended on whether the other party could still cry out and beg for mercy!
…
When Li Yan and Tang Feng arrived at the Soul Dueling Arena, they saw various colors of escaping light continuously flying towards this place from the sky. And at the various entrances below, many soul cultivators had already begun to pay Soul Crystal Sprouts and Spirit Stones before entering through different entrances.
To watch the duels, apart from the soul cultivators who had their own soul slaves participating in the gambling duels, everyone else had to pay Soul Crystal Sprouts or Spirit Stones before they could enter.
The two of them also landed in front of an entrance. Just as Li Yan took out his Soul Crystal Sprouts, Tang Feng beat him to it and paid for them.
“Alright, it’s not much. Why bother paying separately!”
Li Yan saw Tang Feng take out ten three-hundred-year-old Soul Crystal Sprouts and hand them to the other party, then directly motioned for Li Yan to go in.
Li Yan now also knew the use of Soul Crystal Sprouts. Three-hundred-year-old ones were about the same as mid-grade Spirit Stones and were generally used by cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage and above. And one- or two-hundred-year-old Soul Crystal Sprouts were used by cultivators from Qi Condensation to Golden Core.
They were basically equivalent to low-grade Spirit Stones, but their quality was divided into high and low. Two-hundred-year-old Soul Crystal Sprouts were used more by Golden Core cultivators, while one-hundred-year-old ones were almost only used by Qi Condensation junior cultivators.
Fifty two-hundred-year-old Soul Crystal Sprouts could be exchanged for one three-hundred-year-old one, while a hundred one-hundred-year-old ones were needed.
Li Yan just chuckled and, without being polite, immediately followed him in.
He now also had a lot of Soul Crystal Sprouts on him that he had exchanged for. After all, if he kept using Spirit Stones to trade with people here, it would arouse suspicion over time. Moreover, Soul Crystal Sprouts over a hundred years old could also be used to directly restore Soul Power.
The “Soul Dueling Arena” was a huge elliptical square, surrounded by seats, all overlooking the huge square below.
Because the square below was restricted by a formation, the height that the cultivators inside could fly would not exceed a hundred zhang.
Looking from the high seats around, within a hundred-li range, with no obstructions, a cultivator could see relatively clearly even without infusing their eyes with magical power.
After Tang Feng led Li Yan in, this area had already gathered quite a few cultivators. Tang Feng quickly chose two adjacent seats and sat down with Li Yan.