P.S. Chapter 34 has been updated. I worked too late last night and am feeling a little unwell today, so I made some mistakes. Please forgive me.
The appearance of the wyverns caused a stir among the spectators. Many of them had never seen a real wyvern before, and they let out cries of astonishment.
Chen Rui pondered for a long while, then slowly stood up.
"Chen Rui!" Aldas, Athena, and Alice blurted out at the same time.
Athena had kept a cold face toward Chen Rui all along, but when she saw that he actually meant to enter the arena, she couldn't hold back any longer. "Even a tamed wyvern is far more dangerous than a Horned Wing Beast! Its venom is the least of your worries. It's so wild that even I couldn't control it in a short time!"
"Joseph actually brought wyverns here!" Alice said without hesitation. "Chen Rui, you still have to earn more money for this princess and make me more good things. You absolutely can't die here! We'll concede this round. A draw would already be a pretty good result."
Aldas said nothing more. He only shook his head at Chen Rui with a resolute expression. The Lesser Devil Sli also looked worried, but didn't dare speak.
"Don't worry," Chen Rui said with a shake of his head. "You know I'm most afraid of dying. I wouldn't go and get myself killed without a sure plan. Princess, don't rush to concede. I'll go take a look at the wyverns first."
As he spoke, he slowly walked into the arena, deliberately acting as though he was afraid of being poisoned. Covering his mouth and nose, he approached the iron cage holding the wyverns.
When Allen first heard that the contest would involve wyverns, his heart had pounded with anxiety too. Seeing Chen Rui's timid appearance, he laughed loudly. "Coward! That's a magic cage. The poison can't get out!"
Allen's subordinates in the audience joined in, jeering loudly. Chen Rui wasn't afraid of any poison, of course, but he ignored Allen and carefully approached the cage. As soon as the wyverns inside saw a living creature come near, they tried to thrust their heads through the bars. The sound of them slamming into the cage was chilling.
The human jumped in fright and quickly backed away a few steps. The two wyverns seemed to have a special taste for human flesh. Their heads followed the human's movements, and before long, they grew restless, letting out a series of shrill cries and slamming into the cage with increasing force. The human trembled with fear.
Joseph saw Chen Rui's frightened expression, and his smile grew more mocking. Bringing the wyverns had clearly been the right choice. In truth, the result of the contest didn't mean much to him. He hadn't even taken the wager with Alice seriously. With his current influence, even a draw would serve his real purpose: intimidating Darkmoon.
So what if Emperor White Night's name was immortal? His descendants couldn't even hold on to the throne anymore. Even the Darkmoon Territory would be crushed beneath the powerful Chiyou Territory, with no chance to rise again!
At that thought, Joseph glanced provocatively at a certain part of the arena. He no longer saw those two cold, knife-like gazes. In fact, he had no idea that the wyverns were restless not because they wanted to "eat" human flesh, but because they were communicating with Chen Rui.
"Kegu, don't worry. I'll help you!" The voice in Chen Rui's mind sounded like that of a creepy uncle trying to lure an underage girl.
"You're wrong. I'm Kegu. He's Mengda," came the dissatisfied screech of a wyvern.
"Got it! Wait for the right moment, and make sure you play along!"
"..."
Joseph secretly gathered his strength and sent his voice to every corner of the arena. "I've specially brought the strongest flying magical beasts, wyverns, from the Chiyou Territory. I wonder whether the warriors of Darkmoon, famed for their courage, dare to accept the challenge!"
Though he knew how ferocious wyverns were, and though he knew that the one facing them would likely be that weak human apprentice, Joseph's challenge instantly roused the audience. At that moment, the demons' combative nature was on full display.
Amid the roaring cheers, Chen Rui returned to the others.
Seeing him come back unharmed, Alice breathed a sigh of relief and called out to Joseph, "This round..."
"This round, we accept the challenge!" Chen Rui suddenly cut in, shouting the words aloud.
Seeing Chen Rui volunteer to take the challenge, the audience's opinion of the human improved greatly. They cried out, "Accept the challenge! Accept the challenge..."
"Are you insane?" Athena grabbed Chen Rui by the arm and said fiercely.
Alice was frantic too. "Chen Rui, do you want to die?"
"Since I offended Athena yesterday, I might as well..." Chen Rui hadn't finished his joke when he noticed Athena's eyes had grown a little red. Her grip tightened even more. Even his Star-Wielder constitution, strengthened by marrow cleansing, could hardly take it.
"Can you stop joking at a time like this?" Aldas couldn't sit still either. "Do you have another way?"
"Athena, let go first!" Chen Rui cried. "My arm's about to break!"
Athena quickly released him. In those ruby-like eyes, Chen Rui seemed to see something that hadn't been there before, but there was no time to think about it now. He pulled Alice over and whispered to her. The little princess looked puzzled, but after he gave her several firm nods, she finally agreed.
Alice stood up and spoke through the magical amplifier. "There's never been a word for cowardice in Darkmoon's dictionary. Even if we die, we'll fight to the end!"
After using a string of rousing slogans to stir the crowd's enthusiasm, Alice addressed Joseph. "Since the Chiyou Territory has brought out two wyverns, we should raise the stakes for this special aerial contest! If you lose this Aerial Competition, in addition to the original black crystal coins, I want the two wyverns and a hundred pieces of the highest-quality Vine Stone! What do you say?"
Joseph laughed. "Princess, raising the stakes at the last minute isn't proper. Besides, Darkmoon already has one win and one draw. There's no way you can lose, so I'd be taking a pretty big risk."
"As long as you win the third round, it'll still be a draw." Seeing Joseph shake his head, Alice changed her offer. "But I really want the wyverns to play with. How about this: if today's Aerial Competition ends in a draw, I'll give you an additional precious work by an ancient alchemy Grandmaster. If I win, you'll give me a hundred pieces of high-quality Vine Stone and those two wyverns. Deal?"
Joseph's pupils suddenly contracted. He was clearly surprised by the mention of an ancient Grandmaster's alchemical work. Could it be a treasure from the royal collection? What puzzled him most was why Alice had suddenly become so confident that she was willing to wager such a valuable prize.
"An alchemical work by a Grandmaster isn't something I can bring out casually, but Master Aldas can attest in front of everyone that it definitely exists, and that it's extraordinarily ingenious!" Alice didn't give Joseph much time to think. Returning his own tactics against him, she shouted, "Do you dare accept?"
Aldas also stood up and vouched for the princess's claim that the Grandmaster's work existed. Given Aldas's current reputation, Joseph knew he wouldn't make such a claim without reason. The Grandmaster's alchemical work was probably real. Besides, if Alice tried to pass off a fake when she lost, it would give him the perfect excuse to strike at Darkmoon.
Little did he know that "ancient Grandmaster" works were not only sold in Alice's shop, but that she had several different kinds in her room as well.
Unless he broke his word and refused to let the human enter the arena, Joseph couldn't imagine Alice had any chance of even drawing, let alone winning, the final round. After giving it some thought, he finally accepted her terms.
"Allen, a wyvern's skin is poisonous. The rules don't allow you to bring any auxiliary tools into the contest. These two antidote pills will protect you for twenty minutes. Take one before you go in. If the contest lasts longer, use your power to resist the poison." The two wyverns were still young and had only recently been tamed. With Joseph's own formidable strength, he could keep them under control, but he couldn't enter the arena himself anymore, so he could only advise Allen.
Allen hesitated. "I heard that human mutated during Master Aldas's experiments and is poisonous himself. And Aldas is a master apothecary. What if the human isn't afraid of the wyverns' poison?"
That reminded Joseph of something. This must be Alice's plan: to use the human's constitution or Aldas's antidote to buy time, then win once Allen could no longer resist the poison.
Convinced that he had seen through their plan, Joseph grew even more confident. "Even if the poison can't kill him, with strength as weak as an ant's, you can easily deal with him! Remember, don't drag things out. Finish it quickly!"
Joseph saw that Allen was a little wary of the wyverns, so he casually added, "The result doesn't really matter to me. But you should give up on that woman for good."
Allen saw Athena on the opposite side, looking worried as she spoke to Chen Rui. Jealousy flared within him, and he took the antidote without hesitation.
Chen Rui asked Aldas for a small vial of "antidote," then drank it in front of everyone. He gave Athena a firm look that said, "Trust me," and walked into the arena. Most of the audience held their breath as they watched Chen Rui and Allen head toward the cage. Someone had already begun removing the cage's anti-poison magic.
Thinking of Athena's attitude toward Chen Rui, Allen's killing intent grew more palpable. He sneered. "Tremble, weak and useless human!"
"Don't die too quickly. I'm going to break every bone in your body and make you suffer!"
"..."
Poor kid. He was so jealous he was practically a trash-talk expert. Had he come from the United States during the NBA lockout because some guy had nothing to do, only to be stuck here after the lockout ended?
Quite a few of Allen's subordinates in the crowd joined in, jeering at the cowardly human.
Chen Rui had had enough. Seeing that the cage was about to open, he raised his arm and shouted, "Darkmoon!"
The citizens of Darkmoon City in the arena immediately took up the cry. "Darkmoon! Darkmoon!" Their cheers rose in wave after wave, drowning out the jeers until not a trace remained.
Chen Rui gave Allen a taunting look: You think you're tough? Shout louder. I can't hear you.
Allen hadn't expected the human to have that much nerve and was about to lash out, but the cage door had already opened. Though the two wyverns had been mostly tamed, they were still chained up. Two Servant Demons fed them and tried to calm them as they carefully led them out. The wyverns emerged from the cage with low, rasping growls, looking ready to devour anyone in sight. They were a terrifying sight.
Allen looked wary. He swallowed the antidote pill, silently gathered his power in preparation, and approached one of the wyverns. Using the communication method from the Beast Taming Technique, he took a large piece of raw meat from a Servant Demon and tossed it toward the wyvern to win its favor.
Chen Rui hesitated for a moment, then put on a look of someone making a last stand and strode toward the wyvern named Kegu. Instead of tossing it food like Allen had, he held the food out directly to it. This was the most effective way to win a magical beast's favor through the Beast Taming Technique, but it was also the riskiest. With a ferocious beast like a wyvern, it was truly dangerous.
The bold move made the spectators break out in a cold sweat. As the wyvern slowly approached the human, almost the entire arena fell silent.
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