Seeing Xu Ziming and Shen Xingyue dispatch the two lions swiftly and cleanly, Tang Xing regretted it. If only he hadn't gone down on one knee.
He'd wasted a golden opportunity to attack.
The last lion stood before him—the one with the broken leg.
Seeing that almost all its companions were dead, the lion had lost much of its ferocity.
Clearly, it hadn't learned its lesson. It knew it was about to die!
Tang Xing said nothing. He leaped into the air, spun gracefully twice, and then flames suddenly burst between his feet.
"A leg fighter?"
Xu Ziming looked up at Tang Xing.
Now both of Tang Xing's legs were ablaze, and he shot toward the lion at incredible speed.
"Meteor Fall!"
With a shout, his feet pierced straight through the crippled lion. He then slipped his hands into his pockets and stood coolly where he was.
It was over.
Apparently, the three lions' deaths had drawn everyone's attention.
The spectators who had scattered in all directions came crowding back, like respawning NPCs, completely forgetting they'd nearly died moments ago.
When Xu Ziming looked back, Ma Mingyu had vanished without a trace.
Only Xu Ziming and the other two remained in the middle of the arena.
"Are you three here to compete in our Hell Arena?"
A sinister voice rang out from above, accompanied by a cunning face.
"Was this guy behind the lions' rampage? Did he spot us?"
Xu Ziming's mind worked quickly. The lions' rampage had forced the three of them, who'd been standing outside the arena, inside.
"Of course. What else would we be here for?"
Tang Xing looked up at the man, his expression arrogant and utterly fearless.
After all, Teacher Ma would have their backs no matter what. Tang Xing couldn't imagine how they might lose.
"Very well! Ladies and gentlemen, we have three... heroes joining us in the arena today!"
"How should they fight to give you the most thrilling show?"
The man with the cunning face was clearly in charge. He looked down at the spectators and shouted excitedly.
"Deathmatch!"
"Deathmatch!"
"Deathmatch!"
The same cry rang out from every direction, as if the three hadn't just saved their lives.
Hearing the crowd roar for a deathmatch, the cunning-faced man was evidently satisfied.
Then, beneath everyone's gaze, he pressed a red button.
"Bang!"
A huge iron cage dropped from above and sealed the three of them inside.
The arena began to expand, and the stands rapidly stretched out in both directions, growing several times larger.
"Someone already signed a contract on your behalf. Win or die! Survive the deathmatch, and you'll split a million!"
The cunning-faced man delivered his final line, then vanished completely from sight.
"The match begins now! Place your bets!"
As his voice rang out, a huge QR code appeared high above the center of the arena, with a two-minute countdown.
The bets on Xu Ziming and the others dying shot up in an instant, and the pool climbed past ten million.
By contrast, only two or three million was wagered on their survival. One person alone had put up a million of that.
It went without saying that it was Ma Mingyu.
The odds on them winning were 1:4. If the three of them really won, they'd earn four million, plus the million-dollar prize for victory—for a total of five million.
The seconds ticked by. Two minutes passed in no time, and the betting closed. More than twenty million had been wagered on Xu Ziming and the others dying.
Not one of the people they'd just saved believed the three of them would make it out alive.
The moment the countdown ran out, a huge mass of rock fell from the sky.
It looked like a bull—one entirely wrapped in stone.
"It's an alien!" Tang Xing was thrilled.
[Rock Bull detected]
[Life Energy Level 5.0, pseudo first evolution]
A notification sounded in Xu Ziming's ear, too.
Damn, this was trouble.
Just then, the iron cage around the three of them opened.
The Rock Bull stared at the trio before it and excitedly raised a hoof.
Before anyone could react, a dark figure beside them shot forward first.
It was Shen Xingyue.
"So fast!"
Seeing Shen Xingyue already charging in, Xu Ziming couldn't just stand by.
He gripped Jinghong, ready to leap into action.
But at that moment, several enormous vines suddenly burst from the ground.
[Demon Vine detected]
[Life Energy Level 5.1, first evolution]
"Damn, they're raising monsters that have undergone their first Life Evolution here, and nobody's doing anything about it?"
Xu Ziming twisted in midair at a bizarre angle, barely dodging the vines' attack.
In the distance, Shen Xingyue had already slashed the Rock Bull. With a thud, several huge chunks of stone fell away.
Tang Xing stood nearby, looking shaken. Those blades had once been hitting him, after all.
"Tang Xing, quit standing there! Come help me deal with this thing!"
Xu Ziming shouted as he kept swinging his sword. The Demon Vine was too fast.
No matter how he swung, he couldn't keep up with its rapid spread. He needed someone else to hold back the vines so he could find a chance to attack its main body.
Seeing this, Tang Xing knew even without a Life Energy Level detector that the vines were far more troublesome than the Rock Bull.
He gave up watching and turned to help Xu Ziming.
"I'll handle the vines. Wait for your chance and tear its main body apart!"
Flames flared up around Tang Xing's feet again. The vines pressed in aggressively, but they didn't dare approach him.
"Got it!"
Xu Ziming cut through the vines before him and leaped forward, ignoring the vines crashing down toward him. He left them all to Tang Xing.
"Get out of my way!"
His flaming feet whipped through the air, kicking away one vine after another.
The Demon Vine's main body seemed to realize what the two men were planning. It immediately pulled its vines back to defend itself.
"How could I let you have your way?" After all this time, Xu Ziming had reached the Demon Vine's side.
"Five Prison Sword Art, First Form: Dragon Trap!"
His arm swung so fast it blurred, releasing countless streams of Sword Qi in an instant and completely trapping the monster's main body.
"Tang Xing, finish it with one last kick!"
It was nothing more than a monster raised in captivity. So what if it had undergone its first Life Evolution?
At Xu Ziming's shout, the flames on Tang Xing's feet changed from red to purplish red.
In an instant, they compressed to the extreme and became a streak of purple light.
"That's it!"
"Crackle!" The electrical current that had appeared on the lion earlier returned, directly scattering even the Sword Qi that had trapped the Demon Vine.
"Not good! Dodge!"