First Battle, Slaughter Arena

The surrounding contestants were all watching him.

Some whispered, some wore expressions of disdain, and others sized him up with sinister gazes.

Yet, not a single person stepped forward to strike up a conversation.

It wasn't that they didn't want to; it was that the aura radiating from that child made people instinctively want to keep their distance.

Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye.

"Next match, contestants enter the arena!"

The referee's voice came from the center of the arena, hoarse and powerful.

The chains of the iron gate rattled, and the heavy doors were slowly pulled open.

Luo Yun opened his eyes, drew the Moon Eclipse Sword, and walked toward the center of the field.

The moment his figure appeared at the entrance of the arena, the entire spectator stand went quiet.

It wasn't the silence of being stunned; it was the silence of "Did I see that right?"

A child.

A child who looked only six or seven years old, dressed in a black robe, carrying a sword longer than his own arm, walked into the Slaughter Arena with an expressionless face.

There was a moment of dead silence in the stands, followed by an eruption of uproarious laughter that sounded like a mountain collapsing and a sea churning.

"Hahahaha! Whose kid is this that walked through the wrong door?"

"Since when did Slaughter City open a nursery?"

"Little brother, did you take a wrong turn? Your mommy is over there!"

"Hurry back, this isn't a place for you!"

The laughter rose in waves; some people slapped their thighs in amusement, some slid off their seats, and others laughed until tears streamed down their faces.

In Slaughter City, laughter was a luxury, but today's joke was funny enough to warrant it.

Luo Yun ignored the laughter, walked to the center of the field, and stood still.

Opposite him stood nine people.

Nine people, nine types of weapons, nine pairs of eyes.

Their expressions as they looked at Luo Yun varied; some frowned, some sneered, some were expressionless, and some had flickering gazes.

But one thing was the same: none of them took the child before them seriously.

A bald, burly man in leather armor spoke first, his voice loud enough for the entire arena to hear: "I've been fighting in Slaughter City for five years, and this is the first time I've encountered such a good deal. A free head delivered to me?"

A tall, thin man next to him chimed in with a shrill voice: "Don't get happy too soon. What if this kid has some special ability?"

"Special ability?" The bald man scoffed, lifting his iron hammer with one hand; the hammerhead was larger than his own head. "Can his ability be bigger than my hammer?"

Another wave of laughter erupted from the stands.

Luo Yun stood there quietly, the Moon Eclipse Sword hanging at his side, the tip of the blade touching the ground.

He was waiting.

Waiting for the referee to say "begin."

"This match, ten-person melee, begin!"

The moment the referee's voice fell.

Luo Yun moved.

Not running, not charging, but flashing.

His body seemed to be ejected by something, leaving a residual image in place, and the purple-black light of the Moon Eclipse Sword carved an arc through the dark red light.

The first strike: the bald man's hammer hadn't even fallen from mid-air before a line of blood appeared on his neck.

The second strike: the tall, thin man's scream hadn't even left his throat before the Moon Eclipse Sword pierced his throat.

The third strike, the fourth, the fifth...

Sword light flickered across the arena, each flash accompanied by a dull thud, a body falling, and a pool of blood.

Luo Yun's figure wove between the nine people, as fast as a black lightning bolt, so fast that the people in the stands couldn't see his movements at all. They could only see the purple-black sword light flickering in the dark red light, and then watch as one contestant after another fell.

Two breaths.

Two breaths later, Luo Yun stopped, standing at the other end of the arena. The Moon Eclipse Sword hung at his side, and blood dripped from the tip of the blade onto the dark red stone floor.

Behind him, nine corpses lay in the pool of blood in various postures: some face up, some face down, some curled up, some piled on top of each other.

Blood spread out from beneath them, forming a large, dark red lake on the stone floor, shimmering with a sticky luster.

The entire arena went quiet.

Completely quiet.

No laughter, no jeering, no cursing.

Everyone had their mouths agape, eyes wide, frozen in the same posture they had held while laughing just moments before.

The fat man who had been laughing the loudest just a moment ago still had his mouth agape, but the laughter had stuck in his throat, turning into a vague, gurgling sound.

The people in the stands gradually regained their senses, yet no one spoke.

They looked at the nine corpses, then at the six-year-old child, their lips trembling and their eyes filled with terror.

Two breaths.

Nine people.

This was the fastest victory in the history of the Slaughter Arena.

Not "one of," but the "only one."

This record, I fear, will not be broken for another hundred years.

And.

He is only a six-year-old child!!!

Luo Yun turned around and looked at the referee at the edge of the arena.

The referee was still holding the pose from when he had announced the start, one hand raised in mid-air, mouth agape, eyes wide as saucers.

"Can we end this now?" Luo Yun's voice was not loud, but in the deathly silent arena, every word was crystal clear.

The referee's throat bobbed as he swallowed with great difficulty.

"The... the winner of this match—" His voice trembled, and taking a deep breath, he used all his strength to shout that name, "Frost Cloud King!"

After shouting it, he was stunned himself.

Frost Cloud King.

From this day on, this name would spread throughout Slaughter City.

Luo Yun sheathed the Moon Eclipse Sword and turned to walk out of the arena.

The people in the stands watched him leave; no one spoke, no one moved, and no one even dared to breathe loudly.

They watched that small, black figure pass through the arena gates and disappear from their sight.

A single thought surged through everyone's mind simultaneously.

This child is not human.

He is the God of Slaughter.

Luo Yun walked out of the arena, stood on the street outside, and took a deep breath.

He looked at his surroundings.

His gaze swept across both sides of the street and landed on a building not far away that looked relatively decent.

It was a three-story stone structure with dark red paint on the exterior walls and two red lanterns hanging at the entrance, with the words "Gentle Haven" written on them.

Two scantily clad women stood at the door, heavily made up with stiff smiles, waving at any man who passed by.

Luo Yun frowned and looked away.

He wanted a quiet place to stay.

Not a place where he could hear people screaming next door every day.

He continued walking forward until he reached the end of the street, where he saw a detached villa.

The villa was not large, two stories high, with a small courtyard surrounded by a wall made of black stone that stood taller than a man.

The gate was made of cast iron, engraved with some patterns that looked quite refined.

The villa was set back some distance from the street, with no other buildings nearby, so quiet that it didn't seem like it was in Slaughter City at all.