Chapter 505: Chapter 505: Attitude Of The Elders

Under such an unprecedented pressure, Letitia, Imogen, and Zen were in no mood to be interested in the rest of the Martial Arts Contest. With their hearts beating loudly, they could have sworn they felt a faint ringing in their ears. The trio looked each other warily and grimly nodded; they had no other choice.

One of the strongest fighters in the competition, Brent, was presently in the battle ring, fighting with an independent warrior. Although the battle could have been interesting with the latter being at the middle stage of the Internal Elixir Realm, he could not pose a threat to Brent. The warrior was merely a plaything to him, as Brent continued to be formidable with his divine-level talent. 'Well, this is kind of boring, ' the boy thought with a pout, as he quite easily evaded the other's jab and countered with quick flicks of his hand.

When Brent had felt that their feeble fight had gone long enough, he sighed to himself and casually threw out a last attack that defeated the independent warrior. Looking over carelessly at the crumpled form of his previous opponent laying on the ground of the arena, Brent shrugged his shoulders and fixed his clothes momentarily before leaping off the arena. The talented fighter was once again excited at the prospect of drawing cards, and when he peered over and saw the word “Challenge” carved on the wooden card, his eyes were alight with elation and a grin sneaked onto his face.

Just seconds after he had drawn the card that he had wanted, he immediately waved his challenge card in the air vigorously as the crowd watching cheered with him. Fixing his gaze on the elevated platform where the members of the Cloud Hall were situated in, he smiled wider at the prospect of finally having the battle he had wanted ever since the competition had started. 'Nothing can stop me from challenging Zen now!' the young fighter exclaimed in his mind as he started to stretch his arms in preparation.

However, luck appeared not to be on his side at that moment due to the sudden voice that rose above all and fleetingly stopped everyone from moving. “Wait!” the voice of a woman declared amidst the noise of the arena. As multiple heads turned towards her, Letitia continued to announce in a leveled tone, “The Cloud Hall wishes to quit the competition.”

“What?!”

The ecstatic grin disappeared from Brent's face and was then replaced with shock and disbelief. An uproar of emotions swelled in his chest, as his hopes of battling Zen were crushed. “How can this be?!” he wailed as he put his head in hands.

Even though the crowd appeared to be awfully displeased by the sudden announcement with their loud complaints, Letitia continued, “I apologize to everyone. We have some important matters that we need to attend to in the Cloud Hall, so we need to take our leave right now.”

Several of the elite disciples from the Cloud Hall present in the tournament also sported surprised looks and looked at one another confusedly. As they did not hear the conversation among Letitia, Imogen, and Zen, they felt displeased upon listening to her words. 'Why are we withdrawing at such a time?' they all thought unanimously with discontentment. It was clear to everyone present in the arena—the Cloud Hall was obviously more than qualified to compete for the Dragon Soar Arena.

With the hasty declaration from the representative of Cloud Hall, the spectators of the event discussed animatedly among each other. Some were complaining about what a waste it was, as the Cloud Hall had an incredible fighter in their team and they were immensely looking forward to more epic battles with stronger opponents. Sounds of restlessness and displeasure from the crowd echoed throughout the arena with little to no hopes of dying down soon.

“Why? Why did the Cloud Hall quit just like that?” some of them complained.

Whining, several of the audience said, “Dang! I still wanted to watch the battle between Zen and Brent. Why on earth did he quit?”

“This is too much! Why are they giving up their chances of getting the Dragon Soar Arena?”

What these warriors did not realize in the current situation was that the Cloud Hall needed to regroup and prepare for what could be a grievous threat. The leaders of the large sects were well aware that being threatened by Eddie who vowed to destroy their sect was not something to just put aside and disregard. If the other sects were also placed in the same position, they would not be in the right mood to participate in the competition any further either.

After the unforeseen announcement, Letitia hastily stood up and walked towards the exit, with Imogen and the elite disciples of the Cloud Sect following closely behind her. As they privately muttered with hushed tones and sharp eyes, some of the spectators near their platform wondered what was going on and why they looked so serious. A figure purposefully trailed behind them, seemingly conflicted with what he was about to do next. Making up his mind, Zen flew towards Xiao, who appeared to be bewildered at his sudden emergence. Landing delicately in front of him, he grabbed Xiao's hand and pressed a small piece of paper on his palm before closing it tightly. “Please give this note to Master Shi!” Zen said as he gave him a significant look.

Brent, who stood at the side of the arena watching the exchange, shook out of his disorientation and suddenly jumped to where Zen was. Settling beside the man, he immediately pressed him with demands. “Zen, can you not leave right now? Fight me first and you can leave then!” the brave fighter pleaded with a desperate face.

Smiling slightly at the eagerness of the younger boy to prove himself against him, Zen tilted his head to the side and offered him a sympathetic smile before he addressed him, “I am sorry I can't, but if our paths happen to cross again, I will definitely agree to spar with you.”

The young warrior's shoulders visibly slumped in defeat and resignation. Although he initially wanted to provoke and force Zen to fight with him right there and then, he was more concerned about the possibility that his master would scold him about his recklessness—he was always too brash when he wanted something. As he watched Zen leave and catch up with the members of the Cloud Hall, he reassured himself with the fact that they were going to meet again eventually.

Xiao promptly turned around and handed the tiny piece of parchment to Dillon. As the other man curiously opened the folded paper and peered at the content, his eyes marginally widened with surprise. With his heart rapidly thudding in his chest, Dillon blinked his eyes and read the written words once more as he felt beads of sweat gathering on his forehead from nervousness.

As it turned out, Zen had shared with him the terrible secret of the Dragon Soar Arena through the small piece of paper. With trepidation, it dawned on him that anyone who did not have the Genuine Dragon blood running through their veins would be rightfully imprisoned for a thousand years after entering the Dragon Soar Arena.

“No wonder the warriors who have entered the Dragon Soar Arena in the past have yet to return. This is a huge secret,” Dillon mumbled to himself as he gulped inaudibly at his realization.

Ever since Zen resurfaced from the Upper World, the Black Mountain Sect had sent a disciple named Jordan to travel to the Upper World. The sect had even hung the disciple's life jade card on the Dragon Soar Arena as a reminder that Jordan was indeed inside. Although the life jade card never broke or vanished, the disciple was never seen again. Bizarrely, no one was assured of what had happened, but the only thing they were certain of was their belief that Jordan was still alive.

In order to solve the mystery of the missing disciple from the Black Mountain Sect, the World Commercial Alliance had brought it upon themselves to send several people to the Dragon Soar Arena and waited for results. However noble their mission was, not a single soul from their team returned, yet none of them had also died. With the intention of preventing the warriors from staying in the Upper World, the World Commercial Alliance even tried to threaten them with the condition that if they did not return within a certain period of time, their families would be killed.

Even with the grave threat issued by them, not a single person had returned from the Upper World. Although the phenomenon was considered as enormously strange, they still did not find the answer to the occurrences of the missing warriors trapped inside the Dragon Soar Arena.

It did not occur even a little bit to Dillon before that Zen would be the one to ultimately solve the confounding mystery. It turned out that it was not the case that those people who entered the place did not want to return. Rather, they were forced to stay there, dreadfully imprisoned for a thousand years. Dillon broke out in a cold sweat at the new found knowledge. 'And to think I have also been prepared to travel to the Upper World myself, ' he thought with a wince and let out a breath he did not know he was holding. It was a fortunate thing that Haber had advised and also convinced him to give up on the idea of going there.

With slightly trembling hands, Dillon then passed the crumpled piece of paper to Hobbes and Haber. After the two of them had read it, they immediately looked at one another in shock. “The Dragon Soar Arena is a big trap!” they both exclaimed at the same time. Both men had somehow noticed that the place was rather shady before, and this just affirmed their suspicions. If Zen had not revealed the truth about the Dragon Soar Arena, there would be more people imprisoned in the Upper World.

“Wait a second,” Haber said softly as a thought suddenly sprung from his mind. The man normally did not voice out his opinions as much as his comrades, but he was the most intuitive and smartest one among the three. Clasping his hands on his lap and furrowing his eyebrows, he continued, “Since that's the case, how could Zen have returned safely from the Genuine Dragon World?” ŗ𝙖ℕƟβËＳ

“Hmm, well…”

As Dillon shook his head, he pondered on the implication of what Haber had just stated. “I will find an opportunity to ask Zen.” Shrugging his shoulders as he let out a short chuckle, Dillon piped up once more, “That kid has more secrets than the warriors at the Life and Death Realm.”

After the small group of Cloud Hall members exited the Martial Arts Contest and left with them a lasting impression, they headed straight for the transmission array of Oracle City. A huge transmission array was nestled between the Oracle City and Cloudy City in order for transportation from the city to another to be more convenient. The particular transmission array was also built by the World Commercial Alliance for this exact purpose, for they could go back to their respective sect via the technology.

Through the transmission array, the group returned to the Cloud Hall. As they walked through their gates, the elders of the sect bowed in respect and welcomed them at the main entrance of the Cloud Hall.

“Welcome back, Master Ning!” the elders greeted them simultaneously with dutiful smiles on their faces.

As soon as Letitia stepped foot onto the ground, she immediately addressed the people in the area as she asserted in a loud voice which exuded authority, “Cloud Hall is now on alert!”

The elders showed visible astonishment on their faces as they had picked up on the urgent tone of their leader. The way she held herself was also different, they had noticed, as Letitia appeared to be unnerved and slightly rattled. It was definitely unusual that she displayed such behavior. They were not certain about what exactly was going on that caused the Cloud Hall to enter a state of emergency.

“Master Ning, what happened?”

Emanuel, one of the elders, inquired with his voice full of anxiety. The somber faces of the people behind her gave him a sinking feeling of how extreme the situation was.

Upon hearing Emanuel's question, Letitia hurried forward and moved closer to the elders of the sect. “There will be a strong enemy!” she explained as she wrung her hands in front of her and clasped her palms together, as if in prayer.

“A strong enemy?”

many elders stuttered as they stared at Letitia with incredulous expressions on their faces. Admittedly, there were not many individuals that could make the Cloud Hall view them as powerful enemies. For such an opponent to exist, they must have tremendous skills and boundless courage to challenge the Cloud Hall. 'Maybe it could be the Ethereal Spirit Sect?' one of them deeply considered. 'The World Commercial Alliance, maybe?' another elder pondered, thinking hard of who could be the strong enemy that made Letitia so frazzled. However, their guesses were highly doubtful as the relationships that the Cloud Hall maintained with the two powers were supported with mutual respect and diplomatic. Other than the two of them, they were not aware of other strong enemies that they could possible face.

Before they could deliberate even further and ask for an additional explanation from the pacing woman, Letitia smoothed her expression into that of resoluteness and did not bother talking about the issue anymore. The lady coldly addressed the people, “Let Felix come to my palace!” With her robes billowing behind and her hair fluttering against the breeze, she briskly walked away and finally entered the Cloud Hall.

Reading the tense atmosphere that suddenly surrounded the place, her entourage silently followed behind her, not bothering to talk with the elders. The strides of Imogen, Zen, and the others, kept up with the woman except for Saint Morphens who had stayed back.

As Saint Morphens had compliantly traveled together with the Cloud Hall's elite disciples, he felt that he was capable of explaining the situation completely to the crowd Letitia had left behind. Scanning his eyes over the elders' questioning and despairing expressions, he exasperatedly sighed before opening his mouth to speak. “This time, the Cloud Hall's enemy is Eddie.”

Surprised gasps echoed throughout the area and some felt faint at the news Saint Morphens revealed to them. “What?!” Emanuel shouted as he jumped up. “Why did you offend this monster?”

Dubbed as the Evil East Lord, Eddie was one of those individuals that made ordinary people tremble in fear just by merely mentioning his name. The man could be righteous at some times and terribly evil at other times. This was due to the fact that if one did not directly provoke him, Eddie would not care for their existence. However, no one would come out alive after facing the consequences once they had done something to anger or insult him.

The people of Cloud Hall never would have thought that participating in the Martial Arts Contest would earn them anything other than a better reputation. However, what they brought home instead was a terrifyingly powerful opponent who was probably already on his way to destroy them.

“What exactly is going on? What happened back there? Morphens!” As Emanuel demanded for the full explanation, he stepped forward and crossed his both arms against his chest. “I need you to give us an explanation, and do not leave any detail behind!”

The elder's demanding tone made Saint Morphens frown. Even though there was a clear show of disrespect from Emanuel, the matter at hand was more significant and he debated to himself that showing anger towards the man was wasteful of his energy. The existence of the Cloud Hall was in danger and so Saint Morphens unquestioningly repeated everything that happened back in the Martial Arts Contest.

After the elders heard the entire story without interruption, they all immediately burst into an uproar. Reactions of displeasure as well as indignation echoed throughout the chamber where they stood. Some of them palmed their forehead and muttered out curses at their misfortune. With gloomy expressions and tight-lipped fraught faces, they stared back at Saint Morphens.

“We are doomed. This is too outrageous!” one of the people in crowd cried in a miserable tone. “Cloud Hall has been standing strong for ten thousand years. I could not believe that it is nearing its end just because of a mongrel at the Illuminating Soul Realm!”

Pacing back and forth, another person echoed his thoughts. “Why did Master Ning offend someone like Eddie just for the sake of some kid at the Illuminating Soul Realm?”

“Is she treating the millions of disciples in our Cloud Hall as collateral damage? Are we nothing to her?” an elder asked impatiently, in disbelief of their current situation. “Does she want to bring the Cloud Hall to an irrecoverable situation?”

“I told all of you before! It's basically ridiculous that a little girl is qualified to be the leader of Cloud Hall!” another elder hissed. “So what if she has an amazing talent? It was naive of us to support her back then!” some protested.

At the negative grumbles of the people and the sounds of complaints wavering in the air, Emanuel's face darkened. After a moment of deliberation, he slowly said with solemnity, “According to Morphens, all of this has happened because of Zen, and as such, Eddie will attack the Cloud Hall for Zen.” The man paused before he was sure all the attention was on him. “If so, there is a simple way to resolve this matter.” His voice had a grim and tenacious timbre.

“What method are you talking about?”

an elder near Emanuel implored.

“All we need to do is hand Zen over!” Emanuel said through gritted teeth. Clenching his fists tightly, he was certain of his statement just now. 'We give one life to save all of us. It is the only way, ' he thought bitterly, determinedly staring ahead at the horizon.

When Saint Morphens heard what the man had uttered, he smiled cynically but did not bother contributing to the conversation. Partially agreeing with Emanuel internally, the man pondered that the idea might really be able to help the Cloud Hall through the crisis they were facing. By handing Zen over to the enemy, it should be enough to quell Eddie's anger.

The question remained to be if Letitia would agree to his proposition. As they all contemplated on the actions of their leader, most despondently concluded that the woman might refuse to do such a thing.

If Letitia was willing to sacrifice him, she would not have stood in front of Zen and defended him in the first place. Sighing to himself, Saint Morphens wondered about the possibility of them fighting back and surviving the inevitable war caused by Zen's actions and how Letitia would protect the Cloud Hall from it.

Although Letitia was appointed to be their leader at a young age, she was as stubborn as a rock once she made a decision. Due to this, it was a moot point to discuss among themselves a way to prevent the impending confrontation because the elders, and even the previous leader, Imogen, would not be able to change her mind or pull her back.

As Saint Morphens remained silent, he truly thought that maybe there was something only Letitia knew when she spoke for Zen at the match. Deep down, his loyalties lay on Letitia and he had an inkling that Zen was worth the investment from the Cloud Hall.

As for this group of elders wanting to cause a scene and embarrass themselves in front of the elite disciples as they planned, Saint Morphens merely walked away and placed his hands in his pockets, uncaring of their plot to deal with the situation. In the end, it all depended on Letitia to deal with their bothersome attitudes.