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Chapter 62: The Pagoda Palace That Even Ghosts Dread

The gossip about Lan Yu showed no sign of cooling all day, and by dusk you could still hear male and female students in the dorm area talking excitedly about it.

Rumor had it that a boy who admired Lan Yu ran to the girls’ dorm where she lived to demand an explanation, yet he did not even catch a glimpse of her.

A single shout of “Scram!” blasted him out of the girls’ dorm territory.

Another despondent boy even tried to drown himself in the central lake, and only the forceful pull of his roommates stopped the attempt.

The farce only made the scandal burn hotter.

Just then a sneaky figure opened the door of a boys’ dorm; the moment he stepped inside a wary voice asked, “Who is it?”

The newcomer halted at once and answered, “Boss, it’s me, Angelo!”

A faint candlelight flared in the lounge, revealing Jin Ze and Arthur sitting downstairs with grim faces.

Seeing their expression, Angelo’s heart tightened even more.

In a small voice he asked, “Did Ashura message you two?”

Jin Ze and Arthur exchanged a glance, then nodded together, and Jin Ze said, “He told us something came up and he has to stay away for a while.”

Silence fell over the lounge again.

The lively Angelo could not hold back and said, “Do you think that black-haired boy by the lake might have been Ashura?”

Arthur immediately raised a finger to his lips for silence, then pricked up his ears to listen outside the door.

Only then did he answer gravely, “Whether it was or wasn’t, we must never breathe a word of it; they say blood was spilled in the arena today, and if they find out Ashura was behind the mess he’ll have run off scot-free while we’re the ones left to suffer…”

The other two drew a sharp breath at the same time, and Angelo muttered, “I was even planning to write a juicy gossip piece about it… what great material!”

Jin Ze and Arthur both grabbed Angelo’s arms, and Jin Ze said in a low voice, “Drop it right now; isn’t it chaotic enough already? If they learn the culprit is from our dorm, I’ll pack and run this instant too!”

Angelo shrank his neck, and the three of them stared at each other in uneasy silence.

Yet Angelo still voiced another question, “Do you really think Lan Yu forced a kiss on Ashura? So Third Bro is the smoldering type, huh? I never thought girls liked him that much!”

The other two had no idea how to answer and could not believe it either.

They had never imagined the usually harmless Ashura could be so fierce!

After 3 days of hard riding Ashura finally reached Puro City before sunset, and he felt a wave of emotion as he looked at the city he had only recently left.

He had intended to visit the newly purchased shop to find Daifei, but after only a few steps he spotted a familiar figure.

It was the former underling Hughes, who was now strolling merrily toward one side of the city.

Ashura tied his dragon horse to a stump, hurried after Hughes, and stopped him at a corner.

When Hughes saw his benefactor he bowed respectfully at once, and Ashura asked, “Where are you going? You look so excited… are you off to gamble?”

Hughes answered awkwardly, “Sir, I’m not going to the casino, though I will place a few bets; I’m headed to the Pagoda Palace, the dark arena of Puro City, to watch the fights!”

Pagoda Palace? It was the first time Ashura had heard the name.

Seeing Ashura’s blank face, Hughes explained, “The Pagoda Palace is the dark arena on King’s Continent, and almost every large city has one.”

“The Pagoda Palace organizes every kind of battle and sets up betting pools based on the fighters’ strength.”

“It’s called a dark arena because nearly all the contestants are warriors stained with blood, there are no rules here, and the victor decides whether the loser lives or dies.”

“Each contestant also carries a credits token; one credit represents one victory and can also mean one life.”

“Once you decide to fight tonight, the Pagoda Palace will assign you an opponent, or you may choose one yourself.”

“When a warrior of the same rank issues a challenge, if the target refuses to enter the ring he must surrender half of the credits in his badge to the challenger.”

“When the challenge is accepted and you kill your opponent… or spare him… you gain all the credits in his badge!”

“If a lower-rank warrior challenges a higher-rank warrior, the higher-rank fighter cannot refuse, and losing still wipes his credits clean!”

“Credits in the Pagoda Palace can be exchanged for many precious items or cash, which is why fugitives flock to compete!”

“The Pagoda Palace also has star fighters, men who have crawled out from piles of corpses!”

“They share one trait… utter savagery; they almost never leave a foe alive, and their bloody methods whip the crowd into a frenzy!”

“Of course, fighters whose badges hold high credit levels enjoy privileged treatment in the Pagoda Palace as well; win your bout tonight and delicacies, wine, and women… whatever you ask for… the Palace will satisfy every desire!”

After listening to Hughes’s introduction, Ashura felt an intense curiosity toward the place.

He suddenly recalled something Instructor Yuan Da had said: “More dangerous than the beasts of the Beast Forest are the humans within it!”

Back then the instructor had meant to warn him about humans appearing in the Beast Forest, yet he felt this Pagoda Palace might be even more perilous.

A bitter smile tugged at his lips; he thought he had found another spot to grind levels.

When he followed Hughes into the underground arena, even the air seemed violent and feverish; spectators clutching betting slips were raving as they cheered for their chosen fighters.

Shouts of joy and curses mingled with the bloody atmosphere, relentlessly assaulting everyone’s nerves.

He watched several bouts with Hughes, and the brutal, ruthless techniques of the warriors left a deep impression.

One bearded warrior had his arm hacked off, yet he still gouged out his opponent’s eye and crammed the bloody mass into his own mouth.

Grinning viciously, he drove a punch into the blinded man’s neck, snapping the vertebrae.

He straddled the foe and butchered him mercilessly, then, amid the crowd’s wild cheers, strolled off the stage holding his severed arm and the badge from the corpse.

Beside him, Hughes was still shouting in excitement, for he had bet on the bearded fighter nicknamed Blood Hand and had won a tidy sum from the match!

Ashura asked Hughes how often the dark arena opened; Hughes told him it ran once every 3 days, always in this same place.

Ashura told Hughes he had other business and slipped away, yet he did not leave the Pagoda Palace; instead he headed to one side of the underground training hall.

This was where warriors registered for the competition…

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