Chapter 822: The Arena
A large area had been cleared out in the Millennium forest and on the borders of it, thick trees with trunks as wide as five meters were growing.
This place was nothing but the tournament arena of the Millennium forest, the place where all the beasts of the forest would fight against each other to earn the chance of meeting Lin Wu and receiving his ‘grace’.
Over the years, it had become a very popular and important place in the forest and no beast that had intelligence that didn’t know about it. Most had come to watch the fights if not participated in one themselves.
The beasts all needed to use the arena from time to time, as they often had conflicts. And since Lin Wu had put a restraint on open conflicts among the intelligent beasts, the only way they could resolve them was by fighting here.
This actually served as a better way of letting out their beastly instincts and also not dying. After all, Lin Wu didn’t want all the strong and intelligent beasts to fight to the death. It would only mean reducing the number of subjects he could have underneath him.
The beast was the perfect to be subjects as they wouldn’t rebel or think of rebelling. They would follow his commands and orders with little to no objections as long as their basic desires were satisfied.
Best of all, most of the beast had no ambitions other than having tons of food, being strong and having mates.
Lin Wu’s bloodline could suppress them and make sure they obeyed all his orders and satisfying the other requirements was very easy for Lin Wu now too.
After all he provided them a stable source of cultivation resources as food. They could grow stronger with that and also try their hand at the arena, winning a chance to meet Lin Wu and mutate.
As for the part about the mates, Lin Wu left the beasts to their own devices, as he reckoned it was much better to not interfere.
If it were humans that Lin Wu was ruling over, he would have had to take care of a lot of things, to ensure that they wouldn’t oppose him. And even if they didn’t show it on their faces, there were bound to be many that would scheme in the backgrounds.
Which was why Lin Wu preferred the beasts much more. But despite all that, he did need the humans for future progress and thus was including them in the ‘economy’ of the forest now.
The arena was going to be on of the bigger plans among them as Lin Wu was intending to make it into a sport. Anyone would be able to come and watch if they bought the tickets. Additionally they would even be able to bet and gamble on their favored fighters.
This was another reason why he was here today.
“When Fight?” The Weasel asked.
“Just wait a bit more. They will all be here soon enough.” Lin Wu spoke.
He was currently standing in the arena a with the weasel and two Emeraldine Monkeys that were in charge of the arena.
“M-my king, will the arena be able to handle these many fighters? I mean… I could understand if it was just core condensation realm beasts, but what you are saying is…” the Emeraldine Monkeys were a bit hesitant.
“I know your concerns, but it will be fine.” Lin Wu replied.
“But what if it’s destroyed?” The second Emeraldine Monkey asked.
“Then just let it be destroyed.” Lin Wu casually said.
“Huh?” The Emeraldine Monkeys were surprised.
It was because setting up this arena wasn’t exactly cheap. The trees surrounding it were the Black Iron Wood Trees. These trees were hard to grow and took a long while as well. And such a large number of them were hard to come by in the entire Long continent.
If it were not for the fact they the servants of Lin Wu, had gotten knowledge from him about the trees and how to grow them faster, they would have all been at a loss. But even if they could regrow the trees, it didn’t mean that they could do it without a cost.
Growing even a single tree at an accelerated pace needed hundreds of spirit stones and high grade fertilizers. These trees served as a defensive barrier to the arena and ensured that the attacks of the beasts didn’t destroy the rest of the forest.
After all, the forest was where they lived, and without it, they would be nothing.
Even the beasts without intelligence avoided damaging the forest too much, as it was engraved into their very bloodline.
“With the Dao Shell realm beasts fighting, it will certainly damage the area around us. But it will also tell us just how much area is needed for a fight like that. It will be very profitable in the future, after all, how many people get to see Dao Shell realm beings fight?
We’ll use this chance to get a measure of how much the arena needs to be expanded. After that is known, we will make an even better arena. I’ll personally set up an array that will maintain it and also reinforce it.
Then it will be a proper arena according to the human standards.” Lin Wu explained to the servants.
“Ah… we understand now, master. You are certainly beyond our thinking.” The Emeraldine Monkeys said, feeling awed at Lin Wu’s plans.
“Mmhmm… you all can just focus on taking notes during it all.” Lin Wu spoke.
“YES!” The two Emeraldine Monkeys replied.
~SHUA~ SHUA~ SHUA~
And just as they finished speaking, several gusts of wind could be felt coming from the distance.
“There they are.” Lin Wu said seeing the beasts who he had called for the fight.”
“AHAHAHA! WHO DO I GET TO FIGHT TODAY!” A loud and boisterous voice was heard coming from the sky.
The one who had appeared first was none other than the Demon Spine Ape. He was the most excited about the fight, even more so than the weasel. The Demon Spine Ape was someone who had a natural drive to get stronger and didn’t even need an incentive to fight like the weasel.
‘It was obvious that he would be the first one to arrive.’ Lin Wu thought to himself.
~THUD~
The Demon Spine Ape landed on the ground, creating a shallow imprint of his feet in it.
“When do we fight?” He asked right away.
“When the others are here.” Lin Wu replied.
“Can’t I just start the fight? The others will get their turn after me.” The Demon Spine Ape asked.
“Oh, you are not fighting alone.” Lin Wu replied.
“Huh? What do you mean?” The Demon Spine Ape was confused.
“Do you really think you can go against him for longer than a minute?” Lin Wu asked with a chuckle.
The Demon Spine ape looked at the Myriad Obsidian Weasel, who was dumbly staring at Lin Wu’s tail and drooling.
“Uh… yeah. I think I’ll wait.” The Demon Spine ape replied after a bit.
He recalled having been whacked away from a single attack of the weasel before. And this was when the weasel had just broken through to the Dao Shell realm. Now that he had gotten stronger, there was no saying whether the time would reduce even more.
~shua~
A few seconds later, another presence was felt from the distance, this time far stronger than before.
“Why do I need to fight that child?” The Twin Lights Liger King asked just as he appeared.
“We need to test how strong he is now. He’s certainly had a breakthrough and since we can’t judge it the normal way, this is the only method left.” Lin Wu replied.
The Twin Lights Liger looked at the Weasel who now had a small puddle of drool below his mouth and shook his head.
“I’ll lose. My instincts tell me that he’ll be able to defeat me.” The Twin Lights Liger King admitted defeat right away.
“Oh, you don’t have the option to forfeit.” Lin Wu flatly said.
“Huh?” The Twin Lights Liger King was confused.
“This isn’t a competition. This is a test. Doesn’t matter if you all lose. What I want to see is how long it takes for you to lose and how strong the weasel is.” Lin Wu replied.
~Sigh~
“Seems like we are to be punching bags now.” Another voice was heard from the back.
“You’re here, father.” The Demon Spine ape said upon seeing the Slim arm Ape appear.
~Rumble~
“I’m here too.” A screeching voice was heard while the ground rumbled.
“The old beetle is here too.” The Slim arm ape said.
Within ten minutes, more and more beasts appeared and by the end, nearly thirty beasts were standing in the arena.
Thankfully, the arena was wide already and even with these many beasts’ it didn’t seem crowded.
Nearly all of Lin Wu’s servants and subordinates that were at the Nascent soul realm and above were here now.
Even the Club Tailed Lizard and the juvenile lizards were here. Though the juvenile lizards will just be watching from the distance. While they had not learned to speak yet, they could still understand things.
Additionally, they had broken through to the Core condensation realm a year ago and thus their intelligence had also increased.
“Good, now that everyone is here, we can start.” Lin Wu said in a loud voice.
“What are we do to exactly?” The Monk Ape asked, feeling a bit suspicion.
“Well… it’s simple. You all attack the weasel, and he will attack you. That’s all.” Lin Wu replied.
