The Soul Bell!

This is the Bell of Death, meant to extinguish souls.

DONG—

The Golden Grand Clock let out a heavy, booming ring. The entire bell shuddered as a terrifying power erupted from it.

A golden beam of light shot toward Jiang Chen.

After unleashing the Soul Bell’s attack, a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of Zhong Yi’s mouth, and his aura instantly weakened. But his eyes surged with a grim killing intent and a hint of excitement. ’My current Divine Thought Power is barely enough to activate the Soul Bell. But as long as I can kill Jiang Chen, it will all be worth it!’ 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The thought of the Soul Defense Treasure Jiang Chen might possess—one that was at least Yellow Tier, High Level—made Zhong Yi’s blood boil with anticipation.

Below the arena.

Many of the Celestial Alliance experts looked on expectantly. "This attack should be enough to kill him, right?"

"Zhong Yi’s Soul Bell is incredibly powerful. Even I would be affected by it. Jiang Chen is a dead man for sure!" Li Yunlong declared with an arrogant expression.

Luo Qing curled his lip. "The rewards for the Blood-colored Killing Order are extremely generous. A shame that kid Zhong Yi is the one who gets to cash in!"

Yuwen Xunyi narrowed his eyes, his Golden Armor radiating a brilliant glow as he murmured to himself, "Jiang Chen, can you block this attack?"

On the high platform of the Earth Martial Hall.

Third Elder Zong Han had a gloating expression on his face. He glanced at the Tower Guardian Elder beside him and said smugly, "As I said, Jiang Chen is a dead man."

"That’s not necessarily so!"

The Tower Guardian Elder gently stroked his snow-white beard, a cryptic smile on his face.

On the Blood Battle Arena.

A grave expression appeared on Jiang Chen’s face. The incoming beam of light contained a terrifying Divine Thought Shock, making him feel the threat of death.

A sharp glint flashed in his dark eyes.

Jiang Chen tapped his foot. A surge of True Essence erupted from the tip of his toe, acting like an invisible shovel that pried the stone slabs of the Blood Battle Arena floor into the air. One after another, the slabs stood upright in front of him like a line of dominoes, blocking the terrifying light of destruction.

"It’s useless! The Soul Bell is a soul attack too; those things can’t possibly block it. HAHAHA! Jiang Chen, aren’t you a Divine Thought Master? Aren’t you the one with astounding talent and heaven-defying combat power, who claimed you would slaughter everyone in my Celestial Alliance? There’s no escape for you now! You’re dead!" Zhong Yi threw his head back and laughed, utterly triumphant.

"Are you sure?"

Behind the slabs, watching the light of death shoot toward him, ignoring the stone barriers, the corner of Jiang Chen’s mouth lifted slightly as he spoke with cold indifference.

What Zhong Yi and the others didn’t know was that Jiang Chen hadn’t raised the stone slabs to block the light of death. He’d done it to block everyone’s line of sight, so he could fully unleash the power of his Ten Thousand Laws Golden Pupil.

After all...

Once the Ten Thousand Laws Golden Pupil was activated, his eyes would turn cyan-gold, easily revealing one of his trump cards.

"Divine Thought Blade—Slash!"

Behind the stone slabs, a cyan-gold light in Jiang Chen’s eyes boiled violently, like superheated water.

Strands of terrifying Divine Thought Power gathered frantically within his eyes.

They formed a cyan-gold vortex.

It shot out abruptly, the cyan-gold Divine Thought Power condensing into a hundred-foot-long Divine Thought Blade.

The Divine Thought Blade took the form of a Battle Blade.

Points of light sparkled around it, as if the Battle Blade contained a thousand stars.

With a thunderous shout from Jiang Chen, the Divine Thought Blade soared a thousand feet into the sky before suddenly plummeting down. Like a Divine Battle Saber from the hands of the Nine Heavens Divine Spirits, it was silent and formless, chopping down directly onto the light of death!

The two streams of Divine Thought Power collided in a frenzy.

RUMBLE...

HSSSS...

Without any warning, a gale of Divine Thought swept across the entire Blood Battle Arena.

BANG!

The cyan-gold light flared, completely shattering the crimson light of death. The Divine Thought Blade’s momentum didn’t falter; with a SWISH, it passed through the layers of stone slabs and landed directly on Zhong Yi.

It chopped down from the top of his head and emerged from between his legs.

The Divine Thought Blade struck the blood-colored battle stage and vanished without a trace.

"..."

Silence!

The entire Blood Battle Arena was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Everyone wore looks of bewildered shock. "What happened?"

"Just now, I felt like something hit my head. It’s still ringing..."

"Y-y-you guys, look at Zhong Yi..."

Someone suddenly cried out in alarm, having noticed something was wrong with Zhong Yi on the Blood Battle Arena.

Zhong Yi still wore an excited, gloating smile, but now it looked stiff. The light had completely vanished from his eyes.

"What’s going on?"

"It’s like Zhong Yi is possessed. Why isn’t he moving?"

The referee for Arena 32 was also stunned for a moment. With a flicker in his eyes, he flew onto the Blood Battle Arena. After a brief inspection, the referee’s expression changed drastically, revealing a look of horror. "Zhong... Zhong... Zhong Yi is dead?"

"What? The referee said Zhong Yi is dead?"

"But wasn’t Zhong Yi just in the lead, about to kill Jiang Chen? How could he be dead?"

"You’ve got to be kidding, right?"

No one could believe it.

Until...

THUD!

Zhong Yi’s legs gave out, and he knelt heavily on the ground. He was truly dead!

Jiang Chen glanced at the dazed referee and said coolly, "Referee, can you announce the result now?"

"Th-this..."

The referee was stunned and conflicted.

If an ordinary Celestial Alliance expert had died, he wouldn’t have hesitated like this. But the one who died was Zhong Yi!

One of the Ten Great Prodigies of the Outer Sect!

This was a huge deal.

The referee instinctively looked toward Third Elder Zong Han, only to find him with a dark, brooding expression, his volatile gaze fixed on the Cyan Gang Rock table in front of him.

The Tower Guardian Elder beside him chuckled teasingly, "Elder Zong, time to eat!"

"You...!"

Zong Han’s expression was as foul as if he’d just eaten shit.

"Third Elder, how should I announce the result?" the referee from Arena 32 reminded him with a bitter smile.

Zong Han snorted, glaring at him. "Announce it as it is!" he said coldly.

"Yes!"

The referee breathed a sigh of relief, then announced in a loud voice, "The winner of this battle is Jiang Chen!"

"ROAR!"

"Long live Jiang Chen!"

"Incredible! He fought five hundred Celestial Alliance experts, won, and left none of them standing. He even killed Zhong Yi, one of the Ten Great Prodigies! This Jiang Chen is going to be the biggest dark horse of this competition!"

"Dark horse? Hmph, a dark horse that’s about to die. Jiang Chen has killed so many experts from the Celestial Alliance, including Zhong Yi. How could the Celestial Alliance possibly spare him?"

"Look at Li Yunlong’s face. He’s truly furious. If Jiang Chen runs into Li Yunlong or Luo Qing, he’s a dead man for sure!"

"He’s a grasshopper after autumn—he won’t be jumping for much longer!"

Jiang Chen seemed not to hear any of this discussion, leaping off the arena with a calm expression.

Soon, the referee cleared the Blood Battle Arena, and the competition continued.

However...

With all five hundred Celestial Alliance experts on Arena 32 eliminated, only three hundred-odd people were left on that stage. While the other arenas still had roughly half of their contestants locked in battle, the fighting on Arena 32 had already come to a complete end.

Jiang Chen, naturally, had taken first place without any question!

As the first-place winner of Arena 32, he advanced to the second round of the competition.

About two double-hours later, the battles on the other ninety-nine arenas also came to a close. The top ten experts from each arena were determined, advancing to the second round.

Standing below the Blood Battle Arena, Jiang Chen sensed several icy gazes fixed on him.

He glanced to the side and saw Li Yunlong, Luo Qing, Hex Junchen, and other Celestial Alliance experts staring at him with menacing eyes, as if they wanted to tear him to shreds.

Jiang Chen merely smiled. He mouthed his words to Li Yunlong and the others, saying coolly, "You trash from the Celestial Alliance, wash your necks and wait for me to come and reap them!"