Zhi Jiugong had quietly presented herself to the thousands of cultivators that had gathered at the arena.
She was astonishing beautiful and she carried a zither with twenty-four strings in her hands. Behind her were eight mortal maids and they were all beautiful.
She raised her profound voice and immediately almost all the thousands of cultivators in the arena were dumbfounded for her profound voice was that of a peaked great saintess.
Those that did not know her was surprised that she would be a great saintess, much less a peaked great saintess. It was because she had rarely displayed her profound animus in this place.
But today, she would be displaying her profound animus because there was a need for her to preside personally over the affairs of this arena.
She had rarely appeared in public because she was always cultivating. Instead she had left Bliss City to the other Zhi Jiugong. But today, she was the real one.
She had appeared in public because there was a special need to kill the mortal enemy of her master and that was Ji Yuan.
When she saw first Ji Yuan, it was when she was repairing her divine zither and Ji Yuan had actually given her a good impression. However, between her master and Ji Yuan, she could only choose one and that was her master. There was never a single doubt in her golden eyes that between these two choices, which one was the correct one.
And Ji Yuan must die.
Also, today her two protégé sisters the Lovely Empress and even the Smiling Divine Maiden had setup the arena trial just to get Ji Yuan.
Therefore short of a miracle, there was no escape from them.
She had a mixed reaction however. It was because she still owed Ji Yuan an unfulfilled wish and she was not the type that would own a favor to someone. Especially not when that person would soon be dead. Naturally she would not strip for him for her chaste body was not meant for his wanton eyes.
This would be what she would say to him: I will burn a lot of incenses and ghost monies for you Ji Yuan as your unfulfilled wish.
Zhi Jiugong was now looking at the speculator stands and once again, she had spotted the veiled maiden with the misty eyes among the thousands of cultivators.
There was almost a sense of relief when she saw her here for this would mean that she would not be inside the arena to mess up their carefully crafted plan.
The Smiling Divine Maiden was also cautious of this misty eyes maiden and had only entered the arena as a contestant at the very last minute.
She had said, "If she is joins as a contestant then we may need to tweak our plans a little. If she did not join then we can still carry out our plans to kill Ji Yuan."
The Smiling Divine Maiden, the Lovely Empress and Zhi Jiugong had naturally spotted Ji Yuan even before he had arrived at the arena.
Therefore when the Smiling Divine Maiden and the Lovely Empress had taunted Ji Yuan that he did have the courage to join as a contestant, they were actually just taunting him and not because they were surprised to see him.
Zhi Jiugong muttered, "Ji Yuan, you have no idea how you are going to die in there. Even with your two saint-step divine swords, do you think that you can even compare to the Smiling Divine Maiden? She can still easily rip you apart."
As for the Lovely Empress, she was upset that she had failed to seduce Ji Yuan and she had chosen to enter the arena out of her own will. There was never a need for her to be involved in the first place.
However the Lovely Empress had explained that she would want to kill Ji Yuan personally for humiliating her.
That was why the Lovely Empress had joined as a contestant.
Right now, Zhi Jiugong was partaking as the final judge of the arena as she said musically to the thousands of cultivators, "I have the honor of being the judge of honor for Bliss City's arena. May the best cultivators emerge victoriously in the arena. The mystic law of killings had been lifted for the arena for what is the arena if there is no blood?"
Her voice was beautiful and musical. Many of the cultivators were enthralled by her mesmerizing voice. In fact Zhi Jiugong had the most beautiful voice among her three sisters due to her almost perfection in music.
Almost perfection in music until she had met Ji Yuan who seemed perfect in all ways in his music.
Once again, Zhi Jiugong was musing uncomfortably as she thought quietly: It is such a pity to kill you. If we are not enemies then we may even compose music together…
But she quickly cast away her distracted thoughts to announce aloud, "The arena is a demanding trial for the cultivators and it will last for three days. According to the arena record, this year we have 850 cultivators that will be joining the arena."
When she had said that, there were many claps and applauses from the thirty thousand audiences.
Not all of these thirty thousand audiences were golden celestials. Only 12 500 of them were golden celestials while the rest were mortal cultivators. Out of the 12 500 golden celestials, only 5000 were golden celestials that had just recently entered the final trials. A large majority of the golden celestials were actually denizens of Bliss City and they were the cumulated golden celestials from thousands of years of the final trials of the Empyrean Warrior Labyrinth.
Zhi Jiugong began to smile to the crowd, "Now we shall introduce the contestants."
As soon as she had said that, all 850 arena contestants were teleported into the huge arena colosseum immediately and brought in front of the 30 000 odds speculators.
And Ji Yuan was naturally among one of the 850 arena contestants.
There were thunderous loud applauses from the speculators when the arena contestant was brought into view. However the arena contestants were not able to hear anything save for the profound voice of the judge. This was the mystic law of the arena.
Many of the speculators were now shouting excitingly, "Look! Who is there?"
"I can't believe it. It is the Great Heroine Ye Jing?"
'.',
"No, stupid. It is the Smiling Divine Maiden and the Lovely Empress! They are there as contestants too!"
"The Smiling Divine Maiden is also there? What is her cultivation realm?"
"A delightful and vulnerable maiden like the Lovely Empress will actually join the arena as a contestant?"
'ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ No(ve) l Bi n',
Ling Feiyue, Feng Minyue, Little Princess, Yu Jingjing and Yang Mi were not interested in any Lovely Empress and the Smiling Divine Maiden; they were here to cheer for Ji Yuan.
Even Dream Mist were looking expectantly at Ji Yuan…
Bai Qianfeng said to the rest of the maidens as she scanned the contestants, "I can now confirm that the Lovely Empress that we had seen last night is also a half-immortal. There seem to be another half-immortal as well…"
But she was soon sighing softly for the rest of the maidens were not paying any attention to her. Instead they were now giggling softly among themselves.
"Look, that is Ji Yuan!"
"He still looks as poor as ever."
"Will he be alright?"
"I don't even want him to join this arena…"
"What is the purpose again of this arena? To expose some fake maidens right?"
Zhi Jiugong began to smile as she began to teleport all the contestants to a place where there were many tall mountains, "The first part of today's arena final is really very simple. All they need to do is to reach the other side of the mountain in one piece and they will be allowed to go to the second part of today's trial."
Inside the new place, Ji Yuan could hear Zhi Jiugong's musical voice but he could not see her.
'This chapter is updated by N o v elBin.cᴏm',
He was laughing jovially, "What? This sounds like an easy trial to me."
'.',
While he was laughing jovially, Lovely Empress and Smiling Divine Maiden were also giggling softly; it was because they were laughing at Ji Yuan who was laughing.
