Gatekeepers.

After Yan Ling and Liang Chen finished altering the bones in his right hand, it only took them a week and a half to rack up another eight wins in the arena, meaning that they only needed a single more win before they could head up to the third floor. Normally it would take 20 wins, but since they were only doing partner battles where they fought against two enemies at once, it cut the needed wins in half. The two took a day of rest after completing their ninth battle, making sure that they were in peak condition when they headed to the arena and took a seat close to the stage, waiting for the currently ongoing battle to end.

The battle ended after another half hour, Yan Ling and Liang Chen standing up from their seats and entering the arena. The judge didn't even get the chance to announce their names before two people had stood up from their seats and jumped onto the stage. Looking at how fast they had acted, Liang Chen guessed that they might have been waiting for the two of them to enter the stage. And by looking at the strength of the two, equal to the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm, Liang Chen was able to guess at their personality.

Standing opposite of them were two men, one was a surprisingly slim man from the Fiendgod race, a large scar running down the entire length of his second left arm and another flower-shapes scar decorating the top of his head. The other was a man from the Undead race, his skin covered in a light-blue tattoo that depicted a thorny vine coiling around his entire body, his three eyes were all the same light-blue as the tattoo, all three eyes were currently sweeping over Liang Chen and Yan Ling, a somewhat confused and uncertain light in them. The man from the Undead race cupped his hands, giving Liang Chen and Yan Ling a slight bow as he introduced himself and the man from the Fiendgod race.

"Scourge King, Wolf Queen, I am Kong Luxi and this is Shi Longyu, he could be considered...something of an acquaintance of mine. We will be your opponents today and test whether or not you really have the right to head up to the third floor."

Kong Luxi spoke courteously, but his eyes continued to sweep over Liang Chen and Yan Ling in a vigilant, even somewhat vicious, manner. The third eye of the Undead race wasn't just for show, it had the special ability to see the aura of living beings, allowing the Undead race cultivator to know the traits of a person and see which soul would be beneficial to them. But when Kong Luxi looked at Liang Chen and Yan Ling, their auras were blurry and indistinct, almost as if they were covered by a thin layer of cloth, making it impossible for him to see their traits. He felt like he would be able to pierce the layer of cloth if he was a bit stronger, but for now, he had no way of seeing through them. Shi Longyu didn't seem as polite as Kong Luxi, letting out a loud snort.

"No need to sugar your words so sweetly, Luxi. Scourge King, Wolf Queen, we don't think you have the right to move up to the third floor so we'll beat you down here. You might survive if you get down from the stage right now, but looking at my enemies walk down the stage like cowards always annoys me oh so much, so please be a good kid and stay here. Of course, if you were to leave behind that sweet thing, I might not be against allowing you to head to the third floor. Then again, even if you refuse to hand her over, she'll still be mine once the battle is over, I'll make sure to treat her nice and delicate, they last longer like that after all."

Shi Longyu pointed at Yan Ling as he spoke, the corners of his lips pulling up into a smile that was a mixture of taunting and lecherous. Liang Chen and Yan Ling looked at the two opponents, Yan Ling raising an eyebrow while casting a sideways glance at Liang Chen. She didn't even seem bothered in the slightest by Shi Longyu's comments, even snickering in an amused manner.

"Yikes, one is a slimy bastard pretending to be nice and polite while the other's an idiot whose clearly slow in the head. Think he was dropped on the head as a child? It's gotta be that, right? Or maybe he just has his head so far up his ass that the force of him squeezing his cheeks is cutting off the blood to his head."

Yan Ling didn't show the slightest mercy in her ridicule, making sure that Shi Longyu and Kong Luxi were able to hear every word she was saying, their eyes narrowing in rage. Clearly, it wasn't just Liang Chen who had guessed at their personalities, Yan Ling had also seen through them. Liang Chen shrugged his shoulders, seemingly not too bothered by what Shi Longyu had said.

"Well, what do you expect from people who can only be considered the same as common bullies? They remind me a lot of some kids I once knew back in my hometown so it'd honestly surprise me if they were able to come up with better taunts to keep us on the stage. Well, we can consider them a test of sorts, it'll make their presence a bit more bearable."

Both Kong Luxi and Shi Longyu had reached the early stage of the Soaring Immortal realm, they should already be strong enough to head up to the third floor. Liang Chen could only think of one reason for them to still linger around here, they likely enjoyed beating down people who were confident and were about to head to the third floor, crushing their hopes by using their high cultivation.

Kong Luxi pretended to be polite while Shi Longyu used taunts, but both were using their own methods to keep their opponents on the stage, hoping to avoid them surrendering the moment they saw the cultivation of their enemy. What they didn't know however was that there was no need for anything like that, neither Liang Chen nor Yan Ling had any intention to surrender, this was a perfect chance to test out how much stronger they had gotten. To them, Kong Luxi and Shi Longyu were nothing more than a pair of gatekeepers that served as both a test and a grindstone.

The two locked eyes for a second before simultaneously casting their gazes onto the judge from the Fiendgod race, nodding their heads to show that they were going to continue the battle. Liang Chen took out his spear and Yan Ling her sword, both of them pointing their weapons at the opponents, Yan Ling at Kong Luxi and Liang Chen at Shi Longyu. The judge announced the start of the battle, Liang Chen's eyes narrowing faintly as he looked at Shi Longyu.

"Don't worry about me annoying you, I'll make sure that you won't be able to see me stepping down from this stage after the battle is over."

Liang Chen knew that Shi Longyu's words were nothing more than a poor attempt at a taunt to enrage them so that they wouldn't shy from the battle in fear, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't get angry when someone talked about Yan Ling like that. Shi Longyu had pulled taunts like that countless times, never quite sure if they worked or not. Sadly, he never quite thought about what would happen to him should his taunts work on someone like Liang Chen.