Chapter 269: Scheme!

"As per the requests from the organizers, the Champion Duan Li would be the last to perform in this third stage!" the Emcee announced to the audience where many of them nodded in agreement.

As the traditional saying went; save the best for the last!

Thus, came the champion for the Middle stage platform first, Dong Jinghai, and he stepped forward to face a lifeless puppet. This puppet was reminiscent to that of a downgraded version of the Guardian Knight Puppet that guarded their academy's entrance!

The Emcee then personally flew down onto the platform with a single Medium quality spirit stone on his hand.

Wenggg!!

The moment he slotted this Middle quality spirit stone into the central core of the puppet, its eyes flashed blue before a grinding noise could be heard whizzing from inside it, then jolting it alive!

"Since you are only a Middle stage Core Formation realm student, then an entire realm above you would be Middle stage Golden Core realm! I have already made the necessary adjustment to the puppet to output such level of power." the Emcee said.

He then continued, "However, this puppet will only show the physical strength of such realm and does not have any skill arts at all, so there is no need for you to worry. Also, should you decided to give up, just say the word that you surrender and the puppet will immediately stop moving!"

With a solemn expression, Dong Jinghai nodded and replied respectfully, "En! I understand, thank you Sir!"

The Emcee then flew back atop of the stadium. With his high pitched voice, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Let the third stage... begins!!"

Roarrr!!

...

"Empress Dowager, why did you propose to forward that young man's performance to be the last one?" Advisor Chen asked as his curiosity deepened.

He understood that the talented junior student had managed to subjugate thousands of monsters, but in his opinion, there should be external factors that led to such an unbelievable outcome, especially when the person in question was just a mere Foundation Establishment realm cultivator back then, truly not worth mentioning at all!

The Empress went silent for a while before replying, "According to a top secret information that I received, that boy was able to beat one of the member of the Dark Sect.. Cao Tengfei!"

Hearing this, Advisor Chen lost his cool as his words stuttered, "W-What? The Dark Sect? Impossible! He is only but a mere.."

"You dare doubt me?" the Empress interjected with a cold gaze before the latter could even finish his sentence, sending cold shivers down his spine!

"I dare not, your Empress!" he quickly prostrated on all four of his limbs to apologize as beads of sweat flowed profusely from his forehead!

"Hmph. Whether it is true or not shall be revealed later on. But if the information I received is indeed true, then I can kill two birds with one stone in the final match later on! If it is not, then he should at least be glad that he did not die personally by my hands." the Empress then lazily rests her chin atop of her palm after she said all these, devoid of any emotion.

"Your Empress, do you mean..?" Advisor Chen raised his head slightly, only to saw the other party let out a calculative smile as her gaze drifted afar.

Hissss!

"That is the smile of a demon's!!" he thought inwardly as he continued to prostrate down like a statue with pale countenance, not daring to even breath loudly for fear that the woman atop of the throne might get displeased and kill him on the spot!

The Empress actually planned to accidentally increase the power level of the puppet into that of a Nascent Soul Realm expert. This was in order to find out whether the claim that she heard was true or not!

If it was, then the hidden forces in the stadium observing silently would definitely become rattled, and she would be able to sense where they were currently hiding!

"Despicable scums.. to dare cause trouble in this empire.. they will have to pay with their blood!" she said inwardly, her eyes radiating out murderous intentions!

The reports she received from her personal network of information hinted that, at least one of the envoys from the foreign empires were up to no good!

A few days ago, some people got caught snooping around for information on the stability of the Jiu Empire, misunderstanding the crowning of the Imperial Overseer in the next few days as the result of some internal political fights!

After all, no sane Emperor would even think about giving anyone such a title that could step over their head! They would rather fight to the death than living in shame and sullying the title of an Emperor, which will invoke the wrath of the other eight Emperors!

Therefore, the only possibility for a person to be titled as such was due to extreme political instability that could demoralize the entire empire if the Emperor did not agree!

Of all kinds of fights that could destroy an empire through and through, it would be internal fights and civil war! Even the supreme might of an Emperor will become useless if all the major power in their empire turned their backs against him!

By this logic, apparently, someone started spreading rumors that the big clans in the Jiu Empire was about to clash into a civil war!

This caused the Empress to seethe in rage, and thus, along with the envoy from the Liu Empire, Liu Sheng Duhai, she concocted and organized this competition to gather up all the foreign envoys into one spot, so that she could take her time to identify the perpetrators!

Who then, could have thought that Duan Li would suddenly jumped into the competition tonight, making all the procedures much more smoother?

The Heavens was definitely on their side!

"Let me see who among them, would dare to make a move on this empire!"

...

Oblivious that he was actually used as a pawn in the grand scheme of the Empress, Duan Li was standing excitedly right now as he cheered, "Go Senior! You can do it!"

Dong Jinghai's clothes was now in tatters as injuries and bruises were all over his body, with the puppet stood imposingly before him and continued to rain down punches as he tried to block and dodge them as best as he could.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

"Damn it! I guess.. this is as far as I can go.." he gritted his teeth in frustration. He had already used some skill arts when he found that the might of the puppet was overwhelming, but even then, he was still being suppressed into such a state!

The saying was indeed true; in front of the eyes of those in a higher realm, they were nothing but ants!

"I surrender!" Dong Jinghai said with indignance and regret in his voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our champion for the Middle Stage platform, Dong Jinghai, has given up on this third stage! However, make no mistake, to be able to last this long could also be considered as no easy feat as well! Let us give him a good round of applause!" the Emcee invoked the spirit of camaraderie within the audience as the crowd stood up and cheered for Dong Jinghai!

"Don't be disheartened! You are the best!"

"Yeah! It was a good fight!"

Many from the crowd gave positive feedbacks while some cursed and lamented as they lost their bet. There were also others who were totally not moved at all and remained seated as they closed their eyes.

Soon, it was Ling Shin's turn. At first, he was having trouble facing the puppet with just martial arts alone, similar to Dong Jinghai before. However, since he was feeling quite annoyed, when he activated the Eight Undulating Qi technique once more and used a fist art, the puppet was blown out from the ring with just a single punch from the latter!

This unbelievable scene left everyone agape!

Next, when it was Lu Bu's turn, the crowd was even shocked into a state of disbelief than before! One has to remember that Lu Bu was already in the Pinnacle stage of the Core Formation realm. That meant that the puppet he was facing was at the Pinnacle Stage Golden Core realm level!

This was a puppet with a battle prowess that was practically already one foot into the Nascent Soul realm level!

However, a single, solid punch was all it took to shatter the puppet into pieces!

BOOM!!

Hisssss!!

Even the Emcee was at a loss for words trying to describe such a phenomenon!

Granted, that the body of such a puppet was not even close to that of a real Pinnacle Stage Golden Core realm cultivator's, but it was still able to rattle the depths of one's mind when they witnessed this scene!

"Was a puppet's body always that fragile?" Lu Bu frowned as he took a look at his fist. He had trained against puppets numerous times before, and while he was indeed strong enough to shatter them, it will definitely took him quite a few strikes to do so!

"Something is amiss here.." he thought as he glanced over at the Emcee, but he soon put the matter to the back of his mind and stepped off from the platform.

Whatever the organizer of this competition was planning, as long as it doesn't complicate him, he would remain unfazed by it!

After all, his background was not something ordinary. Unless the Jiu Empire was tired of living, then they could involve him for all he care!

"Everyone, now comes the final match for tonight! I present to you, the star of the show, the talented genius of the Jiu Empire! Duan Li!" the Emcee clenched his fists tight, and then waved grandly onto the ground where Duan Li stood!

Roarrr!!

The whole stadium was like a lion's den and their excited cheer shook the very foundation of the Battle Stadium! Had it not been for the various runic inscriptions reinforcing the stadium below ground, it might have already collapsed by now!

"This.. they don't have to be like this.." Duan Li walked onto the platform while scratching the back of his head, his face flushing red in embarrassment.

"Since the previous puppet was destroyed, we had a replacement puppet for you!"

Suuuu!!

Boom!

A similar puppet from before landed on the platform. However, Duan Li suddenly noticed something strange.

"Eh? That is a High quality spirit stone in its core.."

Just as he was about to tell the Emcee that they had made a mistake with the power source of the puppet, the Emcee had already waved his hand down!

"Let the final battle, begins!!"

...