Although... no one can deny that, in such adversity, enduring humiliation and protecting oneself is perhaps the only wise choice.

Even if one were to exclusively claim the prize from the Golden List and forfeit the Nine Heavens Contest, it wouldn't be considered a loss.

Just as the group of powerful figures from the Mountain and Sea Realms were wondering if Shen Qian had really withdrawn from the competition, Ning Zhiyuan suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's not him, he's started moving..."

As if to confirm Ning Zhiyuan's words, when the air fluctuations caused by the teleportation stopped, a large group of people appeared in the square with a "whoosh".

What followed was heart-wrenching screams, curses, and a pungent smell of blood.

“Shen Qian has gone mad, he’s gone mad…”

"Please, Principal, uphold justice!"

"Teacher, help me!"

Everyone was stunned.

Of the hundreds of people who appeared, apart from a few pale-faced individuals who were clearly terrified and otherwise unharmed, the rest had all lost an arm, and some even had lost both arms.

The gushing blood and the severed limbs they brandished, mixed with their tearful accusations and screams, made the whole scene resemble a hellish landscape.

Swish! Swish! Swish...

After a brief silence, countless figures rushed down from the high platform, accompanied by the rustling of their clothes and a chorus of angry shouts filled with astonishment.

"Zhou Xian, what's going on!"

"What happened before the sinking? Tell me quickly!"

"Did Shen Qian do all this? How could he be so cruel..."

The students appearing in the square came from more than a dozen different martial arts colleges. At this moment, the principals or professors from each college entered the square, making the scene even more chaotic.

"quiet!"

As if finally coming to his senses, Wu Wei had no choice but to step forward again to maintain order.

Ma Gongzuo even went directly to the square to personally appease the situation.

"Gentlemen, let the healers treat the wounded first. As long as the arm is brought back, there is still a possibility of recovery."

Fortunately, the martial arts club was well-prepared this time, and hundreds of medical personnel quickly arrived to take the wounded away. After a while, the chaotic scene finally calmed down.

At this point, only a handful of about twenty students remained in the square.

"What happened?"

Wu Wei stopped the powerful figures from speaking again and asked first.

His voice possessed a calming power, finally pacifying the still-shaken students. After exchanging glances, they began to chatter amongst themselves under the watchful eyes of countless curious on the platform.

"Shen Qian descended directly from the sky, without uttering a single word, demanding that we hand over the Nine Heavens Token!"

"He didn't give us any time to react at all; he only waited a second before he started swinging his knife..."

"So many people's hands, and he just chopped them off like that..."

"He's a demon!"

Excited shouts rose and fell, and although the voices of the twenty-odd people were somewhat chaotic, the powerful figures present could easily discern the information within them.

For a moment, everyone was stunned and speechless.

Isn't it said that you should hide yourself before sinking?

Didn't they say they wouldn't dare reveal their whereabouts before sinking?

Wasn't he supposed to endure humiliation and bear heavy burdens?

What's going on here...?

Before everyone could react, another violent spatial fluctuation occurred in the square.

This time, the commotion was even greater than before.

Buzz buzz buzz!

As the space trembled, hundreds more people appeared on the plaza.

The stench of blood in the air intensified once more, and the familiar yet even more piercing screams and curses echoed once more.

"My hand, my hand is gone..."

"Principal Qian, you must stand up for us!"

"Shen Qian is a madman, he's a madman..."

"He is disrupting the competition; we request Your Majesty to remove him!"

The horrifying scene was repeated, with another third of the people having their arms severed, and the remaining people were screaming with lingering fear, as if they had just walked through the gates of hell.

This time, even the healers that the Martial Arts Department had arranged in advance were not enough. Ma Gongzuo had to ask some powerful experts from the Mountain and Sea Realms to help him stabilize the situation.

Even so, several students were already on the verge of death due to excessive blood loss.

Before Wu Wei could come up with a safe solution with a furrowed brow, the space in the square began to fluctuate again.

...

Several hours had passed since the first group of martial artists who were ambushed before the sinking occurred.

Over the course of those few hours, the emotions of all the powerful figures present went from initial astonishment to fury upon seeing their own students appear, and then to numbness. Their feelings had been like a rollercoaster ride.

As for the chaos in the square, it has been almost constant.

Ma Gongzuo had to coordinate the situation, and later Wu Dinghou from the military also joined in. They urgently transferred thousands of civilian doctors and tens of thousands of soldiers to help out from the nearest dozen or so military camps, which barely managed to cope with the situation.

Fortunately, after the initial surge of enthusiasm, the frequency of eliminated martial artists appearing in the square finally began to decrease.

Furthermore, Ma Gongzuo was able to predict whether there would be any casualties among the martial artists by observing their movement trajectory before they sank into the virtual projection, so the situation gradually stabilized.

However... based solely on the mental calculations of the experts present, in just these two or three hours, more than 13,000 martial artists have been eliminated from the Nine Heavens Battlefield...

And 99% of them were done by Shen Qian!

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