Colosseum

Xu Shulou adjusted himself to a relatively comfortable posture and sat down, leaning against the cage door.

The man holding the iron rod seemed to enjoy seeing them panic-stricken. Seeing that the newcomer ignored him, he felt bored and walked away cursing. He walked to a cage at the end and dragged out something.

"What is that?"

"He committed suicide yesterday," said a woman with a wound on her forehead. "They are really responsible for dealing with him now."

One step too late...Xu Shulou looked at the girl who was dragged away and sighed in his heart.

———

Xu Shulou's disguise was quite successful. At least no one suspected anything wrong with her. The round-faced girl beside her called out to her in a low voice: "Hey, newcomer, where were you captured from?"

"Outside Yunzhou City, Youjia Village."

"What a coincidence, there was also someone from Youjia Village a few days ago," the girl seemed to be a little familiar, "I was captured from Fengjing."

"Fengjing? It's located to the south and north of Yunzhou, so the range they use to catch people is far enough."

The injured woman interrupted, "It's not that their range is far, but some monks have long-term cooperation with this place. If they are short of spirit stones, they will capture some mortals here to exchange."

Seeing that she knew a lot, Xu Shulou asked, "Excuse me, young lady, do you know who owns this Colosseum... or which force opened it?"

"I don't know." The other person shook his head, as if the action had disturbed his wound. He hissed softly, "I only know that it must have been opened by a cultivator."

The chatterbox girl who had just spoken to Xu Shulou sighed, "These days, cultivators don't behave like human beings... A while ago, an old Taoist priest said that I could also cultivate immortality. I don't believe in such charlatans. Even if it's true, I don't dare to deal with cultivators..."

Xu Shulou cleared his throat and said, "Not all cultivators are inhumane."

The girl didn't believe it: "Have you ever seen a good monk?"

Xu Shulou nodded with a smile.

"Really? Tell me about it?"

"..." She hadn't finished her inquiries yet, but the round-faced girl urged her to tell a story. Xu Shulou lowered his eyes and thought for a while, "In fact, there are more good people in the world of cultivation. There are those who take the lead and protect the people, and there are also those who do small kindnesses and help others. I really can't tell you all. If you have the chance, you can go and see it with your own eyes."

"I have seen the faces of those monks here with my own eyes," the girl said absentmindedly, "When I went on stage to fight the beasts, I looked up and saw their greasy faces under the lights, staring at me excitedly and shouting 'Fight, fight quickly'. It really makes me sick just thinking about it. I don't want to be with them!"

Xu Shulou smiled and said, "Maybe you will be very powerful in the future and can change all this."

"How could that be possible?" The girl shook her head, but her expression clearly showed some longing.

"Have you already been on stage?" Xu Shulou asked.

The girl looked worried. "This was just a beginner's fight, a minor one. I was knocked down and felt dizzy. I couldn't get up for a long time, so that was the end. But I heard that there are also places where people can fight naked at the request of the spectators. The girl who committed suicide yesterday participated in it... Oh, and there are also death fights. They fight to the death, and if you don't give them weapons, the two girls will have to bite one of them to death with their bare hands. When I was leaving the field before, I accidentally bumped into them dealing with the corpses. One woman had her throat and the flesh on her chin torn off. I'm really scared..."

"The spectators in the Death Arena give a lot of spirit stones, so the arena is willing to use beauties for them," the woman with a wound on her forehead said coldly, "You don't have to worry too much, but the one next to you is in danger."

Xu Shulou touched his face and looked around. No wonder, except for the round-faced girl who was more enthusiastic, the other girls ignored her. They probably thought that she would not live long and did not want to waste their feelings.

Xu Shulou smiled bitterly: "Do you know how long this Colosseum has been open?"

"I don't know," the injured woman shook her head, "but it's been going on for at least a few months. I heard that more than three months ago, there was a fight between women and tigers and leopards. Later, the spectators said that the difference in strength was too great and it was boring to watch, so they changed to the current fight between two women."

"I heard from you that there was a girl from Youjia Village a few days ago. Where was she imprisoned? Maybe I know her."

“If she’s still alive, she must be in another cage nearby,” the injured woman replied, “All the girls are kept here.”

"What about the man?"

"I don't know. Unless the audience requests it, there are rarely men on the field." The girl looked unhappy. "I heard by chance that those men seem to have some more terrible uses."

The girls in the cages all turned pale when they heard this. What could be more terrifying than fighting beasts? What could it be?

Xu Shulou asked the question that concerned him the most: "When will the next death arena open?"

"It will be tomorrow night," said the injured woman, "but we have already arranged for someone to come, so you can still live a few more days."

She pointed at the cage beside her. Xu Shulou looked over and saw a beautiful woman leaning against the cage next to her with a numb look in her eyes. She didn't react at all when she heard their words.

Xu Shulou thought for a moment, then knocked on the iron bars of the cage. When the girl looked over, he smiled at her and said, "Don't be afraid."

“…”

A moment later, the man from before came in with an iron rod: "Who is knocking on the cage? What are you doing?"

"It's me," Xu Shulou actively proposed, "I want to apply to participate in the death match tomorrow night."

"What?" The man was stunned and pretended to pick his ears. "Did I hear it wrong? You want to participate in the death arena?"

"yes."

The man grabbed Xu Shulou's wrist through the cage and confirmed that she had no spiritual power. Then he asked in confusion: "Why?"

"It's my first day here, so I'm in the best spirits and have a chance to defeat my opponent. It's a good time to go on stage and gain experience," Xu Shulou gave the reason. "If I stay for too long, I'll be half-dead like that girl over there, and I'm afraid I'll lose as soon as I go on stage."

"Hmm... that does make sense," the man scratched his head, pondered for a while, and saw that the girl over there was indeed half dead. He was afraid that it would affect the effect tomorrow, so he decided, "Okay! Then you go up tomorrow and replace her!"

As the man turned and left, he was still muttering something like "How strange".

The girls in the cages looked at Xu Shulou differently. The round-faced girl didn't dare to approach her. The beautiful girl in another cage, knowing that she had escaped the disaster, suddenly started crying: "I don't want to die, I don't want to die!"

"You won't die, I promise you," Xu Shulou looked at her, "at least not tomorrow, here."

The injured woman looked at her calmly and said, "What are you making random promises for? You can take her place once, but can you take her place for the rest of her life?"

Xu Shulou tapped the beads on his neck with his fingers, and took out a bottle of medicine from the Qiankun bracelet under the cover of his sleeves, and threw it to her: "Golden medicine."

This medicine is of average effect among spiritual medicines, but it is rare for mortals to use it. This kind of thing is always available in Xu Shulou's Qiankun bracelet.

The woman looked at her strangely: "Why don't you keep it for yourself?"

"I'm happy to help," Xu Shulou said with a smile, "The other injured girls can take turns."

When necessary, Xu Shulou could also transform into a sweet talker. The girls in the cages were originally worried and a little afraid of her, but they were gradually amused by her and started to talk. Within half an hour, they told Xu Shulou all the information they knew. After an hour, they even told him the name of their yellow dog.

———

Xu Shulou closed his eyes and rested for a while in the cage, and soon it was the second evening.

She was led out of the cage and taken to a small room, then a woman came in and put makeup on her, combed her hair into a beautiful bun, and asked her to change into a moon-white gauze dress.

The man waited impatiently at the door of the room, cursing and complaining that the spectators were perverts, asking the women to fight to the death and to do it beautifully.

Xu Shulou was soon brought back to the venue. There were some seats built on the edge of the venue, with each row higher than the last. Many spectators were already sitting there. A woman also walked out from the opposite side. She looked calm and it seemed that she had experienced several games before.

Seeing that both of them looked good this time, the spectators around them applauded.

Xu Shulou raised his head and looked at them one by one. The woman opposite sneered, "Don't look. If you are expecting someone there to save you, I advise you to give up this idea as soon as possible. This death arena is not for regular customers to enter. They have long since stopped treating mortals as human beings."

“They are all regular customers, are you sure?”

The woman looked at her strangely: "Of course I'm sure."

Someone has already started shouting, "What are you talking about? Are we going to fight or not?"

Xu Shulou smiled at the man from a distance and said, "Don't worry, I'll fight you right away."

Upon hearing this, the woman opposite clenched her fists and got ready, but Xu Shulou waved at her: "Girl, come and hide behind me."

"What are you hiding from?"

She soon knew what to hide from. Xu Shulou raised his hand and grasped the spirit gathering bead around his neck. All the spiritual power stored in it in advance burst out instantly, almost blinding everyone present.

Before the spectators could react, Xu Shulou had already used his hands to draw the spiritual power, forming a spiritual field, which instantly sucked them all from their high seats to the center of the field, sticking to the ball of light formed by the spiritual power.

After starting to practice the Cangsheng Sword Technique, Xu Shulou mastered it and became more proficient in controlling her spiritual power. At this moment, a ball of light flashed through her fingertips, and that ball of spiritual power exploded completely. The power of the spiritual power explosion of a cultivator at her level was naturally enough to hurt people.

Those people had never seen such a heroic fighting style of using spiritual power to blow people up. One by one, they were blown to the ground and vomiting blood, unable to get up for a long time. Only two people with a slightly higher realm managed to escape, but these two people soon attracted Xu Shulou's special attention and were beaten even more miserably than the others.

There were about fifty or sixty spectators, none of whom were very powerful. But think about it, which great power in the Tribulation Crossing Stage would come to see this? Putting aside the issue of state of mind, those extremely powerful cultivators might find fighting mortals too boring in their eyes, and instead want to see a fight between low-level cultivators.

The woman hiding behind Xu Shulou was completely stunned.

"Don't worry, I don't plan to kill you." Xu Shulou said softly.

Seeing the man with the iron rod happy, Xu Shulou added: "Oh, not including you, you'd better die first."

“…”

Xu Shulou killed the man with his palm, then walked towards the fallen spectators and neatly destroyed their meridians with his hands: "Since you like watching mortals fight so much, you will become a mortal from now on, and be locked up here to fight every day."

Everyone looked up at her as if they were looking at some kind of demon.

A young male cultivator was almost terrified and shouted, "How dare you! Do you know who my father is?"

"Who cares who your father is?" Xu Shulou felt relieved, "Who could be more notorious than me?"