Embers Ad Infinitum

The tall gladiator didn’t directly attack the double-headed tiger. Instead, he leveraged on the distance between them to jog around the arena’s perimeter. While doing so, he kept his face facing the double-headed tiger and held his shield in front of him.

There was still a considerable difference in speed, agility, and reflexes between a human that hadn’t undergone genetic modification and a large feline creature. In less than a minute, the double-headed tiger closed the distance sufficiently and pounced forward, bringing a gust of wind with it.

The audience—who were a little impatient because of the circling—immediately grew excited. They thumped the special armrests again, causing banging sounds to echo endlessly.

Jiang Baimian seemed to be admiring this battle, but her mind was elsewhere as she thought about a question. If the Mind Corridor-level powerhouse who created the virtual world really belongs to the Shattered Mirror domain, what price would they have to pay? Photophobia? Hydrophobia? Prosopagnosia? Directionally challenged? Eisoptrophobia?

Thoughts flashed across Jiang Baimian’s mind. Subconsciously, she looked around the arena again and saw large mirrors erected in different areas of the spectator stands.

She immediately excluded a certain price.

Apart from this, she didn’t believe that the powerhouse suffered from face-blindness or was directionally challenged. These two attributes made one unsuitable as a bodyguard.

The former would recognize the wrong person that needed protection, while the latter would easily lose the target.

When Jiang Baimian’s attention returned to the center of the arena, the first collision between the tall gladiator and the double-headed tiger had already ended.

Relying on the shield, the threat of the spear’s thrusting, and the skillful rolling, he widened the distance again.

But in two to three steps, the double-headed tiger caught up to him again.

The two gaping mouths opened at the same time, and the gigantic body pounced at the tall gladiator once again.

The gladiator employed the same strategy. As he pushed his shield forward to block the ferocious beast, he stabbed with the spear in his hand.

He could already predict that the double-headed tiger would dodge and retract its strength in midair. He then used the shield’s ability to withstand pressure to roll to the side.

But this time, the double-headed tiger didn’t change its posture. Its bloodthirsty and brutal eyes remained locked onto its target.

With a squishing sound, the spear stabbed into its side, but it had completely pounced onto the shield.

The immense force immediately overwhelmed the gladiator.

Just as his arm was about to bend backward, the shield and the beast slammed into his chest. He immediately gave up on the spear and the shield and pounced to the side.

This turn of events exceeded his expectations. This mutated creature was far more violent than ordinary ferocious beasts.

Without armor and weapons, a human had no chance of winning against a tiger. Even if one were proficient in sliding under its belly to attack it from below, they would only be delivering themselves into the tiger’s jaws.

Furthermore, it wasn’t an ordinary tiger. It was a mutated, even more ferocious double-headed black tiger.

This made the audience reel with anxiety. Some couldn’t bear to see the gladiator being torn to pieces by the beast, while others looked forward to such a bloody scene excitedly.

Oray’s grandson, Marcus, was the latter.

As soon as the tall gladiator—who had pounced to the side—landed, he propped himself up with his hands and jumped up.

He advanced instead of retreating. He traveled a small circle and rushed back to the area where the double-headed tiger had almost pinned him down.

This actually allowed him to dodge the double-headed tiger’s pursuit successfully. He then rolled and picked up the shield and spear that had fallen to the ground.

This series of actions completely showcased the gladiator’s experience, skill, decisiveness, and physique. The audience cheered in satisfaction.

At this moment, the steel shield had a slight depression, and blood was dripping from the double-headed tiger’s side.

Following that, the two parties repeated the previous process. They pounced, bit, and struck each other again and again, only to be met with the sound of banging, piercing, tumbling, falling, and picking up the dropped items again and again.

Sweat gradually seeped out of the tall gladiator’s forehead as his stamina quickly depleted. The double-headed tiger had multiple wounds on its body, and blood kept gushing out.

Before long, it was a battle of endurance.

Just as the tall gladiator was about to collapse and fail, the double-headed tiger finally couldn’t get up again after a pounce due to excessive blood loss.

The tall gladiator took the opportunity to take a few steps forward and stab the prey’s vital spot with his spear.

The double-headed tiger struggled for a while before turning completely motionless.

Upon seeing this, the audience thumped the armrests again and shouted the gladiator’s name. “Joey! Joey!”

The gladiator then raised his hands and slowly circled the arena. Not only was he taking in the cheers, but he was also showing off his goods—hoping to be chosen by a certain noble and become their guard.

If he wasn’t selected, Joey would have to fight another four to five times to regain his freedom. He felt like he was hovering on the brink of death every time he participated in a gladiator fight.

Amidst the cries of ‘Joey,’ Shang Jianyao looked at the tall gladiator and sighed. “How pitiful.”

Jiang Baimian and Long Yuehong felt the same way.

During the intermission after the gladiator fight, an aristocrat—who was late—entered the VIP room.

Many people immediately stood up to welcome him the moment he arrived.

Jiang Baimian and the others also knew him because he was someone who would definitely be mentioned in many pieces of intelligence.

Asus Julias—son of First City’s consul and Commander-in-chief, Beulis.

Asus had a tall figure, black hair, and blue eyes. He was handsome, and the lines on his face looked like they were carved.

In Long Yuehong’s eyes, this fellow had most likely undergone genetic enhancement and was a Chosen One. Otherwise, why would he be so much taller than him? He was similar to Shang Jianyao, and he was rather good-looking.

The most beautiful thing about Asus’s face was his eyes. They were deep, charming, and seemed to be electrifying.

At this moment, he was wearing a black shirt and pants of the same color. With one hand in his pocket, he led his private bodyguards and family guards to his room. When he encountered every noble who came to greet him, he smiled and replied politely without any arrogance.

Jiang Baimian noticed that this fellow’s gaze always lingered on the nobles’ female companions and maidservants, but he quickly looked away.

The next second, she saw Asus look over.

She tugged at Shang Jianyao, smiled, and nodded in greeting. During this process, Jiang Baimian felt like Asus had looked at her from head to toe. This couldn’t be considered a perverted act, but it was still uncomfortable.

As usual, Asus quickly looked away and greeted the other nobles.

The commotion in the room died down a few minutes later. A new battle was about to begin.

…

After leaving the arena, Shang Jianyao, Jiang Baimian, and Long Yuehong got into their cars and escaped an imaginary pursuit.

In the car, the three of them didn’t say anything in case they were still in the ‘virtual machine.’

After completing all the planned procedures and returning to the rented apartment to successfully rendezvous with Bai Chen and Genava, Jiang Baimian roughly described the gains from this operation.

Finally, she smiled at Shang Jianyao and said, “When the gladiator was killed, I was quite worried that you would rush down to save him.”

In the subsequent gladiator fights, two gladiators died.

Shang Jianyao replied seriously, “I considered it, but doing so won’t change such customs and such order. Similar things will happen again and again. Even if I sacrificed myself back then, I would only save one person while resisting all the Awakened and security personnel in the arena with 18 punches.”

Long Yuehong previously felt that Shang Jianyao made sense, but he silently retracted his opinion when he heard ’18 punches.’

Jiang Baimian avoided the details and praised, “That’s a good way of thinking about it.”

Shang Jianyao nodded heavily. “That’s why we have to fight to save all of humanity.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Genava clapped for him.

Bai Chen thought for a moment and said, “I roughly understand what you mean by virtual machine. The point now is: how should we crack this protection and establish a real connection with Marcus and Avia?”

Jiang Baimian didn’t answer and looked at Genava. “Old Ge, what’s your suggestion?”

“Without sufficient Awakened information, it’s impossible to produce a feasible solution from analysis,” Genava replied honestly.

Jiang Baimian smiled. “This is also the difficulty I encountered.”

She fell silent for a moment before turning to look at Shang Jianyao. “Hey, contact Terrence of the Blackshirts and see if they know whether there’s a religious organization in First City that worships the Kalendaria, Shattered Mirror. If there is, please get them to provide some information.”

“Alright!” Shang Jianyao had an excited expression. He seemed to be obsessed with the beverage at Terrence’s place.

After chatting about serious matters, Jiang Baimian smiled and said, “That Asus appears to be rather lascivious…”

This wasn’t a general conclusion brought about by a woman’s intuition but an answer she had obtained through personal experience.

“Is that so?” Shang Jianyao stroked his chin. “At least he doesn’t like men. He didn’t even look at me much.”

Long Yuehong skipped this fellow’s train of thought and echoed his team leader’s words. “Yes, yes, yes. He’s especially focused on every woman except the ones that aren’t beautiful.”

“That’s right. He’s not polite at all; he doesn’t have the decency to treat everyone equally.” It was unknown if Shang Jianyao was criticizing Asus for not focusing on the women who didn’t look good or if Shang Jianyao believed that he was promoting gender inequality.

Jiang Baimian ignored Shang Jianyao’s words and raised her doubts. “But the problem is: As the son of First City’s number one figure, what beauty can’t he get? Why is he still like this?”

This was also a question she had when reading some of the Old World’s history books.

Shang Jianyao sincerely replied, “Maybe their family’s creed is abstinence.”

“It might also be a habit, or it might be…” Genava quickly analyzed the reason. “The price.”

Price… Jiang Baimian repeated this word thoughtfully. She subconsciously glanced at Bai Chen, wanting to hear her female companion’s opinion. However, she realized that the female member had never joined in the conversation and had maintained her silence all this while.

Uh… Jiang Baimian retracted her gaze.