The Great Ruler

Chapter 554 - Bet

The originally clamoring atmosphere around the verdant mountain range suddenly turned silent, before all of the gazes shooting from everywhere turned towards the northwest direction. A moment later, hurried whooshing sounds rang from there as numerous glowing figures surfaced across the horizon. Finally, in a flash, they appeared right before the figure-filled mountain range.

As the glowing shadows scattered away, five figures surfaced before everyone. Present at the helm was a person, which was precisely Mu Chen. Standing by his side was Luo Li, her slender and elegant figure, with her absolutely beautiful appearance, instantly attracted quite a few gazes shooting her way.

Looking at the Academy Insignia on their chests, everyone instantly understood the status of these five people, instantly causing fervent shadows to appear in their eyes. After waiting for so many days, this main character had finally appeared…

"This is the group from the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy? That's their Captain, Mu Chen? Why's his strength only at the realm of Spiritual Energy Disaster?"

"He actually dared to come and keep an appointment with such strength! He truly possesses quite the amount of courage."

"Don't look down on him. This Mu Chen is not one bit simple at all. It's said that in the remnant of the Divine Wood Palace, he had caused the Academy Alliance to return empty-handed. Furthermore, he is a Spiritual Array Master with quite a bit of attainments in this aspect."

"Oh? He's also a Spiritual Array Master? This truly has become interesting. It's extremely rare to see a battle between Spiritual Array Masters. Haha. Who knows, maybe this Mu chen will actually be able to break the array formation that Xiao Huang has arranged, huh."

When Mu Chen and his group appeared in that stretch of the sky, low whispers instantly rang about from the surroundings, while gazes continuously swept across their bodies.

Standing in the air, Mu Chen's gaze was similarly scanning his surroundings. Looking at the hundreds and thousands of groups present around, he could not help but to let a sliver of astonishment flash across his eyes. That's because the groups present here all possessed rather powerful strength. Clearly, being able to remain in the central region, where the most intense and cruel battles of the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament was taking place, how would any of these groups be weak?

Suddenly, Mu Chen's gaze froze as he fixed his eyes on a mountain peak in the far distance. Over there, he spotted a youth in black robes with a delicate, female-like appearance.

Wu Ling.

Mu Chen's eyes faintly narrowed as his expression turned slightly solemn. During the Spiritual Road, there weren't many people that could cause him to feel extreme fear and dread for. Other than Ji Xuan and Wen Qingxuan, he might just have the most fear towards this Wu Ling. Fortunately, though, Mu Chen didn't have too much grudges and grievances towards Wu Ling while in the Spiritual Road, and could be considered as having an ordinary relationship.

Mu Chen's incoming gaze was clearly sensed by Wu Ling. A faint smile instantly surfaced on his delicate face as he sent a nod towards Mu Chen that could be considered as a greeting.

Nodding his head in response, Mu Chen retracted his gaze before turning towards the most crowded location of this region.

Bright and resplendent spiritual light radiated from the mountain peak, causing piercing pain in the eyes of people who looked into it. Looking over, Mu Chen's expression started to coagulate. Perhaps others might be unable to understand those complicated glowing patterns that were radiating from within the spiritual light, but being a Spiritual Array Master, he was able to clearly sense how complicated and formidable that Spiritual Array was.

"Quite a formidable Spiritual Array," said Luo Li in a soft voice. Although she wasn't a Spiritual Array Master, it did not mean that she wasn't able to feel dangerous fluctuations coming from the gigantic Spiritual Array before her eyes.

Nodding his head, Mu Chen added, "That should be a Rank 5 Combination Diagram. Furthermore, it seems to be somewhat different in layout as compared with ordinary Spiritual Array formations."

The "Lesser Thousand Sword Spiritual Array" that Mu Chen had used to deal with Xue Tiandou, Wang Zhong and their people while in the remnant of the Divine Wood Palace was also a Rank 5 Combination Diagram. Relying on this array, Mu Chen was able to directly destroy 3 Divine Wood Guards, and even completely defeated Xue Tiandou and his entire gang. From this, one could see exactly how astonishing the might of such a Combination Diagram was.

Naturally, this was also within the expectations of Mu Chen. After all, ordinary Spiritual Arrays did not possess the strength needed to trap Wen Qingxuan.

"Haha. Mu Chen, you've finally arrived."

While Mu Chen was casting his gaze over towards that bright and resplendent Spiritual Array, a faint laughing voice rang from within. In the next instant, with a sparkle, an empty space started to surface from within the Spiritual Array. One could immediately see numerous figures clearly present within. Furthermore, the one who had spoken was precisely the youth with long free-flowing black hair.

"You must be the great leader of the Academy Alliance, Xiao Huang, right?" Shooting a look at Mo Yu standing behind the youth, Mu Chen turned his gaze over to the latter before speaking in a slow manner.

Nodding his head, Xiao Huang gave a faint smile before saying, "I've long heard of the great name of Captain Mu Chen. I've been looking forward to meeting you here for a very long time."

"What a true honor."

Mu Chen replied with a smile. Staring at Xiao Huang, before shooting a look at the gazes coming from their surroundings that were trained on themselves, Mu Chen continued speaking, "I don't know exactly what Captain Xiao Huang plans to do by luring me to here. Could it be that you want to vie for the face of Mo You and the other two?"

Upon hearing his words, the faces of Mo Yu and the other two instantly turned ashen as they shot furious glares at Mu Chen.

"Haha. You must be joking, Captain Mu Chen. Being taught a lesson by you meant that their skills aren't comparable to you. It isn't anyone else's fault," replied Xiao Huang with a smile. "Nevertheless, there's an item from within the remnant of the Divine Wood Palace that I need, but has been snatched away by Captain Mu Chen. Therefore, would Captain Mu Chen be willing to part with it?"

"What thing?" asked Mu Chen calmly.

"It's naturally what you've obtained from within the Hidden Spiritual Courtyard," replied Xiao Huang with a smile.

Mu Chen's eyes instantly slightly narrowed, with a shadow of astonishment surfacing within their depths. What he had obtained within the Hidden Spiritual Courtyard was a counterfeit "Spiritual Condensing Bowl". What a valuable treasure this was, with numerous Sovereign Spiritual Liquids being sealed within. However, the news about him obtaining it was only known to him, Luo Li and Wen Qingxuan. How did Xiao Huang know about this?

"May I know what Captain Mu Chen makes about my request?" asked Xiao Huang as he looked towards Mu Chen, with his gaze appearing similarly calm. However, deep within his eyes gushed a fierceness that was akin to the edge of a blade. Clearly, that was his true nature, not the gentle and warm appearance he was showing on the outside.

Mu Chen turned his gaze similarly towards Xiao Huang, the expression flowing within the latter being picked up by him. He could never relax in the face of this outward courtesy shown by Xiao Huang. Being able to establish the Academy Alliance and completely submit Mo Yu and the other fellows to obedience, such a person would not be a person that would give in to anyone. Naturally, Mu Chen had similarly not believed that he, himself, was a person that would give in to anyone, too.

Therefore, faced against Xiao Huang's question, Mu Chen gave a faint smile and replied, "I might have to make Captain Xiao Huang disappointed about this. I believe that it's better for you to quickly scatter this Spiritual Array away. If not, if the person within was to truly become angry, I believe you most likely wouldn't be able endure it."

Upon hearing this reply from Mu Chen, quite a few people started secretly smiling. Clearly, Xiao Huang had put down an extremely amount of thought in trapping Wen Qingxuan. However, once this Spiritual Array gets broken, the fury of Wen Qingxuan might cause Xiao Huang to be in an extremely miserable state.

"Looks like you're not willing to settle this peacefully," Xiao Huang appeared to be somewhat regretfully as he gave a sigh, while his eyes brimmed with coldness.

With a faint smile on his face, Mu Chen gave a shrug in return. However, anyone could tell how cold his smile similarly was.

"Since you don't accept my peaceful offer, I can only beat you all down and take it back myself." Suddenly, a faint sneer rang out, causing everyone's gaze to converge, before finally resting on the side of Xiao Huang. Present there was another figure in a sitting position. This figure possessed short hair, with an appearance that had a slight bit of semblance to Xiao Huang, with the only difference being in the exceedingly chilly lines present on his face.

This person had remained quiet the whole time, while sitting beside Xiao Huang, resulting in him not receiving too much attention from others. However, upon him opening his mouth, everyone could feel the knife-like chilliness radiating from his eyes, causing their hearts to feel chilly. So it turns out that this fellow also wasn't any ordinary character.

"That fellow seems to be the brother of Xiao Huang, Xiao Wang. This person is powerful. Although he doesn't understand Spiritual Arrays, even an expert of the First Grade Spirit Disaster has fallen under his hands a while ago. He can't be underestimated."

Upon noticing the figure, the groups present in the surroundings started to quietly whisper to one another.

Hearing those whispers, Mu Chen shot a look towards Xiao Huang, while his expression turned to one of indifference.

"I'm afraid that you don't possess the qualifications to say such words." A clear and chilly voice rang out at this moment, only for the beautiful eyes of Luo Li to coldly glare at Xiao Huang. As her jade-like hand slowly clenched her Luo God Sword tightly, she took gracefully steps forward, with a sword ring instantly rushing into the sky. This incomparably fierce Sword Intent appeared to want to shatter and split the heavens and earth apart, causing the faces of the countless groups present in the surroundings to violently contort.

At this moment, the expressions Xiao Huang and Xiao Wang had also faintly changed, as they were able to sense the slivers of danger present in the Sword Intent that had radiated from Luo Li. The girl before them seemed to be even more difficult to deal with than Mu Chen himself.

From the looks of it, this group from the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy had indeed possessed some ability.

Slightly narrowing his eyes, Xiao Huang gave a laugh before spaying, "Captain Mu Chen, I've heard that you're also a Spiritual Array Master. Would you be interested in making a bet with me?"

"Let me hear about it."

"It's inevitable that a normal battle would be somewhat crude and boorish. As of now, with Wen Qingxuan and her fellow students being trapped within the 'Heaven Binding Spiritual Array', as long as you're able to break this array, it would be considered as your win. At that time, not only would I release Wen Qingxuan and the others, I'll even give you 20,000 points," replied Xiao Huang as he stared at Mu Chen, the smile at the corner of his mouth appearing to contain a somewhat amused shade.

"Naturally, if you were to lose, please hand that item over to me. So? Do you dare to accept this bet?"

Hearing Xiao Huang's words, the eyebrows of quite a few groups were raised. Xiao Huang's really playing his scheme out well. From the looks of it, with this Spiritual Array being able to trap even Wen Qingxuan, if Mu Chen was to rush inside, won't it end up in the same result as her? Once Mu Chen had fallen into the array, wouldn't anything that Xiao Huang say become the law?

However, being able to take out 20,000 points just like that can indeed be considered as exceedingly generous. After all, as of now, 20,000 points was more than sufficient to allow for one to rush into the Top 8. Naturally though, that might also be all of the points that the Academy Alliance possessed.

All of the gazes in this region had now been cast on Mu Chen's figure. All of them really wanted to know exactly if Mu Chen dared to take up this bet that was raised by Xiao Huang.

Under the attentive gazes of everyone present, Mu Chen slightly pursed his lips, before a smile surfaced on his handsome face. Looking at Xiao Huang with a similarly amused manner, he slowly nodded his head in the end.

"Alright. I accept this bet!"