MMORPG: War God, You are Invincible Again
Chapter 322 - 77: Semifinals in the Preliminary Contest

Chapter 322: Chapter 77: Semifinals in the Preliminary Contest

"Where are you going? Weren’t you staying at my place?"

"I have my own place to stay, you should rest well too, sorry for making you worry tonight."

After passing by Qing Ling, Lu Hong headed straight to Anna’s residence.

He knocked on the door, and soon Anna’s voice came from the Magic device, "Who is it? So late?"

Lu Hong gave a wry smile, "It’s me, I shouldn’t disturb you at this late hour, but I really want to be with you, sorry..."

"No, I’ll come out right now." Anna did not use Magic to open the door automatically, instead she came out to greet him herself.

"What happened?!" Seeing Lu Hong covered in blood, Anna tightened inside, "Was it Sad who ambushed you?"

"No, it was the Xinlei family. Let’s go inside and talk."

Once inside the house, Lu Hong took a shower, washing off the bloodstains, and then lay in bed with Anna.

"The Xinlei family sent assassins after you? Is it because of Niannian?" Anna guessed accurately, which of course wasn’t hard to guess.

"Correct, Mo Na led the Xinlei family’s secret forces to ambush me in the Third Realm."

"Why did you go to the Third Realm so late at night!" Anna angrily said, "If you had just stayed in the Holy Academy, no one could touch you, why did you go out?"

"They kidnapped someone’s wife and used her as leverage. If I hadn’t gone, someone would have died."

Anna was silent for a moment, "What will you do if this happens again next time? Continue like this? The opponent’s tactics will only get more ruthless."

"Forget it, let’s not talk about this anymore, after all, it’s my fault for being careless and unguarded against betrayal initially."

"You can never be too careful," Anna didn’t say much. She must have come to him so late because she felt terrible, so her company would suffice rather than too much rebuke.

There were no words for the night. The next morning, Lu Hong found Bacon’s deputy, "How’s it going? Is your wife safe?"

The deputy knelt down, "Thank you, my lord, thanks to your blessing, my wife has returned safely. I’ve sent her to a secure location, where no one can take advantage again."

"That’s good to hear. I suppose registration should be possible today?"

"Why would you need to go there yourself, my lord? I’ve arranged everything for you. There’s a preliminary competition this afternoon around three. I was just about to come to you, pity you had to come here."

"Where is the venue?" Lu Hong asked.

"At the Fifth Realm’s Zhutian Grand Coliseum." The deputy handed over a permit, "You need this permit to enter the Fifth Realm. I can’t go in, so please head to the competition in advance this afternoon."

"Understood."

The deputy couldn’t enter, but Anna could. She was practically half the host, guiding Lu Hong through would be easy.

Around two in the afternoon, Anna led Lu Hong into the Fifth Realm, which strangely had its entrance in the Second Realm, not in the Saint Academy or connected to the Third Realm. It alone had a dedicated passage in the Second Realm.

"Your opponent is very strong." Anna looked at the competition schedule, her face serious, "I really don’t know how those people drew the lots."

"What, you ran into a celebrity from your Holy Academy?"

"No." Anna shook her head, "It’s someone from the Pokasi family, at the Second Transition, level ten."

"That’s manageable, not very strong."

"Did you read the information I gave you!" Anna said exasperatedly, "This guy could defeat a Level 11 expert by jumping three levels when he was at Second Transition, level eight. He’s tough to handle."

"How tough can it be, surely not at the level of last night’s Assassin?"

"I’ve also had someone looking into last night’s incident. It seems things aren’t so simple. Duke Xinlei likely wouldn’t disturb public order during the Eagle Alliance’s preliminary round for his son’s personal issues."

"I know who did it," Lu Hong said in a deep voice. "I’ll give her a big surprise in return."

Last night, he had discussed with Qing Ling to help locate the base of these bloodline transplanters. Once he had news, he would use Jin Fu’s power to block the channels and wipe out all these abominations, not giving those people another chance to grow.

The Zhutian Grand Coliseum was enormously large. Apart from a few scattered small towns, almost all the open land in the Fifth Realm had been used to construct coliseums.

Anna led Lu Hong through a teleportation formation, arriving at the 2048 Coliseum.

The Zhutian Grand Coliseum consisted of eight thousand and one coliseums, with the central, largest, and most luxurious one able to accommodate all the nobles of the Alliance and still have a third of its seats empty, accommodating tens of thousands without feeling cramped.

With the central Tianyuan Coliseum as the core, the other eight thousand coliseums were built surrounding it.

The most famous were the eight medium-sized coliseums closest to it, each accommodating fifty thousand spectators and each with its distinct name.

As for the other coliseums, for convenience, the Eagle Alliance had numbered them according to the order they were built.

The arena where Lu Hong was competing this time was a small one, generally deserted by spectators since it was just a preliminary match intended to weed out the less skilled competitors, making the main event more exciting.

But Lu Hong was quite unlucky this time, at least in Anna’s opinion.

"I think someone is manipulating the matches," Anna said gravely. "Normally, those below Second Transition Level 5 would be matched with opponents about three levels higher for selection, but you reported you’re a Great War Master Level 5, and your opponent is Level 11, which is clearly five levels higher, a violation of the usual competition rules."

"This won’t do! I’m going to argue this with them!"

"Never mind." Lu Hong pulled Anna into his arms, smiled, and said, "Just wait here for me, trust me." He even gave a peck.

"Ew~" Holy King made a disgusted sound. "The stench of romance~"

"Get lost!" Lu Hong rolled his eyes irritably and strode into the arena.

Anna just stood there, stunned, licking her lips, how sweet~

The small arena fulfilled the normal requirements for combat, with spectator seats ranging from one thousand to five thousand.

The referee, already waiting, asked as Lu Hong entered, "Which competitor number are you?"

"6666." When Lu Hong received this number, he was slightly surprised too; his assistant told him he had stayed up all night to secure this number.

"Ah, lucky sixes."

Lu Hong responded to the referee’s jest with a smile, "I have four sixes, double the luck."

The referee nodded. "Hope things go smoothly for you..., doesn’t look too promising."

Seeing the referee furrow his brow, he must have sensed the irregularity in this preliminary match.

"There’s no need to trouble yourself, sir. By my presence here, I’ve committed to this match."

The referee nodded; clearly, someone was pulling strings, but he didn’t have the power to stop this selection match and knew that reporting it would most likely lead to nothing, given that passing the buck was a common ineffectual solution within the Eagle Alliance system, even for trivial matters.

"I hope you win."

In the midst of this conversation, another competitor stepped into the arena.

Lu Hong observed that the man hadn’t even washed off the fresh blood on him.

"Is he here? Then let’s start right away," Katula said dismissively to the referee and walked up to Lu Hong with a cold smirk. "Kid, today’s your unlucky day. I’m in a bad mood. If I don’t get satisfied, make sure you don’t surrender!"

"Oh? Really?" Lu Hong smiled. "What’s making you so angry? Did your woman run off with someone else, or did you catch them in the act?"

Katula paused. "You guessed pretty accurately. Were you a fortune-teller in your past life?"

"Not really, but seeing how ugly you are, you should reflect on yourself if your woman left you; most likely, it’s due to your own inadequacy," Lu Hong continued to provoke Katula.

"Very well, you’ve got my attention," Katula said and turned to the referee. "I think you should declare the start of the match now."

"Katula!" the referee rebuked. "Even though you are the heir to the Capossi family, you are in my arena right now and should follow my arrangements!"

"If you keep talking, I’ll chop up your wife and your daughter just like that whore, and feed them to the dogs," Katula sneered menacingly.

"You!" The referee was furious but indeed didn’t dare confront Katula directly. Everyone knew that all members of the Capossi family were mad, thoroughly mad. Only the Sinlei family could restrain this mad dog and provide protective sanctuary.

"Dear referee, you may declare the start now, and also, please lock the arena’s main gate. Don’t let this kid escape later."

"Are you ready?" the referee asked Lu Hong again.

"Yes, of course. And you might as well leave and wait outside. Whoever exits the arena first will be the winner, alright?" Lu Hong proposed another option.

Katula instantly became interested. "I like this proposal."

"I disagree!" The referee immediately disputed. "I need to be here, or you’ll be killed by him!"

Katula looked sharply at the referee. "Isn’t there a special rule that if both fighters agree, they can choose their own fighting rules?"

"This...," Yes, there was such a rule, but the referee didn’t want to see Lu Hong get killed—Katula was truly capable of murder.

"You’d better comply."

Faced with Katula’s renewed threat, the referee had no choice but to activate the arena’s protective shield and then exit the arena to wait for the first person to emerge.

Anna stood at the entrance. Seeing the referee come out, she hurried forward and asked curiously, "You’re the referee, why did you come out?"

"They chose to duel independently. I couldn’t do anything about it."

"What?!" Anna was shocked and tried to enter, but the referee stopped her: "This was agreed upon by both parties. See."

Anna stared at the contract clause and both parties’ sworn signatures. Well, the agreement was already in place, therefore irrevocable.