The Eternal Emperor: Reborn to Slaughter The Gods

The Clan Tournament Begins

Thousands of screaming voices bled together into a deafening roar that shook the heavy limestone foundations of the grand arena.

"Look at him, he actually had the audacity to show his face," a young cultivator mocked from the front row, throwing a crushed fruit peel onto the stone walkway as I passed.

"I gave him three seconds before he starts crying for his dead parents," a merchant shouted, laughing with his friends. "The odds are twenty to one against him. I put my entire shop on young master Jin!"

I walked down the long, shadowed tunnel leading to the central ring, completely unbothered by the waves of insults cascading from the packed stands. The morning sun hit my face, bright and harsh, illuminating the massive stone amphitheater where the entire city had gathered to watch a public slaughter. I wore nothing but a faded, threadbare gray robe, my hands tucked into my sleeves, looking more like a broke scholar than a martial artist entering a death duel. Up in the high elders' pavilion, First Elder Lu Chang sat on a carved mahogany throne, a smug, satisfied smirk playing on his lips as he looked down at me like an insect already pinned to a board.

"You are late, Lu Tian," the clan registry official barked from the edge of the ring, his pen hovering over a bloody parchment. "We were about to declare you a runaway coward and let the enforcers hunt you down in the woods."

"The sun hasn't reached its peak yet, elder," I replied, my voice calm as I stepped over the low stone boundary into the dust of the ring. "There is plenty of time for a funeral."

"A funeral for you!" a booming voice roared from the opposite side of the arena floor.

Lu Jin stepped through the gates, his body practically radiating a bright, aggressive gold light that made the surrounding air distort with heat. He wore a magnificent suit of white iron scale armor, every piece blessed with defensive arrays that could withstand the strike of a heavy warhammer. His right wrist, which I had shattered just two weeks prior, was completely healed, reinforced by the high-grade medicinal energy his father had stolen from my inheritance. He gripped a heavy, double-edged broadsword that gleamed with bloodthirsty intent.

"I thought you would hang yourself in your room to save me the trouble," Lu Jin sneered, stopping ten paces away and planting his weapon into the dirt. "But I am glad you came. The Golden Marrow Pill my father gave me has fully settled into my veins. I am no longer at the third stage of body refinement, little trash. I have touched the threshold of the fourth stage!"

"You talk a lot for someone who spent the last fortnight crying to his father," I said, tilting my head slightly.

"Enjoy your tongue while you still have it," Lu Jin hissed, his face twisting into that familiar, ugly scowl. "When the barrier rises, there are no rules. I am going to chop your fingers off one by one. I am going to rip your limbs from your torso and force your little maidservant to sweep your remains into the gutter."

"Is that what your father told you to say?" I asked, looking up at the elders' pavilion. "Or did you come up with that creative sequence all by your lonely self?"

"Die!" Lu Jin screamed, his knuckles turning white around the hilt of his sword. "You are nothing but a stepping stone for my ascension! The whole city will watch me erase your father's bloodline from this earth!"

"Quiet on the stage!" the referee shouted, stepping between us and raising a heavy bronze medallion. "The terms have been signed by both parties and witnessed by the city registry. This is a duel of life and death. No external weapons outside of personal gear, no interference from the audience, and no surrender. The fight ends only when one body stops breathing."

"He won't be breathing for long," Lu Jin whispered, his eyes locked onto my throat.

"Don't disappoint me, cousin," I replied, dropping my hands to my sides, my weight shifting slightly as I anchored my feet into the loose soil.

Deep within my chest, the Nine Abyss Seal began to thrum with a dark, expectant energy. The liquid essence of the stellar lotus had completely integrated into my meridians over the last fortnight, widening my pathways until they were as tough as reinforced steel. I was physically standing at the fifth stage of body refinement, possessing a raw, dense muscle power that could shatter his white iron armor with a single focused strike. But he didn't know that. Nobody in this stadium knew that. To them, I was still the fragile orphan who had fainted at the testing stone.

"Elders, activate the defensive boundary!" the referee commanded, sprinting backward toward the ring's exit.

Four massive stone pillars at the corners of the arena flared with a translucent, blue spiritual light, shooting beams into the sky that connected to form a solid, impenetrable dome over the stage. The roaring of the crowd instantly grew muffled, trapped behind the thick magical barrier, leaving only the sound of our breathing and the whistling of the wind across the dirt.

The referee raised his hand high, the bronze medallion catching the direct glare of the midday sun.

"Let the duel begin!" he shouted, dropping his arm with a violent downward sweep.

The referee calls for the match to start, and Lu Jin unleashes a lethal technique meant to kill Lu Tian in a single second. Lu Jin's eyes turned completely blood-red as he channeled every ounce of his stolen fourth-stage energy into his weapon, the broadsword erupting into a roaring wave of golden flames that tore the earth beneath his boots into black ash. He didn't build momentum or test my guard; he leaped across the distance like a starving predator, executing the forbidden Sun Splitting Cleave, a high-tier lethal strike designed to vaporize my head before my eyes could even register his movement.