The Samsara Jade

Chapter 39

Li Chen looked down at the thick green slime on his torn coat. He slowly reached up with his right hand. He wiped two fingers through the glowing green poison. 

Then, while the entire arena watched in total horror, Li Chen raised his fingers to his mouth. 

He licked the deadly poison right off his fingers. 

The crowd screamed. Elder Lu fainted and fell out of his chair. Even Elder Zhao in the balcony stood up in pure shock. 

Ma’s nasty smile instantly vanished. "What... what are you doing?! Are you crazy?! That is pure death!"

Inside Li Chen’s stomach, the Primordial Chaos Root woke up slightly. It tasted the toad poison. The dark vortex spun once, crushing the poison and turning it into a tiny, tiny drop of dark Qi. 

Li Chen swallowed. He looked at Ma. His black eyes were completely empty. 

"It tastes like dirty water," Li Chen said quietly. 

Ma’s hands began to shake uncontrollably. He dropped his daggers on the stone floor. He finally understood. This was not a boy with a hard body. This was a monster. 

"Monster! You are a monster!" Ma screamed, turning around to run away from the stage. 

"You talk too much," Li Chen said. 

He pushed his feet into the ground. He moved so fast he seemed to teleport. He appeared directly behind the running Ma. 

Li Chen grabbed the back of Ma’s dark green robes. He pulled Ma backward and drove a single, heavy fist directly into the center of Ma’s spine. 

CRACK! 

The sound of breaking bones echoed loudly. Ma’s 5th Level Qi defense was shattered instantly. Ma spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes rolling back. He flew off the stage and crashed headfirst into a wooden drum, smashing it to pieces. 

Ma was completely out cold, his spine heavily fractured. 

"W-w-winner... Li Chen!" the referee stammered, wiping sweat from his forehead. 

One punch. 

The crowd was no longer cheering. They were terrified. They looked at Li Chen standing in the center of the ring, totally unharmed, having just eaten deadly poison like it was honey. He was unstoppable. He was the ghost of the chasm, and he had come to claim the tournament. 

Li Chen stood calmly, waiting. He knew what was coming next. He was in the top four now. 

The referee picked up the final scroll. His hands were shaking so badly he could barely read the words. 

"The Quarter-Finals are over!" the referee announced to the silent, terrified crowd. "We now move to the Semi-Finals! The next match will be..."

The referee paused, swallowing hard. 

"Li Chen... versus... Zhao Feng!"

The crowd suddenly erupted into nervous, excited whispers. This was it. The ultimate battle. The unstoppable physical monster against the undisputed king of the Outer Sect. 

From the VIP balcony, a figure leaped into the air. 

Zhao Feng flew gracefully down from the high seats. He landed perfectly in the center of the stone stage, directly across from Li Chen. His dark blue robes fluttered elegantly in the wind. He looked completely relaxed and confident. 

"You put on a good show, little rat," Zhao Feng smiled, his voice smooth and arrogant. "You beat a bunch of weaklings. You think your hard shell can save you from me? I am at the peak of the 5th Level. My Qi is like a roaring river."

Li Chen stared at Zhao Feng. The burning hatred in Li Chen’s heart flared into a massive, invisible fire. But his face remained cold as ice. 

"I am going to break every bone in your body, Zhao Feng," Li Chen said softly. "I am going to make you crawl."

Zhao Feng laughed loudly. "Bold words for a Broken Root. But I am not interested in a normal match, Li Chen."

Zhao Feng reached into his blue robes. He pulled out a small, dirty, brown leather bag. 

He held the bag upside down and shook it. 

Several small, broken pieces of dark green stone fell out of the bag. They hit the grey stone stage with a soft, sad clinking sound. 

Li Chen’s breath caught in his throat. His black eyes widened slightly. 

It was the shattered pieces of his mother's jade pendant. The pendant Zhao Feng had smashed against the pillar a month ago. 

"Do you recognize this garbage?" Zhao Feng mocked, kicking a piece of the broken jade with his expensive boot. "I kept the pieces just to laugh at them. I hear this is the only thing left of your dead, useless family."

Li Chen did not speak. His hands slowly curled into incredibly tight, iron fists. The dark Qi inside his stomach began to boil violently, threatening to explode out of his body. 

"Let us make this interesting," Zhao Feng said, his smile turning completely cruel and demonic. He looked up at the referee. "I want to change the rules of this match! I call for a Life and Death Contract!"

The crowd gasped in absolute horror. A Life and Death Contract meant the sect rules were suspended. No one could interfere. The match only ended when one person was completely dead. 

Zhao Feng looked back at Li Chen. 

"If you win, you get your mother's broken trash back," Zhao Feng challenged, his eyes gleaming with dark intent. "If I win, I get to take your life, and I get to cut open your chest to find the body-tempering treasure hiding in your blood. Do you accept, dead boy?"

Li Chen looked down at the broken pieces of his mother's jade resting on the cold stone. Then, he looked up at Zhao Feng. 

Li Chen’s eyes turned completely, terrifyingly pitch-black. A faint, dark golden light began to shine underneath his grey skin. 

"I accept," Li Chen whispered, and the temperature on the stage suddenly dropped to freezing cold.