The Samsara Jade

Chapter 40

"I accept," Li Chen whispered. 

His voice was not loud, but it cut through the air like a freezing knife. When he spoke those two words, the temperature on the massive stone stage suddenly dropped. A cold wind blew across the arena. 

The old referee took three quick steps backward. His face turned completely pale. He looked at Li Chen, and then he looked at Zhao Feng. 

"A Life and Death Contract..." the referee stammered, his hands shaking wildly. "Are you both absolutely sure? The rules of the Azure Sword Sect are very strict. Once the contract is signed, the sect cannot protect you. The elders cannot stop the fight. You will fight until one of you is completely, totally dead. There is no surrender."

"I am sure," Zhao Feng smiled. His smile was arrogant, cruel, and full of dark excitement. 

"Get the scroll," Li Chen said. His pitch-black eyes stared directly at Zhao Feng, completely ignoring the terrified referee. 

The referee swallowed hard. "I... I must get the Blood Scroll from the Sect Leader. I must also ask for his permission. Please, wait here." 

The referee turned around and ran as fast as his old legs could carry him toward the high VIP balcony. 

The crowd of thousands of disciples erupted into absolute chaos. People were shouting, pointing, and gasping. A Life and Death match had not happened in the Outer Sect for five years. It was the ultimate, bloody spectacle. 

As they waited on the stage, Zhao Feng stood with his hands behind his back. The wind blew his expensive, dark blue silk robes. He looked calm and powerful. He looked like a king waiting to execute a criminal. 

But deep inside his mind, Zhao Feng was thinking about the events of the day. 

Just an hour ago, before he jumped down onto the stage, Zhao Feng had been sitting high up in the VIP stands. He had watched Li Chen’s matches from a comfortable chair, sipping hot wine from a silver cup. 

When Sun had first run into his room that morning, screaming that the "dead boy" had returned, Zhao Feng had not believed him. He thought Sun was just being a coward. He knew how hard he had kicked Li Chen a month ago. He had felt Li Chen’s ribs shatter under his heavy leather boot. A normal boy with no cultivation could not survive that. 

But then, Zhao Feng sat in the VIP balcony and watched the tournament begin. 

He watched Li Chen fight Gao, the Iron Ox. Gao was a massive brute, covered in thick magic rock armor. Zhao Feng saw Li Chen throw a single, simple punch. He saw the magical rock shatter like cheap glass. He saw the giant boy fly across the arena and crash into the stairs. 

Zhao Feng had stopped smiling then. He sat up straight in his chair. He gripped his silver cup so tightly that his knuckles turned white. 

"How?" Zhao Feng had thought to himself in the VIP stands. "How can a Broken Root do that?"

Then, he watched Li Chen fight Swift-Blade Liu. He saw the sharp silver sword bend and break against Li Chen’s bare, grey skin. He watched Li Chen pull Senior Sister Lin by her burning fire whips without taking a single burn. 

But the most terrifying moment was the match against Venomous Ma. 

From the high balcony, Zhao Feng had watched Li Chen let the dagger cut his black coat. He watched the thick, glowing green toad poison smear across the fabric. And then, he watched Li Chen wipe the deadly poison with his fingers and lick it. 

When Li Chen swallowed the poison and said it tasted like dirty water, Zhao Feng’s silver cup bent and crushed perfectly in half inside his hand. Warm wine spilled all over his expensive blue robes, but Zhao Feng did not care. 

A deep, cold feeling of being unsettled crept into Zhao Feng’s stomach. It was a very strange feeling for him. He was the king of the Outer Sect. He never felt nervous. But watching this grey-skinned monster destroy the best fighters without using any magic was deeply disturbing. 

"He is not acting," Zhao Feng had realized in the VIP stands. "He is not just pretending to be strong. His physical body is an absolute nightmare."

Beside him in the VIP balcony, his grandfather, Elder Zhao, had spoken. 

"Do you see it now, Feng?" Elder Zhao had asked in a dry, serious voice. "The boy is a freak. He must have fallen into a deep cave in the Beast Chasm. He must have found a supreme body-tempering treasure. Maybe an ancient fruit, or a pool of dragon blood. It has turned his skin into iron and his muscles into steel."

"It is a waste," Zhao Feng sneered angrily, trying to hide his nervous feelings. "A supreme treasure wasted on a piece of trash with a Broken Root. If I had eaten that treasure, I would be unstoppable."