"Bro…!" Yue Han's eyes were getting blurry and his hands were becoming weak as he tried to struggle against the coiling whip around his neck. His breath was gradually becoming weaker and weaker by the second but despite all this, Yue Han still desperately tried to loosen it as much as he could.
Despite his eyesight failing him, he could still see an almighty silhouette sluggishly taking a step at a time towards Yue Han. "Haha, I am sorry Bro...I do not think I can last any longer." Yue Han thought that Bu Dong had managed to cut the bindings of the whip and was approaching to help him too.
That was not the case. Before he even knew what was taking happening, Yue Han was suddenly able to breathe once more, though he still fell to his knees as a result of the previous lack of oxygen.
*Thump*
With a single look, Yue Han ascertained that Bu Dong was lying motionless on the floor. He could not believe what he was seeing so he crawled towards Bu Dong and tried to remove the whip that was strangling Bu Dong.
The whip continued to tighten despite Bu Dong being stationary and it only loosened its grip on Bu Dong's neck when Yue Han cut it in two. With the basic knowledge of CPR that Yue Han had learnt from a safety rescue workshop from summer camp, he checked Bu Dong's carotid pulse as well as his chest movement in order to test for breathing. There were no signs of movement from either of the two tests, meaning, unfortunately, Bu Dong had passed away.
At this point, Yue Han just smashed his fist against the ground. "Damn it! Why did you die and leave me all alone!" He cursed at how useless he was in almost every fight. He cursed at his inferiority complex and the inability to do anything unless he was told to do so.
"Then stop cursing and start trying to get up." A deep voice echoed throughout the empty Coliseum. Yue Han looked around, searching for the voice, but instead found that a chest had suddenly appeared right in front of him. He did not know what to do until the mysterious voice echoed once more. "Come on, do not dally. Open the chest to receive your rewards and your set of potions."
Yue Han did not know whether the voice was trying to trick him or not but he did know that the rules explicitly stated that there would be a chest with rewards in it after each fight. When Yue Han turned around to take one last look at Bu Dong's body, he realised that it had already been removed. Yue Han figured that it was the dimensional instance at work so he stood up and opened the chest.
There were indeed physical panda medal coins in the chest and within that mass of bronze panda medal coins lied two sets of recovery potions. Since the boss was killed, the rewards were actually meant for Bu Dong and Yue Han, but that was before the whip trap had killed Bu Dong. Therefore, Yue Han had the opportunity to keep two sets of recovery potions. He then placed all the coins into his storage ring and noticed that there were only 50 bronze panda medal coins, half of which belonged to Bu Dong.
"Very good. now that you are somewhat ready, I can now appear." the voice suddenly boomed loudly throughout the whole coliseum and Yue Han felt tremors from underneath his feet. A large tree suddenly grew out from the depths of the Coliseum grounds.
"Name's Shu. I am your next opponent." Shu's deep voice reverberated in the entire area again. Yue Han fell backwards as he instantly acknowledged that this was an opponent he could definitely not defeat.
"Or rather, this little guy will be your next opponent." The ancient treant opened its mouth and something monstrous slowly revealed its face. Without delay, two serrated blades sprouted out of Shu's grotesque mouth and Yue Han trembled when he identified it as a giant praying mantis.
The praying mantis monster tilted its head at the cowering Yue Han to stare at him for a moment before it opened its mouth with sticky saliva drooling out of it. "If you do not want the monster to eat you, I suggest you do something about it." Shu was particularly amused by Yue Han since this was his first time seeing someone so frightened to die and yet that someone was not doing anything to save themselves.
"I should just let it kill me and end this dungeon." Yue Han mumbled to himself until he turned and saw the spot where a piece of the whip had yet to be removed. "But if I really do that...won't that mean that Bu Dong saved me for nothing?" Yue Han tried to rationalise in this deadly situation but it was not helping him a single bit.
"But this is a just a dungeon…Bu Dong will not blame me for dying so easily...right?." Yue Han's actions suddenly contradict his cowardice thoughts as he frantically reached for his sword.
How could his body or mind ever forget? How could he ever forget the times Bu Dong had saved him from gangster or bullies? How could he ever forget the times Bu Dong tried his best no matter how bleak the situation seemed at the time? How could he ever forget the times Yue Han saw Bu Dong practice his flaming sword technique, causing damage to his own body just so that he could win against Jin's dungeons?
Each and every cultivator in the world had been taught to not disrespect the dungeon instances. This was because the creation of a dungeon came from the cumulative experience of a Supplier. What you wanted to achieve when you entered a dungeon was not primarily to have fun. It was to battle against the monsters, because to battle against monsters was also to battle against oneself.
The cultivators that fought in dungeons provided by the dungeon suppliers would learn not just about the monsters he or she had fought against, but they will also learn about himself or herself along the way.
Some older cultivators said that technology in the modern suppliers had dulled that understanding of oneself and thereby the growth of oneself, but that did not mean the essence of dungeoneering and fighting monsters was lost. This was especially true for Jin's dungeons since the monsters that the cultivators were fighting were all real and authentic.
That was why despite the major failures that many cultivators faced in Jin's store, they all sooner or later realised what they had learnt during the dungeon instances far outweighed the mere fun that they would have experienced otherwise. This was the main reason why many failed dungeoneers would still return to Jin's store for the difficulty and realism of the monsters.
Yue Han picked up his sword and looked directly into the thousand eyes of Shu's pet mantis. "Even if I cannot kill it, I will not throw away the chance Bro has given me!" As Yue Han suddenly realised the importance of dungeons and the faith Bu Dong had in him, he felt a surge of energy pass through him.
Yue Han had just experienced a stage of enlightenment, which caused him to go up in grade. When he displayed his cultivation, he could see three bat silhouettes flying above him screeching in excitement. The treant laughed loudly, which started to annoyed Yue Han.
"So you had the power inside you all along, it's just that you were chaining yourself down," Shu explained and he waved his tree branches as a signal for the Giant Praying Mantis to fly swiftly towards Yue Han… But Yue Han was prepared.
"Flying? Do not underestimate the capability of the Blind Bat Style!" Yue Han confidence rocketed with his new grade and he ran the other direction away from the praying mantis.
"What is he exactly doing?" Shu was baffled by the change of actions of Yue Han but he still commanded to Praying Mantis to chase after it.
"Hmph looks like, I might be able to trick it." Yue Han smiled as he dashed into the Coliseum interior. The fight for Yue Han's survival had just barely begun.