On a mountain road leading to Sunset City.
The respective Tiers 2 and 3 top 8 students of the Grand Four-City Contest were now moving forward amidst laughter and chatter.
A week had passed since the Grand Four-City Contest in Yaoyang City. The final top 8 students were now preparing to participate in the next competition under the escort of a group of instructors.
The Grand Four-City Contest was only a selection contest, like the academies' internal qualifying matches.
The real highlight was the next match among four tribes in Sunset City.
The so-called Four-Tribes Contest was a friendly battle between the Human race, the Tauren tribe, the Fox tribe, and the Tiger tribe. They would fight for the ownership of Glimmer City.
The key was that it would be a friendly match.
In the recent years of the four-tribes contests, bloodshed was almost unheard of.
Although Glimmer City was often chaotic because of its proximity to Demonic Beast Mountain Range, it was undeniable that there had been an endless stream of traders coming to and from this city. Be it humans or Orcs, it was still a considerable income if they could contribute to the city's economy.
It took only half a day for the group of teachers and students to pass through the overlapping mountains into a dense forest. By passing through this dense forest, they would reach the official road leading to Sunset City.
However, the teachers who had just been laughing joyously suddenly looked around guardedly.
"Tauren tracks…" One of the teachers leaned down and touched the dirt on the ground.
But before he could give an early warning, several elemental arrows with complicated patterns shot toward the students from all directions.
While talking to Mike, Jovic, and the others, Li Jiye heard the sound of arrows being shot and reacted almost instantly.
"We're under attack!"
However, Li Jiye's warning was a step too late. Hundreds of elemental arrows fell like raindrops on them. Despite all the students being Tier 2 advanced-level and above, several of them were still pierced by the arrows while they were in a state of panic.
"Look out!"
Li Jiye forcefully swung his long knife to block all the arrows flying towards him. But at this moment, streams of light carrying elemental arrows thicker than the previous ones suddenly shot forth.
Two Tier 3 students, who were engrossed in helping the others block the elemental arrows, didn't expect thick arrows to fly from a blind spot and pierce them from the opposite direction.
"Damn those Taurens!"
The teacher leading the team yelled and charged fiercely with the powerful aura of a Tier 4 martial artist. Li Jiye watched as the teacher waved his palm, and in the next second, blood splattered from the dense forest nearby. The corpses of Taurens in light armor fell to the ground.
"Dense-forest combat isn't beneficial for us. Let's move to the main road!"
With the help of the teachers, the group of students quickly passed through the dense forest and entered the main road just a few kilometers away from Sunset City.
At this point, the Taurens hiding in the forest gradually retreated and stopped pursuing them.
"Teacher! Anti and Jiwana won't make it!"
Before Li Jiye and the others could catch their breaths, they suddenly heard a cry from the Tier 3 students not far away. Following the shouts, he turned and was immediately shocked by the scene that greeted him.
The two Tier 3 students who had been hit by the elemental arrows were now as pale as paper and seemed about to kick the bucket.
A teacher with the Water Element hurriedly rushed forward, trying to use his elemental power to heal their wounds.
But the elemental arrows of the Taurens seemed to be resistant to elemental power. Despite the teacher giving it his all, he could only watch as the two students lost their lives needlessly.
Lingard punched the palm of his hand angrily.
"This group of goddamn Taurens! The four tribes contest should be a fair contest. How could they assassinate the contestants secretly?!"
Staring at the two dead students, Li Jiye felt a trace of anger quietly emerge from his heart.
The Taurens.
It was the damned Taurens again!
Back in Falling Maple City, he had already witnessed the cruel scene of the Taurens massacring the human warriors. Now, after witnessing the death of the two students, his anger was finally provoked.
…
Deep in the dense forest, a group of Tauren warriors with strong bows and crossbows removed their light armor to reveal the leather uniform of the Kucha tribe.
The leader grunted loudly and laughed for a full minute before catching his breath.
A Tauren warrior approached him and asked loudly, "Odyssey, is this necessary?"
With a red cloth tied to his horn, Odyssey immediately patted the warrior on the shoulder.
"Of course. Don't forget, humans and Orcs can never have a so-called friendship. Our relationship is based on mutual interests and can be broken easily… Hehe. Today, we killed two of them. Not only will this weaken the human race's strength in the second contest, but it'll once again arouse their anger towards the Taurens!"
"As long as it can trigger a war between the Taurens and the humans… Our Kucha tribe will surely take over the entire tribe!"
As soon as Odyssey announced this, the Tauren warriors grinned sinisterly.
…
After several twists and turns, the teachers and students finally entered Sunset City.
Sunset City looked very dilapidated compared to Yaoyang City. In low spirits, they looked for a hotel that was large enough to accommodate everyone and checked in.
In the evening, the teachers gathered in a large room, and the teacher in charge walked in with a gloomy expression.
Lingard explained to Li Jiye in a whisper, "The four tribes in Sunset City are all fighting for the possession right of Glimmer City for the next three years. The contest between Tier 3 members of the four races was created for this. Now that we're missing two Tier 3 seniors… I'm afraid that this year's competition will be advantageous for the Orcs…"
Li Jiye raised an eyebrow. At the same time, he clearly heard the pacing teacher whispering to the other teachers, "The four-tribes contest is drawing near… (sigh) But what can we do?"
For the Four-Tribes Contest, they only had six Tier 3 martial artists to participate in the competition. This meant they could only emerge victorious by having two representatives win two games in a row. But how good were the Orcs? How could they maintain their peak condition while competing consecutively against two Orcs of the same level?
While everyone was downcast, Li Jiye stood up suddenly and turned to the teacher.
"Teacher, I'll voluntarily give up participating in the Tier 2 competition."
All the students and teachers immediately looked extremely astonished and confused. But despite that, Li Jiye grinned mysteriously.
"I'll apply… for the Tier 3 martial arts contest instead!"