Qing Shan unhesitatingly followed the man named Song Chang, not looking back at Mao Xun. While he was not sure what he had to do, he knew that it involved fighting. And he was quite confident that he would win against anyone that did not possess cultivation. Basically, he would be fine as long as he did not have to fight people from the Rising Sun Clan.
Song Chan led Qing Shan along the side of the building until the pair came to a set of stairs that went downwards a couple of meters. The. Two entered the door at the bottom of these stairs. This door opened into an area which seemed to have some of the traits of a dungeon. There were exotic looking beasts in cages, but there were also young men and even a few women walking about inside the room.
The room was shaped like a 'T' with a long hallway opening up into a wider area. In this area most of the people were standing. The room had many racks of weapons and a large door on the far end.
Qing Shan noticed that most of the people in the room had a few similar traits. They all seemed to have a maturity to them that went beyond their looks. If he had to guess, Qing Shan would think that they had all faced many battles before. This was pretty much confirmed by the fact that a large percentage of the twenty or so people in the room had many bandages and splints on their appendages.
Song Chang, who had not spoken to Qing Shan yet, pushed him forward.
"Explain everything to him. Mao Xun picked him up."
Song Chang then left the building as if he could not stay in there another second.
Not feeling very comfortable in the very heavy atmosphere of the room, Qing Shan meekly waved his hand.
"Hi. My name is Qing Shan."
One of the men, someone who seemed to be in much better shape than the other people in the room tilted his head back and laughed. He had no physical injuries to speak of and seemed to be close to thirty in age.
"Haha! That kid Mao Xun really does not know what he's doing. He's barely twenty and he thinks he can find talented people. Can't he tell that this kid's never seen anything more gruesome than a cut on his arm. Hey kid, what's the worst sight you've seen."
A small smile, shaped more like a sneer than a genuine smile, appeared on Qing Shan's face. He suddenly did not feel that the atmosphere was so heavy.
"Oh it was nothing that bad,–"
The man started to talk
"See, I knew it. Just a little shrimp with a somewhat decent looking robe. Probably never starved a day in his life."
"–I just saw my building burned to the ground with my Father hanged from the roof of our house."
Seeing Qing Shan nonchalantly respond, a few of the people in the room snorted, obviously trying to hold in laughter.
The same man that asked the also started laughing. However, he suddenly stopped, a faint pressure bearing down on him. He looked up stunned, his eyes having close for an instant while he was laughing. In that instant, Qing Shan had appeared directly in front of him. While this was surprising to the man, nothing was more surprising than the look in Qing Shan's eye; it was a look that made him look liked he had lived through hell, or something equally as bad.
"W-woah, kid. I was just messing around. Call me Yuan Long."
Everyone else in the room also had their mouths dropped open. Although they had been able to tell that he had not instantly moved from one place to the other, he had crossed at least five meters in barely a second. However, they were even more surprised by Yuan Long's stutter. Even facing people from the Rising Sun Clan, as someone who did not possess any cultivation, he had always been a very relaxed and smooth-talking man. They never would have guessed that a mere kid of sixteen years would actually throw him off.
Qing Shan backed off, his smile instantly looking genuine again. The change happened so fast that Yuan Long thought that he may have hallucinated. All Qing Shan knew was that he got angry and ran up to the man. He was not sure why the man seemed so scared all of a sudden.
"Nice to meet you. Can someone please explain to me what we are doing here. Mao Xun told me this was a good way to make money fast."
One of the other people in the room muttered.
"Well… He's not wrong…"
Qing Shan looked toward the person who spoke. It was a woman who looked more battle-hardened than most other people here.. She had a nice looking, yet not very voluptuous body. However, her face looked like someone had tried to kill her. There was a long scar from the right side of her forehead to the left side of her neck. The eye in the middle of the scar was missing. She gave Qing Shan an uneasy feeling.
"What do you mean?"
Realizing that he was talking to her, the woman spoke.
"Well, you do know that this building is called the Arena, right? It is a battle arena that pits willing volunteers against monsters. We get paid every time we win but lose all the money we have gained if we lose. Participants are not allowed to use their Qi energy if they can cultivate. The money depends on the bets from the audience. By the way, my name is Su Yuesha"
Su Yuesha seemed like she had been here longer than the rest. She easily spoke out all the rules without having to think for a second.
"Can we leave whenever we want?"
"Yes, but most of us stay until gain a large amount of money. There'd be no point to this if we came in and walked away poor."
Qin Shan nodded.
"Okay just two more questions. Can we use our own weapons? When do we fight?"
"Um… no one usually brings their own weapons, but I am relatively sure you can use anything that is not imbued with any Qi upgrades or skills? No one that comes here ever has any weapons like that though, so I am not sure. Newbies always fight two incense sticks before the sun sets. The rest of us fight in order of battle record, with the best fighters fighting later."
"Okay good. My weapon has no special qualities, so I should be fine."
Qing Shan now knew everything that he needed to know. He sat against an empty spot on the wall and started thinking. He had to wait about the amount of time for five incense sticks to burn before it was his turn.
However, after only a few minutes passed, another question came to mind.
"What's the average payout for new fighter winning?"
Yuan Long answered this time.
"Well, when I won as a newbie I got a payout of about ten Barren Qi Shards. But you look scrawnier and weaker than I did, so you might have a chance at around fifteen Barren Shards."
Qing Shan did not respond, he just sank deeper into thought.
'Not focusing on anything else but necessities, food costs about three or four Barren Shards a day. Staying at the inn for a week is ten Shards. If I want to even think about buying extra supplies from the Market, and also want to buy some information, I should aim for about two Barren Qi Orbs.'
If the other's in the room heard what Qing Shan was thinking, they would probably collapse in laughter. Sure, a newbie's first win reigns in about ten to fifteen Barren Shards, but wins after that only paid about three to five Shards. Just to get one Barren Orb he'd have to get at least eighteen wins in a row.
Soon, the first fight started, and all of the other fighters went up to the stands. One advantage of being a fighter was front-row seats.
Qing Shan watched the first man, the weakest fighter of all the participants, hold his sword and shield in front of him. Across from him, there was a large beast about a meter tall and three meters long. It was had a centipede's body and claw's that looked like a crab's.
It was classed as a Rank 1 Low Beast of the Crustacean variety. Most people called it a Low Crustacean. Beasts were usually called by their level and variety. For instance, a horned wolf with strength equivalent to the 1st level of the Origin soul would be classified as a Rank 2 Low Beast of the Wolf variety, it would be called a Low Origin Wolf. However, the only beasts named like this were beasts that had mutated from their original form or were breaded to be mutated. These mutated Beasts had not chance of ever cultivating or gaining intelligence. They were stuck at the cultivation level they were borne with. That's why most horned wolves like the. One mentioned above would just be called a Low Origin level Horned Wolf, as Horned Wolves were not mutated Beasts.
In only five minutes, the first fighter was carried on a crude stretcher to the infirmary, which Qing Shan learned was inside the walls of the Arena, in a room adjacent to the fighters' waiting room.
To Qing Shan, who definitely enjoyed watching the battles, and tried his best to gain insight from watching the battles, they all passed in the blink of an eye. He was soon called down back to the waiting room to prepare for his battle.
Su Yuesha and Yuan Long wished him luck. They both hurried up to the stands, not wanting to miss this battle. They both had high expectations after Qing Shan's impressive first impression.
Seeing them go, Qing Shan realized that they both had yet to battle.
'They must be some of the higher ranked fighters here.'
Clearing his mind, Qing Shan opened the large door to the Arena.
The Arena looked much bigger from inside it than it had above. Qing Shan quickly realized that this meant the Beasts would be bigger as well.
He was correct.
"Hoho! Ladies and Gentleman, we have a new fighter tonight. His name is Qing Shan, and believe it or not, he comes from the Highlands! He will be fighting a Mid-level Three-Horned Bull!"
The audience cheered, expecting to see a gruesome death. It was not every day that they got to see a Mid-level Beast against a Highlander. Needless to say, the bets against Qing Shan were almost twenty to one.
Qing Shan stared at Mao Xun, who was apparently one of the announcers for the Arena. He was not sure whether to feel happy or sad. On the one hand, Mao Xun had mentioned his origin, which gave him odds of twenty to one, which vastly increased the payout he's get if he won. On the other hand, he was the first person today to face a Mid-level Beast, which was equivalent to a 4th to 6th level Formation Soul Cultivator. Even worse, Qing Shan was not allowed to use his Qi.
Qing Shan's eyes were soon torn away from Mao Xun, as the metal cage-like doors across from him opened. Inside the doorway was a massive Bull, about four meters tall and five meters wide. It had three horns, with two like a normal bull and one protruding from the center of its forehead.
'Oh… Shit."
Now, one must remember that Qing Shan had only fought against humans before. He had never fought a being that was even half the size of the thing in front of him.
The Bull roared as soon as it saw Qing Shan, immediately rushing at him.
"Damn, this thing moves as fast as I do!"
Qing Shan was not sure what the Bull was trying to do, as the bottom of its stomach was at the same level as its head. Suddenly, the bull's head was right at his face level. It had somehow managed to lower its head enough that It would be able to squewer him wit hits horns. As soon as it got pretty close, Qing Shan moved to the side, testing out the Bull's movement.
Contrary to his expectations, the Bull did not ram into the wall. It stopped immediately. However, Qing Shan noticed that it was really slow at turning. Seeing an opening, he rushed in.
As Qing Shan approached the bull, it kicked at him with both of its right legs. He had no clue how it did not fall over. Qing Shan easily dodged the two attacks, and jumped up with his staff extended, striking it hard in between its ribs.
The bull groaned in pain, but Qing Shan also backed up.
'Ow!'
He had felt like he was attacking a slightly unsteady wall. His arms were jarred from the impact, but he ignored the pain.
'I guess I need to find a weak-point. Its skin is too hard.'
With this thought in mind, Qing Shan moved as fast as he could towards the Bull that was still trying to recover from his blow. Qing Shan kicked off the ground, jumping into the air as High as his human muscles would take him. Luckily, the Bull's head was still lowered. In midair, Qing Shan aimed an exquisite thrust right towards the Bull's eye.
Instantly Qing Shan felt like something was not right. He noticed the Bull's horn streaking towards him. Frantically, Qing Shan moved his staff, managing to block most of the blow. He blew backwards.
'I need to end this fast.'
Qing Shan then did something very shameless.
He recovered to his feet and ran at the bull which had now recovered and was also charging at him. Surprisingly, Qing Shan felt that he moved a bit faster. He ducked low and ran right underneath the bull, his muscles compressing as his body curled up. He raised his staff into another amazing thrust and launched toward the Bull's unmentionables.
Pop!
At this sound, everyone in the audience was confused. While they had been surprised that Qing Shan could run at the same speed at the bull, that was their only real impression of him. They were sure that he had dies when he disappeared under the bull.
However, when the bull let out a suppressed grown of agony and fell onto its side unconscious, all of the men let out grunts of sympathy, and the woman gasped.
The Bull had a large amount of blood and flesh dripping from its underbelly and onto its back legs. Its reproductive organs had been shattered to bits.
A clearly disgusted look appeared on Qing Shan's face, along with sympathy. He had not meant to do that. He turned toward Mao Xun.
"Do I kill it or not?"
Mao Xun stared mutely, before finally responding to Qing Shan.
"No, we'll take care of it. It can still fight."
The audience that was also silent except for the cackling laughter of Su Yuesha suddenly burst into the cheers of those who had bet on Qing Shan and the groans of those who hadn't.
Although Qing Shan had expected to win due to his long training, he had not expected it to be this hard. However, he could not keep a smile on his face.
'I finally got some Money!'