Chapter 235 Round One.

Words : 1464 Updated : Oct 7th, 2025

Hao Ren had a faint smile resting on his lips as the Fifth Prince stood before him asking to be friends. The former smiled and asked, "Your Highness, what status do I have to be your friend?" The fifth prince shook his head and said, "Brother Hao, you should not say this with just the strength you displayed, I am inferior to you." At this moment, a voice was heard from the side, "Since you know your place, why must you act out to reach high?" The discordant tone made everyone to look over, while the guards and the participants found themselves useless against this person, the spectators were shocked. The speaker was none other than the Fifth Princess, Hu Baihe. The masses were surprised because, although they knew about the Princess's temper but they did not expect her to speak so blatantly even when she faced her own brother. Hu Taigun turned his head to look at his sister and asked with a cold face, "Have you literally lost your mind? How could you act like this in front of the people?" Hu Baihe smiled but her eyes were cold. She replied calmly, "I can talk anyway I want, at least, I am not desperate to befriend the people like you lot. Am I?" Her criticism was not limited to Hu Taigun but to the young men and women standing behind him as well. She approached Hao Ren and patted his shoulder, "Let's go, I will take you inside. No need to waste time here." Hao Ren simply nodded and followed behind her. This made the faces of the people scrunch up bad. They did not expect that Hao Ren would ignore the Prince and the Scions of the Shen family so blatantly. They were counted as the rising young stars of the Primus City. Not only that, these people held great prestige throughout the Warring Nations. The only ten more people could compete against these guys, they were the disciples of the two sects. Hu Baihe was one of those disciples, and she was not at the top of the list. The power dynamics between the Royal Family, and the two sects was akin to a man balancing on a rope between three mountains. What Imperial family lacked in quality, they made up with quantity. Hu Baihe and Hao Ren entered the arena, and a guard came up to hand them two tokens. Hao Ren looked at his token and it had a character 'Zhe' engraved on it, with a number written on the back, his was twenty four. He looked at the young lady beside her, and asked, "Why does your brother hates you so much?" Hu Baihe was shocked and looked at him, "How did you figure out he is my brother?" Hao Ren smiled and replied, "You two have a striking resemblance. So, would you tell me what it is about?" Hu Baihe took a deep breath and slapped his shoulder as she said, "We were good when we were children. Our mother was a concubine coming from a low rank noble family. When she gave birth to us, they called us the pair of Phoenix and Dragon. The King doted on us, and favored our mother. However, one time she fell prey to the politics that went on inside the palace. She was framed of providing her low rank family with gains and money from the coffers. She was exiled by the same man who doted on her. Then outside the palace she was killed. I loved her, so I had snuck away from the palace to live with her. My brother, whom I thought was the same as me, turned out to have a heart of gold and it could not tolerate the winds of poverty. He betrayed me and told the Queen about me. They sent assassins, my mother was cut down along with her entire family. When I was brought back to the palace, I used the ceremonial knife from the king's chamber to cut up my face. This mark reminds me of betrayal, and the hatred I harbor in my heart. This mark is my biggest pain, yet it is my armor too, otherwise, they might have sold me over to some nation for favor. There, now you know it." He looked at the other participants and found that they were also gazing at him after all they had noticed the guy who walked past the Prince and the young people like they were nothing but air. The proctor said, "Enter the ring and you have ten minutes to decide the outcome of the battle." Hao Ren jumped over followed by the rest of the people. The old man waved his hand and a barrier was erected. Someone among the twenty five looked at Hao Ren and said, "What do you guys say? How about we handle this kid first, I am sure the Princes will like it and might reward us?" That's the reality of life. The wandering cultivators all lusted for benefits and they were very selfish. Hao Ren had expected this but then he sighed and vanished from his spot. He did not use any movement technique, but only his physical strength. The people were surprised but before they could react, Hao Ren appeared next to the speaker and his fist knocked the man out in one punch. He looked at the rest of the people and said, "If you wish to advance, fight. If you want to die, then come at me, I will kill each and everyone of you, and advance alone." His words shocked the people and also enraged them. They looked at Hao Ren and cursed him. "You think you are better than us all, huh? Sneak attacks does not prove strength. We will fight." Cultivators had there pride and so did these guys, Hao Ren shrugged his shoulders and vanished from his position before he said, "I warned you all." He punched all of them and all it took was an exact number of twenty three blows to knock out every one. The proctor was surprised and using his spiritual sense he realized that although the young man did not spill blood, but he indeed incapacitated the competitors. As the proctor he wanted to make a decision but then he turned to look at the chief inspector who said, "The seven cultivators who fell later will qualify along with this young man." Hao Ren sighed and though, 'I thought I would gain a direct entry to the semi finals. The position in top ten is ruined again by this bunch of people.' He retreated from the arena, and sure enough after ten minutes the battle in all the four sub-arenas came to an end. Hao Ren thought for a bit and then he looked over to the place where the martial artists were getting treated, and found Hu Baihe among that group. Some of his worries were sorted at this moment. Hu Baihe needed to advance to the higher ranks and then only would he be able to use her for his own gains. The first round of the competition came to an end, and the crowd became excited thinking about the one on one fights that were lined up for the upcoming rounds. The chief examiner said, "The second round will begin in one hour." Hao Ren found a relevantly secluded place and sat down to cultivate. He did not wish to delay his progress, in the first round he had not used an spiritual energy so it was easy for him to do this. In his soul sea, the spiritual energy was flowing in slowly, one drop at a time. Soon, the time was up, and the Chief inspector said, "The second round will now begin. Your name will be called upon once, and you will have one minute to appear on the stage. If you do not come through, it will be considered forfeit." Hao Ren raised his brows thinking that these people sure were in a hurry. He used his Yin and Yang eyes to observe the cultivators for a few minutes before he found that the members of the Warring Peak had already acquired some blood energy and one of them even had an aura dragon swirling around his body. A calm voice sounded in his mind, "Blood dragon is the key to enter the forbidden area of the Warring Nation. There lies the chance to conquer without drawing a sword." Hao Ren looked at the side and found Hao Mei standing in the spectator stand. He was surprised but the lady nodded to him in assurance, and the young man made up his mind.

Chapter 235 Round One.

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