Chapter 53 Slaying the Dragon

"Welcome to the God of War Arena..."
"...Please get ready... All forces, advance!"
At a certain moment, this voice echoed simultaneously in the minds of the Seven Stars of Shining World and the Seven Gods of War, signaling the official start of this team actual combat simulation.
At the Blue Team's starting point, the light barrier before the three-lane entrances vanished accordingly. The group, having been fully prepared, set off from the bottom-lane exit and darted into the jungle in a flash.
Though called a jungle, it was a virtual recreation mimicking the ancient appearance of the Star Dou Great Forest, though its geographical layout followed the terrain of a certain MOBA canyon.
"This lush forest, this fresh air, it feels almost like returning to the Spirit-Ascension Platform of the Spirit Pagoda."
"As expected of an official faction. Among all the top forces in the entire Federation, only the Hall of Valour can rival the Spirit Pagoda in sheer wealth."
As the group chatted while advancing, they soon encountered their first wild soul beast.
"It's a Datura Snake." Xu Yucheng swung his blade and cleaved the dark green venomous snake that had ambushed them into two halves.
Immediately after, the two halves of the snake transformed into a cluster of starlight, splitting into seven parts that merged into the bodies of the seven individuals.
"My soul power increased just a little bit, and this enhancement seems to be temporary."
"Even a mosquito's leg is meat. There are quite a few soul beasts in this jungle. If we kill them all, every little bit adds up, and the accumulated boost will be considerable."
Xu Zhao looked at the group and said,
"You guys search for soul beasts here and eliminate them. I'll go ahead and secure vision in the river to prevent the opposing team from stealthily taking the dragon."
As soon as he finished speaking, his figure flickered continuously under the influence of spatial power, quickly vanishing into the forest.
Subsequently, Xu Yucheng issued orders to the group in his capacity as vice-captain:
"Split up and eliminate the soul beasts in this jungle as quickly as possible, then rendezvous with the captain."
"The six of us will pair up in groups of two. Move out!"
Among the six, the two pairs possessing soul fusion techniques naturally walked together, leaving Xu Yucheng to form a group with Long Chen.
Under normal circumstances.
The soul beasts in the God of War Arena, aside from the virtual Dark Demonic God-Tiger and Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King which were hundred-thousand-year soul beasts, ranged in age from ten years to ten thousand years.
Yet now, because of the Seven Stars of Shining World, the Hall of Valour had modified the rules of the God of War Arena.
The combat power of the two fierce beast kings, the Dark Demonic God-Tiger and the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, was now equivalent to three-ring peak soul emperors possessing top-tier beast martial souls.
The soul beasts in the four jungle areas still started at a minimum of ten years, but their maximum age had been changed from ten thousand years to a hundred years, capped at no more than five hundred years.
Among the Seven Stars of Shining World, Kuang Zhantian, who had the lowest soul power, was already at level twenty-five.
A soul power of at least level twenty-five, combined with top-tier martial souls, meant ordinary five-hundred-year soul beasts were nothing to fear at all.
Under the search of the six people divided into three groups, in just a little over fifteen minutes, they thoroughly cleared out all the soul beasts in the Blue Team's bottom-river jungle.
In the center of the bottom river.
Xu Zhao stood outside the semi-circular river valley, his gaze following the river upstream as he stared ahead.
Under clear weather and unobstructed conditions, human eyesight can reach a visibility of 20 to 30 kilometers.
However, in this God of War Arena, once one's line of sight reached a certain range, a hazy, misty sensation would appear, making it impossible to see distant objects clearly.
Field of view range was also one of the rules of the God of War Arena, proportioned identically to the field of view in the MOBA canyon of his previous life.
Otherwise, with the visual acuity of high-level soul masters, one could directly see the opponent's starting point from their own.
Yet while visual range was restricted here, sensory perception was not.
In Xu Zhao's perception, no fluctuations in the aura of the Dark Demonic God-King had emanated from the upper river valley, indicating that the Seven Gods of War had not yet begun attacking the dragon.
"Captain, all the soul beasts have been eliminated."
Xu Yucheng and the other six emerged from the jungle exit into the river, arriving behind Xu Zhao.
It was precisely at this moment that Xu Zhao sensed the aura of the Dark Demonic God-Dragon in the upper river valley shifting.
"The Seven Gods of War are only starting to gather and fight the dragon now. It seems they also cleared out one jungle area before coming to fight the dragon. Great minds think alike, and their speed is quite fast."
Xu Zhao turned back to look at the group, speaking concisely and swiftly:
"Action! Slay the dragon!"
The virtual Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King at this moment possessed a combat power of only a three-ring peak. He merely turned his head toward the river valley, his external spirit bone, the "Heaven's Eye," opening on his forehead to unleash a Gaze of the Evil Eye, stunning and controlling it.
Xu Yucheng and Xue Liushuang each unleashed a blade beam and a sword beam respectively, striking the virtual Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King at its defensive weak point and instantly slaying it.
The entire God of War Arena shook violently, and two voices resembling sovereign rulers of heaven and earth rang out almost simultaneously:
"The Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King has been slain!"
"The Dark Demonic God-Dragon has been slain!"
Due to the suppression of combat power, the enhancements gained from slaying the two beast kings were also different from their hundred-thousand-year counterparts.
The original enhancement would have been: increasing all soul ring ages by ten thousand years and raising soul power by two levels.
But the current enhancement had changed to a random ten percent attribute boost.
In both the upper and lower rivers, purplish-black and black-gold light mists scattered separately, falling into the bodies of the Seven Gods of War and the Seven Stars of Shining World respectively.
"A ten percent increase in soul power. Not bad."
The Seven Gods of War were quite satisfied with the enhancement gained from this kill, as soul power amplification was a universally applicable attribute that any soul master could use.
"A ten percent increase in agility. Uh, well, it's alright. Better than nothing."
The type of enhancement received by the Seven Stars of Shining World side was somewhat underwhelming.
After slaying the dragons, both sides tacitly rushed toward the middle lane, colliding head-on in the mid-lane before long.
Amidst the crowd, Xu Zhao locked eyes with Demon Qin Douluo Mo Zihong. As the control-system soul masters of both sides, they simultaneously stepped away from their teams, seeking out a separate spot to confront one another.
This Fifth God of War was the man whom Ling Zichen, the head of the Tang Gate Research Institute, took an immediate dislike to in the book.
Moreover, her reason for disliking Mo Zihong was quite peculiar: she felt that the classical and elegant demeanor exuded by Mo Zihong was entirely too pretentious.
They say one's soul stems from the heart. Since Mo Zihong's martial soul was literally an ancient zither, wasn't it completely normal for him to possess a classical and elegant temperament?
"Little God-Artificer Xu, would you be willing to listen to Mo play a tune?"
Mo Zihong sat gracefully upon a boulder, his Demon Qin martial soul laid horizontally across his knees, while three black ten-thousand-year soul rings slowly materialized behind him.
The reason his martial soul was named the Demon Qin was precisely because he could release various curses through playing it, boasting terrifying control capabilities and earning him the reputation of the Hall of Valour's premier control-system soul master.
Yet after finishing his words, his eight zither-playing fingers merely rested upon the strings without plucking them, as if he would refuse to play should the other party object.
"Very well. I wonder what kind of tunes Your Excellency intends to play?" Hearing this, Xu Zhao casually found an open patch of ground to sit down, looked up ahead, and said,
"Guqin zither music is high-brow art. I hope Your Excellency's tunes will not disappoint me."