"Zi Qing, then tell me, who are the people I need to pay special attention to?" Zhu Ziyuan asked with no impatience whatsoever.

"Sigh... according to what you said, Brother, apart from Qingyang City, those few people from the other cities are all tough customers. You have to be extra careful when you encounter them." Zhu Ziqing sighed softly, somewhat helplessly.

"Wrong, you must also pay attention to Gu Qianxun of Qingyang City. Don't underestimate her just because she's a woman. Her combat power is definitely not below those few." Zhu Ziyuan frowned and said seriously.

"Right, right, right, there's also Gu Qianxun in Qingyang City. Brother, you're overthinking it. How could I be so unlucky as to encounter so many strong opponents?" Zhu Ziqing nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, but then muttered softly.

"Zi Qing, what do you think is the reason your brother has been able to win the Martial Arts Tournament championship several times in a row?" Zhu Ziyuan asked, changing the subject, ignoring Zhu Ziqing's complaints.

"That goes without saying, of course it's strength." Zhu Ziqing replied without hesitation.

"Strength is important, but it's not the most important thing. The most important thing is not to be careless. In addition to those opponents whose backgrounds are clear, you must also be careful when you encounter new faces who are participating in the Martial Arts Tournament for the first time." Zhu Ziyuan said solemnly, instructing him.

"Okay, Brother, I've remembered it." Zhu Ziqing finally looked a bit more serious and nodded.

Seeing this, Zhu Ziyuan stopped nagging and, together with his sister, quietly looked up at the starry sky.

However, after only a few dozen breaths, Zhu Ziyuan spoke again, "By the way, Feng Wuchen of Zhixuan City..."

"Brother, enough..."

……

Just as the Xuan City people were preparing for the Five Cities Alliance, in a desert far away, the wind howled and sand filled the sky.

Under the moonlight, the whole world seemed to be in chaos.

In the midst of the vast dust, huge black shadows loomed, slowly moving through the sand.

By the light of the bright moon, the revealed black shadows were actually giant scaled beasts.

Leading them was a black-scaled elephant over a hundred feet tall, but its appearance was somewhat different from ordinary ones.

This black-scaled elephant was covered in scales and armor on its abdomen and legs. On the front of its chest were seven or eight fist-sized beast cores, embedded in its flesh in a circular pattern.

The black-scaled elephant's tusks had been cut off, replaced by two sharp spears that shone with a cold light through the wind and sand under the moonlight.

And the strangest thing was that the black-scaled elephant's eye sockets were deeply sunken, with nothing but darkness inside. There were no eyeballs at all. If one looked closely, one could see obvious signs of atrophy and dryness in its eye sockets.

This black-scaled elephant was actually a withered corpse.

And the other dozen large scaled beasts following behind it were all huge corpses.

On the backs of these scaled beasts, each carried a black stone hall that was neither too big nor too small.

In the stone hall on the leading black-scaled elephant, seven or eight braziers were lit, illuminating the interior.

In the center of the hall, there was a three-foot-square black stone platform, on which sat a woman wearing a long black dress. She had a petite figure and her face was covered with a light veil. Just her profile was enough to captivate everyone.

Not far from this woman, on a black stone chair, leaned a woman with a graceful figure, also wearing a black veil. She leaned back, her soft waist pressed against the chair, looking like a supple, boneless snake.

"How much longer until we reach Xuan City?" The woman's voice was gentle, lazy, and dreamlike.

"Reporting to the City Lord, we are still within our Puppet City's territory. If there are no accidents along the way, we are less than a month away from Xuan City." The woman in the long dress on the stone platform turned slightly and said softly.

"Good, after so many years of preparation, the time has finally come..." The woman called City Lord sat up, her eyes as bright as stars, and murmured.

……

The night passed without incident, and dawn arrived the next day.

Outside Xuan City, when the first ray of sunlight crossed the Chongxuan Mountains and shone on the city, the city was already a scene of jubilation.

All the streets and alleys in the city were filled with dense crowds of people, all gathering near a circular building that occupied a very large area in the center of the city. That was the largest Xuan Fighting Arena in Xuan City, specially named the "Asura Arena."

The open square in front of the Asura Arena was already packed with people, and the human-shaped stone statue standing in the middle of it was surrounded by a sea of people. People were constantly rushing up to touch the statue's clothes and toes.

It was said that touching this statue would bring good luck, allowing them to kill in all directions in the upcoming Five Cities Martial Arts Tournament bets and make a fortune. Therefore, many parts of the statue had been polished very smooth, covered with a thick layer of bursting pulp, reflecting the morning sunlight.

Even more crowds gathered in front of the four main gates of the Asura Arena, waiting for the gates to open and enter.

"Dong..."

With a heavy and distant bell ringing, the four main gates opened slowly at the same time, and the crowds poured in, rushing into the Asura Arena and dispersing around the eight huge Xuan Fighting Platforms in the arena.

At the same time, in a circular hall deep underground in the Asura Arena, dozens of people were gathered, roughly divided into five teams, each scattered and talking to each other.

These people were the sixty-four Xuan Fighters participating in the Five Cities Martial Arts Tournament. Han Li and Gu Qianxun were among them.

"Fellow Daoist Li, how is your blood wine brewing going?" Gu Qianxun saw Han Li sitting alone in a corner and walked up to ask.

Yi Liya and others were gathered together, and they didn't find it strange at all. They just glanced at them and continued to chat on their own.

Xuan Yuanxing and Du Long were some distance away from them. The former was still calm, but the latter looked a little nervous.

"Almost... I must congratulate Fellow Daoist Gu first, for taking the lead in solving the Black Tribulation Worm problem." Han Li looked up at her and said with a smile.

"Six Flowers... the old man's thinking is strange. He is single-mindedly asking you to bring back the Celestial Scale Meteorite Crystal. I'm really sorry... I can't help you with this matter." Gu Qianxun said half-truthfully.

"Li knows very well that there is no free lunch in the world, and the requirements proposed by Senior Six Flowers are still reasonable. Now, I only hope that the position of this Celestial Scale Meteorite Crystal as a reward will not be too far ahead." Han Li smiled and said.

"Let me reveal a piece of news to Fellow Daoist Li first. This Celestial Scale Meteorite Crystal is one of the rewards for the top three, so Fellow Daoist still has a very good chance of obtaining it." Gu Qianxun glanced at Han Li and said meaningfully.

"Thank you for Fellow Daoist Gu's high regard. For the sake of my own life, Li can only bite the bullet and fight for it." Han Li said with a smile.

While the two were talking, the entire space suddenly shook violently, and a "rumbling" sound came from the front.

Five openings recessed in the thick wall in front of them, and five rays of heavenly light shone down, revealing five stone staircase passages leading to the ground.

"Five Cities Xuan Fighters, ascend the Xuan Fighting Platforms." A loud shout came from above.

The local Xuan Fighters of Xuan City, led by the bone-armored siblings Zhu Ziyuan and Zhu Ziqing, were the first to enter one of the stone staircases and walk towards the ground.

Seeing this, the other teams also left the underground hall one after another, led by their leaders.

As soon as they reached the ground, a wave of magnificent shouts immediately swept over, gathering from all directions towards the central Xuan Fighting Platform. Among them were the names of some special people:

"Zhu Ziyuan, Zhu Ziyuan..."

"Feng Wuchen..."

……

The stands were packed with people, and all kinds of sounds were mixed together, making it very lively.

Although Han Li had participated in so many Xuan Fights in Qingyang City, this was the first time he had been shocked by the shouts of the audience in the stands. Listening to the waves of heat that were louder than the last, the blood in his body was faintly boiling.

He scanned around and saw that a Xuan Fighting Platform was built every hundred feet or so, a total of eight, distributed in the positions of the Eight Trigrams. The Xuan Fighters of the five cities were standing on five of them respectively.

There was one more person on the Xuan Fighting Platform where the local Xuan Fighters of Xuan City were.

He was tall, with blue ox horns on his head, and a dark complexion. He was the host of the tournament.

In the center of the eight Xuan Fighting Platforms, there stood a hundred-foot-high platform with six black stone chairs placed on it.

This was obviously the place reserved for the City Lords of the five cities. For some reason, there was one more.

"Silence throughout the arena, welcome the City Lords." At this time, the dark-skinned man shouted loudly.

The entire Asura Arena suddenly became quiet, without any sound at all, which surprised Han Li.

Immediately afterwards, only a whistling sound was heard, and five figures suddenly fell from the sky like shooting stars and landed on the hundred-foot-high platform.

With a "boom"!

The entire high platform and the entire Asura Arena shook for a while, and six figures appeared in front of everyone.

Everyone looked up and saw that City Lord Ekui was in the center, and the other five were standing on both sides of him, slightly staggered from his position, as if they were following behind him.

At this time, the seemingly unremarkable City Lord Ekui had a majestic aura of commanding the world, as if he were a lion subduing all directions, making people unable to resist him.

On the stands, many people lowered their heads involuntarily.

Han Li squinted his eyes and looked towards the high platform, a trace of doubt flashing in his heart. How could it be him?

Standing to the left behind Ekui was a person with a short stature and a rather stout build. Most of the top of his head was bald, but the beard under his jaw was thick and twisted into a pigtail.

It was none other than the refining master, Madam Six Flowers!