After hearing the notice, Wu Ling nodded, passed the registration desk, and went to the spectator seats to wait in silence. Down in the killing field, only three people and three corpses remained.
The Hell Killing Field was surrounded by magma, so the fate of the other four was easy to imagine. By now, they were probably gone without even bones left behind.
Ten minutes later, the winner emerged. He was a cold-looking man whose Martial Soul was a throwing knife.
The others had crude technique, but his throwing knives clearly carried traces of real training. It was not much, but it was better than nothing, and that became the reason for his victory.
"Let us congratulate No. 6666 on claiming his eleventh victory in the Hell Killing Field!"
As the referee shouted, cheers for No. 6666 thundered through the entire arena. Just as the black-veiled woman had said, the strong could have everything here.
At that moment, ten more numbers were announced from the hall. Wu Ling's No. 1314 was among them.
"Not bad luck. I get to fight right after arriving." Wu Ling smiled faintly, then jumped straight from the stands into the killing field.
He was the last one to step onto the platform, but he drew every eye at once. Not because he looked powerful, but because he looked the opposite. Through the exposed part of his face and the killing intent radiating from him, the people here, who lived on the edge of a blade, could immediately tell that Wu Ling had definitely not killed many people.
Weak killing intent did not necessarily mean weak strength. After all, the people who came to Slaughter City were not only lunatics who enjoyed killing. Some were desperate fugitives hunted by Spirit Hall or other forces outside, driven here because they had nowhere else to go. A lighter killing intent was normal for that kind of person.
But Wu Ling clearly was not even a fugitive. His clothing and bearing were too bright, too clean. Standing there, he gave off a hazy sense of being completely out of place.
"What, are you not going to fight? I thought I would get to see Slaughter City's cruelty, but all of you are just flinching and hesitating. A pack of mongrels."
In the next instant, Wu Ling summoned his long sword and appeared beside the person closest to him. By the time everyone reacted, he had already cut off that man's head.
That man was only a Spirit Meister in the forties. Even if Spirit Skills were usable here, he would still have been as weak as an ant before Wu Ling. Killing him was as simple as reaching into a bag and taking something out.
"Mongrels, all of you come together."
Wu Ling's repeated taunts enraged the already violent crowd as if he had slept with their wives.
"Cocky brat!"
"Kill him first!"
"Agreed. Tear him apart!"
In an instant, the remaining eight reached a tacit understanding and charged Wu Ling together.
"I do not even need sword techniques to kill you." Wu Ling showed no fear of their encirclement. His maxed-out Agility was not just for show.
First, Wu Ling used his long blade to knock aside the attacks of three Tool Martial Soul Spirit Masters. Then, relying on his footwork, he circled behind them and slashed toward a man holding a bow.
Just then, a Spirit Master whose Martial Soul was an Earthrock Turtle blocked the path between Wu Ling and the archer. He had only failed to keep up because he was too slow, but by chance, he happened to stand in Wu Ling's way.
Wu Ling charged straight at the defensive Beast Martial Soul Spirit Master as if he had not seen him at all.
When the others saw that, mockery crossed their faces. Since he could not kill the archer, Wu Ling could have turned around and cut down the weaker Tool Martial Soul Spirit Masters instead. Yet now, he had chosen to attack a defensive Beast Martial Soul Spirit Master head-on.
After all, only their Spirit Skills were sealed. The physical attributes granted by their Spirit Rings and Martial Souls were still real. With Martial Soul Possession alone, that Earthrock Turtle's defense remained extremely impressive.
If Wu Ling failed to kill him in one strike, the enemy could easily seize the opening and counterkill him on the spot.
Wu Ling's expression did not change. He might not have as much murder experience as the people here, but he had no shortage of combat experience. How could he make such a low-level mistake?
Defense without Spirit Skills meant nothing to Wu Ling. His long sword pierced straight through the Earthrock Turtle's shell without obstruction. The blade was covered in dense sharpening Magecraft, and that was not decoration.
After killing another person, Wu Ling did not lose momentum. He turned the sword sideways, changing the thrust into a sweep. While cutting the Earthrock Turtle Spirit Master in two, he also killed the archer behind him.
Then the sword moved with his intent. As Wu Ling turned, the long blade opened the throats of the two attackers rushing in at him.
In less than half a minute of contact, four of the eight attackers had died. The entire spectator stand stared in stunned silence.
His killing intent might not be strong, but his killing efficiency was far too high.
"That swordplay..." Hidden in the dark and watching the match through a crystal ball, the Slaughter King's expression turned grave.
Although he was the Bloodred Nine-Headed Bat King rather than Tang Chen, he had indeed retained part of Tang Chen's memories.
Just from those few brief exchanges, he could see that Wu Ling's sword attainment was not inferior to the core heirs of the Chen family's Seven Kill Sword lineage.
"Match over. No. 1314 wins!"
Wu Ling's first slaughter match ended quickly. Other than him, not one person remained alive. Among the last four, two had even been Spirit Leaders, but without Spirit Skills, they were no match for him.
The black-veiled woman was also surprised. She had not expected a boy with such light killing intent to perform so beautifully in his first Hell Killing Field match. But after thinking of that exquisite sword skill, she understood that this was probably only the beginning.
As his killings increased from now on, his only shortcoming would be filled in very quickly.
"It looks like the Hell Killing Field rankings need to be updated again." Thinking that, the black-veiled girl walked straight out of the Hell Killing Field. She understood that with Wu Ling's current strength, he did not need the twelve-hour newcomer protection period at all.
After his first slaughter battle ended, Wu Ling casually found an empty house in the inner city and moved in. People died here every day, so empty houses were everywhere.
But when he first settled in, he was disturbed constantly. He looked too easy to bully. He was young, his killing intent was thin, and most importantly, he was handsome. Even a mask could not hide Wu Ling's looks.
Women wanted to take him home and keep him. Men wanted to turn him into the freshest Bloody Mary. Of course, some men had the same idea as the women. Only after Wu Ling went on a killing spree and slaughtered nearly a hundred Spirit Masters in one breath did things finally quiet down a little.
This was his first time killing so many people in one day. Mentally and emotionally, Vitrification kept him mostly unaffected, but physically, he still felt uncomfortable.
The air here was highly poisonous. It reacted with a person's killing intent and drew them toward total madness. Only by drinking Bloody Mary, which was also poisonous, could one temporarily fight poison with poison.
But that was no different from drinking poison to quench thirst. The poison in the air would be suppressed, but the poison from Bloody Mary would accumulate inside the body. When it finally erupted, the death would probably be uglier than that of the people in today's killing field.
This was exactly where Wu Ling's preparations came into play.
His mask filtered the poison in the air. His food kept him from needing the toxic liquor. Even if he inhaled a little poison while eating, the antidote pills he had prepared could easily eliminate whatever entered his body.
"Good. I just need to keep winning at this pace."