Chapter 552 - Xiao Huang
Upon knowing that Wen Qingxuan and her group had met with trouble, Mu Chen and his group were undoubtedly shocked. After working with Wen Qingxuan and her group, they were naturally very clearly of the astonishing strength the latter possessed. Although they had yet to see her taking action without any restraint, even Mu Chen would admit that if he was to truly cross hands with her, even he would not dare to say that he possessed an absolute chance of victory.
This was an arrogant and haughty phoenix from the Myriad Phoenix Spiritual Academy. Not only did she possess a beauty that could cause the downfall of countries, her talent was similarly more than sufficient to cause countless geniuses to pale in colour.
In accordance to Mu Chen's original estimates, although all the powerful groups participating in the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament had appeared, there were only an exceedingly few that were able to contend against Wen Qingxuan. Furthermore, Mu Chen was truthfully unable to come up with anyone possessing the capability that could truly cause trouble for her.
Therefore, with some suspicion and doubt within their hearts, Mu Chen and his group proceeded to ask around and gathered information, with a foreign-sounding name finally landing within their ears.
Xiao Huang.
"Xiao Huang? Who's that fellow?" Upon hearing their foreign name, Xu Huang and the other two instantly voiced out in suspicion. Ever since their entry to the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament till now, they have yet to heard about this name before.
The mysterious great leader of the Academy Alliance is known by the name of Xiao Huang," replied Luo Li in a soft voice.
"Academy Alliance?" The faces of Xu Huang and the other two instantly changed. They never had much of a friendly relationship with the Academy Alliance. However, while they were in the remnant of the Divine Wood Palace, those fellows were given an extremely miserable beating by Mu Chen. Who would have thought that there would still be such a formidable figure present within the Academy Alliance?
"No matter how formidable Xiao Huang is, I don't think that he'll truly be able to cause trouble for Wen Qingxuan, right? Although their might perhaps be some people in this Great Spiritual Academy Tournament that can contend against her, it would be absolutely difficult to surround and trap her," muttered Mu Chen, while a faint wrinkle appeared on his forehead.
"It's said that Wen Qingxuan's not the only person that has been surrounded and trapped. Even Pin'er, Le'er as well as the other two groups of their Myriad Phoenix Spiritual Academy," replied Luo Li while shooting a look at Mu Chen. "Furthermore, that Xiao Huang is also a Spiritual Array Master, and is even quite accomplished in his attainments in this aspect."
"Oh?" Hearing that, Mu Chen's eyes slightly narrowed. This piece of information had seemingly exceeded his expectations.
"From the looks of it, the reason why Mo Yu and his gang of peeps were able to display the Jade Disk that could create a shielding Spiritual Array in the Hidden Spiritual Courtyard should be due that person," said Mu Chen slowly, while a unique glint appeared in his eyes. The Spiritual Array present within the Jade Disk was exceedingly ingenious. The creator of such a thing would definitely not be any ordinary person. Looks like this Xiao Huang truly was extraordinary.
"According to the news that has been circulating around, as of now, Wen Qingxuan and the others have been surrounded and trapped by the Spiritual Array that Xiao Huang had meticulously arranged, and are unable to extricate themselves from within," said Luo Li.
"As long as the Spiritual Array arranged by Xiao Huang hasn't reach the realm of Spiritual Array Grandmaster, it would absolutely be unable to trap Wen Qingxuan. However… if there are other people besides her, it would be hard to say," muttered Mu Chen. With Wen Qingxuan's level of strength, although it might be thorny for her, wanting to extricate herself would absolutely be a possibility. However, the problem was the other groups from the Myriad Phoenix Spiritual Academy trapped with her. These people would be unable to easily extricate themselves. Therefore, it was impossible for Wen Qingxuan to break free and leave the rest behind.
"What a good method employed by that Xiao Huang," said Mu Chen in an indifferent tone.
Luo Li nodded her head in agreement. Clearly, that Xiao Huang was relying on this ploy to interfere with the plans of Wen Qingxuan. After all, there were times that the number of people trapped within a Spiritual Array wouldn't amount to any superiority and might even become a burden. Therefore, as long as Wen Qingxuan wasn't able to become heartless and toss her group members aside, this would continue to weigh her down to the point where she would no long be able to endure anymore.
This was clearly something that Xiao Huang was happy to see.
"They say that Wen Qingxuan and the others have already been trapped for three days. However, that Xiao Huang's also kinda strange, since, from the start, he has only made a move to trap them and has not done anything else since," said Luo Li doubtfully in a soft voice.
Hearing that, wrinkles started to faintly form on Mu Chen's forehead. After deeply pondering for a moment, he said, "I believe… that their goal might not just be Wen Qingxuan alone."
Hearing his words, Xu Huang and the others instantly gawked, before saying in shock, "Not only Wen Qingxuan… could it be…?"
As they thought about it, their faces furiously contorted. As of now, they couldn't be more clear about the grudges and grievances between them and the Academy Alliance. All of the plans the Academy Alliance had cooked up was ruined and destroyed by them, with their three leaders even being sent retreating for their lives in a miserable fashion by Mu Chen. Such grudges wouldn't be light. If that Xiao Huang was the great leader of the Academy Alliance, he would definitely not be able to quietly swallow this down.
Therefore, if the Academy Alliance was planning to target someone other than Wen Qingxuan, they would definitely be the first to bear the brunt.
"The only thing Xiao Huang did to Wen Qingxuan was to surround her, but did not attack. This might be due to her strength. However, I believe that there might be quite a large possibility that he wants to lure us to come forward and help her… Haha, this Xiao Huang sure has a big appetite," said Mu Chen with a smile, one that contained a sliver of chilling intent.
"What should we do, then?" asked Xu Huang as he looked towards Mu Chen.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, Mu Chen pondered for a long while before replying in a calm manner, "Since he's anticipating us to knock on his door, we should naturally not let him be disappointed. It just so happens that we needed a large amount of points. I believe that the Academy Alliance might be able to let us eat to our hearts content."
Mu Chen did not wish to avoid such trouble. Even without mentioning the first promise about helping her that he had made towards Wen Qingxuan, it was impossible for them to avoid such an invitation to battle. Mu Chen believed that there might already be people from various groups paying attention to the progress of this matter; after all, regardless of Wen Qingxuan or Xiao Huang, both of them were figures that demanded considerable weight in the current situation of the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament. Their crossing of hands would definitely attract the attention of others.
"Okay!" Xu Huang and the other two immediately nodded their heads. Although they knew that the Academy Alliance, being able to trap Wen Qingxuan and the others up, would definitely have arranged for them to walk into a trap, under the leadership of Mu Chen for the past number of months, what kinds of danger had they not walked straight into? Furthermore, they did not assume that Mu Chen would lose to that great leader of the Academy Alliance.
Hearing Mu Chen's words, Luo Li gently nodded her little head; after all, she had some level of friendship with Wen Qingxuan. As of now, with the latter being in trouble, they should try all means possible to provide assistance to her.
"Let's go!"
Seeing that no one had opposed his decision, Mu Chen didn't hesitate any longer. With a wave of his hands, he shot straight towards the central region of the Shattered Continent, with Luo Li, Xu Huang and the other two immediately following suit.
For the next whole day, Mu Chen and his group didn't take any breaks, maintaining their speed to their utmost limit as they rapidly headed towards the central region.
As they grew increasingly close to the vast region, Mu Chen finally started to sense the turmoil and chaos present within. With the continuous increase in the number of groups present, of which all possessed impressive strength and power, all of them were deeply vigilant and greedy. Therefore, this had caused all of them to appear like powder kegs that were inflated to the very extreme. With just the slight bit of provocation, they would completely explode.
Therefore, when every two groups made some form of contact, what proceeded next would definitely be a huge intense battle with neither prepared to give an inch.
Wanting to advance would require defeating the opposite party. In this place, only the victor could continue with their journey.
To the victor goes the spoils. This was played out to the very extremely at this place.
Under such a chaotic situation, even Mu Chen and his group had similarly encountered with obstruction, in the form of a few "quite powerful" groups casting their greedy gazes over. Faced against those groups that had treated him and his group as targets, Mu Chen didn't show the slightest bit of courtesy. Therefore, those groups that dared to take action would be defeated in a swift and powerful fashion, with not one bit of mercy shown, before snatching away half of their points.
With such fat sheep that had automatically walked right into them, Mu Chen's points had increased by 2 to 3 thousand in the short span of a day. One could say that they had obtained a bountiful harvest.
Naturally, however, such a drastic increase in points wasn't considered much when compared to those sitting in the Top 16 of the rankings. That's because the points held by the Top 16 would change at any given moment, with such changes exceeding over 5000-plus points.
However, after a day's worth of time, Mu Chen's progressive increase in points gradually came to a stop. After suffering defeat-after-defeat, those groups that have been advancing wave-after-wave had finally started to understand how thorny this group they had targeted really was. It was on a level that they absolutely couldn't handle.
Therefore, as dread and fear finally filled them, they had no choice but to completely conceal those greedy gazes of theirs, while no longer daring to take action against Mu Chen and his group.
With such obstructions disappearing, Mu Chen's feet finally stepped onto the exceedingly vast central region on the second day of travel. This place had now already become the place within the entire Great Spiritual Academy Tournament where the spotlight was shining the greatest.
Just as they have stepped on the central region, Mu Chen and his group had received yet another piece of information.
Within these two days, the Academy Alliance had still only continued to keep Wen Qingxuan and the others trapped, while not launching any offensive against them. However, this time, the Academy Alliance had openly sent a letter of challenge. It was exactly this piece of information that was sent right towards Mu Chen and his group.
Mu Chen. I, Xiao Huang, am waiting for you to break the array to save those people.
It was just this short sentence that the Academy Alliance had sent out. However, it had brought about extremely huge waves of commotion within the central region, while causing some doubts and suspicion to surface in many powerful groups. After all, the group that was led by Xiao Huang had already reached the 9th place on the rankings. Furthermore, they had Wen Qingxuan trapped. Therefore, it had made him absolutely well-renowned within the entire Great Spiritual Academy Tournament.
As for Mu Chen? The majority of the people were unfamiliar to this foreign-sounding name; after all, Mu Chen had only stepped into the Top 16 for a bit of time before disappearing. Up till now, he had yet to step back into the Top 16. Therefore, many people were extremely unfamiliar in regards to him.
However, despite their unfamiliarity, a person that could cause the great leader of the Academy Alliance to send a challenge would definitely not be any ordinary person. This point had indeed attracted the interest of people from various groups. Therefore, numerous groups started to rapidly head towards the region indicated by the challenge.
While this was happening, Mu Chen had also received this letter of challenge that was brimming with provocation.
Faced against it, a faint smile appeared on his face. Yet, without saying anything more, he gave a wave of his hand, while a calm voice followed suit and rang out.
"Let's go. We'll break the array and save them."