Grandmaster's Arena

A woman scantily clad in purple robes walked into the cave tunnel, her path lit by glowing patterns written onto the coarse cave wall. She dragged a forty-year-old man, chained and mouth stuffed in clothes behind her. Green diamonds floated above their heads.

NPCs.

The scent of rotten flesh wafted through the air as the wind swept past the tresses of the woman's hair and the man whimpered in fear and disgust when it hit his nose.

The narrow cave tunnel broadened out into a wide, circular room.

An intricate Throne sat in the far end wall of the room. And a man sat on it, his head bent over a few papers on his lap, his legs laid languid on the Throne arm.

The clothes on him were pitch black and deep gold embroidered. The golden lotus sewn into the hems of his robes was similar to the one drawn on his forehead.

His entire presence emitted the presence of an immortal who was beyond human touch.

A blue diamond was floating over his head.

"My lord," the woman's seductive voice echoed in the quiet space.

"Hm."

"I've brought Light Mountain Sect's grandmaster for you," the woman said, her voice cracking into a deranged laugh as she whipped the man in chains.

The lacerations left behind by the whips caught fire and the chained man screamed in pain.

The man on the throne looked up.

"Diana. What have I told you about playing with your food?"

The woman smirked. "But My lord, this man thought just because he was an immortal that he could beat me. I was simply defending my honour. And I'm sure this man knows about the Emperor Beast's defeat."

The man straightened up. "Immortal Wan Hu, do you know why you were brought here?"

Diana removed the stuffing in the man's mouth.

"You wretched beast!" the man spit. "Turning young maidens into your slaves and puppets!"

The man looked at the Immortal and then at Diana in confusion. "What is he talking about?"

Diana's red lips curled into a smile. "I don't know, My lord."

The man on the throne released his killing aura.

Diana gasped in fear and then fell to her knees.

Immortal Wan Hu prostrated on the coarse floor in fear, blood leaking from his nose.

"Immortal Wan, do you know why you were brought here?" the man asked.

Immortal Wan shook his head in fear. "N-no."

The man gave a soft smile that contrasted with his cold eyes. "I want information. Information on the one that slew the Emperor Spirit of the Viridian Forest."

"I don't know."

The Lord's eyes narrowed and a cruel glint flitted through his gaze.

The spiritual pressure on Immortal Wan Hu increased and the man started to bleed from the nose and mouth.

The man shook his head. "I don't know! I don't know! All I or the other sect leaders could find out was that the Slayer was a girl and that she was significantly weaker than the beast! Please spare me! Spare me!"

"I see," the man hummed. "Diana. Finish up your dinner."

The woman smirked and then turned to Wan Hu with a demented look. "Time for dinner, Little Prey."

She snapped her fingers and the chains around the man disappeared.

He looked at her in shock.

"Now run," she said in a garbled voice. Her face turned inhuman and purple.

The man ran out of the circular space, knowing he had to try to save himself now or he would never see another day.

The woman ran after him, laughing in madness.

Soon, horrific screams filled the air and the scent of burnt flesh spilt into the room.

A shadowy figure emerged from behind the throne. The blue diamond over its head, the only indication that it could be a human.

"Diana is becoming crazier. You are indulging that NPC a bit too much."

The man on the throne smirked. "Luther."

The shadows dispelled and in its place stood a man in all red, with a black sash around his waist. The man had a frown on his face. "Master Yaksha, don't you think you are being a bit too unbridled in this world?"

"Luther, are you implying that I'm somehow different from how I usually am?"

The man shook his head." No, young master Lu."

Yaksha smiled." It's Yaksha now, Luther."

"Apologies, but…Diana is becoming more…deranged"

Yaksha shrugged. "She reminds me of my little sister a lot. I can't help indulging her. Anyway, tell me you have something better than that NPC did."

Luther sighed. "Her name is SelaXiu Veritas."

"I know that from the world announcement."

Luther frowned. "And all the other level 70 Grandmasters are already there waiting to contact her. We might be too late. She might have handed the beast core over already."

"Really?" Diana asked as she came into the room. "But brother Luther, don't you think brother Yaksha would have thought of it already if so?"

"It's still weird that you start calling him brother when there are no outsiders here."

"Obviously," Diana said, rolling her eyes. "If I become very familiar with big brother, then they would use that as leverage. Isn't that right, brother."

"Crazy NPC," Luther muttered, creeped out once again by the realism in this VR game.

"Exactly, Diana," Yaksha said and smirked at the annoyed look on Luther's face that the man tried and failed to hide. "Now Luther, what are the chances that the Immortals are too busy fighting each other and that they haven't yet decided on anything?"

Luther looked at Yaksha in surprise. "This is also possible!"

Yaksha stood up. "Prepare the teleportation circle to Veritas, Diana. We are going on a long journey."

Diana looked at him in excitement. "Are there going to be more righteous Immortals there, brother Yaksha?"

Yaksha smiled. "Many."

In the Viridian Forest, Cheng Xiu got surrounded by the Immortals she kill stole from.

A shadow flashed in front of her.

It was the immortal with the red and blue painted face.

"Hello," the girl said with a sweet smile. "I'm Yue. You said you would see us tomorrow. It's tomorrow."

Cheng Xiu crouched, unsure of the situation.

Expert Yue smiled kindly. "Brother Phoenix here advocated so much for you, that we decided to meet you properly."

"I did nothing of the sort!" Star Phoenix said bitterly. "You people decided to stick around on your own."

"I was going to leave," the Red clad man said to Cheng Xiu. "But then Star Phoenix seemed very interested in meeting you. That made it very obvious that you were someone to be looking into."

The green-robed man snorted. "So the fact that this newbie actually used Everhill's Rynheart was not at all noteworthy? It's Star Phoenix's scheming words that convinced you?"

The Red clad man shrugged. "It's Everhill. For all, I know he brought in a defective product instead of the real Rynheart."

"Crow! I dare you to say that to my face!" the man in orange screamed.

The man in red turned towards him. "Everhill, I think you brought in the duplicate Rynheart instead of the real one."

"You absolute jackass!"

"Is that the best insult you could come up with?" the man in red asked in disdain. "My 10-year-old little brother can do better than you. The Grandmaster of the High Clouds Sect only amounts to this much. How pathetic."

"Enough!" Expert Yue said, glaring. "Now then. Sister Lotus, you may begin."

Cheng Xiu felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand.

She dodged to the side.

An ice spear embedded itself on the ground where she stood a moment ago.

Everyone looked at the blue-robed woman in surprise.

"Good reflexes indicate a sharp mind," the woman said in a monotone voice. "You dodged so perfectly, indicating a superior body to others of your level and higher. The fact that you dodged my ice spear which was laced with a spell not to be noticed, indicates a powerful Cultivation method."

The girl then observed Cheng Xiu's costume. "You are level 14. Correct?"

Cheng Xiu sweatdropped. "What makes you think that?"

The man in green, the healer of the group, laughed. "I think it's between 15 and 20."

The ice mage looked at him curiously. "Why do you say that, Long Hei?"

"You are so weird, Frost. Use either Long or Hei. Why both?" the green-robed man asked. He then turned to Expert Yue. "The weapon she was holding during the fights yesterday was the Level 5 sword of the Central Continent. It's upgradeable to level 20.Good choice by the way."

Expert Yue smiled and turned to the man in Red. "Brother Crow, you know what to do."

The man smirked and threw a talisman into the air.

Cheng Xiu tried to break away but her hand was grabbed by the woman with the violet hair.

"Sorry, newbie," the girl with the violet hair said. Her voice had a happy tone to it. "You are going to have to prove yourself today."

The talisman broke into streaks of golden light and weaved a netted golden dome with blue coloured mini flashes of lightning in between the gaps of the net.

"It was an accident!" Cheng Xiu said, glaring at the people around them. "Did you want me to let myself be killed instead?"

"Yes."

Cheng Xiu looked at her in shock.

The violet haired girl smiled. "This is a game. Your death wouldn't have been permanent, unlike the Wild Boss you killed."

Cheng Xiu tried to loosen the grip on her hand. "Wild Boss always returns!"

"This one was special!" Expert Yue told her. "These are continent specific Wild Bosses that only occur once in a year, during the Game Anniversary week."

Cheng Xiu felt her stomach drop. That sounded far more unique. "But…there weren't any special rewards for killing it!"

"Exactly!" the woman in indigo said. "You have to extract the beast core of the Wild Boss not kill it!"

"Wouldn't that kill too?!" San Zhu asked and regretted it as soon as all the experts turned to him. "I'm so sorry. Sister Xiu is sorry too! Aren't you sister?"

Cheng Xiu pursed her lips. She wasn't. She wasn't sorry at all. She did what she had to do to not die. Just because it was a game didn't mean she had to die if there was another way…

But for now, to not actually die, she had to say she was sorry.

"Yes…" Cheng Xiu said, her eyes on the grass blades under her feet. "I do feel sorry…for being in that situation."

Cheng Xiu wanted to bite her tongue. Why did she add that!

San Zhu groaned in frustration.

Expert Yue laughed. "That's great. Brother Crow?"

"It's ready," he said to her.

Expert Yue took out a paper talisman from her sleeves.

The other experts followed her actions.

Cheng Xiu ran towards San Zhu as soon as the violet haired girl let her go.

But before she could make it to him, the AI Maya said something so illogical that Cheng Xiu stopped and stared at the words.

[Ding!]

[You have entered Grandmaster's Arena. Equalizing all stats to 3. All Grandmaster Players in the Arena downgraded to level 10.

Player SelaXiu Veritas upgraded to Level 10.

Starting: Match 1

SelaXiu Veritas Vs Grandmaster Lotus.

Battle Begin!]