835: Chapter 835: The Second Round Begins!

When Ye Chen returned to the Xuanyuan Family's base, Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai was sitting in his wheelchair, brewing tea.

The ice house was warm and cozy.

Seeing him lift the curtain and enter, Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai tilted his chin. "You're back? Sit down and have some hot tea to warm yourself up."

Ye Chen didn't stand on ceremony and plopped down onto a cushion.

Then, he took the teacup handed to him by Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai, gulped down a mouthful, and let out a comfortable puff of white vapor.

"Brother, have you heard about the rules for the second round?"

"No restrictions on methods, no restrictions on alliances, no restrictions on combat..."

"It's clear they intend for it to be a bloodbath."

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai stroked his beard and nodded. "I have naturally heard about it, and there is one more thing I must tell you."

"Hmm?"

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai set down his teacup, his expression becoming more serious. "The locations of those tokens are not placed randomly; they were decided upon by the major powers and placed by hand."

Ye Chen raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"They say this is the rule from the first Antarctic Martial Arts Tournament."

"The locations for hiding the tokens in the second round are jointly determined by representatives of all participating powers and then placed by people personally."

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai paused, his tone deepening. "In other words, those people from the Bai Family, the Qianji Sect, and Guixu have long since tampered with the locations of the tokens."

Yan Qingwu, who was following beside Ye Chen, frowned slightly.

"Isn't that clearly digging a pit for Ye Chen?"

"Are all the tokens being placed in locations disadvantageous to him, or perhaps even directly inside an encirclement?"

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai did not deny it. "It is highly likely."

He looked at Ye Chen. "Brother, how do you plan to handle this round?"

Ye Chen held his teacup and took another gulp. "It doesn't matter."

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai was stunned. "It doesn't matter?"

"Where the tokens are placed, who placed them, or how they were placed makes no difference to me at all." Ye Chen set down his teacup and grinned. "Besides, the rules didn't say we couldn't steal from others."

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai blinked, then immediately understood his meaning.

"Are you planning to..."

"Since they hid the tokens so well, I won't bother looking for them." Ye Chen spread his hands. "I'll just wait for others to find them; whoever finds one, I'll just reach out and take it, won't that work?"

Yan Qingwu let out a "pfft" of laughter. "Wait... isn't this cheating?"

"This is called tactics; how can you call it cheating?"

Ye Chen corrected her with a straight face. "The rules explicitly state there are no restrictions on methods, so me 'borrowing' someone else's token is reasonable, legitimate, and compliant with the rules."

Xuanyuan Ji stood behind Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai with a cold expression, but the corners of her mouth twitched slightly... She almost couldn't hold back a laugh. This guy was just too wicked!

If he wants to rob people openly, he should just say so, but he insists on putting it so nicely, talking about borrowing or whatever...

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai was already laughing so hard he was slapping the armrests of his wheelchair.

"Hahahaha! Good! Good! As expected of my brother! This is a brilliant idea! Let them search, and you just intercept them halfway..."

"Satisfying! Extremely satisfying!"

Ye Chen laughed along with him, and after he finished, he asked casually, "By the way, Brother, is anyone from the Xuanyuan Family entering the arena tomorrow? If there are, I should avoid them to prevent accidentally hurting our own people."

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai waved his hand.

"You don't need to worry about that."

"The Xuanyuan Family only arranged a few young disciples to go through the motions this time; they are purely here to gain some experience and don't have much competitive power."

"Ji also didn't sign up."

"She said she was afraid of competing in the same arena as you and losing, which would be embarrassing."

Upon hearing this, Xuanyuan Ji snorted coldly. "Grandfather, I am not afraid."

"Ah, yes, yes, yes, you're not afraid." Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai dismissed her with a smile, clearly not taking his granddaughter's rebuttal seriously at all.

Ye Chen nodded.

"That's fine. With no one of our own in the arena, I can let loose."

"By the way, Brother, you still need to help me pass on a word; let the Ning Family and the Tantai Clan know, and tell them to try not to enter the arena either."

"If I happen to run into them, I'm afraid I won't be able to hold back."

After all, he had taken half their clan's gold back then, so giving them a heads-up would avoid accidental injury. Otherwise, he would be in a difficult position...

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai let out a sigh.

"You don't need to remind me; those two families aren't participating."

"I already spoke to them days ago, telling them that this round would be your solo performance and for them to clear the stage."

Ye Chen was stunned. "Brother, you've already spoken to them for me?"

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai raised an eyebrow.

"Otherwise? Did you think I was just sitting here drinking tea all these days?"

How could he not know about the trouble Ye Chen caused? It was precisely because he knew that he notified the other two families to avoid "our own people" fighting our own people. After all... having lived for so long, he had long seen that this so-called tournament was actually aimed at Ye Chen.

Ye Chen felt a warmth in his heart and raised his teacup. "I will keep this kindness of yours in my heart, Brother."

"Spare me that empty talk."

Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai waved his hand. "You just fight well; beating those bastards from the Bai Family and Guixu until they are looking for their teeth on the ground is the greatest reward for me."

Ye Chen smiled particularly brightly. "That's a must. Don't worry, Brother, in this round, I will definitely show them what's what."

"Good! Then this old man will just wait to watch the show." Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai picked up his teacup and toasted Ye Chen.

Ye Chen also raised his teacup, and the two clinked them in the air before drinking it all in one gulp.

Outside, the Antarctic gale was still howling, while the copper stove in the ice house burned brightly. Amidst the flickering firelight, the dancing flames were reflected in the depths of Ye Chen's eyes. Tomorrow, the show begins.

At noon the next day, the Antarctic ice sheet was once again packed with people. Although the second round was taking place on the ice sheet itself, the stands around the venue were still crowded with spectators. Because many people understood... the second round was the real competition!

The starting location for the second round was set on an open expanse of ice to the north of the main venue. Dozens of helicopters were neatly lined up on the temporary landing pad. The contestants who advanced to the second round arrived one after another.

When Ye Chen and Yan Qingwu arrived, the crowd automatically made way for them. It wasn't out of awe, but because the shadow left by yesterday's one hundred wheel battles was too deep...

"They all brought quite a bit of equipment, and you're empty-handed?" As Ye Chen's "secretary," Yan Qingwu sized him up and realized that this guy wasn't bringing anything. Fine. Even if it was a curb-stomp match, he couldn't be this "arrogant," right?

Ye Chen shrugged. "I have a few talismans in my pocket; that's enough."

Yan Qingwu rolled her eyes and couldn't be bothered to argue with him.

At this moment, the old referee climbed onto the high platform again and shouted at the top of his lungs. "The second round, the Ice Sheet Pursuit, the rules were explained yesterday and will not be repeated."

"All qualifiers, please board the aircraft one by one—one person per aircraft, random deployment; once you land, remove your blindfold and you may begin."

"The entire competition will last for three days, and the ranking will be based on the number of tokens held; the top sixteen will advance to the third round."

He paused and added another sentence. "I wish you all... good luck."

The crowd became restless, and some people had already started walking toward the helicopters. Just as Ye Chen was about to step forward, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned his head and saw it was Mo Yuan. Mo Yuan had changed into a black martial outfit today, with a short blade hanging at his waist, and his expression was even colder than it had been at the venue yesterday.

As he passed Ye Chen, he didn't stop walking, only dropping a single sentence. "I hope you can last three days."

"Same to you." Ye Chen replied with a smile. "Don't die too early, lest you miss seeing the Saintess become my concubine."

Mo Yuan's footsteps paused slightly, and anger flashed in his eyes and vanished. The next second, he didn't look back but walked straight toward one of the helicopters.

Ye Chen grinned, greeted Yan Qingwu, and walked alone toward the helicopter indicated by the old referee. Before boarding, he turned and waved toward Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai in the stands. Patriarch Xuanyuan Hai, sitting in his wheelchair, gave him a thumbs-up from afar.

Ye Chen turned and ducked into the cabin. The cabin door closed, and the engine's hum gradually rose. The helicopter's body shook twice and slowly lifted off the ground. He was the only person in the cabin, with a black blindfold placed in front of him and a note attached next to it. "Do not remove before landing; violation will result in automatic disqualification."

Ye Chen picked up the blindfold, put it on casually, leaned back against the seat, and began to rest with his eyes closed. After the helicopter took off, it began flying south. About forty minutes later, the helicopter began to descend. Immediately after, the cabin door was pulled open from the outside, and cold wind rushed in all at once. "We have arrived." The pilot's voice followed.

Ye Chen took off the blindfold, stood up, walked to the cabin door, and looked down... Beneath his feet was a vast, white ice sheet, endless, with not even a reference point in sight. The helicopter hovered about two meters above the ground, and Ye Chen didn't hesitate; he jumped straight down.

As soon as he landed, the helicopter flew back the way it came and quickly disappeared into the horizon. The surroundings suddenly went quiet. Ye Chen let out a breath and looked around. "Tsk tsk, this drop-off is remote enough. Could those people have dropped me near a trap location?"

He took out his phone and checked; there was no signal. It was expected; there couldn't possibly be base stations in the heart of the Antarctic. Ye Chen tucked his phone back into his pocket and walked in a random direction. But after walking for nearly thirty minutes, he still hadn't discovered anything...

Just as Ye Chen was wondering if he had been dumped in the middle of nowhere, a place where not even ghosts would come, his peripheral vision suddenly caught something moving behind a small ice hill about twenty meters to his left. "Hmm?" "Finally, something alive!" He immediately lifted his legs and walked straight over.