3: New Identity - Night Raven

Like the Dragon King's wrath, a sudden torrential rain fell.

Stinking piles of garbage could be seen everywhere.

Severed limbs were faintly visible within them.

The Furnace Fighting Arena was one of the powerful factions in Dragon City.

There, strength was king.

Of course, losers had no human rights.

There was a special mark every certain distance along the road.

Following the marks would lead to the Furnace.

After turning a few corners and arriving at an entrance, Zhou Xing saw several people burning corpses.

These corpses were all "losers" of the fights.

Zhou Xing took out a grayish-black token, which had dropped from the bald man who had been crushed to pieces earlier.

He had asked a middleman before coming and learned it was the pass to enter the Furnace Fighting Arena.

After seeing the token, the people silently made way.

At the end of the passage was an old-fashioned elevator.

Zhou Xing swiped the gray token and stepped into the elevator.

"Buzz!"

The elevator started and plunged downward for a full ten seconds before finally stopping.

This depth was already far beyond the normal range of buildings, making Zhou Xing more vigilant.

When the elevator doors opened, a heatwave mixed with a thick smell of blood rushed toward him.

At the same time, infrared lasers locked onto Zhou Xing's vital points.

Before him was a vast space with iron cages hanging from the ceiling, all filled with scarred Awakened Ones.

"Welcome to Furnace Fighting!"

A male receptionist not far away saw Zhou Xing, walked over, and bowed.

The pupils behind his gold-rimmed glasses glowed an unnatural blue; he was likely an inferior Awakened One who had forcibly fused with a divinity fragment.

Awakened Ones in this world were divided into two types: those who awakened naturally by fusing with a divinity fragment and could level up normally.

The other type forcibly fused with a divinity fragment with the help of technology to awaken abilities, requiring regular doses of divinity stabilizers to maintain physical stability.

These people were collectively known as inferior Awakened Ones.

To level up, they could only forcibly fuse with identical divinity fragments through various modification methods, which had an extremely high mortality rate.

Zhou Xing nodded, his gaze sweeping over the announcement on the giant electronic screen in front of him:

Today's Odds TOP 3

1. Luo Jin (King of Combat) 1:1.1 (late tong yuan stage)

2. Li Mei (Blood Rose) 1:3.2 (late tong yuan stage)

3. Lane (Optimus Prime) 1:5.7 (late tong yuan stage)

"Are you here to compete or to watch?"

The receptionist asked, looking at Zhou Xing.

"To compete," Zhou Xing said in a low voice.

"Welcome to the Furnace family. Before competing, we need to perform a simple test on you. Please follow me."

"Ding—"

The testing equipment buzzed continuously.

Zhou Xing withdrew his palm from the divinity testing plate, which still bore traces of frost and scorching.

"An Awakened One with both ice and fire attributes? Truly rare. I haven't seen a multi-attribute fuser in a long time."

"Mid Tongyuan Realm, very good!"

The person in charge of testing was a buck-toothed old man. He was looking at the data while constantly sizing up Zhou Xing, his face full of smiles.

He then handed over two paper contracts.

"Sign this 'Furnace Life and Death Contract' and buy an accident insurance policy. Remember to fill in the beneficiary."

After a careful look, Zhou Xing signed the life and death contract and wrote down his sister Zhou Keer's name as the beneficiary of the accident insurance.

It stated that in the event of an accident, Zhou Keer would receive a one-time compensation of five million.

However, Zhou Xing knew that if something happened to him, no amount of money would be useful to his sister.

"Pick a mask. If you fail, someone will take it off for you."

The old man pointed to various masks in a box not far away.

Zhou Xing chose a black mask.

The arena arranged opponents of decent strength for Zhou Xing, so the rewards were naturally very generous.

As long as Zhou Xing killed an opponent, he could receive a cash reward of one million.

Half an hour later, Ring No. 3 of the Furnace Fighting Arena.

The surrounding stands were already full, and the crowd suddenly erupted as the iron cage descended onto the ring.

In the Furnace Fighting Arena, there were only life-and-death battles, and for Zhou Xing to qualify to challenge Luo Jin, he needed five consecutive victories.

The first opponent the arena arranged for Zhou Xing was codenamed "Wind Chime," with the strength of the Mid Tongyuan Realm.

She was a young woman with a ponytail and three alloy short knives at her waist.

And the codename Zhou Xing gave himself was "Night Crow."

The moment the host announced the start of the battle, her figure suddenly split into three, attacking Zhou Xing from different angles.

Then, a flying knife tore through the air like lightning. Zhou Xing quickly dodged.

But he heard a soft "clink."

The flying knife that was about to pass by seemed to be controlled by a transparent chain, which suddenly pulled taut at that moment.

It scratched Zhou Xing's collarbone.

A second flying knife followed immediately after. Zhou Xing was forced to lean back to dodge.

But the invisible chain actually wrapped around one of Zhou Xing's arms, and the blade left a wound on his arm.

At this time, a third flying knife was silently only three inches away from Zhou Xing's throat.

At the critical moment, his frost ability activated!

The sound of "crackling" ice rang out as the Frost Power continued to spread.

The invisible chain connecting the flying knife became sluggish, escaping Wind Chime's control.

This allowed Zhou Xing to narrowly avoid the fatal blow.

Zhou Xing took advantage of the opening and flashed in front of Wind Chime.

He delivered a palm strike to the side of Wind Chime's neck.

However, at the moment it was about to hit, Wind Chime suddenly opened her mouth and spat out a compressed air vortex.

"Pfft!"

Zhou Xing spat out a mouthful of blood.

The close-range air blast sent both of them flying back.

The audience couldn't help but let out cries of surprise.

As Zhou Xing's back slammed hard into the cage mesh, Wind Chime's figure did an elegant flip in the air.

She landed slowly.

Wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth, Wind Chime said, "To make me use 'Reverse Breath,' you're quite capable, but unfortunately..."

Before she could finish, Wind Chime grabbed her throat in terror, frost patterns appearing under her skin.

It turned out that Zhou Xing had already infused his Frost Power into the blood mist he had sprayed earlier.

Now, that Frost Power was spreading wildly through Wind Chime's respiratory tract.

Zhou Xing flashed over and accurately struck her carotid artery with his palm. Wind Chime fell straight to the ground.

Soon, she stopped breathing.

At the same time, a divinity fragment did not directly emerge from her corpse.

Not every Awakened One drops a divinity fragment upon death.

Especially for inferior Awakened Ones, mostly due to the instability between the divinity fragment and their bodies.

Upon sudden death, the divinity fragment would dissipate directly rather than drop.

However, for the system, it was possible to collect divinity fragments with 100% certainty.

The system popped up once again:

[Ding! Obtained "god of wind control" fragment (15%)]

[Extracted Abilities: 1. Wind Resistance Lv.1 (Reduces Wind damage by 15%)]

[2. Gale Step (Beginner)]

...