194: The New Moon in the Colosseum (Part 1)

After returning to Rome, Lu Chen had an idea.

Taking advantage of the martial arts tournament recently hosted by the Eastern Roman Empire, and since he could not leave this place anyway,

he could take Nita to participate in this tournament and give her a trial.

This was a perfect opportunity.

Having settled on this idea, Lu Chen did not hesitate.

He started searching, then registered!

He registered online first.

Early the next morning.

The hover bus glided over the magic rail above the Tiber River.

Nita's nose was almost pressed against the window.

Below, the golden light of data streams flowed over the dome of the Pantheon in New Rome.

The holographic advertisement at Augustus Square was playing the promotional video for the '233rd Pan-Species Martial Arts Tournament'.

The sparks from the collision between the three-headed Hell hound and the mecha knight splashed into Nita's crimson eyes.

'The electronic registration form requires a blood sample.'

Lu Chen placed his bronze sword case across his knees, his fingertips creating small ripples of hexagrams as he swiped across the holographic screen.

Hearing this, Nita suddenly pulled her body back from the window, her fingertips wrapped in lace gloves trembling slightly as she said:

'Didn't they say modern tournaments use iris authentication?'

'Because the contestants include shapeshifters and mirror demons.' Lu Chen suddenly tapped a spot on the sword case with two fingers.

The jade bottle that popped out of the hidden compartment made Nita's pupils constrict: that was the Saint's blood obtained in the Constantinople dungeon three days ago.

When she saw the man drip the blood into the sampler without changing his expression, she swallowed unconsciously.

Nita's twin tails, tied with dark red ribbons, swayed gently in the air conditioning.

The arena, renovated from the ruins of the Coliseum, was filled with the scent of gunpowder mixed with Demonic Energy crystals.

Nita followed Lu Chen through the security checkpoint at the Arch of Triumph, hearing the crisp sound of metal prosthetics crushing marble behind her.

Six werewolf mercenaries wearing the Medici Family emblem were brazenly eyeing her exposed pale ankles, the eye socket of their leader, embedded with an electronic eye, glowing red,

'An Eastern pretty boy bringing a blood slave to compete? Should big brother teach you how to...'

The voice stopped abruptly!

Lu Chen's sword case had opened by three inches at some unknown point, and the leaking Sword Qi carved fine beads of blood onto the werewolf's neck.

Nita smelled the familiar scent of pine smoke suddenly intensify, and discovered that the man's cuff, embroidered with cloud and thunder patterns, had wrapped around her wrist,

'Article 5, Chapter 3 of the Public Security Management Law: Private fighting is prohibited within a 500-meter radius of the Coliseum.'

'—Next time you won't be so lucky, you stupid dog.'

As he said this, his gaze fell on the surveillance crystal at the top of the passage.

The circular stands around the floating arena were filled with 100,000 spectators.

When Lu Chen brought Nita into the C-zone preparation room, seventeen pairs of eyes pierced toward them simultaneously.

The minotaur, who was maintaining a heavy electromagnetic sword, let out a sneer, the sparks spraying from his nostrils igniting the Demonic Energy particles in the air;

The elf magic archer in the corner stopped wiping his arrows, his emerald pupils reflecting the silver cross on Nita's neck—that was the blood-suppression device Lu Chen had personally put on her this morning.

Buying this thing had cost Lu Chen quite a bit of money.

'The first round matchup list for Group C is out!'

When the mechanical female voice came from the dome, the holographic projection in the preparation room suddenly exploded into countless light particles.

Nita looked at the names 'Lu Chen vs. Oleg Ivanov' floating above the Slavic runes, and heard a vampire noblewoman sneer in her ear:

'Under the Siberian grizzly's thunder battle-axe, Eastern porcelain won't last more than three seconds.'

The tremor when the arena rose made Nita clench her skirt.

She watched Lu Chen step onto the teleportation array, the hem of his black trench coat sweeping across the rune-inlaid titanium alloy floor.

Opposite him, the three-meter-tall grizzly warrior was swinging his battle-axe into a tornado of lightning, the roar from the audience almost overturning the magic shield of the dome.

'Reiterating the rules!'

The electronic referee's voice drowned out the clamor, 'Instant-death spells, restricted-class summoning spells, and... etc. are prohibited.'

It flickered twice as if it had stuttered, then added:

'Also, attacking the audience is prohibited—even if they throw tomatoes at you! This is a formal declaration!'

The moment the countdown hit zero, Oleg's battle-axe, wrapped in a thunderstorm, came slashing down.

Lu Chen, however, closed his eyes and softly chanted, 'The bright moon rises from the Tianshan Mountains, amidst the vast sea of clouds,' and in an instant, the dragon's roar of the tianwen sword unsheathing actually drowned out the thunder.

Nita saw the light particles kicked up by the sword edge condense into a sea of ink-wash clouds, and the grizzly warrior suddenly stumbled, sinking into the mire-like Sword Qi.

The battle-axe smashed into the phantom image condensed from the poetic realm of 'Guan Shan Yue,' and the exploding electric sparks scorched the protective shield.

'The second line.'

As Lu Chen spun, his sword tassel swept across Oleg's bright red nose,

'—The long wind blows for ten thousand miles, crossing the Jade Gate Pass.'

The mocking laughter in the preparation room stopped abruptly.

Nita's crimson eyes reflected the spectacular sight of the cyan sword wind tearing through the thunder!

Those Sword Qi, carrying the poetic imagery of the Tang Dynasty frontier, actually blew the three-ton grizzly warrior three inches off the ground.

When the Sword Intent of 'The Han army descends the Baideng road, the Hu spies on the Qinghai Bay' completely shredded Oleg's protective thunder shield, the sound of the referee's mechanical arm popping out a red card and the roar of the battle-axe hitting the ground sounded simultaneously.

Lu Chen sheathed his sword!

The last thread of cyan light swallowed by the sword case happened to illuminate the frozen expressions of everyone in the preparation room.

Nita noticed that the elf magic archer's quiver was trembling slightly, and her own fingernails had already pierced her palms—just now, when Lu Chen was brandishing his sword, those verses of 'Guan Shan Yue' inexplicably resonated with the ancient ballads she had heard long ago.

Those also came from the distant, powerful, and mysterious Eastern Forbidden Zone.

'Group C, second round, Nita Ventrue vs. Lilith Lasombra!'

The moment she heard her name, Nita felt the blood-suppression device suddenly tighten.

She stumbled and held onto the edge of the teleportation array, hearing the preparation room erupt into laughter even more piercing than before.

The vampire noblewoman walking slowly from the opposite side was wearing a spider-silk gown,

and what she was toying with in her fingertips was a mithril dagger engraved with anti-vampire runes.

'I don't know where some vampire mongrel came from that is worthy of wearing a silver cross? I also don't know if that master of yours gave it to you; it's quite expensive.'

Lilith's voice was like a viper slithering down Nita's spine, and she said coldly:

'—Let me teach you how to use fangs... to kill! Little girl.'

After speaking, she suddenly turned into a bloody afterimage; the surveillance crystal in the preparation room couldn't even capture her movement trajectory in time.

Nita instinctively shrank toward the edge of the arena, her dark red leather shoes scraping a harsh sound against the titanium alloy floor.

She recalled the 'Lingbo Micro-steps' Lu Chen had taught her three days ago, and as her toes touched the ground, ripples from the 'Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River' actually appeared.

Lilith's dagger missed thirteen consecutive times, the sparks scraped onto the protective shield like a falling meteor shower.

'Blood Curse: Scarlet Cage!'

The noblewoman finally stopped her pursuit, and the vampire audience in the floating stands stood up in unison to chant.

Nita felt the air around her suddenly solidify into blood crystals!

In those prisms refracting malice, she saw Lu Chen in the audience closing his eyes to rest, and beside him, a witch in a backless evening gown had appeared from nowhere.

Jealousy ignited the power of shadow faster than fear.

Nita's fangs pierced her lower lip, and the blood-suppression device let out a mournful cry as it was soaked in holy blood.

The moment Lilith lunged with her dagger, she suddenly remembered what Lu Chen had said last night on the dome of the Pantheon,

'—Moonlight is the third fang of a vampire.'