Chapter 300: Chapter 300. The New Underground Arena

Gao Pan was relaxing in an oversized chair, which he liked to call his throne. He was inside his headquarters. Unlike the Demon Gang, who preferred to keep its hideouts hidden, Highwaymen were like the Street Aristocrats, who had their base out in the open.

The Highwaymen even had their headquarters at the same place as Street Aristocrats’ previous headquarters. The building, however, was different. The old building had been completely demolished and rebuilt following Gao Pan’s wishes.

Unlike the previous building, a tower, the current headquarters was wider and consisted of only two floors. They forcefully bought the land next door to increase their headquarters’ size. They also dug and built a basement under their headquarters. The basement was three floors deep.

Gao Pan’s throne was on the lowest floor of the basement. It oversaw a wide hall with an arena at its center.

Ever since the Sewer Snakes were disbanded, the underground arena had gone out of business. Gao Pan wanted to build his own underground arena but couldn’t get the permit. In the end, he still constructed his underground arena, except it was not legal. It didn’t provide a match against spirit beasts. The process of acquiring spirit beasts and housing them for matches took too much effort and resources. Without the kingdom permit, it was impossible to do. The matches he provided were only between cultivators.

The upper two basement floors were arenas for the public. They hosted daily matches where spectators could place a bet. The Highwaymen received a fee for facilitating the bet.

The arena in the uppermost basement had matches for novices. Everyone could join, and everyone could watch.

The arena in the middle basement was for experienced fighters. Only those who had gained popularity in the upper arena could fight in this second arena. Winners received rewards. Spectators needed to pay a fee to watch the match here.

As for the lowest basement, where Gao Pan’s throne was, it hosted a private arena only a selected few might enter. One needed to be an exclusive member to become one of these selected few. A monthly membership fee was charged to these exclusive members. In return, they could watch and bet on the most high-profile matches available in this place.

These high-profile matches were between the champions from the middle basement and were fights to the death. With this type of match, the spectators had more confidence in placing a bet because the matches were unlikely to be fixed. Who was willing to lose their lives, after all? It was a fight for survival between two cultivators. Both participants would give their all to survive.

Currently, Gao Pan was sitting leisurely on his so-called throne while watching one of these fights to the death. On both his sides were two bare-chested girls leaning onto his bare-chested body. One of them was giving him a cup filled with wine to drink.

He drank the wine and then threw it onto the floor. “What the hell kind of fight is this? It has taken too long. One of you die already!”

“It is indeed a boring fight. They are both too careful and afraid to die,” said a man standing beside Gao Pan. This was his right-hand man, Yu Jin. The one who had the Beginning Mystic cultivation. “Our customers are getting bored as well.”

“Hmph!” Gao Pan was dissatisfied with the situation.

“How about you fight them, my lord? I have long wanted to witness your might,” One of the entertaining girls in his embrace said.

“Huh? That’s a great idea! Haha!” Gao Pan rose from his throne and leaped into the arena.

The two fighters in the arena were startled when Gao Pan suddenly landed between them. They didn’t move, unsure of what to do.

Gao Pan stared at them with a sneer. He then addressed the spectators, “My valued customers! I apologize for the lackluster performance of these two. For that, I’m changing the format of this fight. It will now be a battle between me and these two! A new bet will replace the old one. The aer stones you have used for the old bet will be refunded. The new bet is in how many minutes I will defeat these two.”

“What? This is not what I signed up for. I quit!” One of the fighters exclaimed.

He and his original opponent were at the Intermediate Transformation Stage. They knew Gao Pan was an Intermediate Mystic Stage cultivator. Even if they worked together, there was no chance for them to win. He immediately walked toward the exit, but a group of Highwaymen surrounded the arena, preventing him from leaving.

“You… You can’t do this!” The fighter panicked.

“Hehehe. I certainly can,” Gao Pan laughed. “But all right. To show you I’m a fair man, let’s do it like this. I will give you a chance. If you can survive against me for ten minutes, you will be considered the victor and can walk away with the reward.”

Gao Pan turned to the audience again. “Of course! This will be in the bet as well. You can bet for them to survive ten minutes against me. If you place this bet and it happens, your win is doubled!”

The spectators started murmuring. Many rushed to the bookkeepers to start placing bets.

The two original fighters looked at one another. They knew they had no choice but to play along. It was that, or they fought their way out through all the highwaymen in all three floors of this headquarters’ basement. Their chance wasn’t good for the former, but the latter was a sure suicide move.

Hence, they conserved their energy and waited. They meditated to recover the stamina they lost during the bout.

When the bookkeepers finished recording all the bets, a gong was sounded.

“Haha! Ready to die?” Gao Pan asked the two fighters.

The two rose and put up a fighting pose. Their faces were grim.

“Tell you what. I will give you more advantage. You can use weapons, while I will start empty-handed. What kind of weapons do you two prefer?”

“… Sword,” one answered.

“Spear,” the other said.

“What a coincidence, I use a spear,” Gao Pan uttered. He took out the spear from his space ring and threw it at the one who asked for it. He then turned to his subordinate and demanded, “Give him your sword!”

After the two were equipped with weapons, they looked more confident.

“Hehe, the time has started since the gong sounded, so you only need to survive another nine more minutes,” Gao Pan said.

A few spectators protested after hearing that because they bet Gao Pan would win within the first minute.

“Ready or not, here I come!” Gao Pan exclaimed. His large body shot forward. A trail of rock clouds followed in his wake.

The two fighters knew they were not Gao Pan’s opponents. But since they had weapons, they weren’t afraid to clash directly. They thrust their weapons forward. Gao Pan jumped into the air just before the sword and spear arrived.

The rock cloud created in Gao Pan’s wake continued to follow him into the air. From there, Gao Pan thrust his two arms. The rocks around him shot down like speeding bullets.

The two fighters were alarmed by the display. They hurriedly performed martial arts using the weapons in their hands to block the sudden incoming hail of rocks.

The swords and spears clanged with the rocks. While Gao Pan’s spear was high quality enough to withstand the speeding rocks, the sword wasn’t. It broke after several impacts. The remaining rocks punched into the fighter holding the broken sword. He didn’t even have the time to scream before the rocks punctured him full of holes.

Some spectators cheered, while some booed. A clear sign of who had won and lost the bets.

“One down!” Gao Pan exclaimed as he shot downward.

The fighter with the spear was distressed by his partner’s demise. It was not even half the ten minutes yet. How could he survive alone?

In his worry, his movements became dull. He couldn’t keep up with Gao Pan’s faster movements. Gao Pan caught him and grabbed the spear in his hand. With a yank, the spear was taken forcefully. Gao Pan then brought the spear thrusting back into his belly.

“But… but… You said… you don’t use weapon…,” The fighter asked in between his pained breaths.

“No. I said I start empty-handed,” Gao Pan corrected. He grabbed the man’s head and crushed it using his bare hand.

Gao Pan put up both his arms after his victory. “Do you all enjoy that?” He shouted. The spectators clapped and cheered in response.

He enjoyed the sound. This was why he built this underground arena. He used to fight in the capital’s underground arena after he was disowned by the Gao Clan. It was his rise in that arena that attracted the Gao Clan into proposing him to join their underworld force.

The clapping and cheering finally subsided, but everyone still heard a fierce clapping from a direction. Gao Pan turned in that direction and saw Gao Lan there.

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