Chapter 19: Wetland Arena
The Mount Dora arena had been cleared by the guards half a month ago. There were very few things inside that could endanger life, and even the B-rank mutated beast Jiang Ning had encountered at the beginning was a rarity.
After the two men were teleported out, although the spores had almost covered their entire bodies, their lives were not threatened.
The rescue personnel had already seen the two eliminated contestants on the screen. They entered the elimination zone with a decontaminant on their backs and sprayed the two with a spore removal agent.
Two hours later, the mycelia wrapped around their bodies were finally completely removed.
The two looked at each other, and unwillingness could be seen in each other’s eyes.
In the arena.
After eliminating the two, Jiang Ning squatted down and picked up the supplies on the ground.
She had discovered after eliminating Han Ping last time that when a contestant was out, their supplies would be left behind in the arena.
She only picked up ten tubes. Jiang Ning handed the other ten tubes of nutrient solution to the woman.
The woman took them with a cold snort.
A kid is a kid, no cunning at all.
However, she did not attack Jiang Ning again and instead walked in another direction.
Three adults ganging up on a child and still losing was already embarrassing enough.
Jiang Ning raised an eyebrow and stared at the woman’s retreating back in a daze.
If the woman had still wanted to attack her just now, she wouldn’t have minded eliminating one more person.
After awakening her ability, she felt that her body had also changed a little.
Not only had her skills become more agile, but even her concentration was sharper than that of ordinary people.
Jiang Ning looked down at the three stamps lying in her waist bag.
This thing was really too easy to find.
She was not in a hurry to go to the wetland arena opposite. She could take some time to collect more things in the rainforest to take back.
The strange flowers and mutated beasts here, even the low-level ones, were rarer than those outside.
Jiang Ning continued to stay in the rainforest for ten days. It was not until she clearly felt that the number of people moving between the several areas was gradually increasing that she decided to stop and prepare to go to other areas.
Jiang Ning put away her blade and flipped off the back of a D-rank gray wolf.
She took out a tube of nutrient solution from her waist bag and drank it all.
Jiang Ning thought to herself: The Spark Organizing Committee is really rich!
Even the nutrient solution prepared for the contestants was 10 star coins a tube. One tube could keep you full for a whole day.
She stored the gray wolf in her nano-ring, and the nano-ring suddenly vibrated with a notification sound.
Jiang Ning glanced at it and realized that the ring was indicating that the storage space was half full.
She sighed in resignation, got up, and walked towards the wetland.
As soon as she stepped into the wetland, her vision began to be obstructed.
A large patch of white fog suddenly appeared in front of her, and she couldn’t see anything clearly.
“I saw this first!”
Jiang Ning fumbled forward. Just as the white fog had dispersed a little, a familiar voice came from a distance.
It was Ke Lai.
“Whoever gets it first, it’s theirs.”
“Don’t even think about it!”
Jiang Ning’s footsteps paused. The sound of shoes stepping on puddles came from far to near.
The footsteps were one after another; the two seemed to be competing.
Her gaze shifted, and sure enough, she found a Spark Stamp representing the wetland arena with a blue background on a nearby leaf.
Jiang Ning picked it up and looked at it.
“Who are you?”
“Jiang Ning!”
Two voices sounded at the same time.
Jiang Ning tilted her head to look. The fog dispersed, and Ke Lai and another plainly dressed youth appeared in front of her.
“I saw this first!” The youth frowned at Jiang Ning.
Those words sounded so familiar.
Jiang Ning raised an eyebrow. “Whoever gets it first, it’s theirs.”
Using his own words against him, Ke Lai gave Jiang Ning a ‘well done’ look.
“Give me the Spark Stamp!” The youth’s face was terrifyingly gloomy, his fists clenched, as if he were enduring something.
Jiang Ning tutted. “How come those words don’t apply when it’s you?”
“Don’t make me say it a second time.” The youth’s face was expressionless as he stared at Jiang Ning.
Jiang Ning frowned. She suddenly felt as if she were being entangled by something, a feeling that made her very uncomfortable.
“Or what?” She irritably picked her ear. It was those words again. The few who wanted to rob her earlier had said the same thing. Jiang Ning’s ears were about to grow calluses.
The youth’s eyes narrowed, emitting a dangerous glint. In an instant, he shot towards Jiang Ning like an arrow released from a bow.
Several wind blades flew towards Jiang Ning without warning. She instinctively dodged.
The youth seemed to be a wind-type ability user.
Jiang Ning turned her steps, preparing to dodge the successive wind blades.
The next second, she felt her heart being squeezed. Her dodging steps paused, and before she could dodge, several wind blades all smashed into her body.
“Jiang Ning!” Ke Lai called out worriedly.
The wind blades cut several gashes in her clothes, and the flesh underneath was also cut. Bright red blood continuously seeped from the various wounds.
Jiang Ning knelt on one knee and looked up at the youth opposite her.
The youth’s eyes were sunken, and his lips were pale. Especially when he activated his ability, Jiang Ning could feel something continuously draining from his body.
That thing was not psychic energy.
She hadn’t seen many ability users. Yan Zhou was the highest-ranked ability user she knew so far, but he showed no abnormalities when he activated his ability.
There was something indescribably strange about this person’s ability.
The youth was going for the kill, which could be seen from the location of the wounds on Jiang Ning’s body.
This person could not be allowed to remain in the arena.
Seeing the youth raise his hand again, a ball of wind condensed in his hand.
“Wait.” Jiang Ning raised her hand in surrender. “I give up.”
The youth descended from the air and quietly sized up Jiang Ning on the ground, the ball of wind in his hand dispersing.
“You’re too strong. I can’t beat you,” Jiang Ning said, blinking. “I’ll give you the Spark Stamp.”
The youth was very pleased with Jiang Ning’s admiration and gestured for her to throw the Spark Stamp over.
Jiang Ning clutched her wound and put on a weak appearance. “I’m injured and can’t move for now. You can come and get it yourself.”
The youth thought for a moment, looking at the two of them warily.
Jiang Ning’s face was gradually turning pale from blood loss, which didn’t seem fake. Ke Lai also had a worried expression, looking as if she would rush over to settle accounts with him at any moment if not for the power gap between them.
His figure moved, and he finally stepped forward.
Two twelve-year-old brats. Even if they were tricking him, he wasn’t afraid.
The youth breathed a sigh of relief, walked to Jiang Ning’s side, and took the blue Spark Stamp from her hand.
A smirk curved his lips.
No one could stop him from getting first place.
Before he could put the Spark Stamp into his waist bag, a circular teleportation array suddenly appeared under his feet.
Immediately realizing something was wrong, he looked up in Jiang Ning’s direction.
Jiang Ning was also staring at him at this moment, and in her hand was his tinder.
Damn it!
He had been tricked.
The youth slammed his fist on the teleportation barrier separating him, his eyes filled with endless hatred as he looked at Jiang Ning.
Jiang Ning felt a chill on her back from his gaze.
Fortunately, the teleportation array activated quickly. In less than ten seconds, the youth was teleported out.
【Qin Shuo’s tinder has been extinguished. He has lost his qualification to compete.】
An emotionless robotic voice echoed throughout the entire arena.
‘Clang—’
More than ten tubes of nutrient solution rolled out of Qin Shuo’s waist bag, along with five Spark Stamps.
Among them were three desert Spark Stamps and two wetland Spark Stamps.
Jiang Ning: “…”
Audience: “…”
Judges: “…”
No one had ever seen anyone play like this.
It had only been ten days since the competition started, and she had already collected all the Spark Stamps in ten days.
No, to be precise, she had collected all nine Spark Stamps in just two days. For the remaining eight days, she had been slacking off.
In the audience stands, no one questioned whether Jiang Ning was putting on a show anymore.
The strength of a lucky king needed no questioning.
Jin Jiu had never encountered such a situation in his commentary career. After being slapped in the face several times, he no longer dared to confidently explain to the audience. He composed himself and, taking the audience’s perspective, said, “The first contestant to collect all nine stamps is born. Will she proceed to the center of the arena next? Let’s wait and see.”
The lucky king, Jiang Ning, did not pick up the stamps on the ground.
She remembered what Ke Lai had told her about the champion being decided internally, so it was useless even if she collected all the stamps and went to the central area.
The wounds on her body were still bleeding, and soon her clothes were completely soaked.
When Jiang Ning stood up from the ground, her vision went black, and her head felt a little dizzy. She hadn’t been entirely faking it when she was dealing with Qin Shuo.
“Jiang Ning.” Ke Lai quickly stepped forward to support her. “The wounds on your body…”
“I’m fine.” Jiang Ning finally managed to steady herself. “I found a few Blood-Clearing Herbs in the rainforest. Crushing them and applying them to the wounds can stop the bleeding.”
Blood-Clearing Herb was a perennial herbaceous plant with a slender pseudobulb. A single plant usually had 3-5 leaves, which were ovate with an acuminate apex, entire margin, and a sheath-like base clasping the stem. It had the effects of cooling the blood, stopping bleeding, clearing heat, and detoxifying.
She had been bitten by a poisonous snake in the wild before, and her mentor had found Blood-Clearing Herb nearby to apply to her wound.
Ke Lai didn’t know where Jiang Ning had learned this. Hearing that it could stop bleeding, she immediately asked, “Where is the Blood-Clearing Herb?”
Jiang Ning made a selection on her nano-ring, and then three herbs with mud still on their roots appeared in front of them.
After asking Jiang Ning how to handle it, Ke Lai picked a few leaves from a better-looking Blood-Clearing Herb, found a hard rock nearby, crushed them, and ground them onto Jiang Ning’s wounds.
Jiang Ning winced in pain.
Fortunately, the Blood-Clearing Herb took effect surprisingly quickly. In less than a quarter of an hour, the bleeding from her wounds finally stopped.
“This thing is not bad. Its effect is similar to the low-grade coagulants sold outside,” Ke Lai’s eyes lit up. “Do you have any more? We can get some to sell.”
Ke Lai had inherited her parents’ business acumen.
“I’m afraid there’s no more Blood-Clearing Herb, but there should be some other plants in the arena,” Jiang Ning said. She had swept through the rainforest arena and had only found these three Blood-Clearing Herbs in total.
The two looked at each other, and their thoughts quickly aligned.
It had to be said that Ke Lai’s business acumen was more than a little better than Jiang Ning’s. Jiang Ning only wanted to get some rare things to take back, while Ke Lai would grab anything of value.
Neither of them paid any attention to the five Spark Stamps on the ground.