Chapter 121: On the Eve of the Finals

As the morning sun rose, Miss Jasmine, the correspondent from Dark Star Television, arrived outside the arena of this year’s martial arts tournament finals, accompanied by her entire broadcast crew and equipment. She began conducting live interviews with the crowd waiting outside, eager for standing tickets to the next day’s final.

“Hello everyone, I’m Jasmine, correspondent for Dark Star Television. It’s my pleasure to bring you this exclusive coverage from Fairy Island, just outside the finals arena of the Dark Martial Arts Tournament. As you can see, the area is already packed with spectators lined up for standing tickets to tomorrow’s finals. The atmosphere here is absolutely electric! Cameraman, please pan across the crowd for us… Yes, just like that.” After switching the screen, Jasmine gestured for the cameraman to circle around the spectators.

The crowd consisted of monsters from all over the world, all vying for a scarce number of standing tickets. Many had camped out here for days in advance. Some eccentric attendees even brought pots, pans, and cooking tools to prepare meals on-site. Others had set up televisions on the ground, flipping through channels endlessly. A few sat before laptops, typing away as if responding live to their fans online, their expressions serious and focused. Spotting the camera, these monsters—some sitting, some standing—sprang to their feet, showing off their most wondrous expressions for the broadcast. Jasmine, a little embarrassed, had to awkwardly divert the camera away from their faces to quickly move on.

To pass the time while waiting in line, these monsters employed every imaginable pastime: playing chess, sipping tea, card games, chatting, hula hooping for fitness, and jogging around the arena perimeter. After surveying the scene, Jasmine returned to the entrance of the tournament.

Standing before the camera again, Jasmine addressed the viewers watching from home: “It’s less than 28 hours until the finals begin tomorrow. As you’ve just seen, the enthusiasm of the crowd outside is tremendous, with a veritable sea of people. The passion for attending the finals in person is truly unstoppable. But to better convey this excitement, let’s hear from some of the fans waiting in line.”

“Excuse me for interrupting. What luck! You’re first in line at the standing ticket checkpoint. Such a rare spot—may I ask when you began queuing here?”

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, a vampire-like monster with two sharp fangs sat up from under his blanket. Hearing he was being interviewed, he instantly perked up. For an obscure little monster like him, appearing on television, visible to monsters worldwide, was a tremendous honor—a story he could boast about to his partners or children for years. Clearing his throat and tidying his neatly parted hair, he grabbed the microphone Jasmine handed him and replied clearly, “About two weeks ago.”

“Two weeks!? That’s impressive! How did you spend all that time? How did you watch the matches?”

“That’s nothing. Those matches can be watched on TV broadcasts. True fans, like me, live only for the finals. I’ll let you in on a secret,” the vampire said, pulling the camera closer to his face with a serious expression. “I was also at last year’s finals—and I even got to taste the meat of a contestant crushed by Sikong Lang! Heh heh, you can’t imagine how delicious that was!”

He licked his lips, savoring the memory of the bloodied flesh of a powerful opponent. Facing the camera, he continued, “Tomorrow, I’m here again, holding this prime spot just to taste Qin Xiaochuan’s flesh. Getting as close to the arena as possible is key.”

At this, the vampire suddenly grew excited, snatching the microphone from Jasmine’s hand and pointing at the cameraman’s lens, shouting, “Hey! Qin Xiaochuan, did you see that? Tomorrow, your head’s gonna get smashed open and your brains turned into a human keg! Are you ready for that, you worthless human trash? You big fool!”

“Ha… ha ha…” Jasmine forced an awkward smile at the camera. The monster’s words were so blunt it was almost salivating-inducing. After all, this was being broadcast live via satellite to viewers worldwide. But judging by this live energy, the ratings were sure to skyrocket—and the prize money this month would be fantastic, she thought, giggling.

But this vampire was not alone in his passion. Seeing the TV crew, many monsters gathered around, shouting at the camera in unison:

“Support Sikong’s team! Beat Qin Xiaochuan and his crew to a pulp!”

“Smash Qin Xiaochuan’s team!”

“We back Sikong’s team!”

“Let Qin Xiaochuan and his gang starve on the northwest wind!”

“We want to see Qin Xiaochuan and the others dead!”

“Go Sikong’s team!”

“I’ve bet everything I own on Sikong’s team. You must win!”

“Long live Sikong’s team!”

“Long live Sikong Lang!”

“Die, Qin Xiaochuan!”

“I’ll kick your head like a ball!”

“Qin Xiaochuan’s team will lose!”

“Sikong’s team will win!”

“Support Sikong’s team!”

“Kill Qin Xiaochuan and his crew!”

...

“The enthusiasm of the crowd lining up here is truly remarkable,” Jasmine said after finally escaping the horde, leading her cameraman to a quieter grove. From the distance, the monsters’ passionate shouts still echoed. Wiping sweat from her brow, Jasmine resumed her report for the camera: “Undoubtedly, support overwhelmingly favors Sikong’s team over Qin Xiaochuan’s. We’re all eagerly anticipating tomorrow’s finals! Additionally, the finals will be broadcast live by our Dark Star Television’s Demon Star satellite. Please tune in by noon tomorrow for the live broadcast. This has been Jasmine reporting live from the vibrant scene.”

“Click…” The television was switched off with the remote. A corpulent middle-aged man with a neatly parted hairstyle turned to Mr. Yujing, who was seated on the sofa.

“Heh, as you can see, Mr. Yujing, this martial arts tournament has been quite the success,” the man said with a sycophantic smile, clasping his protruding beer belly awkwardly. “If your team wins again, the prize—forty-five percent of the tournament’s revenue, nearly eighty trillion dollars—will flow directly into your pocket. This privilege belongs exclusively to the winning team’s sponsor. Such a fortune is beyond our wildest dreams, heh heh. You’re truly remarkable, Mr. Yujing! We can’t even bring ourselves to envy you.”

“In the Demon Realm, that sum wouldn’t even cover the cost of building an administrative hall,” Mr. Yujing remarked, inhaling his cigarette calmly. His complexion was good, for the plans he had set in motion would become reality after this tournament.

As both organizer of the Dark Martial Arts Tournament and sponsor of last year’s winning team, Mr. Yujing had amassed vast wealth beyond ordinary imagination through successive sponsorships. Beyond privileges like venue selection, broadcast station choice, and participant invitations, the winning team’s sponsor received forty-five percent of the tournament’s prize pool.

“That kind of money would be unimaginable in the human world,” the fat man continued. “I recall previous sponsors using their winnings to become dictators of entire nations or to pursue eternal life. People do all manner of bizarre things. But you’ve repeatedly been the winning sponsor without making any moves. Why, Mr. Yujing? Do you have some other, more special plan?”

Exhaling a plume of smoke, Mr. Yujing fixed the man with a steady gaze. “I want to dig a hole.”

“A… a hole!?”

“Yes, a super big hole.” Nestling the cigarette between his fingers, Mr. Yujing gestured with both hands as if shaping the dream he’d long nurtured, now on the verge of realization. A rare hint of satisfaction flickered across his usually impassive face. “A massive tunnel connecting the border between the Demon Realm and the Human Realm. Traveling between the two is inconvenient—it requires electromagnetic forces to create a brief spatial distortion just to pass through. Opening even a fist-sized portal artificially costs nearly two hundred million dollars. That’s why only weak monsters can cross into the human world—the portal is simply too small.” He took another drag of his cigarette and added, “It’s unfair, isn’t it? If we could maintain a passage large enough for even the most evil monsters, the world would become far more chaotic—and far more interesting.” Tapping his temple thoughtfully, he said, “That’s what I intend to do. The combined winnings from previous tournaments and this one will make it possible.”