Chapter 410: 405 Chapter 410: 405 “Calm down, Leon.” Muria shook his head somewhat amused. “My recruitment of geniuses to form a Demon Hunting Knight Regiment is completely a response to the current situation. As a Demon Hunter, you should have felt it, right? The air is filled with an aura of evil and brutality.”

“I felt it, the stench of the devil.” Leon looked around, frowning. “A powerful devil, and it’s stayed here before.”

“How come I can’t sense any aura of the devil?” Muria suspiciously looked at Leon. Although he had summoned Mels several times in this place, every time he did, Mels would carefully conceal his aura, and after leaving, Muria would purify the area. It was unlikely there would be any leftover scent.

“If we only hunted demons based on aura, we Demon Hunters would be pretty lame.”

“Then what do you use to track them?” Muria asked, somewhat curious.

“Gut feeling!”

“A kind of sensory ability similar to a sixth sense?” Muria was surprised. This was like the instinctual perception ability of beasts, but most humans have lost this ability over the years.

Only by embarking on the extraordinary path could it reawaken. However, Leon’s perception ability was far superior, even compared to beasts. After all, Muria had personally purified this place, and he himself could no longer detect any traces left by Mels, the Abyss Refining Demon.

“Yes, it’s a perception ability given to us by the Demon Hunter Armor.” Leon replied.

“Hmm, I think I get it.”

“Prince Mureya, I think it’s very necessary to thoroughly investigate this major devil that appeared. I’m afraid it has already peeked into a lot of classified information.”

“Cough, Leon, no need to investigate. This big devil is my minion and its life is in my hands.” Muria explained, somewhat helplessly. If Leon’s professional obsession leads him to Mels through his inexplicable gut feeling, and then chased after Mels, this almost legendary level devil, it would be pretty awkward.

“You use a devil as your subordinate?” Leon frowned deeper. As a man of moral integrity, he found it hard to understand why a Golden Dragon, famed for punishing the wicked and promoting the good, would have such a creature.

“I’m half a mage.” Muria raised his palm, and a golden Dragon Flame came out, forming a fireball the size of a football, with Thunder coursing through it. Its power was impressive. “Is it strange to enslave a devil?”

Muria considered himself as a just Dragon Mage. He knew of many mages who could summon demons, particularly those who enjoyed summoning Succubi or Lust Demons for their own amusement.

“But that’s a devil that tempts intelligent creatures to fall.”

“Under me, it is just an obedient hunting dog that will follow my every command.”

“Okay, if there comes a day when it escapes your control, I will definitely kill it, without stopping until either of us is dead.” The surviving Demon Hunters are now different from those rigid knights of the Demon-hunting Era — they have learned to compromise and adapt. They understand that they can’t allow their standards to restrict other beings; such things are unrealistic.

“You won’t need to do that. If it breaks free from my control and misbehaves, I’ll be the first to not spare it.” Muria replied coldly.

…

Under the watchful eye of countless spectators, after sign-ups and preparations for the martial arts competition, which took one and a half months, and after two months of preliminary and semi-final matches, it has finally reached the final stages.

Four full months after Muria started preparing for the martial arts competition, he fulfilled his promise; each final match was simulcast to every city in the Lockman Kingdom so everyone could watch.

The scale was as grand as his inauguration ceremony when he took power, with no difference. It was a massive expenditure: that time it was a one-day event, but this was an extremely large-scale competition with nearly two thousand participants, all of which would be broadcasted live, effectively burning money.

But fortunately, the foundations of the Lockman Kingdom could support this kind of spending, even if it was somewhat costly. It was a good thing that Muria, typically a “spendthrift,” didn’t know the meaning of thrift when using things that weren’t his.

The finals were still a one-on-one knockout system, one loss meant direct disqualification, with no room for recovery. Muria’s competition rules were just that brutal.

Winners rise, losers leave. Some were unlucky, in their first match, they faced opponents like Leon who had the capability to win. And they were eliminated.

Their loss , write it to bad luck at most. However, the biggest reason was their strength was lacking. If they had a supreme strength among their peers, who would care about their opponents’ identity?

For example, Yingdila who was put by Muria into the contest for children under ten didn’t care who her opponent was. She only knew when she stepped into the ring, she would throw a punch, and then her job was done.

Because the match was already over.

As it was that simple and crude, there was no one under the age of ten in the Lockman Kingdom who could challenge Yingdila.

The only thing Yingdila needed to be careful about was to estimate the strength of her opponent before the match, to control her own power so it was within their capacity to withstand, so as not to accidentally kill someone with a single punch.

If Yingdila really went all out, it would be a massacre, which Muria would not tolerate.

In the beginning, some people were dissatisfied and complained about Muria pushing Leon and Yingdila to the finals. But as the competition progressed, as Leon and Yingdila continued to achieve victorious results in an overwhelming manner, these people closed their mouths. However, another argument came up.

They argued that the Lockman Kingdom Martial Arts Competition was for residents of the Lockman Kingdom and outsiders should not participate. Yet, Yingdila and Leon were Muria’s people, not Lockman Kingdom residents, therefore they were not qualified to participate.

Muria, of course, completely ignored these arguments. Simply put, some people were scared by Yingdila and Leon’s fighting power, thinking they had no chance of winning in the arena.

Then they thought of various weird methods outside the arena to try to influence the competition and disturb them. Their wish was for Muria to cancel their participation directly.

No matter what the people outside the arena were thinking, Muria ignored them all. Instead, he did everything he could to maintain the process of the “Golden Dragon Cup” martial arts competition, not permitting any external disturbances to affect any of the participants.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read