Chapter 856: 50 Surrenders If Liu Jie continued to win and emerged as the final victor of the Martial Stage, Gao Feng would be able to win second place with his one win. Gao Feng could not help but start giggling with glee. It was impossible to surrender the chance to challenge the Martial Stage without fighting. Otherwise, Gao Feng would not have been so nervous in the beginning. The 10th challenger took one step onto the Martial Stage and surrendered without even summoning any feys. After admitting defeat, the 10th challenger looked anxiously at Liu Jie as though he was afraid that Liu Jie would not agree to the surrender. Liu Jie was not a cruel person, so he did not object to the surrender. Once the first challenger admitted defeat, a string of challengers clambered to step onto the stage to surrender as well. A total of 75 disciples of veteran and top factions were participating in the Martial Stage. After the wave of surrenders, less than 10 challengers were left. Among those who were left was Du Shuo, who had insulted Liu Jie but ended up being saved by Liu Jie. Du Shuo was like the head of the remaining challengers. Du Shuo took a deep breath as he looked at Liu Jie on stage and walked onto the Martial Stage. When Zuo Ming saw Du Shuo step onto the stage, he scoffed and announced, “The 61st battle of the Martial Stage shall begin.” Liu Jie had not had to move a muscle for the past 50 matches. All he had done was nod in agreement to the challengers’ surrenders. This made Liu Jie feel like he was just standing on the stage like a silly block. Liu Jie was slightly taken aback when he saw his current opponent because he not only knew this opponent but also had a prior confrontation with him. As good-natured as Liu Jie was and even though he had told Zuo Ming not to do anything to Du Shuo, Liu Jie had still been left with a bad impression of Du Shuo. Just as he was about to instruct his insect colony to strike, Du Shuo shouted across the Martial Stage, “Young Liege, please stay your hand. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to you. I should not have run my mouth and insulted you. You were kind enough to forgive me and did not punish me for my transgression, but I still feel that it’s necessary for me to apologize to you.” Du Shuo maintained his bow the entire time he was speaking and only lifted his head once he was done, with a look of sincerity in his eyes. He was truly grateful that Liu Jie had decided against punishing him. Otherwise, he would have already been chased out of the Midnight Palace. Moreover, Du Shuo also knew that the confrontation outside the Midnight Palace had taken place in front of many veteran and top factions. There was no way he could hide the incident, and his elders would eventually find out that he had spoken out of turn against Chief Guard Ye’s disciple. Rather than waiting to receive punishment from his elders when they found out about his mistake, it was better for him to admit it now and take responsibility for the entire incident so as to not implicate Fang He. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦 If he was lucky enough to receive Liu Jie’s forgiveness, his punishment would be lighter when he returned to Furnace Stone Metal. Liu Jie’s masked face was composed after he heard what Du Shuo said. “No problem. I didn’t take the matter to heart, and there’s nothing to forgive. I hope we’ll have more opportunities to interact in the future.” Du Shuo clenched his fists and looked at Liu Jie with gratitude. From Liu Jie’s words, it was clear that Liu Jie did not hold any grudges about the confrontation, so it was as though the confrontation had never happened. Essentially, there would be no need for Du Shuo to receive punishment from his elders when he returned home. Liu Jie’s last words had been an olive branch, meant to express his hope of turning from enemies to friends. However, Du Shuo knew that despite being a main member of one of the ten top factions, his status was far below Liu Jie’s. Du Shuo admired Liu Jie’s magnanimity, and he thought back to how he had come up with the attrition battle tactic to gang up on Liu Jie. “Young Liege, I was planning on using the attrition battle tactic to attack your Blade Worm colony and reduce their numbers, but I didn’t expect that your insect colony only grew stronger,” said Du Shuo awkwardly. Liu Jie gave a nonchalant smile. Without the attrition battle, he would not have been able to build his battle formation as easily as he had. Zuo Ming had been annoyed when he noticed Du Shuo and his peers persuading the other challengers to use the attrition battle tactic against Liu Jie. However, Zuo Ming did not expect Du Shuo to be so honest as to tell Liu Jie about the attrition battle tactic. This slightly changed the way that Zuo Ming viewed Du Shuo. At that moment, Zuo Ming saw Gu Lang walking out of the long corridor leading to the Art Stage’s location. Zuo Ming was utterly astonished. He knew better than anyone how difficult the Art Stage was because he had checked through every topic being tested. The topics were meant to be tedious so as to test the Creation Masters’ overall skills, and none of the questions should be completed with ease. In order to ensure that the Arts Stage and Martial Stage ended at the same time, the Arts Stage’s topics also necessitated a large final production quantity. The Martial Stage was about to end, but that was because Liu Jie had been the second person to enter the Martial Stage and had been dominating it since then. Moreover, 50 of the challengers had surrendered immediately, and it had only been half an hour since the Martial Stage began. This meant that Gu Lang had only taken half an hour to complete his topic for the Arts Stage. This speed was unimaginable! No wonder Gu Lang was Lord Bamboo Monarch’s disciple! The Bamboo Monarch did not look surprised at all to see Gu Lang finish the Arts Stage first. Nonetheless, the Bamboo Monarch still felt it was a shame that Gu Lang was not participating in the Martial Arts Stage. The Bamboo Monarch was the one who had set the rules for the Martial Arts Stage, and he had made it so that it would be suitable for his disciple’s fighting style of fighting with waves of attacks. Gu Lang made a beeline for Zong Ze. When he saw the way that Zong Ze was staring intensely at the Martial Stage, Gu Lang could not help but knock on Zong Ze’s half-armor. Gu Lang sighed when he realized that his knocking had not woken Zong Ze up from his trance at all. Although Zong Ze was strong, his battle fanaticism would likely be a disadvantage to him in the future. Gu Lang knew that he would not be able to change Zong Ze’s personality, but he truly hoped that someone who could would appear. Otherwise, the impulsive Zong Ze would never be able to work in a team and would never be able to become a Radiance Envoy.