The reasons not to die are easy to find, but the reasons one cannot die are not so easily obtained. The former is merely a wish, while the latter is faith. Compared to holding onto hope, the power of faith is often much stronger.
Before falling so low, Luo Shi was a renowned swordsman and the leader of a mercenary group. He was in a relationship with the female mage of the team. Before his imprisonment, they had already been married for over a year, and his wife had clearly told him she was pregnant.
Yet, no one expected what happened before the child was born. A sudden monster attack descended upon their town. All the mercenaries took up arms to accept the mission to repel the assault, but it was a battle between wildly mismatched powers.
The mercenaries were soon reduced to piles of severed limbs and broken bodies, defeated outright. Seeing the situation slipping into irreversible disaster, Luo Shi gritted his teeth and acted as bait to lure the monsters away, all for his wife and the unborn child.
Afterwards, he discovered the monsters were being controlled by humans to attack the town.
Following this lead, he traced the source and eventually appeared before the mastermind, bloodied all over. The culprit was a young man dressed in luxurious clothes, living in a mansion. When discovered, he was leisurely sipping red wine on a plush seat, watching the monster’s point-of-view footage on a screen and laughing heartily.
Without hesitation, the furious Luo Shi severed his head with a single sword strike.
He was just a small player who had offended a very powerful figure. Not long after, he was shackled and escorted by guards onto a slave transport ship. He didn’t care much about these things—he wasn’t particularly afraid of death—but—
It was his wife’s situation that weighed on Luo Shi’s mind. Even though he had warned her in advance and she had hidden, escaping the guards’ pursuit, living alone would be tough for her. Especially with his child still in her womb.
Did he regret it? Sometimes Luo Shi thought he had done too much.
He must live! He absolutely cannot die here. He has to meet her again and say sorry. This is the reason Luo Shi cannot die.
Though the power of faith is immensely strong, able to inspire a withered heart to beat with vitality and bring unprecedented courage, from the current perspective, it still lacks the power to change this terrible reality.
Now, the jangling of keys is the signal for death. Once the nobles have filled the seats of the arena, the deadly fight between slaves and monsters will begin.
The time was roughly nearing noon. Based on previous spectating experiences, the fighters could easily deduce this information.
So, at the expected noon hour, the warden with dark circles under his eyes slowly approached the cells, holding a bunch of keys and unlocking iron locks one by one.
Passing by Tabu, Bai Ya, the girl, and Ren Xin’s stone cells, as well as Leblanc’s, he yawned and moved on without stopping. There was absolutely no need to open these three cells.
Tabu’s stone cell’s west wall had been broken open to allow him to come and go through a large hole, facing Bai Ya and the girl’s stone cell on the other side.
Then came a very familiar déjà vu. The east wall of Ren Xin and Leblanc’s stone cell had also been broken open with a large hole, opposite Bai Ya and the girl’s cell as well.
The warden could imagine how lively Bai Ya’s cell had been at the time, where the escaped slave who had died was held. But unfortunately, hadn’t those “seniors” told her not to try escaping? Or maybe they had warned her, yet she had recklessly gone ahead? It no longer mattered since she was already dead.
He remembered that to help Bai Ya successfully escape, the south wall of Bai Ya and the girl’s stone cell had been smashed into rubble by Tabu.
Along with the iron bars on the northern side of the cell, which had been artificially stretched and twisted to create a space just large enough for an adult man to slip through, the mastermind was Luo Shi with no way to run—because the stone cell he was in was empty at this moment, and the iron bars on the cell door had suffered the same “mistreatment.”
Taking all this into account, it was a sad realization that, in a sense, the stone cell housing Bai Ya and the girl was already destroyed. Holes appeared in all four directions—east, west, south, and north—so what was the point of locking it anymore…
After making a round unlocking the stone cells with his keys, the warden yawned as he called out for Tabu, the girl, and the others to gather. As expected, the strongest slaves in the prison—lecherous Tabu, the lion Ren Xin, blood-handed Leblanc, imprisoned swordsman Luo Shi, and the girl—all emerged from Bai Ya’s stone cell one by one… though something seemed off about the last one, which could be ignored.
“It’s time to move out.”
Once everyone was assembled, the warden stroked his stubble calmly as he spoke, looking at these slaves who were either ferocious or pitiful.
After saying this, the warden turned around and led the way. His back was completely exposed to the slaves, and unlike before, no guards bearing weapons were there to intimidate the slaves into moving forward. At this moment, they could be considered free.
No guard followed behind; the warden was alone, leading them toward the arena, appearing easy prey for slaughter.
The slaves were restless, itching to act, but in the end, no one dared to make a move. They had long been dulled by suffering, and Ren Xin gave Luo Shi a look, asking if he wanted to strike. Luo Shi shook his head.
He thought for a moment and realized that this warden was an exceptionally formidable man.
The warden was just an ordinary man, but he was truly brave, fearless of death, and respectful toward slaves.
Someone like him would be too great a loss if killed. Besides, killing the warden served no purpose. If killing the guards could save them, they would have done it already. Trying to escape on the transport ship was simply unrealistic—just look at Bai Ya’s fate!
There was only one way to survive: no matter what, they must kill that cannibal! Luo Shi signaled his companions to stay calm and conserve their strength for the upcoming battle.
Soon, the slaves walked out of the dim dungeon. While passing through the corridor leading to the arena, the warden thought of something. His mother had once told him that in this world, there is no high or low status, only differing stances. Those who think themselves noble are not truly noble. Only those with strong hearts deserve respect—that is true nobility.
When the iron bars separated him from the slaves, he slowly pulled a lighter from his pocket and lit a cigarette. Watching the floor through the flame, he seemed to mutter quietly to himself.
“Keep fighting to survive.”
The grand cheers welcoming the fighters drowned out this insignificant blessing. Apart from the girl, who turned back in surprise, no slave realized what an incredible thing had just been said.
The final deathmatch in the arena had begun.
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