Chapter 123

Chapter 123

Hu Xiaotian sent the puppet he controlled straight toward Yang Ruoyu.

His fingers flew nimbly, releasing and drawing back, continually changing the strings that guided it. Obeying his will, the puppet raised its blade and slashed viciously at Yang Ruoyu.

She had no choice but to retreat repeatedly, evading the attack.

Fortunately, the strike was not too powerful, and she was not hurt.

After steadying herself, she stared hard at Hu Xiaotian behind the puppet. The puppet was only a substitute. Unless she killed the person controlling it, defeating it would mean nothing.

She had no intention of continuing to grapple with it. Instead, she went around it and rushed toward Hu Xiaotian at tremendous speed.

Hu Xiaotian’s own power was not strong. Against an Innate Spirit’s close-range attack, he could only take a beating.

All she needed was to close the distance and attack at close quarters.

But Yang Ruoyu knew this, everyone present knew this, and naturally, Hu Xiaotian himself knew it too.

So when she changed targets, he responded accordingly – closing all ten fingers, he yanked the puppet backward.

Like a frog springing backward, it landed precisely in front of Yang Ruoyu, blocking her path.

The puppet raised its blade and attacked her again.

Yang Ruoyu frowned and held her longsword horizontally to block.

However she moved, the puppet intercepted her, shielding Hu Xiaotian completely, leaving no gap in his protection.

Without getting rid of the puppet, she could not even approach him, much less kill him.

With no alternative, Yang Ruoyu was forced to fight it.

Rising strikes, thrusts, horizontal slashes – she used everything she had to attack the puppet.

Clang, clang, clang. Blade met sword. Sparks seemed to fly through the air, and Yang Ruoyu found it harder and harder to cope.

Her sword could pierce the puppet without causing it pain, but its blade could hurt her when it struck.

A cut had already drawn blood from her arm.

Yet she still had not reached Hu Xiaotian.

Seeing this, Xie Qingling moved her lips, but made no sound.

To her, Hu Xiaotian’s puppet was very easy to deal with. If she were in this match, she could finish it in five minutes.

The puppet had been built according to the structure of a human skeleton. Its mechanical movements were also much like those of human bones and joints. In other words, to Xie Qingling, it was merely a skeleton without muscles to protect it. With such a clumsy thing, she only needed to find a way to jam or dislocate its elbow joint, and it would no longer be able to move its blade.

Jam its knee joint, and it could no longer move.

There was no need to waste so much time fighting it. Find the few crucial joints, deprive it of its blade and mobility, and the outcome would be settled.

But not everyone could easily dislocate a person’s joints completely as she could, or know where to insert a blade to sever fascia and ligaments effortlessly. Yang Ruoyu could only hack at the puppet’s arm, strike after strike.

…Wait.

Xie Qingling’s gaze suddenly sharpened. She realized something was wrong.

The place Yang Ruoyu was attacking… was the puppet’s elbow joint!

Just now, she had risked being struck by its large blade to test whether its joints could be damaged.

She must have tried to strike the joint, but failed. So she had settled for the next best thing, hacking away furiously to destroy it, launching fierce attacks at the joint.

Her strikes might not be as swift, ruthless, and precise as Xie Qingling’s, but at least she had already identified that spot!

On the other side, Hu Xiaotian’s expression was gradually darkening too.

He kept controlling the puppet to fight back, but its weakness was exposed. It was only a matter of time before its defense broke. In the end, Yang Ruoyu severed its arm with a slash.

The large blade fell to the ground. She picked it up and hurled it hard at the puppet’s ankle. This time, it jammed on the first try.

The puppet could no longer fight and posed no further threat.

Yang Ruoyu rose into the air again and rushed straight at Hu Xiaotian, her longsword aimed at his neck –

One slash to take off his head, and the match would end.

But a wisp of smoke drifted past, followed by another crack. Hu Xiaotian had released another puppet.

It grew in an instant. In the blink of an eye, Hu Xiaotian appeared dozens of meters away, far from Yang Ruoyu.

Once again, he had narrowly escaped a strike, finding a way out of certain doom. Yang Ruoyu’s attack hit empty air.

Some spectators could not help sighing at the sight. They all felt a surge of despair on her behalf.

“A Puppet Master won’t bring just one puppet,” Ling Fang said. “Sorcery grants these puppets special abilities. They can be released instantly while pushing the Puppet Master out of the fight and beyond an opponent’s control. It’s a very powerful means of staying alive.”

Hearing this, even Shen Huaizhou, who had been watching silently, could not help commenting, “Puppet Masters are hard to deal with.”

“But easy for you, aren’t they?” Xie Qingling glanced at him.

“Yes,” he said. “My throwing knives can ignore the puppet and attack Hu Xiaotian directly. If only I were in this match.”

Xie Qingling wholeheartedly agreed. “I was thinking the same thing.”

The two exchanged a resigned look, feeling that neither of them had very good luck.

In the arena, Hu Xiaotian had already released his third puppet.
With her first success to guide her, Yang Ruoyu did not take long to destroy the second puppet either.

Against the third, she was even more adept.

Though she had many wounds and her face was growing pale, the more she fought, the braver and calmer she became, as though she knew neither exhaustion nor how to stop.

Hu Xiaotian, however, was beginning to struggle.

Controlling puppets required stamina too. And… he had no more puppets left.

Yang Ruoyu cut off the puppet’s arm with her sword. Sparks burst from the blades as they met.

The third puppet fell too.

Seeing this, Ling Fang shook his head. “Hu Xiaotian’s puppets are wooden. They aren’t powerful enough or hard enough. I’m afraid he’s going to lose. He had a firm advantage before, but unfortunately, his control techniques aren’t good enough. Instead, he’s let Yang Ruoyu find a chance to turn the tables and kill him.”

Opportunities were always fleeting. If you failed to seize your moment, it would be very hard to turn things around again.

As the three reflected on this, a strange thought suddenly occurred to all of them: why were the Future City department’s members so well versed in how to win fights?

The three puppets in the arena were giving off showers of sparks, half crouched on the ground, looking thoroughly pathetic.

Hu Xiaotian could release no more.

Yang Ruoyu stared at him. “Keep going.”

Hu Xiaotian gritted his teeth and released the Wooden Oxen and Flowing Horses again.

“Is that your limit?” Once she was certain he would produce no more puppets, Yang Ruoyu moved too.

Pointing her longsword, she shouted, “Wind!”

Suddenly, a hurricane sprang up from the ground.

The immense force of the wind overturned all the puppets and Wooden Oxen and Flowing Horses in the arena, then sent them spinning into the sky.

Spectators in the surrounding stands could not keep their eyes open against the fierce hurricane. Their hair flew chaotically across their faces, their clothes snapped in the wind, and they almost got swept into it.

[Commanding winds from all eight directions and governing the weather of the four seasons, the Wind God works with the gods of thunder and rain to nurture all living things and oversee the seasons’ changing weather. Born of nature, the Wind God topples houses and flattens crops. People also regard the deity as a fearsome god and dread its arrival.]

This was Yang Ruoyu’s ability.

Wind.

Earlier, she had supported herself with wind. That was how she could remain steady in the air as though walking on solid ground.

Xie Qingling’s eyes lit up.

Ling Fang was right. Watching others fight helped one’s own progress and growth. There were many lessons to draw, much knowledge to gain, and many personal benefits.

An idea was already beginning to take shape in Xie Qingling’s mind.

Wherever the hurricane passed, it swept up dust and loose soil, obscuring the view. Those below could no longer see clearly how the two in the arena were fighting.

The gale howled past, carrying yellow sand, and lasted a little over ten seconds. When it stopped, Hu Xiaotian was already lying in a pool of blood.

As the wind and sand dispersed, Yang Ruoyu’s figure gradually emerged too. Sword in hand, she stood at the center of the storm, her face cold as frost and expressionless.

Qi Tiansheng jumped into the arena and announced loudly, “First match: Yang Ruoyu wins.”

The two External Doubles gradually vanished, and their consciousnesses returned to their real bodies.

Hu Xiaotian opened his eyes, rubbing his shoulder and thumping his back, and looked miserably toward Wangsun Huahua on the dais. He felt terribly sorry. He had still embarrassed the Technology R&D Department.

Though he had no blessing and winning or losing made no difference to him, losing a fight was still upsetting.

On the dais, Wangsun Huahua had lost her initial enthusiasm for cheering him on. Yet she did not look especially sad either. She was still perfectly content, as though it had not been her own child who lost. She merely turned to Fu Zihua. “Director, our Technology R&D Department has it so hard. Every year, whenever there aren’t enough people, ours get pressed into service. I demand a dutiful participation award for the members of our department who enter the arena.”

Fu Zihua considered this, then looked at Yang Baduan. “What do you think?”

Yang Baduan answered crisply, “No.”

Angrily, Wangsun Huahua delivered an ultimatum. “No dutiful participation award, then our Technology R&D Department won’t enter the second match!”

“But we’re still one person short for the second match,” Yang Baduan said.

“Yes, I know we’re still one person short for the second match.” Wangsun Huahua’s lovely eyes shifted toward Yang Baduan, who sat as immovable as a bell. Her words were barbed. “Our great Director Yang, our selfless Director Yang, our Director Yang who cares nothing for empty fame, our Director Yang who finds it so easy to talk when he’s not the one doing the work – why not lead by example and enter a match yourself?”

As she petted her cat, the bells on her wrist jingled. With smiling eyes, Wangsun Huahua spoke as though she were being entirely reasonable. “Otherwise, Director Yang, you spend every day dealing with paperwork and neglect your exercise. Your bones are getting old, your tendons stiff. That does your health no good at all.”

Yang Baduan looked at her steadily for a few moments, his expression clearly darkening again. But just as Wangsun Huahua waited for whatever bullshit reprimand he would deliver, he nodded. “All right. I’ll fill in for the second match.”

“…”

Even Fu Zihua gave him a surprised look. He had meant to say it might not be appropriate, but on second thought, Yang Baduan was not very strong in actual combat. It would not count as bullying the newcomers. So he gave his tacit approval.

The Directors on the dais settled this major matter as casually as could be. The newcomers competing below had no idea that one of them would come face-to-face with Yang Baduan.