Chapter 124
Chapter 124
Thirty-eight people entered the Selection Tournament. Nineteen matches would produce nineteen winners for the second round, which would then begin.
According to Ling Fang, Qi Tiansheng’s External Double allowed five matches a day. Nineteen matches, plus Ling Fang’s opening bout, would take exactly four days.
Judging by the efficiency of Yang Ruoyu and Hu Xiaotian’s first match, if the matches went quickly enough, each day’s tournament could finish in the morning. Everyone could spend the rest of the day doing what they normally did, without delaying other important work.
After the first match ended, Qi Tiansheng jumped back into the arena, called two names, and announced the start of the second match.
A man and a woman leaped into the arena and bowed to each other. Without so much as a polite remark, they drew their weapons and began fighting.
Xie Qingling knew neither competitor this time, but still watched with great interest.
The female competitor was probably from headquarters. Her attacks were vicious, their angles tricky, and her aim very good, though her hit rate was lower than Xie Qingling’s. Hers seemed more like an instinct for combat honed on the battlefield, rather than professional skills developed through years in a dissection room as Xie Qingling’s had been.
The male competitor opposite her was no slouch either. His defense was excellent. His weapon was a shield, which he used to attack as well as to mount a solid defense.
This was a heavily defensive, tank-type fighter.
The heavy shield, combined with his powerful attacks, made things difficult for the woman. They fought for about half an hour. In the end, her strength gave out, and the thick shield smashed her to death.
Xie Qingling frowned and gave an involuntary shiver.
The woman’s approach was much like her own. If she herself met such a tank-type opponent, with strong defenses and so much staying power, she would find him difficult to handle too.
Ling Fang realized this as well. Turning, he warned them, “Someone with defenses that strong is a counter to both of you. Xie Qingling, you excel at ambushes and one-hit kills, but your ability to escape and protect yourself isn’t very strong. If you’re caught, you’re done for. Shen Huaizhou, your throwing knives can’t break through his shield. You can only use illusions to beguile him, then look for an unconventional way to attack. But his defense has no gaps. Even illusions might be difficult.”
After a pause, he frowned. “Both of you need to think carefully about how to face an opponent like that. Otherwise, if you meet him in the second round, you’ll be caught scrambling with no plan.”
Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou nodded to show they had taken it to heart.
Next came the third match.
It lasted a long time and was rather interesting.
Two male competitors faced each other.
One was from the Medical Department. His ability let him rapidly grow seeds into many plants.
The other had a summoning ability, allowing him to call different animals into battle.
The summoner opened by calling forth a fierce tiger, which charged straight at the man from the Medical Department.
The latter gave a cold snort and scattered a handful of seeds. In the blink of an eye, the empty arena was filled with neat rows of towering trees.
Tree beside tree formed an impregnable wall, protecting the Medical Department’s competitor.
The tiger clawed furiously at the bark with its forepaws, roaring in anger at the trees blocking its path.
Unfortunately, it was a conjured tiger. However furious and frustrated it became, it still could not climb trees or break through this line of defense.
The summoner had no choice but to recall it.
At that moment, the Medical Department’s competitor attacked.
He scattered another handful of seeds and rapidly made them grow. Vines as thick as arms swiftly climbed the trees’ trunks, crossed the wall, and attacked the summoner’s face.
The summoner inevitably took several lashes on his hands. As he dodged the vines awkwardly, he called forth a giant eagle and shouted, “Go! Attack from above!”
The eagle sped away, passed over the giant trees, and circled down from the air, its eyes fixed on the Medical Department’s competitor.
He scattered another handful of seeds, growing a huge man-eating flower in front of himself, its gaping maw wide open.
Whenever the eagle tried to dive, the flower suddenly stretched its neck and opened its enormous mouth, poised to swallow the eagle whole if it dared approach.
For a while, animals and plants flew about all over the arena. It was like a botanical garden and a zoo combined, wonderfully lively, with more to see than the eye could follow.
The match lasted a long time. Both could be considered summoners, and neither had much personal attacking power. Each was trying to wear the other down and see who gave out first.
Once someone could no longer hold on, the one who endured would win.
In the end, the Medical Department’s competitor won.
The spectators had watched nearly an hour of an animal free-for-all, yet remained thoroughly enthusiastic.
Then Ling Fang sighed. His brows slightly drawn, he said, “That was a very inelegant win. He used practically every trick he had. That’ll leave him at a disadvantage in the next round.”
Xie Qingling paused at his words, then nodded privately in agreement.
Though the Medical Department’s competitor had won, he had ultimately been forced to use poison – poisoning must have been his specialty. He had used it in the very first round. Even with a victory, once people knew his trump card, it would be hard to spring a dirty trick in later matches.
Yang Ruoyu was another example.
By now, Xie Qingling knew that she used a sword and that her ability was a hurricane. Those two known facts alone were enough for Xie Qingling to begin planning how to deal with her if they met in the next round.
Revealing one’s ability too early was not a wise strategy in this tournament.
No wonder those who had finished their matches did not leave. They too intended to gather information about their opponents. Know yourself and your enemy, and you need never fear defeat.
“Whatever the ability,” Shen Huaizhou said, “it’s always most frightening when the opponent doesn’t know about it.”
“There’s one last match today. If you’re called up, remember to hold something back. Don’t expose every card you have and let people see through you,” he said.
He had barely finished when Qi Tiansheng called loudly from the arena, “Fourth match: Xie Qingling and Lin Shutong, please enter the arena.”
Xie Qingling: “…”
Shen Huaizhou: “…”
The next moment, Xie Qingling’s External Double appeared.
Her real body closed its eyes, and her consciousness connected to the double. She controlled it to leap into the arena.
This body was quite nice to use, she thought.
Lin Shutong also guided her External Double into the arena.
They stood facing each other.
Xie Qingling glanced over her opponent and instantly identified her – a newcomer from the Medical Department.
Lin Shutong wore a uniform with green trim, making her easy to recognize.
What offensive skills did people from the Medical Department have?
Ye Anran used needles. The previous Medical Department competitor could make plants grow.
This Lin Shutong looked like a very delicate young woman. What would her divine ability be?
Something related to medicine.
Internal medicine or surgery?
Internal medicine – poison? Surgery – would she, like Xie Qingling, know the human body very well and excel at swift close-range killing?
In the blink of an eye, Xie Qingling had already deduced a great deal of information and many possibilities from her opponent’s uniform.
Clearly, information was an important part of a tournament like this too.
If possible, she should end it quickly and not waste too much time. The more time she spent, the greater the chance of exposing her hidden cards.
Since she could not determine whether it was internal medicine, surgery, or something else, she would take a gamble.
Even if it failed, she still had other means.
Xie Qingling took out the Yinshan Ghost Token she had picked up earlier and gave Lin Shutong a faint, cold smile. “Hah. My Yinshan Ghost Token does not slay nobodies. If you die at my wraith soldier’s hands today, you can count it as good fortune earned in your previous life!”
A wraith soldier?
A ghost token?
The names alone sounded chillingly sinister. Why did someone in the department have such an uncanny divine ability?!
Lin Shutong’s expression hardened. Drawing two short blades from behind her back, she said coldly, “Bring it on!”
She used twin blades too.
Probably a fellow practitioner, Xie Qingling thought.
Xie Qingling gave a soft snort and began muttering, as though reciting some extremely complex incantation. But she was too far away for anyone to hear exactly what she was saying.
In the stands, Ling Fang’s and Shen Huaizhou’s eyes were already full of amusement. They could barely keep from laughing aloud.
Tang Yuanxiao did not understand, but was profoundly shocked.
He hurried over. “What? Why is Xie Qingling acting like some muttering mystic? Yinshan Ghost Token? What the hell is that? Why don’t I know about it?”
“There’s plenty you don’t know,” Ling Fang said mildly. “Well? Finding us annoying again?”
Tang Yuanxiao: “…” So annoying!
Actually, Ling Fang did not know where Xie Qingling had got the Yinshan Ghost Token either. But he knew her divine ability and methods so well that he had a rough idea of what she wanted to do.
After her bout of mystical muttering, the Yinshan Ghost Token released a surge of black-and-red energy. It turned into a faceless humanoid in a black cloak, standing before her.
Having seen a summoner fight, Lin Shutong took one look at this thing and formed a rough idea of Xie Qingling’s approach.
Another summoner, apparently.
Generally, summoners like this relied on other objects to fight, while their own bodies were fragile. All she needed was to get close and attack; it would not take long to kill her.
Having analyzed the situation and settled on a plan, Lin Shutong rushed straight at Xie Qingling with her blades.
She did not avoid the black figure. A summoner would generally not let her succeed on the first try, so she simply pressed straight ahead. It was a good chance to test what these shadows could really do.
As Lin Shutong sprinted across the arena, the shadow rushed over too, about to meet her.
She raised her hand high and swept her blade across. It felt like hitting air – no, it was hitting air, because the shadow had scattered under a single slash!
What was going on?
Did it have no attacking power at all?!
Was it that weak?
Lin Shutong was stunned.
She stared at the empty arena before her, unable to react for a moment.
No. Something was wrong.
The shadow was gone.
But where was Xie Qingling?
Why had she disappeared too?
As Lin Shutong realized this, a stabbing pain came from her spine. A sharp, slender blade cut through a gap between the bones. Two cuts, one above and one below, carved out the section of her spine beneath her cerebellum.
Lin Shutong crumpled to the ground. The blade in her hand still stabbed backward instinctively, but Xie Qingling used her palm to deflect the attack. At the same time, she seized Lin Shutong’s wrist and drove Lin Shutong’s blade into its owner’s heart.
Three strikes. Less than five minutes. One fight finished.
Apart from Lin Shutong herself, the spectators had not even processed what had happened.
This was the fastest match of the day.