Chapter 125
Chapter 125
The girl from the Medical Department lost her life to a blade without making a sound.
The fight was over.
Planting his staff against the ground, Qi Tiansheng leaped into the arena. He gave Xie Qingling an astonished look, then announced loudly, “Fourth match: Xie Qingling wins!”
She had won. Everyone knew Xie Qingling had won, but no one knew how.
Everyone was mystified.
She looked like a summoner, yet was not one. First, the spirit she had summoned was too weak, vanishing under a single slash. Second, her own attacking power was too great, taking down her opponent with one strike. None of this fit a summoner’s characteristics.
On the dais, Gu Liansheng began coughing violently and almost spat blood.
It took him a long while to catch his breath. Whether to comfort himself or save face, he offered an explanation for Lin Shutong. “Compared with Xie Qingling, Lin Shutong is still too green. Her own strength is good. Unfortunately, she had terrible luck this time and met an opponent who was too strong. She’ll have to wait for the next Selection Tournament.”
Hearing this, Fu Zihua nodded too. “This newcomer called Xie Qingling is rather interesting.”
“Her short blades are double-edged. She attacks without defending. Clearly, she’s the type to seize the offensive…” Here, Fu Zihua turned to Ye Chaoyun. “By the way, what’s her divine ability?”
Ye Chaoyun paused as well. She thought carefully, but could not come up with an answer.
Judging by the token Xie Qingling had produced, she seemed to be a successor of the Yinshan School.
But since she could enter the Selection Tournament, she had to be an Innate Spirit.
That, in turn, made her seem unlike someone from the Yinshan School.
Ye Chaoyun could only shake her head. “I don’t know yet.”
Everyone froze for a moment, suddenly realizing that this Xie Qingling had actually fooled even all the Directors with what they had seen.
No one knew what her divine ability was!
Fu Zihua could not help chuckling. “This newcomer is rather interesting.”
“She’s one of Ling Fang’s people,” Gu Liansheng said.
At that, everyone fell silent again.
Amid the Directors’ silence, the first day of the Selection Tournament ended.
The three elders had already left headquarters. The other Directors departed one after another too. But spectators remained in twos and threes, gathered together to discuss something.
As Xie Qingling left the arena, Tang Yuanxiao rushed over, his face full of excitement and curiosity. “Hey, Xie Qingling, how did that move of yours work? Tell me! I swear I won’t tell anyone else.”
Though he had spent plenty of time with her lately, he really did not know much about her ability. Apart from sparring while teaching her martial arts, he had never seen her use her divine ability. Only today had this suddenly occurred to him. He immediately felt he had missed out on too much, and his curiosity was tormenting him.
Tang Yuanxiao had brought his two newcomers, neither of whom had competed yet. Xie Qingling did not quite trust him, but they did have some friendship, so she said, “It was an illusion.”
“I’m an illusionist,” she said. “The shadow you saw at the beginning was only an illusion I created. It wasn’t real. I deceived every one of you.”
Tang Yuanxiao paused. She continued, “While everyone’s attention was on the shadow, I took the chance to go around behind her and ambush her. I was fairly lucky. It worked on the first try, and then I won.”
When she finished, Tang Yuanxiao frowned for a while, apparently thinking.
After a moment, understanding dawned on him, and he praised her loudly. “Good. Very good! I understand your move. All’s fair in war!”
Xie Qingling nodded emphatically.
Having obtained inside information, Tang Yuanxiao left in high spirits.
Shen Huaizhou looked at Xie Qingling and praised her too. “Nicely done.”
“Hehe.”
Ling Fang: “…”
Perhaps the brains Tang Yuanxiao lacked had been divided evenly between these two before him. He had better warn Tang Yuanxiao more often not to play with them unless necessary.
Otherwise, they would sell him out and have him helping count the money.
Ling Fang shook his head helplessly. “Let’s eat first.”
The three entered the cafeteria together, greeted by curious, probing looks from everyone.
Ling Fang and Xie Qingling had just stolen the show in the arena. Walking together already made them quite conspicuous. And with Shen Huaizhou beside them, who had not competed yet but drew just as much attention, they were even more so.
Realizing the three of them had become everyone’s focus, Ling Fang swallowed what he had meant to say.
As they ate, he asked only one question. “Shen Huaizhou, have you worked out how you’ll fight when you enter?”
“I have.” Shen Huaizhou nodded, perfectly composed.
“Good.” Ling Fang did not worry further, merely lowering his head to eat quietly. A while later, something else occurred to him, and he reminded them, “You can visit the Technology R&D Department and see whether there are any suitable tools you can exchange points for. Tools aren’t restricted in the arena. As long as you have enough points, you can get any tools you want.”
That evening, after his patrol shift, Shen Huaizhou visited the Technology R&D Department and returned with a weapon.
The next day, the Selection Tournament resumed.
The three elders were not there today. Fu Zihua did not come either.
Not all the other departments’ Directors were present. Only two people sat on the otherwise sparse dais.
One was Wangsun Huahua. The other was Yang Baduan.
Today, it was Shen Huaizhou’s turn to compete.
He fought in the third match. His opponent was a Spirit Wielder from a regional city, holding a bow with no arrows.
Shen Huaizhou held a weapon too.
A silver spear.
He had obtained it from the armory. It was just a very ordinary silver spear, cheap enough to cost almost no points.
The moment he entered, he pointed it at his opponent and taunted, “I’ve used a spear since childhood. My ability is called Spear Soul. You won’t be a match for the true skill I’ve honed day after day for decades. You’d better surrender!”
His opponent smiled coldly. “We’ll see who surrenders!”
With that, he drew his bow, shooting an arrow that appeared from thin air.
Shen Huaizhou blocked it with his spear. With a metallic ring, the arrow spun and embedded itself in the ground. The arena’s floor tiles cracked.
“Really dangerous. Your ability is strong,” Shen Huaizhou said.
His opponent gave a cold snort, wasting no more words, and fired a second arrow.
The two began fighting in the arena.
Watching below, Tang Yuanxiao was speechless.
He could not help running over to complain to Ling Fang. “What spear since childhood? What Spear Soul? What is all this nonsense? Can your people fight properly or not?”
Ling Fang merely said, “All’s fair in war. Just keep watching.”
So Tang Yuanxiao only grunted and said no more.
True skill honed day after day for decades? Why did that sound so familiar?
Though Shen Huaizhou’s fundamentals were better than Xie Qingling’s, Tang Yuanxiao vividly remembered him shamelessly stealing lessons only days ago. He found this talk of decades of true skill hard to believe.
However stupid he might be, even Tang Yuanxiao had worked it out. Everything coming out of Shen Huaizhou’s mouth was a lie. Anyone who believed him was a fool.
Who knew how badly that poor opponent would be deceived? How pitiful. He would not even know how he lost.
Fortunately, neither newcomer from his squad had faced these two. Otherwise, they might have been traumatized.
Ah, right. His newcomers had not run into either of them! Other spectators might be completely fooled, but he was close enough to know the inside story. He wasn’t fooled!
With that thought, Tang Yuanxiao instantly relaxed. Once again, he settled into enjoying the show, happy to watch the match.
The contest in the arena had reached fever pitch – they had already exchanged dozens of moves.
One attacked with arrows; the other defended with a spear. For the moment, neither could gain the upper hand.
“Ten Thousand Arrows Unleashed!” the archer shouted, drawing his bow and firing several arrows at once.
In an instant, arrows rained down across the sky like falling raindrops, leaving nowhere to dodge.
The dense shower descended from above, surrounding Shen Huaizhou completely.
With such a tight encirclement, one careless hit would leave him waiting to be turned into a pincushion.
Shen Huaizhou spun his spear in a beautiful flourish, blocking every arrow about to strike him.
He showed no sign of distress. He only defended, and waited.
When the archer was about to use Ten Thousand Arrows Unleashed a second time, Shen Huaizhou finally acted.
“Veil of Darkness.” As he spoke, pitch-black darkness covered the archer’s eyes.
He could see nothing.
Losing the use of his eyes, losing his sight, was fatal for an archer.
The arrows he fired lost their aim, scattering wildly, crooked and off course. Quite a few even flew toward the spectators’ stands.
The sudden arrows sent everyone scrambling. They hurriedly revealed their respective divine abilities to block them and avoid getting hurt.
When the spectators had dealt with the danger to themselves and looked back up at the arena, the contest was over.
At the end of the fight, the archer lay in a pool of blood.
Shen Huaizhou’s silver spear pierced his heart. Before long, the archer showed no signs of life.
Shen Huaizhou had won the match.
Throughout it, he had used only Veil of Darkness. It was not as baffling as Xie Qingling’s performance, but still confusing enough.
Seeing him open his eyes as his consciousness returned to his real body, Xie Qingling could not help praising him. “Nicely done.”
Shen Huaizhou glanced at Tang Yuanxiao. “You too.”
Why look at him? Was there something else he didn’t know? Tang Yuanxiao could not work it out. He waited to hear more of their conversation.
But after those two lines, they said no more.
Everything went without saying.
Tang Yuanxiao: “…”
What were these riddles? So annoying!
The second day’s matches ended quickly too.
There were two more days of matches to go. Ling Fang did not accompany them throughout. He only needed to tell Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou what to watch for, then leave them to handle things themselves. There was nothing for him to worry about. Though both had finished competing, they wanted to gather information and broaden their knowledge, so they followed every remaining match without missing one.
Of the two newcomers Tang Yuanxiao had brought, one was eliminated in the first round, while the other advanced to the second.
And so five days passed before the first round of the Selection Tournament was finally complete. Nineteen winners had been selected from thirty-eight participants.
Those nineteen would enter the second round, which required ten matches.
It could be finished in two days.
That evening, after receiving the list of those advancing to the second round, Xie Qingling visited the Technology R&D Department.
She wanted to exchange points for a weapon in the armory.