Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
It was Sunday afternoon, and Yan Xiaoling was still clinging to her bed. However, she had switched to a leaning posture with her laptop placed on top of her thighs.
“Fanfan, Fanfan, you are sure it’s available?” She cast a glance at her laptop, holding her cell phone and swiftly sending a message to Brahman.
“Brahman” sent an “absolutely comical” emoji and replied, “In any case that ‘Lush Gives Birth To Light’ sent a post just now and said that there is a live stream on ‘Qidao Video Site,’ and that the site had bought the rights from Songcheng television station. She already managed to acquire the preview earlier, so she wouldn’t make a mistake about something so trivial, would she? I’m so annoyed! The website is laggy, and the internet speed is so slow! The stream still hasn’t fully buffered yet!”
After listening to Brahman’s words, Yan Xiaoling who had just woken up during afternoon continued to search for the live stream at “Qidao Video Site” with a dumb look on her face. A few minutes later, she finally found the phrase “Hong Luo Martial Arts School VS Songcheng University Martial Arts Club” at the corner of the ‘preliminaries’ subpage. There were even two channels consisting of the television station’s caster and the website’s caster setup at the side.
Yan Xiaoling’s hand glided, and she selected “Home Website Casting.” After a period of buffering that was long enough to drive people crazy, she finally saw the tatami covered ground of the martial arts school. She saw group belonging to Songcheng University Martial Arts Club filing out in a line and sitting on their knees on the tatamis. She saw that the leader of the line was Lou Cheng.
The broadcast rights of the first stage of the preliminaries had been sold to the television stations of each division by the organizational committee, whereas the television stations had recouped a portion of their capital from the streaming websites. The cash flowing into the committee’s pocket would ultimately become the competing fighter’s insurance fee, match transportation fee and the bonus of the broadcast of the division’s top eight matches.
Since there were no registration restrictions, there was no way a participant was given bonuses the moment they participated in the match. Most of those kinds of participants were only masquerading as having abilities so they could scam some funds for themselves. Only those teams who had gone through seven or eight matches and arrived to become the top eight team of the division would have the qualification to profit from the preliminaries.
“Heya, there actually is a stream!” Yan Xiaoling happily sent a message to “Brahman”.
“Brahman” quickly replied, “I saw it too. Our idol is looking more and more of a model example! Ayayayaya, I’m posting the link to Longhu Club forum and show it to those people!”
The two girls busied themselves respectively for a while before watching the live stream once more with slight trepidation and excitement. They waited single-mindedly for the competition to start.
...
Deng deng deng. Two minutes before 3 p.m., Zhao Qiang, Qiu Zhigao and Zhang Jingye finally defeated the Sunday jam and made their way to Hongluo Martial Arts School in time. Four girls who were relatively student-like but dressed very fashionably followed behind them.
After looking around the whole venue once, Zhao Qiang saw Cai Zongming and pointed at him joyfully, saying,
“We’ll go there!”
The “spectator seats” provided for the away team were sparse, and seats had an ample amount of space too. Cai Zongming greeted them cordially and helped arrange for the girls to take their seats. He secretly complained to Zhao Qiang and Qiu Zhigao,
The aesthetic judgment of the arts institute truly is different from us ordinary people. Shouldn’t they be wearing clothes that accentuated their youthfulness and student identities as fitting of their age? Aren’t they dressed a little too maturely? Are they seriously afraid that they won’t have the chance to wear these a few years later?”
Zhao Qiang sneaked two glances at the girls before smiling reservedly,
“I thought it looks pretty good.”
The sunlight from outside the window reflected off his black framed spectacles.
Cai Zongming chuckled and did not say anything more. This was because the match was about to begin.
After they had all taken their respective seats, the girl sitting close to Zhang Jingye then pulled his sleeves and asked smilingly, “Who was that awesome roommate you told me about?”
This girl had a cute and likable round face. She had put on a little bit of foundation and worn a light pink overcoat that was less mature-looking. She was none other than Zhang Jingye quasi-girlfriend, Wu Qian of the arts institute.
The other three girls also looked curiously at Zhang Jingye after hearing her question, looking forward to the answer. This was the first time in their lives they had a friend that could appear live on television—the friend of a friend of a friend, that was.
Zhang Jingye pointed at Lou Cheng sitting on his knees in the first row of the away team’s tatami,
“That guy. Do you see him? The guy furthest to the left and looking pretty spirited...”
Wu Qian stretched her neck and giggled.
“I saw him. He looks pretty classy.”
Just when the other three girls were about to say something, they saw the referee dressed in black walking to the center of the limestone ground and declaring in a loud voice,
“Round one between Hongluo Martial Arts School and Songcheng University Martial Arts Club...”
“Fang Tong versus Lou Cheng!”
...
Enthusiastic claps and shouts resounded from the surroundings the second the referee finished making his announcement. Although there weren’t many audiences, they were all groups of families and friends, so they naturally went out of their way to cheer for the participants as much as possible.
Lou Cheng slowly stood up as the cries of “Hong Luo will win” and “Fang Tong cannot fail” resounded in his ears. He first turned his head sideways to look at Yan Zheke, not trying to conceal his actions at all.
Yan Zheke returned his gaze boldly with a fluid glance that seemed like there were stars hidden behind them. Her face was blushed slightly with a bright red color due to excitement, nervousness, worry and other emotions. She gripped her fist and pumped into the air once. Her pink lips opened and closed, seemingly mimicking a cheering cry.
With a smile, Lou Cheng calmly bent his waist, put on his shoes and walked along the corridor unhurriedly towards the arena amidst many other gazes that could not be considered friendly. The strength in his heart slowly settled down and became accumulated, ready to be activated when the battle officially began.
At a rough estimate, there were a hundred and ten or so audiences present on the surrounding tatamis. The majority of them were outer disciples of Hongluo Martial Arts School and the friends and families they pulled to watch the match together with them. The minority of the audiences who were the friends and families of the disciples participating in the match. Of course, this amount of people was incomparable to the vast crowd inside Songcheng University Martial Arts Club, but because they were much closer to the arena, the sounds of cheering and provocation were actually even more impactful. It felt just like someone was roaring right beside his ears.
Lou Cheng could be considered a fighter who was quite experienced now, and he wasn’t afraid of this spectacle in the least. He passed through abusive yells, spurring remarks, the defense line formed by countless gazes and entered the arena built from limestone.
During this process, he was even able to think about some trivial stuff,
“This pair of shoes probably isn’t suited for wearing much longer. It would be practically unusable after a couple more intense exertions. The path of martial arts really costs a lot of money...”
Above the arena at the referee’s left-hand side, Fang Tong was already standing with his hair standing on its end and his bearing fierce and aggressive. He looked like he was liable to erupt at one wrong remark.
His figure was tall and above 1.85 meters. Somehow he managed to give the impression that he was wearing a body hugging formal suit, even though he was in fact wearing a simple martial arts suit that was as scarlet as fire.
“You have three minutes to talk with each other.” The referee looked at his watch and took a step backward.
Fang Tong gave Lou Cheng a predatory stare as he smiled disdainfully.
“You feel very proud and pleased with yourself, don’t you?”
“You’ve used only half a year’s time to grow up from a rankless newbie to a Professional Ninth Pin fighter. You do have the rights to be pleased and proud.”
“However, I enjoy fighting against fighters who claim to be geniuses like you the most. I love to see people like you panicking and struggling futilely under my attacks. I love to see the doubt in your eyes after people like you suffered a terrible defeat, and your cringing appearance when people like you appear before me. Do you know? There was once an eighteen years old Ninth Pin genius fighter who literally broke into tears under my beating. Tears!”
“Heh, cry all you want if you want to cry later. Don’t hold back and go look for your mother for comfort later!”
Lou Cheng listened quietly as a line of introduction on Fang Tong’s data suddenly flashed through his mind,
“Fang Tong, well versed in trash-talking and provocations...”
He closed his eyes and confirmed his fighting style one last time:
The moment he climbed onto the arena, he would go all out and fight as if it was in a life or death battle. He would not consider saving up any trump cards at all!
He had only gone through one life or death battle and thus wasn’t sufficiently experienced. He could only use it as a point of reference.
The moment he thought this, Lou Cheng recalled the minute details of his battle against that Dark Sect’s Ninth Pin: a whip kick striking against the temple, causing two bloody and compressed eyeballs to fly out of their sockets; a Rocket-like Punch rising and bursting a person’s groin, causing blood and piss to spray all over the ground; a secret discipline of mind aura assaulting his mind directly and shaking up his mind...
As compared to the fear the Dark Sect’s Ninth Pin had caused, Fang Tong’s trash-talking was literally like a child’s abusive swears...
Slowly, Lou Cheng ignored Fang Tong’s trash-talking to the point where it sounded like a distant cry. It could not affect his recollections at all.
The temporary stiffness caused by the secret discipline of mind aura, the fear brought by the Poison Sting Force, the stance that he forced himself to assume... he was well prepared, and he bit the tip of his tongue softly... he used mercurial balance and was able to dodge out of the way in time... his ears were attacked by a sound art, followed by another killer move... he used abrupt explosive force to fight hand-to-hand, followed by the Power of Blaze to seize the initiative...
The images flashed past his mind one after another, ultimately freezing at the scene where the Dark Sect’s Ninth Pin bled out of all seven apertures of his body. The light faded swiftly from his eyes, leaving behind many qualms for life.
The image froze, and Lou Cheng opened his eyes. He looked at Fang Tong with eyes that were as frozen as ice.
“What good is a guy like you who hasn’t weaned off his mother’s milk no matter how strong you get? If we really...” Fang Tong was in the middle of an energetic trash-talking, but when Lou Cheng gave him an entirely unintimidating stare he suddenly stopped in surprise. He did not know why, but he suddenly felt a little chilled in his heart and was unable to say anything more for a time.
“Fight!”
It was at this moment the referee waved his right hand.
Fang Tong abruptly inhaled, causing his calves and thighs to swell up in unison. The swelling was so big that it actually caused the martial arts pants to have well-defined corners. The clothes on his upper part of his body also twitched as his muscles began to bulge in succession.
To invade like fire, and to erupt like fire!
Pa! He swiftly approached Lou Cheng and threw a Forward Punch after taking a striding step. His poured every bit of power into his right arm and punched fiercely at Lou Cheng with an enraged wind, bulged muscles and tugged skin.
If an average person took a punch like this, they would suffer grievous injuries even if they were to survive!
Lou Cheng lowered his waist as lightning struck down on his head and snow mountains collapsed. A turbulent energy surged to the bottom of his feet in an unstoppable fashion.
His right foot opened horizontally, and he exerted force against the floor with a half turned posture. As a loud bang ensued, he felt a rebound entering his body. The energy spiraled slightly and flowed from his feet to the thigh, waist, and spine. With this as the axis, he conducted every energy that the stream of energy passed by into his right hand.
He felt a bulge in his right arm, and his skin felt as if they had been stretched wide. Lou Cheng made a fist and pounded downwards towards Fang Tong’s attacking arm.
Just as the two fists were about to impact against each other, his joints twisted and his muscles pulled. He unleashed a rapid and robust abrupt explosive force.
Pa! A layer of fire rose into the air, covering the surface of Lou Cheng’s fist before it clashed against Fang Tong’s.
The Power of Blaze VS Flaming force!
Bang! There was a dull sound of impact, and Lou Cheng felt as if his right hand had been scorched by fire. However, he had expected this from the start and used the recoil to toss his right arm backward, bringing himself a reactive force on the opposite side. Meanwhile, Fang Tong’s face changed slightly as he instinctively threw his right arm outward in an attempt to extinguish that burning sensation on his fist. His chest and stomach were immediately exposed to attacks.
At the home team’s tatami area, Wang Hui, Jiang Guosheng and Pan Chengyun’s expressions immediately changed.
Lou Cheng gave no quarter after gaining the upper hand, twisting his back and clenching his thighs. Borrowing the push beneath his right foot and the force created after swinging his right hand backward, his left leg was like a flexible whip that abruptly tightened and whipped fiercely and violently towards the area between Fang Tong’s legs. Moreover, he was still assuming a striding and charging posture.
Shock and fear appeared in Fang Tong’s eyes, and he instantly visualized the image of Flaming Body in his head. His buttocks were subconsciously clenched as he exerted his muscles, pushed his tailbone, spurred his back into a bounce and induced his legs into an abrupt leap to the side.
A person shall rush into the house when the fire of passion burnt them!
This one leap allowed Fang Tong to put several meters of distance between himself and Lou Cheng. He successfully avoided that deadly whip kick.
Meanwhile, Lou Cheng unhurriedly lowered his center of gravity after missing the kick. He adjusted his muscles and stepped heavily on the limestone ground. He continuously conducted the visualized “Mega Avalanche” and “Lightning and Fire Stance” in his head to the bottom of his feet.
Dong! There was a sound that sounded like the ground was struck, and Lou Cheng bounced into the air and chased Fang Tong’s leaping figure closely. His speed wasn’t slower than Fang Tong’s at all, and there were faint foot marks on the limestone where he stood earlier!
The one figure at the front and at the back looked like two eagles in pursuit. Fang Tong had just stood still and used the recoil to turn around when Lou Cheng had already arrived beside him. Lou Cheng turned his body sideways, lowered his shoulders, swelled up his muscles and rammed forwards strongly. He looked a little like a snow avalanche crashing down on Fang Tong.
Fang Tong could no longer dodge out of the way, and he was only able to raise his arms and block them in front of him in a hurry.
Dong! Fang Tong’s arms were in pain after being rammed by Lou Cheng. His arms were pushed right before his chest.
Lou Cheng followed up the charge with a lift and a toss. The moment Lou Cheng put strength into his shoulders, Fang Tong flew into the air and out of the arena. He fell in front of the tatami and nearly knocked over a few audiences.
The referee nodded slightly and felt a tinge of appreciation for Lou Cheng’s mercy at the end. Otherwise, he would have to interfere and stop the fight to avoid casualties.
He raised his right arm and announced loudly,
“Lou Cheng wins!”
Lou Cheng had won the match in just a few breaths!
The space in the entire martial arts school belonging to the home team became as silent as the grave.
...
Yan Xiaoling was staring at the screen in annoyance. This was because there was an interruption in the signal just now.
A dozen of seconds later, the signal recovered. She saw the duo’s clash and heard the caster’s voice,
“Welcome back everyone to our match. The match has just begun, and there aren’t many delays in between. Just as I had introduced during the three minutes talking period, the fighter clad in scarlet martial arts suit is Fang Tong. He is a young expert ranking among the top on Songcheng, and he was already a Professional Ninth Pin more than three years ago... Er, he just lost...”
But I had only just f*cking started casting!