Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
“Kaori Karasawa...”
Lou Cheng murmured the name, turning to the direction of the Japanese representative team. The girl in the yukata looked towards him as well with a demurred gaze that portrayed no hostility.
Yet, among all the opponents he’s faced so far in the tournament, Lou Cheng clearly knew that she was going to be the strongest— the title of Top Seed wasn’t there for nothing!
The Xinzhai Sect dated far back in the history of Japanese martial arts. It was a hybrid between local Kendo and Buddhism Zen methods brought over by a Chinese missionary. Their daily trainings incorporated self-cultivating activities such as flower arrangement, tea ceremonies and painting which promoted the search of one’s “true self”. When it came to combat, it was famed for its speed and viciousness. Their movements were mysterious and explosive, and practitioners excelled in blind fights and messy fights through their Mind Reader. One of their moves, the “Flying Dragon Takedown” was said to be extremely fast, and that once executed no opponent at the same stage could dodge it. They might not even be able to parry it if they did not see it coming.
It was two sides of the same coin with Peng Leyun’s inferior version of Cloudless Thunder Blade but different greatly in presentation. When Peng Leyun clapped his hands together, his opponents could tell it was time to calm down and focus on dodging. Flying Dragon Takedown, however, gave away minimal warnings. By the time one sees the move coming and activates a reaction, more often than not they would have already been hit. Of course, it can’t be any faster than the speed of lightning, so there was still a chance of dodging or parrying it if one stood reasonably far away from the caster.
In short, the Xinzhai Sect was a Japanese Kendo Sect that was deeply influenced by Buddhism, and Kaori Karasawa, before advancing to the Inhuman stage, wowed the whole nation with her martial arts imbued with Kendo which gained her the title of “a genius that appears only once in every three thousand years”.
Originally, if both sides were roughly at the Inhuman stage, weapons were allowed in arena battles. However, since most of the Inhuman contestants in the King of Youth Pro League only made the breakthrough recently, there wasn’t much confidence in their control over their abilities. Therefore, to prevent scenes of splattered blood and sprawling corpses, weapons were prohibited. Not being able to take on her enemies in her strongest form, Kaori Karasawa was only at 90% of her full strength.
Even so, she came up on top in the Top 8s fight against the No.2 Seed, Veigar, who was specialized in hand-to-hand combat. At that point it seemed like she was destined to be the champion.
Huff... Lou Cheng exhaled. The results didn’t disappoint him, but rather pleased him.
To him, he had achieved everything he came for. He began morphing, entered the top 4s, and secured a large amount of prize money. Under such circumstances, he’s more than glad to experience martial arts from other cultures to broaden his horizons and gain experience.
There were many more opportunities for him to fight Peng Leyun in the future, so there was no rush. On the other hand, he wouldn’t get another chance to fight Kaori Karasawa for a long time, perhaps not even in two or three years. If he missed this chance, there was no certainty as to when he could experience the Xinzhai Sect kungfu.
Since he didn’t get Gusai, he would rather clash with Kaori Karasawa!
The fighting spirit in Lou Cheng boiled. He could feel his muscles tingling and his blood flowing faster. He looked forward to the semi-finals on the night after the next.
No matter how strong the opponent is, there is a chance of me winning!
Who would throw in the towel right after seeing the matchup!?
...
Over at the Japanese representatives’ side, Kaori Karasawa curved her lips into a lovely smile, seemingly pleased with getting Lou Cheng as her opponent.
She tilted her head, quickly sizing up her enemy. From the corner of her eye, she saw Masane Otake, the researcher with unkempt hair, walking towards her.
“Kaori-chan, I’m counting on you!” he gushed with a bow.
“Hm,” replied Kaori Karasawa absently. Scenes of how the match would play out against Lou Cheng were already flashing through her mind.
...
“Good, you don’t have to fight each other,” said Zhong Ningtao, happy at the results of the lot drawing.
Moreover, Peng Leyun against Gusai practically secures a place in the finals. “Wild card team”— mission complete!
Having taken down Wahku, who was a lot stronger than Gusai, and with the experience of dealing with Heart Reflection Punch, Peng Leyun’s chances of winning could only be higher than before.
“Not bad, not bad,” agreed Lou Cheng absently. Rapidly working his fingers across the screen, he informed Ke of the result.
“Kaori Karasawa.”
A reply soon came from Yan Zheke.
“Seems like the Eastern hosts have given up...[sits with a blank expression]”
“Haha, that’s what I thought too. It’s probably because Gusai doesn’t stand a real chance against any of us, and Shengxiang has already outdone Nanzheng and Miluo by securing a place in the Top 4s, so it doesn’t really matter to them now,” agreed Lou Cheng, adding on.
“Right, right. There’s no need for underhanded tactics anymore. [laughs while covering mouth]” replied Yan Zheke. “Cheng, are you fated to be enemies with Japan? Somehow you keep drawing into them. First it was Ichiei Sakata, then Mouko Yamashita, and now Kaori Karasawa. Are you planning to take their entire representative team down by yourself?”
Ichiei Sakata, Mouko Yamashita and Kaori Karasawa were the strongest in the Japanese representative team, so beating them was no different from defeating their whole team.
“Pfft, now that you mention it, there must be bad blood between us in our past lives, if not why do I keep running into them? [confused expression]” replied Lou Cheng. “Kaori Karasawa is extremely strong. She has mastered the “Qi” stage and had the 6th Dan Black Belt for almost a year. At her full power, she has blades in her hands. I think she might even be stronger than Peng Leyun right now, I’ll consider myself lucky if she doesn’t beat me to a pulp. It’s not at all likely for me to overpower her.”
I’m not being humble either, just stating facts. Better not brag about something I’m not confident about in front of little fairy.
“I believe in you, brother Cheng~” Yan Zheke sent a cute gif of [a monkey whipping hearts out of its tail]. “I’m sure you’ll do well!”
Though I can’t say you have a good chance of winning, since lying gives you bad karma!
But it’s strange that Cheng keeps running into Mighty Ones from Japan. Hmm, this whole four nation competition thing is strange from the start... To think they gave us four wild card invitations. And there was that mysterious woman knocking on the door at night...
Yan Zheke looked up while pressing her lips together, debating the possibilities in her mind, but she just couldn’t piece everything together. Quickly cutting off her thoughts, she began paying close attention to the class again.
...
Back in the live-stream thread, “Eternal Nightfall” Yan Xiaoling had sent a “sighing while spreading arms” at the results of the lots drawing.
“What’s this? Weren’t the Eastern hosts going to pull strings?”
If they did, then Lou Cheng would be matched against Gusai and sail smoothly to the finals.
“I overestimated their pride. Who knew they would be satisfied with top 4s? [wipes at a face full of tears]” replied “Unparalleled Dragon King”.
“It’s to be expected. If it was Wahku entering the finals, it wouldn’t raise much objections, but to send Gusai to the finals through manipulation is far beyond shameless. Who will join their competition next time?” replied “Road to the Arena”, who was mentally prepared for the result.
“Then I overestimated their shamelessness...[spits]” replied “A Plumber Eating Mushrooms”.
“Enough about that, the main question now is, what are the chances of my idol winning against Kaori Karasawa?” asked “Brahman”.
“20% at best,” replied “Pig-Riding Knight”. A sensible estimation.
“Lou Cheng had trouble handling an all out Veigar, not to mention Kaori Karasawa! Even though “a beautiful girl genius that only appears once every three thousand years” is exaggerating, her strength is definitely the real deal,” replied “Unparalleled Dragon King”.
“Depends on whether she lets her guard down, or whether she sustained injuries from the tough fight against Veigar. Lou Cheng always outdoes himself, so we don’t have to worry much from his side,” replied “Invincible Punch”, who had almost made Lou Cheng his own example.
“I’ll enjoy the match along with my snacks then. *cries* [wipes tears with handkerchief] ” replied “Brahman”.
“I’m not listening, I’m not listening, I’m not listening! [rolls on the floor while covering ears]” replied “Yan Xiaoling”.
...
After the lot drawing ended, Lou Cheng and the rest returned to the hotel. Among them, the exhausted Ren Li along with Peng Leyun who still suffered from the lingering effects of “Hidden Scent”, returned to their rooms without a word. Ann Chaoyang, on the other hand, stationed himself in the lobby sofa, watching as strangers passed by, listening to the songs played from his earphones. He enjoyed the solitude in the middle of passing crowds.
Lou Cheng freshened up, then cuddled up in his bed, chatting with Yan Zheke as he went through the footages of Kaori Karasawa’s fights, courtesy of “Unparalleled Dragon King”. Nothing out of the routine for the past few days.
But he didn’t dread it. Enjoyed it even.
The hotel had two exits, where two groups of suspicious people loitered around respectively, watching and waiting. Time passed, yet none of the members from the Wild Card Team went out alone.
“Aren’t they way too obedient? Why aren’t they going out for some fun?” muttered the leader among them, gritting his teeth. “Shengxiang’s red light district is world-class famous.”
Aside from the usual stuff, there were some real kinky shit out there!
“The China teams in the past always had people sneaking out at night,” said the man beside him, confused.
“Maybe it’s because these four are weirdos...” sighed the leader. “The girl doesn’t even go shopping, isn’t she wasting her trip here?”
“Ren Li is bad with directions, their guide has requested her to only go out with his company,” explained the other man.
“I heard she can’t memorize faces as well. Who knows when she’ll forget what her guide looks like,” said the leader, fantasizing about the possibilities.
“Not as if she can’t memorize the face of someone she sees everyday,” said the other man, his voice growingly dejected.
...
After two more days of tough training, the disqualified Ren Li and Ann Chaoyang volunteered to spar against Lou Cheng in turns.
“The Big Devil” Peng Leyun on the other hand, with the experience from fighting Wahku and the negative effects of Hidden Scent lingering in him, opted out for most of the sparring exercises. It wasn’t until six hours before the match began that he fully recovered from it.
August 25th, 8 P.M. People with burning enthusiasm flooded into the Shengxiang stadium.
In the first match, Peng Leyun almost lost from playing around too much again. He only put up a fierce retaliation after completely experiencing a full set of “Six Paths of Reincarnation Punches”, beating Gusai by a hair after exchanging their final moves.
He had to drag out a battle that could have been ended in a minute to one that lasted for ten minutes!
Fifteen minutes of theatrical performance ensued. Once again, the referee stepped onto the arena, beckoning to both sides.
Lou Cheng stood up slowly, phone in hand. Across him, Kaori Karasawa dusted her Kendo suit, then rose.
The Top Seed VS Miraculous Youth!