Chapter 737: The Initial Dream
“Lou Cheng wins!”
When he heard the announcement from the referee and saw the image shown above, the host in the broadcasting room of the TV studio heaved an emotional sigh and said,
“If only the weakening effects of Empress Luo’s Dark Force were slightly weaker, the winner today would be Liang Yifan.”
Lou Cheng clearly showed that he was exhausted and his actions were slowed. If Liang Yifan could have grabbed onto this opportunity and not given him the opening to use simplified Wholeness Formula, things would be completely different.
It’s a shame that Liang Yifan was at his limits, too. Busy with a counterattack, he wasn’t even able to execute a Force Concentration. He had to first catch his breath and regulate himself.
Seeing that the host didn’t try to mask his inclination, the guest commentator, He Xiaowei, shook his head and said, “There’s indeed the luck factor. Lou Cheng’s injuries were limited to his left shoulder, while the weakening effects from the Dark Force on Liang Yifan spread throughout his entire body. You couldn’t rely on this match to determine anything. Once a problem arose, there was still a problem remaining. However, there’s that saying, ‘The strong have better luck’. The match today was the best proof of it.”
“This isn’t to say that experts are treated better by the gods, unless they have a similar supernatural ability. Rather, it’s about grabbing onto the opportune moment when it arises. If Lou Cheng hadn’t attacked frantically without regard for himself in order to pin down Liang Yifan so he couldn’t catch his breath, how was he able to force the problems of his opponent to be revealed first? How was he able to come back from the edge of defeat and turn the tables?”
“Let’s not forget that he intentionally revealed his intention to go for a prolonged battle. This greatly misguided Liang Yifan...hmm... And misguided me.”
In front of everyone, the host didn’t try to retort but simply sighed,
“It’s no wonder that Physical Invulnerability experts all believe that, although Lou Cheng’s strength isn’t quite there yet, his practical fighting ability is truly super-class. However, considering his battle style, lingering injuries will eventually accumulate and have strong negative impacts on his body. He will, at most, be able to take part in two titled competitions a year.”
“There’s no way around it, since he’s challenging those stronger than him. When his strength catches up with his performance by the end of this year or the next, it will be a completely different story,” complimented He Xiaowei, feeling a little emotional as well.
The host nodded his head before laughing,
“Oh Xiaowei, why are you so happy that Liang Yifan lost? Didn’t you bet that if he didn’t win a title in three years, you’d tattoo a tortoise on your head?”
“When did I say that I’d tattoo a tortoise?” He Xiaowei rubbed his bald head and returned the question jokingly. After which, he continued, “I said I had high hopes of him winning a title in the next three years, not that he’d be successful in this year’s Warrior Sage Battle. Just take a look at God-Slaying Saber, who’s in peak condition and doing extremely well. Take a look at the Kirin, who hasn’t suffered any grave injuries and has the strength to be right behind the Legendary Twins. Take a look again at Dragon King, who’s had an easy line-up. Even if Liang Yifan was to make it to the top four, he’d only be playing fiddle for the rest.”
“That’s true.” The host nodded his head slightly before continuing, “One can expect the semi-finals and finals to be really intense. Both sides will likely be severely injured. Luckily, the winner won’t challenge Warrior Sage directly, but will have two months to recover and recuperate. Otherwise, it would be too unfair.”
The elimination rounds of the five supreme national title competitions and the final Challenge Round were conducted separately to ensure that the title winner truly deserved it. Just like the Battle of the Kings, the preliminaries were held from late August to early September. The elimination rounds to decide the challenger would be held in the first two weeks of December, and the final Challenge Round was a best-out-of-three series held at the end of March and beginning of April the following year. Each year, the Inter-University Martial Arts Nationals started after the new Battle King was determined.
The Inhuman preliminaries for Warrior Sage Battle were held in late January this year. The elimination rounds were now through the first two weeks of May. The final Challenge Round would be held in the middle of July.
In this process, there was the elimination round of Kirin Battle towards the end of June to the beginning of July. In order to be in tip-top condition for the Warrior Sage Battle, the two contestants for the final Challenge Round often chose to give up this Kirin title, unless either of them already held the title of Kirin. This caused the Kirin Battle to be less interesting.
As for the remaining titled matches, the preliminaries for Master Battle were in late June, the elimination round was in late October to early November, and the final Challenge Round was during the Chinese New Year. The preliminaries for the Supreme Class Battle were in November, the elimination round was in January, and the final round-robin match between the top four started before the professional league after the Chinese New Year to determine the Supreme Class. The schedule was tightest during this period. The Inhuman preliminaries for Kirin Battle were held towards the end of April and the Final Challenge Round was held in September.
“Yeah,” He Xiaowei seconded.
...
Lou Cheng’s fan forum.
After getting wildly excited for a while, Eternal Nightfall, Yan Xiaoling, said,
“[clenched fist] The final stretch of my time at university is truly satisfying and will be worth remembering. It’s truly, truly, truly amazing!”
Not only did she pass her internship, she also received a job offer. In addition, Lou Cheng had a superb performance and defeated several super-class experts consecutively as he advanced to the semi-finals of the Warrior Sage Battle.
At this point, she couldn’t help but look shyly at the messages on the forum. She knew that the reason she got a great job weren’t just because of Miss Shu Rui’s recommendation. It was also because she was the forum starter of Lou Cheng’s fan forum.
It was now totally different from before, when there was only Brahman and her in this forum. Now it was one of the few major forums with immense traffic flow.
Seeing her satisfied sigh, Unparalleled Dragon King teased,
“Nicely said! However, I have a question to ask. It’s already more than halfway into May. Your final year report, or should I say your key to graduation, is it ready? I’m not too sure what it’s called in your major. To sum up, have you completed all your assignments?”
“Don’t ask about that...” Yan Xiaoling was wordless for some time before replying. “Let me finish watching the Warrior Sage Battle happily before thinking about that. Let me enjoy this day! Haha, senior could be considered fifth in the Nation right? Fifth among all these experts!”
As she spoke, she got excited once again.
“He might not just be fifth!” Brahman shook her head and emphasized.
“It’s alright to say that now...” Road to the Arena appeared out of nowhere and answered.
Unparalleled Dragon King said,
“Next year this time, he might very well deserve the name...”
Others seconded this idea and discussed the topic fervently. The thread instantly had several tens of additional pages.
...
Lou Cheng caught his breath and extended his hand over to Liang Yifan to help him up.
Liang Yifan didn’t reject the offer and grabbed onto Lou Cheng’s hand. After standing up, he was disappointed and disheartened, but not gloomy and emotional. He gave Lou Cheng a thumbs up and said,
“You are indeed the better one today.”
“I’m a little luckier,” answered Lou Cheng humbly.
Liang Yifan shook his head with a smile, staggered out of the pothole and left the arena for his personal resting room. At the door, he saw Queen of Thought, Fei Dan waiting.
“I got you some medicine to treat burns and frost.” The alluring Queen of Thought said with a faint smile.
“I’m actually fine.” Liang Yifan caught his breath before pushing open the door to his room.
Fei Dan followed behind and casually asked,
“How are you feeling now?”
“A little disappointed. If I was able to determine his motive accurately and use Wholeness Formula in advance, I wouldn’t have been disrupted and lost my chance of using it again. If that had happened, my chances of winning wouldn’t have been so low. But there are no ‘ifs’ in martial arts.” Liang Yifan answered honestly and emotionally.
Queen of Thought pondered for some time before smiling as she answered,
“From my perspective, it was because you are too honest and not as cunning as him.”
“Nothing is too deceitful for a soldier. This should be the norm for battle.” Liang Yifan shook his head with a faint smile before adding emotionally, “Give him a year and a half more and he would be even more horrifying.”
...
Within the resting room, Lou Cheng cooperated with the doctor for treatment of his injuries after washing up.
Yan Zheke sent a message over and asked concernedly,
“How are you feeling now?”
After seeings saw Lou Cheng covered in injuries and swaying while enjoying the cheers of the crowd, she was already feeling worried.
Lou Cheng thought about it for a while before replying,
“The injuries aren’t too serious, but there are quite a number of them. I’ll probably only recover 70% by the semi-finals. I pushed a little too hard today.”
In the last barrage of furious attacks, he had entirely replaced defence with offence. Even when his opponent counterattacked, he had only prevented his vitals from being hit directly. However, injuries from abrasion and contact with Liang Yifan’s Force were inevitable and numerous.
Before Yan Zheke could continue that topic, he smiled wickedly and said,
“There aren’t the crucial injury points. The ecstasy and excitement from winning against Liang Yifan is incomparable. Hehe, I have to think seriously about how I’d like to spend the day you promised me.”
Yan Zheke’s face turned red instantly and mumbled to her phone. She then replied,
“[dumbfounded emoji] Why didn’t I know that you were such an rogue before!”
“How could you not know about it? [raised eyebrows emoji]” Lou Cheng replied, “Someone kept calling me a rogue, a bad and rotten rogue.”
“You’ve changed... You weren’t like this before! [desperate expression]” Yan Zheke replied.
While they were flirting, Dragon King took five minutes to defeat Luo Xian from Shushan Study without sustaining many injuries. The final four contestants of Warrior Sage Battle had been officially determined.
This was the first time Lou Cheng was ranked in the top four.
As there were only four experts left, the lot-drawing ceremony was held immediately after. Lou Cheng, who got the notification in the last minute, tidied his clothing quickly, grabbed his phone, and left the resting room to headed towards the stand where the organizing committee was.
On his way, Yan Zheke asked curiously,
“Cheng, who would you like to go against next?”
“Hmm...God-Slaying Saber! At least I can hope that he’ll overturn in a dark gutter [sighing emoji]” replied Lou Cheng, using to the Chinese idiom that referred to someone losing when they weren’t expected to.
This was just a beautiful dream, as Lu Yongyuan had lost to him previously and would definitely expend additional efforts to prove himself.
“Hehe.” Yan Zheke added,
“[covered mouth laughing emoji] That’s the first time I heard someone describe himself as a gutter...”
Pfft... Lou Cheng shook his head and laughed silently. When he reached the spacious spectator stand, the burly Dong Baxian, who had his hair neatly combed and looked just like an ancient martial artist, was standing close to him. God-Slaying Saber had his hair combed back and was holding onto his saber while watching Lou Cheng from afar.
In less than a minute, Dragon King, Chen Qitao, arrived in a navy blue martial arts suit. As he walked, he gave off a majestic feeling that made it hard for others to look at him directly.
The man in charge of the organizing committee was holding onto a miniature microphone as he announced loudly,
“The semi-finalists of this year’s Warrior Sage Battle have been determined. They are the most recent and strongest four martial artists. They are Dragon King...”
He elevated his pitch suddenly and the surrounding responded with earth-shaking screams,
“Chen Qitao!”
After reciting each name, the man of the organizing committee took out a ball from a black-base, golden edge box and showed it to the surrounding cameras,
“Longhu Club, Lou Cheng!”
Who will I meet... Lou Cheng straightened his back immediately. Yan Zheke and the rest who were sitting afar also straightened up as they held their breath.
The man in charge of the organizing committee took out another ball, looked at it, and showed it to the cameras again with a smile,
“Longhu Club, Dragon King, Chen Qitao!”
Dragon King... When he heard the two words, Lou Cheng suddenly recalled a line that his master said when he just started practicing martial arts,
“Admiration? When you can completely defeat a martial artist you admire, that’s the greatest respect you could show to him.”
And the martial artist that I admire the most is none other than Dragon King. One of my martial arts dreams is to challenge him in an important competition!
Lou Cheng turned his head to look to the side. He happened to see the Dragon King, Chen Qitao looking right back at him.
He’s so suave, tall, majestic, solemn, mature, that he has a devilish charm.
As the light shone down, everything felt like a dream.
His initial dream was within reach.