Chapter 280: Wind, Fire, Mountain, Forest (1)
The matches continued.
The performances of the freaks, in particular, were very eye-catching.
Zheng Yunhui had encountered a fresh Mental Tempering Stage student and had won instantly before returning to the crowd loftily.
Zhao Shiji was able to obtain a victory without breaking a sweat.
Hu Qiusheng had stepped forth with a smile on his face. It did not take him long to return to the crowd with the same smile on his face.
The freak from the Talisman Faculty, Zhang Hao, had also easily defeated a high-high student from the Character Faculty.
As for the freak from the Willpower Faculty, it was a woman. Su Yu was quite surprised to learn about her since her name was Su Meng, someone sharing the same surname as him. She had also defeated a high-tier student without much effort.
All eight freaks had easily advanced to the next round. From this, one could say that the evaluations given during the entrance examinations were actually very accurate. People like Wu Lan and Xia Huyou had also advanced to the next round, but their victories had not come as easy.
Jia Mingzhen and company were not participating, but they were present as well. They had been hiding in a corner and talking among themselves. Nobody knew if they were merely hiding their strength or if they were too arrogant to join the tournament.
After the first round ended, 99 students remained.
But not all of them would participate in the next round. Some of them had exhausted too much willpower in the previous round. And since this was a minor tournament, they decided to withdraw.
Only 92 students remained in the second round.
"Not one of the freaks have encountered each other..."
Su Yu had been paying attention to all the matches. Seeing that none of the freaks had encountered each other, he started suspecting that the draws had been manipulated with. While he was thinking, someone approached him.
Yet again, it was Xia Huyou. He softly said, "How are you feeling? Do you think you can get into the top 10? A lot of people are betting that you will fail to get into the top 10. How confident are you? If you're not confident, I'll stop accepting further bets for that result."
Su Yu's performance during his fight against Hu Zongji had been truly too bland. He had spent too much time, unlike people like Zheng Yunhui who had instantly won.
Su Yu smiled, "Guess. If you agree to share half your profit with me, I can try my best to enter the top 10..."
...
Xia Huyou was rendered speechless. This fellow...was money all he had in his mind?
"The betting pool isn't big. Everyone is only betting a few merit points for fun..." Xia Huyou said, "Are you asking for a piece of such a small pie?"
Su Yu did not answer. It was time for the second round of drawing.
The moment he stuffed his hand into the bucket, a slip of paper flew into his palm. He was about to pick a different slip of paper when the instructor withdrew the bucket and walked toward the next student.
Su Yu frowned and stared at the instructor. That wasn't someone he knew and the instructor did not look too suspicious.
"Coincidence?"
This slip of paper just happened to enter his palm when he stuck his hand in? As the draw continued, Su Yu opened his slip of paper and saw the number two. He frowned. He would be the first to fight during the second round. Who was student number one?
...
Not far away.
Jia Mingzhen shot Su Yu a glance before looking at Liu Hong. A wide smile formed on his face, to the point his eyes were narrowed.
"Friends, are we ignoring this? This is fraud."
But the other elders remained indifferent. This was too trivial to be worth their interference. For students aiming for the top, the truly strong ones would eventually meet each other. It was only a matter of time. As for the weaker ones, it really didn’t matter if they were defeated early on in the tournament.
Seeing that nobody was saying anything, Jia Mingzhen said, "Little Fatty Xia is opening another betting pool. Do we report him?"
"Old Jia, this betting pool only has a few hundred merit points in it. Don't tell me you want to eat even a pool so small."
One of the elders couldn't stay idle anymore and said, "Can't you wait and give the golden goose a chance to actually lay more eggs? Wait until he feels confident and opens a bigger pool before arresting him. Wouldn't that be better? Wait until these kids enter the top 100. This little fatty would definitely open more betting pools then. We can wait for a big match before raiding him."
If they raided the little fatty now for only a few hundred merit points, the little fatty would most definitely be more cautious and stop expanding his gambling operations.
"Yeah. I suspect that the little fatty is intentionally keeping the pool small to test the academy. He is still suspicious of his previous arrest."
Thus, they smiled at each other and decided to spare Xia Huyou this time. They focused on Su Yu and Zheng Hong instead.
"So these two are going to fight each other?"
"I suppose so. Liu Hong arranged it."
"Who can win?"
"Who knows?"
While the group of elders were chatting, the drawing came to an end.
In front of the students.
Liu Hong had a constant smile on his face. Some of the researchers noticed something and looked at him.
However, he paid no heed to them and announced, "Out of the 92 participants of the second round, 46 will advance to the next round. Each winner of the previous round will receive five merit points. This round will proceed as the previous round. The second round starts now."
Then, everyone waited for the students of the first match to step out.
In the crowd, Su Yu exhaled lightly. He then stepped forth. He had a feeling that his opponent this time might be one of the eight freaks. After all, something was off when he was making his draw. But he also wasn't too afraid of them. It was only a matter of time before he needed to meet them.
Not far away, Zheng Hong also stepped out of the crowd.
"Zheng Hong!"
"Su Yu."
These two were fighting in the first match! Many were only surprised momentarily. Very few gave this match much thought since as far as most people were concerned, Su Yu was definitely going to lose.
After all, Su Yu had needed so much time to deal with Hu Zongji. Meanwhile, Zheng Hong was someone who had easily defeated Lin Yao. Not many people knew Zheng Hong's real identity, but it was not completely unknown. People like Wan Mingze and Xia Chan knew his background very well.
He was Elder Sun's student and Elder Zheng's grandson. He was also a genius of the single character faction. And regardless of whether he was Zheng Yuming's grandson, Elder Sun was still an expert of the single character faction. That automatically made Zheng Hong one of the single character faction.
...
In the crowd, Hu Zongji clenched his fists as his emotions turned complicated.
Before this, he was hoping that Su Yu would win more matches to prove that he was not weak. But when he saw that Zheng Hong was Su Yu's match, his hope was crushed. There was no way Su Yu could win.
He believed that Su Yu was strong, but he did not think that Su Yu would be Zheng Hong's match. It was all over. He could only hope that Su Yu would last longer. If Su Yu was defeated instantly, it would reflect poorly on him as well.
Not far away, Lin Yao also had a sullen expression. Would his Brother Su be defeated so miserably as well? Zheng Hong was really very strong. If he had known that Su Yu would encounter Zheng Hong, he would have leaked some of Zheng Hong's information to Su Yu before this.
...
In the middle of the room.
Standing in front of the ball, Su Yu exhaled lightly when he saw that his opponent was Zheng Hong. His guess was right. Even though he had expected this, he still couldn't help but to curse Liu Hong inwardly when he saw Zheng Hong.
By making him face a freak in the second round, he would probably be badly exhausted even if he could win. How was he supposed to face the next round? Liu Hong was truly a scumbag through and through.
Zheng Hong wasn't too surprised to see that his opponent was Su Yu. He had also sensed something wrong when making his draw. He didn't expect Liu Hong to be so impatient, but there really wasn't anything he could say about this.
"Su Yu, let's enter together."
Zheng Hong was uninterested in making any further conversation. It didn't matter who his opponent was. As a genius, he had the confidence to crush all opponents, especially those from his generation.
Su Yu did not bother putting on an act and being all friendly with Zheng Hong. The two of them sent their willpower into the ball at the same time. Gold and green each occupied half the ball.
...
Inside the grotto.
Su Yu and Zheng Hong appeared at the same time. The two looked at each other. Immediately, Su Yu created his illusions and produced a bolt of lightning. The world Zheng Hong was looking at changed from what Su Yu was seeing. In his eyes, Su Yu was still standing there, smiling at him.
But Zheng Hong had far sharper senses than Hu Zongji. His expression changed as he flickered before vanishing. And right after he vanished, the bolt of lightning struck. Zheng Hong still couldn't see the bolt of lightning, but he could sense a large destructive force appearing at his previous location. He shut his eyes and stopped looking at the smiling Su Yu.
A massive character appeared in front of him.
Wind!
A violent gale erupted, causing even Su Yu's illusions to shake. Like sharp blades, the wind shredded the illusions apart. Although this wasn't a second tier character, Zheng Hong had a higher level of willpower cultivation. In the blink of an eye, the illusions fell apart, revealing Su Yu's real location. Su Yu was actually not far beside him.
Zheng Hong opened his eyes in astonishment. This fellow's illusions were quite powerful.
Wreathed in a thick killing intent, Su Yu struck with another bolt of lightning.
Boom!
The lightning was soundless, but Zheng Hong could hear the rumble within his head.
Fire!
A furious blaze rose, and pushed by the gale, it headed toward Su Yu with a might that caused even space itself to crack. Lightning and flame met, and flame swallowed lightning. Su Yu hurriedly retreated, but immediately after, the look in his eyes turned solemn. A mountain had appeared before him.
Wind, fire, and mountain.
Three Divine Characters, all characters of the divine race. Su Yu was alarmed. This fellow was really strong. There was an ancient saying depicting the four forces of nature: Wind, fire, mountain, and forest. Invasive as wind, expansive as fire, unmoving as mountain, and deceptive as forest.
This fellow did not have a character technique, but his characters were on the verge of forming their own unique system.
So was there a fourth Divine Character?
The massive mountain crashed down upon Su Yu. He couldn't afford to spend time thinking and produced a black saber. The lightning and illusions he had been generating vanished completely.
Four dim dots of light appeared on the surface of the saber. That was his character technique. There was also a fifth dot of light, but it was so dim that one could hardly see it. That was the dot formed by the deceit character. Instantly, the saber grew to a massive size before dropping down upon the mountain.
Rumble!
The grotto was soundless, but the hearts of both of them thumped due to the massive impact. Even Su Yu's willpower body started to blur. The massive mountain had been cut into pieces, but the saber had also dimmed considerably.