Chapter 282: Wind, Fire, Mountain, Forest (3)
Inside the hall.
The next match had not started immediately. Everyone was busy looking at Su Yu in disbelief.
Su Yu had won.
He had actually defeated Zheng Hong!
Su Yu ignored the crowd. He only smiled and nodded at Hu Zongji before looking at Lin Yao. When he saw how excited Lin Yao was, he flashed Lin Yao a smile in a less obvious manner that would not expose their relationship.
Both Lin Yao and Hu Zongji were trembling with excitement.
Su Yu had won.
Hu Zongji checked the time and noted that Su Yu had taken four minutes to defeat Zheng Hong.
Yes, Zheng Hong had not lasted as long as him.
What did that mean? That he was stronger than Zheng Hong?
Of course not. That signified that Su Yu had given him a lot of face. According to Hu Zongji's judgment, he was weaker than Lin Yao. Zheng Hong had defeated Lin Yao in five seconds and Su Yu had defeated Zheng Hong. Hu Zongji himself was weaker than Lin Yao. In that case...
Three seconds.
Hu Zongji gulped. If Su Yu had not shown him any consideration, that was as long as he could have lasted. And that would have been too embarrassing.
He felt incomparably good and even yelled, "Su Yu is a true freak!"
Yes. That was a true freak. Hu Zongji, someone who had been questioning Su Yu's evaluation as a high-high student, had become the first to publicly call Su Yu a freak.
He was basically slapping his own face, but he had no regrets. He even thought that his face deserved to be slapped. At least it was better to slap it himself than have others slap it for him. At the same time, Lin Yao was also wild with joy. His Brother Su had avenged him! Just look at that arrogant Zheng Hong. Hadn't he been defeated in the end?
...
Su Yu had a smile on his face, but inwardly, he was feeling very helpless. He had exhausted himself too much. And he had revealed all his trump cards. Fortunately, that was the first match of the second round. He still had some time to rest. Otherwise, he would probably be too tired to join the third round.
"Zheng Hong is really strong. At the very least, he is stronger than Zheng Yunhui in terms of willpower. If he can form his fourth Divine Character to complete his system of wind, fire, mountain, and forest, I probably won't be his match."
Su Yu knew himself very well. With one more character, Zheng Hong would be able to complete his system. The current Su Yu would definitely not be a match to a Zheng Hong like that.
But was Zheng Hong the only one capable of growing? He would keep growing as well. Also, if they fought for real, he was far stronger in physical cultivation. There was no need for him to fear Zheng Hong.
"All is good as long as I win."
Su Yu glanced at Liu Hong who smiled and nodded at him. Liu Hong's expression was basically saying that he had arranged for the match to help Su Yu win prominence among the public. Su Yu was really speechless. This fellow had obviously been scheming against him again.
Screw him! He would rather not have that "help" from Liu Hong. After all, there were seven other freaks in the tournament.
If those freaks ended up encountering each other as well, then Su Yu would consider the possibility that Liu Hong was perhaps really helping him. Otherwise, he would be able to confidently declare Liu Hong a scumbag that was deliberately making things difficult for him. Did that scoundrel think that he wouldn't realize that?
After spending a short time cursing Liu Hong inwardly, Su Yu started focusing on recovery. When the others looked at him now, the look in their eyes was completely different from before.
They could attribute Su Yu's victory over Chen Qi to luck and the blood essence ability. But his victory over Zheng Hong had truly elevated him into the ranks of the freaks.
Su Yu shut his eyes and ignored the crowd.
He didn't even bother watching the matches of the other freaks. It wasn't like he could see anything apart from a ball with changing colors so why bother?
"It's not going to be easy for me to get first place."
Unless...he used the soul devouring bug blood essence, giving his willpower some corrosive power that could corrode his opponent's willpower. That was a good method against enemies, but these were all his fellow students.
Even among those from the single character faction, Huang Qifeng was probably the only person Su Yu planned to be heavy-handed with. As for people like Chen Qi and Zheng Hong, Su Yu didn't really intend to do anything too bad to them.
As long as they didn't provoke him, he would have no reason to make things difficult for them. Even against someone like Huang Qifeng, he only aimed to make that person bedridden for a few months like his senior sister, nothing else.
"Soul devouring bug..."
Su Yu muttered before returning his focus to his recovery.
"I need to get some five elemental blood essence as soon as possible to strengthen my willpower."
...
The matches continued as Su Yu rested.
It also became increasingly clear that someone was manipulating the draws. In the second round, none of the freaks had encountered each other. The students were no fools so they started cursing inwardly. But this was to be expected.
They could only blame themselves for not being important enough to have the matches rigged in their favor as well. For them, it was only a matter of an earlier or a later defeat. And with the matches being rigged, they couldn't even rely on their luck to survive longer than they actually could.
But Su Yu, who had greatly exhausted himself from his fight with Zheng Hong, was still hoping that he could get lucky when drawing his next opponent.
In the second round, the unlucky Wu Lan met Wan Mingze.
Wan Mingze had taken three minutes to defeat her. He was most likely being polite, which was the only explanation for the match to actually last that long. And she looked completely discouraged after leaving the grotto. She had suffered a crushing defeat.
When she witnessed Su Yu emerging as a black horse and defeating Zheng Hong, she thought that there was hope for her to do something similar as well. When she encountered Wan Mingze, she decided to defeat Wan MIngze and show Su Yu her prowess. Alas, reality proved that she had been too optimistic.
Apart from Zheng Hong, not one of the freaks had been defeated. All of them had easily defeated their opponents. All 46 matches took only an hour to finish.
Although one hour wasn't enough for Su Yu to fully recover, he had still recovered significantly. He opened his eyes and exhaled in relief.
Fortunately, the matches were taking some time to finish. He wouldn't have been able to defeat anyone if he had to fight in his previous condition.
Hu Zongji was actually still beside him after an hour. When he saw Su Yu waking up, he asked in excitement, "Su Yu, how are you feeling?"
Su Yu smiled and nodded, "I'm fine. Thank you for guarding me while I was recovering."
"I definitely wasn't doing something like that." Hu Zongji replied awkwardly, "There are teachers here. Who would dare to create trouble for you?"
No student would be stupid enough to disturb Su Yu's rest in front of all these teachers.
Su Yu smiled and said nothing else. He looked around before asking, "It's over?"
"Yeah. The third round is going to start soon." Hu Zongji looked at Su Yu with an odd look and said, "Su Yu, you actually defeated Zheng Hong. But isn't your willpower..."
"Weak?" Su Yu smiled, "Yeah. My willpower is weak, but it is very durable. And I also have a lot of Divine Characters, including second tier characters. Zheng Hong is definitely not weak, but he was careless when facing me."
Hu Zongji nodded, "Well, you're still very strong. My elder brother said that all the freaks in this batch are already strong enough to challenge the top 100. They are far stronger than the freaks of the previous batches. Your willpower is strong enough to defeat Zheng Hong while your physical cultivation is at third-stage Great Strength Realm. If you can reach the seventh stage, you might be able to challenge the top 100 as well."
Third-stage Great Strength Realm. Yes. Most ordinary students thought Su Yu was at that level. The more connected ones thought that Su Yu was at the fifth-stage Great Strength Realm. Some also believed that he had already reached the sixth stage by now.
As for his actual cultivation level of ninth-stage Great Strength Realm, very few people knew about that.
Su Yu smiled and softly said, "I'm not at the third-stage Great Strength Realm anymore. But keep this a secret for me."
Hu Zongji was slightly alarmed, but immediately after, he felt greatly touched. Was this a show of trust toward him? Why would Su Yu had told him that otherwise?
"Don't worry. You can trust me, brother!"
Hu Zongji smiled happily. Sure enough, Su Yu was still as sincere and reliable as ever. From this moment onward, their past would be left in the past. In fact, the more he thought about his past, the more ashamed he felt.
He lowered his voice and said, "Su Yu, my elder brother is quite close to Liu He and the others. Don't worry. The next time they try to pull anything against you, I'll notify you."
Su Yu was pleasantly surprised to hear that. He said, "Then I'll be in your care from now on, Zongji!"
He then recalled something and said, "Zongji, I have something to talk to you about later. Let's have a chat after this."
Hu Zongji blanked out. What was the matter? But when he saw how mysterious Su Yu was making it sound, he decided to not ask. They could talk later.