Chapter 284: Top Ten (2)
Su Yu felt like laughing witnessing the antics of Xia Huyou.
That guy...
"Zongji, do you know which branch of the Xia Family is he from?"
Hu Zongji was a lot friendlier than before. He smiled and said, "I think he descended from Great Xia King's cousin. He is quite far away from the main branch. Xia Chan is the one from the proper main branch as her grandpa is Marquis Xia. She's Prefect Xia's niece."
Su Yu nodded. He had heard of that before as well. Xia Chan was indeed from the main branch. She was Great Xia King's great granddaughter. Yes, her great grandfather was an Invincible.
But he could also see that Xia Huyou was probably quite close to Xia Chan. All the stuff he sold in the academy probably came from the Xia Trade Company, and the Xia Trade Company was run by Marquis Xia.
As they spoke, two more matches ended. Finally, it was Su Yu's turn to fight once again.
This time, he had decent luck. His opponent was someone from the Pillmaking Faculty. The opponent looked slightly pale, clearly not fully recovered from his previous match.
When that student saw that his opponent was Su Yu, he had hoped that Su Yu had yet to fully recover as well. But when he saw that Su Yu's complexion had returned to normal, he was disappointed. Instead of him taking advantage of Su Yu's exhaustion, the opposite was probably going to happen.
Su Yu took only one minute to defeat his opponent.
It was a rather easy victory. First, he produced illusions. Then, he revealed himself, smiled apologetically, and struck his opponent down with a bolt of lightning. He was already being very considerate by letting his opponent last one minute.
After leaving the grotto, the opponent merely smiled bitterly. He could clearly feel the gap between them and said nothing. He only cupped his hands in greeting before walking away.
Of the 40 students in the third round, 20 would advance. And only about 20 minutes had passed before all the matches were over. Apart from the unlucky Zheng Hong, the other freaks had all advanced.
Su Yu, Xia Huyou, and a few Faculty Character students had advanced as well. The three rounds had taken about three and a half hours. It was already around 11 in the morning.
Suddenly, Liu Hong said, "There is no need to draw your opponents for the fourth round. The seven freaks, Su Yu, Xia Huyou, and Huang Fan will form a single group. The rest of you can challenge a random opponent from this group. The winner can advance into the top 10."
Many pairs of eyes landed on Xia Huyou and Huang Fan.
Xia Huyou paled and hastily said, "I am only a high-middle student. I'm not a high-high or a freak! Why put me in this group as well?"
"You're a member of the Xia Family. Is that reason good enough?" Liu Hong said, "Is someone from the Xia Family afraid of something like this? If you can't enter the top 10, you can only blame yourself for being too weak. Are we supposed to help you enter the top 10?"
"Sure, if you want to do that." Xia Huyou replied unhesitatingly.
Liu Hong's face fell. Many people looked at Xia Huyou in astonishment. Meanwhile, Xia Chan looked away in embarrassment. Xia Huyou was feeling very gloomy. What was so embarrassing about that? Liu Hong was the one who had given the offer!
Liu Hong ignored him and looked at the other students before saying, "Pick any opponent you want. Don't aim for the top 10 just for the sake of entering it. The opportunity to exchange pointers with these geniuses and freaks is very rare. This is your true reward here. Do you think they would waste any time entertaining you at any other time? This is your best chance to face them in combat."
Those words sent many people into thought. Then, they started focusing on the freaks. Liu Hong was right. Normally, these freaks would not spare them any attention. This was the perfect chance for them to spar against these geniuses.
In any case, it wasn't like they could guarantee a victory even against Xia Huyou. And if they missed this chance, they might not get another chance to spar against these geniuses.
"I pick Wan Mingze!" Soon, someone made his choice with a burning gaze. Evidently, this person had been setting his eyes on Wan Mingze for quite a while.
"I pick Zheng Yunhui!"
With his arms crossed, Zheng Yunhui lazily said, "Think it through. I specialize in killing. Don't blame me for not warning you if I accidentally injure your willpower."
Everyone ignored him. His willpower strength was rather ordinary among the freaks. What was the point of being so cocky? Nobody here was truly afraid of him if they had to fight with only willpower.
...
And before long, Su Yu was challenged as well. The challenger was a student from his own class.
Meanwhile, Wu Lan was watching regretfully as everything unfolded. Since she hadn't entered the top 20, she naturally couldn't have her pick of an opponent. Otherwise, she would have picked Su Yu as well. She just couldn't accept the fact that Su Yu was growing so quickly.
And thus began the fight for the top 10.
The first match involved Xia Huyou.
With a sullen face, he spent about seven or eight minutes before barely defeating his opponent. Then, he collapsed onto the ground while panting heavily, looking like he could no longer fight another match.
Su Yu was suspicious. Was this fellow really that weak? Each time he won, he would act like he was dying. But each time, he would also recover in no time. But Su Yu didn't put much thought into it. Everyone had their secrets. He had his own secrets as well.
The second match involved Wan Mingze. And he had handled his opponent as easily as his previous opponents. That was the same for the other freaks. They were all incredibly strong.
As for Su Yu, he didn't bother using his illusions this time. He directly used the kill and deceit characters to first stun his opponent with killing intent before ambushing his opponent while shrouded in shadows, snatching an easy victory.
He did not drag the fight out. That was because he would most likely face one of those freaks the next round so he had to keep his strength.
One match after another ended. Before anyone knew it, the top 10 was birthed.
Both Xia Huyou and Su Yu had won their matches. The seven freaks had won as well. Huang Fan was the only person in their group who had been defeated. His opponent was someone from the Willpower Faculty.
...
Gradually, the atmosphere turned solemn.
The top 10 had appeared. Including Su Yu, eight freaks had reached this far. In everyone's eyes, Su Yu was already a freak.
The researchers looked more and more interested as the following matches would finally be more exciting than before. In fact, there was nearly no suspense in the previous matches so they had been rather bored up until now.
Liu Hong looked at the top 10 students and smiled, "Is anyone withdrawing?"
"Teacher, I'm withdrawing."
The Willpower Faculty student withdrew. In order to defeat Huang Fan, he had nearly drained all his willpower. He could no longer fight another match.
"How about you, Xia Huyou?"
Xia Huyou rolled his eyes. Why was Liu Hong mentioning him out of all the students?
He turned his head to look at the others before smiling, "I'll be withdrawing as well. I'll let them enjoy the remaining fights. Teacher, are they drawing or picking their opponents this time? Or will you be arranging their opponents for them?"
The remaining eight students were all experts. He was quite happy to be reduced into a spectator.
Liu Hong looked at the other eight and asked, "What do you guys think? This is only a small tournament. Your main gains here would be the chance to exchange pointers with the others and grow further. Do any of you have a suitable opponent in mind? Or are you curious as to who among you is hiding their strength and Divine Characters?"
When he said that, he looked at Su Yu with a smile on his face. He was basically suggesting that they pick Su Yu as their opponent.
Zheng Yunhui impatiently said, "I'm challenging Wan. Let's see if Wan is really better than me in Divine Characters."
Zhao Shiji indifferently said, "Then I'll be challenging Hu Qiusheng. Someone from the Hu Family should be quite strong in Divine Characters, right?"
Xia Chan did not even spare Su Yu a glance. She also ignored the person from the Talisman Faculty. Instead, she looked at Su Meng and said, "Su Meng, we are the two girls left. How about we fight each other?"
Su Meng was the freak from the Willpower Faculty.
She looked gentle and refined, and she nodded with a friendly smile, "Sure thing, Sister Xia Chan. I'm quite interested in exchanging pointers with you as well."
Su Yu and Zhang Hao exchanged looks with each other. Both did not seem to mind who their opponent would be. Since they were the only ones without a challenger, they wouldn't mind fighting each other.
Talisman Faculty...
On Su Yu's second day in the academy, he had witnessed that this was not a weak faculty. Back then, the talisman demonstration by that researcher had been quite impressive. But this also wasn't a proper fight. They were going to be fighting within a unique grotto. How was this person supposed to use his talisman inside the grotto?
But Zhang Hao seemed to have won his previous matches quite easily. Was this person that strong?
Liu Hong did not mind that the students had picked their opponents. He said, "Since you have all picked your opponents, we'll respect your choices. The winners shall advance into the top four. After that, the top four will fight for the top two positions. And finally, the top two will fight for first place. The ones in the third and fourth places will also be determined with a match between the two losers of the top four matches."
He then looked at Su Yu and said, "Su Yu and Xia Chan, both of you better not lose. Generally, the top three have always been occupied by the Character Faculty. Don't blame me for punishing you if you perform poorly."
...
Su Yu's face fell. Was he not ashamed of saying that after rigging the earlier round? Meanwhile, Xia Chan completely ignored those words. She couldn't be bothered to spare any of her attention on someone as shameless as Liu Hong.
Su Yu did not say anything and merely nodded at Zhang Hao. His opponent returned the greeting with a nod as well. There was no need for them to rise to Liu Hong's provocations.
They were all geniuses. None of them was stupid enough to let such provocations create a feud between them. This was merely a spar. Many of the researchers also rolled their eyes. This fellow was filled with these cheap tricks. What a shameless person.
Wu Qi was the only one who was cursing at Liu Hong inwardly. This fellow was acting up again! He was already a Skysoar. Even the Cloudbreach Realm was not that far away for him. What was the point of playing these tricks?
No matter how he pretended, he wouldn't be able to hide the fact that he was a treacherous snake.