Chapter 287: Second Place Together (3)
Su Yu changed the topic, "So who do you think would win between Xia Chan and Su Meng?"
"Xia Chan, I suppose."
Wan Mingze allowed the change of topic and said, "Su Meng's willpower is slightly stronger, but she only has one Divine Character. Xia Chan has at least three of them, and one of them is a second tier character."
He looked at Su Yu again and said, "But even if she can win, this will be a difficult victory. In truth, this isn't a truly fair tournament. Everyone will encounter different opponents, and some will be less exhausted due to easier opponents. Even the coming round between the four of us wouldn't be fair."
Hu Qiusheng said, "You have fought both Zheng Hong and Zhang Hao. You are definitely more exhausted than us. In truth, winning you in such a condition isn't even something to be proud of. Zheng Yunhui was right about one thing. To truly prove yourself, the Top 100 Ranking should be your choice."
He then lowered his voice and said, "Initially, we aimed to wait a bit longer. But after what he said...perhaps...we might really start challenging the ranking next month."
He looked at Su Yu and asked, "Have you really reached the sixth-stage Great Strength Realm? Coupled with blood essence abilities, you might really have a chance to enter the ranking."
Su Yu smiled, "I'll see. I feel like I'm still lacking in some aspects. My friends, can we come to an agreement? If I'm not the one to win later, one of you would probably be the winner. When that happens, can you sell me that book?"
Hu Qiusheng smiled, "You're looking down on Xia Chan too much. Do you want her to start targeting you?"
Su Yu smiled, "She's the last one to fight in this round so she will be the most exhausted among us. I doubt she will have enough rest before the next round. But the two of you are already almost fully recovered."
Not willing to lose out on the smiling contest, Wan Mingze flashed a wide smile and said, "Sure. In truth, the book is useless for us anyway. Forget about the special blood essence. You won't sell it anyway. How about this? You still have a free entry into the grotto, right? Exchange that with the book."
"Hmm?"
Su Yu blanked out slightly. Yes, he still had one free entry into a grotto called the Devil Battling Field.
That was a grotto formed on a battle character of the devil language. It was left behind by the third principal of the academy.
Su Yu frowned and asked, "Can you give others these entry chances?"
"Yeah." Wan Mingze said, "It isn't even that expensive to enter. You only need to pay 200 merit points per entry. But if you don't have a free entry, you will need 200 total earned merit to enter. And we don't have enough total earned merit yet."
Su Yu looked at the two and said, "Can I buy the book with merit points?"
"We don't lack merit points." Wan Mingze replied, "If you want the book, you need to either use some unique blood essence or a grotto free entry. I mean, you're going to reach 200 total earned merit soon anyway. I checked your profile. You have quite a high total earned merit."
Seeing that Su Yu was still frowning, Wan Mingze smiled, "Don't mind me. I'm just being honest. And we are definitely not the only ones who had investigated you before in the academy."
"What's the purpose of the Devil Battling Field?"
"Battle, killing, and self-tempering." Wan Mingze explained, "We have experienced too little bloodshed. But we are also too weak to experience the Allheaven Battlefield. We can't even go to those seas in the Human Realm. Thus, the Devil Battling Field is the best place for us to increase our combat experience."
Combat experience...
Su Yu thought about it and nodded, "Sure. If one of you ends up winning, we can do so."
Of course, he would still try to win the tournament. This was just a backup plan. While they were talking, a muffled sound rang out. They immediately looked at the two girls. Xia Chan and Su Meng both looked incomparably pale. Blood was dripping out of Su Meng's mouth while Xia Chan was sweating profusely.
Xia Chan had won. But the victory did not come easy. It was obvious she had been greatly exhausted. Perhaps she wouldn't even be able to participate in the next round.
Sure enough, she wasted no time and said, "I am withdrawing from the subsequent matches."
She knew she was in a terrible condition. Even her Divine Characters were on the verge of collapse from the fight. She had only won slightly. Thus, participating in another match was simply asking for a beating. There was no need for that.
Liu Hong smiled, "In that case, we already have our top three? Wan Mingze, Hu Qiusheng, and Su Yu..."
Suddenly, Xia Huyou wailed. When everyone looked at him, he gave a hollow laugh before looking at Xia Chan sullenly. She was most definitely messing with him! Why hadn't she entered the top three?
A lot of people had bet on her failing to enter the top three. Xia Huyou, her great big brother, had trusted that she would be able to make it and accepted all those bets. But she had actually withdrawn from the tournament. He was going to lose hundreds of merit points as a result of her choice.
Xia Chan seemed to be aware of what he had been doing so she merely snorted and ignored him. What a clown! Served him right!
Liu Hong couldn't be bothered to entertain Xia Huyou and said, "What do you three have in mind? Do you want to fight each other one after another or do you have something else in mind? Or one of you gets to skip a round while the other two fight?"
Hu Qiusheng smiled and said, "Forget it. I'm not going to fight for first place. I know I'm not as good as Wan Mingze. Let Su Yu and Wan Mingze fight. If Su Yu wins, he will have the first place. If not, well, it doesn't matter who places second or third."
Su Yu looked at Wan Mingze, who smiled and said, "Qiusheng is trying to get me in trouble by giving me excessive praise."
He then looked at Su Yu and said, "He's not fighting, but I'm still quite interested in this fight. Shall we?"
Su Yu looked at Hu Qiusheng, who said, "Don't look at me. I'm not doing this to set both of you up. I'm really not his match. We fought privately before and I had lost multiple times. Otherwise, I wouldn't have withdrawn. I'm not the type to give up easily."
He was speaking the truth. He had indeed been defeated by Wan Mingze before.
Su Yu frowned as his face turned solemn. Was Wan Mingze so strong?
Hu Qiusheng was definitely not weak. Su Yu was confident that not even Zheng Yunhui was Hu Qiusheng's match. And this Hu Qiusheng had also defeated Zhao Shiji, so he was probably even stronger than Zheng Hong. Yet he had actually given up without fighting?
Wan Mingze...someone from the Wan Family.
"Sure. Let's do it."
Su Yu said nothing else. No matter what, he had to give this a try. Even if he wasn't this opponent's match, he still wanted to take a look at how strong this person was. Both stood up and walked toward the ball.
...
White and gold each covered half the ball.
Inside the grotto.
Both of them appeared at the same time. With a smile on his face, Wan Mingze gestured at Su Yu to make the first move.
Su Yu did not hesitate. With a solemn face, his character technique appeared, his killing intent erupted, and electrical currents covered his saber. At the same time, he produced an illusion and covered Wan Mingze's sight with shadow. This was an attack with all his strength. He did not intend to test the waters before using his true strength.
Wan Mingze merely stood there smiling, and as though he was completely unaffected by the illusions, he reached for the saber. And caught it with his hand. Instantly, he was blasted by a bolt of lightning, but a golden layer appeared around his body.
Su Yu was alarmed. That was a second tier character. And it wasn't one that had recently advanced.
"Solid?"
Su Yu was able to barely recognize that character. Suddenly, he felt his saber being fixed in place. He was shocked and hurriedly unleashed more willpower to regain control over his saber. But right that moment, another burst of light erupted.
"There's more?"
Su Yu was greatly alarmed. There was another second tier character!
"Seal!"
The moment the second character appeared, Su Yu felt the space around him being sealed.
"Kill!"
With a roar, his killing intent erupted.
But right that moment, Wan Mingze summoned his third character, "Set!"
Su Yu cursed inwardly. How was he supposed to fight right now? He felt like he was being frozen right where he stood. Was he the multiple character faction member or was Wan Mingze the multiple character faction member here?
Wan Mingze had three Divine Characters and all of them were second tier characters.This was crazy.
That was not the end of it. Next, the solid and set characters came together and fully petrified his saber. The two characters had actually fused for real. Two characters became one, making it so that the saber was completely unable to move. Even though Su Yu also had two second tier characters, he was completely helpless. The seal character descended from the sky, completely sealing Su Yu's body.
All three of those characters were supportive characters. But they were even more terrifying than offensive characters. Su Yu could only watch helplessly as Wan Mingze walked toward him, one step at a time. He struggled with his willpower, but he was unable to break free.
With a smile on his face, Wan Mingze slowly approached Su Yu. His lips were moving, as though he was trying to say something.
When Su Yu focused, he could read from Wan Mingze's lips and saw that Wan Mingze was saying, "How lucky. I am not too great offensively and I have to rely on the path of sealing..."
Su Yu felt extremely sullen. Was this what he called not great offensively? If even this wasn't great, what could be considered great? But next, Wan Mingze proved that he really wasn't great offensively.
That bastard started kicking Su Yu. Su Yu could not move at all, but that bastard's kicks were incredibly weak. In fact, it almost looked like the bastard was exerting himself so much that he was sweating heavily, yet he couldn't deal Su Yu any damage whatsoever.
Even Su Yu was starting to feel bad for the guy. But eventually, a small knife appeared in Wan Mingze's hand. Then, he looked at Su Yu apologetically and moved his lips again.
"Sorry. You're too tough. It's so hard to kill you. I'll have to cut you down slowly..."
He then started cutting Su Yu with the tiny knife. Su Yu was collapsing mentally. He felt like he was the one who should be doing this. The bastard was smiling while apologizing while cutting his flesh off one slice at a time.
Damn this lunatic!
Yes. Su Yu felt like he was looking at a lunatic. No wonder Hu Qiusheng was unwilling to fight this person. Damn it. If he had known about this, he would have withdrawn as well.
Su Yu kept cursing inwardly. This person really was incapable of doing a lot of damage, but who could take this mentally? Who could stand watching on as their flesh was cut off one slice at a time? Even if this wasn't his actual physical body, he still felt terrible.
Then, Su Yu's body vanished from the grotto.
Wan Mingze had a look of regret. Alas, Su Yu wasn't around to see his lips moving, saying, "What a pity. It has been too short. Hu Qiusheng was able to last over 1,000 cuts before surrendering..."
Clearly, their spars had been conducted through a similar grotto as well. Otherwise, Hu Qiusheng would have died a long time ago.
...
The moment Su Yu opened his eyes with a dark expression, he saw the amused smile on Hu Qiusheng's face.
Did Su Yu lose? Did that fellow cut him? That fellow was a psychopath!
He was absolutely unwilling to face Wan Mingze. Although Wan Mingze did not have offensive characters, the characters he had were able to fully seal his opponents. Hu Qiusheng would rather die than experience such helplessness ever again.
Three second tier characters, each of them a sealing character. One would probably be completely helpless before him unless one was already a Skysoar cultivator. Of course, if it was a proper fight, one might be able to break free with physical cultivation.
Su Yu looked both helpless and disappointed. He had defeated Zheng Hong and Zhang Hao. Hu Qiusheng and Xia Chan had withdrawn from the tournament. He would be lying to himself if he said that he didn't intend to grab the first place.
But reality proved that his willpower wasn't strong enough. His Divine Characters also weren't strong enough. He was completely helpless against Wan Mingze. If Wan Mingze had one powerful offensive character, he would have been defeated instantly.
"But...does he really not have one such character?"
Su Yu was suspicious. He found that hard to believe. Perhaps...Wan Mingze really had one?
Right that moment, Liu Hong smiled and asked, "Su Yu, you lose? Do you want to fight Hu Qiusheng for second place?"
Su Yu was disinterested so he waved his hand lazily.
Hu Qiusheng smiled, "It's fine. We won't fight this time. We have plenty of time to spar in the future. Everyone is too tired today."
"Who will take second place, then?"
Su Yu said, "He can have it."
He could care less about that pill. It was useless to him. Rather, the talisman given as a reward for the third place might be more useful.
Hu Qiusheng helplessly said, "I don't want the second place as well. Can we share the second place? We will split the rewards among ourselves. It's pointless to fight for positions below the first place."
Su Yu and Hu Qiusheng exchanged glances. Both had a helpless look in their eyes. All below the first place was garbage. Someone said those words before.
But Su Yu was able to recover from his bad mood very quickly. This did not matter. He still had a long road ahead of him. This was merely the beginning. At that thought, his fighting spirit soared.