Chapter 438: The Reliable Liu Hong (2)
Through the matches, Su Yu was exposed to all sorts of students. He could feel his horizons expanding just by watching these matches.
He saw a talisman faction student toss out some talismans to create a swamp in the ring, trapping his opponents and defeating them easily with the help of his team members.
He saw a pillmaking faction student toss a poisonous pill out, instantly knocking both his opponents and his team members out.
"Fatty-cough, cough. Huyou, how about the pillmaking faction? If they get some poisonous pills capable of killing Mountainseas from their elders, won't they dominate the tournament?"
Xia Huyou asked doubtfully, "Don't you know the academy rules very well? How do you not know this?"
"The rules for the top 100 challenges are already fixed. But the rules for this tournament are brand new. Who knows what the rules are?"
Su Yu rolled his eyes. How was he supposed to know that? He reckoned that Xia Huyou didn't have the answer to that question as well. Sure enough, Xia Huyou merely shrugged. He had no idea as well.
Fortunately, the Discipline Hall soon made an announcement, "The students of the beast taming faction are only allowed to fight with their own tamed beasts. The students of the pillmaking faction are only allowed to utilize the pills they have refined themselves. The same applies to the students of the talisman faction..."
Su Yu had nothing to say about that. That was actually good for him. Otherwise, the other students would stand no chance against the students fighting with pills, talismans, or beasts at the Mountainsea Realm. Someone capable of producing talismans, pills, or beasts at that level would no longer be a mere student.
"The moment a match concludes, the following teams can get into the ring immediately. Don't stand around waiting to be called."
Since so many matches were being held concurrently, it would be a waste of time to sit around waiting for all the matches to conclude before proceeding with the subsequent matches.
...
Out of the first 40 teams to fight, a few of them were strong teams.
Since it was so early in the tournament, the gap between the teams could actually be quite big. Most of the strong teams had been able to easily defeat their opponents when encountering the weak teams. As for the matches that had appeared quite even, they usually involved two similarly weak teams.
One team after another stepped into a ring to fight. The winners advanced while the losers dropped out of the tournament. The gap between the strong and the weak was really too big.
All the teams with at least one top 100 student had been able to win. After all, one of these top 100 students was already strong enough to face several of the weaker students. There was really no suspense to these matches.
In the blink of an eye, half an hour passed.
The tournament was progressing rapidly. At this point, it was team 590's turn to fight. In only half an hour, a total of 295 teams had emerged victorious. If things continued at this pace, the first round would end in around two and a half hours. The turn of Su Yu's team was also fast approaching.
At this time, the referee announced, "Ring 8, team 593 and team 594."
When both teams stepped into the ring, a large number of students cheered. A truly strong student had appeared.
Jiang Mu!
Ranked third on the top 100!
He was also the first top 100 student Su Yu had seen after entering the academy. He still remembered clearly how all the guards had hastily moved aside to make way for Jiang Mu when he was passing by. That was quite an impressive sight to behold.
With Jiang Mu around, there was no suspense to the match. Su Yu had only blinked once, and all of Jiang Mu's opponents had already been sent out of the ring. Jiang Mu had moved so fast that several afterimages were left in the ring.
His opponents didn't even have the chance to make any moves before they were defeated. After the match, Jiang Mu stepped out of the ring with an indifferent expression. It almost felt like he was only there to take a stroll.
...
"Team 599 and team 600, get into the ring."
When team 600 was called up, it attracted a lot of attention as well. The students had heard that Su Yu was in team 600.
Su Yu said nothing and went straight into the ring.
Lin Yao and the rest followed behind him. Suddenly, Lin Yao turned around to look at Xia Huyou who was happily eating some snacks. He asked, "What are you doing? Get moving."
"..."
Xia Huyou looked at Lin Yao like he was looking at a fool.
Nonsense. He wasn't a part of their team. Why should he enter the ring with them?
"You..."
Before Lin Yao could finish his words, a different person entered the ring.
Zhou Hao!
A lot of people were surprised to see him in the ring. Although he had only fought once after joining the academy, everyone knew that he was a strong combatant. Was this fellow a member of team 599?
But when the members of team 599 entered the ring, the crowd looked even more astonished. So this Zhou Hao was in Su Yu's team?
What the fuck? What about Xia Huyou, then?
Numerous gazes landed on Xia Huyou. Meanwhile, Xia Huyou ignored the gazes and continued snacking. Why were they looking at him? It wasn't like he had actually said that he was a member of team 600.
...
Spectating zone.
Elder Sun looked somewhat surprised. He transmitted his voice to Liu Hong, "Why did you assign this person to Su Yu's team?"
Zhou Hao was very strong!
More importantly, he wasn't from the single character faction.
Liu Hong explained, "Xia Yuwen's people are trying to get more slots as well. If we assign Zhou Hao to any other team, he might really be able to get a slot. Considering he doesn't get along well with Su Yu, I decided to put the two of them together and kill two birds with one stone. This way, we can stop both of them from getting any slots."
Elder Sun frowned, "This Zhou Hao isn't weak. If he decides to work with Su Yu..."
"He was nearly killed by Su Yu previously."
Liu Hong said, "Elder Sun, even if the two decide to work together, they won't be able to win. Also, he is Xia Yuwen's student. And Xia Yuwen has just been crippled by Bai Feng. With the kind of person Xia Yuwen is, he will definitely not spare his student for working with Bai Feng's student so soon after that incident. Also, the multiple character faction has the habit of treating any helper as one of their own. If Zhou Hao really decides to work with Su Yu, that puts them on the same side as Xia Yuwen. Hehehe, they might end up forced to help Xia Yuwen as well. That will only drag them into more conflicts."
Elder Sun's eyes flickered.
Liu Hong continued his voice transmission, "Elder Sun, to be honest, I don't really agree with Faculty Head Zhou's decision to work with Xia Yuwen. Don't forget that the prefect has his own son. At the end of the day, he will still be closer to his own son than a distant relative like Xia Yuwen. And the prefect has full freedom in deciding the date of his abdication. He can very well give his own son enough time to grow. It is simply too dangerous for us to get involved in that conflict. Taking Xia Chan into our faction does not change anything. It would be much better to drag the multiple character faction into that conflict instead."
Elder Sun nodded in agreement.
He was about to say something when he turned to look at the stage in astonishment.
Bang!
Su Yu did not waste any time. The moment the match started, he moved rapidly, creating dozens of afterimages all over the ring. Even though his opponents had promptly scattered, he had still been able to instantly kick all of them out of the ring.
With a frown, Elder Sun said, "This fellow has grown even stronger. The multiple character faction...is indeed a faction of geniuses."
After some thought, he said, "For the following rounds, send some strong teams after them. Don't make it too obvious, but try to tire him out. When he runs out of energy, send Little Zhou's student in and cripple him."
Liu Hong answered with a nod.
It wasn't surprising that Elder Sun wanted to cripple Su Yu as well. Of course, he wasn't angry at Su Yu. Rather, he was angry at Bai Feng for killing a Cloudbreach student of his. And he was now venting that anger on Su Yu.
...
In the ring.
Su Yu had decided to end the match promptly. This was only the first match and his opponents were only some weak students. Was he supposed to hide his strength to make him look somewhat equal to these weak students? If he did that, he might really end up ruining his own reputation.
After easily defeating his five opponents, he cupped his hands at them before leaving the ring. The team followed behind him. Instead of separating from them, Zhou Hao was finally standing with them.
Lin Yao and the rest were still slightly dazed. They weren't surprised by the victory. They were only surprised by the fact that Zhou Hao was their teammate. That bastard Xia Huyou had spent such a long time with them earlier. Why had that bastard not said anything to them? They had even wasted quite a lot of time talking to Xia Huyou in an attempt to establish a rapport before the match.
Looking at Zhou Hao, Liu He frowned. Meanwhile, Zhou Hao did not even spare Liu He a glance. All his attention was on the strong students.
...
Apart from one exception, no strong teams had encountered each other so far.
The single exception was the match involving the teams of two top 100 students. The fight between the two top 100 students was intense. A winner was only decided after about seven to eight minutes.
A few students clad in cloaks and masks had also participated in the matches, but Su Yu had not paid much attention to them. Those were probably the myriad race students. They had all been masked and fighting without using any special techniques or abilities, so there really wasn't anything one could discover from their matches anyway.
Before long, it was team 888's turn to fight.
That was the team Wu Jia was in.
With one glance, Su Yu lost interest in the match. Wu Jia had been lucky to be assigned to Li Minyu's team. Li Minyu was the fifth ranked student in the top 100. This was a very strong team.
That was especially true considering the fact that Wu Jia herself was also a top 100 student. She was definitely not a pushover.
It would seem like Liu Hong had not bothered targeting Wu Jia. Her team was actually strong enough to perhaps even enter the top five in the tournament. It was unclear if Liu Hong was fearful of Chen Yong or if there was a different reason. In any case, he had left Wu Jia alone.
With a fifth ranked student in their team, they were able to easily defeat their opponents. These matches had thoroughly exposed the gap between the different students of the academy.