July 25th.
Saturday.
Capital City’s Happy Valley.
It was a Saturday in the middle of the summer holidays, and since it was announced the valley was the location of the battle, so it was full of people.
The valley’s person-in-charge’s face was almost split into two by his grin.
It was a good bargain, paying 15 million for Fang Ping to choose this as the venue.
15 million was only enough for some outdoor advertisements in the Capital City area. They would not have been enough to make the place as wildly popular as it was now; it was the center of the nation’s attention.
...
The valley’s person-in-charge was happy.
Fang Ping was happy.
The CCMAU group was not, though!
Li Hansong and the others wrinkled their brows at the jam-packed valley.
“There are so many people!”
Ling Yiyi’s face showed her dissatisfaction. She said, sounding pissed off, “They coming here to watch the circus or what?”
Han Xu had tagged along as well. When he heard her words, he said, “Maybe this is a way to put ourselves through the mill. Fighting with pressure on us in front of so many people might be a way to hone our intent. Fang Ping’s swift improvement might be attributed to his fearlessness.”
Li Hansong was also dissatisfied with the environment, but now he mused thoughtfully, “He’s right. Yiyi, this is certainly a way to hone ourselves.
“Fearlessness is a quality that all martial artists must have!
“Battling here, under the eyes of thousands of people, is a test in itself. Martial artists are fearless. Only one who can do their best wherever they are is considered to be strong!”
Ling Yiyi’s eyes shone at his words. “That’s why tourist spots like this one are always his chosen arenas! I understand now!”
Their gazes met. Ling Yiyi said, now serious, “If that is so, I cannot underestimate him!”
Him being Fang Ping who feared nothing. He had been confident that he could do his absolute best even under the scrutinizing gazes of the public. He had even considered the aftermath of his loss. He had probably chosen this place with an unyielding determination to win.
...
At the same time.
Midair, a black-haired, old man said with a small smile, straightening his back, holding Chen Yunxi’s right hand in his left as the girl looked downward, “This kid from MCMAU is quite decent. A martial artist should be fearless!”
Old Man Li mumbled his vague assent.
‘Would you still think that if I told you that he received millions in advertisement fees?
‘Fearless?
‘You guys like to overthink things!’
Old Man Li did not say much on that–the more he did, the more he would embarrass himself.
The other old man did not go on. His expression turned serious as he said, “How’re things in the Magic City Catacomb?”
“We’re still at a stalemate. Sky Gate City has fired shots at Hope City, and vice versa, more than a dozen times, causing countless casualties.
“We’ve lost much as well. I’m not clear about how the Military Department is faring, but six more MCMAU instructors died...
“42 of them had died this year!”
Old Man Li’s gaze hardened. He said darkly, “We’ve recruited many instructors since our founding sixty years ago. There were 428 middle-ranked instructors teaching in MCMAU at the start of the year. The year hasn’t even ended yet, but we have already lost one-tenth of them! If this goes on, there won’t be enough instructors for teaching to go on as normal!
“Sky Gate City... I’ll kill them all one day!”
MCMAU was staffed quite adequately, but some of their social sciences instructors were at the Lower Three Ranks.
Despite that, their roster of 400 middle-ranked instructors was quite an impressive one.
The entire Nanjiang province might not even match that.
MCMAU was comparable to the whole Nanjiang province!
Now, though, so many of their middle-ranked instructors had died. They had lost one-tenth of their instructors in less than a year. MCMAU’s teaching ability was almost compromised.
The students were the future of the nation.
There were lots of disadvantages to teaching martial arts in bigger classes.
The instructors could only properly give the students what they needed when they taught in smaller classes.
Under normal circumstances, ten students were about an instructor’s limit. More than that would affect his teaching.
There were a lot of middle-ranked instructors, but many of them died in the past few years.
It was difficult to hire more.
Out of the MCMAU students who graduated every year, only a couple of tens of them would be in the middle ranks.
It was impossible that all of them would stay in MCMAU. The school would be lucky if some of them stayed. The fresh graduates, added to the Rank-3 instructors that achieved breakthroughs, were barely enough to maintain a balanced ratio.
Now the balance was upset. The mortality rate was twice the induction rate.
Not to mention that MCMAU had just increased the number of prospective students. If the situation did not improve, MCMAU would have to cut off some of them.
The black-haired old man sighed softly. “So much has happened recently. The Nanjiang Catacomb is going to open too. Not only has the Tiannan Catacomb made us lose so much last year, but the others are also all ceaselessly volatile as well.
“We have to increase the number of martial artists now, but we also have to deal with the problem of limited teaching staff and send more martial artists to the Catacombs...
“We will be in great trouble if this goes on.”
Sighing, the old man looked at Old Man Li. “You... Is all hope really gone?”
Old Man Li’s back appeared to hunch a little. He said, voice muffled, “It ain’t possible. If I could do it, I already would’ve. Would I have to wait until now?
“Lu Fengrou, on the other hand, has way more hope of becoming a Grandmaster...”
The old man’s brow furrowed slightly as he said, “She has hope, yes, but she’ll definitely go after Sky Gate City’s city-lord, and there’s a high possibility that’ll be her swan song. The High Grandmasters won’t stand between her and the Rank-9 powerhouse forever. One careless move and death awaits her.
“Better if we don’t let her break through than send her to her death!”
Chen Yunxi, who was looking downward until then, asked softly, “Granddad, can’t we kill Sky Gate City’s city-lord, then?”
The old man grimaced. “It’s not not doable. If powerhouses like Commander Li are the ones attacking, there’s a possibility we can kill the other party.
“But if a war between the Rank-9 powerhouses from both sides erupts, more of their Rank-9 powerhouses would definitely, a hundred percent, come out from the depths of the Catacombs.
“And that will no longer be a matter as simple as killing the city-lord of Sky Gate City.
“If powerhouses like Commander Li join the fray, the Catacomb Rank-9 powerhouses would too. Maybe there will be ten of them. Maybe twenty.
“And that’s only in one Catacomb. If all High Grandmasters from Sino Nation go to war, we’ll win, but the price we’ll pay would be high!
“What’ll happen to the rest of the Catacomb tunnels?”
“Are their Rank-9 powerhouses unbeatable, then?” Chen Yunxi sounded indignant.
The old man shook his head, smiling. “Not that extreme, no. People the likes of Commander Li are too strong. If they enter the Catacombs, their auras will shake the earth. The Catacomb powerhouses will retaliate when they sense their arrival.
“If it’s only a normal battle in which a Rank-9 Grandmaster enters the Catacombs and kills the other party, the Catacomb won’t erupt in chaos.
“It’s different if their supposed opponent is among the strongest of the Rank-9 martial artists because they’re so hard to kill.
“Everyone’s on equal footing. Even South Guardian Wu, one of the four Guardians, had not managed to gain an edge over the East Sunflower City lord.
“Guardian Wu ranks on top among the Rank-9 Grandmasters in our country, yet he’s unable to kill his opponent? Tell me, how can anyone else kill them?”
Chen Yunxi said, disappointed, “Can’t the High Grandmasters in Sino thwart them?”
The old man sighed. How many top-tier powerhouses the likes of Commander Li were there?
The lack of said powerhouses was also the reason why the Catacomb powerhouses dared to kill humans relentlessly.
Commander Li in the Military Department. The North Guardian, one of the four Guardians. The head of the Department of Education. Some other top-tier powerhouses working in the central government who have disappeared from the public eye for years.
Those people made up the extremely formidable force that terrified the Catacombs.
The difference between two Rank-9 martial artists might be very big.
Commander Li could kill three of the other side’s Rank-9 martial artists in a go. Could other Rank-9 martial artists do this?
It was a pity that Commander Li would not go to war without good reason. If he had, and killed an enemy Rank-9 martial artist, the Catacomb people would riot and surround the human powerhouses.
When that happened, the nation and its people would probably be close to their doom.
Those powerhouses could only exist as figureheads that serve to inspire awe, but not actual forces that went to war.
Unless... Unless the ultimate battle started now. Those four powerhouses would all join the battle. The Sky Gate City lord, not particularly strong among Rank-9 martial artists, might be killed in the middle of chaos and no one would care.
The old man turned those thoughts in his head, closing his eyes a fraction. “That’s why we humans nurture these top-tier middle and lower-ranked martial artists. Why do we want them to become the strongest of the strongest!
“These people are our future?
“If they remain unbeatable from Rank-3 onwards, they’ll be top-tier powerhouses by the time they enter Rank-9.
“They might be able to kill some Rank-9 powerhouses the first time they fight as Rank-9 martial artists before those residing in the Catacomb’s depths manage to react.
“By the time they do, we needn’t fear them!
“It’s them who have failed to take action; they can’t possibly blame the other party for their losses. If they want to battle, then we’ll follow!
“We didn’t surround their top-tier powerhouses, so we’re not at fault. If we are able to do that, we humans won’t need to fear for our extinction!
“This is also one of the rules implicitly agreed on by both humans and Catacomb humans.”
Chen Yunxi said, upon hearing those words, “Then I want to be a powerhouse like that too...”
The old man chuckled. He said no more.
It was easy on paper, but how many of them succeeded in achieving this goal?
If there were many who were this skilled, humans would not need to be wary of the Catacombs. They could just start a war and kill everyone off!
Chen Yunxi asked again, “Then why can the Sky Gate City lord kill Vice-chancellor Wu’s daughter...”
The old man sighed. “The strong will not kill the weak without reason, but it doesn’t mean that they cannot! It’s the same for both us and them.
“Some of our Grandmasters had unwittingly killed middle and lower-ranked martial artists when they passed through a Catacomb’s borders. As long as they didn’t go overboard, no one would say anything.
“Grandmasters, on their part, aren’t so easily killed. A Rank-7 Grandmaster might survive against a Rank-9 opponent for some time before they’re killed.
“During that time, Rank-9 martial artists from both parties would have noticed that, so a Rank-9 martial artist would be deterred from killing a Rank-7 martial artist.
“No one would react on time if it were several middle or lower-ranked martial artists that the Rank-9 martial artist had killed on a whim.
“Vice-chancellor Wu was a Grandmaster back then. It was a bout of bad luck, to have come across the other coincidentally. Technically speaking, it was the residue shockwaves of the battle that killed his daughter, but not the battle itself...”
Old Man Li humphed. “That animal did that deliberately! He wanted to kill Vice-chancellor Wu and ambush us!
“The shockwaves were deliberate too. He wanted to affect Vice-chancellor Wu’s emotions by killing us off.
“Vice-chancellor Wu had only been a Grandmaster for a short time. He could only fend off the city-lord with difficulty. He didn’t have the wherewithal to take care of us at the same time. Us middle-ranked martial artists would not be killed despite suffering injuries, but poor Duoduo...”
Old Man Li looked gloomy. They had failed to protect her.
The only one who could was Wu Kuishan, but he was only managing to hang by a thread. A Rank-7 martial artist just was not a match for a Rank-9 martial artist, no matter how strong his outburst might be at that time.
Not long after, a Rank-9 martial artist had come to their aid, but the short time before he had changed many lives.
Duoduo ended up dead, Lu Fengrou collapsed in grief, and he, Li Changsheng ended up crippled for life. Some other Rank-3 martial artists were dead too. Some middle-ranked martial artists suffered serious injuries, their Mentalities taking the brunt for most of them...
Lu Fengrou blamed Wu Kuishan for everything, but he could be absolved of it in the eyes of most people.
Being a Rank-7 martial artist, it was already fortuitous that he could counter the other’s attacks. There was no way he could divert his attention from his enemy.
Pity that Lu Fengrou would not–or should it be said that she did not want to–consider that. Maybe she thought that her daughter would survive the battle if Wu Kuishan led the enemy away from them if he had the determination to fight to the death.
Lu Fengrou would rather Wu Kuishan die than her daughter. She probably blamed Wu Kuishan for being unwilling to risk his life.
No one could say for sure now, if Wu Kuishan was indeed afraid of dying or if he really could not get himself out of the enemy’s clutches.
No matter what, their daughter had already been lost in the Catacombs.
...
Old Man Li sighed softly. When he recollected that incident, all that was left in his heart was a feeling of helplessness and regret, aside from fury and hatred.
How could he have hope to get revenge, if he could not ascend to Rank-9?
Lu Fengrou was single-mindedly focused on revenge, but could she be a match for the Sky Gate City’s city-lord, even after she had become a Grandmaster?
Even if she were to seek revenge, it is very likely another human powerhouse will come to protect her in her first attempt, as well as her second.
How about the third, fourth, and beyond? Did she expect Rank-9 powerhouses to protect her when she provoked an enemy Rank-9 martial artist time after time?
A High Grandmaster worked more as a force to inspire fear.
If battles between Rank-9 martial artists started being more frequent, a large-scale war would be fast approaching.
If they let Lu Fengrou be, though, she would die, and her death would be a huge loss. Her father and even Vice-chancellor Wu would be affected.
That was why everyone’s feelings toward her were complicated.
They wished for her to break through, for another Grandmaster-level powerhouse to be added into the ranks, but then they also worried that they would not be able to monitor her actions after she broke through.
The three’s arrival ended their conversation. The crowd on ground level erupted with cheers.
...
Fang Ping marched forward, taking large steps, wearing a coat with his company’s name printed on it, changdao in hand.
The crowd cleared a path for him without prompting. No one dared to stand in his way.
From the other side, Ling Yiyi walked to the center, holding her ax. The ax was not smaller than her stature; bigger, rather.
Han Xu’s nickname for her, Violent Maniac, was related to her choice in weapon too.
The crowd cleared a path for her too.
Ling Yiyi sent a glance at Fang Ping’s way. When Fang Ping met her gaze, she thrust her chest out in an extremely provocative gesture. “Hit here!”
She had heard of MCMAU Fang Ping’s extremely unsavory reputation. Obviously, he was not of the good sort.
The corner of Fang Ping’s eye twitched. He opened his mouth.
He did not speak too loudly, but Ling Yiyi erupted in fury!
A martial artist could hear well enough to perceive his words!
“They’re too small, my saber can’t hit them!”
That was what Fang Ping had said!
“Fang Ping!”
Ling Yiyi gritted her silver teeth, glaring at Fang Ping threateningly. She would not give up until she had beaten Fang Ping into submission, because of this sentence alone!
Han Xu, standing beside her, glanced toward her breasts at instinct...
Slap!
A muted sound and Ling Yiyi had already slapped him on the head. She humphed. “I’ll only be in junior year starting next semester. I still have two years to go. If you don’t think you can win against me, keep your head down!”
Han Xu almost spat blood then and there. ‘Did I say that?
‘I was only looking! And they’re indeed small, but do you really have to admit that what he said was right?’
Li Hansong was tired. He admonished softly, “Shut up, both of you!”
Han Xu had the urge to spit blood again. He said, exasperated, “I didn’t even speak!”
‘Which ear of yours heard me talking?
‘Why didn’t you speak up earlier when Ling Yiyi hit me?
‘It’s getting more and more difficult to make a living in CCMAU. I should’ve gone to MCMAU. Even someone like Fu Changding could do well in MCMAU...
‘Nope, that’s a no-go too!
‘There are way too many rebels in MCMAU. I heard that Qin Fengqing is constantly looking for a fight. Fang Ping isn’t of the good sort, either. And those girls who fought me that time...
‘Do the honest good people always get bullied?
‘Should I be a rebel too?’
Han Xu started to doubt himself. Honest good people found it difficult to survive these days. He, a thrice-honed martial artist, was becoming more and more meek in CCMAU. Maybe he really had to change his personality a bit.
That guy Fang Ping hit girls and prospered. Should he give it a try too?
...
Fang Ping, in front of him, walked to the clearing reserved previously. He bellowed, “Ling Yiyi, charge at me if you’d come! What are you doing, hiding from my sight?”
“Me, hide?”
Ling Yiyi was furious. Immediately, she leaped midair and swung her ax toward the ground. Fissures appeared on the ground instantly!
“Fang Ping, you’re not worth my time. My true opponents aren’t you! But you gave yourself up to me, so don’t blame me for being ruthless when I kill you or cripple you!”
“You’re small, but you have great ambition!”
“You’re angering me!”
Ling Yiyi’s face cooled down immediately. ‘What I hate the most is someone calling me short!’
Add in Fang Ping’s insult about her breasts, and Ling Yiyi was determined. If she did not make Fang Ping yowl in pain, she might as well give up on her honor!
Fang Ping, standing at the other side, was extremely confident too!
All his bones, aside from his cranial bones, were completely honed!
If he could not defeat Ling Yiyi, it would be a waste of all his formidable talent!