Chapter 129 - Prelude to the Team Competition

The Thunderbolt Sword-Drawing Technique was used to advance rapidly and defeat the enemy with a single move.

Of course, it was impossible to kill Yan Yu’er with the Thunderbolt Sword-Drawing Technique alone. Even if Lin Yao trained this combat skill to great success, or even if Yan Yu’er let down her guard because Lin Yao was merely an intermediate martial artist, she’d still have a certain chance to react. She was, after all, a powerful advanced martial artist.

However, the foundation of any martial artist was their physical fitness. There was no doubt that the stronger their physical fitness was, the greater the power of their combat skills would be.

When physical fitness reached a certain level, even without using any combat skills, the opponent could be crushed by strength alone. As people said, a powerful man could defeat ten people with martial arts skills.

If Xiao Feng[1] stopped using Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms[2], he would still be able to use Taizu Long Boxing[3] to defeat his enemies.

Lin Yao was someone who had powerful physical fitness.

Although he was only an intermediate martial artist, thanks to the full Body of Light 90% in combination with the 200% enhancement of the unlocked gene lock, his basic attributes had instantly skyrocketed to the level of a warlord.

Lin Yao, who was at the warlord level, had used all his might to deliver the Thunderbolt Sword-Drawing Technique—Lightning Flash, which was able to kill with one strike. Yan Yu’er, who had been slightly distracted, had no one to blame for losing the match.

However, although Lin Yao felt that his victory was justified, many people looked at him with dumbfounded expressions.

After Lin Yao defeated Yan Yu’er, the two warlords in the commentary booth felt very awkward. They had showered Yan Yu’er with praise at the beginning of the match, but she had been defeated within seconds. They had no idea how to comment on the match.

Fortunately, one of them was a professional commentator. E Longsheng, the famous host from Ninghai, quickly said, “Student Lin Yao is very decisive. Knowing the gap between the advanced and the intermediate martial artist, he decisively used the profound meaning to stake everything on one throw. Sure enough, if one hesitates, one will be defeated.”

After he said that, he also smiled.

“However, Yan Yu’er probably never expected that the opponent would not even try to test her abilities but would use an ultimate move as soon as the competition started. It can only be said that she is inexperienced. This reminds us to be careful no matter what kind of enemy we face in the future.

“It’s fortunate that Yan Yu’er is young and will have more chances in the future. By the way, isn’t this the reason we hold the arena competition? We realize our weaknesses through the competition and hence can work to improve ourselves. This is the true meaning behind the competition. I hope Yan Yu’er can work harder in the future. Let me talk about Lin Yao now. The team competition in the afternoon will not be this easy.”

The commentary attracted the attention of many people. The people who were shocked by Lin Yao’s abilities and did not understand why an intermediate martial artist was so powerful all looked to the commentary booth to shed light on their doubts. They quietly listened to the famous host from Ninghai making his commentary on the match.

E Longsheng’s partner was also quick to catch on. “Why?”

“Why? It’s naturally because Lin Yao already used his profound meaning just now.

“The remaining matches will be really hard now that he has revealed his ultimate moves.

“Besides, I believe Lin Yao’s profound meaning should be the full-body control derived from military boxing. This can unify the power of the physical body and also break the shackles of the physical body and exert extraordinary power. However, everyone usually combines this power and would not dare unleash extreme power, the reason being that the explosive physical force will cause damage to the body. Such injuries will affect the entire body, the muscles will be strained, and the internal organs will be severely injured due to the sudden increase in physical fitness. Therefore, one might think that Lin Yao won the match easily and be amazed by the fact that he defeated Yan Yu’er with a single blow. However, he only has the strength to use a single move. After that single move, his body will sustain severe injuries. Now that he has revealed his ultimate move and sustained injuries, it will definitely be difficult for him to win the arena competition in the afternoon.

“We can’t blame Lin Yao for that. He is an intermediate martial artist, not an advanced martial artist. If he had not used such desperate measures, he might not have won.

“That’s why I said that Lin Yao is decisive. Okay, let’s not talk about this anymore. The next match is between Ninghai No. 3 High School and No. 2 High School. The contestants are…”

The two commentators in the arena went on to comment on other matches after justifying their previous comments on the first match. Their commentary also answered the questions that the audience had.

“It turns out that he can only use one move. As I said, it is too extreme for an intermediate martial artist to defeat an advanced martial artist within seconds.”

“If you hesitate, you will lose. Yan Yu’er was not as decisive as Lin Yao.”

Some people seemed to understand what was going on after listening to the commentary of E Longsheng, the famous host, while others had different opinions.

“Lin Yao seems to be fine.”

“He must be pretending to be alright. Given that he is half-naked in public, you can tell what kind of person he is. How can he resist not showing off in front of so many people?”

“Although he only used one blow, Lin Yao is really handsome.”

“I don’t care whether he is handsome or not. I just think that Lin Yao, who is half-naked, is not acting like a hooligan. This is an expression of freedom…”

…

The commentary was conclusive, and the evidence was clear. After hearing those words, Lin Yao almost believed it and even covered his mouth and coughed twice, as if he was really injured. His teammates were the only ones who knew what was going on and shot weird glances at him.

They were from the same school, and they naturally knew how much Lin Yao could endure.

He was not injured at all.

The audience had their questions answered after listening to the commentary. Apart from the girls, many of them quickly forgot about Lin Yao and turned their attention to other people who were competing against each other. Lin Yao realized that he could not deceive others and stopped pretending.

The games were commencing fiercely, but what Lin Yao did not know was that things were happening backstage as well.

Although China was generally peaceful and the country also paid attention to one’s character and education, there were all kinds of fish in the sea, let alone when there was a population of more than one billion. Someone currently had a trick up his sleeve.

Actually, it was not considered a trick. After seeing that Yan Yu’er had suffered a crushing defeat, someone was upset about the results and wanted to change Lin Yao’s opponent for the team competition in the afternoon to a strong team from No. 1 High School.

If Lin Yao knew it, he would be dumbfounded to find out that it was not Yan Yu’er’s indifferent and arrogant mother who was playing tricks, but Li Peng, the simp who had impulsively gone up on the stage.

He was indignant at being stopped by the instructor, so he used his family connections to cause Ling Yao trouble.

No rule of the competition held in the city center stated that a weak team had to compete against a weak team and a strong team had to go up against a strong team. To the public, it seemed that the teams were selected randomly.

Was there a problem if a weak team went up against a strong team? No, at most, it could only be said that Lin Yao was unlucky.

However, in the end, this insidious trick was not implemented successfully. This was not because the competition personnel had strong values but because some people were unhappy about it.

“How dare someone change the order of the games at will! Do they really think that there is no one capable in Ninghai No. 4 High School?!”

The person from No. 4 High School was fuming mad, and the competition personnel felt awkward.

In fact, Lin Yao was now representing Ninghai No. 4 High School. If he won the match, he would be gaining benefits for himself, but Ninghai No. 4 High School would also gain popularity and be awarded more resources by the city. Therefore, the people who targeted Lin Yao’s team were, in fact, going against Ninghai No. 4 High School. The school would not allow that to happen.

No. 4 High School stopped the change of team on the spot. The school even warned the personnel at the competition center to prevent other people from manipulating Lin Yao’s individual match.

Although very few points were awarded for an individual match, this was relative. If Lin Yao had a good ranking, he would still contribute to the overall ranking of No. 4 High School. Hence, they would not allow other people to mess with Lin Yao.

The insidious trick had been nipped in the bud unbeknownst to Lin Yao.

…

Lin Yao felt bored, as he had no other matches. Time passed by quickly. Three hours later, the first round of individual competitions finally ended.

Fortunately, there were three arenas. If the competitions were held one by one, the event would only end tomorrow.

Now that the arena competitions had ended, the team competition would be next. It would be held at the same venue, but the stage of the arena competition had been lowered.

Naturally, teams competed one after another. Fortunately, there were not many teams from other institutions except for No. 1 High School, which had 10 teams representing it.

Most dojos had only one team, while No. 2 High School, No. 3 High School, and No. 4 High School had a maximum of three or four teams. As a result, the competition would end very soon.

The team competition between two teams and ten players was obviously more exciting than the individual competition, and Lin Yao watched the matches with great gusto.

However, after a short while, he realized that most of the people present looked sullen. They could not be blamed, as the situation in the arena was really unexpected.

It was obvious that No. 1 High School was very powerful. Many people had originally expected to rely on teamwork to defeat them. However, the situation left them desperate. When they fought in the team competition, they realized that the teamwork of No. 1 High School was so much better than that of other teams.

Upon seeing this, Tu Hong sighed before the others could say anything.

“Don’t be discouraged. It’s not that you are weaker than others. No. 1 High School starts training their students for the team competition in their first year of school, and they form a fixed team in the second year. They have been teammates for a year. It’s fine if our teamwork is not as good as theirs. We are not after the first place. It will be good enough as long as we defeat others.”

No. 1 High School had absolute strength and teamwork. They could not help feeling desperate over the current situation.

Zhang Feng spoke up. “Why can’t we form a fixed team?”

Tu Hong smiled and shook his head. “It’s not right for us.”

Of course it was not. Firstly, No. 1 High School was full of talented people, and the city center had invested a lot of resources in the school, so nearly all the students had been trained.

No. 4 High School still implemented the elimination system, so they gathered the strong and eliminated the weak. Even if there was good teamwork, once there were no resources, it was likely that they would not improve anymore and would not be able to join the top class. As a result, their personal strength would not be up to standard and the teamwork they developed would be useless. After all, the prerequisite for cooperation was that everyone was similar in terms of power and strength.

It was impossible to train all the students in No. 4 High School. Unlike No. 1 High School, which had many resources, their school had no money at all.

In addition, the second difficulty they faced was that there were not enough instructors.

Fierce battles would result in accidents at any time. Why would the school encourage students to go to the arena and discourage field fighting? It was because there were instructors around to watch the matches and render help at any time to prevent life-threatening situations.

However, they did not have enough instructors around to watch a ten-man team competition. During intense group battles, there would be many uncertainties on the stage. Although there was protective gear and strict rules that students must not kill each other, each team training still required three to five powerful instructors to watch from the sidelines.

No. 4 High School thought it was fine if they temporarily deployed staff to strengthen the training sessions. However, it was impossible if they had to go for intensive training every day.

At the beginning of the arena competition, it was natural that they would not arrange for the teams from No. 1 High School to go up against each other. Basically, No. 1 High School would fight against several other training institutions in Ninghai. At this competition, No. 1 High School achieved a crushing victory. Fortunately, the four teams led by four warlords from No. 1 High School did not participate in the competition. Instead, they remained at the back, as they were seeded players. In addition, there were quite a lot of teams from the dojos, which was why No. 1 High School went up against the second and third teams from the other schools, as well as the teams from the dojos. Hence, Lin Yao and the others could still sit by and watch the matches.

The reason the four warlords from No. 1 High School led four different teams was because the school would definitely score the highest points. Therefore, they did not need to group all the powerhouses in one team like Ninghai No. 4 High School and could instead rely on the warlords to form more teams.

Tu Hong watched as the martial arts team from No. 1 High School fought against the second and third teams from No. 2 High School and No. 3 High School. He then tried to encourage his students. “According to past practices, our first team will fight against No. 2 High School and No. 3 High School. This applies to the first two rounds of the competition. Afterward, you will go up against No. 1 High School. When that happens, just try your best. However, you must not lose in the first two rounds.”

[1] Xiao Feng is a fictional character in “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils”, a wuxia novel written by Jin Yong.

[2] This is a fictional, powerful martial art that appears in multiple Jin Yong novels.

[3] This is a style of Chinese martial arts whose name refers to Emperor Taizu of Song, the founder of the Song dynasty.