CH 59

Chapter 59: Beginning of the School’s Martial Arts Competition

(TLN: Second extra chapter!)

Today, the Holy Spirit Magic School would host a major event. The school’s martial arts competition was the most important competition that had been passed down for more than 14,000 years.

The school’s martial arts competition was held every year. It took place on the home grounds of all the students in this school. There were 128 rankings, and one could get expensive awards by winning.

These competitions for prizes and glory were not just for the senior students, but there was also some hosted for the lower-level students. For example, in the first-year student ranking competition, the top three could also earn rewards and glory, albeit it was seen as a child’s fight in the eyes of the higher-leveled.

This ranking and glory would raise the reputation of students as they would compete once a year. If one could maintain their rankings, that individual’s popularity would become more and more prestigious.

Long Shiyan also wanted to improve her reputation. Although helping others could also raise her fame, the people who were helped would only feel grateful. And as long as she was in the rankings, they wouldn’t just feel thankful toward her but also worship her.

Prestige, here I come.

Long Shiyan had ranked within the top three for six school years. By her seventh year, she naturally maintained her rank as one of the top three in the school. And because she was ranked first in the sixth grade, her strength was number one among students.

Strength and character made her the most popular existence among students at the school. Furthermore, she was a part of the Student Holy Spirit Group.

This time, the competition was divided into seven individual competitions. Out of those competitions, the seventh-grade competition was the most popular, so its main stage was likewise the largest.

The fifth and sixth grades could also register into the seventh-grade competition, thereby increasing the number of people in that competition. On the other hand, some fewer people registered from the lower grades because they all worshiped the higher grades. Furthermore, people who were not capable would not sign up. It was better for them to watch their seniors and cheer them on.

Besides, there would be foreigners coming to watch the seniors compete.

Most of these people were onlookers who were interested in the spectacle but didn’t have anything knowledgeable to say about it. Despite that, there were still many decent people among them.

Since their school was the number one school in the continent, the forces that were attracted to it were not simple passerbys. Some were secret agents of certain countries, spies of particular influential forces. In addition, there were also people sent from four empires like the Beastman Empire, the Radiant Church, the Dark Church, or other small kingdoms.

Undoubtedly, they were fish and dragons mixed together!

(TLN: “Fish and dragons mixed together” is an idiom meaning “crooks mixed with the honest folk” and in context, it would refer to how the strong people were mixed in the mob.)

The reason for their arrival was nothing more than to monitor the continent’s number one school, extract information when necessary, and recruit students before they graduated. Those who couldn’t enter the Holy Spirit Group would have to consider where to find employment and find other options as to where to go.

In short, the annual school competitions could also be said to be an audition of talents. According to one’s performance, an onlooker would act more amicable toward that one.

For the seventh-grade students, this was also their most important competition. One’s ability would be displayed in the face of countless forces. Only by showing oneself well would that one receive better benefits.

They had a choice of joining outside forces, staying in school to become a teacher, or establishing a mercenary group and taking risks by going on adventures. Of course, if one was powerful, that one could directly join the Holy Spirit Group.

First of all, the starting matches were free-for-all competitions.

Then, it was the qualifier, followed by matches between the final sixteen competitors remaining.

After the quarter-finals, semi-finals, match to decide third-place winner, and final match, they would continue to the Academy Honor Battles, where they would be matched against other schools.

Of course, compared to the other competition, this was a team competition with several other factors.

At two o’clock in the afternoon, a multitude of people was in the first martial arts hall, and hundreds of them were students at the school. The free-for-all competition was where more than 3,000 students per batch would compete in the martial arts halls. The top five competitors amongst the final groups of 100 students would enter the qualifiers.

The other unsuccessful classmates would have another chance. They would once again fight, and the final battles between one hundred students would be repeated. This time, only two students would be selected. These two could enter the qualifiers while all of the others would be eliminated.

Since they had another chance after being eliminated, they could avoid being defeated by the experts again. Therefore, this was a very fair competition.

At this moment, Long Shiyan was also on the fighting stage.

This time, the stage was enormous—the size of at least five football fields. The audience sitting around the stage were small in comparison. However, it was still not big enough for the seventh-level students to fight in.

Both magicians and warriors were participating, so it would be very unfair if there wasn’t any distance between them.

The position of the magicians would be arranged near the corners as they would either remain all alone or form a team with others and become protected by the warriors. The latter was the better choice.

Besides, the number of magicians in their school was already several times less than the number of warriors.

Long Shiyan’s location was set closer to the warriors and farther away from the experts. She didn’t move and was firmly standing still. Among this group of a hundred people, there were also familiar faces who would soon group into a team.

The other unfamiliar people would probably do the same.

However, no one came to talk to her, and she did not need to team up with others. Soon, Long Shiyan noticed that she was alone.

“Boss, there’s only one person over there. We should deal with her first before the others,” said one of the boys in the group of seven nearest to Long Shiyan.

The boy who was called the “Boss” swept a glance at Long Shiyan and his teammates. He looked distracted for a few seconds, and then cleared his throat. How did this guy get so close to their group?! How unlucky!

“Boss, we shouldn’t fight her! Have you heard about yesterday’s enchantment breaking event? She’s the main star of the event who repaired the enchantment. We are not strong enough to tear her down nor pick on her!” said a thin and weak boy.

“Bullcrap! I was also present on the scene. Did you have to tell me that?” The boss couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Don’t look at the girl who is alone. Her abilities are formidable. Instead, you should take a look at the people around you and notice that they have all distanced themselves from her. We shouldn’t be the ones to take the initiative by fighting her.”

“The enchantment breaking event? What’s that?” The shorter student was puzzled.

“I don’t know,” a girl said.

“So ignorant!” The thin male student couldn’t help but glance at the naive duo. “Allow me to explain it to you. She was the one who stopped two ninth-level fighters when their powers were starting to go berserk yesterday and saved a large number of students. And, she openly reprimanded the five members of the Student Holy Spirit Group in a style that strongly convinces people.”

The boss added, “We can’t beat her. She is like a group leader, merely watching other people who are too scared to approach her. If we don’t provoke her, then she shouldn’t make any moves on us until the last minute. Whatever happens at that time should be left for later.”

“I agree with the boss.” The magician girl said with excitement, “I heard many friends say that she is the head of the group, but she changed her appearance to hide in the school. A big event will likely happen soon.”

“Isn’t the head of the group dead?” said the weak and feeble boy.

“I don’t think so!” The magician girl snorted. “In the video, the head of the group was swallowed by a hippopotamus monster, but that didn’t mean she died. The hippopotamus monster is so big and it would take some time before it could digest a living person. So the head of the group should’ve had a chance to escape as long as she used her dimensional wind blade.”

“I have heard these words countless times.” The thin boy couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Although it was almost impossible for the head of the group to release a dimensional wind blade, it was their only hope. So no one was willing to refute that logic.

“Originally, this was merely a conjecture, but after seeing her appearance, we obtained some evidence,” the female magician said, “first of all, her name is very similar to the head of the group’s name. If it were to be reversed, ‘Yan Shi’ would become ‘Shiyan,’ right? Furthermore, her body is small, which is exactly the same as the head. Then, there was yesterday’s event with the shattering of the enchantment.”

The students reported about how during the mayhem in the martial arts hall, the junior students were in distress. After she appeared and scolded those students, the students completed her orders. According to the students at the time, her voice was very familiar and had a sense of security. Furthermore, she tried to protect them with all of her power.

The most important point is that after she prevented the two ninth-level fighters from fighting and contained the damage, she reprimanded the members of the Student Holy Spirit Group over and over again. Although she spoke words of stern criticism, her tone showed that she wanted to protect them and that she hated iron for not becoming steel.

(TLN: “To hate iron for not becoming steel” is an idiom meaning “to feel resentful for someone who fails to meet expectations while being impatient to see improvement”)

Then everyone recalled the violent magical beast wave that occurred ten months ago. At that time, the head of the group also used this tone to reprimand the Student Holy Spirit Group. From these facts, one could assume that Yan Shi might be the head of the group.”

What the female magician said was well-founded evidence. The six others couldn’t refute her any longer; they couldn’t help but look back at Long Shiyan. After watching her from afar, they couldn’t help but admit that Long Shiyan and Yan Shi resembled each other even if the weapon she used was different and her character was colder than before. If a fairy floated around her, she would bear more similarities to the head of the group.

“I always felt that her temperament was awfully cold, causing people to avoid her. This is different from the head of the group. Although the head would act cold, she is actually very gentle,” the female fighter said.

“I didn’t feel that way; she is just hard to approach,” the female magician argued, “don’t you think that the head of the group’s cold demeanor was strange? Isn’t it completely different from an adult’s temperament?”

“True, an adult’s temperament is extremely cold, as if it could freeze people. This makes it very uncomfortable to approach them. On the contrary, the head of the group’s cold temperament gave a secure feeling, and it didn’t feel uncomfortable to be around her. Furthermore, people liked to stay close to her and help her do things. She gave off a feeling of intimidation and oppression like a queen’s temperament. In this way, she’s really like the head of the group.” The boss led his team a little further away and then sneaked a peek at Long Shiyan.

“Yeah, so I would say that there’s an eighty percent chance that she is the head of the group. I just don’t know why she would appear here with a different identity.” The female magician swept a gaze at her teammates and said, “You don’t believe me? If you don’t believe me, just look at her. The head of the group is very gentle. As long as we don’t provoke her, she will simply watch us fight until there are four people left. How about you make a bet with me?”

“If she is not the head of the group, then at the beginning of the game, she will take the initiative to defeat us. After all, she appears colder than the head of the group. But if she is not the head of the group, then she won’t have the obligation of protecting us, but instead, deal with us right away.” The female magician glanced at her teammates. “If you don’t believe me, then when the battle begins, I will leave you all and try to figure out if my conjecture is true. You guys just need to watch her, okay?”

“Wait a minute!” The boss stopped her. “Don’t you want to get a rank?”

“It doesn’t matter if I can verify who she is; I will work hard in the next round for eliminated competitors. Moreover, I doubt I could squeeze into the top five in this round,” the female magician said.

When the time ran out, the battle began.

The female magician decisively broke away from the team and advanced toward Long Shiyan. Then, she released the fire magic to attack her.

Her fire magic was not weak, and since there wasn’t any water nearby to weaken it, it was very powerful.

Long Shiyan thought that she would be safe for a long time. However, she did not expect that at the beginning of the fight, a foolish magician would cast a spell and rushed to her side.

The six-person team had to stick together, so no one wanted to follow her. They could only stare at the female magician who left the team. In fact, no one had started a fight because they were also watching the female magician arbitrarily attacking Long Shiyan.

They also wished to know the result.

The fire magic was not weak, but Long Shiyan enchanted her épée with Douqi and magic. Her body moved quickly, and she leaped up into the air before preparing a “Glorious Heart” to hack at the magician.

The female magician, who felt the impending crisis, quickly stopped in place. A magic shield was created in front of her, and then she shut her eyes to withstand the pain.

Long Shiyan did not want to make a big fuss over a minor issue. So she decided to use the move “Glorious Heart” to defeat the magician who was two levels lower than her. If they were outside the enchantment, an average person would die from this sword technique, let alone this familiar-looking person.

The épée destroyed the barrier, quickly landing on her body. Then, as the autumn gale would sweep away the fallen leaves, the female magician dropped to the ground.

(TLN: “as the autumn gale sweeps away the fallen leaves” is an idiom meaning “to drive out the old and make a clean sweep”)

Long Shiyan was internally dumbfounded, however, she was disinclined to reveal her identity. She simply glanced at the girl who was sitting on the ground and said icily, “If this was the battlefield, you would have died over a hundred times. Even though you’re an unranked magician, you still charged at a warrior, are you kidding me?”

She couldn’t resist the urge to reprimand her.

The female magician narrowed her eyes. “I thought you wouldn’t have any strong abilities. Who would have imagined that this would happen?”

“Don’t judge people by their appearance. The seemingly weaker people may be the most formidable. Isn’t this a fundamental teaching of your Alchemy Research Society?” As Long Shiyan’s voice trailed off, she raised a fist and punched the girl’s abdomen.

“Shine.” A light shield enveloped the girl, and then she disappeared.

This was the enchantment’s guardian power. Not only could it prevent the energies inside the stage from leaking out but also protect the body of the fighters inside the enchantment. As long as the attack was enough to threaten a person’s life, the enchantment would automatically generate a shield to protect the eliminated participant, and then that participant would be relocated to a safe area outside the stage.

This was why it was necessary to repair the enchantment before the school competitions could be held.

At this moment, two girls ran to the girl who suddenly appeared in a safe area outside the stage. The girl who appeared wasn’t a random participant, but the one who had just been defeated by Long Shiyan.

“How foolish! Why did you suddenly charge at that person?” A girl equipped with a sword on her right side expressed her concerns.

“I just wanted to make sure!” The girl laughed mischievously as she stood up. “I’m fine. The strength that the head of the group used was very precise; she utilized just the right amount to offset the enchantment, which had counteracted the damage.”

“You shouldn’t treat it as nothing; you scared us!” The girl on the left patted her chest. “What if you had gotten hurt?”

The enchantment could only protect one’s life at most, but sometimes one might sustain serious yet non-lethal injuries.

When Long Shiyan finished the girl off, she stood up and glanced at the onlooking students.

“Hua!” The other participants rioted at once. They continued to keep a distance from her and fight amongst themselves.

Originally they didn’t dare to provoke her. Now that they saw her easily destroying several fire magic spells in succession and then send the female magician out of the battlefield, no one dared to meddle with her. She wasn’t even serious yet when she defeated the magician.

Long Shiyan did not go to them to find trouble. In any case, her position as one of the top five was solidified. In the meantime, the rest of the group would definitely fight for the other top four spots, thus deciding the top five.

(TLN: Could you guys do me a favor and vote for the short story “A Variation of Jiang Chen” and the poem “From a Character Forever Forgotten” in the contest link below?

For every ten voters that vote for them, I’ll count those votes as an extra chapter. Voting is free. On November 1st, I’ll see how many extra chapters there are and do a mass release for villainess on November 1st. Perhaps, I might release the rest of the book. Please help support your translator!

Link: https://www.moonquill.com/contest/SOTR-x-MoonQuill/browse)