Chapter 169 – Adolf
Authority and prestige were developed through a direct comparison of strength. As such, the deterioration of the Prodigy Society’s and Saint Judgement’s training grounds wasn’t something one could avoid.
Wang Zhong had taken this opportunity to test a few of his theories concerning control with the squadron, especially the ideas pertaining to successive control. Barran’s role in this test was considerable as a heavy soldier like Lily wasn’t suitable. While Lily was more mature, had greater experience, and possessed stronger soul power, Barran’s physique and the special trait behind his raw strength made him more suited for Wang Zhong’s squadron setup.
After his miraculous recovery, Barran healed up at an astonishing speed. There was, after all, no real issue with the external injuries he sustained. His soul power also didn’t just recover but even benefited somewhat from the shattering. As for the concrete details, Barran had to comprehend them himself through self-training.
Barran’s comprehension strength and soul power were now clearly more outstanding than before which, in turn, meant his training became ever more grueling in comparison. Rather than talk, why not move his body? He even managed to remember the feeling of eruption he’d gone through during the battle in the small forest. What he had experienced should’ve been the ‘control’ his senior had spoken to him about.
As he thought about the training, ‘Sir Manager’ Ma Dong Dong could only wish Barran good luck. After being smashed around for so long yet still keeping his wits, Barran indeed became a kind of ‘prodigy’ the society and he welcomed! Wang Zhong’s conning ability sure is something.
To the eyes of others, Wang Zhong was only ‘somewhat strong’, while most felt Grai was the squadron’s strongest. The only reason Wang Zhong could become the captain was due to Grai being a freshman with a gentle temperament. But Ma Dong knew the truth. Not only did he know, he also wanted to shout it out loud to the world!
You pieces of trash! You all can’t recognise the true god in front of you! Wang Zhong fought off four squadmates all by himself!
There really wasn’t much he needed to worry about on the combat side of things. After all, the academy gave them full support in this. What Ma Dong needed to do was utilize the intelligence network at his disposal and gather more information.
Wang Zhong’s main weapon of choice was naturally the crosswheels. If one was going to play with something, one should play with it all the way down to its essence. To have lukewarm interest or a half-baked interest in something wasn’t Wang Zhong’s style.
His mastery over the weapon was actually increasing as the days passed. The power behind the spirals created through the unlimited revolutions could be considered as him having ‘somewhat’ mastered it. It was now something he could control with but a thought. If he so desired, he could unleash thousands of successive slashes of his ‘infinite’ technique without a problem.
But he himself knew this wasn’t the true ‘infinite’ revolutions he sought. He had only reached the level of having macroscopic mastery over it. As for the minute intricacies, he still had a long way to go.
The true Laforgue Infinite Slash Crosswheels were definitely more formidable than what he currently exhibited. Not only was it weaker in terms of strength, the creator was one who managed to not only control the infinite revolutions but also overlap and superimpose forces from powers stronger than he and channel them into the infinite revolutions! Once it reaches that level then no matter how weak the initial starting force was it would quickly begin to scale up in strength with no limit and reach an infinite number of revolutions.
As for the current Wang Zhong, he couldn’t even begin to overlap and superimpose the forces and was quite the distance away from even the word ‘infinite’.
Researching these mysteries was the easiest way for Wang Zhong to calm his mind and heart. As such, he would regularly spend his free time polishing up his skills. Naturally this meant the training time of the entire Tianjing Squadron would also increase. As the core of the squadron, Wang Zhong, Scarlet, Lily, and Hymin mobilized the strength of their societies and gathered training partners for the sake of acting out squadron level combat strategies.
As the date for the CHF closed in on them, more and more academies started to frantically make round trips to other great academies for the sake of promoting a mutual exchange as well as a comparing of notes. All of this was for the sake of mutually improving the squadrons of both academies and raise their strength for the upcoming CHF. Every academy did this except for Tianjing Heroic Soul Academy.
What kind of place was Tianjing Heroic Soul Academy? The academy placed tenth in the regional competitions during the previous year. This was in the Eastern China Region which was considered a particularly weak region of the entire federation. To be placed tenth there indicated the academy was at the bottom of all competitors in this year’s CHF.
You’ve already hit rock bottom, so why would anyone want to have an exchange with you? If one were to put it politely, it was just a waste of everyone’s time. Even more bluntly, having an exchange with Tianjing Academy would just sully and blackmark one’s status and standards. Therefore, every invitation sent by Tianjing Heroic Soul Academy was tossed and forgotten like rocks thrown into the ocean.
Headmaster Green had no choice, then, but to shamelessly take personal action and show his old face to the world. This was because Tianjing Heroic Soul Academy was being particularly quiet during this period of time. While it was impossible for all academies to participate in an exchange, the calm Tianjing couldn’t help but show weakness in their passivity.
When everyone saw this, those that were friendly to them knew there wasn’t anyone backing Tianjing while those with slightly more sinister intentions not only guessed that Tianjing Academy was weak, but that their mentality was poor and that they didn’t even have the guts to challenge the strong. Without strength and a fear of defeat, what was the point in even joining the CHF?
With those kinds of things being spread around, Tianjing Heroic Soul Academy was soon classified as the negative role model of a broken jar. The only thing lacking was a public denouncement and active criticisms. In every era, the number of people willing to hit someone who was down would always overwhelm the number willing to offer a helping hand.
The amount of face-smacking being done could practically be heard echoing throughout the night. Even before the CHF had started, Tianjing Heroic Soul Academy’s ranking plummeted to the abyss.
Thus, regardless of whether it was to increase the standards of the squadron or suppress the rumours, the squadron had to fight at least a couple of matches. Headmaster Green stiffened his face and personally went out to beg for an opponent in Adolf Heroic Soul Academy. The academy had achieved third place in last year’s Eastern China Regional Competition and was one of the closer academies to Tianjing. It took them no more than two to three days of travel by armored railway.
When the news of their acceptance was announced, mayhem quickly broke out within the academy.
“Is that old man trying to die? Even if we wanted to invite someone, why couldn’t it be an academy like the Combat Wolf Academy or Skyblue Academy? Why Adolf?”
“Like I give a shit. I guess those slightly better academies aren’t willing to come over. I heard that Adolf headmaster is quite greedy. It seems our old man had to wrap quite the large red packet.”
“… to give money so that others can suppress us, what the fuck is this!? Even masochists wouldn’t do such a thing!”
“It’s not that ridiculous, right? Don’t we still have Grai? I feel our academy’s lineup this year is quite strong.”
“Haha. You’re too naive! No matter how strong Grai is, he’s still just a freshman. Do you think he’s omnipotent? Furthermore, the true competition consists of five solo matches and a group match. Who gives a shit if just one person is strong. What counts is the entire squadron’s strength!
“Adolf placed third in last year’s regionals! Their captain is even more of a freak! I heard he’s on the same level as Ball Queen Sharmie! The squadron’s lineup is also complete and in full spirits. As for us, our previous captain was thrown out the door… is there even any point in fighting?”
“They’re that strong? Doesn’t that mean this exchange will end tragically?”
“Not only will it end tragically, it’ll be a calamity! The possibility of us getting zero points is ninety-five percent! Fuck! Anyway, I won’t bother to go and see such a one-sided match. I’m not a damned sadist!{
This sorrowful note filled the entire academy. The only thing lacking was an anguished wail. But those that were required to appear would still appear. Adolf Academy’s exchange squadron swaggered gallantly over and the academy naturally gave them their warmest welcome.