Chapter 49 Show Me Some Respect
“Still hasn’t drawn the sword? I suppose he can’t find a chance to! Haha!”
“That’s right. A swordsman can’t even draw out his sword in front of his opponent. What a shame for your Eastern Academy of green shirts seeded fighter!”
Western Academy of red shirts disciples chortled wildly.
“You…” Zhang Fan was not eloquent or good at reasoning. Thus, he could only talk back with his teeth gritted. “You can talk the talk, I’ll see who laughs last!”
“Right, wait and see. Our Brother Ding must kick the sh** out of the skinny tall bamboo!” Eastern Academy of green shirts disciples like Wang Xiaoqi enthusiastically rooted for Ding Hao and glared at the disciples of Western Academy of red shirts.
In the middle of their bickering, a dramatic change happened in the ring—
“Clang!”
A sorrowful clang suddenly rang inside the entire ring.
Moreover, the pouring sword light icing air stopped at that instant.
Everyone raised their head in the direction of the sound, only to see the red-clad skinny tall bamboo, Song Feixiong, cried out in surprise and stamped backward a dozen steps away. He was wearing a shocked expression and looking at Ding Hao in disbelief.
Song Feixiong, at some point, had let the long sword in his hand slipped into the ground. The sword stuck into the green tiles of the arena, still droning and quivering.
.
Outside the ring, below the stage, the argument between disciples from Eastern and Western Academies suddenly came to a screeching halt.
“Brother Ding won!” Zhang Fan was the first to come around and then yelled enthusiastically.
“Haha, I knew it! Brother Ding is bound to win!” “Victory belongs to Brother Ding!” “Hooray! We won! Hahaha!” Disciples from Eastern Academy of green shirts jumped for joy excitedly.
“How could this be? Brother Song Feixiong has obviously been gaining the upper hand. What has happened?”
The Western Academy of red shirts disciples who awaited the expected victory in elation all stared at each other in shock. They could not believe what they had seen. The result had been reversed too quickly; it was almost unbelievable!
It was inside the ring, on the stage.
“I… You won!” The tall and skinny bamboo Song Feixiong let out a bitter look.
It was not until he was pushed away by Ding Hao’s force did he find out that his entire right arm that he used to hold the sword was covered in silver icy fog. He was feeling numb in the muscle, and Qi blockage inside his body.
It was because he had been possessed by his rival’s icy chilling Qi.
Not until now did he realize that the opponent’s strength was far beyond his.
It was at present that Song Feixiong bitterly saw that his opponent, from the beginning to the end, had not moved a little.
It clearly showed that though the sword lights flooded the entire stage, and his Lightning-Chasing Central Swordsmanship seemed to gain the upper hand during the round, in fact, they did not harm Ding Hao in the slightest way.
Nevertheless, Song Feixiong realized something as well.
To think how he broke through and comprehended on sword technique during the fight, Song Feixiong was feeling more in shock.
As a result, he ghastly found that Ding Hao seemed to possess an extremely strange aura, which could easily take Song Feixiong into a profound sword technique stage and tackle his long-existing bottlenecks. It was a marvelous feeling that he found hard to describe.
Song Feixiong turned around and withdrew his sword. He took back the rampant attitude he adopted previously and saluted with hands folded with respect. He said, “The round with you made me reach a whole new state of the Lightning-Chasing Central Swordsmanship and break through. I’ve got nothing to complain about the result. And you really deserve to win. You’re strong!”
Ding Hao nodded in reply. “Your sword technique is great too!”
Actually, the reason why Ding Hao did not fight a quick battle was that he wanted to watch and read the opponent’s sword technique.
The Lightning-Chasing Central Swordsmanship was a Human Rank Middle Class sword technique, much superior to his foundation sword technique Rapid-Cross Sword. Ding Hao had watched four to five times before he roughly remembered the move of the entire set.
As for the specific coordinating catalyst Qi technique, he needed to grind away at that.
That being said, he had acquired a lot!
“One day, I’ll stand in front of you again. I’ll make you have to draw your long sword to fight me by the time!” Song Feixiong looked serious and said, “Your strength is really powerful enough, but there are still many other experts in the five academies seeded fighters. Be careful, I hope you can go further in this game!”
This rampant Western Academy disciple was really impressed by Ding Hao’s poise and secretly wanted Ding Hao to win the game.
Upon finishing his words, he jumped and got off the ring.
“Ding Hao from Eastern Academy of green shirts won!” A referee on the stage announced the result out loud.
Below the stage, disciples from Eastern Academy of green shirts all burst into cheers.
…
Ding Hao returned to the Eastern Academy of green shirts zone, only to find that most of the first rounds for all five academies were over.
Of the 10 seeded fighters from Eastern Academy of green shirts, six were eliminated in the first rounds as expected; only four people won. Other than Ding Hao, the other winners were Li Lan and his trusted subordinates, Ge Yin and Zhang Tianlun.
Li Lan’s and Ding Hao’s winning were basically expected by many.
First, Ding Hao had gained him a reputation previously and had shown some really preeminent sword techniques. Disciples of Eastern Academy of green shirts were really confident in his winning.
Second, Li Lan’s background had been mysterious. He adopted a confident manner in daily lives and usually did not bother to strike his rival a second blow. During the previous martial arts selection contests for seeded fighters, he struck everyone as a very qualified candidate.
However, Ge Yin’s and Zhang Tianlun’s winning surprised many people.
After all, during the seeded fighters selection contests, they did not stand out. However, they still won. Moreover, Zhang Tianlun’s beating an opponent from the Central Academy of white shirts shocked people. Nearly everyone thought they had been lucky and met some weak rivals.
Only the cynical male teacher-in-charge Wang Juefeng keenly distinguished that, in the eyes of Zhang Tianlun and Ge Yin, patches of Purple Qi were flowing in the deep. It was unnatural, clearly the sign of having taken some strength catalyst elixirs to increase strength temporarily.
The cynical man shook his head and did not ask further.
Indeed, one could greatly increase his strength by elixir in a short time. However, they would probably be suffering the aftereffects.
Nevertheless, one must tread his own path. As their teacher-in-charge, he only handled the disciples’ daily practices and general blueprints for their personal development, never the private issues of the masses of disciples on the waiting list.
“Gee, I didn’t expect that. After the first round, some of you still stand on the ground. Four of you actually made it and scored four points. Well, I didn’t see that coming, haha. But you can’t be too proud now. I suppose you won’t get lucky in the second rounds too! Now, get ready to be kicked in the ass!”
The cynical man always talked that way, as if he wanted people to hate him.
He had put across their achievements in one sentence, yet still, he made the disciples itching for an excuse to fight him.
Ding Hao pursed his lips and remained silent.
There were still four hours until the second rounds. He found a spot in the shade of a tree to take some rest and closed his eyes, chewing on the Lightning-Chasing Central Swordsmanship sword technique he just learned.