Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Shao Jianyang. You are called Shao Jianyang. That’s your name, right?”
Mo Wen smirked while walking towards Shao Jianyang.
Right now, Shao Jianyang’s expression was very gloomy; he stared at Mo Wen bleakly. He lost! He actually lost!
“Hmph, consider yourself lucky this time. However, we are not over yet.”
Shao Jianyang snorted; he turned around and was ready to return to the 3rd Battalion.
“Of course we are not done yet. Yet, you are leaving already? You haven’t settled the bet,” Mo Wen said dryly.
Shao Jianyang swung back violently, his dark gaze landing on Mo Wen.
“You really want me to do it?”
His face turned green, then pale. If he were to crawl between Mo Wen’s legs in front of thousands of people, he could not be seen in public again.
“Of course, you suggested the terms of the bet. How can it be if we do not follow your word?”
Mo Wen laughed coldly. Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you. Shao Jianyang single-mindedly wanted to embarrass him in public, but he forgot to consider what would happen if he lost. Since he dared to suggest the terms, he had to be responsible and own up to his decisions.
“Mo Wen, you are vicious.”
Shao Jianyang took a deep breath, gave Mo Wen a cold stare, then turned and quietly left, without any intention of honoring his bet.
Asking him to crawl in front of a crowd, barking like a dog? You may as well have killed him.
Also, it was just a personal bet between him and Mo Wen – others did not know about it. Even if he violated the bet, aside from Mo Wen, who would know?
Mo Wen watched blankly at Shao Jianyang’s silhouette. If he had really honored the bet in front of the crowd, Mo Wen’s opinion of him would have improved by a few points. Such a pity; in the end he was but a buffoon with limited potential.
During the second round, undisputedly the 4th Battalion placed first, the 3rd Battalion was second, the 2nd Battalion came in third, and the 1st Battalion trailed at fourth.
Just then, the officer from the VIP stand walked towards the center of the parade ground again.
“Announcing the results, currently the 4th Battalion is placed first with a total of 123 points, the 3rd Battalion is tied at first place with the 4th Battalion with a total of 123 points. The 2nd Battalion with 108 points is third, and the 1st Battalion with 102 points is fourth.”
During the second round, the 4th and 3rd Battalion’s results were tied, completely making up for the prior difference.
“Next, the third round — the combat competition begins. Every battalion will choose three candidates and draw lots to decide their opponents.”
Right after the second round was the third round — the combat competition. Every battalion sent three candidates and the battalions fought among each other to finally decide on the most outstanding battalion.
After some tense arrangements, the 4th Battalion chose three members: Mo Wen, Wang Yuan, and Hong Lü.
Of the three rounds, Mo Wen and Wang Yuan had gone up for all three. It wasn’t because the 4th Battalion lacked talented people, but because it was hard to find people that were stronger than Mo Wen and Wang Yuan.
As for Hong Lü, he was quite capable too. His facial color was dark and he was skinny, but he could tackle more than ten students alone at the same time. He was considered the strongest fighter in the 4th Battalion, 2nd Company.
After a moment, the candidates slowly gathered on the parade ground.
Mo Wen subconsciously glanced in the direction where the 1st Battalion was. He only felt relieved when he saw that Qin Xiaoyou was not among the three girls.
Among the three girls, one of them was tall and brawny. She seemed to be full of strength, but unfortunately, her looks were a little disappointing for the audience.
Mo Wen found the other girl a little familiar. That girl had short hair and a delicate face. She was only around 5 foot 4, which still considered petite as compared to men, but her eyes were bright. She looked confident inside and out.
She was familiar to Mo Wen because she was the only girl from the female battalion who joined all three rounds. Especially since she was ahead of Wang Yuan in the first round four hundred feet steeplechase and achieved an extraordinary result of second runner-up. One could say that she had triumphed over most of the guys.
During the second round shooting competition, she was also the last one to be eliminated from the 1st Battalion. Her overall ability seemed to be quite above average.
Now that she was joining the combat competition too, Mo Wen was slightly interested in her.
The four battalions decided their opponents by drawing lots. Wang Yuan volunteered to draw the lots. In the end, he picked the 1st Battalion for their first match.
“D*mn it. My luck is terrible. I actually picked a bunch of ladies as opponents.”
Wang Yuan walked back to the group while grumbling; he was obviously very dissatisfied with getting the 1st Battalion.
A group of men fighting a group of women. Even if they won, there was no glory in it!
Hong Lü looked a little uncomfortable too. He stared at the females in the 1st Battalion, slightly embarrassed.
“It would be more embarrassing if we lost,” Mo Wen rolled his eyes while speaking.
That short hair girl was better than Wang Yuan in the four hundred feet steeplechase. The evidence spoke louder than words.
“Lose? How is that possible? Mo Wen, you are underestimating me, don’t you think?”
Wang Yuan didn’t think that he would lose at all.
“Mo Wen, are you thinking about making a compromise? Qin Xiaoyou was not among the three girls. The short haired girl is quite cute, but if you make a compromise with her just because of it, you have no principles at all. I, Wang Yuan, am a man of principles.”
Wang Yuan stared at Mo Wen doubtfully, seemingly worried that Mo Wen would ask him to make compromises. Making deals was not the problem; the problem was that there was no one worthy for him to make a deal to. If it was Qin Xiaoyou, he would definitely make a compromise.
Mo Wen’s lips twitched; he grew weary of entertaining Wang Yuan.
The 4th Battalion picked the 1st Battalion, so naturally the opponent of the 3rd Battalion was the 2nd Battalion.
The huge parade ground was divided into two to form two temporary combat rings.
The rules of combat were simple. Each candidate took turns to fight until everyone in the team lost.
“Hong Lü, it’s your time to shine. You are up first.”
Wang Yuan gave Hong Lü a look.
“Why am I the first one?” Hong Lü glared, saying this unwillingly.
“That’s because during the first and second round, both me and Mo Wen have gone up, so now we need to rest for a bit.”
Wang Yuan’s reasoning was very logical, not giving any room for Hong Lü to argue.
The first representative from the 1st Battalion was the sturdy-looking girl. She was a female warrior whom normal men would not dare to marry. Her height reached 5 feet and 9 inches. Her arms were the size of an adult’s thigh, but they didn’t seem fat –they seemed tough.
With the blow of the umpire’s whistle, the two began combat.
Mo Wen noticed Hong Lü didn’t practice ancient martial arts, but he practiced very advanced External style martial arts [1]. His steps were very coordinated.
That sturdy girl didn’t practice ancient martial arts as well. However, she seemed to have done Taekwondo training before; both her attack and defense were well coordinated.
But in comparison to men, women still had a large gap to catch up in terms of their overall quality. After more than ten moves, Hong Lü defeated the girl.
But this battle made Hong Lü more cautious. A girl managed to exchange more than ten moves with him; this explained a lot about their standards. If he was careless, he might have been the one who was defeated.
In the first match, a person from the 1st Battalion was eliminated.
In the second match, another girl from the 1st Battalion went into the combat ring. She was neither tall nor short, with a height of around 5 foot 6 inches. She looked plain.
As soon as she walked into the combat ring, she focused her gaze on Hong Lü. Her hands were calmly in place; her legs were in a forward stance position. She gave out a composed aura.
Hong Lü frowned. That girl didn’t seem like she wanted to launch an attack. After hesitating for a moment, he approached her cautiously.
Two steps forward, extend a punch.
His fist went straight for the girl’s throat. For his first attack, Hong Lü only used 70 percent of his strength; his purpose was to test the water.
Seeing a punch flying towards her, that girl calmly extended both her hands and cleverly avoided Hong Lü’s punch. Her hands grabbed Hong Lü’s wrist.
The moment she grabbed Hong Lü’s wrist, she jumped backwards. Leveraging the ground, her hands pulled suddenly and Hong Lü tumbled forward uncontrollably.
Thankfully Hong Lü only used 70 percent of his strength to test her, or else, with her big splitting technique, which was deflecting the attack by borrowing the attacker’s energy to change the direction of the attack, it was enough to send him flying.
Regardless, Hong Lü lost his balance.
[1]: External style martial arts (外家功夫) are characterized by fast and explosive movements and focus on physical strength and agility.
