The moment Xiong Da finished fighting his opponent, Yang Ling had already begun challenging the challenger in the fourth position. However, instead of fighting her, the cultivator graciously gave her the place and daringly asked the ones in line if they could move back once.
Oddly enough, the entire crowd was willing to do just that. Even the first in line had decided to give up his place to let Yang Ling enter the arena before him. Xiong Da had said he would only wait for four matches for her, so there was no way Yang Ling could have done that. Especially since by the time Xiong Da reached his fourth match, she would have at best become one of the first three in line no matter how fast she battled against others.
However, what Xiong Da meant in his context, was that he was willing to wait for Yang Ling to become a challenger for the King of the Hill event. So, by the time he withstood his fourth match, she should be in the queue.
Only afterwards did he realise that he was not clear when stating his demands when he saw the crowd moved backwards for Yang Ling. (So much for a lawyer!) Luckily the other cultivators thought similar to Yang Ling, and when Xiong Da saw how the cultivators gave up their place without fighting, he immediately understood why.
They all wished to see him clashing with a capable challenger. One that potentially had a chance to beat him down from his high horse.
“Works for me too, This way I don’t have to fight that long against incompetent competitors.” Xiong Da sniggered to himself without saying out loud. (He knew better than to say that out loud offending many people! After all, if it were not for Jin’s intervention for his cultivation training, he would also be one of them!)
Yang Ling stepped up on the stage and gave the Orc Referees her modified spinning top. She had already equipped the weighted disc that Jin gave her minutes ago as disassembling and reassembling parts of the spinning top was quick and easy to perform. Unless Yang Ling decided to use customised parts akin to the cultivators experimenting in the workshop at the far end of the indoor stadium, there was no need to worry about her spinning top’s structural integrity.
As instructed by the System, the Orcs ignored the weighted disc’s hidden functions and showed the ‘normal’ statistics on screen for the rest of the spectators to view. While it may not be that interesting or relevant for average viewers, it was a way to offer the gamblers in the indoor stadium more insight and the probability(and therefore the payout) of winning based on the Spinning Top alone without the consideration of the cultivator’s control of it.
It was also to prove that the spinning tops were ‘clean’ from illegal modifications and that the game was transparent enough for the gamblers to bet. Usually, there would be betting behind the scenes or bookies that defined the state of the game. However, the gamblers had Jin’s dungeon instance as a sign of trust that everything would be clean. (Just not for this particular match!)
In the previous matches, it was easy for the gamblers to bet on Xiong Da to win some panda medals since it was fairly obvious who was to win. Nevertheless betting the minimum of one Silver Medal and getting one additional Bronze Medal guaranteed, was by no means a bad deal. A number of ‘wealthy’ cultivators bet the maximum of 10 Gold Medals every time for a decent payout.
However, for this particular match, the odds between the reigning champion and challenger were staggering high. Many continued to bet on Xiong Da, but given the stellar record of defeating cultivator’s spinning tops in less than 30 seconds, Yang Ling had given reignited the gambler’s spirit and some risk to bet all in on her.
If she were to win, the gamblers would literally strike gold… \Gold panda medals. This caused a few of them to cheer for her loudly when the Orc Referees asked if they were prepared to fight. In the meantime, the System took this occasion to suggest for Jin to create a gambling instance for high rollers only. Jin kept quiet when the System requested about it and decided not to give an answer for the moment.
Right now, it was all about Yang Ling and Xiong Da.
“Let’s SPIN!” Xiong Da shouted which Yang Ling embarrassingly followed along with the tagline. That momentous embarrassment did not linger long as her spinning Top went into the arena. Xiong Da was still following the same tactic he had utilised in the past four matches, and if not for the Orcs swapping the spinning top arena for a new one in every match, the arena would have been filled with cracks by Xiong Da’s constant shockwaves.
Instead of attacking directly like Se Lang or like the rest of the cultivators who tried to aim for Hungry Hippo Top’s performance tip, Yang Ling had a different approach. She controlled her spinning top to spin around the arena continuously to gain more momentum.
“No matter how fast you can go, you will not be able to gain enough traction to move an immovable pillar of heaven.” Xiong Da boasted as he flicked his fingers once again to maintain his momentum.
“Because none of them knew how to topple a pillar properly. To do that, you just have to aim for the top.” Yang Ling replied as she infused both mana and chi into her spinning top, causing a tiger head silhouette to appear above her spinning top.
“Any idea what tiger cultivation that is?” A spectator asked another stranger and judging by the murmurs most of the indoor stadium was wondering the same thing. Few had seen a tiger cultivation style similar to that. Even those who were practising tiger styles did not know about it except for a handful… one of which just happened to enter the indoor stadium.
“ARGGHHH!!! Princessss!” Ku Wai almost had fits when he saw an ad hoc advertisement of the match between Yang Ling and Xiong Da being televised on TV in Ice Hot Café. He nearly threw out his third cup of coffee while waiting impatiently for the negotiations to end in the other partitioned dining area.
“Please don’t be her! Please just be a lookalike!” Ku Wai mumbled to himself as he decided to check on her personally… only to learn that all the desperate knocking and kicking of the barrier did not alert them in any way. Ku Wai was just about to use his cultivation to blow the barrier off until Mr Hot, the Fire Wyrm Ant personally came to inform him (with body language) that they were not there at all.
Ku Wai quickly gathered the rest of the bodyguards and headed to the Orc Spinning Top Blades game. As one’s bad luck could go, it was on the other side of the WunderPanda Theme Park. Ku Wai and the bodyguards became determined to run as fast as they could with the aid of their cultivation which nearly scared the bystanders to death when they saw a stampede of tiger silhouettes running across the theme park.
However, Ku Wai’s voice was drowned in the midst of all the cheering in the indoor stadium since nearly everyone in that ‘room’ had placed their items down to watch the match to see if Yang Ling could really defeat the immovable pillar of hippo heaven.
The Tiger Spinning Top had gained enough momentum rotating around the arena, and Yang Ling tried to attack Hungry Hippo Top by utilising one of the most basic cultivation techniques which basically all tiger styles used. “Pouncing Tiger Strike!” Yang Ling commanded her Tiger Spinning Top to pounce on top of the Hungry Hippo Top.
Xiong Da smirked at that futile attempt when he saw the Tiger Spinning Top jumping towards his spinning top. “And here I thought you had some surprise in store…You wasted enough of my time! Muscle Bursting of the Hungry Hippo!” Xiong Da sighed as he decided to enlarge his Hungry Hippo Top to prevent Yang Ling’s Pouncing Tiger Strike from hitting precisely.
He knew that there had to be a reason why Yang Ling waited for some time while gathering speed to hit him. While he was fighting against other cultivators, Xiong Da took the time to watch the short highlights that Yang Ling was in. That was also why he decided to take the defensive route so there was sufficient time for him to digest her tactics.
It might seem like it was a fluke for her to win the matches, but Xiong Da had eyes keen enough to see that she was essentially aiming at the weak points of the opponents’ spinning top.
Combined with the angle of the semi bowl shape of the arena as well as her perfect control of the top, it had allowed her to do one precise strike that eliminated her opponent when they were in position. If Se Lang’s one shot kill was like a blast of fire from a deadly fireball, Yang Ling’s one shot kill was akin to an arrow with a fatal piercing tip.
That was why he decided not to move around in the arena, and stay in the centre where it would be difficult for her to aim his performance tip. Xiong Da was very confident until her words struck him when she lectured him that others did not know how to topple a pillar.
Initially, he thought she was just taunting him since the top layer of his spinning tops had blades that would deflect her attack. But then he realised that she could mean attacking literally from the top of the ‘pillar’ by using her performance tip to pierce through the immovable Hungry Hippo Top.
With Yang Ling’s supreme controlling skills which allowed her to execute precision attacks, he was not risking a single thing. Thus, Xiong Da used his technique, Muscle Bursting of the Hungry Hippo to throw her top’s strike off.
That was when Yang Ling started to grin widely. “Oh Hippo, you just fall into my trap~!” Yang Ling said as she flicked her hand to insert more mana into the Spinning Top and suddenly the Tiger Spinning Top turned away in mid air from striking the top of Hungry Hippo Top. Instead, it moved sidewards and subsequently scratched the Hungry Hippo Top at the side.
With its large size, the Tiger Spinning Top moved around the Hungry Hippo Top like skilled chef peeling the skin of an apple in one go, rotating around it doing as much damage as it could. Yang Ling had deduced that with the strength of her top, she could at least inflict some damage to slow it down.
However, she did not include the presence of the auto rotating inscription charm. The moment Tiger Spinning Top was moving like a whirling snake around Xiong Da’s spinning top, the System had activated the hidden auto rotating inscription charm which allowed Yang Ling’s Tiger Spinning Top to maintain its spin rotations and momentum despite its specs.
Hence, the supposed scratches to weaken the enlarged Hungry Hippo Top became slashes that caused sufficient damage to the performance base, making it vulnerable for one final strike.
Xiong Da panicked at the sudden turn of events and attempted to use his Grand Slam Fissure to break the ground of the arena, making it uneven for Tiger Spinning Top to even attack properly.
“Too slow!” Yang Ling shouted as she infused as much chi she could garner along with mana, causing the Tiger Spinning Top to accelerate and perform an intermediate technique, ‘Ambush of the Sleeping Tiger’.
The spinning Tiger Top reached its maximum speed in an instant without gathering any momentum and slammed itself into Hungry Hippo’s bottom of the damaged performance base, causing the tip to break from the weight of Muscle Burst mode.
“None could have expected it. The mighty Hippo Pillar has been toppled!” The Orc announcer shouted and everyone who saw the attack screamed in excitement as the scene was being replayed a few times in various angle on the indoor’s stadium’s live feed. (Sadly, not the other half of the betting audience.)
Yang Ling was exhilarated that she jumped around in happiness before involuntarily hugging Jin who was right beside him. “We won!!” Yang Ling shouted with delight.
In the meantime, Jin could only feel as if his soul had nearly been crushed by the weight of Xiong Da’s toppled Spinning Top. He had not seen what it was, but he was sure that his System somehow intervened just now. Yet he was not mad at it, as he guessed that otherwise Xiong Da could have indeed withstood that attack and proceeded to eliminate her.
“I am sorry, my friend. It is for my safety.” Jin apologised with some guilt in his heart as Xiong Da walked around the arena to congratulate Yang Ling for defeating him.
“That was an unexpected move, Princess.” Xiong Da whispered the last part with more emphasis so that only the three of them could hear it, to prevent others from realising who she was.
“Thank you for the thrilling fun! I’m sure we will have more in the future!” Yang Ling returned the handshake and reminded Xiong Da to hold on to his bargain.
