“Eh, damn, do you think I will be afraid of you?!” After hearing what Zhao Minghui said, Li Yang rolled up his sleeves and was all ready to enter the ring. But Hong Dali stopped him. “Don’t rush, this man is arrogant. His Master must show his stance. Does he approve or object to his actions? He should at least show us what he thinks, right?”
He seemed to be talking to Li Yang, but his eyes were on Jiang Shili.
Jiang Shili naturally understood what he meant. He smiled and said, “Although Mr. Zhao is my subordinate, he’s also a powerful warrior in his own right. There’s no need to stop the challenge. Perhaps they can learn from each other and provide us with some entertainment. What do you think?”
He had gently kicked the ball back.
This was hard to deal with. After all, if the Powerful Three under the Devil Lord’s command had even 1% of his might, Li Yang was definitely not his match. They were likely to lose this battle.
For a time, everyone was anxious. They could not think of any good solution.
But Hong Dali was quick-witted. He rolled his eyeballs and thought of something!
“Oh, since he’s not your subordinate, then he can’t be taking advantage of my lackey, right?” Hong Dali smiled and stared at Zhao Minghui. “Well, since it’s the Powerful Three under the Devil Lord’s command, there’s no need for a match. We will just admit defeat. However, since you have already won a battle of brawn, we should have a battle of brains too, right? How about it, do you dare to take us on?”
When Hong Dali said this, Jiang Shili’s opinion of him went up a notch.
When unable to win, he was able to directly admit defeat without a second thought. This was the first time he had seen someone like that. In the world where he was previously, if anyone challenged anyone else, as long as the power disparity was not too big, it was compulsory to accept the challenge. If the power disparity was really huge, the weaker one would usually suffer from some loss of respect and self-worth.
However, Hong Dali simply conceded defeat as if he was casually asking “Have you eaten?” It was hard for Jiang Shili to wrap his head around it. However, after some careful thought, he just had to casually say “we cannot win” and would be able to retain both his honor and his subordinate’s life. It would not be good for Jiang Shili to insist on a duel. Instead, he had no choice but to accept his request for a battle of brains.
Just like that, he managed to kill four birds with one stone. No wonder the Devil Lord had such a high opinion of Hong Dali.
Since Hong Dali had brought it up, it would be unreasonable for Zhao Minghui to reject him. After all, he had challenged Hong Dali first. Now that the other party had admitted defeat and requested for a battle of intellect, it would be unseemly for him to not accept the challenge, right? In any case, Zhao Minghui felt obliged to accept…
“Fine, we’ll pit our intellect against each other. Do you think I’m afraid of you?!” Zhao Minghui’s voice was thunderous, very loud, and deep, very much in sync with his body shape. “Elaborate, how do we compete?”
Seeing that Zhao Minghui had agreed, everyone was immediately curious about how Hong Dali intended to proceed with the battle of intellect.
“Actually, it’s an easy test of intellect.” Hong Dali laughed, his expression relaxed. “I will say a word, you just have to repeat it. If you manage to repeat it, I lose. If you don’t, you lose. Any questions?”
Eh? What kind of battle was this?
Although Jiang Shili was young, he had followed the Devil Lord for a long time and had seen much of the universe. However, he had never heard of such a thing. All you had to do was repeat what he said and you would win? If that was the case, what Hong Dali intended to say was probably not anything respectable. It was probably something derogatory to them, and whether Zhao Minghui could repeat it would depend on whether he could put down his pride and insult his own faction.
“No problem, say it.” Zhao Minghui had decided to give it his all. Even if Hong Dali said he was a puppy, he would repeat it!
“Well then, I will say it now.” Hong Dali took a deep breath and said, “Hong liyu yu lv liyu yu lv[1]! Say it!”
Everyone was dumbfounded!
They did not find Hong Dali’s phrase very hard. In fact, they thought it was too easy, was it not? Just that one phrase? It wasn’t even anything offensive to anyone. Would Zhao Minghui not have any problem repeating it at all?
Soon, people realized they were wrong, very wrong…
They heard Zhao Minghui’s rough voice begin to repeat the phrase. “Hong liyu yu lv lv lv lv lv!” His voice was rough and his tongue not as dexterous. The result was disastrous…
Tang Muxin and the others laughed so hard they fell down with their hands clutching their bellies on the Golden Emperor Beetle’s head.
Jiang Shili was stunned. He did not expect Hong Dali’s phrase to seem so easy, but was in fact so much harder than it seemed—he even tried it himself, and then… his face flushed red.
Hong Dali’s face was all serious. “You didn’t get it right, I will say it again.” Then, he rattled off the words like a machine gun, “Hong liyu yu lv liyu yu lv!”
Zhao Minghui had gone all red, but he had to go through with this battle of intellect. He had accepted the challenge, how could he give up? His rough voice tried again. “Hong liyu yu lv lv lv lv lv!”
“Hong liyu yu lv liyu yu lv!” “Hong liyu yu lv lv lv lv lv!”
Hong Dali’s head shook vehemently. “No, it’s not right. It’s not lv lv yu[2], it’s lv liyu[3]. Hong liyu yu lv liyu yu lv!”
“Oh, lv liyu, no problem.” Zhao Minghui read it fiercely. This time it felt okay, so he tried again. “Hong liyu yu lv lv lv yu lv!”
“Hong liyu yu lv liyu yu lv!” “Hong liyu yu lv lv lv lv lv!”
“Hong liyu yu lv liyu yu lv!” “Hong liyu yu lv lv lv lv lv!”
After going back and forth for ten times, Zhao Minghui finally gave up. “I give up, I give up! I admit defeat! I admit defeat, all right?!” If he continued, he would just be making a bigger fool out of himself…
Haha! Going up against me? I’ll tire you out!
At this time, Tang Muxin and the others had already laughed so hard, they could not stand up. Even Jiang Shili and the other two of the Powerful Three were completely amused. Honestly speaking, they had not laughed so unreservedly ever since they started training.
“Hahaha, we lost this time.” Jiang Shili smiled and said, “Dali, you’re really powerful. When Zhao Minghui challenged you before, you accepted a small loss, but immediately turned the tables. This is the swiftest reversal I have ever seen. Powerful, powerful!” He said this with a thumbs-up sign. Although Hong Dali’s request for a battle of intellect seemed laughable, it was in fact of great wisdom. It was not something an ordinary person could come up with, especially on such short notice.
“Aiya, aiya, it’s nothing.” Hong Dali was a little embarrassed by Jiang Shili’s praise. “It was just luck, hahaha. You flatter me. I’m just third in the universe, haha.”
“Who are the first and second? I want to meet them!” Zhao Minghui asked decisively, a little sore from losing.
“The first is Mr. Tang Zhen, and the second is Brother Jiang.” Hong Dali cleverly flattered them. It was effective and served its purpose. This time Zhao Minghui was completely dumbstruck—could he refute that? If he did, that would be directly putting down the Devil Lord, would it not?
Seeing that Zhao Minghui had been completely played by Hong Dali’s words, Jiang Shili also shook his head helplessly.
To be honest, in terms of martial arts, he was at least 80% sure that he could defeat Hong Dali.
However, in terms of intelligence and tactics, they had yet to come to a conclusion. This set his competitive nature afire.
Moreover, Hong Dali was really amazing. He could make people laugh even in such a situation. It was incredible and completely beyond his expectations.
“Okay, I have witnessed Brother Hong in action today. You’re indeed unpredictable. I admire that.” Jiang Shili was very satisfied with Hong Dali’s performance. Such a person was worthy of being his opponent indeed. He paused and said, “Okay, we gained a lot today. Although it counts as two small losses for me, it also makes me look forward to our battle in the future. This is it, then. We will meet again on the battlefield.”
“Okay.” Hong Dali shrugged. “I haven’t had enough fun, hong liyu yu lv liyu yu lv…”
Zhao Minghui simply turned away, not daring to look at Hong Dali again—hong liyu yu lv lv lv lv lv! This must be one of the lowest points of his life!
“Puuu!” Jiang Shili could not help but laugh again. Trying his best to hold it in, he said with a red face, “Since that’s the case, let’s return first. See you on the battlefield. By the way, this time, I will choose a location to be my headquarters. As long as one of our headquarters gets occupied, we lose. What do you think of that?”
“Okay, you have the final say.” Hong Dali nodded. “Tell me where your headquarters is after you find a location for it.”
“That’s for sure,” Jiang Shili said with a fist and palm salute. “After you!”
“After you!” Hong Dali made a fist and palm salute like Jiang Shili’s. “See you on the battlefield!”
Jiang Shili immediately left with the Powerful Three and returned to the cultivators’ magic spaceships.
After Jiang Shili left.
Tang Muxin and others could barely stand after laughing so hard. She said, laughing, “Dali, that was ruthless, the ‘hong liyu yu lv lv lv lv lv!”
Hong Dali immediately corrected her. “It’s hong liyu yu lv liyu yu lv!”
Everyone burst out laughing again. Li Nianwei held on to Tang Muxin’s shoulder and said, “Don’t try to do what Young Master does, it’ll kill you.”
After laughing for a while, Tang Muxin finally stopped laughing and said, “Dali, what are you going to do next? He said a billion troops. That’s a lot of people. Just one percent of that is ten million. It’s horrifying just thinking of it.”
One billion troops. Even if only one-hundredth of them died, it would still be 10 million. What would that mean? That was already equivalent to the entire population of a small country on Earth. Especially in the 21st century, even a dozen deaths were considered too many. This time, even a small battle would claim tens of millions of lives.
“Sigh, I don’t want to think so much. There’s nothing we can do. That’s just how they play. He will probably find it a waste of time to fight a war with just a few hundred people.” Hong Dali shook his head. “We’re of different levels. Let’s go back first. I have to come up with a good plan.”
[1] Tongue-twister, means Red carp and green carp and donkey
[2] green companion donkey
[3] green carp
