Chapter 116: Competition (2)

The first three elimination rounds posed no threat to Su Chen, and he didn’t even need to waste much thought on them.

However, Cloud Leopard’s issue had truly stumped him.

This made it so that his face was always stony and serious during the first three rounds, making him look as if he were anxious about the upcoming battle.

However, anyone who looked down on Su Chen because of this was fated to be sent flying by an Erupting Firebird.

In the first three rounds of battle, he used a total of seven Erupting Firebirds to deal with three opponents. The last opponent was a big stronger than the others, and he forced Su Chen into using four Erupting Firebirds, as well as dodging and defending himself for the first time.

No one could even force Su Chen to use a different move.

The fourth round of battle took place in the morning of the third day.

Based on the competition’s rules, the forty students in the fourth round would first be paired against each other. The losers would have one final chance to redeem themselves. They would be paired against each other twice, and the five remaining victors could challenge someone from the twenty students who had won to try and take their place.

The first opponent Su Chen encountered was a young maiden with a round face and large eyes.

The maiden appeared very cute, but she spoke mercilessly. “I am the great Wang Yaohui! No one can stop my advance, and anyone who attempts to do so will be slaughtered without pardon!”

Su Chen was rendered speechless by her delusional1 behavior.

However, the young maiden had some skill to back up her attitude. Her Rainbringer Sword really did seem to fall like drops of rain. Many of her fans beneath the stage were cheering for her.

Since his opponent was so impressive, Su Chen was also forced to pull out some new tricks.

You like rain, do you?

Then I’ll give you some wind and thunder to add to the fun a little.

Su Chen struck out with his Thunder Blade.

At this point, Su Chen’s Thunder Blade had reached the stage of large success. The strike boomed with the sound of thunder, dispersing the clouds and rain, stopping the maiden’s sword strikes in their tracks.

However, anyone who had fought to this point to get on the Dragon Transformation List definitely had some ability. The round-faced maiden pulled out another sword when she discovered that her Rainbringer Sword wasn’t getting her anywhere, and she switched to the Sun and Moon dual-sword technique.

The girl was a dual-sword wielder.

Weapons were allowed at the end-of-year competition, but the use of Origin Tools was forbidden just like the admissions exams.

In truth, Su Chen was not particularly adept at using Origin Tools.

Thus, when his opponent came at him with her swords, he didn’t know what the best way to counter was.

Should he also pull out a blade and play along with her?

Or should he use something else?

His opponent saw that he was only dodging and not attacking. She believed that she had pushed Su Chen into a dead end, and she yelled in excitement, “Su Chen, you were never the Dual Swords Queen’s opponent in the first place. Since you appear to have some skill, I will give you an opportunity. As long as you are willing to kneel and surrender, I am willing to accept you as my retainer......”

Upon hearing those deluded words, Su Chen suddenly snapped out of it. Why am I wasting so much time? Won’t a slap be enough to send this little girl flying?

As he thought this, he really did slap her.

The slap directly bypassed the dense curtain of sword strikes and appeared in front of the young maiden before accurately striking her face. The round-faced maiden did a 360 in midair before gracefully flying off the stage and landing on the ground. When she landed, she spit out two broken teeth.

The maiden hadn’t expected such a sudden turn of events even in her wildest dreams. She sat there in a momentary daze before suddenly breaking out into tears.

The Dual Swords Queen’s dreams were shattered.

After twenty head-to-head battles, the victors went off to rest while the losers continued to battle each other.

After two more rounds, the five victors were allowed to select their own opponents.

That afternoon, the five victors from the losers group selected their opponents.

The first challenger immediately stepped out and pointed at Su Chen.

“I challenge him!”

Logically speaking, students would only challenge the weakest target in order to ensure success.

Su Chen’s challenger seemed to think that Su Chen was a weak chicken.

But that was unsurprising; after all, he had avoided the end-of-year competition for eight years in a row. If he wasn’t a weak chicken, then who was?

Su Chen didn’t like to pretend. He wouldn’t try to lie and convince people that he was super weak only to turn around and slap their faces.

However, he didn’t like to be egotistical or flaunt himself either. He wouldn’t stupidly go up to others and tell them that he was actually very strong and that they should be careful not to underestimate him. In fact, if he could, he preferred to use the simplest method available to take care of his opponents in order to preserve his trump cards.

Thus, even though he had won a few battles, his simple battle style gave people the impression that he possessed a few powerful Origin Skills but lacked personal strength.

Under these circumstances, who would they pick on if not Su Chen?

Su Chen’s challenger was an extremely brawny and strong student carrying a large blade on their back.

This time, his opponent didn’t blabber anything nonsensical like “you should give up, you’re not my opponent.”

He was very serious and respectful because he knew that this was the last barrier between him and the Dragon Transformation List..

If he won, he would be an expert that had battled his way onto the Dragon Transformation List, an elite amongst all the students.

If he lost, he would remain a nobody.

As such, he attacked with all of his strength.

His blade whizzed through the air, piercing forwards, chopping downwards, and slicing upwards.

His movements were sharp and concise, and his simple blade strikes carried a menacing intent behind them.

Even Su Chen took him seriously. His challenger was clearly much stronger than the round-faced woman from earlier.

Since his opponent was strong, it was better to be a bit more cautious.

Thus, he retreated. As he dodged with the Snaking Mist Steps, he began unleashing Erupting Firehawks.

This was a very simple and practical battle tactic: increasing the distance between himself and his opponent before using long-range attacks to bombard him.

If Origin Qi Scholars had classes, then Su Chen would be a mage. Launching attacks from medium to long ranges was his speciality.

On a stage, where space was limited, his best bet at achieving this was to simply avoid using the Snaking Mist Steps and constantly unleash strengthened Erupting Firehawks.

The blade-wielding male’s offensive capabilities were incredibly fierce and his attacks were quick. However, when faced with Su Chen’s battle tactics, he couldn’t figure out how to effectively counter.

He constantly swung his blade, sending waves of Blade Qi crashing everywhere. Streaks of blade light flew through the air.

Because they were still in the Qi Drawing Realm, the strength the blades possessed and the distance they could travel was limited. Even so, they cut sharply through the air and possessed a certain amount of threat to Su Chen.

Even rarer was the fact that the Blade Qi was clearly being closely directed. Though he looked like he was just randomly swinging his blade, he was in fact constantly restricting and reducing the space in which Su Chen could dodge. Slowly but surely, Su Chen found it harder and harder to move and dodge the attacks.

Bang!

A blade strike slammed into Meg’s Guardian.

This was the first time that Su Chen was unable to dodge a blow, so he had to forcefully endure it.

Excitement appeared on the face of the blade-wielding male. “Finally can’t dodge anymore? Try my Absolute Tyranny Beheading on for size!”

The blade chopped downwards, the force behind the blow constantly increasing. This was the blade-wielding male’s most powerful move yet.

Su Chen gently sighed.

He stepped forward.

With this single step, his figure suddenly seemed to vanish, reappearing behind the blade-wielding man.

He pushed out carelessly with his palm, not even looking at his target as he said, “Take care, I won’t send you off.”

The blade-wielding man was already charging forwards in the first place. When Su Chen’s palm strike hit his back, he flew through the air, flailing as he left the stage.

The fourth round of competition had been concluded.

Su Chen had fought his way onto the Dragon Transformation List.

1. The exact translation literally means “eighth grade”. Some of you who know japanese may know this as chuunibyou.