Chapter 81 - Five Pugilists

On the way there, Cassius sat on a bench by the man-made lake to rest. He also chatted with a few people playing golf. He then returned to the Wind Elephant Sect's rest area. It was the first white building at the back of the manor where Cassius and the other core disciples were staying on the third floor.

After a cold shower in the bathroom, he moved a chair to sit on the curved balcony. At 3 p.m., the sun was still strong, turning the tiles on the balcony a shiny white. Cassius slumped in his chair, his gaze drifting past the pure white wall in the distance.

A vast green lawn lay on the left, and he could see large expanses of yellow farmland further down. A lush green forest stretched out on the right. With the sunlight warming his body, he felt quite cozy.

Cassius gazed up at the blue sky, feeling somewhat better. His previously uneasy heart had calmed down, allowing him to begin thinking about the brief sense of crisis he had felt earlier. Even though there was no clear evidence, he immediately connected that feeling to the Wind Elephant Sect's massacre. But his intuition told him that the two were likely related.

He rubbed his temples and tried to recall Li Wei's vague memories, hoping to dig out specific information about the massacre. Unfortunately, Li Wei had only been a novice at that time. While he had mediocre strength, he was actually not too far off from the core disciples. He had been taken to the East Sea County, mainly to gain some experience as a spectator disciple.

Most of his memory was vague fragments of panicked running. Just running nonstop. The only relevant information he had about the enemies occurred the moment the sect was ambushed, when a large group of tall figures in black cloaks came rushing in from both sides.

"How troublesome..." Cassius said, helplessly patting his forehead.

He didn't have any information about the enemies—their appearance, strength, or identity. Nothing. All he knew was that they were tall, which was useless. The only thing he could do was proceed cautiously, and go one step at a time.

Time flew by and before he knew it, it was evening.

Lance almost spat out his rainflower tea. He stood up abruptly. "What?! Junior Brother, you're a pugilist too?! Damn! Doesn't that mean our sect has five pugilists now?!"

There were three people in the room: Cassius, Lance, and Moses. Hykal and Jadice were still at the banquet, interacting with the other core disciples from various Covert Martial Arts sects.

"Indeed," Moses said, rubbing his chin. Then he slapped the table, displeasure coloring his tone. "How did you also break through to pugilist? Junior Brother and I barely made it through, and we needed Lady Luck on our side as well. I wasn't going to say anything so I could mess with you, but the match still ended in a tie."

"

Heh

." Lance sneered. "You said it yourself; it's luck, and when it comes, you can't stop it. I broke through the day I got home from that banquet."

His exquisite green hair swayed as his narrow eyes bored into Cassius. "By the way, did you just say that Junior Brother broke through around the same time as you, and you both kept it a secret from me?"

Cassius coughed awkwardly and opened his mouth to speak when his incompetent teammate Moses snapped his fingers. The look on his face seemed to praise Lance for being so smart. "Yes! But too bad you also broke through..."

He sighed regretfully, seemingly disappointed that he couldn't beat up Lance.

"

Hmph

..." Lance smirked. "You stupid bear, did you know that Junior Brother accidentally found out I had broken through to pugilist back at the Wind Elephant Martial Arts Hall, and he didn't tell you?"

"

Hmm

?" Moses raised an eyebrow. He stood up to his full height and plopped down next to Cassius. Then he placed his calloused hand on Cassius's back, asking in a "gentle" tone, "Is that true, Junior Brother?"

"Uh... If I said no, would you believe me, Senior Brother?"

"

Hehehe

, what do you think?"

Ten minutes later, Cassius lay sideways on the sofa.

Under pressure of his two senior brothers, he was forced to agree to the terms of compensation, which included twenty practice matches with Fourth Senior Brother Moses and getting the recipe for rainflower tea from the organizers for Third Senior Brother Lance.

Speaking of which, those two were normally at each other's throats, but had suddenly colluded against him. What a real headache.

Twenty minutes later, First Senior Brother and Second Senior Sister returned and reacted the same way as Lance. To be precise, they were extremely shocked.

After all, all three of their junior brothers had become pugilists and they had gone from being an ordinary team to a dream team overnight. There were no weaklings here, only formidable fighters!

Hykal understood the implications of having five pugilists better than they did. The top four third-rate sects in Beiliu County usually had a team of five core disciples, with two of them being pugilists, like the Golden Rock Fist, Black Crane Sect, and the former Wind Elephant Sect. The Singing Water Sect was the only sect to have three pugilists on their team.

If they were to look more broadly at the East, Lance had seen only the top second-rate sects having five pugilists in the younger generation. Ordinary second-rate sects had no chance of gathering even five.

Having the current Wind Elephant Sect team participate in the Beiliu County Exchange Tournament was akin to throwing a wolf into a flock of sheep. A top second-rate sect bullying a bunch of third-rate and unranked sects. Bullying people from another tier could prove fatal; Hykal could already imagine the other three sects being collectively crushed.

"

Hmph

." Lance chuckled.

"

Heh heh

." Moses also chuckled.

Pa!

Cassius snapped his fingers. He couldn't wait to have some fun with the Black Crane Sect.

The next day came very quickly. The format was the same as the first day, with the team competition in the morning and individual matches in the afternoon. During the morning team competition, Cassius felt there were more eyes on him. Even when he wasn't on stage, many were looking his way, likely because the results of the individual matches had spread.

However, people didn't look any differently at Moses and Lance, because none of the spectators the day before were pugilists so they couldn't comprehend just how intense their fight had been.

As luck would have it, Cassius ran into the Black Crane Sect's first core disciple, Mendi, and Singing Water Sect’s second core disciple, who had watched his fight. The three sects on par with the Wind Elephant Sect were probably under the impression that the Wind Elephant Sect had three pugilists. Little did they know, it wasn’t three, but five! It was all of them!

A day passed, and the Wind Elephant Sect did not encounter any strong opponents, and only fought some smaller sects that collapsed in a single blow. That is, until the third day of the competition right as it was nearing noon, where the eleventh team match was about to take place.

The referee stepped onto the stage and announced the opponents for the next match. "Match begin, Number Nine and Number Thirteen! Wind Elephant Sect versus Black Crane Sect!"