Chapter Ninety-Seven: A Grand Display

“What is it? Do you know him?” Yuan Qiansheng asked with curiosity when he noticed Bai Yushuang repeatedly glancing at a young man.

Judging by where that boy stood, he was clearly from one of the smaller cities below.

To the people of Anjing, everything outside Anjing was the countryside. Anyone from beyond the capital was a bumpkin.

That arrogance came not only from Anjing’s bustle and splendor, but also from the human instinct to compare oneself with others.

Out of comparison, people built chains of contempt and drew a great sense of superiority from them. That, too, was one of the fundamental forces driving humanity upward.

Yuan Qiansheng, a genius of Anjing First High School, had become a warrior at eighteen. In his eyes, every student outside First High was trash.

He would not even spare a glance for some country boy. He knew Bai Yushuang was even more proud at her core than he was, so why would she take such an interest in that boy?

Bai Yushuang gave a cold smile. “Gao Wu. An extremely arrogant fellow.”

Yuan Qiansheng curled his lip slightly. He could not sense any source power from Gao Wu. A country nobody who had not even opened his acupoints was not worth a second glance.

Bai Yushuang did not explain her grudge with Gao Wu. Instead, she turned to look at Song Mingyue, who was standing in the staff area.

Today Song Mingyue wore an iron-gray trench coat and dark sunglasses, hands in her pockets. She looked especially cool, especially aloof.

The staff around her looked almost like her attendants.

The more Bai Yushuang looked, the more she liked her. Yet Song Mingyue seemed not to notice her gaze at all and had never once looked in her direction.

That left Bai Yushuang somewhat disappointed. She looked back at Gao Wu and grew spirited again. If she met him on the arena, she would make him know his place.

And if she did not meet him there, that was fine too. She could always visit him personally and show him some color. She would make Song Mingyue see what she was capable of as well.

In truth, Bai Yushuang did not especially like girls. She simply enjoyed the thrill of teasing others, the pleasure of being different and special.

It was not proper for her to tease boys, so playing with little girls was rather interesting.

As for the proud Song Mingyue, she had originally only been mildly interested, but now she was thoroughly displeased with that haughty air of hers. She wanted to find every possible way to trample Song Mingyue and Gao Wu underfoot and vent the anger in her heart.

Of course, tramping on Gao Wu could be done directly. As for Song Mingyue, a bit more finesse would be needed.

Song Mingyue had long since noticed Bai Yushuang, and even sensed the subtle malice in her.

Her attention was mostly on the martial arts masters from the organizing committee. She had no interest in paying attention to some spoiled girl who did not know the immensity of heaven and earth.

For this year’s Qilin Cup preliminaries, the committee chair was Song Yunzhen, a martial arts grandmaster and, even more notably, the dean of the Dragon Soaring Martial Arts Academy at Beihai University.

Speaking of it, Song Yunzhen was the first martial arts grandmaster of the third generation of the Song family. Rumor had it that when she was young, she was highly favored by the Martial King and received enormous resources from the family. It could be said she was the truest direct descendant among the direct descendants of the Song clan.

Although Song Mingyue was also a direct descendant of the Song family, by her generation there were already several hundred direct-line heirs. She and her father had a very poor relationship, and she had almost no contact with the rest of the family.

Even if Song Yunzhen was her aunt, the two had never met. Song Yunzhen might not even know she existed. There were simply far too many members of the Song family’s fourth generation.

Still, since they were relatives, Song Mingyue could not help looking twice. It was not as though she meant to curry favor by family connection.

For the Qilin Cup preliminaries, it was not only Song Yunzhen who had come. There was also An Ziru from Anjing University and Shen An, vice president of the Hunters’ Association, both martial arts grandmasters.

In addition, there were senior deacons like Cheng Peng of the Hunters’ Association, He Yuanfang of Beizhou University, and many other martial masters. There were also dozens of warriors on site.

Although this was Song Mingyue’s first time taking part in the Qilin Cup, she knew such a lineup was somewhat unusual.

She guessed that the preliminaries might be dangerous, and that, to avoid accidents, the organizing committee had deployed an unusually high-level security force.

Four hundred and fifty middle school and high school participants, each one a talent chosen from among thousands. If anything happened to these students, it would be a tremendous blow to the martial world of Beizhou.

No one could bear such responsibility, so they had sent such a powerful security team to escort them.

The committee was willing to go to so much trouble to hold the preliminaries in a secret realm precisely because they wanted to temper this batch of students, help them adapt to the secret realm as early as possible, adapt to fighting exotic beasts, and adapt to a cruel and bloody reality.

Indeed, when conditions grew dangerous enough, universities always resorted to more aggressive methods of training their students.

Song Mingyue had long suspected as much, and the situation of this Qilin Cup only confirmed her guess.

Thinking of the terrifying disasters brought about by the world’s upheaval, her heart sank as well.

The best way to face disaster was to improve her own strength. Fortunately, she had Gao Wu.

After burning through the foundation of her psychic power to slay the Angel of Death, she instead established a deeper, more stable spiritual resonance with Gao Wu. Gao Wu’s spiritual power was extraordinarily strange, filled with boundless vitality, like a divine dragon high above the nine heavens. Its nature was exactly opposite to hers.

Their spiritual powers intertwined, truly like a dragon and a serpent dancing together. From Gao Wu’s spiritual strength, she could draw vitality to nourish her own spiritual foundation, while at the same time suppressing the cold, destructive aura brought about by her own power.

Likewise, the Cold Abyss Sky Serpent formed from her spiritual power could in turn gently temper Gao Wu’s dragonlike spiritual force.

Of course, for her, Gao Wu was indispensable. Gao Wu, however, did not need her to nearly the same extent.

By now, Song Mingyue understood this very well. Yet she did not think there was anything wrong with it. On the contrary, she rather liked the feeling of being able to rely on Gao Wu.

Gao Wu sensed Song Mingyue’s gaze and grinned, his neat, white teeth shining in the sunlight. Yet that smile was even brighter and more radiant than the sun itself.

Song Mingyue’s lips curved slightly, and the faint smile vanished almost at once.

Bai Yushuang saw it very clearly. In her heart she swore that one day she would make Song Mingyue smile at her like that too, and with even more flattery than this.

Song Yunzhen, the chair of the organizing committee, stood on a temporary stage and gave a brief speech.

This martial arts grandmaster was strikingly beautiful, dressed in a short trench coat with a style reminiscent of the Song Dynasty, her voice gentle. She did not say anything particularly special, merely stressed the rules of the preliminaries and emphasized safety.

She especially stressed that teams could choose to withdraw. Once they entered the competition, it meant they accepted all risks and all responsibility.

Gao Wu could not help glancing at his coach, Song Yunhui. She, too, was of the Song family’s third generation, and bore a few striking similarities to Song Yunzhen. Both had beautiful features and tall figures.

It had to be said, the Song family’s genes were truly excellent. The men were handsome and the women beautiful. And their aptitude for martial arts also seemed remarkably strong.

Still, Song Yunzhen was a martial arts grandmaster, while Song Yunhui was only a senior warrior. Setting aside status, the difference in their cultivation was already enormous.

Under the blazing sun, Gao Wu activated his yin spirit and studied the people from the committee.

The sunlight burned like fire, making his yin spirit surge and shimmer with blood-red radiance. Gao Wu endured the pain at the level of his yin spirit and examined the committee members and the participants one by one.

Once the Vermilion Bird Divine Light Spell had reached mastery, the yin spirit became extremely sensitive to demonic aura and unusual spiritual phenomena. Gao Wu did not want any demonic believers among his companions. He had to make sure in advance.

He could not say that the yin spirit could definitely identify a demonic believer, but it was always better to look.

After Song Yunzhen stepped down, a tall woman took the stage. Her cheekbones were high, her eyes deeply set like an eagle’s, and her features were as hard as a man’s.

She was also dressed in a full camouflage combat uniform. At her tactical belt hung a pistol and a longsword. Her aura was as forceful as that of a soldier.

Only after she introduced herself did Gao Wu learn that she was actually a martial arts grandmaster from Anjing University, named An Ziru.

An Ziru’s voice was rough, and her words were very direct. She said that this preliminary round was even more important than the finals, because what it tested was everyone’s courage and wisdom.

Those who performed well in the preliminaries would receive an invitation and be able to go directly to the interview for Anjing University’s Martial Arts Academy.

At the end, An Ziru stressed the importance of unity.

“Acts of vicious competition are absolutely forbidden. Mutual attacks are absolutely forbidden. Turning a blind eye when someone is in danger is absolutely forbidden. The reason our Yanhuang lineage has endured to this day is because we have been forged by bloodline and civilization into a single whole.

“Of course, individuals must compete with one another. Only then can we keep moving forward. That is the foundation of survival for both the individual and the race. But we must understand right and wrong, and know the greater cause. To put it simply, if you know how to help others, you will earn the help of others in return. Everything is mutual…”

Gao Wu still quite agreed with this principle. It was just that saying such things to a group of middle school and high school students in a competition probably would not have much effect.

He could only tell that the martial arts masters attached great importance to this preliminaries and were willing to waste their breath instructing a bunch of boys and girls.

Through the yin spirit, he could see that the lowest-ranked among the committee members were martial masters. Each had condensed at least twelve source-power acupoints, shining like clusters of bright light around their bodies.

Especially the few martial arts grandmasters: the acupoints they had condensed were like stars, radiating stable, brilliant light and making them seem almost divine.

However, every grandmaster’s star patterns were different. Some were triangular, some square, and the source-power radiance was divided into different colors as well. Gao Wu was not quite sure what those differences signified.

Fortunately, their source-power auras were pure and formidable. There should not be any problem.

Among the young competitors, four had also gathered source power and opened their acupoints, though most of their radiance flickered uncertainly and seemed rather unstable.

Among them, the gloomy young man standing beside Bai Yushuang also had a point of spiritual light shimmering at his brow. He seemed to have awakened some sort of spiritual power.

Still, compared with Song Mingyue, he was far too inferior. There was not even any comparison to be made.

Just as Gao Wu had expected, no one detected the existence of the yin spirit. The whole process of observation was one-way, and that might well have been the yin spirit’s most uncanny quality.

According to the preliminaries’ rules, ten squads formed one large unit, and there were nine such units in total. They would enter the secret realm of Dragon Claw Mountain along different routes.

Once inside the mountain, they could move freely, and the squads could also cooperate with one another.

At the end of April, the sunlight was bright, the spring breeze refreshing. As far as the eye could see, everything was lush and tender green, with the occasional splash of pink, yellow, or blue scattered through it, giving the mountains a suddenly richer depth and texture.

“This is perfect weather for an outing…” Gao Wu murmured to Han Yang as he looked at the long line ahead.

Han Yang laughed and nodded in agreement. “The weather really is nice, and the scenery’s pretty too.”

As a child of Dongjiang, though he had grown up in the city, he had spent plenty of time running in the mountains. Seeing the green forest and hills naturally made him feel close to them.

Yang Ru also grew interested. “Later we should find a shaded place with a wide view for lunch. That way it counts as a picnic.”

Gao Wu glanced at Yang Ru. The girl was tall and pretty, a standard beauty, but she really had no brains.

He had merely been joking, yet she had taken it seriously. To be thinking about a picnic in a place like the secret realm, she truly did not know how to spell the word death.

He had no interest in educating someone else’s girlfriend. Yang Ru’s lack of brains could be handled by Han Yang; as long as she did not do anything foolish in the secret realm and drag him down, that would be enough.

He said to Han Yang, Song Minglin, and the others on the team, “Have you thought about this? There are roughly four hundred and fifty people in the preliminaries, and only three days to hunt exotic beasts. That means the activity range is only around two thousand square kilometers.

“Even if some people conserve no energy and push their range out to four thousand square kilometers, how many exotic beasts can there be in an area that size?

“Take snow wolves as an example. If an adult snow wolf awakens source power, it needs at least two hundred square kilometers of territory to meet its food needs. Ordinary snow wolves still need dozens of square kilometers.

“That means, by the highest estimate, there are only about a hundred or two hundred snow wolves in this region. That is not even one per person…”

Han Yang looked at Gao Wu in some surprise. He had always felt that Gao Wu did not like to use his brain. Not that Gao Wu was stupid, just not the kind of person who excelled at study.

Yet this line of reasoning was well-founded. Even if it was only a simple deduction, it was highly persuasive. Could Song Mingyue have told Gao Wu this?

Han Yang was a little unsure. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Brother Gao means there are very few prey, so if we want to get into the top sixteen, we’ll have to go deep into the secret realm?”

A trace of unease appeared on Yang Ru’s pretty face. “The secret realm is connected to another world. If we go too deep, safety can’t be guaranteed.”

She did want to make the top sixteen, but she had never thought of risking her life for the spot.

Given the strength of their team, even if they made it into the top sixteen, they would probably be eliminated in the first round anyway. There was no need to fight so desperately.

Song Minglin and Yu Rulong both nodded repeatedly. They had merely come to broaden their horizons, and when faced with anything, their first instinct was to play it safe. That was also what Coach Song Yunhui had repeatedly told them to do.

Even if Gao Wu was formidable, everyone respected him for both his martial skill and his character. But they were not about to go risk their lives just because he did.

Gao Wu naturally understood what his teammates were thinking, and he had never intended to drag them into a life-or-death gamble.

If something really went wrong and a few of them died, as captain he would be responsible. Besides, this was not merely a matter of responsibility.

Lives were at stake.

The foreign realm was dangerous. Gao Wu did not even dare claim he could keep himself safe, much less lead a few teammates wandering around recklessly.

His expression turned solemn. “You’ve misunderstood. What I mean is that this preliminaries has several martial arts grandmasters and martial masters stationed here, along with many warriors serving as security.

“Such a massive display means the competition is extremely dangerous.”

Han Yang’s face also darkened. “What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that the mountains have certainly been stocked with a large number of exotic beasts, enough to meet the hunting needs of several hundred people,” Gao Wu said slowly, looking at the endless forests and hills.

The teammates were all smart people. They immediately understood what Gao Wu meant, and their expressions turned grave at once. The ease from a moment ago was gone completely.