Chapter 134 - Where’s the Other Core?

I’m not proposing to fight despite being the strongest here, so why are the rest of you so eager? Anyway, as the strongest, I’m the one who gets a say.

The man Han Qingyu had slapped away lay groaning in the snow, unable to get up. The crowd went quiet for a moment. Then, most voiced their agreement.

As Han Qingyu had said, although there were Preservers and possibly Wipers hiding among them, the largest group present still came from the Coalition. It would be disgraceful for allies to turn on each other over a momentary grudge.

Did the Alphonse family not consider this scenario? Did something like this happen in past trials? These questions flashed through Han Qingyu’s mind, but his train of thought was quickly interrupted.

“I don’t quite agree.” A voice rose from the crowd.

Everyone turned. The speaker was a woman.

“I’m fine with each team only sending one person to reduce casualties, but leaving it to luck doesn’t seem right. This world rewards strength, so let’s go by that. Each team sends one person to fight for it. Winner takes it. It’ll be up to fate if you live or die,” she said, standing her ground.

Most eyes were on her. A buzz of discussion filled the air.

Han Qingyu’s gaze, however, was fixed on the man behind her. Well, what a coincidence.

It was the man in black, holding two dead iron curved blades, looking somewhat weakened from his injuries.

Wu Xu had actually spotted Han Qingyu first. He’d watched him arrive with his team, speak up, and casually send a man flying with a single swing.

As I thought, he’s strong. If the Young Miss is raising a suggestion like that, it means she’ll probably send me in to find. The best I can do is try. Wu Xu tightened his grip on the two blades, peered down at them with an odd twinge of embarrassment, and let out a sigh. My weapon got taken.

The situation had since stabilized, so He Tangtang and Wen Jifei had stepped to the front as well.

“Hold on, let’s set aside whether you agree or not.” Wen Jifei cast a resentful look at Yu Fengzi. “How old are you, Ma’am? How did you get in here?”

“I—you!” Yu Fengzi glared at him furiously. She fought to hold herself back. “I’m twenty.”

“You can’t count, can you?” Wen Jifei mocked. “I don’t believe that. Could you show me your ID?”

Yu Fengzi didn’t have an ID. If she did, she certainly wouldn’t have been just twenty.

Laughter and chatter erupted across the scene. Nobody believed she was twenty. The Young Miss was used to throwing her weight around in her little corner of the world and couldn’t take it.

“Wu Xu, teach him a lesson,” she ordered sternly,

Conditioned to obey, Wu Xu did as told. He avoided glancing at Han Qingyu and, copying him, flipped the blades to their flat sides before charging at Wen Jifei.

His speed had him practically whistling in the wind. The experienced fighters in the crowd let out quiet exclamations.

A rush of wind came from the opposite direction, just as fast. Faster, even.

The two figures collided head-on in the snow.

Injured and at a disadvantage, Wu Xu couldn’t find his footing on the snow and was driven back over ten meters before finally managing to stop himself. Lowering his head, he coughed lightly twice. Blood dripped into the snow.

An armored figure stood steady in front of Wen Jifei. The robot lowered its blade.

It hadn’t been a fight to the death, but the outcome was clear.

Everybody couldn’t help but recall Han Qingyu’s earlier words. If they used their blades to decide the outcome...

“No objections now, I hope?” Han Qingyu asked Yu Fengzi, riding on Rust Girl’s display. “If you really want to settle this with force, that man over there is wounded. Why not fight yourself?”

The twin blades on Han Qingyu’s back trembled, humming as if ready to leap out at any moment.

This sheltered Young Miss fell silent. A little later, when the crowd started organizing the grabbing competition, she turned and walked back to Wu Xu’s side.

“Useless trash.” She sneered, venting her anger on him.

Wu Xu said nothing.

***

Thirteen teams meant thirteen people, all lying in a ring around the hole in the snow.

No blades or devices allowed. All of them had their sleeves rolled up past the shoulder, craning their necks and squinting into the pitch-black hole from every angle, hoping to spot something in advance.

Yu Fengzi had sent a man with a small mustache as their representative. Han Qingyu was generous enough not to exclude him over what had just happened.

As for his own team, he naturally opted to do it himself.

“Alright then, each team gets one shot. Let’s leave it to luck.”

Thirteen hands hovered above the water inside the hole.

A foreigner who’d been pulled in to referee called out in English, “One! Two! Three!”

Thirteen hands plunged in with a splash. Each person had most of their body jammed into the hole, arms groping wildly in the water.

“I-I got it!” shouted the man with the mustache as his fingers touched the bottom. Kicking his legs, he flipped himself out, rolled over, and opened his palm. It was a pebble. “Never mind.”

The pebbles at the bottom made it inconvenient.

At the same time, a foreigner found the actual metal core.

Luck was not something they could control. Even though Han Qingyu had sensed the metal core’s position the instant he touched the water, he still hadn't managed to grab it in time.

Well... sorry, Rust Girl. I’ll find you another one later, he thought, hastily absorbing the core before it left the water. Absorption complete!

“I got it! I did!” The foreigner laughed triumphantly, pulling his hand out of the water. Then he froze, a baffled expression coming over his face as he slowly opened his palm. It was empty.

“Why’s it empty?”

“He’s messing with us, isn’t he? Trying to distract everyone.”

A false alarm. Everyone went back to groping around.

Han Qingyu dutifully searched along with them.

In the end, all thirteen of them picked the bottom of the hole completely clean, down to every large grain of sand. Someone even got permission to go in for a more thorough comb through.

“Nothing,” the person confirmed upon surfacing.

Dozens of pairs of eyes watched every hand and body that came out of the water. There was absolutely no way anyone could have secretly pocketed the metal core.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

“Are you sure you guys found the right place?” Han Qingyu grumbled, standing up and rolling his sleeves back down. His skin had turned bright red from the cold.

Plenty of others who, like him, hadn’t actually seen the metal core fall into the hole shared his sentiment. Most felt they’d gotten worked up over nothing.

“This is exactly why it’s a good thing nobody started fighting. Imagine if we had. There would be everywhere and nothing to show for it in the end,” Han Qingyu remarked pointedly.

After a while, some people left. It wasn’t wise to hang around with strangers in the trial grounds.

There were also those who refused to give up. They called their teammates over and started digging at the hole with their blades, apparently intent on leveling the area.

Han Qingyu watched for a moment, then declared he was done and led his team away.

This was the third raw metal core he’d absorbed, and this one seemed to hold the most source energy of the three. Han Qingyu could already feel the enhanced toughness in his muscles, bones, and organs. He really wanted to find somewhere and shoot himself just to test it.

“Are you guys giving up too?” called out another Oriental Republic team heading in a different direction.

“Yeah, we’re done,” Han Qingyu said. “We’re probably better off searching for another one at this point.”

“That’s fair. See you when it’s time to cut down the Sharpie, then.”

“See you when it’s time to cut down the Sharpie.”

After waving their goodbyes, Han Qingyu’s group walked down the slope.

Wu Xu was standing at the bottom.

“You still want to fight?” Wen Jifei asked.

In truth, they had briefly discussed Wu Xu several times before, and none of them held much ill will toward him. After all, he seemed to be acting under orders. They even admired him a bit for his strength.

The fact that he’d flipped his blades to the flat side when he’d charged toward Wen Jifei also hadn’t escaped their notice.

Wu Xu shot Wen Jifei a slightly apologetic glance and shook his head.

“Could you... give my spear back?” he asked Han Qingyu.

The spear wasn’t with them. They had left it in the cave, and going to get it would only give away their hiding spot.

Besides, Han Qingyu didn’t want to return it. He had no reason to. It wasn’t like they were close, and he’d taken it fair and square. It was an excellent piece of gear.

“I threw it away,” Han Qingyu said casually.

Wu Xu froze, then asked anxiously. “Where did you throw it?”

“On the mountain from before.”

“Alright.” Wu Xu nodded.

He’s an honest kid. As a fellow honest kid, Han Qingyu couldn’t help but feel a small pang of guilt. “You should take care of your injuries first.”

He pulled two tubes of the Only Witness Legion’s specialized field medicine from his jacket and tossed them to Wu Xu.

Wu Xu caught them dumbly.

Han Qingyu stared at him, decided there was nothing else to say, and continued to lead his team down the mountain.

***

Adupu considered himself extremely fortunate. Sure, his hawk had disappeared the night before, but as if to make up for it, a raw metal core had dropped right in front of him as his group was walking along.