Chapter 187: Top 16 Matchups

A team of medics rushed into the arena without a word. They forced an antidote pill down Zhurong's throat first, then tossed the unconscious Fire Sage onto a stretcher and carried him away.

Earth God didn't return to the stands right away. He stayed where he was, cigar clamped between his teeth, and turned to face the Taiyi Sect section of the audience.

"What's going on with you lot?" the old rocker demanded, his voice booming across the arena. "Yesterday it was coaching from the sidelines, today it's filing reports. If the Taiyi Sect can't handle losing, then don't enter the tournament! We can all just do our own thing like last year. Sounds good?"

He waved a dismissive hand. "Get lost!"

Nobody had expected him to pick a fight like that by openly mocking the Taiyi Sect in front of all the elders. The arena went quiet for a few stunned seconds before noise erupted like a dust cloud.

The Five Elements Alliance Walkers had already been fuming about that morning's incident. Now that the second-ranked Earth God was leading the charge, they piled on without hesitation.

"If there was no agenda, they could've gone to the Alliance higher-ups in private. But no, they had to make a public forum post and file a report. They just wanted to screw over Yuanshi Tianzun."

"Sore losers will always be sore losers. Those Nocturnal Specters walk around with their noses in the air, and look at what happened. They lost! Ha!"

"We haven't even settled the score over the issue of coaching from the first day, yet they bit first, like a cornered dog. The joke's on them, though. Yuanshi Tianzun came up completely clean."

"I bet they're just jealous. I mean, who told their Elder Sun to be so careless and—mmph, why are you covering my mouth?"

"Talk trash all you want, but leave the elders out of it. They're sitting right over there. Are you trying to get us killed?"

"Silence!" the armored swordsman commanded, his voice snapping through the arena like a whip.

The sudden commotion was cut short. Every Walker in the venue felt an invisible force clamp around their throat. Voices died in unison, and the arena fell into absolute stillness.

The Taiyi Sect Nocturnal Specters sat in their seats with dark expressions. Even the Saints among them didn't look pleased.

In truth, there was nothing technically wrong with reporting Yuanshi Tianzun. So what if it might have been jealousy, envy, or personal grudges? When had any whistleblower in the history of the world ever reported someone for noble reasons? Was it supposed to be for the sake of justice? Yuanshi Tianzun had taken an infant spirit as a spirit servant. That was a reportable offense, full stop.

The problem was that he had no real vulnerabilities to exploit. And with the Taiyi Sect's Nocturnal Specters being outnumbered and outmatched in a shouting contest, they could only silently swallow their frustration.

***

When the fifteen-second speech ban lifted, Sun Miaomiao quietly rose from her seat, her big dark eyes glinting with purpose.

She slid in next to Yuan Ting and whispered, "Who reported Yuanshi Tianzun?"

Yuan Ting shook his head frantically. "I have no idea. No idea at all. I promised I wouldn't tell."

Sun Miaomiao replied with a single "oh" and stood up to leave, but Yuan Ting grabbed her arm. "Hey, wait, don't go..."

A fierce internal struggle played across his face before he surrendered to his true nature.

He dropped his voice low. "It was Maoshan Warlock's superior. I'm only telling you this. You absolutely cannot let this get out."

A look of stern triumph settled over Miaomiao's face. She'd suspected as much but hadn't dared to confirm it. Now that her theory had garnered Yuan Ting's endorsement, she was all but certain. Having a gossip machine like Yuan Ting in the Taiyi Sect was honestly wonderful. She could ask him anything and he'd answer, free of charge.

She patted the back of his hand, her round face solemn with sincerity. "I won't say a word. I'll protect you."

***

Not far away, Zhang Yuanqing wore a look of genuine surprise.

He leaned toward Queen, the stunning older woman beside him, and whispered, "What's the deal with that old man? His personality doesn't seem like an Earth Wraith's at all. He's more like a Fire Sage."

In his experience, Earth Wraiths were all honest and reliable types. Steady. Dependable. How could this one be so aggressive?

Queen lowered her voice too as she leaned her head in closer. "When he was young, he was a rock musician, but he was just as good at brawling. His favorite move was swinging a guitar at people in the middle of the street. He probably couldn't stand how the Taiyi Sect tried to make trouble by reporting you, so he stepped up on your behalf."

Zhang Yuanqing clicked his tongue. "That temper is wasted on anything but Fire Sage."

"Every profession has its share of eccentric weirdos," Queen said as she toyed with the large silver hoop on her earlobe, her smile coy and alluring.

At that moment, Crossing Pawn and his opponent stepped onto the stage. Zhang Yuanqing and Queen fell silent in unison and turned their attention to the arena floor.

Crossing Pawn was a short-haired young man with an upright build, wearing camouflage pants and a vest of vine armor over his upper body. His entire bearing radiated the aura of a trained special forces operative, or perhaps a veteran soldier who had survived a hundred campaigns.

His opponent, Loves Handsome Boys, was a young woman in her prime. She wore denim shorts and a light, lace-trimmed blouse. A black camisole peeked through the fabric of her top. She had a fresh style and a killer figure.

Her features were decent enough, though these days, with the right makeup and a few semi-permanent cosmetic procedures, anyone with a reasonable foundation could become a certified beauty.

There was no suspense in the fight whatsoever. Crossing Pawn overwhelmed the Wood Demon with crushing superiority. In theory, a Wood Demon blessed with the Climber skill possessed superhuman agility and raw strength, and should have been second only to a Fire Sage in close-quarters combat. However, she was demolished. Two minutes, and it was over.

The female Wood Demon managed one final, feeble lunge before a bullet punched through her shoulder. She yielded with tears streaming down her face.

"Incredible..." Zhang Yuanqing murmured.

He stared at Crossing Pawn standing in the center of the arena, his mind replaying the battle frame by frame.

From the moment the fight began, Crossing Pawn had used his pistol to limit Loves Handsome Boys' movement, then closed in with a short blade, launching a dense and savage barrage of attacks that forced the Wood Demon backward as she desperately tried to create distance. But that was exactly what he wanted. One shot, and the fight was over.

The whole fight had been deceptively simple. There were no dramatic reversals and no flashy techniques. Yet in those brief two minutes, Zhang Yuanqing's heart had been hammering against his ribs.

The first phase, suppressing a Wood Demon's mobility with pistol fire, was absurd on its face. Wood Demons had a skill called Climber, defined by agility and balance. They could scale a wall ten meters high like it was flat ground. Pinning one down with a single-shot pistol should have been impossible.

Zhang Yuanqing hadn't understood how it worked until they entered the close combat phase. Normally, a Scout's Insight allowed them to predict an enemy's trajectory and attacks, allowing them to anticipate one step ahead. That was the core essence of the ability.

But Crossing Pawn could predict at least two steps ahead, and maybe more. With a single bullet, he'd turned Loves Handsome Boys into a headless fly, wanting to dodge both left and right yet somehow convinced that moving in either direction would cause her to walk straight into an attack.

That was how he'd managed to lock down a Wood Demon, a class celebrated for its agility, with nothing more than a single-shot pistol.

As for his close combat ability, Crossing Pawn's was formidable, not because his fighting technique was particularly refined, but because he always found the simplest, most efficient path to his opponent's vital points.

There was an iron lethality behind every punch and kick which demonstrated a pursuit of maximum efficiency at minimum cost. Kill the enemy. Nothing more, nothing less. It seemed the polar opposite of Guan Ya's approach, where every movement was honed and polished to perfection.

Zhang Yuanqing turned to ask. "Sis Guan Ya, who's stronger between you two? In terms of pure combat, I mean."

Guan Ya looked both annoyed and amused. "You don't have to emphasize 'pure combat.' That's insulting."

She pursed her lips. "In a sparring match, it's sixty-forty in my favor. In a fight to the death, forty-sixty his way. And I'm talking strictly about hand to hand combat."

Zhang Yuanqing felt the weight of that truth settle in his chest. There was a reason he'd earned his spot in the top ten.

In his mind, Guan Ya was the ceiling of martial combat. Even now, having reached a level where he considered himself genuinely skilled, he still had zero chance against the open-minded lady in a straight fight.

"That said, he's the type who has hyper-specialized in one area, which makes him easier to counter," Guan Ya continued. "Crossing Pawn is a member of the White Tiger Legion. Do you know his nickname?"

"What is it?"

"In the White Tiger Legion, they call him Little Qingyang."

Zhang Yuanqing paused, then let out a quiet laugh. "Here's hoping someday there'll be a Nocturnal Specter talented enough to earn the nickname 'Little Yuanshi' or 'Little Tianzun.'"

***

It was four in the morning. The streets were draped in the soft amber glow of lamplight, stretching Zhang Yuanqing's shadow long across the pavement.

In the cafe across from the Kangyang District Public Security Bureau, the lights were bright and the door stood open. Zhang Yuanqing walked in wearing a face mask and baseball cap, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

From beneath the brim of his cap, his gaze swept toward the counter, where the palace master of Slaughter Cessation Palace stood in all her regal elegance, brewing coffee.

She wore her usual magnificent Song dynasty-style dress, red as a living flame. The difference tonight was the mask. Instead of the full face covering she'd worn before, she wore a half mask that left her lips exposed.

"Have a seat. The coffee will take a few more minutes," she said, her eyes on her work.

It seemed she'd learned her lesson from the previous meeting, where she hadn't been able to drink her coffee through her full-faced mask, and switched to this one instead. Zhang Yuanqing picked a seat at random and watched her in silence.

Under the gentle lighting, her hair shimmered with a lustrous sheen. It made him want to reach out and run his fingers through it just to see how it felt. Her lips were the classic cherry shape, small and lovely, with a dewy, almost jelly-like gloss that practically begged to be kissed. The line of her jaw swept upward from her chin in a smooth, graceful curve, a textbook oval face.

Zhang Yuanqing sighed with genuine admiration. Just as I thought. The palace master really is a stunning beauty.

He'd encountered plenty of beautiful women by now. He sorted them into three tiers based on his own system. The first tier was, "Oh nice, she's pretty." The second tier, "This girl makes me want to fall in love." The third tier, "Every dream I have is about her."

Even with only half her face showing, the palace master cleared the second tier with ease.

As his mind wandered, she approached with two cups of coffee, graceful and unhurried, her long skirt trailing across the floor. She set down the cups, propped her elbow on the table, and rested her chin in her palm like a playful girlfriend gazing softly at her boyfriend.

"You finally thought to contact me. It's been so long since you reached out. Have you found someone new?" she said with a teasing smile.

Zhang Yuanqing took a sip of coffee, keeping his expression flat. "Elder Teddy asked me to pass along a message."

The palace master picked up a small spoon between her delicate fingers and bent it in half, and her eyes narrowed as her smile widened further. "I'm giving you a chance to rephrase that."

Zhang Yuanqing adopted his most earnest tone. "I've missed you terribly. A single day apart feels like three autumns. Elder Teddy happened to have a message for you, and I simply couldn't wait to invite you out for coffee."

The Palace Master clasped her hands to her chest and burst into gleeful, lilting laughter, her whole frame swaying with delight. "You're so funny, you really are! Hahaha..."

I made a mistake. I actually thought this crazy woman was beautiful and datable. I'm still too young for this. Zhang Yuanqing forced himself to maintain his smile. "Whatever makes you happy, Palace Master."

When her laughter subsided, she reached over and plucked the spoon from his cup, using it to stir her own coffee. "So what did that mutt want you to tell me?"

Zhang Yuanqing exhaled with relief. He'd been dreading having to face more of her antics.

His expression turned serious. "Elder Teddy said that before the Chu family was destroyed, Dark Rose had no leader. He wants to hear your thoughts on that."

The amusement drained from the palace master's eyes. Her gaze grew still and somber, and the aura around her shifted into something serious and commanding. When she wasn't being playful, every inch of her radiated an ineffable nobility.

"Elder Teddy thinks Dark Rose's leader is connected to the Chu family? That it might even be someone from the Chu family?" she asked, her voice measured and deliberate.

"Perhaps," Zhang Yuanqing replied. "What do you think, Palace Master?"

"I was too young back then, and I'd only just started forming memories. The massacre is nothing but a blur to me. It's precisely because I was so small that I survived and escaped with the remaining family members to Songhai."

Her gaze grew distant, and she fell silent. Behind the mask, her brows were surely drawn tight.

"Did your surviving family members ever mention anything about this?" he asked. "If Dark Rose's leader is someone from the Chu family, then that person must have had a grudge against them. Your relatives should have realized that."

She shook her head, seemingly unwilling to discuss it further. "Don't ask any further. Just tell Elder Teddy that I'd like to be informed if there's any progress on this matter. I will be deeply grateful."

It was obvious. Her obsession with the massacre of the Chu family ran deep. Unfortunately, this was the kind of affair far above his ability to help with.

The Palace Master sipped her bitter coffee and shifted to evaluating the results of the tournament. "You've done well in the Official Tournament. Securing top three shouldn't be a problem. Winning the championship, though, that's a stretch."

Zhang Yuanqing sighed. There was a reason why experience was measured in depth. It came from years of accumulation. He was a strong contender within the top ten, but against the top three, his confidence was thin.

"Even so, I still have high expectations for you," the palace master continued. "You're the kind of fighter who only unlocks his true potential when his back is against the wall. The harder you're pushed, the harder you push back. Yuanshi Tianzun, I believe in you."

Her voice was as tender as a mother's whisper, as intimate as a lover's confession. Warmth bloomed in Zhang Yuanqing's chest. A strange feeling washed over him, a sea of thoughts and emotions including "I'm filled with power" and "I want to marry this woman and bring her home."

The next second, the Palace Master giggled. "You actually believed me? You're so easy to tease."

He'd almost forgotten she was a Musician. A Musician's lips spun nothing but lies. Zhang Yuanqing's mouth twitched. He stood up without a word.

"If there's nothing else, I'm leaving."

***

Elder Teddy frowned after hearing Fu Qingyang's report. "She doesn't know? I see."

The Dark Rose investigation was his responsibility. A shadowy organization that had stretched its tendrils into the ranks of official stewards and even the noble Spirit Realm families was, to the Five Elements Alliance, a venomous snake hiding in the bedroom. One careless moment, and it would bite. There was no understating the importance of tracking down Dark Rose.

"In that case, I'll have to take Yuanshi Tianzun to see the Demon Eye."

***

Over the following three days, the tournament proceeded in an orderly fashion. After five full days of competition, the top sixteen were finalized.

Apart from Maoshan Warlock, who had lost to Yuanshi Tianzun in the first round and been eliminated early, the top sixteen roster matched almost exactly with the list of the top twenty contenders that the Scholars had predicted. Clearly, those Scholars knew what they were doing.

On the morning of Day 6, Zhang Yuanqing opened the forum right on schedule to check the bracket.

The bouts that day would determine who progressed to the top eight. The venue was no longer the tournament arena. Instead, matches would take place in Guild dungeon scenarios randomly selected from both Five Elements Alliance and Taiyi Sect instances. In terms of spectacle and excitement, these matches would be in a completely different league from the arena fights.

He logged into the forum and opened the pinned post highlighted in red.

【#Round-of-16 Matchup Bracket#】

【Yangtze Wave Rider vs Earth God

【Jiang Jingwei vs Zhao Chenghuang

【Sun Miaomiao vs Golden Armor

【Ghost and Human Love vs Tone Deaf

【Crossing Pawn vs Yuanshi Tianzun

【Eternal God King vs Green Pine

【Women Are Tigers vs Yuan Ting

【Banned Username vs World Ablaze】