Chapter 209: The Ultimate Showdown (I)

The comments section below was a riot.

⤷ World Ablaze: This is obviously all on Yuanshi Tianzun. We were merely dragged into it. Why are they docking our pay??

⤷ Tone Deaf: Shouldn't all of it be on Yuanshi Tianzun's shoulders?

⤷ Green Pine: That son of a bitch...

Those three comments were the most upvoted.

⤷ Long Road Ahead: Hahaha I knew disciplinary action was coming. There was no way the higher-ups wouldn't hand something out and make a show out of it after such an indecent stunt.

⤷ Days Gone By: A pay cut and a reprimand? That's it? The way the elders looked this morning, they were ready to expel the lot of them.

⤷ Creamy Yukiko: They probably wanted to, right there in that moment. In the end, they cooled off and couldn't bring themselves to. That said, yanking a yin corpse's pants down is a bad look, and these are the top eight Walkers. They are, to some degree, the face of the organization, so HQ had to say something. Docking wages and bonuses is a love-tap, just for show.

⤷ Passionate Jenny: It's a shame, though. All that stripping, and they only ever stripped the yin corpses, and never themselves. Yuanshi Tianzun especially. I got my hopes up like four times for nothing.

Zhang Yuanqing bared his teeth. Another pay cut. Bloody hell.People take a job to make money, that's the whole point...

He still had his White Tiger Guard allowance, but that was a small mercy.

The tournament's prize money wasn't threadbare either. The top three were rewarded with items instead of cash, sure, but he had information that anyone who made the top ten got a payout from their local branch.

He spent a few more minutes perusing the comments, then went back to the main forum and kept scrolling. His feed was full of posts about that day's bout.

【#Yuanshi Tianzun's too strong. After today, he's my god#】

【#A Quick Read on Yuanshi Tianzun's Setup Game From the Dungeon Round#】

【#From dropping pants to grabbing chests: how feral is Yuanshi Tianzun's playstyle?#】

【#Scary talent for tactics. Could Yuanshi Tianzun one day sit level with the Four Young Masters?#】

Zhang Yuanqing screenshotted the threads and the comments under them hyping him up, and sent the lot to Xiao Yuan, all except the chest-grabbing one.

Yuanshi Tianzun: Believe me now? Auntie Xiao Yuan, inside a dungeon, I'm basically unbeatable.

Magic Auntie Xiao Yuan: Not bad!

Her reply was punctuated with a smiling emoji.

Magic Auntie Xiao Yuan: Tell me about the match. I mostly want to know why the comments are saying they want to see you take your pants off.

Yuanshi Tianzun: Well, about that, about that...

He was chewing on how to sidestep the question when a line from his life coach floated into his mind. Women love to keep the term "mature and dependable" on their lips, wave it around to whip a man into shape, but they don't actually go for the mature, steady type. They'll make a show of turning their noses up at a smooth talker, but they'll fly straight into a charming, funny scumbag like a moth to a flame.

The coach's takeaway was this: Be a smooth talker about the small stuff, it builds her goodwill; and when you've got no idea how to answer her, just smooth talk your way past.

Zhang Yuanqing: Didn't we have a bet, Auntie Xiao Yuan? If I make the top three, you'll roll in the sheets with me. There I was in the dungeon, going full berserk, one against seven, so close to getting knocked out, when I remembered our little wager. With a roar, I tore my own clothes off, let loose my primal power, and finally put six of them down. Now there's just one, Zhao Chenghuang, left to beat up tomorrow.

Zhang Yuanqing: That's probably why all those crazy horny ladies want me to drop my pants.

He got nothing from the other end for a long while. Finally, she replied.

Magic Auntie Xiao Yuan: Get lost!!

Yuanshi Tianzun: You got it. I'll swing by tonight for the sheet-rolling.

Magic Auntie Xiao Yuan: Show up and I'll kill you!

Zhang Yuanqing snickered and fired off a string of horny stickers, then buried his head back in the forum, quickly finding a post previewing the next day's match.

【#Ultimate Showdown Breakdown: Yuanshi Tianzun vs Zhao Chenghuang. Who will have the Last Laugh?!#】

There were more comments under it than he would have guessed. Opening the post, he quickly noted that it had been written by the Grand Scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion. A fixture on the forums, this Grand Scholar character had some chops, which bought him a certain weight among the official Walkers.

The Grand Scholar ran a quick comparison of Zhao Chenghuang's and Yuanshi Tianzun's fighting strength.

【Our contract prevents us from revealing hard numbers, so this is just a light read on each side's strengths and weaknesses.

【First, the levels. Both are Level 3, but one is early on in his progression, while the other is reaching the peak. Zhao Chenghuang holds the edge. When it comes to items, as per usual, this yearly championship bout restricts each player to three items.

【Zhao Chenghuang is Taiyi Sect Elder Zhao's great-grandson, and my guess is all three of his items will be from the top shelf. Yuanshi Tianzun, on the other hand, brought out two items nobody had ever seen before in today's match. It was genuinely fresh, and genuinely fun. There's no denying his stockpile runs deep, which is exactly what you'd expect from a genius who's cleared two S-rank dungeons, but he looks short on a real trump card.

【The upside is that Yuanshi Tianzun scored highest in the two rounds solely on his own merits, so he'll have a strong support item tomorrow. This buys him a sliver of an edge.

【Lastly, when it comes to strength, Zhao Chenghuang has a monster of a yin corpse and a terrifying self-buffing skill (anyone who caught the Jiang Jingwei fight knows exactly what I mean). And here's the big one. He hasn't shown his spirit servant yet. Don't assume that plain, ordinary servant from earlier is all he's got. As far as I know, Zhao Chenghuang has a secret spirit servant he almost never fields. That could decide the whole match tomorrow.

【Yuanshi Tianzun, by contrast, is gifted at scheming and clearing dungeons. If the ultimate showdown is styled as a dungeon run, his odds of winning will go up. If it's a straight fight in the arena, then he's short on luck.

【To sum it up, my own call on Yuanshi Tianzun versus Zhao Chenghuang is three to seven, in favor of Zhao Chenghuang.】

Zhang Yuanqing read the post and fell into deep thought. Sun Miaomiao said the same thing. Zhao Chenghuang's got a secret spirit servant. Now this Grand Scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion's saying it too...

Just to cover his bases, he shot Yuan Ting a message.

Zhang Yuanqing: Captain Yuan, do you know what Zhao Chenghuang's secret spirit servant is?

He did not get a reply for a long time. He gave up and just called, but all he got was an automated voice telling him that the phone was switched off.

Captain Yuan didn't get silenced, did he, he mused, a little guilty.

Zhang Yuanqing opened his chat app and put the question to the White Tiger Guard group.

Yuanshi Tianzun: Any of you big shots know what Zhao Chenghuang's secret spirit servant is?

Phoenix Descending: Nope.

Ling Jun: Don't care.

Shichiro: What makes you think we'd track some Transcendent-tier Nocturnal Specter?

Zhang Yuanqing quietly covered his face with a hand. I almost forgot the White Tiger Guards are at the Saint tier across the board.

Little Axe: I can dig around for you, but there's no time. The ultimate showdown is tomorrow.

Yuanshi Tianzun: @Little Axe, no need, thanks.

Little Axe really is the mature, dependable one, he thought to himself.

He was about to leave the chat when he saw Ling Jun tag him.

Ling Jun: Play within your means tomorrow. Coming in second is still a good result. Don't pile the pressure on yourself @Yuanshi Tianzun

Phoenix Descending: Honestly, the Illusionist-class item is no worse than the Houtu Boots. Coming in second is fine.

Nobody was riding him hard. If anything, they were trying to talk sense into Yuanshi Tianzun, telling him to keep his head straight and not carry too much pressure into the fight.

Yuanshi Tianzun: Thanks, everyone. Thank you, Centurion.

Phoenix Descending: Why're you thanking the guild leader? He hasn't even shown up to cheer you on.

Ling Jun: That kid's one talent is buttering others up. He flattered his way to where he is, and now hogs the guild leader's favor all to himself. Look how he carved the guild leader up in the dungeon, yet managed to survive.

Shichiro: What rubbish.

It's not flattery, Zhang Yuanqing corrected silently, just networking...

He closed the group, pulled a notebook out of the drawer, grabbed a pen from the cup on his desk, and started laying out his strategy for the next day's fight.

The three item cap actually worked in his favor, because in a straight contest of items, he'd most likely come up short against a Zhao Chenghuang, who had a Sovereign-tier great-grandfather backing him.

The three items I bring in have to be able to nullify any edges Zhao Chenghuang has. He's stronger than me straight up, that's just true, so I have to rely on tactics.

He opened the notebook and started scribbling.

***

Elder Zhao was enjoying a cup of tea in a courtyard house tucked into a quiet pocket of the capital. He sat under a scholar tree, black-robed, with his dark hair pinned up using a wooden hairpin. He was one of the first-generation Spirit Realm Walkers, a man out of the Republican era. He stood a rung above even Elder Sun in seniority, and, of course, in strength.

Across the tea table, Zhao Chenghuang sat with his spine ramrod straight.

"Tomorrow's ultimate showdown is an arena bout," Elder Zhao said between sips. "That works in your favor. Are you confident you can take the crown?"

"Yes!" the younger Zhao answered.

Elder Zhao looked pleased. "Your store of the Power of the Dark Moon is almost maxed out. Once this tournament is over, you'll enter the slaughter dungeon and advance to Astral Envoy. Using Yuanshi Tianzun as a whetstone to sharpen you up before you go in is not a bad thing. But keep to the road you've chosen. The Dark Moon is your root, your foundation. That part matters more than anything. Understood?"

Zhao Chenghuang nodded, and a flicker of doubt crossed that cold, chiseled face. "great-grandfather, can you tell me now why I had to stay at the Transcendent tier and polish my Dark Moon abilities?"

He'd wanted to push for Saint tier a long time ago, but it was the old man who restricted him from doing so.

Elder Zhao's voice grew serious. "A Nocturnal Specter isn't like the other classes. The Dark Moon, the Astral Envoy, the Diurnal Spirit... They are three powers, with one source and root, but split cleanly. At the Sovereign tier, you have to pick one as your foundation. That's the only way for you to take a step beyond that."

A step beyond the Sovereign tier. That's the Sect Master's level.

"I understand," Zhao Chenghuang answered.

He still didn't understand the principle behind it, but knowing the reason for the order was enough.

***

It was nine o'clock sharp the next morning. Dressed and ready, Zhang Yuanqing set a hand on his yin corpse's shoulder, the small blue pills tucked in his pocket, as he listened to the Spirit Realm notification.

【Ding! Spirit Realm map loading. This is "The Ultimate Showdown." Entering the Spirit Realm in 30 seconds. Your designated dungeon is "Arena of Life and Death," No. 3371.】

【Difficulty: Unknown】

【Type: Multiplayer (non-death)】

【Main Quest: Beat your opponent fair and square in the arena. A sparring exchange.】

【Note: No non-Spirit-Realm items may be brought in.】

【No. 3371: This is a "White Tiger Legion" faction instance. It has already been cleared.】

The world in front of him rippled, and the first thing to reach him as his vision began to settle again was the noise. He heard the low roar of the crowd before the rows of seats, packed to the brim, came into view under an azure sky.

He was back in the colosseum. This time he was dropped straight onto the arena floor. A dozen meters away stood Zhao Chenghuang in his black shirt and black trousers, cold and sharp-featured.

There are a lot of eyes today. More than any day so far, Zhang Yuanqing noted as he swept his gaze around the arena. There was barely an empty seat anywhere. Barring the official Walkers who were on duty, nearly everyone who could come had come.

There seemed to be a good crowd from the major noble Spirit Realm families too, including members of the various civilian outfits (the affiliate bodies) that worked closely with the officials.

In the row reserved for the elders, almost twenty seats were filled, when there had been barely ten before.

The five Alliance Chiefs still hadn't shown themselves.

The two contestants had barely entered before the roar of the crowd swelled in a grand crescendo.