Chapter 5: Competition

A young man in the crowd caught Chen Yiming’s attention.

He was wearing the uniform of the East Lake First High School, and was using all his strength to bang together the thunder sticks in his hands. He was cheering so enthusiastically that his face was red.

Chen Yiming patted the young man’s shoulder and pretended to sigh unintentionally.

“Competing this way is quite meaningless. She could have easily defeated the white-robed youth, but she used her footwork to toy with him.”

“What do you know? She’s giving him pointers!”

The young man turned to glare at Chen Yiming as he retorted.

The yellow-robed girl was his goddess. In his eyes, everything she did had a good reason behind it.

“Even this… can be rationalized.”

Chen Yiming was left speechless.

The young man saw that Chen Yiming did not know what to say. He forcefully introduced, “Liu Qingqing from our First High was accepted as a core disciple by the head of the Flowing Cloud Sword School when she was only in junior high. Do you know what a core disciple is? That’s a level higher than a martial arts trainee. Impressive, right?”

“Core disciple?”

Chen Yiming’s eyes widened in shock.

Of course he knew the status of a core disciple, because he was preparing to register as a trainee at the Mantis Snake Sword School.

Becoming a martial arts trainee was already a great honor for most youths of 17 or 18 years old. In the eyes of their classmates and friends, they would be someone to curry favor with.

The core disciples could not be compared to ordinary trainees. They were the real core members of the school,equivalent to the elders of the sects in novels from his previous world. Their friends and relatives would directly become related to the school. When one person attained such a status, all their relations would also reap the benefits.

Seeing his reaction, the young man was even more pleased with himself. Gesticulating excitedly, he said,

“Now you know how amazing our Liu Qingqing is. In this friendly competition, other martial arts schools have also sent many trainees. But how can ordinary trainees compete with core disciples? Across all of East Lake City’s high school students, only our Liu Qingqing is a core disciple.”

“Could my eyes have deceived me?”

Chen Yiming wavered in his judgment.

Every core disciple that emerged from the trainees would definitely have top-notch talent and strength, and he was still far from this level. Perhaps he was truly mistaken.

At this time, the sword-fighting competition ceased temporarily, giving the victor, Liu Qingqing, three minutes to rest.

Now that he had started, the young man couldn’t stop talking. He asked Chen Yiming, “Dude, you’re not wearing a uniform. Which school are you from?”

“From Thirteenth High.”

Chen Yiming scratched his head awkwardly.

He had already dropped out of school and could barely be considered a high school student, but who would willingly admit such an embarrassing thing?

When the young man heard that, he immediately lost interest and curled his lips.

“So you’re not from the top three high schools. No wonder you didn’t understand anything. You guys don’t even have a martial arts class, do you?”

Chen Yiming was unable to say anything.

There was indeed no martial arts class in his previous high school. Because the school ranked last among all the high schools in the city, very few martial arts talents would be willing to attend the school.

As for the establishment of a martial arts class, they would need to hire a martial arts teacher, who would demand a high salary. The school board felt that it was not worth it and did not approve of it from the start.

After some of the other high schools became known for their martial arts, the matter of starting martial arts classes was even more unlikely.

Three minutes passed quickly.

The yellow-robed girl, Liu Qingqing, tapped her toes and lightly leaped back onto the stage.

Her long hair fluttered in the wind. Due to her winning streak, the supporters of the next challenger were completely silent.

The referee at the side of the stage looked at his watch to confirm the time, then raised his hand and announced, “Jiang Jinshi from Second High, please come to the stage.”

Upon hearing this, a youth from the first row of the audience stood up and walked up the steps to the stage.

He was dressed in martial arts training robes, with a fist symbol on his chest representing the Tongbeiquan School. From his shoulders to his fingers, both arms were covered by a layer of protective gear.

This was the most commonly used weapon for trainees of the Tongbeiquan School. All of their abilities were focused on their arms, and with the help of protective gear, their attack and defense were improved.

When he stepped onto the stage, the cheers of a few girls could be heard from the audience.

There were quite a number of students from Second High who had come to the venue to cheer for him. Most of them kept silent, afraid that they would lose face if he lost too badly.

Liu Qingqing was legendary in the high school world, and while Jiang Jinshi was also a martial arts trainee, he was a new face. This was the first time he was participating in a competition.

“Brother Xiaobai, look at the rookie from Second High. He’s the iron-headed type. I’m sure our Liu Qingqing will defeat him thoroughly in a few minutes. Do you believe me?”

“Our Liu Qingqing is proficient in many techniques like the Phantom Sword Technique, Thousand Shadow Steps and Three Body Illusion to counter slow opponents. She is most proficient in dealing with these kinds of inflexible opponents.”

The young man had bumped into Chen Yiming, a student who wasn’t from any of the top three high schools. Somehow, he felt a sense of superiority. He started a non-stop commentary and even gave Chen Yiming the nickname of Xiaobai.

“Er… this is a competition. If the competitor’s defense is high enough…”

Chen Yiming had just voiced his opinion when the young man interrupted him.

Chen Yiming, who had obtained a Level-1 swordsmanship talent, could understand the principle of balance without being taught. Every technique had two sides to it.

Cultivating a brute-force, high defense type of technique would definitely result in highly developed muscles. This would definitely bring about greater strength and stamina than others of the same level. Cultivating a high agility, adaptive type of technique would inevitably require giving up on gaining more muscle to maintain a flexible body. Only then would one have better agility.

If a person using a high agility type technique were unable to break through the opponent’s defense, a person using a high defense technique would be able to take advantage of their high strength, defense and stamina to turn the tables on their opponent.

“You guys from a high school with no martial arts background don’t know anything. Our Liu Qingqing’s understanding of martial arts is number one across all the high schools. She has mastered many techniques to deal with different types of opponents. In all the competitions up till now, there were only times when she forfeited a match because of her lack of stamina, but never a time when she lost a match.”

The young man lectured Chen Yiming and used her past achievements to prove his point.

Chen Yiming and the young man had only exchanged a few words when the two people on the stage started to move.

Jiang Jinshi was a rookie in the high school martial arts world. As expected, he spread out his arms in a defensive stance from the start and did not rush to attack.

Liu Qingqing raised her hand and started with the Phantom Sword Technique that she was good at, charging straight at Jiang Jinshi. She made a feint and quickly switched to a position behind Jiang Jinshi, stabbing her sword at his back.

The Phantom Sword Technique made use of light and sense of sight, and was very useful against opponents who were not familiar with it. It was very easy for opponents to make a wrong judgment due to the illusion.

As the two of them exchanged blows, some students in the audience took the lead and started to beat the thunder sticks, cheering them on.

The loud cheering drowned out all other sounds. Most of the cheers were for Liu Qingqing, and the scattered cheers for Jiang Jinshi were drowned out and could not be heard at all. The situation created an overwhelming atmosphere.

Most of the students of the Second High School knew about Liu Qingqing’s past achievements and did not expect much from the rookie from their own school.

As long as he did not get completely cornered, they felt that it would already be acceptable. After all, Liu Qingqing was a core disciple and could experience more advanced cultivation techniques. Jiang Jinshi, on the other hand, was said to be a new trainee who had joined the martial arts school for less than a year.