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Chapter 225 Crystal Meat – Spiritual Leopard Version (b)
Translated by Gumihou
Edited by Gumihou
The atmosphere at Central Square that night was exceptionally hot. [1] As in feverish, enthusiastic and burning with the fires of anticipation for the evening’s tournament. The fans of both teams segregated themselves into different circles even as the bleachers began to fill up.
When Shiyu and the others came in through the main gate, the College Champion fans leapt to their feet and screamed, “The Peerless Imperial College!!”
[1] The seven champions flinched at the sudden enthusiasm.
Dong-Fang Zhen and Feng Luo obligingly smiled and waved at their fans. Several girls, and some married women, screamed and waved back. [1] Their voices at a fever pitch.
Shiyu smirked and leaned over to Xuan Yin, “Look at the man of yours, you should teach him how to properly behave.”
Xuan Yin smiled a very scary smile and Dong-Fang Zhen suddenly stiffened up. He did not turn around but suddenly kept his gaze stiffly forward, [1] leaving only Feng Luo to wave at the screaming females.
[1] The Fire Wolves were already waiting for them by the fighting platform. All lined up and staring as the College Champions made their way in. The Dean knew that tonight’s opponent would not be easy, but there was no avoiding them. Therefore, he allowed the Fire Wolves to participate as challengers.
The two opposing teams stared at each other across the platform. The Fire Wolves appeared confident and relaxed while the Imperial College Champions looked cautious. Just then, someone from the Fire Wolves team smirked and said something too [2] low for most of them to catch.
“What did that guy say?” asked Feng Luo.
“Go home and drink milk,” said Qing Chen coldly.
Shiyu sneered, “Heh, this old lady wants blood tonight,”
The tournament would still be conducted according to the agreed rules. Each team would have seven members. [3] Group fights are limited to five people per team. Today’s tournament would begin with individual fights first. All seven members must participate and the fight sequence would be decided through a lottery.
“Let’s talk,” said Lin Fan. “[4] It’s too bad the individual fights are randomly arranged which means we can only depend on luck for that. We should place more importance on the group fight later. For that fight, Qing Chen, Shiyu, Feng Luo, Xuan Yin and I will go up. If anything happens to us during the individual rounds, one of you will take over, is that alright?”
The ones chosen did not object, as for Dong-Fang Zhen and Qi Chuyun. Qi Chuyun had nothing to say, but Dong-Fang Zhen did not look too willing. “I’m stronger than my wife, surely you’re not just going to dismiss my talents?”
“Before the Level 8 opponents, you and Xuan Yin are much the same. However, Xuan Yin has the Charming Arts, do you have the ability to charm men?” Lin Fan gave Dong-Fang Zhen an odd stare.
Feng Luo cheerfully made another stab, “If he can charm men, His Majesty the Emperor would come after him with a sword…”
Dong-Fang Zhen was left speechless.
Now that the discussion was finalised, it was time to draw lots. This was to ensure fairness for both sides and why the Tian Ji Racing Horse tactic could not be implemented.
Once they have drawn their lots, Shiyu found that she had drawn the last individual match of the day. Qing Chen has the first match and Lin Fan sixth.
“We must win at least 2 individual matches,” said Lin Fan. [5] Anything higher would be considered a bonus considering the difference in their Cultivation level. They would bet everything on the 5 vs 5 group fight. The purpose of limiting the number of people for the first group fight was to concentrate their fighting power and trim off 2 high-level members on other teams to increase the chances of victory on their side.
3 points from the 1 vs 1 match plus 3 point from the group fight meant an automatic win.
Too soon, it was time.
“I shall go first,” said Qing Chen. He drew out his sword and leapt onto the platform.
When the audience saw who came on stage, they went wild. After watching the games for so long, the fans know that this guy was the most powerful and efficient member of the College Champions. To think they’d get to see the College’s heavy hitter so quickly, how exciting, ah! What an amazing start!
As for the Fire Wolves… the one who came onto the stage was a rather plump looking guy. [7] He was the weakest member in the Fire Wolves.
“Not good,” Lin Fan frowned. This was like wasting their most powerful chess piece against the opponent’s weakest. It would lower the likelihood of the College Champions winning other matches.
While the College Champions had frowns on their faces, the Fire Wolves were grinning widely. Even the normally calm Fire Wolf was smirking a little.
On the platform, Qing Chen’s brows creased slightly. However, there was no need to waste any more time thinking. He just has to finish this fight in the most efficient manner to conserve his energy and trust that his teammates would pull through.
As a Core Condensation 7, he was only one level lower than the Core Condensation 8 fatty [7]. It would not be too difficult to win this fight.
The fighters saluted each other.
Once they straightened up, Qing Chen suddenly [6] disappeared, reappearing right in front of the [7] Fatty.
The long sword was already out of its sheath and its blade shone coldly in the [6] flickering firelight. Qing Chen’s swordsmanship reflects his personality, swift, efficient, and overpowering his opponent with vicious momentum.
The opponent had not expected such a fierce attack from a ‘College puppy’ and could only do his best to roll out of the sword’s attacks. When the audience saw how the [7] fatty awkwardly rolling away from Qing Chen they jeered the Fire Wolves and cheered feverishly for Qing Chen.
“Why is that fatty so easily suppressed?” someone at the VIP seat said curiously. “Isn’t he supposed to be a whole level higher than the other guy?”
“I’m sure he’ll counterattack soon,” someone said. “There’s no way a Core Condensation 8 expert would lose,”
Just then, the Fatty who had been rolling desperately away from Qing Chen sprang up like a harvest rat with an axe flashing from his hand! Qing Chen’s long sword struck the axe and sparks exploded. The sword, as the lighter weapon, gave away under the weight of the axe. Qing Chen’s [8] wrist rotated and the axe struck the floor causing Fatty to stumble forward. If he hadn’t rolled away at the last minute, he would have cut his own face on Qing Chen’s sword.
[8] Fatty ducked, rolled and popped to his feet quickly, only to be faced with a dozen swords flying towards him! He reflexively brought his axe up to parry the swords away and saw that Qing Chen was still standing where he was. The brat was surrounded by blue light. The same blue light emanated from more swords flying towards his face!
“Fxck!” he swerved and the swords flew upwards… only to rain down on his head like divine punishment.
[8] “Augh!!” he made a tremendous leap and jumped away from the impending stabbing… and saw light blue sword tips appearing on the ground where he planned to land. Fear made his pupils shrank and he hurriedly slammed his [9a] axe down in an effort to avoid the emerging swords. One of his hands was stabbed through, but that was still way better than having his body stuck full of holes. [9b] Gritting his teeth against the pain, he balanced his body against the handle of his long axe and wrenched his hand out of the blade, using the momentum to launch himself away from the sudden field of swords.
However, while he was sailing through mid-air, a fast-moving sword flashed forward like a phantom and stabbed him in the belly.
[9c] The impact forced him backwards and pinned him to the ground. Everything happened so swiftly that he was already pinned and bleeding before he knew what had happened. Fatty stared up at the stoic young man with disbelief.
The audience was too stunned to react.
[Gumihou: Lol, what’s up with author-san stabbing people with ‘puchi’ sounds, huh? People aren’t blow up dolls.]
Gumihou is keeping track so that you don’t have to ~
<table>凝氣 Condensation Stage Stage 1 化丹 Core Transformation Stage 2 凝丹(46) Core Condensation Stage 3 化神(52) Divine Transformation Stage 4 成嬰 Nascent Formation Stage 5 合體 Unification Stage 6 返墟 Revert Decay Stage 7 歸真 Original Purity Stage 8 成仙 Become immortal Stage 9</tbody></table>
[1] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: Scatter a bit more embellishments to illustrate how enthusiastic the fans are.
[2] Changed Details for Logistic Purpose: Original text was ‘…too far away to be heard and they could only see the movement of the lips…’
Sighhhhhhh…
Is your Cultivation for decoration? Can’t you use your Spiritual power to enhance your hearing? Make it so that ‘most could not hear’ instead of ‘could not hear’. Especially since the person who answered them was Qing Chen who apparently ‘read the opponent’s lips’. Dear, he’s also College Champion’s highest level fighter, thus should technically have the most sensitive hearing in the group. Don’t be lazy with details like this, please.
[3] The Rules are kind of difficult to understand, Gumi has to read ahead to really understand them.
[4] I swear, the rules are nearly incomprehensible. Not sure if it’s Gumi lack of understanding in the knowledge or the author’s fault though. Nevertheless, here’s the summary after Gumi has read ahead.
Tournament Rules:
1 vs 1 fights: Random, 1 point per win?
Group fights: Maximum number of people per team 5, 3 points per win, Gumi only knew this about 7 chapters from here.
[5] Changed Detail for Logistic Purpose: The original text “He didn’t want to take five points anymore…” Like, isn’t that a strangely specific number for him to want to take?
[6] A Punny Joke: That doesn’t work in English, because we use the pinyin version of Qing Chen’s name instead of Green Dust. Otherwise, it’d be Green Dust turned into green smoke aka 青塵 turned into 青煙 via Chasing Clouds &amp; Moon.
Except, author-san forgot about 2 things. Chasing Clouds &amp; Moon doesn’t leave green smoke. At least, it didn’t until now.
Also, it’s nighttime, which would seriously hamper a person’s ability to perceive colour, you know? Because it’s nighttime?
[7] USMiC – Fatty: No description of him at all until two paragraphs later. He was only ‘the opponent’ until ‘the plump guy was rolling away’. Added the description into the introduction and use ‘Fatty’ instead of ‘the opponent’ to describe this poor side character.
[8] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: Action words to make movements more obvious and exciting. Also, POV Fatty.
[9] Deleted some Stuff and replaced it with something more logistically probable.
[a] “…hurriedly stretched out a hand…”
Like, that’s kind of stupid? Especially when you have an axe?
[b] “…borrowing the momentum from the long sword that had stabbed through his hand, he pushed himself off…”
There are, like, so many things wrong with the above sentence, which are all solved by [9a].
[c] “Puchi”
Things made of meat, such as humans, don’t go ‘puchi’ when they are stabbed. They go ‘thud’. Only blow up dolls go ‘puchi’ when you stab them.
Example of a Thing that go ‘puchi’ when stabbed.