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Chapter 227 Crystal Meat – Spiritual Leopard Version (d)
Translated by Gumihou
Edited by Gumihou
Please, for the love of all things sacred, do not reduce your character’s intelligence for comedic purposes.
Also, due to the increasing length of chapters and encroaching real life (Zoom Meetings etc), Gumi has no choice but to reduce the 5 chapter update to 4 chapters. My
 mind just can’t keep up with it anymore

This would most like happen in September, so please enjoy the 5 chapter per week update as usual until end of the month.
“Then, the probability of Lin Fan’s winning has
 fallen?” said Feng Luo worriedly. [1] He flashed a look at Shiyu before looking away.
If Lin Fan loses here, the probability of them getting into the playoffs reduces by a lot.
“Let’s hope he wins,”
“So what if he wins?” Qing Chen shook his head. “It would be a hard-won victory and he’ll most likely be too injured to fight. It would cripple our chances of winning the group fight later.”
The purpose of limiting the number of people on the team fights was to exclude two of their weaker members. However, if Lin Fan falls here neither Dong-Fang Zhen nor Qi Chuyun could contribute much to the team.
On the other hand, even if Fire Wolf became too injured to fight, the Fire Wolves still has at least four able-bodied and 1 slightly injured Core Condensation 8 fighters in their team. [2a]
However, Lin Fan had already stepped onto the stage, there was nothing they could do but observe his fight.
Lin Fan drew his weapon. [1] It was a long sword with a pitched black blade. The blade was so dark that no light reflected from it. In fact, if one looked closely, the sword appeared to have no edge. It looked more like a long ruler than a true sword.
“Boy, I acknowledge your talent. You are enviably gifted. In fact, everyone in your group is unusually talented.” Undisguised admiration burned in Fire Wolf’s eyes. “Given a few more years, I’m afraid we will be the ones who feel pressured.”
“A few years? That’s too long,” Lin Fan was unwaveringly calm.
“Surely you don’t imagine that you can beat us today?” Fire Wolf laughed. “It’s good to be confident. However, arrogance could be the death of you,”
Lin Fan swung his black sword in an arc once and cupped his hands politely in salute, “Senior, let’s cease all talk and start!”
“Tch, impatient little brat,” Fire Wolf cracked his neck and stepped forward. [1] He flexed his fingers and a red aura appeared around his hands and formed into claws. Suddenly, he bounded forward and slashed his aura claws at Lin Fan.
He moved so quickly that most people only saw a series of afterimages.
“No wonder they call him the Fire Wolf. It’s like he has the aura of wolf’s shadow over him,” Shiyu murmured as she stared at the stage.
When Fire Wolf charged forward, Lin Fan
 did not move!
He remained in place even as those deadly looking claws slashed towards his face.
[1] The audience screamed. Some shut their eyes in horror.
Run! Run away, ah! [2b]
But Lin Fan remained in place!
[1] “Fxck! What is that idiot doing!?” Feng Luo was literally jumping in place now. “Run, ah!”
The next thing they knew, Fire Wolf’s claws slashed across Lin Fan’s torso. [2c] [3] “Fxck! What the
 fxck?”
[3] Fire Wolf’s claws stabbed through Lin Fan’s body, but there was no spray of blood, nothing. A blink later, Lin Fan’s body disappeared. [2d]
“What’s that speed!?”
[1] “Where’s Lin Fan?”
[1] Everyone darted their eyes around, but the only person they saw on the platform was Fire Wolf.
[1] “The sky? Underground?”
[1] “That’s just stupid, why would he be underground?”
Shiyu was also straining her eyes on the platform, “Where do you think he is?”
“Still on the platform,” said Qing Chen calmly.
“Oh?” they continued to stare.
Fire Wolf was watching his surroundings warily as if alert against something.
Shiyu used her mental powers on the platform and finally understood what Qing Chen was talking about. Lin Fan was moving so fast that nobody could see him! [2e] [2f] Suddenly, Fire Wolf slashed his claws behind him.
[2f] Blood splattered in the air.
[2f] A black sword dripped with blood.
[2f] Fire Wolf leapt into the air, away from the threat. He flexed his hands once. A deep gash had cut through one of his hands to the bone. He landed smoothly on the platform and immediately launched himself forward, fire aura surrounding his hands as he went on the attack.
Lin Fan flipped into the air, black sword extended to his side and sleeves fluttering as he vaulted over the charging Fire Wolf. [2g]
Below the platform, Shiyu frowned, “Why can’t I see what he’s planning?”
Qing Chen’s eyes narrowed, “He’s not a reckless person, I’m sure he has his plans.”
[4] As soon as Lin Fan’s feet touch the ground, he disappeared again.
[4] Fire Wolf suddenly slashed his claws to the side and managed to grab hold of the black sword. Lin Fan’s form appeared behind it. Snarling, Fire Wolf closed his bleeding hand around the sword and tried to wrench it away from Lin Fan.
[5] The sword flew away easily.
[5] Too easily.
[5] Fire Wolf realised this too late when his chest caved in from a solid kick.
[5] Caught off guard and in a bad position, Fire Wolf stumbled backwards and managed to right himself without falling onto his bottom. He bared his teeth at this youth whose Cultivation base was much lower than his, tossed the sword aside and charged forward. Leaving a deep footprint behind as he sprang forward at tremendous speed.
Lin Fan darted to the side, just in time to avoid the attack.
For a moment the cat and mouse game on the platform continued. The two figures disappeared and reappeared suddenly, leaving after images that flickered like mirages in the firelight. Soon, however, Lin Fan’s much lower Cultivation began to show. His movements visibly slowed.
[1] Suddenly, he stopped moving and recalled his sword. Fire Wolf also stopped. Lin Fan held the sword straight in front of him and suddenly, [i] fiery red lines flared up on the previously black canvas. It was like watching a phoenix rising from the ashes.
The cat and mouse game was over.
[Gumihou: the original was ‘Lin Fan sucked the sword back to his hand’ but Gumi switched out ‘suck’ with ‘summon’ instead because ‘suck’ is, erm
]
Exfernal: Why don’t you use the word ‘recall’?
Gumihou: 
you’re right!
Gumihou is keeping track so that you don’t have to ~
<table>ć‡æ°Ł Condensation Stage Stage 1 挖äžč Core Transformation</tbody></table>
<table>Stage 2 懝äžč(46) Core Condensation Stage 3 ćŒ–ç„ž(52) Divine Transformation Stage 4 æˆćŹ° Nascent Formation Stage 5 ćˆé«” Unification Stage 6 èż”ćąŸ Revert Decay Stage 7 歞真 Original Purity Stage 8 成仙 Become immortal Stage 9</tbody></table>
[1] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: Mostly stuff to smooth out the narrative and make reading more present and exciting.
Deleted some Unnecessary Stuff:
[2] Deleted Unnecessary Stuff:
[a] ‘
Hearing what Qing Chen said, everyone immediately understood
’
[b] ‘
they all screamed in their hearts
’
[c] “
” Shiyu’s face was covered in black lines. “Calm down, can’t you see there’s no blood at all?
Deleted the above whole line because it’s just forced comedy that made Feng Luo into a 2D anime girl in panic and Shiyu into the ‘only character with 2 brain cells to her name’. Sorry, but hard nope on that one. Shiyu already has plenty of opportunities to show her ‘cleverness’ and there’s no need to let her be the only character in the entire novel to have an actual pair of working eyes.
[d] A fake person?
They were still pondering over it when Lin Fan’s body disappeared. Suddenly, everyone exclaimed, “An afterimage?!”
If the speed is very fast, for example, similar to when Shiyu and Qing Chen used Chasing Clouds &amp; Moon a smoke will appear. If they are a level higher a solid after image would form.
Deleted 3 whole ponderous paragraphs. Especially the last one, because what the fxck is that shitty explanation? Is that why Qing Dust became Qing Smoke in the last chapter? Deleted that because having info vomit in the middle of an exciting scene is definitely one of the no-no moves in writing action.
[d] He was actually right next to Fire Wolf, waiting for an opportunity.
Oh, gee, here I thought he was just warming up his legs for something.
[e] A soft sound appeared behind Fire Wolf.
Ahh, no. When you have reached a certain level of martial arts ability, even mundane people would not depend on mere sound to alert them. This isn’t the bunny hill, this is Danger Mountain. Delete.
[f] Lin Fan did appear behind him. However, he was not close to his body, but was two paces away. When Fire Wolf’s hands thrust back, the black sword swung out at the same time.
Fire Wolf sensed this and turned around, but he was too late. The black ruler-like sword had already left several bone-deep wounds on his hands.
Nice, woah, exciting.
[g] While upside down in the air, he charged at Fire Wolf, using gravity to slam the opponent down.
The move does not make sense according to physics. Person in the air cannot control their speed, person who’s charging forward on the ground has better control of their body. Lin Fan trying to pull this move would only result in either: a. Fire Wolf pulling him down by his clothing and stomp on him; b. Lin Fan landing behind Fire Wolf who had miscalculated his speed and charged forward too much.
We’re opting for something close to b because author-san’s scenario is kind of
 anyway, Gumi basically left it up in the air.
Gumi knows this is fantasy. However, if fantasy has no grain of reality to support it, it’s just random word ravings.
[h] Just then, Lin Fan loosened his hold on the sword.
[i] ‘
Unlike the red aura used by Fire Wolf, Lin Fan injected spiritual power into the black sword in his hand, and then the fiery red lines appeared on the sword, mysterious and beautiful
’
Injected? Mysterious &amp; beautiful? Anyway, changed certain stuff for better imagery.
[3] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: In place of Note [2c], put this in instead.
[4] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: In place of Note [2f] &amp; [2g], put this in instead.
[5] Added Details for Dramatic Purpose: In place of Note [2h], put this in instead.