A Match Between Equals

Since he had promised Little Fatty and He Qingqing that he would watch their matches, Su Hao would not go back on his word.

Early the next morning, Su Hao arrived at the Martial Arts Field.

The Martial Arts Field was already filled with people, more lively than ever before.

There were still roughly 1,200 students at the Academy. The Academic Year Competition did not distinguish between grades; everyone was thrown together to fight.

The Academic Year Competition would last two days. The first day was the preliminaries, dividing the 1,200 students into twelve groups: nine groups of male students and three groups of female students, with one hundred people in each group. Seven people would emerge from each group of one hundred and enter the Finals on the second day. Each group had two class instructors serving as referees and safety officers.

This Academic Year Competition tested not only the students' strength, but also their endurance. To compete for first place, unless one received a bye, one had to fight ten matches from beginning to end.

This was not something an ordinary person could accomplish.

But none of it had anything to do with Su Hao, and he did not care. To him, the Academic Year Competition was just an upgrading game played by teenagers.

After Little Fatty and He Qingqing finished their matches, he would return to his dormitory and continue researching Blood Qi.

Using Radar, he quickly found Little Fatty and He Qingqing among the crowd. It was not yet their turn, so Su Hao first went over to show his face in front of them before wandering around the entire field.

As he wandered, he recorded Blood Qi information and entered it into Radar's Database.

He first set his sights on the class instructors, whose Blood Qi shone like the sun.

"This class instructor's Blood Qi is so strong! He must be Teacher Mo from Class Four! Let's record this: Blood Qi trait, soft. Mo Fenghua, High-Rank Grandmaster Warrior, yellow text. Tsk, tsk, tsk. The amount of this Blood Qi is almost catching up to mine..."

As he thought this, Su Hao froze.

He suddenly noticed something was wrong and secretly frowned as he analyzed it. "Teacher Mo Fenghua is the instructor of Class Four, so he is undoubtedly a High-Rank Grandmaster Warrior. But why does his Blood Qi intensity not feel stronger than mine?"

Su Hao first suspected that something was wrong with his Perception. Perhaps, at his current level, he could not accurately sense the Blood Qi of a High-Rank Grandmaster Warrior? Or perhaps High-Rank Grandmaster Warriors had the ability to shield themselves from Perception? Su Hao found other class instructors and carefully sensed them with Radar. He discovered that their Blood Qi strengths varied greatly, with obvious fluctuations. It did not seem as though they were concealing or blocking anything.

"My Perception is not the problem. My Blood Qi intensity is indeed far higher than the class instructors'! In other words, if Blood Qi intensity is the standard, then I already count as a High-Rank Grandmaster Warrior, not an Initial-Stage Grandmaster Warrior."

Su Hao roughly understood that the distinctions between Initial Stage, Middle Stage, and High Stage were not particularly clear in this world. Once one's strength reached a certain point, it had reached that point. The truly distinct divisions were between levels such as ordinary and elite, elite and Grandmaster.

Unable to make sense of it, Su Hao simply stopped thinking about it and focused on entering everyone's information into Radar's Database.

Soon, it was Little Fatty's turn. Su Hao went to watch from outside the field.

Little Fatty looked extremely nervous. Holding a blunted training saber and a small round shield, his entire body was taut. After entering the field, he kept taking deep breaths to steady himself.

Little Fatty's opponent had long curly hair and stood half a head shorter than him, wielding the same training saber and small round shield.

Little Fatty's height of 1.7 meters placed invisible pressure on his opponent, who looked even more nervous than Little Fatty.

It was both their first time competing, and neither wanted to be eliminated in the very first match. Yet once they stepped onto the platform, their condition instead improved. They stared intently at one another, throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the contest.

Clang!

At the sound of the gong, the match began.

Little Fatty and the curly-haired student moved at the same time. One delivered a heavy, forceful chop, while the other raised his shield to block, deflecting the saber's path as he waited for a chance to counterattack.

They exchanged around twenty moves, yet neither could do anything to the other.

Truly, they had met equals on the chessboard, worthy generals on the battlefield.

Before long, both were panting heavily from exhaustion.

Since strength could not prevail, they could only win through wit. So the two began to use techniques and underhanded tricks.

Little Fatty chopped down with his saber, and the curly-haired student immediately raised his shield to block. But who would have thought that Little Fatty's saber was a feint? His true attack was at his feet.

Broken Stance Leg!

The curly-haired student was greatly alarmed. On reflex, he threw away his shield and raised a hand to block.

But this too was Little Fatty's feint. Seeing the curly-haired student discard his shield and leave himself wide open, Little Fatty seized the opportunity and thrust his round shield forward with his left hand, viciously stamping it into the curly-haired student's face.

The victor had been decided.

Su Hao immediately shouted from the side, "Little Fatty! Beautifully done!"

Everyone turned to look. The instant they saw Su Hao, all of them clenched up in fright. That's Violent Flyer Wu Xiangwu.

The people around Su Hao immediately moved three meters away, leaving a large empty space around him.

"I'm going to check on Qing Qing's side. Keep it up." Ignoring everyone around him, Su Hao spoke to Little Fatty and left.

Because of Su Hao's appearance, everyone looked at Little Fatty differently. They wondered whether, if they encountered this tall, fat fellow later, they ought to surrender immediately. Even if they won the match, being targeted by Violent Flyer Wu Xiangwu would still mean they had lost.

Su Hao arrived at the field for Group Eleven. After watching for a while, it was He Qingqing's turn as well.

The girls' fighting appeared more pleasing to the eye. With the same blunted training saber and small round shield, He Qingqing wielded them with the roar of tigers and the rush of wind, valiant and heroic.

After exchanging four moves with her opponent, He Qingqing suddenly thrust forward. Her saber tip slipped into the gap between her opponent's round shield and long saber. With a twist of her wrist, she knocked her opponent's saber to the ground. Then, while her opponent panicked, she delivered a straight kick, knocking her opponent over and claiming victory.

Having learned from what happened on Little Fatty's side, Su Hao did not loudly cheer. He merely ran to stand in front of He Qingqing and waved.

The instant He Qingqing saw Su Hao, her small face, stern with a trace of Sha Qi, immediately blossomed into a smile.

In the second round, Little Fatty had his foot hooked by his opponent and fell to the ground, regretfully getting eliminated.

He Qingqing, on the other hand, won her first three rounds. In the fourth round, she encountered a Level 3 Student. Combined with her lack of stamina, she was knocked down by two heavy, powerful blows from her opponent.

At this point, Su Hao's task of watching the matches had come to an end.

The three found a shady spot beneath a tree and sat down casually.

Su Hao first lavished them both with praise. He said Little Fatty was incomparably clever to have come up with such a brilliant trick to defeat his opponent, proving how smart he was. He praised He Qingqing for passing three gates and cutting down six generals, unstoppable by anyone. It was only a pity that she had encountered a Level 3 Student; otherwise, she surely would have advanced to tomorrow's Finals.

The disappointment of their defeats was immediately scattered to the four winds, and they quickly recovered their spirits.

Little Fatty said, "Xiangwu, there are two months of vacation coming up. I'm going back to Tea Mountain Outpost to train with my dad. What are you planning to do?"

Su Hao said, "I plan to buy some things for my father, go back for a visit, then return to the Academy!"

Little Fatty paused. "I heard that all the teachers are on vacation during these two months, and there are very few students staying at the Academy too. What are you staying for?"

Su Hao said, "It'll be quiet here. I can train by myself."

At this moment, He Qingqing said, "I'm going back to Tea Mountain Outpost to train with my dad too. Xiangwu, it would be the same if you came back to Tea Mountain Outpost, and someone could help train you there."

"I want to stay in town and read some books at the library." Su Hao shook his head. It was hard for them to believe that he had already far surpassed his father, and that it would be difficult for him to continue improving through this kind of training.

He might as well remain in Lingyun Town and browse the books at the town library. Perhaps he would gain something.

He was now extremely interested in Runes. He wanted to collect more Beast Patterns for comparative research. He wanted to know why these Runes could produce such miraculous effects, and whether there was room to expand upon them.

But according to Old Liu, the lowest price for a Beast Pattern on the market was twenty Gold Yuan.

He lacked money. The only two Gold Yuan he had on him were not even enough for a fraction of a Beast Pattern's price, so he needed to find a way to make money first. There were more opportunities to earn money in town.

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