The Unlucky Ones

Fang Che looked at Ding Ziran and smiled faintly.

Of the three seeds, Ximen Xuri had been killed, dealing with one. Two remained.

Ding Ziran could no longer be killed. So Fang Che had chosen another path: becoming his friend.

He would use a martial artist's frankness and passion to stir the martial artist's heart within him.

Bright and upright, with a clear and noble heart.

Ding Ziran's appearance clearly marked him as withdrawn and solitary. The more such a person was, the more he lacked friends.

Besides, there was the matter of age. No matter how bad seventeen- or eighteen-year-olds were, they still had a passionate heart. Well, they had what people commonly called "chuunibyou."

Thus, Fang Che's plan had worked.

Of course, if this method proved ineffective, Fang Che would change it at any time. Different people required different methods.

Well, making friends first was no problem, right? As for how things developed afterward, that would be left to the future.

Fang Che was very satisfied.

Of the three targets, he had already conquered two.

Ximen Xuri had been killed by him, so of course that counted as conquering him too.

Seven advancing to four! Fang Che had taken the lead.

At once, everyone saw that Fang Che truly possessed the strength to win the championship. He could even be said to be the sure winner.

After all, no one could withstand that move, Saber Performance of Stupa.

Countless students beat their chests and stamped their feet.

But it was already too late.

Moreover, among all the championship favorites, Fang Che had the lowest odds.

Only a little over seven thousand points had been bet on him.

Most of those bets had come from the young ladies of the Looks-based Faction who enjoyed admiring handsome men!

This showed that in a society that judged people by their looks, the Looks-based Faction still possessed enormous advantages.

A huge victory for the Looks-based Faction! The male students across the academy had been almost completely wiped out! For a moment, wails of grief filled the air.

By contrast, the female Martial Students who had bet on Fang Che cheered wildly. Their delicate, uniform voices actually drowned out the men's screams.

"Cousin! Cousin!"

"My cousin is mine!"

"Ahhh... I never even expected to win, but I won..." The speaker was a round-faced girl with baby fat, her face full of delighted surprise.

That cry was the ultimate humblebrag. Like a knife, it stabbed into the hearts of countless gamblers.

She had not even expected to win...

Meanwhile, they had analyzed things over and over, rearranged the possibilities endlessly, weighed every option, and in the end plunged headfirst into a pit.

And they could not climb back out! Countless boys felt their vision go black. The rest of their lives at the Martial Academy seemed bleak and lightless.

"I don't want to live anymore..."

"Neither do I!"

"When I think about my living expenses, meal money, and cultivation costs from today onward... I want to die! Ahhh..."

"You... you bet everything? You didn't even leave yourself money for food?"

"Wasn't I trying to make one big gamble? I didn't leave behind even half a point. I bet it all on that useless Ding Ziran... Huh? Brother, are you saying you still have points in your hands?"

"Get lost! I don't!"

"No, brother, big brother, Dad! From tomorrow onward, I'll follow your lead... Dad, Dad, don't go..."

"..."

The entire White Cloud Martial Academy was shrouded in sorrow and desolation.

In the next match, Huo Churan faced Xie Gongping.

Before the battle began, almost everyone felt that the championship had already been settled. Fang Che had practically been appointed champion in advance.

There was no point in continuing except to fight for second and third place.

There was truly nothing left to watch.

Fang Che's move, Saber Performance of Stupa, was an existence that guaranteed victory. Even if the remaining contestants were stronger than Fang Che in overall ability, once they forced out that saber strike, defeat was essentially certain.

Since that was the case, what was there to fight over?

No matter how they fought, none of them would be first.

Yet the brilliance, intensity, and tenacity of this battle completely exceeded everyone's expectations.

The moment Huo Churan and Xie Gongping stepped onto the arena, they began fighting with all their might.

First came fists and kicks, banging like drums. When both of them had swollen, battered faces, they simultaneously drew their saber and sword and began hacking away with resounding clashes.

Later, even their weapons broke, and the two began grappling hand to hand.

Their battle lasted a full hour without a victor!

In the end, both had exhausted their True Essence, yet neither was willing to fall. They continued pummeling each other with nothing but their physical strength!

The people below the stage stared at each other blankly. Goosebumps rose all over everyone, and their hearts were deeply shaken.

What sort of deep hatred could drive them to fight to this extent? Mo Ganyun stood beside Fang Che and chuckled. "These two families are hereditary enemies. Those two have been mortal enemies since they were three..."

"Oh? Tell me."

A smile appeared on Mo Ganyun's broad-featured face. "Huo Churan is the direct heir of the Huo Family, a Ninth Grade lineage in Fubo City. Xie Gongping is the direct heir of the Xie Family, also a Ninth Grade lineage in Fubo City. Both are geniuses."

"The Huo Family and Xie Family have been as incompatible as fire and water for two thousand years. Originally, both were Eighth Grade lineages, but because they fought each other, they fell together to Ninth Grade. Their hatred only deepened. Thus, whenever these two great families meet, they always fight to the death! This is the Martial Academy, so they cannot kill. Outside, the two would have long since fought until one lived and one died."

When Mo Ganyun said, "This is the Martial Academy, so they cannot kill," he glanced at Fang Che.

His meaning was profound.

Fang Che suddenly understood. "So that's how it is."

Then he asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"As far as I know, Brother Fang, you are the first person in the past three hundred years of White Cloud Martial Academy to kill someone during the New Student Competition."

Mo Ganyun sighed. "A remarkable man."

"Huh?"

"Don't look at how killing Ximen Xuri seems to have left everything calm and peaceful. The Martial Academy doesn't know how much work it will have to do. No matter what, Ximen Xuri had entered the academy legitimately and ranked near the top. He was killed on the arena during the New Student Competition before the eyes of tens of thousands... For the academy, that was still a massive accident."

"No matter how vile Ximen Xuri was, how much he broke the rules, or how he failed to assassinate you and ended up killed... those were only reasons. They could not conceal the fact that a Martial Student had been publicly killed right after entering the academy."

"For you personally, perhaps you only need to guard against retaliation from the Ximen Family. After all, anyone with eyes can see that this was not your fault. But just because it was not your fault does not mean others will not be unlucky."

Mo Ganyun indicated the arena with his eyes. "Didn't you notice... the referees on the stage have changed? When you fought Ximen Xuri, those two referee instructors were probably out of luck. They were the obvious people to take the blame."

Fang Che fell silent for a moment before saying softly, "How could those two teachers be blamed in that situation? No one had time to react."

"That may be true, but at the time, only the two of them were on the stage. Failing to stop it was their fault! They were the referees, and they were also responsible for safety."

"The academy will reason with you, and everyone knows what happened. But society will not reason with you! The truth is that a good child went to the Martial Academy and was killed. You were standing beside him as his teacher, yet you failed to stop it! That is dereliction of duty. It is an atrocious crime!"

"With the academy's strength, it naturally need not fear a Ninth Grade lineage like the Ximen Family. But it still has to give an explanation to all sectors of society. So even if everyone knows there were extenuating circumstances, even if everyone knows the two instructors were innocent, this stain cannot be avoided."

Mo Ganyun sighed. "If no one protects those two instructors... I'm afraid..."

He shook his head and said no more.

A bang rang out from the arena.

Huo Churan and Xie Gongping had simultaneously punched each other in the eye sockets.

Both were left with black eyes.

Then the two, completely drained, swayed backward with their swollen, purple faces and fell.

With a boom, they landed flat on their backs, all four limbs sprawled out.

They had actually ended in a draw!

The entire arena erupted.

No one had expected that after fighting this long, the two would end in such a result.

But everyone had also seen that the two youths had not held back. They had used every ounce of strength they possessed.

They simply could not defeat each other.

With no other choice, the judges announced a draw.

Fang Che paid no further attention to the stage. Instead, he thought about what Mo Ganyun had just said.

His mood grew heavy.

The battle between Huo Churan and Xie Gongping had occupied the entire afternoon! Night had fallen, so the next battle between Qiu Yunshang and Jing Shuanggao, along with the final battle for the top three places, had to be moved to the following day.

That also left the academy with a difficult problem: with the two contestants drawing, how could seven advance to four? Would seven have to advance to five?

The matter still needed to be studied.

Fang Che declined Fang Qingyun's invitation and left alone.

The two instructors who had refereed Fang Che's battle with Ximen Xuri, Gao Yunqi and Zhou Yi, left the Martial Academy with solemn expressions. They went to a Small Tavern and drank together.

They ordered only two small dishes, but four large jars of wine were brought out.

Not a single bite had been taken from the dishes, yet one jar of wine had already gone down. Still, neither spoke.

Finally...

Gao Yunqi laughed hollowly. "This matter is truly... bizarre. What terrible luck."

Zhou Yi chuckled. "Indeed. Bizarre. After I was wounded last time, I had planned to die on the front lines. Instead, one transfer order threw me into White Cloud Martial Academy... At first I resisted with all my might, but in the end I still came."

"After arriving, life was peaceful, with far fewer dangers. So I found a wife and had children. I had originally planned to drag this crippled body along, raise some talented people here, and at least make my life worthwhile. Who would have thought... Heh..."

Zhou Yi laughed once. "I don't really mind. It's just a pity that my wife and children had only enjoyed a few years of comfort with me before they had to start living in fear."

He sighed. "I suppose I was the one who could not let go. I cultivated my whole life and fought my whole life. For a hundred and fifty years, I never thought about having a family. Then, after being disabled and returning to the rear, I still found a wife and dragged her down with me. Really... why did I do it?"

"If I had known this would happen, why did I do it in the first place?"

Gao Yunqi smiled faintly. "I'm the same. My wife and children are still at home... Heh. Drink."

Zhou Yi asked, "What do you think the academy will do this time?"

"The academy will definitely protect us."

Gao Yunqi sighed. "Especially Vice President Huang. He absolutely will not yield. With his support, as long as the two of us have thick enough skins, nothing will really happen. We will receive a painless punishment, endure things for a while, and the storm will basically pass."

Zhou Yi chuckled, lifted his bowl, and drained it in one go. "If only our skins really were thick enough."

"Heh heh heh..."

Gao Yunqi laughed and raised his wine bowl. "Drink, drink."

"It is a thousand-year reputation of White Cloud Martial Academy. How can it be stained because of the two of us? If the academy forcefully protects its own teachers, then regardless of right or wrong, it will still be accused of shielding its own."

"Yes! Once word gets out, people will say officials protect one another and crawl around in petty corruption."

"Bullying the weak and ordinary people."

Both men had spent their entire lives roaming the martial world. How could they fail to imagine what would come afterward?

Public opinion was not so easy to handle!

"When the academy reaches a decision, you and I should volunteer for the New Chu Borderlands. We may as well fight a few more rounds against those demonic brats from the Sole True Sect!"

"Good!"

The two raised their bowls and exchanged smiles.

Former comrades in arms, current colleagues, and tomorrow, comrades in arms once more!

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

"Remember to arrange things for your families."

"Understood."

The two burst into laughter.

The opening section of this chapter was not in the original draft. I only realized after reading the chapter comments last night that some people truly could not understand the book.

They actually thought Fang Che had sincerely become friends with Ding Ziran, and said A Che was just a greenhorn who had newly entered the martial world. Quite a few people even liked and echoed those comments.

To avoid being led astray, I deleted it.

Then this morning, I deliberately added an explanation.

Those of you who understood the plot can treat it as a bit of padding.

Please bear with me. I had no choice but to add this section.

If this book is lucky enough to be published, this specially added section will be deleted.

As for what happens to Ding Ziran afterward... Heh, keep reading.