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墨書 Inktalez
"Hmph! I’m afraid it’s more about you wanting to meet beautiful women, isn’t it?" Jing said with a frown, although she did say what I was thinking.
"Hehe, that’s one of the reasons."
"Let’s go. I feel like we can’t stay here any longer." Jing came over and tugged at my clothes. "You two are quite the oddballs—one retreats without a fight, and the other coldly chases after women all over the place!"
...
Is that so?
Watching Jing push Old Bi toward the exit, I took a reluctant glance back at the competition venue. However, I felt that there wouldn’t be any more experts like Shen Han and Qin Sihu. Although the Cultural Instructor was formidable, I had a vague feeling he wouldn’t be Shen Han’s match. After all, it was a case of long weapons against short ones; unless you were vastly superior to your opponent, it was hard to turn the tables when you were at a disadvantage.
As I pondered this, I walked outside with my stick in hand. I didn’t want anyone in the venue to see the mechanism of my stick, especially after Qin Sihu had shown off his skills. Now, I began to suspect that everyone might have their own unique techniques—no one should be underestimated.
We were the first to step outside and found a spot a little further from the entrance to discuss our next plan. Old Bi didn’t need to be involved; he was determined to encounter tall beauties in the losers' bracket. My next round would be against Qin Sihu. Old Bi and Jing both expressed their belief in me verbally, but I could tell they weren’t entirely convinced. It was no wonder; Qin Sihu did seem quite impressive—brutal yet cunning, truly a combination of intelligence and strength.
After chatting for a while, Old Bi suggested that since there were no matches in the afternoon, we might as well head back to the unit now. This way, we could spend half the afternoon handling unit affairs instead of constantly running around, which had drawn some complaints from our colleagues. Just as we were debating whether to return to the unit, competitors began trickling out of the venue. At first, we didn’t know what was happening until we saw Old Ma come out as well. By this time, his second round of matches in the Striking Group had concluded, and the host announced a ten-minute break while arranging for the unfinished matches of the Equipment Group to take place in the Striking Group venue.
No matter where you are, people have their circles, and this was true for the competitors standing outside the activity center as well. They gathered in small groups discussing who was likely to win this event.
When Old Ma approached us, he was brimming with excitement. "It was amazing! Hehe, I’ve really seen something incredible!" Old Bi teased him, "The more exciting it is and the more experts there are, the better Wang’s chances of placing will be. Calm down a bit!"
Upon hearing this, Old Ma immediately deflated like a punctured balloon. With a grimace on his face, he said, "Ah, don’t remind me! You guys didn’t see it earlier—man, I thought Qin Sihu was impressive enough! But then there’s another expert just like him called Soaring Dragon! Wow! That guy is fast and ruthless—one strike and it’s over! His opponent didn’t stand a chance!"
I exclaimed in surprise, "How did he manage that? Was he using equipment?"
"Yes! You wouldn’t believe what he used!" Before we could guess further, Old Ma quickly continued, "It was a flail! It was my first time seeing someone use something like that—it’s amazing! It can extend! When he first entered the arena, I thought he had gone to the wrong place! He went in empty-handed; even the referee checked with him twice about his situation. And then guess what? He pulled out this tube-like thing and with a flick—out came a Short Staff! It was incredible! When his opponent attacked him, he just sidestepped and got right next to them before poking them down!" Old Ma gestured animatedly.
Honestly, it was also my first time hearing about someone choosing a flail in real life. There wasn’t much description about it in books; most of them depicted something that could extend two or three sections with just a flick of the wrist. But could it really be that powerful? Short and light—how could it counter long weapons or opponents like Qin Sihu? My mind was filled with confusion. What a pity—I missed that match; otherwise, I could have seen how good his opponent was and been better prepared mentally.
Old Bi and Jing surrounded Old Ma with questions nonstop—asking which competitors were most likely to place and which units the female competitors belonged to.
Just as we were getting into an animated discussion, we noticed Zhu Wu and Qin Sihu walking toward us. Qin Sihu still wore his usual cool expression without any hint of emotion while Zhu Wu swaggered over confidently. "Hey there, beautiful! It’s only a matter of time before you join us for dinner! Why not tonight? Haha!"
I frowned at this; Old Bi's expression changed too. Wasn’t this going too far? Coming over here right in front of us—did they think so little of us?
I took a step forward and slammed the Steel Rod down onto the ground, calmly saying, "I think it's the perfect time for a stick feast."
Zhu Wu also frowned, "Oh, so you're not backing down? Hmph, one of you got lucky and the other doesn't even have the courage to fight. Do you really think you can take us on?"
I had nothing to say. Silently, I pushed the Steel Rod in front of me forward, its tip pointing at Zhu Wu. Enough was enough; even in the Provincial Military District courtyard, I couldn't hold back any longer.
Seeing that I was about to make a move, Qin Sihu pulled out the Twin Whips from the bag he had slung over his shoulder. The tension in the air was palpable.
Just then, I heard a soft sound beside my ear. A thin Steel Rod extended between Qin Sihu and me—it was Shen Han! What did he mean by this? Both Qin Sihu and I turned to look at Shen Han, but he didn’t meet our gaze; instead, he glanced at Jing and then turned to Qin Sihu. "I just heard you being quite rude to this lady. I hope this is the last time."
Qin Sihu furrowed his brows. "It's you? I was planning to defeat this half-baked fighter before facing you for a proper match. But there's someone called Soaring Dragon who's quite formidable and has an impressive record in fighting competitions. I think I'll practice with him first. You can wait until the next round to find me!"
"As for you," he looked at me, "your luck is about to run out. Even without me, you'll end up losing to him!"
I glanced at Shen Han but thought to myself, "That’s not necessarily true; we’ll see how it goes." Shen Han's gaze met mine for a brief moment before quickly shifting back to Jing, but in his eyes, I caught a fleeting glimpse of disdain.
It was interesting how we had unconsciously formed a triangle during our conversation, sizing each other up with an underlying tension in the air. Old Ma must have sensed that things were getting out of hand because he hurriedly stepped between us. "Watch your behavior! Is there no Discipline left among you?!" His tone was stern but directed mainly at Qin Sihu. Qin Sihu's expression darkened, but he bit his lip and said nothing more.
Unexpectedly, Jing stepped into the middle of us with a smile directed at Shen Han. She thanked him before turning to Zhu Wu. "Have you forgotten about the bet? The match isn't over yet; wait until you're done!" With that, she turned and walked away.
As she passed by Shen Han, she smiled at him again and thanked him once more.
Just as everyone was about to disperse, Qin Sihu, who had been acting cool all this time, suddenly spoke up. "I won't be fighting you in the next match!"
"Huh? What?" I turned to look at him.
"Fighting you is too unchallenging. I'm going to challenge stronger opponents first. Once I've dealt with Soaring Dragon, I'll come back and handle you."
Even my patience had its limits; irritation bubbled up inside me as I coldly laughed. "I'm just afraid that after your challenges, you'll find yourself stuck in the loser bracket."
"Hmph, all talk." Qin Sihu shot a glance at Jing before putting the Twin Whips back behind him and turning away with Zhu Wu.
Watching their retreating figures, Old Ma scratched his head. "This is troublesome; I wonder who he's trying to swap places with now."
"Isn't the organizing committee going to intervene?"
"It's not easy to manage; after all, he's not cheating—he's just making the competition more exciting and challenging. Some fighters actually prefer it this way; no one wants to face a strong opponent."
"You're a bit arrogant and don't know your place, but you still have some real Kung Fu," I said from the side.
"Hehe, you're just taking advantage of it. He switched out, and the opponent you'll face will be relatively weaker, so your chances of ranking up have increased," I knew that Old Ma still didn't completely believe me. I smiled lightly and offered no further explanation.
At that moment, Shen Han walked away, saying, "Don't worry, if it comes to the next round, I'll try to go easy on you to make it look good."
For some reason, I wasn't particularly angry at Qin Sihu's arrogant words, but Shen Han's sincere and genuine tone made my teeth itch with irritation.
"Hmph, then I’ll thank you in advance!" I dragged the Steel Rod toward the parking lot, and Old Bi and Jing quickly caught up. To be honest, I didn't want to continue encountering these annoying people and situations here, so I chose to return to the unit; that felt much better.
In the afternoon, according to our agreed plan, we returned to the unit first. Jing would come to pick me up in the morning; she was staying here tonight. Once in Jing's car, I disassembled the Steel Rod and stored it properly as we drove back to Camp.
Fortunately, Old Tang was at the Unit; he could handle major matters. When I returned, I didn't find anything particularly urgent that needed my attention. Everyone was orderly. The few new recruits from Sheng Xiong who played well kept asking me about my competition when they saw me back. I casually shared some details with them, and they listened with rapt attention; it was amusing to watch. After having lunch at the Unit, I lay down for a while. After a short nap, I found a quiet corner to practice my staff techniques before showering and waiting for dinner while organizing the Unit's routine work for the evening.
Strangely enough, Jing was already waiting at the door early. I had intentionally woken up early but didn't expect her to be even earlier. While waiting for Old Bi, Jing shared something with me.
(To be continued; more exciting content tomorrow!)
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