Chapter 80: A Stage Concluded

Xiao Changhe naturally did not get to step onto the stage again.

Even though everyone below the stage knew that he was ‘stronger’ than Zuo Zhicheng, a loss was still a loss, and a win was still a win. Zuo Zhicheng had won against Xiao Changhe because of his own unique traits, his preparations beforehand, and the suitability of his tactics; that meant he had won.

Even if some people did not think much of it, they could not change the result.

As soon as Zuo Zhicheng stepped down from the stage, Jiang Qing and Xiao Lan immediately went up to him. Behind them, Big Mouth Huang, A Fei, and the others were already cheering loudly.

“Well done! You’re worthy of being my junior brother,” Jiang Qing wanted to hug Zuo Zhicheng, but she noticed that his shoulders were still bleeding, so she awkwardly lowered her hands.

Meanwhile, Xiao Lan rushed over anxiously and started bandaging Zuo Zhicheng: “Big Brother Zuo, it must really hurt, right? You’ve lost so much blood—do you feel dizzy?”

Zuo Zhicheng smiled and shook his head. He saw Jiang Tianzheng walking over and slightly nodded: “Master… it’s a pity I probably won’t be able to take part in the upcoming main competition.”

“It’s alright, winning is what matters,” Jiang Tianzheng said with a smile. “Your senior sister will represent us in the main competition. Later, when today’s event is over, we’ll all go to Huanhai Tower to celebrate—my treat!”

The students of Haoran Martial Hall around them immediately cheered again.

In contrast to the lively atmosphere at Haoran Martial Hall, the mood at Chaoyang Martial Hall was gloomy. Xiao Changhe walked up to Xiao Jingyang with his head lowered; when he raised his head, the slap mark on his face was still clearly red.

“Father, let me fight him one more time,” Xiao Changhe said, holding back his anger. “This time I’ll definitely beat him until he shits himself, I…”

Slap! Xiao Jingyang directly struck Xiao Changhe across the face with a slap. “Haven’t you embarrassed yourself enough? Go back to the martial hall.”

Xiao Changhe felt stifled with rage, but he did not dare to disobey his father’s command. He could only walk toward the gate of Chaoyang Martial Hall with a hateful expression. As he passed by Xiao Jingyang, the latter whispered into his ear: “Do not touch Zuo Zhicheng for three months.”

He knew his son too well—there was no way he could swallow this insult. Sneaking off to deal with Zuo Zhicheng was practically a sure thing. But he knew it couldn’t happen now, at least not right after the main competition ended; that would be too easy for people to criticize. So he warned Xiao Changhe in advance not to do anything out of line.

Over at Yanwu Hall, Zhou Xingyun’s face was also clouded with gloom. He had placed a bet—a total of 1,000 coins on Zuo Zhicheng losing—and he never expected that Zuo Zhicheng would actually win.

1,000 coins—that was almost eighty percent of his savings. He had wanted to use it to make a little profit and also curry favor with Xiao Changhe, but he never thought he would lose it all like this.

One of his junior brothers beside him said, “This Zuo Zhicheng is pretty impressive, winning like that.”

“Impressive, my ass,” Zhou Xingyun’s chubby cheeks trembled, and his small eyes blazed with anger. “Just a bit of cheap cleverness, that’s all. I hope I don’t run into him during the main competition…”

Next, either because Xiao Jingyang didn’t want everyone to dwell on this exhibition match, or because he wanted things to move along quickly, he didn’t say much more and directly started the actual main competition.

This meant that the registered participants took turns going up, and under the watch of the eighteen martial hall masters and students, they fought one by one to decide the winners.

This time, over forty people had signed up, and they went through a knockout tournament in turns. Until only four were left, then the semi-finals and finals were held to determine the top three.

Because of the injury to his shoulders, Zuo Zhicheng did not take part in the rest of the main competition. Although the claw wounds on his shoulders were actually only minor injuries to him and couldn’t even affect his true strength, being able to use this as an excuse not to compete and reduce his exposure in public was exactly what he wanted.

On the other hand, Jiang Qing relied on her solid Heaven’s Gate Boxing and pure skill to advance triumphantly all the way, making it straight into the top four. During this process, Zuo Zhicheng watched all the matches. Even though the level wasn’t high, thanks to the super observation power of his left eye, he managed to remember many of the force application methods in the martial arts of the various martial halls.

However, most of these martial halls’ fighting styles and martial arts were similar to what he had learned in his previous life, and there was nothing particularly special about them. For Zuo Zhicheng, it was better than nothing.

The final four were Jiang Qing from Haoran Martial Hall, Wang Qiang from Xinlu Boxing Club, Zhou Xingyun from Yanwu Hall, and a Hante person from Chaoyang Martial Hall.

Because his match with Zuo Zhicheng had been too humiliating, Xiao Changhe didn’t even take part in the main competition and left directly—no one knew where he went. Seizing this chance, Jiang Qing secured a spot in the top four, which made Xiao Jingyang’s expression even uglier.

As for that Hante person from Chaoyang Martial Hall, he was naturally the one Zuo Zhicheng had found rather strange earlier—the one whose strength was far beyond that of the other martial hall members. His name was Rihuo. His Eagle Claw Technique was extremely fierce; most of those who fought against him ended up with broken bones and tendons, making him a favorite to win the championship.

The semi-finals were determined by drawing lots, and the final match-ups were Wang Qiang versus Jiang Qing, and Rihuo versus Zhou Xingyun.

The matches that followed, though exciting for those present, were quite boring for Zuo Zhicheng. We won’t go into detail here.

Suffice it to say, the results were that Wang Qiang defeated Jiang Qing, and Rihuo easily beat Zhou Xingyun. Then, in the final match between Rihuo and Wang Qiang, Rihuo directly crushed Wang Qiang’s thighbone with one claw.

Watching his opponent collapse to the ground, continuously screaming in pain, Rihuo revealed a bloodthirsty smile at the corner of his mouth.

He looked toward the members of Haoran Martial Hall and made a throat-slitting gesture. Then he laughed loudly as he walked off the stage.

Jiang Tianzheng frowned. “Such heavy killing intent. To be able to directly crush Wang Qiang’s thigh with Eagle Claw Technique—his strength is probably no less than Xiao Jingyang’s. When did Chaoyang Martial Hall take in such a disciple?”

“Whew, good thing I didn’t have to fight him,” Jiang Qing patted her chest and said, “That guy’s Eagle Claw is way too powerful.”

As Haoran Martial Hall watched Rihuo walk off the stage, they saw the people from Chaoyang Martial Hall over there cheering, all of them looking provocatively toward Haoran Martial Hall.

Xiao Jingyang, who had been gloomy all day, finally showed a smile. He patted Rihuo’s shoulder and gave a cold sneer in the direction of Haoran Martial Hall.

Unconsciously, the two martial halls had reached a state of irreconcilable conflict.

After some more speeches, the events of the first day of the main competition came to an end. Xiao Jingyang invited the members of the other seventeen martial halls, along with his own Chaoyang Martial Hall, to book the entire Lanyun Theater for dinner and a show that evening.

Even though the two sides were already like fire and water, they still had to maintain appearances. So Jiang Tianzheng still accepted the invitation and brought his disciples along to Lanyun Theater for the banquet.

Zuo Zhicheng was interested in the meal, but he had little interest in the opera of this world. However, just as he walked out of Lanyun Theater alone, intending to use the restroom, several dark figures stealthily followed him.

Because Xinlu Port didn’t have a developed urban drainage system, restrooms were usually built far away from restaurants and houses.

When Zuo Zhicheng reached the restroom located in a small courtyard, Xiao Changhe was already blocking his way with a ferocious expression.

And behind Zuo Zhicheng, including Zhou Xingyun and several other disciples of Chaoyang Martial Hall, were slowly closing in from all around, looking at him with mocking expressions.