บท 44: Unprecedented Luck
The elder announced his decision to all of the spectators.
"Zhou Yang has lost."
As the crowd heard this statement, they were baffled. Why would he lose? He just fell off the stage by accident! But as the crowd tried to make sense of the elder's statement, they started to understand as well.
"Because when he stepped on the stage, the battle had already started..."
"With the battle already having started, falling off the stage would be considered as losing..."
"He was just unlucky..."
The crowd nodded their heads in agreement to the elder. But even though they were agreeing in the surface, they were actually forcing themselves to accept the matter.
They so badly wanted to see Li Bai get pummeled, that when this unsatisfying conclusion to his battle came to be, they were sorely disappointed.
Crossing their fingers, the crowd muttered 'Please let Li Bai get picked with a strong enemy again...'
Nevertheless, there was nothing they could do about this failed attempt to kick Li Bai's face in. After this, they dared not blame the elder for fear of what he might do should he hear their statements, instead putting the blame on the teen Zhou Yang, who had his head down all the time.
After this incident, the people directed their attention towards the other battles. The crowd noticed a peculiar thing - they were all too focused on Li Bai's 'fight' that they abandoned theirs, so that no one was even on the stages, aside from Li Bai himself.
With everyone's attention being on Li Bai's fight, even if they wanted to concentrate on their own battle, they could not do so as either their opponent or they themselves would not be paying attention. Because of this, they haven't even ascended their respective stages yet.
Due to the anticlimactic battle of Li Bai having already finished, most of the spectators were unmotivated to continue their respective fights, but they forced themselves to, as their future depended on it!
Li Bai was more disappointed than the crowd. This was his chance to show off his prowess and yet this imbecilic idiot managed to mess it up! Now everyone's views of him were just some child who got extremely lucky. One had to hand it to him though, his luckiness was nothing to scoff at, but this mattered not to Li Bai, he did not have the desire to be lucky at all.
Rather than lucky, he felt more unfortunate that he didn't get to battle while a large audience was watching him. Wishing that he would be granted an opportunity the next round, Li Bai restored his state of mind to how it was before. He descended the stage and leisurely walked back to where he was before, sitting on a chair.
Everyone witnessed his carefree movements and scoffed at him in their hearts. As they tried to voice these insults out, they noticed that their throats were already sore from all the screaming and shouting they did. Damn it!
Thus, this uneventful event has concluded, with many itching for it to continue, it being Li Bai's complete and instant thrashing. The other battles would finally start.
Or, at least, that's what was planned, until all of the participants realize that they didn't even know who their respective opponents were. The elder had surely announced it already, but they were too preoccupied with Zhou Yang and Li Bai to even hear the elder, much less remember what he said. Since they didn't know who they were going to fight, they awkwardly stood still.
Seemingly realizing something, the elder that announced the names prior to the 'fight' between Li Bai and Zhou Yang suddenly stood up and opened his mouth.
"What are you doing?!"
Angrily screaming at the participants was not a practical solution, but the elder was irritated enough by the fact that Li Bai didn't get pummeled, so he didn't have enough patience to spare for these people who remained stationary despite the fact that their battles were supposed to have started already!
The participants down below heard the furious howl of the elder being restrained, and they felt fear struck into their hearts, breaking a cold sweat.
"Elder Cheng, calm down!"
Another elder had been watching his old friend, Zhou Cheng, shouting out the names of the participants that he picked out from the container. Now that Elder Cheng's patience had run out, he immediately stepped in to stop his friend.
After recovering from the elder's yell, the participants saw the scene and were baffled. An elder is actually struggling from the restraint of another elder...
With even the participants hearing the elder's shout, the crowd would naturally hear it as well. As such, when they saw the scene unravel before them, they couldn't help but chuckle a little.
"This elder is actually more childish than my newborn..."
"Of course, your newborn can already talk..."
The man elbowed his friend.
.....
After a long while, Elder Cheng finally stopped his tantrum.
His friend had explained the situation to him. He knew of the situation because it was obvious, he was invested in the 'fight' between the trash and the teen as well.
"Reannounce the pairings."
"This..."
Elder Cheng hesitated for a bit before picking up the container and putting his hand inside.
Confused, Elder Cheng's friend grabbed his arm and forced him to stop. Why won't you just announce the pairings you've already picked?
Seemingly knowing what the other party was thinking at the moment, Elder Cheng shook his friend's hand off his arm forcefully.
"Well... I didn't pay attention to myself earlier too... so I'm picking again!"
"..." Everyone.
.....
A while later, the elder finished announcing the names and their respective opponents and the battles have finally started.
Li Bai, already knowing the best participants' capabilities, was getting bored by the minute. The crowd was getting bored as well, wanting to watch Li Bai getting pummeled instead of these irrelevant people fighting each other.
Eventually, the fights finished, and the obvious victors emerged victorious. Namely Xiao Yu, Liu Yang, and Shi He. Li Bai and Zhao Mei also advanced, much to everyone's dismay.
There was also another participant that advanced to the finals along with the others, but he was regarded as irrelevant as he hadn't delivered any standout performances.
Now that there were only six participants left, there was no need for one to get a free pass.
Elder Cheng stood up with great excitement on his face, anticipating the fights between the participants who were predicted to be the ones who would come out on top.
Among the three, one would come out on top, and become the future hope of Backwater City, for it to rise to become a Class 1 City! Of course, this class was the second lowest class, but it was better than having no class.
Inserting his hand into the container, Elder Cheng dug through the names inside it. There were only six pieces of paper inside it though, so he wasn't able to dig through much.
Grabbing one piece, Elder Cheng took his hand out, paper in hand. He grabbed another without revealing the first one. This determined the first pairing of the semi-final round of the tournament.
The elder put the container down and started unfolding the first paper.
"L-Li Bai."
Elder Cheng stuttered, thinking that Li Bai got the free pass again, before realizing that there was no free pass this round, and felt relieved before continuing to say the name.
The elder unfolded the other paper and read the second name only to find out that the name he picked was the nobody that somehow got to the finals. Elder Cheng scoffed in dismay as he was hoping that Li Bai's opponent would be one of the formidable ones.
However, in everyone's view, regardless of who he fights, Li Bai would still lose, whether his opponent was either an ant or an elephant. Thus, they didn't think much of who would get paired with Li Bai.
The elder picked the next two names, and they were Liu Yang and Zhao Mei. The last pairing was, obviously, the ones who were left, Xiao Yu and Shi He.
Everyone seemed to be satisfied with these pairings, even Li Bai. He didn't want to get paired with the people that, in the future, were his most likely disciples, especially Zhao Mei, who had a cultivation level much higher than his.
It was much better that he was paired with this nobody who would serve as his stepping stone. Otherwise, with these teens' tempers, how could they possibly submit to him if they were the ones who served as his stepping stones?
After the elder announced the pairings, most of the remaining participants climbed up their respective stages. Only one didn't, and it was Li Bai's opponent.
The crowd waited for a while before getting impatient. Li Bai was getting impatient as well, where was his opponent?
Another elder was drinking tea, getting impatient as well, when she suddenly heard the news that she was supposed to announce to everyone. The tea was spit all over everyone around her, causing them to move away from her.
The elder was contemplating on whether she should announce this or not, when a friend of hers, one that also moved away when she became a tea sprinkler, urged her to get over it quickly.
"Fine, fine."
The elder agreed. She cleared her throat before speaking.
"A participant has conceded the tournament. He says he has... an unidentified flatulence sickness..."
Everyone's eyes widened and looked at the other two stages where a battle would be held. Both the stages had both participants standing on it. The participants on those stages looked around as well.
The truth was that they already knew that only Li Bai was alone on a stage, but they just could not accept this kind of outcome. This was too unfair! Because of these feelings inside, they needed to double-check.
Except on the stage where Li Bai was waiting, all of the participants were present... which meant that the participant that conceded his match... was Li Bai's opponent!
Everyone spit blood.
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