Chapter 118: Competition (4)

After reaching the Dragon Transformation List stage, the competition was no longer elimination-based.

The 200 students would be ranked accordingly based on previous results, after which they could begin challenging those ranked higher than them.

There were three main rules regarding the challenge:

1) A student can only challenge the same student no more than once per day.

2) A student cannot make more than 5 challenges a day. If a student is challenged more than 6 times in a day, he or she reserves the right to deny any future challenges.

3) A student cannot challenge someone more than 10 ranks higher than him or her.

If the challenger succeeded, he or she would take the target’s spot, while the defeated person would go down a spot.

The end-of-year competition lasted for eight days. Two of those days were used to determine who would be on the Dragon Transformation List, while the remaining eight days were used for challenging and finalizing rankings.

Because Su Chen had missed out on the end-of-year competition for eight straight years, Su Chen had no prior results.

Thus, his ranking was at 200.

According to the rules, he was the first person to challenge someone.

“If that’s the case, then I’ll challenge the 190th-ranked individual,” Su Chen helplessly said.

He didn’t want to have to fight his way up one battle at a time. If possible, he preferred to finish it all in one go.

However, the Hidden Dragon Institute had set a rule that didn’t allow anyone to challenge a student that was more than ten rankings higher than them, likely to avoid any pointless challenges from occurring.

If he wanted to achieve his goal, he would need to do it step by step, like climbing a mountain.

To reach the top 20, he would need to fight at least 18 battles even if he were to win them all.

“This is quite a heavy burden,” Su Chen thought.

And just like that, Su Chen embarked on his mountain-climbing adventure.

Even though he could only challenge five people in a day, Su Chen would definitely battle more than five times a day - as soon as he won his first battle, the people behind him had the right to challenge him.

Thankfully, after every challenge, Su Chen was allowed a certain period of time to rest. He didn’t need to fight them all in a row.

Even so, as soon as his ranking began to increase, he was required to fight at least ten battles a day.

The competition was extremely tiring. Most people wouldn’t be able to handle five battles a day, let alone ten.

Two days later, Su Chen entered the top 100, rocking the Hidden Dragon Institute.

Su Chen’s 100% win rate on his way to the top 100 finally caused the others to realize just how powerful he really was. At this point, no one dared to look down on him as a weak chicken anymore.

Many of the students began to guess what rank Su Chen would finish at. The number of wagers placed on Su Chen’s performance shot up at the Plentiful Wealth House, and Su Chen’s odds also drastically increased. The odds of him getting into the top 20 had increased from 1:8 to 1:2.5, and as Su Chen’s ranking continued to rise, those odds would continue to increase.

Today was the sixth day, and Su Chen’s placement continued to rise.

Any student who could reach the top 100 was pretty strong, and every single one of those students had quite a few tricks up their sleeves. Even Su Chen found that it took quite some time for him to defeat his enemies if he didn’t use any of his trump cards.

The 90th-ranked contestant was a young student wielding an inky-black battle blade. His bloodline was that of the Inky Cloud Beast, and he could emit a large wave of black mist when he battled, obstructing the vision of anyone on the stage.

This was also the reason why this student was not well-liked - who enjoyed watching a battle that they could not see?

However, battling in black mist was not at all effective against Su Chen. As someone who had been blind previously, Su Chen was extremely adept at battling in darkness. Very quickly, that student was sent flying out of the cloud of black mist and subsequently off of the stage.

Su Chen kept his strength in check so that the student didn’t get too injured.

Su Chen also won the battle after that, bringing himself to 80th place.

The onlookers below the stage jabbered amongst themselves.

“Another win! Ten ranks per battle all the way to 80th place. Su Chen’s strength cannot be ignored.”

“Did he keep himself hidden away for eight years just to amaze everyone in one fell swoop?”

“It seems like we all misjudged him.”

“But I think his string of victories is about to end.”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you not see that Liu Yuan challenged him?”

As they were conversing, a youth hugging a sword appeared on stage, his expression proud as he stared coldly at Su Chen.

He didn’t immediately attack because according to the rules, Su Chen’s rest period had not expired yet.

The spectators began to clamor when they saw the sword-hugging youth.

“Liu Yuan? It’s the Absolute Sword Liu Yuan. Wasn’t that guy ranked 39th? How has he suddenly fallen below the 80s?”

“Because he was constantly surrendering in his previous battles, and he never challenged any other individual,” said someone who knew what was going on.

In the past two days, Su Chen had been increasing his ranking, while Liu Yuan was going down in the rankings of his own accord.

Those who were quick-witted instantly realized something. “It looks like Liu Yuan is coming for Su Chen.”

“Haha, looks like we’re in for a treat.”

“Yes. Absolute Sword Liu Yuan is not benevolent. His strikes are extremely vicious, and each one is meant to cause serious harm. If he really is seeking out Su Chen on his own, he probably doesn’t have any good intentions.”

“Exactly. Su Chen is quite unlucky. How did he manage to provoke Liu Yuan?”

“There’s no need for him to continue battling now that he’s run into Liu Yuan. His miraculous run can be considered to be over.”

“It’s already quite good if that’s all that happens! If he gets injured by Liu Yuan, whether he can maintain his ranking is another issue. He might drop out of the top 100!”

The crowd continued to chatter amongst themselves.

Liu Yuan was smiling coldly at Su Chen.

He said, “I made a mistake.”

“Oh?” Su Chen’s eyebrows jumped. “What kind of mistake?”

In any case, his rest time was not up yet, and he was interested in talking with his opponent for a bit. Absolute Sword Liu Yuan was a name that he had heard before. He was an expert who had previously always been in the top 40; now that he was suddenly at 80th place and was challenging Su Chen, it was pretty clear that he had come for Su Chen.

Liu Yuan said, “I underestimated you. Originally, I thought that entering the top 100 would be your absolute limit, so I was always surrendering to lower my ranking in order to run into you. However, based on your previous battles, your movements are extremely skilled and you are clearly hiding your true strength, so I guess I was wasting my time. I didn’t need to lose that many battles - 50 or 60th place would have been good enough to run into you. Now, I’ll need to fight more battles just to make my way back. All I did was give myself trouble.”

“So that’s what it was. I originally thought you wanted to say that you had made a mistake by looking to make trouble for me.”

Liu Yuan’s face tightened. “Su Chen, don’t be arrogant. I know you aren’t weak, but who told you to provoke someone you shouldn’t have provoked? Someone paid a large sum for me to cripple you, so 80th place will be the highest you go. Don’t think of escaping. Under my Crimson Absolute Sword, you won’t even have the right to surrender!”

As he spoke, he unsheathed his sword, pointing it at Su Chen.

The blade flashed a vibrant red.

“Can you tell me who asked you to deal with me?” Su Chen asked.

“If you want to know, think a little more about who you’ve offended.”

When Su Chen heard him say this, he sighed, “Fine, since you won’t tell me, I’ll just have to give you a beating first. Remember, if you can’t hold out, just tell me the name.”

He attacked.