Because of the crushing defeats of Wanmo and Jinji, Ranfeng and the others still in the running hastily withdrew from the contest.
You’ve got to be kidding!
Who in their right mind would fight Little Titan for the championship? That wasn’t courage — that was suicide. Even self-torture didn’t go this far. Ranfeng was secretly counting his blessings just now: thank the heavens Wanmo had taken the arrow meant for him, or else the one nailed to Human Valley’s pillar of shame would have been himself, and not the currently face-losing, bitter, dejected Wanmo.
The withdrawals on this side weren’t even finished before the penalties came down on the other. It wasn’t that the two-against-one fight had been unfair; it was that both Jinji and Wanmo had cheated with some unnamed divine power. One had broken the Law’s restrictions to transform into a terrifying demon construct; the other had gone even further — Wanmo had actually conjured an army of sixty thousand Skeleton warriors while using divine power to break the restrictions, in gross violation of the founding intent and purpose the ancient forebears had set down for assessing newcomers within Human Valley. Had it been anyone but the heaven-defying Little Titan, they’d likely have died without a whole corpse to bury.
So, victory was victory — but even though Jinji and Wanmo had conceded, their cheating still had to be punished, or it would be unfair to the other students and to those who came after.
Wanmo and Jinji had their assessment eligibility revoked on the spot.
With those two disqualified, the whole shape of this year’s assessment shifted. No one bothered thinking about the championship, because that was already Little Titan’s for the taking — no one dared contest it, and no one could contest it even if they dared. But while the championship was a foregone conclusion, second place was suddenly up for debate: was Ranfeng, with his platinum construct, the stronger, or was Qingmo, master of the 108-combo, the better? After all, the only reason Qingmo had conceded and dropped out was Wanmo the cheater’s interference — and now that Wanmo was disqualified, if Qingmo were willing to rejoin the contest, he stood a very good chance of taking a run at second place.
But Qingmo and Ranfeng, as if by unspoken agreement, both declined to rejoin, each willing to yield second place to the other.
That reaction left the students hoping for more of a show a little bewildered.
What on earth was going on? They’d been fighting so ferociously before — why weren’t they fighting now?
Only Qingmo and Ranfeng themselves knew: no matter how brilliantly either of them performed in a subsequent battle, no one would be impressed. With Little Titan’s crystal giant, flying construct, spider bombs, and Wellspring-of-Life rune array set before them like flawless pearls and jade, even the finest showing would look shabby by comparison. Rather than let everyone size them up with a critical eye and pick their performance apart, better to hide their shortcomings and preserve at least a little face.
Ranfeng especially was deeply worried that, if Qingmo insisted on fighting and forced him to use the divine power he’d traded for, he’d instantly become an object of universal contempt, just like Wanmo and Jinji. That secret was not something to expose lightly.
“Attention. After the tallying of votes from the assessors and the students, the results are finally in. Student Ranfeng has won second place by the slimmest of vote margins, while Student Qingmo takes the next rank, third place, without dispute. At the same time, I have an announcement for all of you. Once the assessment concludes, the instructors of Heavenly Pride Academy will travel together to Gold Leaf City and the Imperial Capital to personally call the elders of Students Jinji and Wanmo to account, and then give everyone a satisfactory reckoning.” The Heavenly Pride Chairman made it clear this matter wasn’t over: whatever that unnamed divine power represented, the use of cheating methods would be answered for and punished.
“…” The dejected Jinji and the gradually-recovering Wanmo were invited by the arbiter into a confinement room. It seemed they’d have to give a clear account of the source of that unnamed divine power and their reasons for cheating with it before they’d be allowed to leave.
The moment those two were gone, the remaining students burst into cheers. Sure, the championship, second, and third places had nothing to do with any of them — but to have witnessed these exquisite, matchless duels with their own eyes was enough to leave them without a single regret in life.
Above all, Little Titan taking on two opponents alone — single-handedly challenging both Jinji and Wanmo, and in the end staging a magnificent turnaround that overturned heaven and earth — that was an ultimate battle the likes of which hadn’t been seen in ten million years. Apart from Little Titan, who could fight two-against-one? Apart from Little Titan, who could create a flying construct? Apart from Little Titan, who could fight one against ten thousand, and with a wave of his hand reduce sixty thousand Skeleton warriors to ash and cinders, wiped from existence?
This was a battle destined to be recorded in history.
Since Human Valley’s founding, there had never once been a duel like it. No one knew about the great figures of the ancient past, but everyone agreed that, at the very least in the last several thousand — even tens of thousands — of years, Little Titan’s defeat of Wanmo and Jinji ranked in the top three, and might well claim the number-one spot outright.
One against ten thousand. Just to imagine it set the blood boiling.
Yue Yang, for his part, wasn’t as pleased as everyone else imagined. He didn’t have the look of a man in the mood to celebrate, either. If anything he seemed rather listless — lying on a bed, not moving a muscle, bored as a pampered young lordling who’d eaten his fill and had nothing to do with himself.
Mingzhu found this a bit strange. What was with this kid? Was he really tired? One against ten thousand certainly wasn’t easy, but he’d looked so relaxed out there earlier — you’d have thought he’d taken the win without breaking a sweat. Wasn’t that how it had been? Thinking it over, Mingzhu suddenly went a little soft-hearted, and made ready to give the kid a bit of a massage as a sort of reward. So, in a rare gesture, Mingzhu produced a tone and register that were, by his usual standards, comparatively gentle, and asked softly, “Tired? Is something bothering you somewhere?”
“There’s no explaining it to a naive little sprout like you, who knows nothing of the ways of men and women. I’m not tired — I’m pent up. Haven’t had a girl to work it off with in days, and now I’m about ready to burst!” Yue Yang, for his part, gestured for the utterly-out-of-his-depth Mingzhu to mind his own business.
“About to burst?” The instant Mingzhu heard it he flew into a rage, whipping out the great golden hammer. “Fine! I’ll help you burst, all right!”
The one time — the one time — he’d worked up the goodwill to show the kid some care, and the ingrate had taken a good heart for a dog’s guts.
This kid was born asking for a beating. If he went a single day without one, his hide started to itch. And what in the world was packed inside that skull of his? Day and night, nothing but women — was it really so impossible to think about something else?
Yue Yang leapt off the bed in fright and bolted for the door. He’d wager that if he ran even a hair too slow, Mingzhu would beat him till he was scrabbling across the floor for his own teeth. The power of that great golden hammer was too terrifying — a hundred times more terrifying, frankly, than Wanmo’s sixty thousand Skeleton warriors!
“Don’t let me set eyes on you again, you sex-addled idiot!” Mingzhu, catching sight of people outside and mindful of his own image, stopped the chase.
“La la la, I’m the little newsboy hawking his papers — no, wait, I’m the little expert at charming the ladies…” Yue Yang pulled a face at Mingzhu, thoroughly pleased with himself, and slipped away in a puff of dust. Then, finding a spot with no one about, he had Xiao Wenli carry him back to the Grimoire World.
The moment he arrived, the first thing he did was seek out Princess Qianqian. He hugged her hard, planted a fierce kiss on her, and then — just as the tiger-girl was winding up to blow her top — hastened to fling out the good news: “I beat Wanmo.”
“You won, you won, big deal. Look at you preening, like some smug mutt.” Princess Qianqian shot him a reproachful glance and meant to ignore him, but couldn’t quite smother her curiosity. “Go on, then — tell me how you fought it.”
“Now, the way it all unfolded — that was a spectacle…” Yue Yang gave a little cough. “Ahem, ahem. Suddenly I find myself a touch parched.”
“You want tea?” Princess Qianqian knew exactly what the kid was angling at.
“With a beauty at my side to share a cup of plain tea, though there be not a drop of wine, I’d be drunk with delight all the same.” At this point Yue Yang was practically one step short of pasting a placard across his forehead reading the drunkard’s heart is not in the wine at all.
“Tch — showing off your book-learning. Pity I’m not your Xue girl; that sort of trick doesn’t work on me!” Princess Qianqian kept a straight face and gave a cold little snort. “If you don’t want the teapot cracked over the top of your head, out with it — quit the nonsense!” But for all her outward distaste, she wasn’t really angry inside; she even lifted the pot, brewed the tea, and poured Yue Yang a cup.
“The tiger-girl really is a lovely lass — even if she’s just the tiniest bit tsundere!” Yue Yang declared himself deeply touched.
“If you don’t want to die, take that last part back.” Princess Qianqian glared at him with her tiger’s eyes.
“Truth be told, a little tsundere can be rather adorable sometimes…” Yue Yang figured there was no great harm in it. A man wanted girls of every flavor at his side, and if his little circle were missing a tsundere young lord, this blessed little life of his would surely lose a good half its luster.
What could anyone do with a fellow this grinning, thick-skinned, brazen as a city wall? Princess Qianqian had long since learned to simply ignore him. Otherwise she’d have burst from vexation ages ago.
Listening to Yue Yang recount the whole battle with Wanmo, Princess Qianqian found herself utterly absorbed — especially when she heard about the sixty thousand Skeleton warriors swarming him, which gave her a real fright. Then, hearing how the Wellspring-of-Life rune array, the flying construct, and the spider bombs had all unleashed their divine might, annihilating the enemy and winning the duel, she quietly let out a breath of relief. She never doubted for a moment that Yue Yang would win — but she hadn’t expected it to be this easy. She’d assumed he’d have to expend enormous effort to seize victory; she hadn’t dreamed he’d break force with cunning, wiping out the Skeleton warriors with nothing but pure life-energy. Her heart secretly warmed: truly, this was the third young master of the Yue family, brimming with devilish little schemes. Swap in anyone else and clearing that gate wouldn’t have come half so easily.
Princess Qianqian was in a fine mood, and in a rare turn praised him a sentence or two.
Right up until she saw the kid, given an inch and grabbing for a mile — coveting Long and then eyeing Shu — angling to stay behind and “rest” as well. Then she flipped in an instant, shoved Yue Yang straight out the door, and slammed it shut in his face for good measure.
“Tiger-girl, you’d best never fall into my hands, or it’ll be the family rod for you — a hundred and eighty strokes, and no going easy!” But the time-crosser was only mouthing off. If it ever came to actually striking her, he hadn’t the heart. However angry he got, Yue Yang could never bring himself to lay the rod across that flawless, breath-stealing full-moon curve of Princess Qianqian’s fragrant bottom.
“Brother-in-law, so mighty!” A startled cry rang out behind Yue Yang.
No need to turn and look — he already knew which little chit this was.
Tianzai!
Only a little imp like Tianzai would be so bold as to sneak up behind Yue Yang for a spot of mischief; only she would come at him with that impossibly saccharine, sugar-sweet little voice, chirping “brother-in-law, brother-in-law” without end.
For a stretch of time now, Tianzai had been sealed away in closed-door cultivation and hadn’t gotten out to take the air. Nor had she had any chance to come act coquettish at Yue Yang. Now, the instant she’d emerged from seclusion, she’d come flying straight over.
What was closest to her heart? To the present-day Tianzai, brother-in-law, of course — because brother-in-law not only handed out treasures, he also regularly gave her cultivation pointers, helping her break through bottlenecks and advance to higher ranks.
“Something seems a bit different somehow…” Yue Yang felt that this little chit seemed a touch changed after coming out of seclusion, yet for the life of him he couldn’t put his finger on where she was different. How strange!
“Really? Where does brother-in-law think I’m different? Have I gotten prettier?” The little Tianzai, the Thunder God’s Chain about her neck, leaned in without the slightest reserve, her little face no more than two inches from her brother-in-law’s, her swanlike, elegant neck stretched out long, her big playful eyes blinking, blinking — as though she especially wanted her brother-in-law to get a good, clear look.
“Look again and she’s still just a yellow-haired chit!” Yue Yang rapped Tianzai on her little head, saying the opposite of what he meant.
“Always rapping people on the head — what if you knock me dumb? And you’re still rapping! Insufferable — brother-in-law’s the worst!” Tianzai cradled her little head and, all pitiful, went tattling to Fengxian as she came walking over from that direction: “Sis, this rotten brother-in-law’s gone too far — he actually dared lay hands on your little sister-in-law! You’ve got to take my side on this!”
“So should we give him a bit of a punishment, then?”
“Absolutely a must!”
“All right. Tonight I’ll use my death-by-bosom smothering technique and see if I can’t suffocate him to death…”
“Sis, how is that a punishment? That’s a straight-up reward! No good — that lets him off way too cheap!”
“Get lost this instant, or I’ll strip you bare and give you a whipping. Don’t think I don’t know you, you little witch — always terrified the world isn’t in enough chaos. Put on a bit of an honest face for me, or it’ll be your hide!”
The scolded little chit gave a cute stick of her pink tongue. Then she pulled another face at her brother-in-law, and slipped away light as gossamer on a gust of fragrant wind — and from far off drifted back a peal of silver-bell laughter.
(End of Chapter)