The escape of the Giant God Peak Academy had already left him in an exceedingly unhappy mood. To his shock, another one in the form of the Tianjing squadron had sprouted up at the end of the first elimination round.
He had planned to humiliate that trash squadron that had slipped out of his net. However, who would have thought that a Cheng Yaojin(1) would pop out along the way! In an absolutely dangerous region that was surrounded by the absolute ice hail storm, that fellow even managed to carry a person on his back and run all the way to Grozny City? What bullshit luck was that! The gods were truly not giving Casio any face!
Emily and the others from the Tianjing squadron stood all around Wang Zhong and Scarlet. Only after their initial excitement and elation had worn off did they realize the injuries presented under the thick cloth strips wrapped tightly around his hands. Upon undoing them, tears immediately fell from Emily’s eyes. On the contrary, Scarlet appeared rather calm and collected as she took into the scene. Enduring the fatigue and exhaustion she had accumulated across the past few days, she proceeded to seek Milami out to administer first aid for Wang Zhong.
The main reason that led to shock appeared in people’s eye was due to the appearances of the frostbite and abrasions present. On his hands, especially the back of his arms, they were entirely covered by stretches of purple. There were quite a few spots where the skins had been ripped apart, though no blood dripped out from them. At this moment, the torn blood vessels beneath those patches of skin had already been frozen into ice.
Scarlet proceeded to treat them, doing so with incomparable concentration carefully. At this moment, the intense pain she had suffered on her head was more or less already healed up. The only other injuries on her were merely superficial, unable to affect her as she tended to Wang Zhong’s wounds. Standing beside her, Hymin was using her recovery attribute special ability to aid in Wang Zhong’s recovery. This caused envy and jealousy to rise within squadrons present in the surroundings, as indeed, being taken care by such beautiful girls was an extremely blissful matter.
Some of the people standing around Wang Zhong had started to ask the course of matters than the duo had experienced over the past few days. However, before Wang Zhong could say more than a few sentences, the gathering bell had already been rung.
“The time frame to submit your name lists has ended!” the person announcing was the same one that people had seen before they had set off to their respective competition zones, senior colonel Lun Nong. He was the person in charge of all of the matters pertaining to the first elimination round. At this moment, he stood on a little platform propped up by the side as he continued his announcement. “There are a total of 78 squadrons that have qualified for the second elimination round. There will be a detailed list ranked in accordance to the times taken to complete the first elimination round. First up, I’ll announce the top ten results. The other squadrons can enquire about their rankings after this announcement.”
“1st place, Heaven’s Fate Academy! Time take, 16 days and 7 hours!”
“2nd place, Stowe Luge Academy! 16 days and 9 hours!”
As Lun Nong continued with his announcement, the low voices of people holding discussions with one another continued to ring out from the surroundings. The 2 S ranked squadrons had completed the mission at frighteningly fast timings. To them, this elimination round that had posed life-threatening dangers for other squadrons, was as easy as drinking water.
…
“8th place, Giant God Peak Academy! 23 days and 15 hours!”
Having just arrived, Wang Zhong was not yet privy to the spectacular results that Dicaprio and his squadron had obtained. Upon hearing that announcement, he could not help but to give a big thumbs up sign to the latter. Seeing this, Dicaprio pushed his spectacles up as a rather resolute expression appeared on his face. “That’s an expected result. Truthfully speaking, if we wanted, we could have arrived with an even better timing!”
Fortunately, having known him for so long, Wang Zhong had become habituated to Dicaprio’s way of speech. If not, that fellow would genuinely be considered to be a person who would die if he was unable to speak any praise for himself.
“…10th place, Lightning Dragon Academy! 24 days and 7 hours!” Lun Nong completed his announcement of the top 10 squadrons on the ranking list. ” The squadrons in the top placings will get 10 extra points for the second round of eliminations!”
“2nd round of eliminations? Extra points?” the various squadrons present here were slightly bewildered by those words. “There’s a point system?”
“What’s this about? Do these 10 points matter? Won’t it be too disadvantageous for the other squadrons?”
“Next up is the rules of the 2nd elimination round!” senior colonel Lun Nong shot a sweeping cold glare at every squadron in the surroundings, squashing those voices in discussion down immediately. “The 2nd elimination round is split up into 5 parts.”
“Scout arena! Ranged soldier arena! Heavy soldier arena! Soldier arena! As well as the final captain arena! There can be no repeated participating in those arenas! Squadrons will be eliminated based on the points they receive from those 5 evaluations!”
Only 32 squadrons would be able to participate in the final competition of the CHF. If this was the final elimination round, won’t there be approximately 50 squadrons that would be eliminated???
All of a sudden, the looks everyone sent to each other weren’t that friendly anymore. There was a participation limit, with some moving on while others fall. After passing through the first elimination round with much difficulty, no one wanted to be eliminated here. Every single squadron wanted to return to that eye-catching and glamorous stage in Stuart City, letting the whole world see how awesome they were. Absolutely no one wanted to be eliminated!
The entire ground instantly turned quiet as everyone was still in the process of comprehending the news that they had just heard. After all, instead of the most clear-cut and straightforward method of elimination through combat, such an elimination method seemed to have never been employed in all of the past CHFs. However, in this CHF, such a method had been employed for the 1st, and even 2nd elimination round.
Some people found it hard to understand the rationale behind these changes. However, those with even the slightest bit of intellect would be able to understand that this was the method the competition committee employed to maximize the preservation of the entire strength of the various participating squadrons, and to avoid the occurrence of too many injuries before the final competition. This included the 1st elimination round, which appeared to be an extremely cruel test for survival. Truthfully speaking, the degree of difficulty of it was just on the level of a wilderness training exercise for the genuinely strong squadrons. At the very least, they treated it as a warm-up for the final competition, as it would be broadcasted worldwide, where one would be able to showcase themselves on the beautiful stage prepared by the federation. If only a ragtag bunch of squadrons were to appear during the final competition, it indeed would truly be too big a blow to the reputation of the federation.
“Finally, I have to remind all of you.” keeping the information sheets in his hands, senior colonel Lun Nong spoke out in an earnest manner. “It’s best for all of you to give it your all, as there’s a certain level of variability in the points system for the 2nd round. It isn’t absolute, and the points allocated to the squadrons would not be released before the final tabulation. However, don’t assume that you would be able to make it to the finals when you’re around the 20 to 30+ rankings! People who hold such thoughts and treat that as their goals would most likely be unable to meet the other criteria and will be eliminated!”
“The first arena, the scout’s arena, will be held at 10am tomorrow. The location of it will be the 3rd training facility of the Vasilyevich Academy. It’s best for all of you to do a proper evaluation as to who you send to participate in the arenas. All the best to all of you! Dismissed!”
“What the hell’s with the scout’s arena! It’s basically just a fight between assassins! Truthfully speaking, the 2nd elimination round’s really quite interesting, though god knows how difficult will the tests be.”
“They will definitely be extremely difficult. Speaking of which, a scout isn’t an assassin. I’m afraid that there will definitely be tests held on aspects other than combat.”
“Fuck! What the hell! Why don’t they just fight to settle it!”
“Haha. The assassins from our competition zone will most likely be taking the Mo Family as the benchmark. I really want to see the strength of those Mo’s List assassins.”
“Speaking about this, I truly am unable to see exactly where that clown like fellow is formidable in…” discussions had started to appear within the scattered crowd, all of them looking exceedingly enthusiastic and spirited. Although the elimination rate was super high, with only 32 being chosen out of the 78 squadrons, the new format used in the 2nd elimination round had caused many participants to feel excited. If the CHF was truly utilizing the testing criteria used to temper the younger generations of those large aristocratic families, such a test would definitely be one to not pass by for the majority of the CHF participants.
Exactly why were those large aristocratic families so powerful? Resources, background, and methods of training their younger generations, with the focus being on the latter. The tests utilized by those large aristocratic families were created by the accumulation of experiences over a span of hundreds of years. Just these test alone would make their trip here worthwhile.
“We’ll be relying on you tomorrow, Emily!”
“No problem.” Emily nodded her head earnestly as she replied, There was no one else that could be chosen from the Tianjing side.
There wasn’t much of a discussion within the Tianjing squadron towards the personnel selected for the scout arena held tomorrow. The so-called scouts were members of the squadron that walked at the front of the group, aiding the group by looking through all the information gathered. They would find paths when met with mountains, create bridges when met with water bodies, and were the people in charge of direction. They were also a position that was absolutely vital and irreplaceable in a group. Generally speaking, this was a position that an assassin was responsible from. Traversing the darkness, regardless of speed or the ability of concealment, assassins far outstrip the other occupations in these aspects. For the Tianjing squadron, their lead assassin was Emily, with Colby being entirely agreeable for it.
Upon returning to the safe haven which was their dormitory, Wang Zhong was finally able to completely relax his mind, falling asleep as his head smacked against the pillow. Regardless of how curious the others were about his experiences during the past few days, all of them could only wait for him to wake up to satiate their thirst.
Deep into the quiet night, Emily laid on her bed. Rolling about, she wasn’t able to sleep, with her head filled with messy and chaotic thoughts.
She wasn’t much worried about tomorrow’s competition. Emily had seen one too many of the so-called assassin’s test, with herself having just experienced the most ancient and strict of the assassin special training conducted by her Assassin Family. The degree of difficulty for tomorrow’s test would never exceed that.
However, what she needed to defeat was her own self.
She had always been given her all in an attempt to walk out the shadows cast by Luo Feng, returning to the happy-go-lucky and bubbly character she once had. Nevertheless, she could always feel her inner thoughts gradually turning one of frustration, guilt, and self-loathing, making it difficult for her to walk out of those shadows. Therefore, after her return to the squadron, Emily had spent the majority of the time keeping to herself. Other than the occasional sentence or two with Wang Zhong, most of her other free time was spent blaming herself under those shadows.
When she had aided the squadron as a scout to clear the road and fought to do various kinds of miscellaneous work, all of them was mostly due to her attempting to numb herself from the self-loathing and guilt that was brewing within her. By doing everything in a machine-like manner, she had been forcing herself, causing her to lose the enthusiasm and liveliness that she previously possessed.
Emily’s heart was shaking. When one gives one’s all in something like emotions and feelings, one would feel incomparable pain and suffering when they were lost. This might be what her family and her grandfather had wished to see, as in their line of work, there’s no emotions and feelings involved. Being emotionless might be the best way of survival for an assassin!
You will not get injured if you do not attempt it. This was a sort of natural protection.
This lasted all the way until Wang Zhong was blown away by the storm. All of a sudden, Emily’s frozen heart appeared to be shaken by something, before various kinds of feelings and emotions that have been accumulated in there gushed out like a broken dam.
Emily appeared to have regained her life upon seeing the return of Wang Zhong. She seemed to suddenly understand what the words Luo Feng had muttered before his passing.
…live a good life…
Tears streamed down Emily’s face….That’s right! Luo Feng had used his own life to exchange for an opportunity for her to live! She deserved better, and needed to live a better life, one that included his portion!
The blue skies and white clouds, coupled with the entire mountain range being pure white, caused everything to appear as though they were one single flowing stretch. Howling winds blew from all directions, causing one to be unable to identify what kind of wind it was. Time to time, they would blow from the north, before howling in from the south. This was the Heavenly God high plains of the Bella Dean City.
Mouth Elbrus was most majestic mountain present with the Heavenly God high plains. Bella Dean City was located on the northern slope of this tall mountain. The white colored rocks used in the various constructions made the city blend in perfectly to the body of the mountain, appearing just as though they were rooms grown out from the mountain. Ten snaking mountain paths all crisscrossed one another till they merged into one. A flat and alluvial plain was present at the foot of the mountain, the rich and fertile soil behind the home various kinds of cultivated food crops and vegetation.
Towering 8123 meters above sea level, it was the 7th tallest peak on Earth after the great calamity.
The elimination round held in the Bella Dean Competition Zone might be the craziest one amongst the other competition zones, as the various squadrons had to traverse from the southern slope, all the way across Mount Elbrus to reach Bella Dean City on the opposing slope!
Cheng Yaojin- a general of the Tang Dynasty that was famous for rushing into enemy lines and successfully pulling off a rescue