Chapter 256: The Unkillable Roachie!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
In the rest area of the Leiting Mecha Clan, the expressions of many had turned extremely ugly. Who the heck was this youth? Why could he fight evenly with their previous vice regiment commander?
Lin Zhidong could not help but ask Boss Huo beside him, "Boss Huo, can you tell what level that youth is at?" As Qi Long was the primary attacker right now, with Nie Feng-ming defending passively, it was hard to tell for now what realm the opponent's physical skills were at.
Boss Huo responded dispassionately, "It won't be lower than Feng-ming's by much, otherwise Feng-ming would not be so passive. However, this is just temporary." No matter how strong someone at the early stages of Qi-Jin was, they would not be able to hinder Nie Feng-ming to this extent — that youth on the field was certain to already be at the middle stages of Qi-Jin. The only question was which minor level in the middle stages he was at.
Lin Zhidong's face paled at these words, and he said with a rasp, "Middle stage Qi-Jin? How can this be?" For the past few years, even if the freshmen had great talent, some admitted at the level of Qi-Jin, they would still only have just stepped into early stage Qi-Jin. Take Zhang Jing-an for example. Looking back throughout the history of the military academy, it was still only that one year 20 years ago, when General Ling Xiao had entered the academy, that a student had entered the school already at the middle stage of Qi-Jin. It had caused a rather large commotion back then.
With a troubled expression, Lin Zhidong looked towards that youth engaged in a close fight on the stage with Nie Feng-ming. Could this be the aberrant Zhang Jing-an had been talking about?
With much difficulty, Lin Zhidong pressed down the shock in his heart to say resentfully, "I just knew it. For the third round they would definitely send out the strongest one in their team. Luckily I had arranged for Senior Feng-ming to fight ..." If he had sent out their weakest member here, they would very likely have already lost this match. He had initially thought to easily finish off the other side with a breezy 3-0, yet the score was now already 1-1. However, Lin Zhidong still hoped that Leiting could be ahead in points overall, so they would be able to fight from a superior position instead of being pressured to perform with a disadvantage in the count.
Hearing this, Boss Huo could not help but glance at the rest area of the New Cadet Regiment. Was this youth on the stage right now really their strongest fighter? Why had there been a sudden flash of cold air just earlier, which had made fear stir in his heart? Was it an illusion, or was there some powerful instructor from the academy present? Boss Huo could not find an answer, and so could only set aside the concerns in his heart and continue to watch the fight on the stage.
Meanwhile, on the side of the New Cadet Regiment, only Wu Jiong remained by Ling Lan's side. He was clenching his fists, expression nervous as he kept a close watch on the stage. Seeing Qi Long push back the opponent again and again, he could not hold back the joy from his face as he turned to Ling Lan and asked, "Boss Lan, don't you think Qi Long has a chance to win this match?" Qi Long was fighting so well, and he had always been very strong — he would not disappoint them.
Right then, Ling Lan had her arms folded across her chest as she coolly watched the moves exchanged by the fighters on the stage. This was her usual habit — copying the combat moves of the real world and feeding them into the learning space. Besides being able to earn some amount of contribution points this way, she could also obtain the improved and further refined ultimate moves developed by the instructors based on the moves she fed the learning space for free. From Ling Lan's perspective, this could be said to be killing two birds with one stone.
To Wu Jiong's question, she replied instantly, "The fight has just begun, it is too early to determine."
Frankly, Ling Lan could see very clearly that it actually was not impossible for Qi Long to win, but the probability was extremely small. Even though he seemed to be fighting his opponent evenly for now, the fight appearing to be extremely exciting, Ling Lan could clearly sense that the flow of the match was already gradually leaning in favour of Nie Feng-ming. If Qi Long continued to fight like this, his chances of winning would only keep decreasing.
But would Qi Long change his fighting style? No! Thus, Qi Long's loss, Ling Lan could already almost see it ...
However, it was not completely impossible — all of it would depend on whether Qi Long could achieve a personal breakthrough on the stage. To overpower the strong from a weaker position, the chance lay in securing a breakthrough during the fight, and Qi Long truly had the potential to do so.
Ling Lan could not help but recall the time back when they had been six years old, during the entrance test of the Central Scout Academy — Qi Long's combat moves had been extremely immature, but he had unexpectedly achieved a personal breakthrough then ... perhaps she could place a little hope on this.
The people below the stage were nervous and conflicted, while the two on the stage were getting more and more engrossed in their fight. Qi Long's combat style had always been attack, attack, attack, with no pauses to take stock or defend. He was the type who became more and more berserk as he fought — the more pressure he was under, the harder he fought back. In Ling Lan's words, he was an unkillable roachie. Therefore, despite Nie Feng-ming having the upper hand in terms of the flow of the match, in terms of attack, Qi Long seemed to be on a roll. With the exception of people like Ling Lan whose realm was high enough to discern the true face of things, the other people were all watching as if through cloud and mist. Even if Leiting was extremely confident in Nie Feng-ming, they could not help but find their hearts beating erratically at this moment.
"What's going on?" Lin Zhidong was flustered, "Boss Huo, didn't you say Senior Feng-ming would take control of the situation? Why isn't there any sign of this even now?"
Boss Huo's thick eyebrows knitted tightly, and he replied, "Don't rush, keep watching! The opponent is not weak, but, I estimate that he is weaker than Feng-ming by one minor level ..."
"Boss Huo, you've made out the levels?" Pleasant surprise bloomed on Lin Zhidong's face. As long as the opponent was not stronger than Senior Feng-ming, he was not afraid.
"Hn. The spots that the opponent has been attacking are all the weak points of Feng-ming's moves, making it very uncomfortable for Feng-ming to fight." Boss Huo's eyebrows remained locked together. "The opponent seems to know Feng-ming's combat moves very well ... leading Feng-ming to be countered at every turn. Still, even so, the opponent has no way of taking Feng-ming down. Based on this point alone, we can tell that the opponent's strength is weaker than Feng-ming's, otherwise Feng-ming would be finding it even more difficult to fight."
"Then, when will Senior Feng-ming be able to turn the situation around?" Lin Zhidong's combat realm was too low, so he really could not tell anything much from watching. He could only ask Boss Huo once again.
Boss Huo answered, "Wait patiently for a little longer. It should be soon." He had barely finished saying that when he suddenly smiled and added, "There's no need to wait anymore. Feng-ming is already turning things around now. He should finish off the opponent very quickly."
Only at this point did Boss Huo notice the shifting of the flow towards Feng-ming. The time it took for him to come to this conclusion was obviously behind Ling Lan's — it was clear to see that in terms of vision, Boss Huo was no match for Ling Lan.
However, Boss Huo was still astounded enough at the capability of this year's freshmen. Thinking back to when they had first entered the academy, there had only been one early stage Qi-Jin combat master, and that had already been enough to send the military academy into rapture, pooling their resources to focus on cultivating that talent. Who could have imagined that this year, Qi-Jin stage combat masters were almost like a dime a dozen, popping out one after the other ... Was it because Qi-Jin masters were now mainstream, or had their year just been too lousy?
"Could it be that the military academy is about to be turned upside down?" For some reason, Boss Huo suddenly had this thought, but he very soon shook it out of his head. In the military academy, the determination of whether one was strong did not depend on physical skills, but on mecha control. Perhaps, two years later, they would be able to see if these talented youths were equally aberrant when it came to mecha control.
On the stage, as expected, the flow of the match was developing as Ling Lan had predicted. Nie Feng-ming had become used to Qi Long's berserker style attack mode, and was slowly turning the situation around. Qi Long's initially fierce attacks gradually toned down, and his attacks even seemed to give off a sense of being forced and restricted. With this, everyone believed that, not too long after, Nie Feng-ming would certainly be able to defeat his opponent, clinching the victory for this round.
However, everyone had been too idealistic — another 50 to 60 moves passed, and still there was no sign of Qi Long's defeated figure. Even though he was not fighting as freely and wildly as he did at the start, he was still holding on ...
Another ten minutes passed, and Qi Long was still holding on ...
Twenty minutes passed, and Qi Long was still holding on ...
Thirty minutes went by, and Qi Long was still holding on ...
"F*ck, that freshman is really an indestructible cockroach!" Qi Long's tenacity finally gained him the admiration and respect of some of the older cadets. How was this freshman so tenacious and resistant to damage? Several times, it was obvious that he had been struck by Nie Feng-ming's fists and legs — many people thought that Qi Long would be injured by this, and that even if he was not hurt, he would still end up shifting his posture and attack stance due to the pain, leading him to lose the ability to use his offence as defence.
Of course, once that happened, Nie Feng-ming would jump on the chance to launch consecutive attacks and bring him down completely. But surprisingly, even after taking several attacks, Qi Long seemed not to feel anything. The attack motions of his hands were not at all affected — instead, Nie Feng-ming was greatly shocked by Qi Long's pain-free reaction, so much so that he forgot to continue attacking. This gave Qi Long a breather and he forcefully tided his way through the attack.
"Damn, does that fellow not have any pain receptors?" Many times they saw Nie Feng-ming's forceful fists strike the other's body — even the audience watching from below could feel their bodies ache in sympathetic pain, but Qi Long remained indifferent, no change at all in his expression.
"What a monster!" Even if his strength was weaker than themselves, meeting such an opponent would cause anyone to have a headache. Frankly, Nie Feng-ming currently indeed found himself presented with a terrible headache. He even wondered if this youth before him was a robot, just cloaked in a layer of human skin.
"Looks like this match has turned into a fight of endurance. Now we just need to see who runs out of stamina first." Those who were astute had already figured out that the outcome of the fight would not be determined anytime soon.
"That body of Qi Long's is truly abnormal. Even though he's hit, it looks as if he was only tickled. This match is going to drag on for a while; it would be great if the opponent could be worn down." Wu Jiong stared excitedly at the stage. Every time he saw Qi Long fight, he would be unbelievably excited. It could not be helped — Qi Long's combat style was just like that, every punch meeting flesh, no flairs and dramatics, his pure strength doing all the talking.
"The opponent is extremely collected. At present, Qi Long has no advantage!" Ling Lan replied with a frown. Qi Long may be acting extremely nonchalant, but she had still seen his face twitch slightly whenever he had been hit. It wasn't that it didn't hurt — Qi Long was just suppressing it by force.
Great. Each one of this bunch of brats is even more tolerant than the one before ... they were all bloody turning into teenage mutant ninja turtles 1 now. She could only hope Qi Long's internal injuries were not too severe, otherwise he would not be able to hold up for long. Ling Lan worried in her heart.
Ling Lan actually did not mind whether Qi Long won or lost. She only hoped that Qi Long would be able to find a chance to breakthrough during this match, pushing past his current bottleneck.
Mind you, Qi Long had been stuck at middle stage Qi-Jin for almost a full year now — although she had sought Qi Long out whenever she had time to spar with him and put him through the wringer, the effects had been insignificant. Perhaps Qi Long had already gotten used to her combat methods, for his bottleneck had not budged at all from their sessions. This was also why Ling Lan had chosen to let Qi Long clash with the second strongest on the opposing team. Even as Ling Lan plotted to ensure the final victory would be theirs, she also hoped Qi Long would be able to benefit from this fight.
"The opponent is pulling away!" Wu Jiong suddenly stood up to shout. At the same time, the development playing out on the stage made Ling Lan's brow crease into a deep furrow.