Chapter 394: Leiting's Letter of Challenge!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
But such a simple thing became extremely difficult when it came to Chang Xinyuan. His hand speed was stuck at the highest intermediate value — just a one-second improvement would be enough to judge him ready to advance. However, it was precisely this one second that left Chang Xinyuan helpless and floundering.
When Ling Lan found out that Chang Xinyuan was unable to break through to gain that one second on his hand speed no matter how hard he practised, she knew that Chang Xinyuan had encountered a bottleneck in his talent. This was not something that training could overcome — he needed a chance for a breakthrough, and Ling Lan herself did not know where this chance would come from. When Chang Xinyuan learned of this situation, he was greatly impacted, and fell into a depressed mood for a time. Luckily, the other members of the clan often sought him out to ask him to do things, using the business of modification to help Chang Xinyuan forget this mental blow. Only this helped save the team's prodigy mechanic.
Chang Xinyuan's problem was only waiting on an opportunity, and even though the chances of this opportunity occurring seemed infinitesimal, it was at least still possible.
In the clan, Li Shiyu's mecha control talent was clearly pretty good, but his whole focus was on the research of medicine. If Ling Lan had not given a strict command that all members of the clan had to train their mecha control for no less than two hours every day, Li Shiyu most probably would not even go practise his mecha control.
Although Ling Lan felt it was a bit of a pity that Li Shiyu was wasting his mecha control talent like this, she understood that everyone had their own goals and pursuits, so it was not her place to interfere with Li Shiyu's personal choice. Fortunately, due to the mandatory two hours of practice every day, Li Shiyu's mecha control did not lag behind the others by too much. Even though he was still an advanced mecha warrior, he had still risen from the primary stage to the middle stage. As long as Li Shiyu did not give up and stop practising, he should enter the late stage of advanced mecha warrior level in a few months, so Ling Lan was quite reassured by this.
Having been through an air invasion, Ling Lan knew very well that on the battlefield, all those below special-class operator level were just cannon fodder. To ensure the survival of as many team members as possible, she needed to make them all advance to special-class operator level before graduation to be safe.
Zhao Jun's mecha control ability was the strongest in the clan aside from Ling Lan. Moreover, like Qi Long, he was an obsessed fanatic of mecha control, and having participated very often in mecha battles while he was with the Wuji Mecha Clan, his battle experience was also a bracket higher than Qi Long and the rest. Thus, Ling Lan felt he was very reliable — she believed that even if the other members in the clan made a mistake and dropped the ball 1 during a critical moment, Zhao Jun would never do so.
Sometimes, trust did not need a long time to develop. Zhao Jun's personality made Ling Lan accept him very quickly — it could not be denied that the fact that Zhao Jun was Li Lanfeng's friend was a major factor. In short, Zhao Jun had been deemed a trustworthy person by Ling Lan, but of course, to truly be integrated into the Lingtian Battle Clan, Zhao Jun would still need to work hard.
What Ling Lan was really worried about was still the leopard Li Lanfeng. Li Lanfeng's physical constitution issue was actually hidden very deeply — other than Ling Lan, none of the other members in the clan knew about it. Even his good friend Zhao Jun only had some inkling of it and not a very clear one at that.
Since Ling Lan had already decided to establish a battle clan, she naturally would not permit any weakness to appear in her battle clan. She found an opportunity to meet up with Li Lanfeng to discuss the issue once. Perhaps Li Lanfeng had a sort of irrational blind trust in Ling Lan, for when Ling Lan asked him about his physical condition, Li Lanfeng did not hide anything, directly revealing the true situation to her.
The truth was as Ling Lan had imagined. It was indeed because his spiritual power was too strong for his body to handle that Li Lanfeng had this sequela 2 , just like Ling Lan in her previous life. The lucky thing was that this world had gene agents as well as all types of physical skills to improve one's physique, ensuring that Li Lanfeng did not have to die young as Ling Lan had in her past life. Still, even so, his body had never truly been well, forever hovering in a state of extreme weakness.
Reasonably speaking, Li Lanfeng's body did not permit him to walk the path of a mecha operator — when Ling Lan had asked Li Lanfeng why he had chosen this apparently suicidal path, Li Lanfeng had been silent for a good long while, as if having something difficult to divulge. In the end, he had only said bitterly that he wanted to become someone strong who could truly control his own destiny.
When Li Lanfeng had said these words, his eyes clearly held a trace of uncertainty, but there was even more determination in them. Perhaps, he had decided to walk this path with no guarantees only because he did not want to succumb to fate ... even if he had to pay with his life, he wanted to fight just once at least.
Seeing this kind of Li Lanfeng, Ling Lan could not help but think of her own situation. Although she had been forced from the beginning to disguise herself as a man, all her subsequent actions, all of her efforts, were they not all for the sake of controlling her own destiny?
Ling Lan empathized. She thought about Li Lanfeng's identity — he was even worse off than her as he was only a branch family descendant of the Li family. Although she was unclear what kind of family clan the Li family was, having read all types of novels in her previous world, Ling Lan could imagine what it was like. For a branch family descendant to obtain true speaking rights and be a free person, they needed to gain strength beyond the family clan's control. Otherwise, they would only become tools of the family clan and may even become a sacrificial victim for the family when necessary.
Having reached an understanding in her heart, Ling Lan decided not to ask Li Lanfeng anything more. After all, that was Li Lanfeng's private affairs — Ling Lan did not want to pry at the other's wounds. However, Ling Lan was filled with admiration for Li Lanfeng's stubborn determination and courage to become strong enough to decide his own fate even if he died. Sure enough, someone she acknowledged would never be a coward!
Since Li Lanfeng had the courage, Ling Lan herself would spare no effort to help her good friend. She meticulously developed a set of fitness training programs for Li Lanfeng, and she also unstintingly taught her Qi exercises to Li Lanfeng. However, it was not as effective as Ling Lan had imagined. Compared to when Ling Lan had started practising it in her mother's womb, there did not seem to be much effect when the already 20 years old Li Lanfeng practised it.
Still, Li Lanfeng was extremely lucky. With the modified gene agent Li Shiyu provided, Little Four improved it to raise the purity of the agent to 100%, allowing Li Lanfeng's frail body to fully absorb it. Li Lanfeng's body gradually began to improve, and his tenacity in practising the Qi exercises slowly began to show effect. The gradual improvement of his body left Li Lanfeng overjoyed. There was finally hope that this illness plaguing him for these 20 years would be cured.
After a year of effort, though Li Lanfeng's physical constitution still could not compare to the tough and sturdy build of an average mecha operator, he was at least no longer that sickly weakling he was before who could only handle intense mecha operation for 10 minutes. The duration Li Lanfeng could sustain in high-intensity mecha combat increased from the initial 10 minutes to 20, and if he was in a better state, that time would be extended. And this new time was already enough to sustain him through a small-scale mecha fight.
This also meant that from now on, Li Lanfeng would no longer be the battle clan's weak point in the many mecha fights to come. Ling Lan was very satisfied with this result.
Although the Lingtian Battle Clan had miscellaneous problems here and there, overall, the battle clan was still developing in a healthy direction. Meanwhile, the Lingtian Mecha Clan was also gradually stepping onto the right track under the combined efforts of the various team leaders under its banner. Right at this juncture, a letter of challenge suddenly descended upon the Lingtian Mecha Clan, breaking the peaceful status quo of the entire military academy.
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In Ling Lan's villa, all the regiment commanders and team leaders of the Lingtian Mecha Clan were gathered. They were all here for the same thing — to decide how they would deal with the letter of challenge from the Leiting Mecha Clan.
Yes, this letter of challenge was from the strongest faction in the academy —— the Leiting Mecha Clan!
The letter of challenge being passed around was made of paper. Of course, the true letter of challenge had already been submitted digitally to the academy mainframe by the Leiting Mecha Clan. As the regiment commander of the Lingtian Mecha Clan, Ling Lan had received a notification from the mainframe at the earliest notice. However, the Thunder King had been extremely provocative. He had specially produced a physical paper letter of challenge and had personally sent someone to deliver it to the second year dormitories and hand it over to the public regiment commander Wu Jiong.
Wu Jiong was well aware that the purpose of this action was so that the other party could announce to the entire academy that Leiting had chosen to enact their revenge now for their defeat in that arena battle a year ago.
Wu Jiong understood what the other's intention was, but he still had no choice but to bite the bullet. The Lingtian Mecha Clan had just been established — if they avoided the challenge now, the Lingtian Mecha Clan would inevitably become the laughing stock of the entire school, let alone being able to rise and develop any further after this.
After all the team leaders had taken a look at the letter of challenge, the letter once again returned to Wu Jiong's hands.
When Wu Jiong saw that large signature at the end of the letter of challenge once again, he could not hold back the rage in his heart any longer. He hissed angrily, "I had thought that the four major factions had suffered heavy losses during that air invasion incident last year and needed to rest and regroup, and so would not have any time to spare on us. Which is why I had wanted to take advantage of this lull to quickly establish our mecha clan early and use this time to grow our faction. Who knew that this Qiao Ting would see through our plan and issue this letter of challenge while we still have not secured our standing ... he is obviously planning to crush us with one strike and completely scatter our mecha clan. How despicable!" That said, unable to rein in his anger, his right hand slammed down on the armrest of his chair, the force of which instantly caused numerous cracks to appear in the armrest.
Standing not too far behind Ling Lan, Lin Zhong-qing's face could not help but twitch, heart aching as he calculated in his mind — Hells, 3000 credits gone just like that ...
Wu Jiong's words also ignited Li Yingjie's rage. He was a haughty person to begin with and was not as reserved as Wu Jiong; he instantly raged openly, "That bastard Qiao Ting! Knowing that we do not have an ace operator, he actually has the face to challenge us personally. For the sake of victory, he really doesn't care about losing face anymore 3 ."
Seated across from Li Yingjie, when Qi Long heard Li Yingjie's yelling, a smile appeared on his face. It seemed as if he fully approved of Li Yingjie's words, but only he knew that he was smiling because Qiao Ting was about to be a victim of his own cleverness. Thinking victory was at hand, yet not knowing that the opponent he was about to face, Qi Long's boss, was already an ace operator as well. If it could be said that the other had some chance of winning a year ago, now, Qi Long really did not think Qiao Ting had any chances of winning left.
Li Yingjie's words resonated with everyone present. The other team leaders also began to grumble and roar, scolding Qiao Ting for his shamelessness.
Only Gao Jinyun sitting in the periphery of the circle did not join in, instead sitting quietly as he contemplated something with a solemn expression ... right at that moment, Ling Lan's initially closed eyes sprang open to sweep a cool gaze around the circle. Her pressing gaze instantly stopped all the angry mutters and bellowing in the room.
Cold sweat beaded the foreheads of everyone present — Boss Lan's force of presence was becoming stronger by the day. Now, just one glance was enough to make them sense danger, and on top of that, it was as if the surrounding temperature had become frozen.