The second day of the Grand Mecha Tournament passed without any great fanfare. In the physical skills competition, Qi Long encountered a master in the morning who was from the Third Men’s Military Academy. The other’s physical skills were at the same realm as his — peak of middle-stage Qi-Jin.
This match was obviously going to be a battle of endurance. However, Ling Lan was not worried — the years of training under her had given Qi Long stamina several times greater than that of the average person’s. It could be said that Qi Long was the most unafraid of a battle of endurance.
However, the final outcome was somewhat beyond Ling Lan’s expectations. Perhaps due to his boss personally being there to watch him fight, Qi Long seemed like he had been hit up with a shot of adrenaline — his original combat style carried an extra edge of fervency. On the field, Qi Long came out of the gate aggressive, charging at the other with a wild barrage of attacks, taking the opponent by surprise and pushing the other into a passive position.
Qi Long’s attacks were too ferocious and unreasonable — as the opponent struggled to handle them, he accidentally exposed an opening. Qi Long’s awakened innate talent was one with the strongest instinctual sense, Animal Instinct. He instantly leapt on the opening, immediately KO-ing the opponent and clinching the victory.
This match from start to finish took very little time. This left the audience, who had been expecting a close fight extending several hundred or even several thousand moves before the outcome would be determined, completely blindsided. Even the referee responsible for their arena did not come back to himself in time to announce the outcome after Qi Long successfully KO-ed his opponent. In the end, after running out of patience, Qi Long had to call out to the referee to shake him out of his stupor.
Qi Long successfully moved on to the third round, and the afternoon ushered in a new round of knockout fights. This time, his opponent was a little weaker than him. Nevertheless, Qi Long did not lower his guard just because the opponent was weaker. He rallied his focus and went all out from the very start of the match, not giving his opponent any chance at all. In the end, he defeated his opponent without any surprises and advanced to the fourth round.
Done with his fights for the day, Qi Long walked off the arena stage to see Ling Lan nod at him. He released a great sigh of relief — this meant that his boss was still satisfied with his performance today. He was truly afraid that if Boss was the least bit displeased, he may be dragged off for another round of extreme training … just thinking about that terrifying whatchamacallit, Qi Long could not help but shudder.
“Congratulations on entering the top 200 of physical combat!” Ling Lan watched as Qi Long walked over to her side, and although she was rather surprised at his trembling, seeing how energetic he was, Ling Lan decided to ignore it and just congratulate him.
Hearing this, Qi Long rubbed the short hair on his head sheepishly and flashed a silly grin.
Ling Lan said nothing else on this topic, instead bringing up the situation of the other members contesting today. The first one she mentioned was Qi Long’s good bromance partner, Han Jijyun. “Han Jijyun has also passed the preliminaries and has entered the top 50 name list. However, his placing is rather far back, 42 or 43 I think, much worse than how Luo Chao did. Luo Chao’s preliminary results placed her in third, so she’s in the top three …”
“Wha — Luo Chao’s that strong? Jijyun actually lost to her?” asked Qi Long in shock.
“Don’t look down on Luo Chao. Her innate talent was born to do this. When encountering problems in space, she is able to make the best decision instinctively, while Jijyun needs to rely fully on his brain to analyse and calculate the best option. In terms of speed, he’ll of course be no match for Luo Chao,” explained Ling Lan. “Also, I don’t think girls are inherently any weaker than boys. Sometimes, girls are even stronger!” As Ling Lan said this, she stared pointedly at Qi Long.
This stare made Qi Long’s heart clench in fright. He began to reflect — had he ever said something wrong sometime, somewhere, which had given his boss the mistaken impression that he looked down on girls?
After thinking for a good long time, Qi Long still could not figure out when he had made such a mistake. Just as he was flustered and unsure what to do, a spark of light coursed through his brain …
Could it be that Boss had become angry because he had made light of little sister Luo Chao earlier? Qi Long felt instantly enlightened. Luo Chao was a childhood friend of theirs, and ever since their time at the scout academy, there was already something brewing between Boss and Luo Chao.
Qi Long believed he had found the answer — he silently reminded himself that he needed to be nicer to Luo Chao from now on, so that when she became their sister-in-law in the future, she would not come after them to settle old accounts. At that time, if she whispered rumours to Boss in bed 1 and got Boss to personally teach them a lesson, they would definitely meet a tragic end.
Ling Lan did not know that Qi Long was actually building a ship for her and Luo Chao in his head right then, his mind patching ideas together and making such random conclusions that god knows where it was veering off to. She saw Qi Long bowing his head without saying a word and assumed that he was concerned for his sworn brother Han Jijyun, so she did not continue this thread of conversation. Instead, she began speaking of the others. “Just now, Li Lanfeng has just sent news that the competition on Li Shiyu’s side has ended. The first place of the first-aid competition is already officially ours, the First Men’s Military Academy’s.”
At this point, Ling Lan’s lips could not help but quirk up in a small smile. She had had full confidence in Li Shiyu, but she really had not expected that the other would win first place this easily. According to Li Lanfeng, Li Shiyu had ended the competition in just one round. His first-aid plan and the speed with which he executed it had astounded all the referees. “Five different afflictions of different degrees on different patients, and he only used three minutes to finish treating everyone. On top of that, the methods he chose to use were deemed as the most optimal by all the referees.”
“Five people? Three minutes? Holy sh*t, was he injected with stimulants?” Qi Long was flabbergasted. He knew that Li Shiyu’s medical skills were impressive, but he had not expected that they were this impressive. The gold standard of Federation military first aid was one person in five minutes, and Li Shiyu actually managed to treat all five people in less than the time it usually took to treat one.
“It’s because Li Shiyu streamlined the first aid steps to their limits. It was also because of this that the referees decided there was no point in continuing on with the competition.” When Ling Lan thought about how such an amazing person had been hoodwinked by her into her battle clan, she could not help but preen.
Qi Long was also thankful that his battle clan had such an amazing doctor — in future, their lives would undoubtedly be much safer.
Ling Lan then moved on to speak about Chang Xinyuan. “Chang Xinyuan has also advanced to the next round in his event. According to Zhao Jun, Chang Xinyuan may be hiding part of his skills. His score right now is roughly in the middle of the pack.”
“Old Chang, that fellow … he’s used to being cautious. It’s probably a leftover effect from Qiao Ting’s oppression. He really dislikes being in the limelight; it makes him feel unsafe.” Qi Long and Chang Xinyuan were already on very good terms — because Chang Xinyuan was older than Qi Long by several years, Qi Long was used to calling him ‘Old Chang’.
“Hmm, this is a problem. This is also why I wanted Chang Xinyuan to join this competition. He needs to overcome this issue, or else he won’t be able to become strong.” Ling Lan was well aware of Chang Xinyuan’s problem as well, and she now shared her reasons for making him join the competition with Qi Long.
“He will definitely be able to do it.” Qi Long had faith in Chang Xinyuan.
“Hopefully,” replied Ling Lan. She then lifted her head and looked around. There were still matches ongoing, so she asked, “Qi Long, do you still want to watch any of the fights?” Since Qi Long’s matches were over, Ling Lan was planning to return to the accommodation area. Even though her force of presence problem had been resolved, she still needed to continue working hard; only by doing so would she be able to freely circulate and use the force of presence she had brought into submission.
“Nah. There are still 200 people to go! Who knows who my opponents will be? I might as well go back to rest and gather my strength to prepare for tomorrow’s fights,” said Qi Long without any fuss. He did not want to waste time here.
“Very well then. Let’s go!” Ling Lan and Qi Long left the combat hall. On the way back, Qi Long finally mustered up the courage to ask something that had been bothering him deep inside for a long time. “Boss, why are you not participating in any solo events at all in this tournament, only joining for the team battle? You should know that, whether it is physical skills or mecha combat, no one can match you, not even Qiao Ting.” Qi Long’s confidence in Ling Lan was a full hundred percent. He did not believe that there was any cadet who could rival his boss.
Ling Lan cast a cold glance at Qi Long, instantly sending the courage Qi Long had just scrounged up packing.
Frankly, Ling Lan’s glance had just been a curious glance with no special meaning. Qi Long was just jumpy because he had been subjected to too much of Ling Lan’s special brand of pressure.
After thinking it over, Ling Lan said, “Physical skills … with you, it’s enough! For mecha, Qiao Ting will take champion with no problems, and it’s good to let Zhao Jun out to experience the fighting styles of high-level experts …” In order to maintain her glorious image as boss, she could only continue to feign high-mindedness and pretend her decisions were purely from a selfless standpoint.
“Most importantly, I’m setting my targets on the final battle royal, and when everyone thinks Qiao Ting is the main person to watch out for …” Here, Ling Lan stopped talking, closing her mouth. But Qi Long could already see the deeper meaning behind Ling Lan’s words. He was instantly thrumming with excitement. So that’s how it was! Boss was hiding behind everyone for the sake of that final grand massacre! As expected of his boss — from the very start, his boss must have already planned things this way.
In the following days, some of the competitions ended, while others started. The widely-anticipated mecha combat event also kicked off on the seventh day of the Grand Mecha Tournament. Like the physical combat competition, each academy had five entry slots. For the First Men’s Military Academy, aside from Qiao Ting, the Lingtian Battle Clan sent out Zhao Jun. This decision did not surprise the other participating students, because on the surface, the strongest in terms of mecha combat in the Lingtian Mecha Clan was Zhao Jun.
Tianji and Wuji each sent out their regiment commanders, and Ling Lan gave the final entry slot to Zhang Jing-an. After all, he was from the Central Scout Academy, and since Zhang Jing-an’s strength was not bad, Ling Lan could openly open this backdoor for him.
Other than the starship navigation competition, Han Jijyun also participated in the tactical planning competition. Besides him, Li Lanfeng had also entered the competition. Both of them were successfully shortlisted into the top 50 name list — Han Jijyun was in the top 10, while Li Lanfeng was somewhere in the 30s, which rather surprised Ling Lan. Li Lanfeng was born to do this — in contrast, Han Jijyun was a little predisposed to using more forthright plans when strategizing, often overlooking more subtle and sneakier schemes …
Afterwards, Ling Lan asked Li Lanfeng why the results had turned out as they had, and Li Lanfeng had only smiled without saying anything … in the end, under the pressure of Ling Lan’s penetrating gaze, Li Lanfeng said helplessly, “I’m just following in your footsteps. In the final fight, when all their attention is on Han Jijyun …”
When she heard this, Ling Lan could only scratch her nose, speechless. Her reasons for not participating in the other competitions were definitely not as complicated as Li Lanfeng made them out to be. It’s just her force of presence acting up, alright? She just needed to focus on internal cultivation for a while, okay? Of course, she did not deny she had factored that point into her considerations, but that was something she had only thought of after she knew that she could not afford to participate in any individual events.