Chapter 176: Let’s Go

　　“Hahahaha! It’s good that you aren’t scared!” The harpy looked over to his tent and gave a signal. Shortly, two more harpies jumped up on stage to join him. “We are all here now, and you can choose your opponents! I do not want to be a bully.”

　　Bah! Most of them rolled their eyes in their hearts. Choose our opponents? How are we supposed to choose when all three of you look the same? Bulky, horns, and green-and-black skin. How are we even supposed to tell your ability?

　　“Senior Brother Wei!”

　　“Senior Brother Kou!”

　　Both Seventh Truth Platform and Heavenly Sea Pavilion disciples looked at their seniors hopefully.

　　Wei Chunqiu and Kou Wei exchanged glances before giving a signal to Lu Mingshu. They then leapt up to the stage together.

　　Since the barbarians were looking for them, how could they give in to them?

　　Lin Zixin nodded at their reaction. “Even though the fights for a place on the New Generation Ranking has ended already, this challenge would only take place if both parties agree to it. Since both have agreed to take up the challenge, then the match shall take place. However, there’s a rule to follow; all of you are in the Harmonization Realm, so it should be a friendly match. If there’s any action that is overly aggressive, I’ll step in and the match will stop.” He smiled at both parties.

　　Overly aggressive would be when one party tried to maim the other on purpose. Small injuries were inevitable, but if one went too far, then actions would be taken.

　　“Okay, discuss it among yourselves how you want the matches to take place.”

　　Lin Zixin stepped back and let them take charge of the situation.

　　The harpy who jumped on stage first stepped out immediately. “So, which one of you will fight first?”

　　Kou Wei let out a light chuckle and fanned himself. “This brother here, why are you so anxious? We haven’t even decided on the rules yet.”

　　“So how do you all want to fight then? Speak up!” the second harpy shouted.

　　“The challenger’s fight has already lasted for six days. I am sure that the spectators are already bored of it.”

　　“Why do you speak so much nonsense?” The third harpy started to blabber impatiently. “Just tell us how you want to fight!”

　　Kou Wei exchange glances with Wei Chunqiu. He then turned to them and plastered a smile on his face. “It’s a waste of time if we go one by one. Why don’t we… have a group fight? It’s getting late anyway.”

　　“Together?” The harpies stared blankly at him. The harpies were all super strong, and they preferred to fight alone unless it was for encircling prey.

　　“Yes, a group fight!” Wei Chunqiu answered firmly. “Three versus three, there’s no need to pick an opponent.”

　　“This…”

　　“Let’s finish early so that we can go back and have dinner. I heard that there’s fresh venison today, and I’m looking forward to it!” Kou Wei smiled broadly.

　　Laughter immediately filled the tents.

　　“That’s right! Do not delay our Senior Brother Kou’s dinner!”

　　“Hey, you little pieces of shit, are you perhaps afraid?”

　　“Yeah! Weren’t you oh-so confident just now? What happened?”

　　The atmosphere made it sound like this was just a warm-up before dinner. They were all now energized and had temporarily forgotten about their worries.

　　“Who’s afraid!?” the first harpy shouted at the spectators. “Come and fight!”

　　“Bullshit! Who’s afraid?”

　　“Chinese people only know how to boast!”

　　“Wait and see how your best three go crawling back!”

　　The barbarians were all angered and started to blabber in their language.

　　“Okay!” Kou Wei closed his fan and nodded. “Since everyone has agreed, then let’s start?”

　　“Sure!” The three harpies were dying to fight ever since they stepped on stage, so why would they disagree now?

　　Kou Wei looked over at his two teammates, and the trio went to the other side of the stone tablet.

　　“Miss Lu, you won’t blame me for acting on my own initiative, right?” Kou Wei asked.

　　Lu Mingshu shook her head. “Senior Brother Kou suggested a group fight because of me. I thank you for the consideration, but I’m not sure how much of help I’ll be.”

　　Among the three of them, she was the short plank in the bucket. That was simply a fact that couldn’t be denied. If ten years of painstaking work could be compared with a few strengthening seals, then martial arts would be worthless.

　　“On top of that,” Lu Mingshu look at them worriedly, “both of you just finished a tough match. Are you even able to fight right now?”

　　The previous match sucked out all of their energy. In a certain sense, it could be said that neither of them won.

　　Kou Wei shook his head. “It’s okay. The Heavenly Sea Pavilion has good techniques for recovering. I prepared some secret medicine, and I now have at least 90% of my full strength.”

　　Lu Mingshu nodded. 90% was pretty good.

　　Wei Chunqiu hesitated before speaking up, “To be honest, I have a bit of a problem here.”

　　Kou Wei nodded. “I felt it earlier. Brother Wei seems to have difficulty attacking. He felt sluggish. If it wasn’t for that, I may not have won even with the help of my secret skill.”

　　“What’s wrong?” Lu Mingshu asked. Since it was a group fight, then she had to know her teammates well, especially when they were almost strangers to each other.

　　Wei Chunqiu sighed and pointed at her. “Miss Lu is unaware? It’s all because of you!”

　　“What? Why?” Lu Mingshu couldn’t seem to understand.

　　“Miss Lu’s sword-energy has some kind of ability to break my tempo. It may be a very minor one, but it has a long-lasting aftereffect. When you kept rushing after my tempo, it became more obvious. When the match ended, I realized that it would take a lot of time for my mystic force to get back on track.”

　　Kou Wei gasped. “So it was that? Then I didn’t win by my own ability today.”

　　In that case, Wei Chunqiu was defeated by both Kou Wei and Lu Mingshu together. Because of the aftereffects of Lu Mingshu’s technique, Kou Wei’s magic was able to more effectively freeze Wei Chunqiu’s mystic force. Kou Wei originally thought that Wei Chunqiu was just looking down on him.

　　Wei Chunqiu smiled bitterly. “It’s my fault for letting such a thing happen, and Brother Kou didn’t win by luck. Anyway, I only have 70% of my ability back. I can still fight, but I’m afraid that I’ll make a mistake.”

　　“Miss Lu,” Kou Wei turned to her. “Do you know how to solve this?”

　　Lu Mingshu was amazed too. She thought that the strengthening seal was useless because it didn’t have any effect on Wei Chunqiu, but apparently it was delayed.

　　I don’t know what to do since it was from a strengthening seal, not my own skill.

　　“It’s okay if there aren’t any methods. I’ll just use my secret skill again.”

　　“Brother Wei, doesn’t your secret skill come with some negative side effects?”

　　That was common sense. To force out all of one’s potential would obviously come with negative side effects. The better the result, the worse the side effect.

　　“Things have already reached this stage; there’s no other option,” Wei Chunqiu replied. “We can’t afford to lose face in front of the barbarians.”

　　Kou Wei nodded. “True.”

　　“Actually,” Lu Mingshu spoke up after much thought, “this can be solved easily.”

　　“Oh?” Wei Chunqiu’s eyes shone. “Do you have some medicine for this?”

　　She shook her head. “I don’t, but this is a group fight, so we can cancel out each other’s shortcomings by coordinating with each other.”