The Attack of the Wastrel

Hey guys, great news!  Two more top-performing sneak peek Chinese novels licensed from Zongheng have left VIP-only and are available for you to read, each with fifty chapters and a 2/day schedule!  These novels are Yama Rising, translated by Minotauruz (who did the great translation of Demoness' Art of Vengeance) and Star Odyssey, translated by OMA who did Warlock of the Magus World and City of Sin!  Both are veteran and highly capable translators, and I'm excited to bring this to y'all.

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No one was blind and could see that there were a lot of Royal School students that made it to the finale. One of the most important factors for them making it this far was the fact that they had Earth-Level Spiritual Weapons.

They all knew this from seeing Lang Jingchen, who did not have an Earth-Level Spiritual Weapon and did not make it to the finale.

This created a wave of complaints from students claiming that it was not fair that the Royal School students made it to the finale.

Gu Lingzhi, whose reputation could not be any lower in the First School, was one of the main targets of the complaints.

“We can’t accept this! How can someone like her enter the finale? It does not reflect her true abilities because all she relied on was her weapon to win!”

“That’s right, we are protesting to change the competition rules. No one should be allowed to use Spiritual Weapons above the Martial Practitioner rank!”

The protests got more intense and as the main target, Gu Lingzhi got up calmly as the questions raged on. She went directly to the person that was protesting the most, “So you think that the reason I won is only because of my Spiritual Weapon and I don’t qualify to be in the finale?”

“Of course,” the man replied arrogantly, not at all affected by the imposing aura that Gu Lingzhi was giving. “Without the Earth-level Spiritual Weapon, you are nothing.”

“Really?” Gu Lingzih neither agreed nor disagreed, “So you think that you are good enough to qualify for the finale?”

“Of course.” As she mentioned this, the man was filled with anger, “If you guys weren’t so shameless and relied on your weapons to win, did you think that so many of you guys from the Royal School would actually make it to the finale?”

Gu Lingzhi simply nodded. To everyone’s surprise, she drew out the sword that she had used before her Fengwu Sword and pointed it at the man, “Then let us see what you, who claim to be stronger than me, have to offer?”

An uproar could be heard as no one had expected Gu Lingzhi to do what she did. There were people that mocked, “She really thinks she is undefeatable after winning a few matches. Han Xiu was actually one of the candidates that had the highest potential to win the championship. If not for the Royal School being shameless and using Earth-Level weapons, he would not have been eliminated.”

Hearing the bustle around him, Han Xiu looked even more arrogant as he called out, “Did you hear that? You all are despicable. If not for your Earth-Level Weapons, did you really think that so many of you from the Xia Kingdom would have made it to the finale?”

Gu Lingzhi stared at him with an incredulous look, she could not believe how delusional he was. “Why can’t Earth-Level Weapons be used by Martial Practitioners? When in a life or death situation, must we be fair and ensure that our weapons are of the same rank?”

“You… are just being unreasonable! How can you be considered capable if all you do is use your Spiritual Weapons as a threat?”

“But the Inter-school Competition did not restrict the use of Earth-Level Weapons. From what I know, we are not the only ones that used Earth-Level Weapons in the competition.”

Han Xiu was left speechless. From what Gu Lingzhi said, there were people that used Earth-level Weapons in the competition. Ten years ago, there was a student from the First School that had used an Earth-Level Weapon and tried to defeat Rong Yuan. Unfortunately, he still lost to Rong Yuan and placed second in the competition that year.

This was also the reason why Gu Lingzhi had dared to give everyone an Earth-Level Spiritual Weapon of their own. But all these people had actually believed that they relied solely on the weapon to get to where they were? What a joke!

“After saying so much, aren’t you just trying to find an excuse for yourself? How about you change your weapon to fight then?”

No one knew who shouted this, but it made Han Xiu find the courage to challenge Gu Lingzhi, “Didn’t you want to know my strength? Come on.”

“As you wish.”

Gu Lingzhi suddenly drew out her long sword and thrusted towards Han Xiu. Along with her Sparrow Wings movement technique it caused Han Xiu to not have time to defend himself before her sword was already at his throat.

“This, this is a sneak attack. It doesn’t count!” In disbelief that he had lost to Gu Lingzhi in a single move, Han Xiu quickly made up an excuse.

Everyone who was watching was stunned at how fast the fight had ended. They regained their consciousness and were all criticizing Gu Lingzhi for being shameless. How could she attack when her opponent was not ready?

Gu Lingzhi shrugged, “I thought that when he called out, ‘Come on’ it meant that he was already prepared.”

Han Xiu’s face flushed. What Gu Lingzhi said was true, when he yelled ‘come on’, he was already prepared. It was just that Gu Lingzhi’s movements were too fast and he refused to believe that his defense was useless.

Knowing that the only way to shut the crowd was to completely defeat him, Gu Lingzhi did not bother arguing and once again pointed her sword at Han Xiu, “Now are you ready?”

In order to make up for his previous embarrassment, he was determined to not lose too easily this time. Han Xiu took out his Spiritual Sword and regarded her seriously, “Since you are persistent then let’s start!”

Gu Lingzhi chuckled. She twisted her body and suddenly ‘disappeared’ from Han Xiu’s sight. In the next second, fear crawled up Han Xiu’s back as he heard Gu Lingzhi’s voice from behind him. Following that, was her cold sword, “This time, you can’t say that I sneaked an attack, right?”

In the past two years, she had mastered the Sparrow Wings and the Moon Stride movement technique. As long as she wanted to, she could make use of her technique such that her opponent would not be able to detect her.

In order to shut these people up, she had shown a little of her true power. Alas, she had easily stunned them.

It took a while before Han Xiu shouted angrily, “That is not possible! How can you be so powerful?”

How could someone who used Spiritual Medicine and a man to get to the cultivation level she was at, be so powerful?

The first time, he could lie to himself and claim that he underestimated her. But this time, her attack was upfront. He refused to believe that there was anyone in the same rank as him that could defeat him. Even the last guy that was said to be the best candidate to win in the Martial Practitioner category was not able to defeat him. How was it possible that Gu Lingzhi had defeated him?

But no matter how much he refused to believe, it was a fact that Gu Lingzhi had defeated him twice, both times using only one move.

Regarding him, Gu Lingzhi responded, “If you are not happy, we can always go for another round.”

“That’s right, go for another round! You can definitely defeat her, it was just pure luck these two times!” someone shouted. Several others who were in denial about Gu Lingzhi’s strength all agreed with him.

Another round? To prove how useless he was?

Han Xiu glared at Gu Lingzhi and secretly bore a grudge towards those that were edging him on.

“I am not on form today and will not continue fighting Lady Gu. If anyone else is interested, feel free to come up and fight yourself. I will be leaving now.”

Han Xiu then quickly turned and left, beyond embarrassed. After he left, Gu Lingzhi looked at the crowd that had yet to disperse and targeted the one that was the strongest, “Ding Yue right? Are you the one that called for Han Xiu to go for another round? Now that he has left, how about you come up instead. Then we can see if I am just lucky.”

Gu Lingzhi said this in a gentle manner but to Ding Yue, it was like she slapped him. How could he not have seen that the reason for Han Xiu losing to Gu Lingzhi was not based on luck? When he shouted previously, all he wanted was to make Han Xiu, who had stolen his fame before the finals, embarrassed. Who would have known that Gu Lingzhi would target him now and dragged him down together? 

But Gu Lingzhi did not care about what he thought. She was determined to make this an example to everyone else today.

She could not sit by as everyone twisted her good intentions into a reason to criticize the Royal School students.

With the rest of the time, Gu Lingzhi proved to everyone that it was her abilities, not her Earth-Level Spiritual Weapon, that got her into the finale.

Everyone was finally convinced that it was not luck that Gu Lingzhi defeated Han Xiu. There were even some that started to wonder if Gu Lingzhi had intentionally cut off Liang Xiao’s arm!

The result of her example was evident. The number of students criticizing the Royal School students for using Earth-Level Weapons to get into the finale significantly decreased. The finale was in two days.

The way the finale was going to be conducted was similarly done via the clumsy method of drawing lots. As there were only five participants that made it to the finale, the organizing committee made the decision that participant 1 would compete against 5, 2 against 4 and participant 3 would not have to compete for the first round.

According to the organizer, luck was also a form of strength. But everyone could tell that the reason why the organizer made the decision was because they did not want to drag the Competition on any longer.

Their original intention of showing off the strength of their new students had failed and they had been overshadowed by the Xia Kingdom.

Especially in the Martial Practitioner category, there was not a single student from the North Qiu Kingdom that made it to the finale. How would they have the mood to continue to hold the competition? Hence, the rules for the finale were more relaxed.

But this was beneficial to the Xia Kingdom, as they were the majority, they had a higher chance of not having to compete. Gu Lingzhi was extremely lucky to be the one that did not have to compete in the first round.

If it was in the past, everyone would definitely mock her and be jealous of Gu Lingzhi’s luck. However, after the show in front of the Principal’s office that day where she defeated a few of the stronger Martial Practitioners, their mindset changed. Although they were still jealous, they were jealous that Gu Lingzhi was not only strong but she was also lucky. How could anyone match up to her?

The other Royal School students were not as lucky. The empty round in the Martial Student and Martial Teacher rank was occupied by students from the North Qiu Kingdom. It was a form of consolation to the North Qiu’s organizing committee after their failure to show off.

After the ballot ended, it was time for the finale.

The finale would last three days with the Martial Student, Martial Practitioner and Martial Teacher categories each occupying a day.

The Royal School student in the Martial Student rank was unlucky and was eliminated in the first round and was ranked 4th. The finale for the Martial Practitioner rank, was about to begin.

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