Chapter 289 - Cruel Top 16; Thousand Swords Break Mountains and Rivers
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
The elimination round where the top sixteen would emerge from the thirty-two candidates was far more intense than the elimination round of the top thirty-two that advanced from sixty-four candidates.
At the end of today’s competition, everyone who was already surprised saw the following fight queue suddenly found that the recruits left in the top sixteen were incredibly dazzling. Many of these participants, if placed in any of the previous Martial Tournaments, would be steady champion candidates.
However, it was unclear if this year’s recruit tournament was just overly monstrous, or if the level of importance placed by each state’s military region was higher than before. Besides Qin Fen, who stood alone at the peak, the strengths of everyone else were shockingly close.
Such fight queue led people to be even more skeptical about whether the final winner would still be able to walk to the face Qin Fen if these young recruits were to fight like the battle between Du Peng and Zeus.
The fight queue for the advanced Top Sixteen appeared on the big screen almost immediately. The first match would be the first martial artist to release a seven-star strength during the elimination round from the Top Thirty Two to Top Sixteen, Xue Tian!
His opponent was a recruit from the American recruit camp who claimed to be on par with Little Dragon King Yang Lie and had an incredible impetus – Sky Splitter Brooks.
On one side, we have Furious Beheader Xue Tian, who was carefree and seemed like he had more of a playful attitude than a fighter’s attitude. And the other was Sky Splitter Brooks, who looked like he was still half asleep every day.
The two young recruits who were incredibly strong but appeared uncommitted had met one another. Everyone was looking forward to seeing what kind of battle this will turn out to be.
The second fight queue of the top sixteen into the quarterfinals also attracted everyone’s attention. Chen Feiyu vs Little Dragon King, Yang Lie!
If the opponent that Little Dragon King met was any other seven-star martial artists, perhaps Yang Lie’s winning scene would look a little better. But now, his opponent was the thirty-year-old Chen Feiyu whose every action was filled with an aura rich with combat experience. Although the bandage wrapped around his hand was white, it gave off a red bloody sense.
This was yet another battle in which its results were unpredictable.
The third fighter queue, Mourad Tschick vs Great Emperor Caesar.
No one would belittle Caesar. With the explosion of Qin Fen’s eight-star strength, many were beginning to speculate if Caesar, who claimed to have the instincts of a great emperor would be able to endure the feeling of being pressed down by Qin Fen? Would the strong pressure become the key to his breakthrough in becoming an eight-star martial artist?
Although the Top Thirty-two progressing to the Top Sixteen battle had just ended, many have begun to predict that Caesar would perhaps have the best chance among the young recruits to enter the eight-star level and challenge Qin Fen, who was standing solo at the peak.
Mourad Tschick, the current last remaining participant from West Asia in the tournament! Mars’ super teen martial artist, Shang Guan Chuan Qi’s junior! With the uncovering of this mysterious veil, those who were initially optimistic about Caesar’s final victory had started to show some doubts.
Shang Guan Chuan Qi! The pride of Mars’ younger generation martial artists! His junior? There is no way he would be a hollow radish, right? The West Asian Military Region had been bumping into dead ends in the Recruit Tournament recently, and now it could be said that all the glory and hope of West Asia was on his shoulders.
Would one’s spirit be able to influence the battle outcome?
Before the battle between Zeus and Du Peng, many would think that strength was absolute.
However, with the end of the tragic battle between the two sides, many people began to understand that the glory of the recruit tournament could make people create unimaginable situations.
Mourad Tschick’s hatred toward Qin Fen was a fact that anyone who was not blind could see. With the force of a hateful anger like this, Caesar would not necessarily be able to win in this battle.
For a martial artist, money may be important, but the most important thing was glory. The glory of a martial artist was above all else! In this tournament that had gathered five military regions, everyone had an incredibly strong heart of glory within them.
Mourad Tschick vs Caesar, who could win? Would it be Mourad Tschick’s launching revenge on Qin Fen? Or would it be the stepping stone for Great Emperor Caesar to surpass the peak known as Qin Fen?
Solomon vs Xing Wuyi, before the start of this battle, people seemed to all know the answer. Solomon, who leveled with Great Emperor Caesar would obviously be the easy winner of this battle.
As for Xing Wuyi? Many were guessing how many attacks would he be able to withstand from Solomon before being defeated.
Lin Ling vs Qin Fen.
Today, almost all of the participating recruits had showcased their strongest ability under the stimulation of the other young martial artists, as well as the pressure of the unbeatable Qin Fen. Only one person remained indifferent.
Lin Ling, this beauty who always had an emotionless expression carried out her usual own battle techniques, where she put down her opponent just with a simple karate chop. As for her strength? No one knew how strong she was.
How strong exactly was this woman who had fought alongside Qin Fen till the end in many other tournaments, and even beat Qin Fen in the sniper tournament? She hid her strength because she had a strength that could compete with Qin Fen, was that why she hid it on purpose? How much damage would she be able to inflict on Qin Fen?
The huge suspense was hovering in the hearts and minds of everyone. This answer could only wait till the next time these two compete, perhaps only then would the real condition be known.
Compared to the recruits from other regions, the African recruits could be said to have mixed feelings.
The opponent of Golden Lion Pat from the African Military Region was actually also from the African Military Region, Giant Crocodile Kun Lai.
The two strongest recruits from Africa had met in the elimination round of Top Sixteen progressing into the quarter-finals, becoming the first unlucky ones to fight against their own people.
Besides Golden Lion Pat and Giant Crocodile Kun Lai, there was the beautiful martial artist from America, Alice. Her luck was incredibly envied by others.
Alice vs Zeus Mark.
historical
Zeus was undoubtedly one of the strongest candidate in this Recruit Tournament. He had the strength that no one except Qin Fen could look down on.
However, although the fierce Zeus Mark in the Top Sixteen elimination round had obtained final victory and succeeded in advancing to the Top Sixteen, would he still be able to continue fighting with his broken body? Or should the question be, would he still be able to stand in the battle after a few days? Would he be coming to the fight on crutches?
Although the battle had not begun, Alice had already become the first person to advance to the quarter-finals from the Top Sixteen. Her luck was so good, that almost everyone was envious of it.
In addition to Alice, good luck also fell upon the two American recruits. They were the only remaining martial artists in addition to the well-known martial artist recruits.
However, luck sometimes would be a very important factor. Having these two American recruits whose strengths were only at the five-star level battle against each other, it was destined that one of them could enter the Top Eight lineup of extremely skillful martial artists.
The names of the sixteen people kept rolling on the huge projection screen. The audience continued to sit in the stadium in which the battle had ended and stayed there for a long time.
The commentator saw from the screen that Qin Fen and Xue Tian were about to leave. He quickly shouted into the microphone, “May I ask recruit Xue Tian, what are your opinions on your upcoming opponent? How confident are you in your chances of winning?”
“Chances?” Xue Tian’s eyebrows twitched a few times, “Do you think that just because his nickname is Sky Splitter, he can really split my sky? Challenging Qin Fen... he is still not worthy. Want to enter the quarterfinals? Even if I agree, my sword does not.”
Some of the American recruits that have not yet left cast hostile gazes to Xue Tian instantly.
As the commentators saw this scene, they continued to ask as if the only fear they had was a chaotic world, “So you are very confident?”
“Of course! I have a hundred percent confidence in cutting down that guy who loves to sleep.” Xue Tian raised his chin and yelled at the American soldiers in a distance, “Hey! The few of you, go back and deliver this message to Brooks! In the next match, I promise to change his nickname. He will no longer be known as Sky Splitter, but he will be known as Sky Fearing Brooks! Yes, it means the fear of me, Xue Tian!”
The audience who had not left stared blankly at the boasting Xue Tian. It was fine if you were to blabber these words if you had eight-star strength like Qin Fen. But having the same level of seven-stars between you and your opponent, such screams would only ignite the opponent’s anger and fighting spirit. Isn’t this just looking for trouble?
The commentators smiled happily. The fight had yet to actually begin and Xue Tian had already spoken words like these, adding fuel to fire. This had pushed the pre-battle atmosphere to an even higher extent.
“Qin Fen.” The commentator made a gesture to the technical director, and the screen immediately showed a close-up of Qin Fen, “May I ask, with whom do you wish to battle the most in the finals of this competition?”
“With whom?” Qin Fen smiled faintly, “It does not matter with whom. What matters is that hopefully, he will be strong enough.”
“It doesn’t matter with whom... hehe...” The commentator laughed twice. The young man’s strength was indeed eight stars, but his mentality seemed to be far above eight-star. Such tone faintly gave off the sense of a Grandmaster.
“Hey?”
The narrator was stunned. Xue Tian, who was standing next to Qin Fen, tiptoed on the ground. The man ran straight to the center of the battlefield like an elegant swallow. The places that he passed did not leave a single mark.
“Everyone!” Xue Tian cleared his throat. His five fingers held the handle of his katana, “Perhaps you would think that I was bluffing earlier. Hence, I would like to show evidence to prove that I, Xue Tian is definitely not some bluffing king...”
Before his voice fell, a glimpse of blinding light burst out from his katana in the scabbard. Xue Tian held the handle with both hands! At this moment, the aura on his body had changed completely. The carefree aura had disappeared and was replaced by a cold murderous chill!
He held the sword with both hands while his gaze was chilly and overbearing. His left foot stepped out a bit suddenly, and the sword in his hand burst into a dazzling brilliance. The light instantly shrouded every corner within a radius of three meters.
When the sword’s wind stopped, his katana had already returned to the scabbard. The killing chills from Xue Tian’s aura once again became carefree. He grinned widely like a good citizen who would not harm humans nor animals.
However, no one would look down on him anymore at this moment. Qin Fen squinted his eyes and secretly calculated the positions of Xue Tian’s sword earlier. There was a huge amount of admiration in his heart. There was no dead angle in his stroke. As long as one were to be caught, the sword would create a slaughter tornado, allowing others to have a good taste.
“Everyone, I will win for sure.” Xue Tian gave a salute to his surroundings. He smiled and said to the American recruits, “The ‘Thousand Swords Break Mountains and Rivers’ earlier was the least powerful among my swordplays. You can go back and ask Sky Splitter to buy a little more band-aids. Otherwise, he will look very bad.”