Win and Losses (2)

The preliminary battles went on for another four days, before all the weakest contestants were finally eliminated, leaving only the real contenders, so to speak.

At the very moment the last preliminary battle ended, the presenter took to the stage and began to talk about it.

He thanked the spectators at the event, praised the contestants who had won the preliminary battles and finally explained how the competition would proceed.

As many of the competitors were worn down in these battles, they will be given a day's rest before the elimination fights begin.

The fights in each division will take place at different times of the day. In short, the fights in the under-twenties division will take place in the morning, and the over-twenties in the afternoon.

At the end of his speech, everyone returned to their homes, including Long Ming.

All these days, Long Ming had been watching all the preliminary fights. He found all these fights very interesting and they even helped him understand how to improve his own skills.

Especially the matches of the older division, because they were more experienced and, as for the members of the cultivator families, they had greater mastery of the techniques inherited from their family.

Even though Long Ming had several manuals in his spatial ring, including some yellow-grade ones, his mastery of these manuals was quite low. And observing these cultivators using their techniques, including the yellow-grade ones, turned out to be quite enlightening for Long Ming.

Therefore, Long Ming used his day off mainly to reflect and study. As well as training, of course.

The next morning, Long Ming returned to the building and waited for his turn to come.

After eight fights, his turn finally came, so he quickly climbed into the arena and faced his opponent.

His name was Yong Gan, he was a talented swordsman funded by the Yong family. The Yong family was a traditional family of cultivators who were very proficient in the art of the sword.

"So you're that guest from the Wu family? I heard you managed to defeat He Jun with ease," Yong Gan said curiously, while looking at Long Ming.

"That's right, you can call me Long Ming," Long Ming replied politely, while greeting Yong Gan.

"Begin!" the two talked briefly, before the fight finally began.

Hearing the announcer's words, the two moved forward and began exchanging blows.

Long Ming spun his twinblade, making two diagonal slashes towards Yong Gan's belly. However, Yong Gan managed to dodge easily and reduce the distance between them, then made a cut towards Long Ming's arm.

Noticing Yong Gan's movement, Long Ming already anticipated and used the shaft of his twinblade to parry the blow, and performed a hook kick to the belly.

Yong Gan then hurriedly stepped back and began to watch him.

From his expression, it was obvious that he was completely serious and tense, recognizing that Long Ming would be a difficult opponent.

On the other hand, Long Ming had an almost imperceptible smile on his face.

'He looks skillful. And the Yong family's techniques don't look bad,' Long Ming thought, taking a keen interest in Yong Gan.

Observing the preliminary battles, Long Ming decided to use this championship to refine his skills, especially his twinblade. He therefore decided to use as little brute force as possible, as well as not using his IQ, to face his opponents. This way, he would have to use his pure skill to win.

Of course, if he didn't give it his all, he had a good chance of losing, but that didn't seem to be a problem for him.

After staring at each other for long seconds, Long Ming advanced and struck several blows in succession.

Yong Gan began to nimbly parry each of Long Ming's blows, but they were so fast and considerably powerful that he felt overwhelmed by the task.

After long seconds, Yong Gan seemed to have found a gap and advanced towards Long Ming, preparing to attack him.

However, when there was a short distance between them, Yong Gan caught sight of a blade traveling towards him.

'A feint!' Yong Gan thought in surprise, then hurriedly retreated, but Long Ming kept his initiative and made another cut.

Fortunately, Yong Gan managed to nimbly avoid Long Ming's blows and moved several meters away from Long Ming.

The two then began to stare at each other, waiting to see who would regain the initiative.

Yong Gan had a serious, tense look on his face, recognizing the danger posed by Long Ming.

Meanwhile, Long Ming was looking at him with interest, but his thoughts were far from this fight. At that moment, he was thinking about different ways to attack using his twinblade, and he saw in Yong Gan, an excellent object to carry out his tests.

Then, realizing that Yong Gan didn't seem to be in the mood to attack, Long Ming advanced, but this time he used his footwork to travel quickly and unpredictably towards Yong Gan's back.

In an instant, Long Ming seemed to have disappeared from Yong Gan's sight, and suddenly appeared beside him, in a place far from his vision.

Yong Gan turned quickly, just in time to notice a horizontal slash coming towards him, which he defended instantly.

Long Ming wasn't surprised by this, and took another series of steps, again arriving in Yong Gan's blind spot and then attacking him.

However, Yong Gan also managed to defend and, this time, performed a counter-attack in sequence, causing Long Ming to have to retreat slightly.

Long Ming smiled slightly as he realized this, and went back to using his footwork to circle Yong Gan.

His footwork, the Mad Dog Steps, consisted of taking several quick and unpredictable steps to exploit his opponent's gaps and blind spots. Therefore, he began to circle Yong Gan, and attacked him whenever he saw an opportunity.

Yong Gan was surprised at first, but soon got used to it, realizing that Long Ming was only circling him in search of loopholes, and soon began to defend himself and try to counterattack.

At some point, Yong Gan foresaw where Long Ming was going and quickly dodged his attack, then prepared to strike him with a vertical cut.

However, at that moment, Long Ming manipulated his twinblade and performed a slash from another direction, which Yong Gan was unable to defend against in time.

Yong Gan hurriedly retreated, but he could feel a subtle breeze pass through his chest after Long Ming's blade passed extremely close to his chest.

'Sigh', Yong Gan breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that he had managed to retreat in time. On the other hand, Long Ming was thoughtful when he saw this.

"Is that all you're capable of, Brother Yong? Please show me why the Yong family's fencing is so prestigious," Long Ming said teasingly, relatively dissatisfied with Yong Gan's passivity.

"You want to see my master's sword? Long Ming, don't be so flippant, even if you are skilled, it still doesn't compare to the Yong family's fencing," Yong Gan replied proudly, his chest puffed out and an obvious tone of admiration in his voice.

"Is that so? Then honor your family name by trying to defeat me."

Hearing Long Ming's words, Yong Gan felt anger welling up in his chest, so he spoke with extreme seriousness: "Pay close attention, then, Long Ming. For this will be the opportunity of a lifetime," and in the next instant, he advanced towards Long Ming.

In just over a tenth of a second, Yong Gan was already extremely close to Long Ming and made a powerful horizontal slash. Long Ming hurriedly retreated, but could hear a loud crack after the blade cut through the wind.

'Impressive...', Long Ming thought with surprise, not expecting such a high speed from Yong Gan.

'Is he at the half-step stage? No, his strength doesn't seem to be at this level, and he doesn't seem to have used any Qi... Was it because of his technique? Could it be that very high-level techniques have the ability to raise their user's strength, even if they don't yet have Qi?" Long Ming began to reflect on Yong Gan's performance.

In his opinion, Yong Gan should be at the advanced or peak stage of the Body Tempering realm. However, this blow completely surpassed his estimate, almost equaling the technique that Zhi Hua had used. On the other hand, Long Ming didn't feel the use of any IQ coming from Yong Gan, and he didn't seem to have the physical attributes needed to exert so much force.

Therefore, his hypothesis was that Yong Gan must have used some "external" (so to speak) to carry out this blow. And based on the information Long Ming had about the Yong family, he assumed that this external force would be some technique taught by the Yong family. However, if this were true, it would raise countless doubts in Long Ming's mind.

Of course, he knew that techniques were ways of making much stronger movements than usual, but he had always associated them with a more efficient way of using his own strength. But when he recognized that the power of this blow was beyond Yong Gan, he assumed that the techniques were not just a way of exploiting his abilities, but also had some supernatural factor.

At this moment, Long Ming's reflection was abruptly interrupted after Yong Gan struck another blow just as powerful.

Long Ming could feel a breeze pass through his body as Yong Gan's blade cut through the air next to him. It was a truly powerful blow, and one that could kill him if it caught any vital points, but it didn't frighten Long Ming in the slightest.

This time, Long Ming remained on the defensive, narrowly avoiding Yong Gan's attacks by using his footwork to dodge.

Yong Gan seemed to get frustrated by this, so he increased the speed and frequency of his blows even more. In this way, he became capable of delivering a blow every two tenths of a second, an impressive speed, but not only that, he still possessed the firmness and angle necessary to make a clean cut on his opponent.

Long Ming nodded slightly in admiration as he realized that, even though Yong Gan was attacking faster and faster, his cuts were not clumsy and much less reckless.

Soon, several seconds passed, with Yong Gan attacking incessantly and Long Ming dodging more and more subtly.

At one point, their fight resembled a choreographed dance, as Yong Gan's slashes almost hit Long Ming, but he always narrowly dodged them, either by stepping to the side or turning his body slightly.

The spectators were enthralled by this fight, which almost looked like a dance, and their eyes remained fixed, not daring to blink.

After about thirty seconds, Yong Gan began to sweat and gasp for breath. But his eyes seemed to be even sharper and angrier, completely denying his tired state.

"You're really impressive. It's a pity you're still so young, otherwise you'd be a formidable opponent," Long Ming said with a smile on his face, after realizing that Yong Gan was standing still and showing no sign of wanting to attack him. By then, Yong Gan must have been very tired.

Long Ming wasn't lying, because he really felt that Yong Gan's greatest weakness was his young age.

As far as Long Ming knew, Yong Gan was between fifteen and sixteen years old, which means he was considerably younger than him.

"You haven't won yet, Long Ming. Don't laugh before your time!" Yong Gan shouted in frustration, then rushed towards Long Ming. However, at that very moment, Long Ming seemed to disappear from his sight and, in the next instant, he felt the edge of a blade brush against his neck.

"You're wrong, I've already won," Long Ming then spoke, standing to Yong Gan's right and holding his twinblade close to his opponent's neck.

Long Ming wasn't simply dodging, but conserving his strength while letting Yong Gan tire himself out unnecessarily. It was a simple tactic, but quite useful against people who were reckless, or provoked, as in Yong Gan's case.

"Long Ming, win!" soon the announcer's voice rang out throughout the place, leading to shouts and claps of celebration from the spectators.

With a small smile on his face, Long Ming lowered his twinblade and offered Yong Gan a handshake as a sign of respect for his opponent.

"You fought very well, young Yong," Long Ming said honestly. Yong Gan sighed with frustration, but accepted his handshake and also congratulated Long Ming on his victory.

After that, they left the stage and went their separate ways. Long Ming went to where the spectators were sitting and looked for a place to sit, and Yong Gan returned to his house.

Soon after, the presenter called the next contestants.