The two siblings talked for almost half an hour before hanging up. During that time, Qingqing and Lizi, two ardent fans of Zhang Lie, did manage to exchange a few words of greeting with him.
The topic of conversation was naturally taking care of Zhang Hanxiang, but the two girls didn't care. They would have been happy to have a conversation about anything, as long as they got to speak with Zhang Lie.
As for Zhang Hanxiang, the two girls treated her almost like a sister. In just a few short months, Zhang Hanxiang had broken out of her reticent shell and become more outgoing than before. This was the combined result of Zhang Lie's fame and the academy's teachers and students, and Zhang Lie was quite grateful to these two girls for doing so much.
The night all nine competitors from Earth made it into the top hundred of the galactic stage of the Void Cup, humans all over Earth began to cheer, but the loudest cheers came from China; in particular, from three locations in China.
One such was Ning. As the Dragonwolf Zhang Lie's hometown, the buildings stayed lit up all night long, with a frenzy of people gathered around the Zenith Dojo. That night, half the officials of Ning, and those officials of the world federation stationed at Ning, went to the Zenith Dojo to offer their congratulations.
The other cheers came, of course, from the Yun and Chu clans in the capital, who had received so many guests that night that there was a clog by their manors' front entrances. The other major clans of the capital, along with high-ranking officials of China and the world federation, came to congratulate the heads of both clans.
They bore high hopes for Zhang Lie, along with the rest of his team, Team Zenith. However, they hadn't looked too favorably on Yun Bing and Chu Feng, who were clearly below the other seven competitors in terms of strength. Indeed, most people didn't think they would be able to get past the second stage, but thanks to Zhang Lie's assistance, they had actually been able to make it to the top hundred.
That night, the entirety of China's attention was focused on the Dragonwolf Zhang Lie, the Zenith Dojo, and the Yun and Chu clans.
The third stage might be as far as Yun Bing and Chu Feng would be able to get, but for Zhang Lie and the members of Team Zenith, this was only their starting point.
The third day of the galactic stage drew near.
Before the tournament began in earnest, Zhang Lie instructed, "By this point, all hundred competitors are the cream of the crop. Everyone, use your full strength—don't be blindsided by an opponent pretending to be weak!" contemporary romance
He turned to Yun Bing and Chu Feng. "As for the two of you, be careful. There might be enemy factions targeting us humans, so prioritize your safety above all. If you see dangerous competitors trying to kill you outright, surrender immediately. Do you all understand?"
"Yes, Captain!"
Everyone watched the screen as the pairings for the third round were released.
Zhang Lie VS Fu Bo
Sun Mengmeng VS Yun Bing
Fang Yi VS Ali
Yang Ze VS Lianhua
Li Feng VS Feng Kun
Zhou Ying VS Fu'e
Sun Xiaowu VS Zhou Xing
Chu Feng VS Phoenix
As expected, the third stage would be vicious: the pairings were either extremely tough or somewhat laughable. Zhang Lie expected Fu Bo to surrender immediately, especially considering the threshing that he had given him earlier in the tournament.
Sun Mengmeng and Yun Bing, on the other hand—it was unlikely that Yun Bing would have been able to advance, but to assign her to fight Sun Mengmeng felt somewhat ridiculous.
Fang Yi's opponent was Ali, Phoenix's teammate and trusted warrior. His matches in the past hadn't been particularly splashy, but given his position as Phoenix's right-hand man, his strength was all but guaranteed. The match would almost certainly be tough.
Yang Ze's opponent was even worse: Lianhua was the close companion of Lianna, princess of the aquatic. It would be tricky for Yang Ze to win this match.
Zhou Ying would likely have a hard time against Fu'e, considering her wood-attuned framework was elementally disadvantaged against Fu'e's fire-attuned one, as well as Fu'e's overwhelming defense. She would likely still be able to win, but it would be a hard match indeed.
Sun Xiaowu was lucky: his opponent, Zhou Xing, would likely be the weakest competitor that any of them had to face.
Li Feng's opponent, Feng Kun, was apparently one of the young geniuses of the windthieves, having won his three matches yesterday with effortless ease.
Chu Feng was the unluckiest of them all; he was facing Phoenix, recognized to be one of the strongest competitors of this Void Cup.
As soon as he saw the pairing, Zhang Lie told Chu Feng to surrender immediately. From his perspective, it wasn't impossible that Phoenix still bore him a grudge for rejecting his invitation, and he didn't want to risk Phoenix trying to teach Chu Feng a lesson during their match.
Chu Feng nodded gravely, and then they were all teleported to their respective arenas.
As expected, Fu Bo surrendered immediately, and Zhang Lie returned to the waiting room.
However, shockingly, Chu Feng hadn't yet returned.
Wasn't he supposed to have surrendered immediately? Had something happened?!
Zhang Lie pulled up the holographic screen showing Chu Feng's arena; the sight chilled him to his bones. Fresh blood splattered against the ground of the arena. Phoenix thrashed Chu Feng as though he were a training dummy, without any ability to resist his attacks.
Half of a tongue and a few teeth lying on the ground made it clear why Chu Feng hadn't been able to surrender: his opponent had attacked too quickly. Zhang Lie had underestimated Phoenix's grudge; after all, Hong Yu and Ali had apologized to him rather politely, but it seemed as though it were all a ruse.
He witnessed Chu Feng's left arm being ground to nothing under the scouring wind that Phoenix so finely controlled. The tremendous pain caused Chu Feng to cry out, and his cries seemed to take on a bestial quality given the loss of half his tongue.
"Ever since you pieces of trash rejected my invitation, I've been disgusted by all of you! I intended to ignore you humans entirely, but once and again, you appeared in front of my eyes, your news continuously polluting my ears and disgusting me over and over again!
"Don't you have these so-called limit fragments? Why are you still so weak? Know your place, trash!
"Let me tell you this: no matter what skills you possess, no matter what research you purport to accomplish, the humans will be no better than ants to the winged. There's a gulf between our races that you'll never overcome—you puny humans, without any racial advantages, without any source of power, without any cultivation value at all!
"Trash now, trash later—trash forever and always!"
Phoenix laughed at Chu Feng's pained cries and howls. He had disintegrated Chu Feng's left arm; next would be his right.
If Zhang Lie didn't stop Phoenix now, Chu Feng's life would be in danger. He forced himself to rein in his anger, which wouldn't solve the immediate issue ahead of him. How was he to stop Phoenix or to help Chu Feng surrender?
He contacted the artificial intelligence overseeing the matches. While he hadn't taken part in the Void Cup in his past life, he had seen matches such as this before, where the fight was artificially prolonged because of a grudge. In order to preserve the competitors' lives, team leaders were able to force a surrender for their teammates.
Explaining the situation at a rapid clip, Zhang Lie sighed in relief as, a few seconds later, the artificial intelligence announced, "Chu Feng's surrender has been initiated by his team leader, and this match will be forcibly terminated!"
Both Phoenix and Chu Feng were teleported back into their respective waiting rooms, where Yan Long, Su Feng, as well as a considerable number of medics were already waiting.
While Zhang Lie contacted the artificial intelligence, he also messaged Yan Long and Su Feng, briefly explaining the situation and requesting that they secure medical assistance immediately.
Chu Feng's left arm had vanished all the way to his shoulder, as had part of his right. There were gruesome wounds all over his body, and he had fallen into unconsciousness.
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