While the people below the stage rebooted their brains, Shi Zhenqiang had been kicked out of the ring and Li Mo took his place.
“H-he’s fine!”
“He’s alright!”
“He’s been on the stage for over ten minutes!”
“I passed out. What happened? Why isn’t the stench getting to him?”
“I know that man. He just became a first level soul cultivator.”
“He’s just a first level? He had managed to do what not even Elder Yu and Auntie Lan could? He doesn’t have sense of taste?”
“I reckon it is so…”
“I saw it clearly when he sat next to me. He never covered his nose.”
“This luck, is godlike!”
“Old Shi found his bane!”
“I am utterly speechless. If only I woke up a minute sooner, that second spot would be mine.”
“That brat was lucky.”
“Don’t say that. He is after all gifted.”
“Ha-ha-ha, you’re absolutely right.”
And the comments were rolling in. Yu Boyan was shocked at the sight of Li Mo. He checked and saw that Li Mo indeed won the spot and declared it so.
When Li Mo was back to his seat, Yang Hongying woke up. The shock she felt at what she heard was understandable.
“The third spot is definitely mine. No one fight me over it!”
Another man got on stage.
The fighting resumed, but without another fierce opponent like Shi Zhenqiang, everyone was pretty much equal. One got up and the other went down, then the other went up and the first went down. It went on and on for the better part of an hour, with no clear winner.
Yang Hongying put on a proud smile, “It’s almost time. There’s only two left who hadn’t gone up.”
From the very start, Yang Hongying aimed for the last spot, like a patient fisherman.
Thump!
The last two soon went up and one finally fell.
Seeing how average the winner was, Li Mo squinted.
He was in fact Zheng Wufang!
Zheng Wufang, a mid first level body training gifted. He was unknown on Earth, but once he roamed the universe, he became one of the Seven Sages.
Everything about Zheng Wufang screamed average. He had to work hard in beating his opponent. But the problem laid in who he beat. His opponent was a second level expert.
‘That’s a level difference.’
Regardless of the opponent, such a win was difficult to pull. It was incredibly hard to even as one of the Seven Sages. He wasn’t just odd, but a freak of nature.
“I’m going!”
Yang Hongying stood up.
After swapping with Li Mo and getting his ‘soul item’, her power shot up. Although she didn’t reach the third level, she was at least a peak second level.
She was confident a single hit would deal with Zheng Wufang.
“An opening, Spirit Strike!”
Yang Hongying started with her strongest move, unleashing a Spirit Strike after leaving her body.
Zheng Wufang threw itself on the ground, dodging the Spirit Strike, rolling straight towards Yang Hongying’s body, and kicking her off the stage.
Wa~
The crowd went wild.
Yang Hongying’s soul froze in shock.
If one wasn’t a soul cultivator, or didn’t have the Celestial Eye or Spirit Eye kind of ability, it was impossible to see souls and a soul cultivator’s attacks.
‘How did a mere mid first level body gifted saw my soul?’
Yang Hongying was in shock.
Zheng Wufang smiled, “That was really dangerous. I am foolish, but I know that miss Yang is a soul cultivator. Your attacks definitely involve the soul, so I thought up a plan. How fortunate it worked.”
“@$%&, so that’s why!” Yang Hongying saw it now.
The crowd sighed after knowing the ‘truth’.
All but Li Mo.
He didn’t buy Zheng Wufang’s logic. This guy was beyond fishy.
How could his dodge be so accurate without seeing souls?
Yang Hongying left the stage. With all challengers exhausted, Yu Boyan declared Zheng Wufang as the third spot winner.
Experts Alliance headquarters’ testing would conduct ten days from now. As Shenjing base had its three candidates, the testing was adjourned. And, as per usual, it followed with trading.
“Diamonds, high-quality diamonds!”
Li Mo took out some pebbles and started yelling.
He was soon crowded. His last customers earned a pretty penny selling his diamonds for real money. This was a rare chance at stricking rich easily, and they were not about to miss it.
A pity that they lacked the points for such an endeavor.
Li Mo was at it for a long time but only earned a thousand points.
“Lend me 200, come on…”
When Li Mo went buying stuff, Yang Hongying was close behind, demanding even.
Experts Alliance’s trading involved many items the open market would never see. Li Mo had browsed around and ended up using all his points.
Yang Hongying gnashed her teeth in rage.
“So few points and so many poor people.”
He did get a pretty good haul with the thousand points, but Li Mo was far from satisfied.
Yang Hongying glared, “Show-off! You think I’d believe you? Since you can go to the capital, you earned a reward. Check your badge, there should be five thousand in there.
“Well?”
Li Mo indeed found a five followed by three zeros on his badge.
“Not bad at all.”
“Since I told you, lend me 200…”
“Here’s five thousand!”
Li Mo was far quicker than Yang Hongying could speak, spending everything on a piece of soft metal.
“You spendthrift!” Yang Hongying’s heart bled.
Regarding other ingredients, Yang Hongying wasn’t too knowledgeable, but one item she did know more of was that soft metal. It was a piece of incredibly malleable metal, like clay. It wasn’t fit for making a weapon, armor, or magic weapons because a little bit of force would break it quickly. Its only use was that in sealing.
The expert world usage of it consisted of turning it into powder and sprinkling it on the enemy. The opponent would then find his power decrease, and even powerless if covered enough.
Using it in the right way, its effect would be devastating. But it was after all a consumable, with no means of reusing it. No matter how Yang Hongying saw it, wasting five thousand points on it was a total loss.
“I’m leaving, ugh.”
Yang Hongying flicked her wrist and was gone.
