When a person is in a high-ranking position, their words carry the law.

Chapter 44 New Martial Arts
The following day, November 12th, at noon.

After a day, the grand Junior Cup has concluded its preliminary rounds and officially entered the knockout stage.

Bai Ze logged into the StarNet at noon sharp and immediately saw the message notification.

[Martial artist Bai Ze, you have qualified for the knockout stage of the Youth Cup Hidden Dragon Championship. This round of the competition will begin at 2:00 PM on November 12th. Please participate on time.]

[Martial artist Bai Ze, this is your schedule for today.]

A blank sheet of paper, resembling a death contract from a TV drama, appeared, with the elimination rules written vertically on it and two names at the bottom left.

Bai Ze, to Lin Yunlan.

The time is 2:10 PM, in arena number five.

Unlike the preliminary rounds where all participants competed simultaneously, the elimination rounds featured ten arenas where a thousand shortlisted martial artists took turns competing.

In other words, only ten pairs of eyes are needed to identify a suspect among the contestants.

Bai Ze casually opened the forum on the StarNet and, sure enough, saw many trolls actively commenting under the wanted poster.

[Fist Master]: Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday I watched a full four hundred audition videos and didn't find any suspects.

[Fist to Fist]: I watched over 500 matches and didn't find it. That kid Ye Yushengfan shouldn't be so bad as to fail the preliminary rounds; he probably got a free pass into the knockout stage.

[His dreams at night are filled with soaring dragons and clouds]: It's possible he really is too weak to pass the preliminary rounds. For the past month, many of the participants hadn't actually engaged in StarNet battles to avoid revealing their information. Although they were virtual avatars, their martial arts styles could still be identified.

【亭亭净植】: You mean that the jerk encountered a top-notch contestant during the audition and then messed up?

[Hard-hitting punches]: If I hadn't seen this guy in the elimination rounds, I'd laugh at him thirty times every time we met. [Laughing heartily]
[Fist Technique Master]: If you find Night Rain's Voice in the elimination rounds, you win! If you don't find it, you still win! A win-win situation!

Bai Ze smiled slightly as he looked at these guys' declarations of victory.

Who will win in the end is uncertain.

He glanced at the points pool again; the points had now accumulated to 630.

Indeed, many hands make light work; the ancients were right.

The points pool now contains many names, all entered by netizens. Once Night Rain's identity is revealed, StarNet will determine the participant who first entered the correct answer and credit their points to that participant's account.

'And what's more, these silly netizens have let me know something else: some martial artists haven't fought in the past month. No wonder I haven't encountered many worthy opponents,' Bai Ze muttered to himself.

Even those few who are good at fighting are all seasoned veterans; there are no young, immature ones among them.

As Bai Ze pondered this, he sent a message to the "King of Mouths".

【Night Rain Sounds Annoying】: The schedule is out, and my first opponent is Lin Yunlan.

The "Mouth King" replied very quickly; his message arrived in less than a minute.

[King of Verbal Combat]: According to the tournament registration information, Lin Yunlan is a student at Yangping No. 1 High School. Yangping has a strong Taoist tradition due to the presence of Yangping Martial Arts University, so Lin Yunlan should also be practicing Taoist martial arts.

[King of Tongues]: Found it. Lin Yunlan is a top student at Yangping No. 1 High School, practicing the Taoist Soft Cloud Sword Technique. This sword technique is known for its versatility, and it's also subtle yet powerful, combining softness with strength. If you don't want to be locked in a stalemate with her, you should use speed to overcome slowness, and force to counter softness. [Night Rain's Annoying Sound]: So fast?
[King of Verbal Confidence]: Don't underestimate my intelligence network.

In this competition, the "Mouth King" became Bai Ze's off-field support, responsible for providing Bai Ze with information about the opponents.

Bai Ze was certainly happy to see someone with a powerful background supporting him, but wasn't this support coming a little too quickly?

It seems we need to raise the bar for the title of "King of Verbal Criticism" once again.

This guy might actually be a powerful figure.

Even if they don't possess profound martial arts skills, their family background alone is absolutely not to be underestimated.

With that in mind, Bai Ze decided to take advantage of the time before the match to continue chatting with the "King of Mouths".

【Night Rain Sounds Annoying】: So, intelligence expert, could you tell me which opponents are worth noting in the elimination rounds?

[King of Mouth]: Then you've come to the right person. Although this elimination round is limited to those under eighteen years old, there are still quite a few strong opponents. For example, there's Jiang Xun, known as the "Fruitful Fist Saint" on StarNet, and Qu Mingfeng, the "little prodigy" who was specially recruited into Yanjing Martial Arts University at the age of fifteen. The former may have a bit of a reputation, but his strength is absolutely formidable; he's already a two-star level. The latter is a famous young genius who skipped grades to enter Yanjing Martial Arts University at fifteen and has already been studying at the university for a year.

[King of Mouthpower]: Besides him, there is also Xi Yuheng. His elders are high-ranking executives at Yuqing Heavy Industry. In recent years, Yuqing Heavy Industry has been trying to extract the essence of new martial arts to make up for the deficiencies of true martial arts. Xi Yuheng is the star product launched by Yuqing Heavy Industry, and he has cultivated the Two Elements Magnetic Sword created by Yuqing Heavy Industry.

Xinwu refers to the high-tech martial arts of the Western Alliance, while Zhenwu refers to the martial arts prevalent in the Eastern Xia region.

When the Western Union introduced high-tech martial arts, they named it "New Martial Arts," meaning that all other martial arts were old. They proposed naming other martial arts "Old Martial Arts" or "Ancient Martial Arts."

Dongxia, of course, disagreed.

You, Cyber ​​Martial Arts, dare to call yourself "Martial Arts"?
So the Wushu Association took the lead and raised the banner of "Zhenwu" (True Martial Arts), meaning that what I do is real and what you do is fake.

It might sound a bit ridiculous, but neither side was willing to back down, and they even challenged each other to a duel several times.

Xinwu and Zhenwu also parted ways for decades because of this.

However, with the continuous advancement of technology, especially as Dongxia has been gradually exploring the technology of the wasteland world, the conflict between the two sides has not been as sharp as before.

In particular, the Holy Roman Empire, which later separated from the Western Alliance in the West, introduced the Bloodline Martial Arts system, attracting the attention of the New Martial Arts and True Martial Arts factions.

Therefore, a trend of combining high technology and martial arts has gradually emerged in Dongxia.

[King of Mouths]: Actually, this trend has been around for a while. For example, Yao Guang's Tai Su Wan Xiang Armor is a successful combination of technology and martial arts. Yu Qing Heavy Industry should have achieved mature results in recent years, and now they are thinking of using this competition to make their brand known.

【Night Rain Sounds Annoying】: Times are indeed changing.

The combination of high technology and martial arts, but not cyber martial arts, makes it unclear how it will manifest.

It seems this youth cup tournament won't be too lonely.

[King of Mouth]: I forgot to mention, people from the Slug Autonomous Prefecture have also made it to the knockout stage. Be careful if you run into them; they're very good at using underhanded tactics.

Slug Autonomous Region?
Bai Ze recalled for a moment.

They seem to be descendants of a foreign country that was incorporated into Dongxia ninety years ago. Their original country was called Silla.
(End of this chapter)