I can only beat noobs.

Chapter 149 A narrow victory
"Uncle-Master, is that the one in black your sweetheart?"

In the crowd, a pretty young girl suddenly approached Zhao Xiyan and whispered a question.

Zhao Xiyan remained silent.

Everyone else was focused on the martial arts competition and no one paid attention to this side.

The boy next to the girl, who had been watching the martial arts competition, perked up his ears upon hearing her words.

The young couple were the grandson and granddaughter of the Governor of Jiangzhou. The boy was named Pan Wenxuan, and the girl was named Pan Shuyi. They were a few years younger than Zhao Xiyan, but a generation younger. Therefore, they had to address her as their "Shishu" (a term of respect for their martial arts masters).

Pan Shuyi then asked, "I've heard that he has extremely high talent. Can he compare to my uncle?"

Zhao Xiyan remained silent.

Pan Wenxuan, who was standing to the side, noticed that she seemed unwilling to talk about it, so he gently tugged at his sister's sleeve, telling her to stop talking about it.

Seeing that she had finally suppressed the arrogance of this "uncle-master," Pan Shuyi wore a victorious smile.

Originally, she was the most pampered child in the family. She was the youngest in both seniority and age, the family's little princess. But things changed after this uncle-master arrived.

Everyone in the family immediately took a liking to this senior martial arts master, stealing her thunder and making her feel neglected.

For the past few months, no matter how hard Pan Shuyi tried, she couldn't compete with Zhao Xiyan and always came out on the losing end. This left her frustrated and angry.

Now, we've finally found her weakness.

Pan Shuyi can finally hold her head high.

boom!
Suddenly a loud bang caught her attention. On the arena, a person was cleaved away by a single sword strike.

"what--"

She screamed in fright, and soon realized that the person who had been slashed away was not dead, and was not even injured.

She then realized that this was a competition held at the No. 1 Restaurant in the world, so how could anyone die?

Soon, the outcome of another match was also decided.

Next, the people from the Number One Restaurant in the World announced the start of the second phase of the battle.

When Pan Shuyi saw the man in black also enter the arena, she was delighted and leaned over to say, "Uncle-Master, look, your sweetheart is entering the arena."

"Oh no, his opponent is the fifth son of the Qi family. This man has been at the fifth rank for over a year, his cultivation is profound, and his family's spear technique has reached a high level. He is very powerful."

"Your sweetheart has only been at the fifth rank for three months, I'm afraid she'll lose in the very first match."

Pan Wenxuan, who was standing to the side, couldn't bear to listen to her hurtful words any longer. He coughed a few times to remind her to stop talking.

Pan Shuyi completely ignored him. She had been humiliated by Zhao Xiyan so many times, and now that she had finally found the other party's weakness, she naturally wanted to pursue it relentlessly.

I'll make sure she can never hold her head up in front of me again.

Zhao Xiyan didn't reply, her beautiful eyes fixed on Chen Ming on the stage, a hint of worry in them.

She was well aware that none of those who participated in the Azure Cloud Ranking competition were easy to deal with. Their strength was far beyond what Chen Ming had encountered before.

In fact, Chen Ming's qualification for the competition was beyond her expectations.

"Uncle-Master, I've heard that your father, Lord Zhao, cares a lot about his reputation. If he loses too badly, I'm afraid—"

Pan Shuyi continued her incessant chatter. Finally, her brother, Pan Shuxuan, couldn't take it anymore, forcefully pulled her aside, and snapped, "Alright, stop talking."

She reluctantly shut her mouth.

At this moment, Chen Ming and Qi Wu finally clashed, exchanging several blows in the blink of an eye.

Zhao Xiyan was surprised to find that his swordsmanship had improved a lot, and he was evenly matched with Qi Wu.

In just three months, his strength underwent a dramatic transformation.

She had lost count of how many times she had been astonished by Chen Ming's progress. Each time, she tried her best to overestimate his improvement. But in the end, she always found that she had underestimated him.

She still remembered the first time they met; he was only at the seventh rank of cultivation, one realm lower than her.

Now, less than two years later, he has reached the fifth rank, while she remains at the sixth rank. He is a whole realm higher than her.

Thinking of this, Zhao Xiyan felt a surge of excitement in her chest, and once again felt that intense excitement because of his extraordinary speed of progress.

Many things are completely different from what you hear and what you experience firsthand.

In Jiangzhou City, most people scoffed at Chen Ming's deeds, thinking that the merchants of Qingfeng City were exaggerating.

Only those who have witnessed Chen Ming's growth firsthand, like Zhao Xiyan, can understand how astonishing his progress is.

To her disbelief, after he reached the fifth rank, his progress not only did not slow down, but actually accelerated.

While Zhao Xiyan was experiencing emotional turmoil, the other four matches on the stage had already concluded. Chen Ming and Qi Wu were still locked in a fierce and evenly matched battle.

It wasn't until after fifty moves that Chen Ming narrowly won by one move.

"Another narrow victory..."

A strange emotion welled up inside her.

In the past, when her cultivation level was higher than Chen Ming's, she could naturally see that he would often deliberately hold back when sparring with others, only "narrowly defeating" them after dozens or even hundreds of moves. He always gave his opponents enough face.

Has he held back now?
Zhao Xiyan could no longer tell.

At this moment, Pan Wenxuan exclaimed in surprise, "What superb swordsmanship! Which school of swordsmanship is this? It's magnificent and grand, with a myriad of styles." Pan Shuyi, seeing that Qi Wu had actually been defeated, thought to himself, "He can't even beat a country bumpkin who has just broken through to the fifth rank. What a waste."

She was somewhat frustrated, having missed a good opportunity to strike back at Zhao Xiyan.

……

You have defeated a level 58 opponent and gained 12000 experience points.

After winning the first move, Chen Ming cupped his hands and said, "Thank you for the concession." Without looking at his opponent's reddened leg, he withdrew from the arena.

The third round of competitions is about to begin.

He could sense that many people were looking at him.

He didn't pay much attention; as he won more and more matches, he would attract more and more attention. He couldn't stay low-key even if he wanted to.

"Haha, I knew you could do it."

Feng Siyuan walked over, looking excited. He had overheard the other audience members commenting, and none of them seemed to think highly of Chen Ming, which made him very resentful, but he couldn't argue with them.

Of those present, very few were from Qingfeng County; he only saw Zhao Xiyan. If they argued, he would be at a disadvantage.

Therefore, after Chen Ming won, seeing the embarrassed looks on those people's faces after being humiliated made him feel particularly pleased.

Chen Ming remained silent, observing the strength of the third group of people on the arena.

Everyone who comes on stage will become his opponent, so he naturally needs to observe them.

With the protection of the most powerful experts from the World's Number One Pavilion, the contestants showed no mercy when they attacked, fighting with exceptional ferocity.

Many people know that they are not strong enough to be listed on the Qingyun Ranking, but they still choose to go to the arena, just for the opportunity to fight against many masters of similar strength.

This kind of sparring is no different from real combat. Since you won't get hurt, and this kind of opportunity doesn't come around often, everyone goes all out.

Some, even knowing they can't win, will still resort to a desperate, life-or-death fighting style: "Even if I lose, I'll still splatter you with blood."

Soon, the five rounds of competition ended, and everyone had competed.

Chen Ming had a general idea of ​​what was going on. His real opponents were the seven seeded players, plus Huang Zhuochen, the man in black whose name he didn't know, and another woman surnamed Shen.

……

After the first round of competition, they rested for half an hour until the contestants had recovered enough to begin the second round.

In the second round, everyone had a different opponent.

The most exciting matches were still the ones between the seven seeded players.

These people are all extremely famous, but they have never had the chance to fight each other. If they were to fight, it would be obvious who is stronger and who is weaker.

The two seeded players who had just lost were the most aggressive in their fight. They knew very well that if they lost another match, they would be out of the running for the Qingyun Ranking.

As the fight progressed, both sides became truly enraged, each move potentially fatal, abandoning their initial composure and humility.

Seeing this, Chen Ming finally understood why Su Zhining hated the Number One Restaurant in the World so much.

Playing like this easily breeds resentment, especially for the losing side, who will definitely be determined to win back. Over time, this resentment will only deepen.

It should be noted that those who compete for the "Qingyun Ranking" are the most outstanding figures of the younger generation, and will definitely be the core figures of their respective forces in the future.

These people have a bad relationship, and the relationships between the forces they represent are unlikely to be any better.

One can imagine how many future conflicts in Jiangzhou were sown today.
In the end, the two who lost in the previous round had one win and one loss.

The second batch, it's Chen Ming's turn again. His number is eighteen. Last time it matched nineteen, this time it matches twenty.

The second opponent was not as strong as the first, and he was much easier to deal with. As usual, he "narrowly won" after more than fifty moves.

If it weren't for the fact that the other four groups had finished their matches and it wasn't time to delay any longer, he could have fought for over a hundred moves.

Chen Ming's style of doing things is to save face for others as much as possible, so as to avoid making enemies.

You have defeated a level 58 opponent and gained 12000 experience points.

This person's cultivation level is the same as the previous one, but he lacks the skill in martial arts. However, the experience points gained from defeating both of them are the same.

……

A total of five rounds were held that day.

That Chu Louzhu then announced that today's competition was over and would continue tomorrow.

The people present gradually left.

Pan Wenxuan exclaimed, "He won all five battles. It's hard to believe that he broke through to the fifth rank in just over three months."

Pan Shuyi retorted, unconvinced, "He was just lucky; he didn't encounter any particularly strong opponents. Just wait and see, he definitely won't win when he meets Luo Xu tomorrow."

Luo Xu, the arrogant man in black, possessed exceptional strength, always defeating his opponents within a few moves. Many believed his abilities were no less than those of Jiang Shihua and the other six.

Currently, only seven people have maintained a perfect record of five wins in five matches. However, no one believes that Chen Ming is qualified to be ranked alongside the other six.

Zhao Xiyan remained silent, watching Chen Ming's figure disappear into the crowd with a hint of resentment in her eyes.

PS: Requesting guaranteed monthly votes.

(End of this chapter)