Full-Time Martial Saint

On the dais, most of the guests from all walks of life watched the competition between the various parties with great interest. Only a middle-aged man wearing a gray suit and gold-rimmed glasses looked at Chen Cong with a smile.

Beside the middle-aged man, a woman with a tan complexion and wearing silver-gray alloy soft armor noticed his expression and curiously looked at Chen Cong, who was writing and drawing in the distance.

After observing for a moment, she smiled softly and whispered:

"What, does Qingshan Martial Academy have taken a liking to that little guy?"

The middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses shook his head slightly and smiled, "I think he's more suitable for your Martial Peak Hall."

The woman paused for a moment, then sneered, "I never realized you, Li Xiuwen, had become so kind-hearted. The first person you think of when you discover a promising talent is our Martial Peak Hall."

Despite the sarcasm in her words, Li Xiuwen remained calm and said, "To be honest, our two families' standards for selecting people don't conflict."

"That little guy..."

"There's no need for Steward Li to worry about the matters of the Martial Arts Hall."

"If Steward Li takes a liking to someone, he can directly use his privileged quota to recruit them in advance. My Martial Peak Hall will never compete with you for them."

As a steward of the Martial Peak Hall's Xiangcheng branch, Jiang Rong herself is a fourth-level martial artist.

A fourth-tier martial artist has incredibly sharp eyes. With just one glance, she could tell that Chen Cong's overall physical attributes were too poor. Even if he had other special talents, it was highly unlikely that the Martial Peak Hall would use its rare privilege quota to recruit him in advance.

Having dealt with Li Xiuwen for so many years, she knew very well that although he appeared to be polite and refined, he was actually full of "bad ideas".

After the rise of Qingshan Martial Academy and Wuji Hall, in order to prevent the two forces from blindly expanding and affecting the situation, the high-level officials of Daxia agreed with both parties on strict recruitment rules.

One of the stipulations is that each of the two companies can only recruit a maximum of two martial arts students per year at their branches in each city, and that a detailed contract must be signed under the official supervision of both parties on a voluntary basis.

Jiang Rong believes that Li Xiuwen's move was merely a smokescreen, an attempt to waste a privileged spot in the Martial Peak Hall.

To her surprise, when Li Xiuwen heard her say "Wuji Hall will never steal people," he actually called his assistant over.

He pulled out a specially made invitation card with the Qingshan Martial Arts Academy emblem from his pocket, pointed to Chen Cong in the distance, and said to his assistant, "Send this to that little guy."

The assistant bowed slightly, accepted the invitation with both hands, and walked quickly toward Chen Cong.

"Li Xiuwen, you..."

"Miss Jiang, a promise is a promise, you wouldn't go back on your word, would you?"

He paused, then pointed to the ceiling and said with a faint smile, "Holographic recording is running here."

Jiang Rong's expression turned somewhat unpleasant. She stared intently at Chen Cong, who was suspiciously accepting the invitation, trying to discern what it was about him that warranted Li Xiuwen using his special recruitment quota.

No matter how she observed, Jiang Rong could not find anything special about Chen Cong.

However, as a steward of the Xiangcheng branch of the Martial Arts Hall, she was not a simple-minded person.

After a brief moment of frowning in thought, Jiang Rong turned slightly to the side and beckoned. A young man, also dressed in alloy armor, immediately came forward and bowed, saying, "Steward."

Jiang Rong whispered, "Give me all the information about that student."

The assistant activated the special bracelet on his wrist, quickly flipped through it for a moment, and said with a slightly stiff expression, "Butler... butler, there is no information about him in the system."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Rong frowned.

"Sure?"

The assistant, with a pained expression, searched carefully for a while longer, then said with absolute certainty, "It's definitely not there."

"Could it be... that they just transferred from another school?"

Jiang Rong's expression was somber, and she remained silent.

She knew very well that her assistant wouldn't make such a basic mistake as "missing to record student information".

In that case, the student chosen by Li Xiuwen is most likely a transfer student from another school.

"From the main database..." Jiang Rong began after a moment's thought, but halfway through her sentence, she suddenly realized that without knowing the student's name, trying to find the student's information from the main database would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Thinking of this, Jiang Rong slowly stood up and walked to Liu Bingran, who was standing in the corner of the stage, and whispered:

"Director Liu, there's something I need your help with."

Liu Bingran quickly responded with a smile: "You're too kind, Deacon Jiang. Please speak."

Jiang Rong pointed to Chen Cong in the distance and asked, "What's that student's name?"

Liu Bingran glanced in the direction she was pointing, her expression slightly taken aback. She was somewhat puzzled as to why Jiang Rong, the steward of the Xiangcheng branch of the Martial Peak Hall, would notice Chen Cong.

However, as the director of the academic affairs office of the martial arts academy of Xiangcheng No. 1 Middle School, she was not allowed to get involved in the affairs of Qingshan Martial Arts Academy and Wuji Hall according to regulations, so she did not ask too many questions and directly said Chen Cong's name.

"He was a student at our No. 1 High School's Cultural Academy before, and he just transferred to the Martial Arts Academy last week. He's a temporary transfer student." After saying Chen Cong's name, Liu Bingran thought for a moment and added a sentence.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Rong frowned immediately.

moment--

"Thank you, Director Liu," Jiang Rong said, and quickly returned to her seat.

"Butler, I've got the name. I'll go to the main database..."

"No need to investigate," Jiang Rong interrupted her assistant, her gaze fixed on Chen Cong.

She knew that Chen Cong had transferred from the Cultural Academy of Xiangcheng No. 1 Middle School, and the Wuji Hall's general database could only find some basic information at most, without any valuable data.

"A student who only started practicing martial arts at the age of 17... with an overall physical fitness level of only 3... what exactly is Li Xiuwen after?" Jiang Rong pondered to herself, while also memorizing Chen Cong's name, planning to send someone to make contact later to see if they could find any useful information.

Her thinking was simple: if Chen Cong really had something worth winning over, as a steward of the Xiangcheng branch of the Martial Arts Hall, she was willing to bear the infamy of being untrustworthy in order to compete with Li Xiuwen.

While the two on the podium were scheming against each other, Chen Cong on the other side also felt a sense of suspicion.

He couldn't understand why Qingshan Martial Arts Academy would suddenly send him an invitation.

"Could it be... Teacher Zhang?" After thinking it over, Chen Cong felt that this matter should be related to Zhang Kui, who was also a third-level martial artist at Qingshan Martial Academy.

But then I thought about it again, and something still seemed off.

Based on his understanding of Zhang Kui, if he wanted to do this, he would definitely give prior notice.

After thinking about it for a long time without figuring it out, Chen Cong could only keep the matter to himself for the time being. He planned to ask Zhang Kui after the morning's competition ended. Right now, he needed to focus on identifying the most noteworthy potential opponents in both classes.

The two classes competing in Zone C are Class 6 and Class 10 of Senior Three.

Like Class 4, Class 10 practiced the Twelve-Road Springing Leg technique, while Class 6 specialized in a fist technique called "Empty Fist".

Compared to Bajiquan, Kongmingquan is clearly a martial art that combines offense and defense. After watching a few matches, Chen Cong roughly understood that this style of boxing pursues the word "stability" and focuses on waiting for opportunities while defending.

The Twelve-Road Spring Kick clearly follows a fast-attack style, and there are subtle signs that it is countered by the Empty Fist.

Before the competition was even halfway over, Chen Cong vaguely sensed that Class 10 of Senior Three was likely to lose.