A Good-for-Nothing

252. Sending a Message

Translator: Dragon Rider

Jon had once heard his instructor say that the mysterious Republic of Hua boasted not only the most beautiful women but also the most toxic poison; a Hua warlock had once made up the elixir of life and become a god, and some warlocks there were capable of compounding poisons that could kill people before they knew it.

Jon was indeed very powerful, but that didn’t mean he wanted to die.

On hearing that the pill was poisonous, he immediately rushed to the bathroom and put his fingers into his throat in an attempt to make himself vomit, but pills made by Hezao Sect was not just any pills. They melted immediately after coming into contact with water. The pill had disappeared the moment Jon had put it into his mouth. He vomited so badly that bile appeared in his vomitus, but the pill was still nowhere to be seen.

Jon’s teammates were clearly panic-stricken as well.

“Chief, what should we do? I heard our instructor say that this kind of divine pill, once taken, will make the victim suffer greatly before killing them,” said a skinny girl with a freckled face.

“Enough, Lily. You’re not helping!” said the relatively thin young man in a voice heavy with guilt, but then he clenched his fists in spite of himself. “No. We have to get the antidote!”

One of them stayed to look after Jon who was still vomiting, while the others returned to the lobby.

In the hotel lobby.

Li Zong wiped the blood off He Zheng’s face with a clean handkerchief.

Since this was a serious incident, several members of the International Exorcism Federation (IEF) showed up to deal with it.

Everybody present had seen what had happened just now. There were both witnesses and evidence. The members of the Northern European team who had just arrived, at the sight of the IEF stuff members, acted as though they were seeing their relatives. They hurriedly clustered around the one in charge. “It’s true what they say ‘Justice is never late’! These people attacked our chief and poisoned him!”

On hearing this, He Zheng sneered, “Oh? Wasn’t you who provoked us first?”

“Bullshit! One of your teammates humiliated us last night!”

“One of us humiliated you? You could have taken it up with him last night, but instead you waited until you outnumber us to make trouble for us. Do you think we’re milksops?” Tao Wujiu was smiling, but his words made the Northern European team so angry they were on the verge of vomiting blood.

He Zheng said, “Lao Chen, did you provoke them last night?”

Chen Qianlin pointed at those foreigners with his chin and replied, “Who are they? I’ve never seen them.”

That relatively thin member of the Northern European team immediately went berserk. “Stop pretending! Last night I tried to strike up a conversation with you, but you ignored me!”

Chen Qianlin sneered, “Do I have to respond to everybody who says ‘Hello’ to me?”

“You–!”

The two of them were about to start quarreling.

The staff member frowned, somewhat unwilling to listen to them, but when he turned around to face He Zheng and the others, his attitude was very polite. “Would you please tell me what happened exactly, gentlemen? Were you threatened?”

Though he was facing He Zheng when asking the question, eyes of all the IEF staff members were on Li Zong all the time, and they appeared somewhat respectful.

Members of the Northern European team were dumbfounded. “Hey, what’s the problem with you people? We’re the victims!”

He Zheng replied flatly, “My teammates and I walked down here to have breakfast, but that big man provoked us for no reason. He also insulted me and our instructor.”

“Oh, I see, Sir. I could totally understand why you did what you did.”

Members of the Northern European team were faint with fury. “Hey, hey, hey! Are you out of your mind?! Why are you apologizing to them?!”

The staff members were genial when facing He Zheng and his teammates, but when they turned around to look at the Northern European team, their faces hardened. “I’m sorry, gentlemen, but you’ve intentionally provoked the national team of the Republic of Hua, so I have to give you a yellow card as a warning.”

“We provoked them? Oh, my goodness! Open your damn eyes and look at our chief! His arm is still bleeding! Who gives you the right to come here and bullshit?!”

“Gentlemen, you cannot demand justice and doubt our decision at the same time.” One of the staff members lightly raised his hand and pointed in Li Zong’s direction. “Maybe I should kindly remind you that this gentleman here, by acting as an instructor of a competing team again, has honored all exorcists in the world!

But you provoked him for no reason. This is not about personal grudge any more. Your actions undermined the dignity of the whole event!”

Li Zong had hardly made public appearance in any international events in recent years, so most of the onlookers had no idea who he was. Only a limited few were aware of his identity.

After hearing these words, members of the Northern European team became even more furious, and some members of other teams were also indignant. “As IEF staff members, you people are being so biased. Exactly who is that guy that makes you people go to such length to curry favor with him?!”

“Li.”

The staff member only gave them Li Zong’s surname, but that member of the Northern European team, who was wildly cocky, paused in the act of raising his arm as though he were frozen. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. All the shouting onlookers shut their mouths. The whole lobby was so quiet people present could have distinctly heard a pin drop.

Li Zong’s name was like an indelible nightmare for those who had participated in exorcism championship before. Though Li Zong had not attended the event as a contestant or an instructor for a very long time, every instructor, when training their newbies, always regarded an analysis of Li Zong’s pattern of attacks as an important part of the training program, and they gave the newbies specialized training aimed at defending against Li Zong’s attacks.

As a result, Li Zong’s name, in the eyes of all participants, was like the name of a god.

It was only then that the poor Northern European team, feeling sorry for themselves, found that the one they had provoked earlier this morning was none other than Li!

The word “Li” sent everybody in the lobby into agitation.

“Li? The Li? The one who won the championship three times in a row?”

“Oh, no, no … Why did we enter the competition?! The championship will definitely belong to the Republic of Hua. Oh, God. This is such unfortunate news. We might as well return home right now!”

“I can’t believe my eyes! That’s the legendary Li?”

People were letting out all kinds of exclamations.

He Zheng took advantage of the opportunity by opening his mouth and saying aloud in English, “That’s right. So don’t provoke any member of our team.”

He was playing with a chopstick in his hand. The next second, the silver chopstick was gradually bent. He clapped his hands and then dropped the bent chopstick onto the table with a clink.

Then his eyes casually swept across everybody present. “You don’t want to mess with us!”

Someone gave a snort of contempt. It was a member of the national team of the Lion Kingdom. A tall and big man with blonde hair and blue eyes led his team members out of the lobby and returned upstairs.

Another couple of teams followed suit. Some of those who stayed in the lobby did not leave because they admired Li Zong. Some others were wailing, saying that they should directly go back home.

When they came to know that this time around Li Zong was an instructor, that he wouldn’t be in the arena, some of them felt relieved and then also returned to their rooms. Some other teams who were relatively weak and had entered the competition with the intention to spectate the event, such as the Icelandic team and the Australian team, withdrew on their own account, saying that they wanted to go back and train for another year to prepare for the next year’s event.

When leaving, they all had resigned expressions on their faces. “Since there’s a team led by Li, I think we don’t even stand a chance of getting a place to spectate the event this year.”

He Zheng glanced around him and found that the Northern European team was nowhere to be seen.

He Zheng and his teammates had been subjected to this unpleasant incident for no good reason. This disturbance was an unexpected occurrence, but after experiencing it, all of them were not in the mood for breakfast any longer.

On top of that, ever since Li Zong’s identity had been made public, there had always been people who cast Li Zong furtive glances from a distance.

At first He Zheng had been composed, but afterwards, as more and more admirers showed up, He Zheng who was rather narrow-minded went unhappy.

He dropped his chopsticks. “I don’t want to have breakfast any more. I lost my appetite.”

After saying this, he drew Li Zong towards the staircase leading upstairs, their fingers interlocked, which was a rather explicit way to display affection in public. This action of his immediately sent a ripple of gasp through the people in the lobby.

“Oh, my goodness. Li actually let him!”

“My God! Is it possible Li and that charming young man are … ”

“Yes. I’ve been informed that the leader of the Hua team is Li’s young lover.”

He Zheng, before going into the elevator, heard the last two words “young lover”.

He Zheng felt goosebumps rising up on his arms. “Young? What makes that guy say that? Is it because I’m young or you’re old?”

Li Zong was actually only six years his senior!

In fact He Zheng misunderstood. It struck the others that people of the Republic of Hua looked younger than their actual ages. In addition, Li Zong had achieved fame a long time ago, and his name had been in those people’s minds for several years. They admired Li Zong but also hated him and feared him, which was why they subconsciously believed that Li Zong was of a certain age.

“Because I’m old,” said Li Zong with a smile.

He Zheng gave a snort and then started criticizing Chen Qianlin. “That patronizing fool could never learn how to stay out of trouble!”

“Maybe they were just using Chen Qianlin’s reaction as an excuse,” said Li Zong, stroking He Zheng’s hair. “We haven’t displayed our true strength for many years, so they naturally want to take our measure.”

This kind of things were not new. The organizing committee had arranged for all competing teams to be accommodated in the same hotel. They were rivals, and although on the surface they were friendly to each other, they had some time ago started putting out feelers covertly.

Back at the time when the Republic of Hua had attended the championship for the first time, Li Zong, who had joined SMB only a short time before, had been leading some newbies, and many competing teams had secretly tried to make trouble for their rivals, and even the then organizing committee had turned a blind eye to that kind of deeds.

But at that time, Li Zong had dealt with the situation the same way He Zheng had. When someone had provoked him, he had unhesitatingly taught that person a lesson. After Li Zong displayed his strength, hardly anybody else had messed with him.

These years the Republic of Hua had been keeping a low profile, and its national team had seldom won the championship in recent years, so the other teams had gradually forgotten that the Republic of Hua was not a sitting duck and should not be trifled with.

The reason why He Zheng had precipitously made his move earlier this day was probably because he had wanted to send the other teams a message.

On top of that, Li Zong’s identity had now been made public. It seemed that nobody would dare make trouble for them for the duration of the event.

However, Li Zong was not going to fight in the arena in this year’s competition. Back in the lobby, a couple of teams had left early, showing a manifest disregard for them.

Before their departure, Director General Zong had said that many talented young exorcists had entered this year’s competition. It would seem apart from rivals from the Neon Kingdom, those from the Lion Kingdom and the Tiger Kingdom were not very friendly either.