A Good-for-Nothing

258. God’s Right Hand

Translator: Dragon Rider

How Chen Qianlin and Qiu Luo sorted it out eventually was anybody’s guess. However, last night, He Zheng had insisted on eavesdropping on his teammates next door. For half an hour he had stood with his ear against the wall, his butt protruding, but he had not heard anything. Eventually, his provocative standing position had turned Supt. Li on, and the two of them had been within an inch of causing Qiu Luo and Lao Ka to become eavesdroppers. When Li Zong had been doing it, He Zhen had had Li Zong’s hand clenched between his teeth, not daring make any sounds.

Everything that had happened the night before had been fairly exciting in a sense. Early the next morning, everyone seemed a little drowsy, but they still showed up in the hall on time.

When they had signed up yesterday, there had been only six of them, including Li Zong, but on this day, when the competition would officially start, an extra team member seemed to have appeared out of thin air. Many other teams were unaware of the reason and quite curious about the newcomer.

Li Zong, in an effort to keep a low profile, was bringing up the rear. He Zheng as the team leader was walking at the front. All of them had very good looks and thus were very eye-catching. Originally everyone had been staring at Li Zong, but as they saw the handsome face of He Zheng walking at the front, they couldn’t help but cast curious glances at him.

It was a very young team with a very young captain.

They wondered what kind of pleasant surprise the national team of the Republic of Hua would bring them in this year’s competition.

Everyone was eagerly anticipating it.

All competing teams arrived at ten o’clock prompt. At the same time, the couple of leaders of the Global Exorcism Committee also arrived at the island before the contest started. They appeared at the venue on the day of the competition.

The one at the front was a gray-haired geriatric who seemed of advanced years.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the World Exorcism Championship, which is also meant to be a friendly competition aimed at facilitating communication between exorcists from different countries. Before the competition starts, I feel obliged to remind you that you are supposed to put friendship before victory during the event. In previous years, there have been frequent unfortunate incidents. In order to avoid such bloodshed, this time we are adopting new rules, and you will not be competing as individual teams.”

The geriatric’s words sent a ripple of mutter through the crowd.

Tao Wujiu gasped. “They’re changing the rules on the first day? I’ve never heard of this kind of thing. Are they going to have us join hands with other teams? If they do, things will be even trickier … ”

He Zheng slightly pressed his lips together, his eyes fixed on the geriatric on the platform.

Someone inquired, “You said that we’re not going to fight as individual teams. Does that mean we’ll partner other teams? This has always been a three-round event, and the one who gets the highest score is the champion. How will you score our performance if you adopt the new rules?”

The old man had been smiling all along, his face unhurried and unemotional.

“Please show patience. I will explain the rules right away.

In this year’s competition, we will randomly match every competing team with another team, and the previous three-round competition system has been abandoned. You’ll be entering the designated competition field in twos, where you are supposed to work together and survive for three days. The team with the most surviving members will be the champion team.”

Someone demurred immediately, “The most surviving members? Our team has only five members! This is so unfair.”

The geriatric smiled a very sly smile. “You were the ones who have decided how many members there should be in your teams. We never interfered.

If any of you want to quit, we will provide you with a ship and sufficient fresh water and food to help you safely leave the island.”

There were some teams that were relatively large but not very strong. To survive in the competition field for three days? They didn’t even know what kind of monster they would be faced with. How were they supposed to know whether they would be able to survive?

It was said that the first person ever to eat a crab was a warrior, but in some cases, the first person to quit might not necessarily be a coward.

A team quit, and then some others followed suit. The organizing committee provided them with adequate resources as promised.

Actually, there wouldn’t have been so many teams quitting if the rules had not changed. Seven or eight teams had left since their arrival at the island, which was a record high.

But the situation this year was different. Apart from the Tiger Kingdom and the Lion Kingdom, both of which were strong, the national team of the Republic of Hua with Li Zong as the instructor and the Neon-Kingdom team with Nakayi Hakute on board had also entered the competition. These teams would be competing for the top three and the fighting would be intense. The other teams couldn’t hold a candle to any of the three, and if they participated in the competition, they would be the underdogs. Besides, the Lion Kingdom and and the Tiger Kingdom had always been fierce in previous events. This time around, with the number of surviving members as the criterion, the underdogs might end up dead if the Lion Kingdom and the Tiger Kingdom happened to be teamed up with each other.

‘If you can’t afford to take the risk, you quit.’ Those who saw things this way might have great wisdom.

Around ten minutes later, the restless crowd calmed down.

Looking at the crowd that was now barely half the size it had originally been, the old man asked in a soft voice, “Anybody else wants to quit?”

Nobody spoke.

The old man nodded and said to the couple of middle-aged men beside him, “Take out the draw-box.”

A staff member produced a draw-box. Originally there had been twenty competing teams, but after merely three days, there were now only 10 left.

“The number of teams is an even one, which makes it more convenient for us to team you up. The ones who get ping-pong balls of the same color will be partners.”

Chen Qianlin glanced at He Zheng and said, “Get yourself some good luck. Just don’t get us partnered by any of the three teams.”

He Zheng rolled its eyes upwards, “Don’t jinx us, you Ego Freak. I really need to do something to counteract the bad omen of your inauspicious words.”

Everyone else wondered what He Zheng was going to do to achieve that goal. They saw He Zheng walk up to Li Zong, hold out his right hand to him, pointed at it with his chin and said, “Give it a kiss.”

There was an inexplicable gleam in Li Zong’s eyes. He Zheng’s eyes were very bright and very calm, and he didn’t care what those around him might think of him. Li Zong took He Zheng’s hand and planted a kiss on each side of it.

“We’re one.” Li Zong’s voice was low and magnetic, with both the coldness at the peak of a snowy mountain and the warmth in the depths an inferno.

The whole place was full of intermittent sounds of gasps. Except for contestants from the Republic of Hua, the Neon Kingdom and Korea, all those present were very open-minded and wouldn’t be too surprised even if they saw people have sex on the street.

However, it was Li Zong who had just kissed someone in public, and judging from his facial expression, that kiss was by no means a gesture of courtesy.

“I knew it! They are marriage partners!”

“Could there be something fishy behind that kiss?”

The others started discussing it in whispers. He Zheng ignored all of them. In a provocative manner, he raised his hand and said, “My right hand has been kissed by a god. Now none of you have as much good luck as mine.”

Tao Wujiu and the others were astonished. Was this guy serious?

He Zheng, who immediately caught on to what their expressions meant, observed, “What’s wrong with that? Isn’t Supt. Li like a god to you?”

All his teammates nodded. ‘Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. You’re the smartest guy in the world,’ they muttered inwardly.

The others didn’t know what it meant, but in their eyes, Li Zong was indeed like a god. After seeing their actions, the captains of other teams hurriedly kissed their own right hands, making them counterfeit “right hands kissed by a god”.

The Lion Kingdom and the Tiger Kingdom disdained them.

Nakayi Hakute was smiling, his eyes fixed on He Zheng all the time.

What an interesting guy.

The captains stepped forward one after another to draw lots. There were only ten people, so the draw didn’t take long long. Soon, the results of the draw came out.

He Zheng took out his ping-pong ball and heard Tao Wujiu whisper, “Oh no, the Lion and the Tiger have really become partners.”

The captain of the Lion team and the captain of the Tiger team were each holding a bright red ping-pong ball, their faces wearing evil smiles. The captain of the Lion team, who had been staring fixedly at He Zheng all along, crushed his ping-pong ball with a pop as though the ball were He Zheng’s head.

He Zheng’s eyes darkened at the man’s attempt to provoke him, but he didn’t say anything.

“The results of the draw have come out. Now those with balls of the same colors, please stand side by side with your partners. After you confirm the identities of your teammates, we will start handing out supplies. And then the competition will officially start.”

He Zheng was holding a bright yellow ping-pong ball in his hand. His eyes searched the other captains and he found that the one holding the other yellow ping-pong ball was none other than the captain of the Rose-Kingdom team!

Xiao Qi was very happy and gladly introduced their captain to He Zheng’s team. Xiao Qi’s captain was a blonde, blue-eyed man from the Rose Kingdom, who could communicate with them in fluent English, and who looked a nice person.

In addition, every member of that team knew Chen Kai and was very grateful to Chen Kai for his help. Therefore, the two teams soon fit in with each other.

Li Zong’s eyes had been fixed on Nakayi Hakute from start to finish. This year, the team of the Neon Kingdom had only five members, four of whom had been seeds in some previous exorcism championships. Li Zong had analyzed their powers and believed that all his team members, except for Tao Wujiu, were more powerful than any of the contestants from the Neon Kingdom in terms of combat capabilities.

However, their arch-rival was Nakayi Hakute.

Surprisingly, Nakayi Hakute’s eyes were not on Li Zong who was looking at him. His eyebrows were curved and his face was always smiling, but it was He Zheng that he was gazing at.

For Nakayi Hakute, the biggest pleasant surprise was that Li Zong had actually dared to bring his lover here to enter the event.

Li Zong was the reason that he had lost the person he had loved the most, and Nakayi Hakute couldn’t wait to return the favor.

“The Neon Kingdom’s partner is those Jiangtou-casters from Southeast Asia, which is bad news for us. We could easily fall prey to their tricks in a place like this,” said Chen Qianlin apprehensively.

“Don’t worry. We have a god on our team,” smiled He Zheng relaxedly.

As the captain, he had a duty to help his team members stay composed.

The others did become much more confident at the thought of Li Zong’s presence.

At this time, one of the judges on the platform began to give the contestants some other information they needed to pay attention to.

“Because of the last-minute change of the rules, the organizing committee has decided to add something else to the champion’s reward.

Originally the champion’s reward was the manuscript of a mysterious exorcism Circle of Zhang Daoling, the strongest Taoist in the Republic of Hua. Now, we’ve decided to add something else to the reward – a copy of the divinatory symbols we got from a mysterious lady twenty years ago.”

He Zheng was listening to the man nonchalantly, but at these words, his body tensed up and his eyes dashed at the platform like a shooting arrow.

His eyelids twitched uncontrollably. The chairman of the Global Exorcism Committee on the platform was smiling. He Zheng automatically turned to look at Li Zong.

Li Zong clearly did not know the reason either, his lips lightly pressed together, a thoughtful look on his face.

He Zheng was just about to say something when Li Zong stopped him by impassively shaking his head.

He Zheng’s heart gradually sank.

There were more divinatory symbols.

What had his mother had to do with this matter exactly?