A Good-for-Nothing

269. Champion

Translator: Dragon Rider

“Why? Obviously we’re the team with the most remaining members having mobility!” yelled Allen in the ward, the captain of the Tiger team. This time around his bosom friend Ben, the captain of the Lion team, did not come to his aid, because he was disgruntled as well. “Our mobile members are one more than those of your team, in case you haven’t noticed!”

Neither of them able to convince the other, they started quarreling.

“Hey, buddies, a group of living people are standing here.” He Zheng was leaning against the door with the air of a hooligan, one leg in front of the other. Tao Wujiu hastened to put a cigarette between He Zheng’s teeth.

Allen and Ben burst into laughter as they saw He Zheng’s heavily bandaged arms which looked like those of a mummy.

He Zheng looked at them coldly.

Ben was breathless for laughing. “Hey, kid, your team members got wounded even worse than we did. What makes you think you’re in a position to compete against us for the championship?”

He Zheng, finding these words rather harsh, twisted his head back and gave Tao Wujiu a significant look. Tao Wujiu stealthily poked his head out of the door and looked around. “Nobody’s around. There’s no security camera here.”

He Zheng grinned and said to Tao Wujiu, “Go and get Chen Kai here. I need to teach these pals a lesson.”

This was what He Zheng had come to realize only recently – do not try to solve a problem by reasoning with anybody if you could settle it through violence.

Five minutes later, several pained screams suddenly issued from the ward of the Lion-Tiger alliance.

Someone immediately informed the instructors of the two sides, and someone else tried to escalate the situation. “Just now we saw some members of the Hua team walk into it!”

The instructor was startled at these words and promptly told Li Zong and Robbie the chairman of IEF to go to the ward immediately. The second before they pushed the door open, the instructor warned Li Zong in a serious tone, “Li, if anything happens to any of my team members, your team will be held responsible!”

Zhang Jingqiu directly kicked the door open.

Members of the Lion-Tiger alliance were standing in a row at the foot of the wall with tearful eyes, their legs trembling, each having an apple on top of his head.

He Zheng raised his eyebrows as he saw them enter. “Yo, what’s going on?”

“Instructor! Help us, Instructor! Th–These bastards want to kill us!”

“Kill you? That’s not true. Chen Kai is probably the second best archer in the world. He never misses. Besides, it was you guys who suggested we play this little game called ‘Little Apples’. You lost and then started crying. Don’t be such sore losers, okay?”

He Zheng’s tone and actions indicated that he was virtually regarding members of the Lion-Tiger alliance as three-year-olds.

Corners of the mouths of the two instructors of the Lion-Tiger alliance twitched involuntarily. One of them was relatively calm and demanded gruffly, “What happened exactly?”

He Zheng motioned for Chen Kai to put down the Sun-Shooting Bow and then said, “Look at these bandages of mine. What do you think I could have done?”

Leaving aside the severity of He Zheng’s injury, he did cut a sorry figure.

“Take it easy. I was just joking with them.”

A faintly resigned expression flashed across Li Zong’s face as he looked at the smugness on He Zheng’s face, but he said in a mock disapproving tone, “Such behavior is unacceptable. You could’ve hurt someone.”

Then he said to the other two instructors, “My team members were playing a friendly game with the Lion-Tiger alliance, and members of the alliance comported themselves with great enthusiasm and courage. I think the friendship between our three countries will be as firm as that of them.”

Li Zong used one big word after another, and the instructors of the Lion-Tiger alliance realized that it would be a disgrace if word got out about their team members’ poor performance. Li Zong had made it quite clear that he and his team were not very good at keeping secrets.

The two instructors couldn’t say anything else about the matter and had no choice but to swallow the insult.

Robbie gave a little cough and, trying hard to maintain a straight face, said, “It’s just a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. Everybody may go back and have some rest.”

Li Zong, the other instructors and members of the International Exorcism Federation (IEF) had been consulting each other about the matter of the championship, but had been interrupted. Li Zong, when walking out, tossed He Zheng a glance. He Zheng was smirking very cockily. Li Zong, feeling resigned, slightly shook his head.

After being taught a lesson by the two of them, the Lion-Tiger alliance finally quieted down.

In the afternoon, the competing teams returned to the island where they had previously assembled. A couple of days ago they had been full of pep, but now they were all wounded.

However, the competition was also over.

Robbie standing on the high platform began to speak.

“This competition was more dangerous than any of the previous ones. You encountered many unknown difficulties, but all those who toughed it out are the bravest warriors. You’ve overcome not only the difficulties but also yourselves. Now please raise your hands and applaud for yourselves.”

Disabled He Zheng and Chen Qianlin, ” … ”

The camera caught the two of them and the scene was indeed a little embarrassing.

Robbie gave a dry little cough and said, “Okay. Next I’ll announce the results of the competition. Six teams succeeded in finding the King of the Forest: the Southeast Asian team, the Neon team, the Rose team, the Lion team, the Tiger team and the Hua team.

And we counted the members of each team who could still move at the end of the fight with the King of the Forest. The Southeast Asian team, one; the Neon team, four; the Rose team, five; the Lion team and the Tiger team each had four left; the Hua team, six.”

He Zheng looked in the direction of the Rose team. Joe, standing with that priest, seemed to be somewhat afraid of He Zheng’s gaze, avoiding He Zheng’s eyes.

The champion team was the Hua team. Someone immediately yelled objections, saying that it was unfair. “All of us were carried out of the forest. Why are you giving the Hua team the championship?”

“Yeah. Is it because you made some kind of deal with them?!”

“Everybody calm down. The organizing committee has restored the video of what happened before the fire. Everything was recorded in it.”

The video was played, showing what had happened after the King of the Forest was destroyed. At that time, all members of the Lion-Tiger alliance had been unconscious. Chen Kai, Carnotte and Qiu Luo had been standing on the scene, He Zheng sitting on the ground, his arms covered in blood, his hand holding an orb, the one that Li Zong had extracted from the body of the King of the Forest and put into He Zheng’s hand after killing the monster.

No members of the Rose team was in the video.

The rule was that the team that had the orb of the King of the Forest and the most surviving members won. This video was concrete proof that the Hua team were the champions, but some contestants were unconvinced, especially the Lion-Tiger alliance, who were protesting the decision with indignation.

He Zheng suddenly gave a sneer and with that those in the vicinity instantly fell silent.

He lowered his head, tore open the bandages with a sort of casual elegance and then sharply pulled them off his arms with his hands, revealing the terrible-looking, gaping wounds. He did it so roughly that the wounds which had not yet healed reopened, blood spurting from them immediately.

Li Zong was standing beside Robbie. The look in his eyes turned apprehensive, but he did not stop He Zheng.

He Zheng raised his hand and the Shadow Sword materialized in it. He proudly stood where he was. Of all the contestants, most of whom were foreigners, He Zheng was not the tallest or the strongest, but his voice was the firmest.

“As captain of the Hua team, I must uphold the dignity of our team. If any of you are unconvinced, my Quintuple Lightning Enchantment will tell you who is the worthy champion.”

The others had seen the video and were fully aware of how powerful He Zheng’s lightning spells were. Even Nakayi Hakute, who had defeated the best three Jiangtou-casters of the Southeast Asian team, had not been able to defend against that blow from He Zheng. All of them were now injured, and even if they weren’t, they still wouldn’t stand a chance of defeating He Zheng.

“So what do you say? Anyone wants to give it a try?”

Everybody was quiet.

He Zheng smiled and withdrew his sword. He had sustained both severe trauma and internal bruising and had not recovered yet. What with the agitation, he had a dizzy spell and nearly lost his balance. Chen Qianlin impassively held his hand to support him. He Zheng unnoticeably shook his head and then said to the one standing on the rostrum, “Mr. Robbie, please resume.”

Resorting to violence might not be the best option, but it was the quickest way to have the others shut their mouths.

They emptily watched He Zheng walk up to the rostrum to take the cup and the prizes, but all of them were secretly contemptuous, indignant and jealous.

However, envious as they were, they knew in their hearts of hearts that He Zheng was indeed quite capable.

It was after this fight that all exorcists who had attended the competition came to know that a few years ago the Hua team had a member named Li Zong, whose talent was unmatched by any other exorcist, and now it had another exceptional member, who was not as powerful as Li Zong but was definitely grumpier and more inclined to resort to extreme methods than Li Zong.

Though the reputation of the two of them was slightly different, there was one fact that nobody could deny – He Zheng indeed captained the Hua team to championship.

The excellent lightning enchantments he had performed, the poise he had displayed when faced with a crisis, and the fearlessness, selflessness and wisdom he had shown at the time when his teammates’ lives had been at stake – all these were part of He Zheng’s outstanding performance, which had given the other contestants a deep impression.

The thickset man, Jon, who had just returned to Northern Europe, was totally unsurprised that He Zheng’s team had won the championship. In fact, he was immensely thankful that he and his teammates had quit the game at an early stage. From this day on, Jon never dared mess with black-haired, brown-eyed people who might come from the Republic of Hua.

After taking the prizes, He Zheng and the others decided to return home as soon as possible, for a copy of some divinatory symbols was among the prizes.

Speaking of the copy, He Zheng had seen it once. It indeed looked exactly the same as the one found in his mother’s cinerary casket. He had asked Robbie where they had got this copy, but to his disappointment, Robbie had not been able to provide much information about it either and had only known that a member of the federation had got it from a lady, that the lady had intimated these divinatory symbols concerned the safety of the Republic of Hua and even the world.

Therefore, when the lady had wanted to destroy these symbols, that member had stealthily copied them. Eventually the copy had fallen into the hands of IEF.

He Zheng had felt very upset after hearing the story. The events that had happened 20 years ago were like a giant web, and they hadn’t been able to figure out anything yet. Even on this day they were still trying very hard to find an answer, traveling around like headless flies.

But He Zheng was fairly optimistic. Since he couldn’t make sense of it at the moment, he decided to leave it aside, believing that the truth would reveal itself in due course.

They needed to return to the transit city first before they could take a flight back home.

The Rose team were on the same ship as theirs. It was said that Xiao Qi and Xiao Han had talked with their mother and decided to go to Hang City to visit their relatives and improve their skills.

Joe and the others were staying in another cabin, too shamefaced to come to this side. He Zheng had not made any remarks about Joe’s actions so far. He found it understandable that Joe, as captain of a rival team, had adopted certain strategies, for this was a competition, and it was a natural thing that opponents did not trust each other completely. But He Zheng had every reason to despise Joe’s subterfuge.

Still, their paths might never cross again.

They stayed together talking. After a while, Luca the snow wolf showed up and thanked Lao Ka and the others, saying that he, Luca, and his teammates might have suffered injuries in the inferno as well if Lao Ka had not dragged them out.

“Hey, it’s nothing, bro. In the competition zone we’re rivals, but here we’re friends. Come to the Republic of Hua and look us up when you have the time!”

Luca felt overwhelmingly flattered. Not having bargained on them being so friendly, Luca became even more sheepish and said that they must tell him in advance if some day they decided to go to the Rose Kingdom to travel.

He Zheng, who had been tense all along, finally relaxed as he saw that his teammates were getting along well with the others. Nobody knew that He Zheng had been nervous all along since he had been made captain. He was afraid that he might not be able to perform his duty as well as he was supposed to, that he might lose face, that he was not experienced enough to get the job done.

He was afraid of so many things. Fortunately he had Li Zong at his back.

He Zheng was immersed in some romantic reverie when someone gave him a push. Chen Qianlin, a killjoy, asked him in all apparent seriousness, “Good-for-nothing, what would you do if someone did challenge you to a fight back there?”

In Chen Qianlin’s eyes, it had been unnecessary for He Zheng to do that.

He Zheng said nonchalantly. “I’d fight them, had anybody challenged me.”

Chen Qianlin rolled his eyes upwards. “Fight my ass. You’d only get your sorry ass kicked.”

The others might not know the truth, but Chen Qianlin was fully aware that He Zheng’s energy was depleted, that he could only summon the Shadow Sword to put on an act, that he didn’t even have enough strength to defeat Lao Tao right now.

“Li Zong’s with me. I have nothing to be afraid of,” He Zheng smiled slyly. “If I’m not in a fit state to fight, I’ll just have my partner do it in my stead. That’s not against the rule, right?”

Chen Qianlin, ” … ”

After a few moments, Chen Qianlin finally failed to restrain himself and blurted, “Shame on you!”

He Zheng shrugged indifferently and said, “In those circumstances, I had to make all of them acknowledge us as champions, because apart from everything else, we earned the championship with our own fists.”

Chen Qianlin said, “With Supt. Li’s fists.”

“We would have won some time ago if it weren’t for the demonic Qi!”

Chen Qianlin curled his lip.

Looking at the quiet sea, He Zheng suddenly said, “Lao Chen, have you ever heard of this? ‘When your honor is at stake, you must do everything within your power to defend it.’

So back on that island, I had to do something.”

He Zheng twisted his head back and cast a smile at Chen Qianlin, who was glued to the spot and unable to speak for quite a while.

Li Zong, leaning against the balustrade not far away from them, slightly curved his lips, feeling that his flat-chested marriage partner finally grew up.