piratefiction Chapter 169 Elimination Rounds
Chapter 169 Elimination Rounds
The knockout stage rules were simple and brutal—single-elimination. Thirty-two teams battled it out in pairs; one loss meant elimination, with no resurrection or tiebreakers. A huge scoreboard stood beside the ring, with team names lined up in a row. Winners moved one space forward, while losers were simply crossed off the board without a trace. The atmosphere in the stands was several levels more tense than during the group stage. In the group stage, distraction and mistakes were allowed; in the knockout stage, no such restrictions existed—every match could be the last.
Their first opponent was the Yanjing Martial Arts University team, a long-established powerhouse in the country. Several of their senior members were renowned figures throughout the region. As soon as they stepped onto the stage, cheers and applause erupted from the stands. The five of them moved with steady, synchronized footwork, their backs straight, a testament to their family's martial arts prowess. Lin Chen stood opposite them, saying nothing, his sword held horizontally in front of him, awaiting the referee's signal. From the very first exchange, their opponents unleashed their full power without reservation, their moves sharp and tightly coordinated. But Lin Chen and his team gave them no respite. Leng Feng directly confronted their opponent's fist strikes, the sound of his blade slicing through the air clearly audible; Su Muyue's array patterns spread out, dividing the arena into several zones, bringing her opponent's every move under her control; Su Ling'er's pills and Chu Fan's array plates worked in tandem, precisely intercepting their attempts to create distance. Lin Chen struck when his team needed him, his sword flashing, precise and decisive. The moment the referee raised his arm to declare Xingwu University the winner, some people in the stands stood up, some applauded, and some scribbled something in their notebooks. No one cheered for long, because the next match was already waiting.
The following matches followed a similar rhythm. The five fighters became increasingly fluid and faster. Chu Fan's detection array acted like an invisible net, pre-planning the opponents' positions, attack directions, and the strength of their true energy; Leng Feng charged in directly after the net opened, shattering the opponent's formation; Su Ling'er filled the gaps with pill fire and poison, forcing the opponents to constantly shrink their circle; Su Muyue locked the entire arena, preventing anyone from escaping from her array; Lin Chen delivered the decisive blow with his sword after the opponents' formation was disrupted. One win, two wins, three wins, four wins. The five fighters pushed their way from the top 32 to the top 8.
Their opponent in the quarterfinals was none other than the black-robed independent team. That afternoon, the Alliance Security Department deployed additional personnel, several patrolling groups of martial artists appeared at the arena's entrances, and the array nodes near the main stage were reactivated. Chen Feng deliberately entered through the side passage of the spectator stands, without exchanging pleasantries with anyone, and went straight to sit in the observation seat beside the arena, a stack of encrypted documents beside him, his gaze never leaving the direction of the arena.
On the day of the match, the arena was surrounded by far more people than in previous matches. Security personnel stood in a row along the inner edge of the stands, their hands resting on their weapons. Staff members repeatedly checked the array points of the protective shield three times to ensure it could be activated at the first moment. Chen Feng sat in the observation box, his back straight, his hand on the edge of the table, on which lay a diagram of the arena's underground structure. Three men in black robes slowly walked onto the stage. Their steps were slow and steady, the hem of their black robes sweeping across the stage without stirring up a speck of dust. The leader stood in the center of the stage, raised his hand, and pulled back his hood.
The moment his hood slipped down, his entire face was exposed to the lights at the top of the ring. His skin was sickly pale, so pale that the faint blue veins below his cheekbones were visible. His eyes were sunken, his pupils a dark red, narrowed to slits. A slight upturn at the corners of his mouth revealed blackened gums and uneven teeth. He glanced around the stands, then fixed his gaze on Lin Chen, his smile slowly widening.
Lin Chen stepped onto the stage, sword in hand. His boots landed on the bluestone slabs of the arena. With each step, a surge of star energy erupted from his dantian, illuminating his body with a silvery-white light. The light wasn't dazzling, yet it carved out a territory of its own even under the bright lights. That silvery light carried an undeniable weight, drawing in the air within three feet of him to form his aura.
"Remnants of the evil race dare to step onto the human martial arts arena." A wisp of silver light emanated from the gap between the scabbard and the blade of his sword, appearing and disappearing intermittently. "Today, we'll settle both old and new scores."
The referee stood still, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the two teams, then glanced at Chen Feng in the spectator stand. After hesitating for a moment, he raised his hand to announce the start of the match.
The moment the sound fell, the two guards behind Black Crow moved simultaneously. They attacked from both sides at the same time, their black scythes carrying a bloodthirsty aura, the blades leaving two dark red afterimages in the air, even the air itself seemed to hiss sharply. Leng Feng barely paused, his battle blade slashing out at the same instant the scythe fell, the blade colliding with the scythe, exploding into a shower of sparks. He stepped forward with his left foot, his shoulder blade bracing against the force, pressing the opponent's scythe to one side, then using his body to push the evil man out of the center area, bringing him to the edge of the arena. Just as the other guard was about to fill in, Chu Fan had already crouched in the other corner of the arena, the array plate falling, spiritual light spreading along the array patterns on the ground, blocking his path. Su Ling'er moved between the two, not approaching, but the pill fire and medicinal mist had already formed in her palm.
Su Muyue stood at the edge of the arena, her hands forming hand seals faster and faster. The Evil-Repelling Array extended outwards from beneath her feet, its patterns covering the entire edge of the arena. The evil energy that touched the edge of the array was silently absorbed, not a trace of it dissipating towards the stands.