Chapter 93 : Chapter 93

Chapter 93. It’s Only a Preliminary Match—Why Are You Bringing Out a Top-tier Ninth-rank Magical Artifact?

“Ha, that host is giving them far too much credit. If you ask me, this first match is a complete one-sided stomp. The Phoenix Team won’t feel the slightest pressure.”

“That’s true. Even though Young Master Jiang once built Huaxia’s number-one team, Yanhuang Team, Spark Team was only formed a month ago. How could they possibly catch up to the Phoenix Team? What nonsense.”

“I think the problem lies with Young Master Jiang himself. The Phoenix Team was originally his, but later Young Master Jiang Feng poached them away. He only has himself to blame.”

“More than that, even Huaxia’s current number-one Yanhuang Team belongs to Young Master Jiang Feng now. It’s downright laughable. He spent all those years cultivating them, only for someone else to reap the rewards.”

“This league championship is also tied to the battle over the Jiang Family’s heirship. Young Master Jiang wants to rely on a newly assembled team to take the title? That is pure wishful thinking.”

“...”

The audience did not believe the host’s talk about a dark horse at all.

Every member of Phoenix Team was a Grandmaster of the Sixth Realm. Aside from Spark Team’s high martial talent, they had no other advantage whatsoever. It was obviously a one-sided match.

Seated in the stands, Jiang Feng curled his lips into a faint smile as he listened to the surrounding discussion.

He slowly rose, adjusted the tie of his custom-tailored suit, and walked toward the opposite side of the stands.

At a glance, he spotted Jiang Yichen sitting not far away, watching the match.

“Man, you do not seem very happy.”

Jiang Feng sat down beside him with graceful composure. “Are you afraid of losing?”

Jiang Yichen looked at him with the expression of an old man on the subway staring at a phone. “Kid, are you asking for a beating again?”

The old saying was right: if you were going to beat your little brother, you had to do it early.

Jiang Feng was not angered. He merely chuckled. “Man, I will not be provoked by tricks like yours. Just wait and watch Spark Team be toyed with and humiliated by Phoenix Team—”

Before he could finish, Jiang Yichen reached out, grabbed his ear, and twisted it slightly.

Jiang Feng gritted his teeth in pain and said in humiliated anger, “Man, I order you to let go!”

“And what if I do not?”

“I will say this one last time. Let go!”

Jiang Yichen remained unmoved. With a palm strike, he sealed Jiang Feng’s Blood Qi. “Kid, with strength like yours, what exactly are you barking about? I truly cannot understand how your mind works.”

Barking?

Jiang Feng’s eyes turned icy. Even though his ear had already been twisted red, he still refused to show the slightest loss of composure.

“Man, do not think you can provoke me again. Without my permission, I will not be angered by you.”

“...” Jiang Yichen’s mouth twitched. There really was something wrong with this cousin of his.

He kicked Jiang Feng once and waved him away. “Go play somewhere else. I do not have time to amuse you.”

Jiang Feng slowly clenched his fists, then pulled a small mirror from his breast pocket and looked at his reddened ear.

“Why is my ear so red?”

“Isn’t that perfectly normal? Twisting an ear makes the blood vessels expand...”

“Without my permission, it actually dared turn red on its own. Ear, you have overstepped.”

Jiang Feng stared at the ear in the mirror with a vicious look, as though he wanted to tear it off altogether.

Jiang Yichen: (☉_☉)

He was completely speechless. He immediately moved two seats farther away. He absolutely could not stay close to a lunatic.

Jiang Feng slowly lowered the mirror. His cold eyes swept over Jiang Yichen as he murmured,

“Man, just watch how Phoenix Team humiliates Spark Team.”

On the arena platform, Phoenix Team, dressed in uniforms bearing the phoenix emblem, stepped onto the stage. Huang Lu stood with her right hand on her hip, her eyes resolute as she looked straight ahead.

The four team members behind her also struck their own poses.

The entire crowd instantly erupted in cheers.

“Ahhh! That’s my idol, Captain Huang Lu! She’s so cool! I love her!”

“That entrance alone is amazing. As expected of last season’s second-place team. They’re unbelievably cool!”

“...”

Phoenix Team basked in the cheers of the audience, as though the place already belonged to them.

“Captain, we have to win the championship this season. Last time, it was all Jiang Yichen’s fault. Otherwise, the title would have been ours.”

“That’s right, Captain. We are definitely taking the championship this year. Leaving Jiang Yichen was the best decision we ever made.”

“At last, we no longer have to be ordered to deliberately throw matches. I’m going to vent all the humiliation of the past on Spark Team.”

Yet as Huang Lu listened to her teammates, she frowned.

She knew that no team wanted anything less than a fair and proper victory in winning the championship. She also hated the fact that Jiang Yichen had once made Phoenix Team deliberately lose.

But it was Young Master Jiang who had funded and supported Phoenix Team. They had enjoyed abundant cultivation resources under him, and now they were turning around and blaming him. Wasn’t that going a little too far?

Huang Lu sighed. Looking at the championship trophy high above the arena, she shook her head.

She truly wanted to lift that trophy. Last season had been the closest she had ever come, and that had left her full of regret.

This season, she would win. She would lift that championship trophy.

“Please welcome Spark Team onto the stage,” the host suddenly announced.

Led by Su Linyu, Spark Team slowly stepped onto the arena platform. The confidence on their faces was enough to make people feel as though they truly could win.

Yet not a single person in the crowd cheered for them. What filled the air instead was quiet mockery and whispered ridicule.

“This lineup is pure nobility. The Su Family’s young miss, the Chu Family’s eldest young master, the Tang Family’s second young master. The lineup is certainly prestigious, but whether they have the strength is another question.”

“Strength? Just a month ago, they had only finished the Martial Exam. At best, the Su Family’s young miss was only at the peak of the fourth realm. I bet even the fifth-realm Grandmaster listed in the team information is fake.”

“Ha! Bringing fourth-realm fighters to the Team League? That is a little too arrogant.”

“...”

The spectators all shook their heads and laughed.

In the VIP section, Shen Qingyue, dressed in a white satin cheongsam, looked down at the arena with worry in her brows.

With such a huge disparity in strength between the two sides, she naturally hoped Spark Team would win, but reality made that hope feel terribly fragile.

“Sister Qingyue, there is no need to worry. You will understand soon enough,” Su Zhan said calmly.

Shen Qingyue thought Su Zhan was merely trying to comfort her, so she nodded slightly, though the worry in her expression remained unresolved.

“Old Su, you seem to have quite a bit of faith in Spark Team.”

Tang Wuji turned the thumb ring on his thumb as he asked curiously.

Su Zhan rubbed his cane and nodded. “I think Spark Team is a dark horse.”

Tang Wuji raised a brow and looked at Tang Long on the arena.

He was only half-convinced by Su Zhan’s words. His formerly unremarkable son had, in the past month, shown martial progress that had surpassed even his elder brother’s.

His martial talent had even risen to SS-rank.

But against the crushing advantage of Phoenix Team, whose entire roster was in the sixth realm, it still did not seem enough.

“Old Chu, what do you think?”

Chu Ningfeng shook his head. “I only came to see how my son performs. Win or lose does not matter.”

“But if you insist on asking for my judgment, then Phoenix Team has the greater chance of winning.”

Tang Wuji nodded in agreement.

Listening nearby, Zhou Mingyuan and Jiang Dongnian both let faint smiles rise on their lips.

If Jiang Yichen’s team fell in the preliminary round, then the position of heir to the Jiang Family would belong to Jiang Feng.

Their respective goals would both be perfectly achieved.

The two exchanged a smile, and their eyes fell upon the arena.

“Both sides, prepare yourselves. The match... begins!” the host loudly declared.

The two teams immediately spread out into formation. The members of Phoenix Team all brought out sixth-rank Magical Artifacts and prepared for battle.

As for the Spark Team...

Flames danced in Su Linyu’s eyes, and golden-red trails of fire flickered at her brows as Southern Radiant Flame spread across the arena platform.

Suddenly, a crimson feather fan appeared in her hand, radiating powerful waves of Spiritual Energy.

Chu Xingchen’s gaze sharpened. As the sword at his waist was slowly drawn, a storm of sword qi instantly swept up around him, stinging faces with pain.

The mere act of drawing the sword unleashed terrifying pressure.

Then Tang Long rubbed his nose. Golden light covered his entire body, and a massive golden shield crashed heavily onto the arena platform, instantly covering the ground in fine cracks.

The entire arena fell into dead silence in an instant. Everyone was dumbstruck.

The power of those Magical Artifacts...

The moment they were revealed, they stirred signs in heaven and earth, and their pressure was overwhelming.

Those were...

top-tier Ninth-rank Magical Artifacts!?