Ch. 226 - Battle -- All Passion, Zero Technique

"Brother Wang Teng, I knew you had talent from the very start!"

Chen Shu broke into a wide grin. Reality was cruel, sure, but at least this guy had guts worth admiring!

Everyone else just shook their heads, shadows already settling deep into their hearts.

They didn't aspire to surpass Chen Shu. They just hoped he'd stop humiliating them!

Xia Bing lowered her voice. "Chen Pi, what the hell did you do?"

Xu Xiaoyu looked over with the same confusion in her eyes.

Something about this Beast Taming competition felt... off.

They'd even prepared for a brutal fight, and then their very first opponents just surrendered on the spot.

Xu Xiaoyu fell silent. She was starting to understand what Chen Shu had said earlier.

Maybe just carrying his photo onto the stage really could've clinched first place...

"Can't help it. Personal magnetism just radiates, you know..."

Chen Shu shook his head and sighed. "It's this deadly Kingly Domination Aura of mine!"

"..."

The two girls' mouths twitched. They didn't bother asking follow-up questions -- they'd already pieced it together.

This bastard had probably gone and pre-played the entire Beast Taming competition last week...

The second match got underway.

Thankfully, neither of these two teams needed to surrender, and an actual fight began!

The audience let out a collective sigh of relief.

If the whole thing was nothing but piss-break moments, what was the point of watching?

And yet, while the two teams were technically fighting on the competition platform, they both looked completely lifeless.

No matter how hard they tried, the best they could manage was second place. Nobody had much passion left in them.

For a school, second or third place was still an honor.

But as students, all they wanted was first -- the chance to see the province's most talented prodigies with their own eyes.

Now that first place was already spoken for, it was like all their energy had been drained dry...

"The fuck? Why does this feel like a fixed match?!"

"Right? All three of them are just doing their own thing out there. Zero coordination."

"This year's ticket was a total waste of money..."

All six fighters on the platform wore looks of utter defeat.

Nanjiang First High's Lin Ziyan spoke up. "Captain, are we trying to win this one?"

Jiang Tian's expression was flat. "What, you WANT to surrender to Nanjiang Second High?"

He had no intention of bowing to his lifelong rival again.

His other two teammates shook their heads as well. "How about we just... barely lose?"

"Yeah. Just make it look convincing!"

Meanwhile, over on Nanjiang Fourth High's side, their team was having the exact same discussion.

"Captain Du Li, are we going for the win?"

"Win my ass! I'm not surrendering to anyone's face!"

Both schools were competing in an advancement match. Whoever won would face Nanjiang Second High next -- which basically meant walking up on stage to get publicly humiliated.

Sure, both second and third place came with prize money.

But as the cream of their school's crop, Huaxia yuan couldn't hold a candle to their dignity.

One teammate spoke up timidly. "Actually, we could try for second place... The whole city would remember us..."

Du Li from Fourth High said, "Do you know what the most dangerous Alternate Dimension in the world is?"

The guy blinked, then answered. "Dragon Abyss in Huaxia!"

"And the second most dangerous?"

Du Li continued with a tone of deep gravity, trying to teach his teammate a philosophical lesson:

The world only remembered first place. Nobody cared about second.

The teammate answered with complete sincerity. "The Magic Beast Lair in the West!"

"??"

Du Li's brain short-circuited. He pressed on. "Third?!"

"The Death Altar in Africa!"

"???"

Du Li's mouth twitched. "Just... stop talking!"

This dumbass had nothing better to do than read extracurricular books all day, huh...

Granted, high school geography did cover Alternate Dimensions -- but it only taught the ones inside Huaxia. The world's major Alternate Dimensions were university-level material...

"What I was TRYING to tell you was... forget it, I don't even want to say it anymore!"

Du Li curled his lip. "Bottom line -- we're losing this, and we're losing it beautifully! So seamlessly that nobody even notices. Got it?!"

The other two nodded, every bit the loyal subordinates following their captain's orders.

And so, two teams that had committed fully to throwing began their "all-out battle."

This time, they were going to slack off to their hearts' content!

Both sides' Contract Spirits traded skill blasts. Every single attack managed to "accidentally" connect, and before long, every Contract Spirit on stage was wounded.

This battle could truly be described as all passion and zero technique.

"Goddamn, why is this kinda boring..."

Quite a few audience members were yawning. Skill cooldowns weren't short, and the two sides had been going back and forth for nearly half an hour.

"That should about do it!"

The three members of Fourth High exchanged glances. Their Contract Spirits were all injured now -- withdrawing at this point was perfectly reasonable!

But right at that moment, Jiang Tian spoke up:

"Your school is truly formidable! We concede!"

And just like that, First High recalled their Contract Spirits on the spot.

This move left the Fourth High teammates completely stunned.

"Bro, hold on -- your Storm Thunder Bird lost TWO feathers. That's enough to surrender?!"

Jiang Tian replied with perfect composure. "You wouldn't understand. It sustained internal injuries."

With that, he led his teammates straight off the competition platform without looking back.

"This Beast Taming competition has been thoroughly, completely, utterly destroyed by Chen Shu!"

Shen Wushuang let out a sigh. He'd already realized what was happening.

Next came the bouts between the remaining four schools. Thankfully, Fifth High actually wanted to claim the second-place prize -- not every prodigy was above caring about the money.

Fifth High's hard-fought match at least gave the audience something worth watching.

But the other schools that were tanking? Nobody wanted to watch that shit at all.

Even the principals of each school kept their heads down, not saying a word. The competition had become an embarrassment of epic proportions...

Then it was time for the four advancing teams to compete.

Unsurprisingly, the moment anyone drew Nanjiang Second High, they surrendered on the spot.

The bracket flew by at breakneck speed. By the afternoon, it was already time for the championship bout.

Inside the Beast Taming Arena, a third of the audience had left.

The remaining two-thirds were still naive enough to hope the final would be at least a little exciting...

"Next up, let us welcome Nanjiang Second High and Nanjiang Fifth High to compete for this year's championship!!"

Clap... clap...

A smattering of scattered applause rose from the stands.

The crowd forced themselves to perk up, hoping to catch at least one decent fight.

Chen Shu and his team walked onto the competition platform with perfectly casual expressions, waiting for the other team to arrive.

But Fifth High was nowhere to be seen.

"Hm?"

Chen Shu furrowed his brow. He'd assumed they were being disobedient and was already thinking about settling the score later.

"It seems our friends from Nanjiang Fifth High are a bit nervous! Let's give them a moment..."

The host smoothed things over with a smile.

And then -- from god knows where -- a piece of white cloth came drifting through the air, landing with pinpoint accuracy right on the competitor's spot.

The entire audience, and the host, went completely blank...

"What the fuck..."

Fifth High's principal buried his face in his hands. He couldn't even bring himself to look at anyone. His students had gone absolutely off the rails.

Everyone stared at the white cloth fluttering gently on the platform, expressions frozen in a collective daze.

So the championship match... didn't even have a fucking person show up?