CHAPTER 729: CHAPTER 734: BATTLE OF THE TOP FOUR (2)

Ling Chen was the first to draw lots, and without much glance, he directly pulled out a bamboo stick. At the bottom of the stick, there was a number, three.

He hoped to draw a bye. Ling Chen thought to himself, to advance to the semi-finals without doing anything was a stroke of effortless good luck he certainly wanted.

Soon, all seven people had finished drawing. As everyone revealed their numbers, Ling Chen’s expression immediately changed.

He had hoped for some good luck, but his opponent turned out to be Yang Zhe!

Not only that, the strongest contender, Wang Hao, had drawn a bye.

Damn! Ling Chen couldn’t help but curse silently, feeling completely out of luck. It would have been one thing to draw a Dragon List master as an opponent, but he ended up drawing a master from the Earthly List, which was horribly unlucky.

"Ling Chen versus Yang Zhe."

When the referee announced the pairings, the audience around the stage was immediately shocked, showing various expressions.

"This Ling Chen is really unlucky, drawing Yang Zhe. It looks like he’s stopping at the semi-finals today."

"Yes, although he defeated Tong Nan the other day, Tong Nan and Yang Zhe are completely different levels."

In the ranking of Earthly List masters, each level has a big difference. Tong Nan’s strength at best ranked ninth in the Earthly List, but Yang Zhe’s strength was between eighth and seventh, much stronger than Tong Nan. Besides, during the day of the contest between Tong Nan and Ling Chen, many people noticed that Tong Nan lost partly because he underestimated his opponent and made mistakes. Additionally, it was Ling Chen’s first battle; no one knew his tactics back then, but today was different, people had a general understanding of his methods and would naturally guard against him.

Therefore, if Ling Chen still wanted to win with those techniques, it would be very difficult.

At this moment, after the judge’s arrangement, the match between Ling Chen and Yang Zhe was scheduled to be the last one.

After stepping down, Ling Chen returned to Qiu Yong and the others with a wry smile on his face.

Yuan Yun sighed, patted Ling Chen’s shoulder, and comforted, "Ling Cheng, don’t think too much, just do your best."

"If it really doesn’t work out, you might as well forfeit." At this moment, porridge girl came over and said, "I just asked Su Mei, that Yang Zhe’s strength is very strong, ranked in the top three within Yangxin Pavilion, except for Wang Hao and Yang Tao, he is the most formidable. Everyone would understand if you forfeit against such an opponent, no one would laugh at you."

Hearing porridge girl’s suggestion, Ling Chen shook his head lightly. Although he knew she meant well, he couldn’t give up easily. This opportunity was hard-won; he couldn’t let it pass so easily. Otherwise, not only would he despise himself, but Su He would also be disappointed.

During this visit to Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, even though Su He did not indicate anything, Ling Chen could see that Su He had great expectations for him and hoped he would achieve a good result.

Furthermore, to step back ten thousand steps, even if he really wasn’t a match, it would be good to compete against an Earthly List master to enhance his real combat experience against powerful fighters.

Amid these thoughts, he saw Yang Tao not far away, gesturing for him to come over.

Ling Chen quickly ran to him and asked, "Yang, what’s wrong?"

"Nothing much, Master asked me to remind you of a few things, and I also have some words to tell you. When you confront Yang Zhe, if you want to beat him, you must pay attention to one key point."

"Key point?" Ling Chen asked curiously, "What key point?"

"Yang Zhe has a habit when he spars with others, listen carefully..." Saying this, Yang Tao leaned in close to Ling Chen and whispered a few words. Finally, Yang Tao raised his head and said, "Yang Zhe is my biological brother, I know him best, so don’t doubt what I’ve told you."

Ling Chen was momentarily stunned and asked, "Yang, since you are brothers, why would you still..."

"It’s nothing." Yang Tao said indifferently, "Although we are brothers, this time we are not fighting for brothers, but for our respective masters. Master told me that the Nine Elements Pill is very important to you, it could save your father’s life. So, I will help if I can, but whether you can obtain the Nine Elements Pill depends on your own skills and fortune."

"Thank you!"

Ling Chen thanked him, and then turned back to join Qiu Yong and the others, quietly waiting for his turn to enter the arena.

There were two fights ahead of Ling Chen, both featuring Dragon List masters, with not much to watch, nobody was really interested.

The first fight featured Liang Zheng on the stage. As expected, perhaps due to injury, he, being the strongest among the Dragon List masters, surprisingly lost to a slightly lesser opponent, missing out on the semi-finals.

As the second fight was about to end, Ling Chen stood up from his seat, starting to warm up for his upcoming battle.

In less than five minutes, the two Dragon List masters on the stage decided the winner and, including the bye drawn by Wang Hao, three out of four semi-finalists were determined. Now, it all depended on the showdown between Ling Chen and Yang Zhe to see who would secure the last semi-final spot.

"Ling Cheng, go ahead, no matter the result, just do your best," Qiu Yong said.

Ling Chen nodded, took a deep breath, and then stepped onto the stage.

Looking at Yang Zhe standing opposite, Ling Chen clasped his hands together, smiled slightly, and said, "Yang, I didn’t expect us to meet here."

"Last time, thanks to your help, a disaster was averted. However, favors aside, I won’t go easy this time in our match; let’s fight fairly. If you want to win, show your true skills."

"Of course!"

"The third fight, Ling Chen versus Yang Zhe, begins!"

As the judge’s words fell, Ling Chen, without a second thought, turned around and dashed to the weapon rack behind him, taking down a longbow and a quiver of arrows, which he slung across his waist.

However, just as Ling Chen picked up his weapons, a gust of wind hurriedly approached from behind with tremendous speed.

Faced with the imminent threat, Ling Chen, without thinking, spun around, left hand gripping the bow, right hand pulling an arrow, slightly drawing the bowstring, and shooting out a sharp arrow directly at Yang Zhe’s body.

Due to the hasty action, Ling Chen’s arrow didn’t have much force, and its speed wasn’t at its peak either. However, Ling Chen’s intent with this arrow was not to wound Yang Zhe, but to force him back.

Sure enough, seeing the arrow coming, Yang Zhe’s forward charge abruptly stopped, he leaned his torso slightly back, and the arrow whizzed by, barely missing his upper body.

Seizing the moment, Ling Chen moved his legs quickly, rushing to the other side of the stage, creating distance between them.

Whoosh!

As Yang Zhe adjusted his position, Ling Chen did not hesitate and shot another arrow.