Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
—
Four countries were placed in the winner bracket: Greece, England, China, and Egypt.
The loser’s bracket consisted of the USA, Canada, Germany, and France.
The first round ended with the match between China and Germany. It was very likely that a lot of new names were going to show up on the ranking after the intense matches in the first round.
Meanwhile, Mo Fan finally made it to the third rank after the defeat of the German team, taking Reed’s spot.
Reed’s weaknesses had been exposed by the match. The other countries would not struggle as much against Reed’s Innate Talent once they prepared more defensive equipment for the match.
As for Mo Fan’s destructive power, it did not really matter how much defensive equipment or how many spells they had, they were still going to be knocked to the ground!
It was rare for students to duel one another outside of a tournament, thus it was fairly difficult to tell who was stronger on a team without going through the match against the German team.
The schedule of the matches for the winner bracket was yet to be decided. It would only be revealed during the day of the matches.
The participants had two days to rest up. However, those who had suffered great injuries, like Zhao Manyan were unlikely to participate in the next match. Judging from his outstanding performance in the first match, the team would have a better chance at winning if he was able to take part in the second match too, since the synergy between him and Mo Fan was flawless.
One had perfect defense, while the other had perfect offense. When they were both on the stage, the opposing team would have to put in a strenuous effort just to deal with them.
Mo Fan’s energy was recovering at a slow pace. He had expended too much energy from his Fire, Lightning, and Summoning Elements. Mo Fan could not guarantee that he would fully recover in just two days. That being said, the energy of his Shadow and Space Elements was plentiful.
Similarly, Ai Jiangtu was overwhelmed by fatigue, too. He had stayed in the match for the longest on their team, since he was in it right from the very start. He was the mainstay of the team. Without him, the team would have collapsed early on.
Ai Jiangtu’s condition was worse than Mo Fan’s. There was no way he would be taking part in the next match.
The good news was that Mu Ningxue had recovered from her injuries. She also used the chance to digest the resources she had acquired from the treasure hunt.
She needed Ice Fundamental Crystals. The money she got from selling her share of the loot in the treasure hunt was enough for her to buy Fundamental Crystals to fill up another piece of the Ice Crystal Bow. As a result, her cultivation had improved, too. She would have to bear a heavy responsibility for the upcoming matches!
—
On the third day, the second round of the finals finally began. The four teams in the winner bracket would be competing against one another, followed by the four teams in the loser bracket. The outcome of the matches would further decide the groupings of the teams.
The people had high hopes in the Chinese team after their outstanding performance in the first match. However, the Chinese team was not in luck in the second round, as they were drawn to face the English team that was most likely going to be the champion of the tournament.
The English team was crazy strong, especially Zorro, who was ranked first among the participants. Many people shared the same comment about him: his strength was unfathomable. Even Ayleen, who was fairly close to Mo Fan and Mu Ningxue, mentioned that the man was incomprehensible, as if he came from outer space. Even as his teammate, Ayleen the Great Duchess had never seen Zorro use all his strength.
Everyone was well aware of how strong the English team was. Apart from the first-ranked Zorro, the other members had occupied two other spots on the ranking. The participant ranked seventh, and some other ranks were also members of the English team.
The Chinese team found itself in quite an awkward situation. After the intense match against the German team, their captain, Ai Jiangtu, was unable to fight the next match. Mo Fan’s Lightning and Fire Elements had not fully recovered yet, and both Zhao Manyan and Jiang Shaoxu were still recovering from serious injuries…
“Forfeit the match?”
“Feng Li, did I hear it right? Are we seriously going to forfeit the match?”
Feng Li nodded. He had made the decision as soon as the team was drawn against the English team.
Among the countries in the winners bracket, both Greece and England were super powerhouses. The Chinese team basically had no chance of winning against either of them. As such, Feng Li did not hesitate to forfeit the match. However, if they had gone up against the Egyptian team, they would have gone all out instead!
Clearly, luck would not always be in their favor. They had a one in three chance to be up against Egypt, and two in three to be drawn against a team they would surely lose to.
“Won’t the people find it hard to accept that we’ve given up on the match without trying?” Han Ji asked directly.
“If we still give it all even though we know we’re going to lose, and eventually cost ourselves the rest of the matches for the tournament, that’s called being stupid! It’ll be even harder for the people to accept it. We didn’t give up on the finals, nor did we give up on securing a higher rank in the tournament. We have only decided to preserve our strength after analyzing the situation, just so we can win the third match!” Feng Li said firmly.
“Old Feng, I always thought you were an inflexible man. I agree that we have no chance of winning the match. Instead of losing the match after giving our best, we should just preserve our strength for the next match instead,” Mo Fan agreed with a grin.
Feng Li had made up his mind. Even though the advisors did not think it was appropriate to purposely forfeit the match, there was no dissent with his decision.
—
In the second round, the first match was between China and England. Feng Li sent out Guan Yu and Li Kaifeng, the two agile Mages to probe the English team’s strength. The remaining members only joined the match as a mere formality. Those that were fit for battle stayed for a while longer, while the others withdrew from the match as early as possible.
The match was incredibly boring to watch, but the people knew that the match between the Chinese team and the German team was too intense. The Chinese team was up against a powerhouse before their members could even recover. It would be stupid if they decided to force themselves to fight the match.
The Chinese team ended up preserving their strength by losing the match. They were placed in the group with one win.
The English team won again, and was placed in the group with two wins.
The match between Greece and Egypt turned out to be the highlight of the winner bracket. Everyone totally expected the Egyptian team to be crushed by Greece, yet they somehow came up with a dirty strategy against the Greek team and dragged the match out, allowing them to fill the stage with undead once again.
The Chinese team was regarded as a black horse, but the performance of the Egyptian team in the tournament had been shocking, too. Their perfect teamwork and undead strategy had forced the powerhouse that was Greece into a pinch. The whole world was amazed by the rise of the Egyptian team!
Undead strategy!
Egypt’s national team perfectly utilized the strength of their country to defeat the Mages that practiced other Elements. Seventy percent of the team consisted of Mages with the Undead Element. People initially thought the Egyptian team was only lucky with their strategy, as Canada was not supposed to lose to Egypt. To their surprise, even Greece failed miserably in the second round!
The final outcome was absolutely shocking. The Egyptian team secured the victory with their undead strategy, defeating Greece, which was thought to be unbeatable!
Both Egypt and England had gotten two wins so far. They would be facing one another, and the winning team would have three wins in total. That team would immediately skip the fourth round, and find the other team in the final round that would decide who the champion of the tournament was.
“Is Egypt really that strong? I can’t believe it,” Mo Fan said to Mu Ningxue.
Mo Fan and Mu Ningxue had fought the Egyptian team when they were still at the Training Hall. Among its members, Sayed, Shreev, and Meos were not particularly outstanding. If they had to evaluate the Egyptian team’s strength, they would easily place them among the sixteen countries that had been disqualified from the tournament.
But now, not only had they made it to the finals, and were lucky enough to win the first match, they unbelievably won the second match too! If they ended up beating the English team too, they would surely be ranked first or second in the tournament!
Everyone was struggling to accept the truth.
“I believe they weren’t planning to have outstanding students right from the start. It’s obvious that their undead strategy has been aiming for the team battles, especially the finals, since eight members of the team are going to be participating in a match, meaning that they could arrange eight Undead Mages to take part in a match if they want…” Mu Ningxue said.
The members of the Egyptian team were pretty average when it came to duels, but when the members came together, they were the most annoying team to fight against!
It did not matter how difficult it was for the people to accept the outcome, Egypt had indeed made it to their current position. People no longer thought they were being lucky with their wins. The rest of the countries had started putting more effort into learning their undead strategy, just so they would not be taken by surprise if they ended up facing them. After all, even a strong team like Greece had lost to them, even though Greece’s overall strength was not any weaker than England’s. Greece had even won against the other powerhouse of the tournament, America!
—
The sacred mountain of the Parthenon Temple had a few cliffs, and one of them faced the rising sun in the east…
On the cliff facing the Hall of the Goddess, strong winds were blowing into a cave, swinging a little hut hanging in the air inside it.
The swinging hut had the blue sky with a slight curve as its background, the face of the cliff was around twenty meters away. Below it was a seventy-meters-long path, covered in verdant and thick grass.
A woman with bare feet and a slender figure was spotted in the slightly swaying hut. Her curvy body leaned against the soft couch as she was dressed in a cozy, yet noble white dress. The glamorous woman sat comfortably in the swinging hut, humming a pleasant melody…
On her left was a bottle of carbonated drink, and on her right was her phone. Her disheveled, tawny hair was occasionally lifted up whenever a wind blew. Asha’ruiya enjoyed spending her time here in the afternoon!
The phone began to vibrate. Asha’ruiya glanced at it indifferently. News of insignificant matters rarely reached her phone. It must be something very important if it was disturbing her peaceful afternoon.
“The team lost?” Asha’ruiya was quite surprised. “Those idiots, did they seriously lose to Egypt after beating America?
“There goes my break, I thought I could relax for a few days since Andi is dead…”
“It’s me, Asha’ruiya, prepare my plane for tonight, I’m flying to Venice.”
“First, I’m a member of the team, even though I didn’t take part in the training. Second, as a public figure, isn’t it my responsibility to represent Greece and win some glory back? Third, the final election is taking place soon, and if a candidate is particularly outstanding during the World College Tournament that the whole world is watching, wouldn’t I win over more supporters too…”
After hanging up the phone, Asha’ruiya smiled with great anticipation.