Chapter 176 - Let's Go

"Hahahaha! It's good that you aren't scared!" The harpy looked over to his tent and gave a signal. Shortly, two more harpies jumped up on stage to join him. "We are all here now, and you can choose your opponents! I do not want to be a bully."

Bah! Most of them rolled their eyes in their hearts. Choose our opponents? How are we supposed to choose when all three of you look the same? Bulky, horns, and green-and-black skin. How are we even supposed to tell your ability?

"Senior Brother Wei!"

"Senior Brother Kou!"

Both Seventh Truth Platform and Heavenly Sea Pavilion disciples looked at their seniors hopefully.

Wei Chunqiu and Kou Wei exchanged glances before giving a signal to Lu Mingshu. They then leapt up to the stage together.

Since the barbarians were looking for them, how could they give in to them?

Lin Zixin nodded at their reaction. "Even though the fights for a place on the New Generation Ranking has ended already, this challenge would only take place if both parties agree to it. Since both have agreed to take up the challenge, then the match shall take place. However, there's a rule to follow; all of you are in the Harmonization Realm, so it should be a friendly match. If there's any action that is overly aggressive, I'll step in and the match will stop." He smiled at both parties.

Overly aggressive would be when one party tried to maim the other on purpose. Small injuries were inevitable, but if one went too far, then actions would be taken.

"Okay, discuss it among yourselves how you want the matches to take place."

Lin Zixin stepped back and let them take charge of the situation.

The harpy who jumped on stage first stepped out immediately. "So, which one of you will fight first?"

Kou Wei let out a light chuckle and fanned himself. "This brother here, why are you so anxious? We haven't even decided on the rules yet."

"So how do you all want to fight then? Speak up!" the second harpy shouted.

"The challenger's fight has already lasted for six days. I am sure that the spectators are already bored of it."

"Why do you speak so much nonsense?" The third harpy started to blabber impatiently. "Just tell us how you want to fight!"

Kou Wei exchange glances with Wei Chunqiu. He then turned to them and plastered a smile on his face. "It's a waste of time if we go one by one. Why don't we… have a group fight? It's getting late anyway."

"Together?" The harpies stared blankly at him. The harpies were all super strong, and they preferred to fight alone unless it was for encircling prey.

"Yes, a group fight!" Wei Chunqiu answered firmly. "Three versus three, there's no need to pick an opponent."

"This…"

"Let's finish early so that we can go back and have dinner. I heard that there's fresh venison today, and I'm looking forward to it!" Kou Wei smiled broadly.

Laughter immediately filled the tents.

"That's right! Do not delay our Senior Brother Kou's dinner!"

"Hey, you little pieces of s.h.i.t, are you perhaps afraid?"

"Yeah! Weren't you oh-so confident just now? What happened?"

The atmosphere made it sound like this was just a warm-up before dinner. They were all now energized and had temporarily forgotten about their worries.

"Who's afraid!?" the first harpy shouted at the spectators. "Come and fight!"

"Bulls.h.i.t! Who's afraid?"

"Chinese people only know how to boast!"

"Wait and see how your best three go crawling back!"

The barbarians were all angered and started to blabber in their language.

"Okay!" Kou Wei closed his fan and nodded. "Since everyone has agreed, then let's start?"

"Sure!" The three harpies were dying to fight ever since they stepped on stage, so why would they disagree now?

Kou Wei looked over at his two teammates, and the trio went to the other side of the stone tablet.

"Miss Lu, you won't blame me for acting on my own initiative, right?" Kou Wei asked.

Lu Mingshu shook her head. "Senior Brother Kou suggested a group fight because of me. I thank you for the consideration, but I'm not sure how much of help I'll be."

Among the three of them, she was the short plank in the bucket. That was simply a fact that couldn't be denied. If ten years of painstaking work could be compared with a few strengthening seals, then martial arts would be worthless.

"On top of that," Lu Mingshu look at them worriedly, "both of you just finished a tough match. Are you even able to fight right now?"

The previous match sucked out all of their energy. In a certain sense, it could be said that neither of them won.

Kou Wei shook his head. "It's okay. The Heavenly Sea Pavilion has good techniques for recovering. I prepared some secret medicine, and I now have at least 90% of my full strength."

Lu Mingshu nodded. 90% was pretty good.

Wei Chunqiu hesitated before speaking up, "To be honest, I have a bit of a problem here."

Kou Wei nodded. "I felt it earlier. Brother Wei seems to have difficulty attacking. He felt sluggish. If it wasn't for that, I may not have won even with the help of my secret skill."

"What's wrong?" Lu Mingshu asked. Since it was a group fight, then she had to know her teammates well, especially when they were almost strangers to each other.

Wei Chunqiu sighed and pointed at her. "Miss Lu is unaware? It's all because of you!"

"What? Why?" Lu Mingshu couldn't seem to understand.

"Miss Lu's sword-energy has some kind of ability to break my tempo. It may be a very minor one, but it has a long-lasting aftereffect. When you kept rus.h.i.+ng after my tempo, it became more obvious. When the match ended, I realized that it would take a lot of time for my mystic force to get back on track."

Kou Wei gasped. "So it was that? Then I didn't win by my own ability today."

In that case, Wei Chunqiu was defeated by both Kou Wei and Lu Mingshu together. Because of the aftereffects of Lu Mingshu's technique, Kou Wei's magic was able to more effectively freeze Wei Chunqiu's mystic force. Kou Wei originally thought that Wei Chunqiu was just looking down on him.

Wei Chunqiu smiled bitterly. "It's my fault for letting such a thing happen, and Brother Kou didn't win by luck. Anyway, I only have 70% of my ability back. I can still fight, but I'm afraid that I'll make a mistake."

"Miss Lu," Kou Wei turned to her. "Do you know how to solve this?"

Lu Mingshu was amazed too. She thought that the strengthening seal was useless because it didn't have any effect on Wei Chunqiu, but apparently it was delayed.

I don't know what to do since it was from a strengthening seal, not my own skill.

"It's okay if there aren't any methods. I'll just use my secret skill again."

"Brother Wei, doesn't your secret skill come with some negative side effects?"

That was common sense. To force out all of one's potential would obviously come with negative side effects. The better the result, the worse the side effect.

"Things have already reached this stage; there's no other option," Wei Chunqiu replied. "We can't afford to lose face in front of the barbarians."

Kou Wei nodded. "True."

"Actually," Lu Mingshu spoke up after much thought, "this can be solved easily."

"Oh?" Wei Chunqiu's eyes shone. "Do you have some medicine for this?"

She shook her head. "I don't, but this is a group fight, so we can cancel out each other's shortcomings by coordinating with each other."

Chapter 177 - Group Fight

Kou Wei suggested a group fight since there was no better option.

He and Wei Chunqiu had just gone through a fight against each other, and their ability was more-or-less affected because of it. Lu Mingshu had very weak basics and wasn't that strong to begin with. It would be hard for any of them to win in a one-on-one fight right now.

With a group fight, they could support each other. Even if they weren't entirely in sync with each other, it would still be better than a one-on-one because the barbarians didn't know how to coordinate at all.

But for each pro, there was a con: if they happened to lose this group fight, there would be no more chances to win, and they would all have to face a lot of pressure from everyone else.

The three of them made their way back to the center of the rooftop, where the barbarians had been staring into s.p.a.ce for a while.

"Are you done?" the first harpy asked impatiently when they returned.

Kou Wei nodded. "We can start."

"Good!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the harpy jumped out and sent a punch over.

The disciples in the tents turned pale with fright and gasped in surprise. Why are the barbarians like this? Isn't that basically a sneak attack? They should at least get into position first!

However, it only attacked after Kou Wei said that they could start, so it wasn't a sneak attack at all.

Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu both jumped back, spreading out in the form of a fan.

Kou Wei was in the center. He unfolded his fan with one hand, and a ray of bright golden light could be seen as his mystic force solidified and struck back at the harpy.

Boom!

Both forces dispersed upon meeting.

Kou Wei stepped back, secretly amazed by the force. The barbarians are strong indeed. His hands felt numb after the attack.

The other two harpies took a step forward as well. They took a look at Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu and picked the one they wanted to fight.

Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu exchange a glance.

In their eyes, the harpies looked the same. The only difference were their weapons and clothing.

The one fighting Kou Wei was the harpy that jumped up on stage to provoke them initially, and his weapon was his fist. The second one who was das.h.i.+ng toward Wei Chunqiu held a heavy stone hammer. The third one held a short stone hatchet.

Lu Mingshu fished out her sword, and a mystic force s.h.i.+eld appeared in front of her.

The third one had the same style as his fellow harpies - rough. He slashed his hatchet down immediately without much thought.

Boom!

A sound could be heard, and Lu Mingshu's wrist felt numb. Her sword nearly fell out of her hand.

They are extremely strong!

Lu Mingshu was truly shocked. This was the first time she fought a harpy, and she felt what it was like to have great strength from birth. No wonder people said that barbarians had extraordinary strength. This kind of strength was almost beyond mankind's limit within the same realm.

If that's case…

Lu Mingshu plotted an idea in her head quickly and changed her pace immediately.

Her sword-light was sharp, but it didn't go directly toward the harpy; it wound around the harpy instead to bind him up.

While she was fighting, she also collected the data on the harpy she was fighting.

Extraordinary strength, supple, and scary explosive force. As for martial skills, their innate strength could surpa.s.s mankind easily. But they had weaknesses too.

Mystic force - when barbarians excited their mystic force, they relied on their bloodline, which was their innate gift. The only way for them to improve it was to let it improve naturally over time… or cannibalism. Thus, they had weak mystic force.

Lu Mingshu looked over at her other two teammates

Wei Chunqiu and the second harpy were trying to test out each other out, while Kou Wei and his opponent were way more direct; they had already come against each other quite a number of times, and the explosion sounds filled the area.

The harpy in front of her unleashed an attack, and the energy wave rolled violently toward Lu Mingshu. Seeing this, Lu Mingshu moved sideways and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The harpy was startled and frantically tried to find her. Seeing that she was near the edge of the stage, he immediately rushed after her.

Barbarians were fast to begin with, but as soon as he reached her, she was gone again in an instant.

The light-weight formula from the worlds of Xianxia is much better than the footwork of this world.

On the other hand, the second harpy was filled with excitement. The opponent is much weaker than I thought! He doesn't even dare to fight me head-on. Seeing Wei Chunqiu retreat, he waved his stone hammer, and the huge energy wave dashed toward Wei Chunqiu, pressing him down.

Wei Chunqiu held his sword up, and his sword-light pierced through the sky. Flowers bloomed in the sky, blocking the energy wave from reaching him.

The second harpy scoffed. Trying to stop me with this tiny energy?

He then braced his muscles and hammered the stone hammer down hard.

"Hey!"

A sword-light suddenly swept behind him, and the harpy instinctively turned back to protect himself.

Chi~~~~!

A sound could be heard as the sword-energy slashed open his skin, and dark red blood flowed out from the wound.

"You cheater!" the second harpy howled.

Lu Mingshu landed on the ground as light as a feather and rolled her eyes at him. "This is a group fight, not a one-on-one fight." Cheating? Is your brain broken?

She didn't say that last part out loud, but the expression in her eyes clearly showed what she meant.

"Hahahahaha…!" The tents were now filled with laughter. As much as some people despised Lu Mingshu, they had no evil feelings for her right now.

"You…!" The second harpy gritted his teeth.

The third harpy soon arrived and slashed with his hatchet almost immediately.

The second harpy also held up his hammer.

The disciples stopped laughing and held their breaths. Some even screamed out of fear.

Lu Mingshu only dealt with one, and she didn't even do it head-on. How is she going to handle being surrounded now? She just dug her own grave… why did she use such a little trick? Once she loses, it'll be a two-on-three!

However, Lu Mingshu already realized it; she leapt high into the air and landed on the stone tablet, dodging the attack. She was as fast as a ghost.

At this moment, a sword-light creeped up behind the second harpy and cut open his skin.

The second harpy jumped up and swung his stone hammer down immediately.

Fortunately, Wei Chunqiu backed off in time, and the harpy's attack did nothing.

"Awesome! Mighty Senior Brother Wei!" The Seventh Truth Platform disciples cheered for their senior.

In no time, the second harpy was cut twice. Even though they were just small cuts, it still affected their grandeur.

Lu Mingshu landed behind Wei Chunqiu as soon as she lost the third harpy.

This was the first time they fought together, and it was a win. Wei Chunqiu sighed in relief after realizing the situation.

He had fought her personally, so he was aware of how good she was and trusted her ability. However, even though some people might be powerful, they weren't necessarily able to cooperate with others, especially someone like Lu Mingshu who was antisocial.

Fortunately, they were able to coordinate well, which would make the match an interesting one.

After this, Wei Chunqiu had a better understanding of Lu Mingshu's accuracy.

The side effect from Lu Mingshu's strengthening seal made it hard for him to fight properly, and if he didn't get the timing right, he would just be giving a chance to the harpies.

However, Lu Mingshu had a good grasp of timing. She came to mount a sneak attack right when Wei Chunqiu's mystic force was weaker, and when she finished distracting the harpies, his mystic force was back at regular strength.

Was it just a coincidence, or could she actually see his power?

At this moment, Kou Wei retreated from the first harpy with an attack and went back to his teammates.

The trio stood back to back, forming a defensive posture with no gaps.

"How is it?" Kou Wei whispered.

"No problem," Wei Chunqiu answered confidently.

After the attacks just now, he saw hope for this match. Even if he didn't have 100% of his ability right now and the harpies had an inborn advantage, they still had a higher chance of winning with their coordination!

"Then it's my turn! Kou Wei said after seeing the first harpy coming toward them. He waved his fan and summoned his water dragon.

Chapter 178 - Exciting of Blood Vessels

Sounds of water gus.h.i.+ng could be heard as the five dragons emerged.

The Heavenly Sea Pavilion disciples cheered loudly for Kou Wei.

In no time, the five dragons had surrounded the rooftop.

The first harpy threw a glance at the other two. Both of them immediately went to his side and prepared for a joint attack.

The crowd turned green.

These barbarians are that fast?

Kou Wei would've definitely won if it was a one-on-one, but now there was three…. Their strength would surely overpower Kou Wei.

Kou Wei smiled thinly. His mystic light danced in the breeze, and the five water dragons intertwined to block the harpies' way.

Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu spread out immediately as if they were electrocuted.

The crowd watched as the five water dragons stalled the harpies, and then Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu attacked them with their sword-light.

"Wow!"

"This is a brilliant idea!" Tan Yubing clasped her hands together in delight. "Kou Wei uses an eye-catching and grand style, suitable for a straightforward attack, then Junior Niece Lu and Wei Chunqiu attack with their own strong points - their swords."

Shao Zhengyang nodded.

He was still worried at first that they wouldn't be able to cooperate with each other since they didn't know each other that well. However, it seemed like he was just worrying too much. They had all had fought each other and knew each other's abilities well, so it wasn't that hard.

Actually, why should I have been worried in the first place? They're all real elites, they should know better about what to do compared to me.

"It seems that we will be able to win," Tan Yubing said with confidence.

However, Shao Zhengyang chose to play it safe. "Barbarians have their own methods too. I don't think it will be that easy."

"Sure, the barbarians are good in their own ways too, but in terms of mind games, we're obviously better. Look at them now - where's the coordination? It seemed like they wanted to attack together, but their plans were instantly ruined by Kou Wei's skill," Tan Yubing retorted.

True, Shao Zhengyang thought, but he decided to play it safe and not say too much in case it backfired.

The water dragons rampaged around the stage, and sword-light fell from the sky. These stunts made the match more interesting.

Because it was a three-person group fight, the whole match was very open. Kou Wei was situated in the center while Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu were at the sides a.s.sisting Kou Wei. In this match, there was so much going on at the same time. The younger disciples couldn't stand it since there was no focal point for them to put all of their attention.

As for the Harmonization Realm disciples, they could feel it even more. An individual fight was more focused on someone's pure power, while a group fight was more about insight, judgement, and timing.

After a while, somebody spoke up hesitantly. "Lu Mingshu is obviously lousier than the other two, so why can't we see her either?"

Indeed. When it came to individual fights, even though it was interesting to watch her, it was obvious that Lu Mingshu was the weaker party. Especially when Kou Wei fought Wei Chunqiu, the difference between her and them became even more obvious.

But during this group fight, she was able to move swiftly, appearing and disappearing unpredictably. She even had good teamwork with Wei Chunqiu. Who said she was the short plank in the bucket? How is that short?

"Maybe group fights are her specialty?" No matter how much they disliked her, that's all they could say.

The three harpies were going insane. When they wanted to attack Kou Wei, Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu would appear and shower them with attacks, forcing them to retreat. When they wanted to attack Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu, Kou Wei would distract them and stall them with his technique.

Seeing that mankind was getting the upper hand and that the harpies had their hands tied, a harpy stood up from their tent and started shouting to them in their language.

The three harpies seemed to be stunned. They stopped going after Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu, and they ignored Kou Wei's distraction. The three of them crowded together back to back and shouted in a thunderous voice.

When the shouting stopped, the harpies were emitting a red light. The red light became more and more magnificent and eventually fused together.

"What is that?"

"That… that is the exciting of blood vessels!" a knowledgeable guy shouted.

The extraordinary strength of the harpies was due to their inheritance. Exciting their blood vessels could activate their potential and increase their ability by a huge amount in the short term. There was a limitation to it, which was that it took quite some time to do it. Back during the war between mankind and barbarians, humans frequently had to hide whenever a harpy excited their blood since they were just like a beast that had gone crazy.

However, they were in the middle of a match right now, and the rooftop was only so big. There was nowhere to run.

The harpies on stage immediately huddled together, with Kou Wei's dragon surrounding them.

"Are they trying to make things worse for themselves?" Wei Chunqiu raised his brows. "Win or lose, it'll be decided now."

"I like their style," Kou Wei answered softly. "But I don't think it's that simple."

Why would they need anyone to help them to excite their blood vessels when it was their natural instinct?

"Yeah, they may have thought of something to deal with us."

As soon as Lu Mingshu finished her words, the harpies dashed over to her.

The first harpy was in the middle while the other two were on the sides, and they launched an attack together!

"Dodge!" Kou Wei commanded.

The three of them went in different directions.

Boom!

The mountain peak under the rooftop started to shake slightly.

The trio became pale after feeling that. Suddenly, the harpies were going after Kou Wei.

Wei Chunqiu saw what was happening and wanted to help Kou Wei, but as soon as he stepped out, the harpy nearest to him chopped his hatchet down under a ray of red light.

Of course, Wei Chunqiu wouldn't dare to fight a harpy that had excited his blood vessel head-on. He dodged the attack and retreated rapidly.

The harpy then went after Kou Wei again.

Seeing this, Lu Mingshu emitted a sword-light.

However, as expected, the harpy nearest to her blocked the sword-light.

She and Wei Chunqiu looked at each other. Now we know what they want.

Since they were weak when it came to fighting in groups, they came up with the stupidest way - forcing it into a three-on-one.

Exciting their blood vessels not only gave them a great increase to their strength, it also connected them to each other to a certain degree, and they were much more sensitive to people of the same race. They moved together in such a way that the first harpy was the main fighter and the other two were his hands. The three attacked together, and whenever somebody tried to disrupt them, they sent one out to fight back.

In this case, their energy had been nicely fused together. Either they would crush Kou Wei in a three-on-one, or they would crush Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu in a one-on-one whenever they came to help. Either way, they wouldn't lose.

However, seeing that Kou Wei was in a difficult situation, Lu Mingshu and Wei Chunqiu had no choice but to help him out. Their room for maneuvering and coordinating was shrinking.