NOVEL WEB Chapter 132 - Team Competition (4)
After yesterday’s chaotic matches, the rankings were as follows: the Phantom Team scored eight points, the Fengyun Team seven points, while the two fourth-year teams scored six and five points, respectively. The third-year teams scored four and three points, and the two second-year teams naturally ended up at the bottom.
According to traditional competition methods, the highest-ranked team would compete against the lowest-ranked team, and so on.
However, it seemed the committee wanted to dampen the Phantom Team’s morale by deciding to draw lots to determine opponents for the first match.
Facing second and third-year teams, the Phantom Team found it not difficult to secure three wins, with only the fourth-year team posing a real challenge.
The fourth-year Team Two was manageable, with only two Level Five practitioners. However, the fourth-year Team One was formidable, boasting four Level Five practitioners. If the Phantom Team faced this Team One, victory would only be possible if the opponents held back.
After yesterday’s chaotic matches, the senior students had been desperate, believing the Phantom Team had no chance of winning. But upon seeing the committee’s restrictions, hope was rekindled. They might not be able to beat Mai Dongzi, but they could certainly defeat the other members of the Phantom Team.
The Phantom Team assessed the luck levels of the six members, and everyone felt that only Mai Dongzi, who hadn’t drawn lots yet, might be the goddess of luck, so they let it go.
Mai Dongzi, who was expected to perform well, wanted to complain about these people. Even if they drew the easiest opponents today, it was only to start off well; they still had to compete against the other six teams. Only with enough strength would they have a chance of winning.
However, after Mai Dongzi unfortunately drew the second-year team, the fourth-year students looked excitedly at the Phantom Team when the committee announced a new rule.
In each match, the team with the lower score had to submit their roster first, while the team with the higher score could then send in their participants.
The original rule was for both teams to submit their rosters simultaneously.
This new rule undoubtedly favored the higher-scoring teams, allowing them to take the initiative.
Just like with the Phantom Team and the fourth-year Team Two, which had two Level Five practitioners. Without the initiative and being unable to predict the opponent’s arrangements, it would be very difficult for the Phantom Team to secure three wins.
But with the new rule in place, the Phantom Team now had the upper hand, making it much easier to achieve three victories.
The fourth-year Team Two, which had originally been high-spirited, clearly started to lose confidence. They huddled together, whispering, and by looking at the expression of their team leader, it was obvious they were making adjustments.
In such situations, Mai Dongzi would never use her mental power to probe the enemy’s intentions, as the school’s competitions were meant to enhance their practical experience.
If she cheated during the drawing by using her mental power or eavesdropped on the others while they discussed strategies, it would not only be unethical but also detrimental to the Phantom Team.
However, even without using her mental power to listen in, once the list of participants from Team Two was submitted, Mai Dongzi could figure out their plans.
They completely abandoned the final team competition and pinned their hopes on the individual and pair competitions.
Fourth-year Team Two sent both of their Level Five practitioners to participate in two individual matches. After considering this, Mai Dongzi decided to replace Chen Xinhe with Zhuang Huaiya.
With Zhuang Huaiya’s current cultivation level, he stood a chance against the initial-level Level Five warrior. Even if he couldn’t win, he could at least heavily injure the opponent, thus providing an opportunity for victory in the pair competition.
Mai Dongzi made this change because she noticed that each pair in Team Two’s matches included a Level Five practitioner. The Phantom Team’s two pair combinations couldn’t score against Team Two’s combinations.
Under the original arrangement, the only way for the Phantom Team to win in the pair competition was for Mai Dongzi to severely weaken the Level Five practitioner from Team Two during the individual matches.
This way, during the pair matches, that Level Five warrior would be unable to exert his full combat strength.
However, Mai Dongzi wouldn’t resort to such underhanded tactics. She would only fight using normal competition methods and would never intentionally harm her opponent, as they were merely rivals, not mortal enemies.
Therefore, she replaced the substitute Chen Xinhe and planned for Wang Yiyi and Tony to pair up against the Level Five practitioner from Team Two, while Zhuang Huaiya would face him in singles.
When the competition began, the first match featured Mai Dongzi against the Level Five practitioner from Team Two, who was also the team captain. Facing a mid-level Level Five practitioner, Mai Dongzi…
Mai Dongzi watched in astonishment as the referee announced the start of the match. Team Two’s captain actually ran into the railing of the arena, showing no intention to fight her at all, and promptly eliminated himself.
This was equivalent to voluntarily forfeiting to preserve his team’s strength and avoid being targeted by Mai Dongzi, preventing the opponent from being able to participate in the pair competition.
Although Mai Dongzi had no intention of being underhanded, she also didn’t want the opponent to get off so easily.
She only regretted not anticipating such a move from them and had no time to pull him back and give him a beating. Even if he couldn’t hit the railing, he could still end the match by loudly declaring his surrender.
So, what could Mai Dongzi say? She could only silently return to the player lounge, where the members of the Phantom Team were equally speechless and unable to feel happy.
Mai Dongzi’s victory was expected, but the Phantom Team had hoped for her to teach the opponent a good lesson. However, the opponent’s unexpected move had taken away their advantage.
“Don’t think about taking shortcuts. Just focus on your match. As long as you can stay calm and play, it’s possible to draw even without wasting time,” Mai Dongzi offered some motivational words to Zhuang Huaiya, who was preparing to take the stage.
Now, their only hope was for Zhuang Huaiya to achieve his goal.
When Zhuang Huaiya heard that Mai Dongzi had decided to arrange for him to participate in the individual competition, he was a bit skeptical about her decision. However, upon hearing her clearly state her confidence in him, he nodded seriously and assured, “I will do my best.”
After witnessing the captain of Team Two’s unexpected move, Zhuang Huaiya understood how crucial this match was for the Phantom Team, even without Mai Dongzi’s encouragement.
Nonetheless, her rare words of support greatly boosted his confidence.
Zhuang Huaiya’s opponent was at a slightly higher level, but fortunately, the opponent had not studied his tactics. He couldn’t find a way to counter Zhuang Huaiya’s soft palm techniques and could only rely on sheer strength to suppress him.
The two fought for an hour and a half, and it was still unclear who would come out on top. In the end, Zhuang Huaiya did lose and could barely stand, but he had achieved his goal of seriously injuring his opponent.
Immediately afterward, the pair competition began.