Chapter 748: Qi Ci Lang vs Bao Li Gen
Public sentiment was boiling over!
Qi Ci Lang’s military achievement of forcing Da Han into retreat was too astonishing, to the extent that before he arrived on Ice Sculpture Island, he already became among the most famous figures in the National Ceremony Grand Duel.
The most discussed person was no longer Bao Li Gen or Xun Liang, but rather Qi Ci Lang.
As for the dragonman youngster, for the moment, he was forgotten in some corner by the masses.
The thing the people were mainly investigating was “just how powerful was Qi Ci Lang?”
In the wake of this thorough investigation, the masses began to compare Qi Ci Lang to Long Meng and Feng Lian.
Currently, these are the three apex gold levels.
“Although Feng Lian and Da Han have fought, the former decided to flee. While when Qi Ci Lang and Da Han fought, it was Da Han, the saint level, who retreated, that means Qi Ci Lang is definitely stronger than Feng Lian!”
“In that case, who is stronger between Qi Ci Lang and Long Meng?”
The final topic was focused on Qi Ci Lang and Long Meng.
At this time, one could see how solid Long Meng’s prestige was.
Even if Long Meng hadn’t fought a saint level, he still had devoted supporters. This group of people’s impression of Long Meng’s power was nearly unshakeable.
“I support Long Meng!”
“Long Meng belongs to my country, he has experienced countless duels, and all of them were done skillfully and easily, I’ve never seen him struggle in battle.”
“I believe that not even Qi Ci Lang can defeat Long Meng.”
Then, the impassioned sides somehow came to a consensus, “In short, this year’s National Ceremony Grand Duel Champion will not be Long Meng, but Qi Ci Lang!”
The Ice Sculpture King’s attention was also focused on Qi Ci Lang.
Bao Li Gen’s loss as well as Qi Ci Lang’s astonishing record formed a double blow against the royal family’s plans.
After pondering thoroughly, the Ice Sculpture King gave the military an order. He wanted to protect Long Meng and do his utmost to probe Qi Ci Lang’s trump cards. Due to Bao Li Gen’s flawed nature and [Cold Pudding] not being strong enough to compete for the championship meant he might as well change the plan, and have Bao Li Gen lay the groundwork for Long Meng!
…
After Bao Li Gen was defeated, he was healed by divine spells.
The military supervisor found him, “Although the divine spells have healed you, your weakness will persist for seven days. During that time, you better recuperate well.”
Bao Li Gen nodded, “Wait until I fully recover, I will challenge Long Fu!”
“After I defeat Long Fu, I will come for that barbarian fighter again.”
To Bao Li Gen, the dragonman youngster was his most hated enemy.
But the military supervisor shook his head, “No, I have come here to personally inform you that the king, His Majesty, personally ordered that you are to challenge Qi Ci Lang!”
Bao Li Gen was startled, “What?!”
…
“Qi Ci Lang is so strong!” The dragonman youngster sighed.
He had never fought a saint level himself. His strongest form was the fishman form with triple gold level cultivation empowered by a god level bloodline. The young man had never fought a tough battle with that form.
Zi Di replied, “Lord Commander, if you use the [Mermaid Fairy Tale], even if Qi Ci Lang can constantly resurrect, what’s the use?”
“In my opinion, Da Han was only worried about being snagged up or about Qi Ci Lang’s background, he simply didn’t want to have a true fight.”
The young lady naturally supported her sweetheart.
Cang Xu agreed, “I feel Da Han has another goal. Since winning the naval battle, he has disbanded his pirate alliance and commanded his Icebound Pirates to refrain from truly assaulting any coastal city.”
The dragonman youngster’s voice sank, “I am using my dragonman form in the National Ceremony Grand Duel. Did you buy the red dragon skeleton yet?”
Zi Di nodded, “Soon. The deal is already done; we are waiting for the royal family to deliver it.”
To facilitate this transaction, Zi Di had personally negotiated three times, and paid a high price.
But for those who had opened the Wisteria Cache, this price was completely within their means.
“I hope this complete red dragon skeleton can grow my bloodline considerably!” The dragonman youngster expressed his expectations.
…
The Thirteenth Prince’s and Qi Ci Lang’s arrival on the island triggered a national sensation.
The Thirteenth Prince’s prestige amongst the Ice Sculpture citizens was very high.
Qi Ci Lang’s first duel was situated in the capital’s largest dueling arena.
As the duel began, spectators packed the corridors, a vast crowd indeed. The dueling arena paid a hefty fee to hire the Alchemy Guild to use folding space technology to increase seating by several hundred temporarily, but it was impossible for them to meet the upper crust’s demand for seating.
Qi Ci Lang’s opponent was an old snow elf magician. He wasn’t a fan of dueling, but he had been secretly ordered to probe Qi Ci Lang’s foundation for the sake of Bao Li Gen.
Qi Ci Lang displayed incomparably formidable strength!
After the fight began, he successfully closed in on the magician within three rounds.
On the fifth round, Qi Ci Lang cleaved a shield to pieces, then tore off the magician’s shoulder.
The magician was heavily wounded, however, his tenacious fighting spirit allowed him to last another two rounds at the risk of his life, before fainting.
“Stop!!” The dueling arena staff promptly activated a magic formation to stop Qi Ci Lang from delivering the mortal blow.
“Humph, really spoiling things.” Qi Ci Lang was displeased, his expression ruthless.
This led to many veiled criticisms in the audience, believing that Qi Ci Lang didn’t have the demeanor of an expert. His wanting to murder the loser made him far different than Long Meng.
However, when many more saw how powerful Qi Ci Lang was, they supported him even more.
After all, this was the world of the strong.
…
The dragonman youngster successfully invited Qing Hong Yan to fight.
Qing Hong Yan once attacked the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ caravan, and he maintained that the dragonman youngster murdered his close friend Teng Dong Lang. The dragonman youngster firmly believed he was his enemy too.
Neither stayed their hand.
Thus, Qing Hong Yan almost died in the dueling arena.
He sank into a frenzy and lost his reason. The dragonman youngster ultimately still pulled his attack and didn’t take away his life.
If he was the young man of days past, he would have preferred vengeance. But now, he has put more consideration towards the big picture and profits.
His ruthless beating of Qing Hong Yan was certain to give the latter an extremely profound impression. Sparing Qing Hong Yan’s life could deepen the other duelists’ good opinion of Long Fu – if Long Fu could tolerate and wish to coexist with even Qing Hong Yan, then he and us can harmoniously coexist too.
That night after defeating Qing Hong Yan, the dragonman youngster used the Bloodcore to absorb the red dragon skeleton.
The skeleton was preserved in fairly good condition.
Several hundred years ago, during a time of prosperity for the Ice Sculpture Kingdom, when they had legend level battle strength and brilliant military accomplishments, during some ceremony, they received a gift from a friend.
This was this red dragon skeleton.
The red dragon skeleton was meticulously made, with similar specimens being hunted to create it and adequately display the military achievement of it.
It was also because it was categorized as a gift that the Ice Sculpture Kingdom did not disassemble it and treat it as alchemy materials.
However, when the Ice Sculpture Kingdom was in a weak state as a nation, this important gift was hidden in the depths of the state treasury, not easily exposed.
Because the kingdom needed to give sufficient consideration to the dragon race’s opinions.
One could understand if they swapped places.
If the kingdom put the red dragon skeleton on display, it would be like a goblin turning a human fighter into a military trophy and then putting it on display. How would human powers feel about that?
When the Ice Sculpture Kingdom had legend level battle strength, they were confident they could take it. But the current king was only a saint level, and the nation wasn’t as rich and powerful. That combined with Zi Di’s high starting price, rather than having the dragon skeleton gather mold in the treasury, they might as well sell it.
After absorbing the red dragon skeleton, the dragonman youngster’s Flame Dragon King bloodline concentration massively increased, and his limit was finally increased to the saint level, at long last, he was worthy of having “saint level qualifications”.
After getting this big boost in concentration, the dragonman youngster gained a new racial magic.
The old racial magics massively grew in practical effectiveness.
With this massive improvement, the dragonman youngster instantly became confident that even without [Cold Pudding]. He could still defeat Bao Li Gen.
But in then end, he would keep waiting, for Bao Li Gen never publicly challenged him.
The dragonman youngster, Cang Xu, and Zi Di discussed this. They felt that this should be the military’s or royal family’s plan.
Thus, the dragonman youngster danced to his own beat and invited Yi Jiu to battle.
Yi Jiu disguised himself as Hua Tang and failed to steal the necklace. After giving up on that, he fully focused on preparing for the duel.
But his ample preparations couldn’t compare to the massively boosted dragonman youngster.
He eventually lost.
The dragonman youngster also felt tired.
Yi Jiu was really good at running around, and he was faster than him. This resulted in the dragonman youngster chasing him around for a large portion of the duel.
After the battle with Yi Jiu ended, the dragonman youngster had swept away all of the duelists outside of the military faction.
Except for Long Meng.
The military faction only had Mei Lin, Gu Dong, and Bao Li Gen.
Mei Lin couldn’t be challenged. She was occupied with military affairs and wasn’t participating in the National Ceremony Grand Due this year.
That left Bao Li Gen and Gu Dong.
The dragonman youngster chose Bao Li Gen first.
This time, he decided to contact him privately.
The response he got back was that Bao Li Gen was occupied with a heavy responsibility, and although he really wanted to come to blows with Long Fu, he had to do his best to obstruct Qi Ci Lang.
Thus, the survivors immediately determined that this was a game between the Ice Sculpture Kingdom and the Sheng Ming Empire. The chess pieces for this game were Bao Li Gen and Qi Ci Lang.
The former was obviously not Qi Ci Lang’s match, but one had to still consider Long Meng.
Cang Xu calculated offhandedly that the king’s plan was to use Bao Li Gen to lay the groundwork for Long Meng!
Cang Xu ran through the duels Qi Ci Lang did so far in the capital, surmising perhaps these duelists were arranged by the royal family to pave the way for Bao Li Gen.
Therefore, when Bao Li Gen dueled Qi Ci Lang, the dragonman youngster was personally watching it live.
Not just him, Long Meng had also shown up in a rare appearance.
The kingdom’s military did their utmost to alter Bao Li Gen’s [Cold Pudding], giving him several methods that targeted Qi Ci Lang.
In the beginning and middle of the fight, Bao Li Gen held a few advantages.
But from then onwards, Qi Ci Lang grabbed hold of a weak point, turned the situation around, and hereafter dominated the initiative and upper hand.
Finally, Bao Li Gen lost, his injuries were quite terrifying, especially the cut around his waist, he was almost split into two.
As for the magic construct armament [Cold Pudding]. It was forcibly torn apart by Qi Ci Lang during the battle!