I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

Chapter 212: Chapter 185: Formidable Rival (Part 2)

That made a certain amount of sense. The strongest members of the Dongli Kingdom team had all signed up for both the individual and team competitions.

So, the group started picking out contestants from every country who fit this description and looking them up online one by one.

For any student who was famous at one of the major universities, you could more or less find some information about them online. If you were lucky, you might even find videos of their fights.

Take Su Ze, for example. He had surely become a research subject for the other university teams by now. They would most likely dig up and study the videos of his adjudication battle at Luofan Academy, and they might even find footage from his freshman assessment.

But it didn’t matter. That was all old news.

”This Tan Guang from Mu Country is really strong!”

”Salman from Luofan Academy has something to him.”

”And Park Su-joo from Island University is incredible!”

The group began their discussion.

”Holy shit! These guys from Ancient An Country all seem super strong!” Luo Kai exclaimed, drawing everyone’s attention to the contestants from Ancient University.

Gu Yue’er said, ”Ancient University has always been strong. It’s nothing to be surprised about.”

Li Zhi nodded as well. ”Whether it’s the individual or team competition, Ancient University almost always makes it into the top three. They frequently take first place, too. Their overall strength has consistently been the greatest among the six major academies.”

Yangyang said, ”Ancient University has five people who signed up for both the individual and team competitions. We can find information online for four of them, but this one guy, Yarlin, is a complete mystery. We can’t find a single clue about him.”

”He’s probably not that strong, then,” one team member said dismissively.

Just then, Pei Wuhua, who had been silent the whole time, spoke up. ”You all need to be careful of this Yarlin. According to the intel I’ve received, he may be the strongest contestant on the Ancient University team this time.”

Everyone was shocked. If Pei Wuhua was saying this, it couldn’t be a groundless rumor. But if this Yarlin was so strong, why wasn’t he famous at all?

Pei Wuhua explained, ”Yarlin’s master is the number one expert in Ancient An Country, ’Blood Sword’ Adams. He believes in tempering oneself through slaughter. So, ever since Yarlin became his disciple, he was sent into the wilderness. He survived in the wilds, which are teeming with evolved beasts, and grew through constant slaughter and combat. He only recently returned to Ancient An Country, which is why he isn’t well-known there.”

”Adams once gave an order that Yarlin would only be allowed to return to Ancient An Country after he successfully passed through ’Beheading Valley.’ Beheading Valley is a treacherous place in the wilderness, rumored to be impassable for anyone below the Saint level. While that statement might be an exaggeration, the dangers of Beheading Valley are undeniable.”

”And since Yarlin has returned to the country, it means he has successfully made it through Beheading Valley. If so, his strength must be terrifying.”

Hearing Pei Wuhua’s words, everyone’s heart sank. Even Su Ze began to take this Yarlin more seriously.

Gu Yue’er seemed to know something about Beheading Valley. She said, ”If he could pass through Beheading Valley, then it looks like there’s almost no suspense for first place in the individual competition.”

Pei Wuhua nodded. ”Based on our current intel, this Yarlin is a whole tier stronger than the other contestants. If you run into him in the individual competition, do not fight him head-on. Concede early to avoid injury, which would affect your performance in the team competition later.”

This meant they were already giving up on competing for first place in the individual event and shifting their focus entirely to the team competition.

The individual competition was scheduled before the team one. If a contestant was seriously injured in their individual matches, it could indeed affect their performance in the team event.

All the members of the Dongli University team nodded. Conceding early and preserving one’s strength when facing a known superior opponent was also a type of strategy.

Only two people didn’t nod, seemingly disagreeing with this approach. One was the stubbornly proud Li Yongguan; there was no way he would concede without even fighting.

The other, naturally, was Su Ze.

’Unless that Yarlin has already completed his third evolution and reached the Butterfly Stage, I don’t think there’s any chance I could lose.’

’If someone at the Cocoon Stage can defeat me, then there’s no doubt about it—they must be cheating with a hack, too!’

Next, the group listed all the opponents they needed to pay close attention to, analyzing each person’s strengths and weaknesses. They also made a plan to start observing their opponents’ strength during the individual competition tomorrow.

Meanwhile, on the other floors of the dormitory, the same scene was playing out. As they were studying others, they themselves had become the subjects of study.

Su Ze wasn’t actually very interested in this, but he felt it would be rude to just leave. With nothing better to do, he began to extend his hearing to eavesdrop on the conversations on the other floors.

He first tuned in to the people from Luofan Academy on the floor below.

”In short, our goal this time is to break into the top three in the team competition!”

”Also, in the individual competition, if you run into anyone from Dongli University, don’t hold back. Beat them half to death! It would be best if they can’t even put together a starting lineup afterward!”

”Especially that punk named Su Ze! He made us at Luofan lose a ton of face during the last adjudication battle. We have to give him some special attention this time!”

Luofan Country had always been on bad terms with the Dongli Kingdom. Su Ze had utterly humiliated Luofan Country in the previous adjudication battle, but that was a battle for the Pupa Stage.

These Luofan Academy contestants participating in the exchange competition were all Cocoon Stage evolvers. They refused to believe Su Ze could maintain that same level of dominance at the Cocoon Stage.

Therefore, they were all holding in their anger, determined to get their payback on Su Ze.

’You all should be praying you don’t run into me...’ Su Ze chuckled nonchalantly. He hadn’t planned on targeting the people from Luofan Academy, but since they had targeted him first, they couldn’t blame him for being ruthless.

Su Ze then focused his attention on eavesdropping on the floors above.

The team from Great Desert Chief University was on the fourth floor. Su Ze listened for a moment; they were just having a normal discussion, analyzing their opponents.

Further up, the team from Muguo Royal Academy was on the fifth floor, also engaged in a normal discussion.

From what he gathered, every team considered Ancient University a formidable rival and believed them to be the strongest. They were all paying extra attention to Yarlin from the Ancient University team.

As for the Dongli University team, they weren’t discussed much. When they were, Li Yongguan and Gu Yue’er were considered Dongli University’s strongest members, with little attention paid to Su Ze.

But when he tried to listen to Ancient University’s residence on the sixth floor, Su Ze frowned after a moment, because he couldn’t hear a thing.

It wasn’t because it was beyond his hearing range, but because something was blocking the sound.

’Ancient University is really cautious, even using anti-eavesdropping measures...’ Su Ze pursed his lips. ’It’s just an exchange competition. They’re already recognized as the strongest, yet they’re still this careful.’

’What kind of secret strategy could they possibly have?’

Since he couldn’t hear anything, Su Ze stopped wasting his time and retracted his auditory range.

Fortunately, his teammates were about done with their discussion by then. Plus, Pei Wuhua received a notification that he had to go out for the lot drawing, so the meeting broke up.

Su Ze returned to his room, drank a spoonful of Sun and Moon Epiphyllum Honey, and began performing the Swan Dance to digest the extract.

’I have to seize every spare moment to push for the Butterfly Stage!’

After two rounds of the dance, his phone chimed. Pei Wuhua had sent the results of the individual competition’s lot drawing to the group chat.

Each university had 8 slots for the individual competition, meaning there were 48 contestants in total.

In the first round, contestants would face each other in pairs based on the draw. Contestants from the same university would not be matched against each other in the first round.

The winners of the first round would enter the winner’s bracket, while the defeated would go to the loser’s bracket. To prevent situations where strong opponents are eliminated early, contestants in the loser’s bracket would have two chances to challenge someone in the winner’s bracket.

If they defeated a winner’s bracket contestant, they could take their place in the winner’s bracket.

Each contestant in the winner’s bracket could also be challenged a maximum of two times. If they won both challenges, they would advance directly to the second round.

Teammates could not challenge each other.

Su Ze took a look. His opponent for tomorrow was a girl from Great Desert Chief University.

As for the other 7 members from Dongli University, some had drawn powerful opponents.

Luo Kai versus Yarlin!

Gu Yue’er had also drawn a seeded contestant from Muguo Royal Academy.

It seemed Dongli University’s members didn’t have very good luck with the draw.