Another Block

"My blade is the sharpest, and even I don't need to snatch it. Who the hell are you guys to fight over it? "My blade is the sharpest, so I make the call here." As the man Han Qingyu had swatted flying lay groaning in the snow, unable to get up, the scene went quiet for a moment. Soon after, most of the people voiced their agreement. After all, just as Han Qingyu had said earlier, though there were members of the Self-Preservation Faction present and Cleansing Faction infiltrators might be lurking among them, the vast majority were still people from the Azure Alliance. If allied forces came to blows in a fit of impulse over a petty clash of egos, it would be utterly disgraceful. Had the Alphonse family never considered this situation? Had something like this happened in the past? Han Qingyu suddenly thought of two questions, but his train of thought was quickly interrupted. "I don't quite agree," a voice called out from the surrounding crowd. Everyone turned to look. Stepping forward was a woman. "To minimize casualties, I agree with each squad sending out only one person. But relying on luck to see who happens to grope it out isn't quite right... This world runs on strength, so let's compete on strength instead. One person from each squad, fighting for it by their own ability... life or death left to fate," the woman stood there and declared. Most eyes were fixed on her, accompanied by murmurs of discussion. Yet Han Qingyu's gaze—ho ho, what a coincidence—landed on a man standing behind her, clad in black and holding two dead iron scimitars. Wu Xu stood there, looking somewhat weak from his injuries. In truth, Wu Xu had spotted Han Qingyu even earlier, watching him arrive with his squad, speak up, and then effortlessly swat a man flying with a single strike of his blade. *So he really is strong.* *The Eldest Miss proposing this probably means she plans to send me... I'll give it a try.* Thinking this, Wu Xu tightened his grip on his twin scimitars and looked down at them, feeling a bizarre touch of embarrassment. *Sigh, my weapon was snatched away.* By this time, the situation was relatively stable, and He Tangtang and Wen Jifei had also walked to the front. "Wait, never mind whether you agree or not for a second," Wen Jifei said, looking at Yu Fengzi with a baffled expression. "Auntie, how old are you? How did you even get in here?" "I... You!" Yu Fengzi turned to glare at him, her eyes brimming with fury. Forcing herself to hold back, she snapped, "I'm twenty!" "Do you even know how to count?" Wen Jifei asked. "I don't buy it. Let's see your ID card." "..." Where on earth would Yu Fengzi get an ID card? And even if she did have one, she was naturally older than twenty. A burst of laughter and chatter erupted across the clearing. Nobody believed she was twenty. Accustomed to bossing people around and acting high and mighty in her own little backwater corner, the Eldest Miss couldn't hold back anymore. With a sharp bark, she ordered, "Wu Xu, teach him a lesson!" Used to obedience, Wu Xu complied. He simply avoided looking at Han Qingyu and mimicked him by turning his blade flat... before charging at Wen Jifei. *Whoosh!* He was remarkably fast, stirring up a rush of wind. Many of those present who knew what they were looking at let out a low gasp of admiration. But—*whoosh!*—the wind rushing in from the opposite direction was just as fast, if not faster. *Bang!* Two figures collided head-on in the snow. Covered in injuries, Wu Xu was at a disadvantage. Unable to find footing in the snow, he was thrown back over ten meters before finally managing to steady himself. He lowered his head and coughed twice, drops of bloody water dripping onto the snow. In front of Wen Jifei, a figure clad in iron armor stood firmly in place, sheathing her blade. Neither had fought for their life in that clash, but the outcome was already clear. People now recalled what Han Qingyu had just said. If they were to decide things with their blades... "No one objects now, right?" Basking in Rusty Sister's mighty show of force, Han Qingyu looked straight at Yu Fengzi as he asked. "If we truly have to settle this with blades, that brother over there is injured, so why don't you step up yourself?" As Han Qingyu spoke, the twin blades on his back trembled with a low hum, as if ready to shoot out at any moment. Yu Fengzi: "..." The backwater young miss kept her mouth shut. A moment later, while the crowd began organizing the blind fishing contest, she turned and walked back to Wu Xu, venting her fury on him with a hissed insult: "Useless trash." Wu Xu said nothing. ... In total, thirteen squads had thirteen people lying on their bellies around the snow hole. With no blades and no apparatuses, every one of them had their sleeves rolled up to the shoulder, craning their necks to peer into the pitch-black snow hole from various angles, hoping to spot something beforehand. Yu Fengzi's side had sent a moustached man, who was also lying among them. Han Qingyu was generous enough not to ostracize him over what had just happened. As for his own squad, he naturally stepped up in person. "That's settled then. It's up to luck." Thirteen hands hovered over the water surface inside the snow hole. A foreigner roped in from the sidelines counted down, "One! Two! Three!" *Splash!* All thirteen plunged more than half their bodies straight into the snow hole, thrusting their arms into the water and frantically groping around. "I—I found it!" The moustached man was the first to cry out. Almost the instant his fingers touched the bottom, he kicked his legs and flipped himself out. "Wait, no." In his palm lay a pebble. There were pebbles at the bottom; that made things tricky. At the same time, the actual metal block had in fact been grasped by a foreigner. Thus, luck was truly beyond anyone's control. Even though Han Qingyu could sense the metal block's location the moment he touched the water, he still hadn't managed to grab it. In that case... *Sorry, Rusty Sister. I'll find you another block later.* Absorption started! Absorption finished! "Me! Haha, me!" The foreigner pulled his hand from the water with a boisterous laugh, only for his expression to suddenly freeze. Dazed, he slowly opened his palm... empty. "Why is it empty?" "He did that on purpose to mess with us, didn't he? Trying to distract everyone." A false alarm. Everyone lowered their heads and kept searching. Han Qingyu joined in, searching just as earnestly. In the end, the thirteen people scooped out every single pebble from the bottom of the snow hole, not even sparing the slightly larger grains of gravel. With permission, someone even climbed all the way in and searched around for quite a while. The result was confirmed: "Nothing." Every hand coming out of the water had been watched by countless pairs of eyes, so there was no way anyone could have sneakily made off with the metal block. Everyone was utterly bewildered. "So, did you guys just see wrong from the very start?" Han Qingyu complained, rolling his sleeves back down to cover his arms, which were frozen red. With that, he stood up. Like him, many people hadn't actually seen the metal block fall into the snow hole with their own eyes. Most of the voices at the scene shared the same sentiment, feeling their time and effort had been completely wasted. "Good thing we didn't fight. If we had fought and left bodies all over the ground only to find out there was nothing at all..." Han Qingyu added. After a short while, a portion of the crowd left directly. Huddling together with strangers in the trial grounds was never a good idea. Naturally, some people still refused to give up. They called over their teammates and began digging at the snow hole with blades, looking as if they intended to level the entire area of ground. Han Qingyu watched for a bit, then declared that he was giving up too, leading his squad away. That made three. The third block he had absorbed directly, and this one likely contained the highest amount of source energy yet. Sensing the surging resilience in his muscles, bones, and internal organs, Han Qingyu genuinely wanted to find a place to shoot himself just to test it out. "You guys giving up too?" Another squad hailing from Huaxia was heading in a different direction and called out in greeting before leaving. "Not looking anymore. With that kind of time, we'd be better off looking for another block," Han Qingyu replied. "Fair enough. See you when it's time to chop Great Spikes, then." "See you when we chop Great Spikes." Saying their farewells with a wave of the hand, Han Qingyu walked down the slope. Wu Xu was standing at the foot of the slope. "Still want to fight?" Wen Jifei asked. Truth be told, because of their earlier discussions, the squad bore no real ill will toward Wu Xu; they even felt a measure of respect for him. He seemed to simply be following orders, and everyone had seen how he turned his blade flat when charging forward. Wu Xu stood there, looked at Wen Jifei with an apologetic gaze, and shook his head. Then he turned to Han Qingyu. "My spear... could you give it back to me?" The spear wasn't on him; it had been left in the cave. Going to fetch it now would give away their shelter's location, and besides, Han Qingyu had no intention of returning it. They weren't even close—why should he give it back?! He had scavenged it with his own abilities, and it was a damn fine weapon. "Tossed it," Han Qingyu said casually. Wu Xu froze, a look of anxiety washing over his face. "Where did you toss it?" "Just back on that mountain." "...Alright." Wu Xu nodded. What an honest kid. As another honest kid himself, Han Qingyu felt a sudden twinge of shame. "You'd better see to your injuries first," he said. With that, he pulled out two vials of the special wound medicine used on the battlefield by the Sole Witness Legion and tossed them to Wu Xu. Wu Xu caught them dumbly, saying nothing. Han Qingyu looked at him, couldn't be bothered to say any more, and turned around to lead his squad down the mountain. ... Adubu was very lucky. Even though his eagle had disappeared the night before, today, as they were walking, a metal block crashed down right before his feet.