A great wind rises, clouds surge and fly;
Yixie is vanquished, tears stream from his eyes.
Of course, that was merely a figure of speech...
Even if Brother Sun lost, he wasn't going to literally burst into tears. If any weeping was done, it was done deep in his heart.
On the surface, he would only say something like, "I just feel losing to a woman is a bit humiliating, nothing more," while putting on an airy, nonchalant act.
In reality, however, he was thoroughly unreconciled.
Unreconciled as he might be, the gap in their martial skill was plain to see...
Song Zhixiu was widely regarded as the competitor whose strength came closest to Lin Yuancheng's in the entire tournament. Furthermore, after so many previous bouts, Sun Yixie had practically exhausted all his sneaky tricks and underhanded maneuvers, and no one took him lightly anymore. Under such circumstances, it naturally took only two or three exchanges before Brother Sun found a saber pressed against his throat.
Yes, Sun Yixie had lost—swiftly and cleanly.
Perhaps someone might wonder: was there truly nothing else he could have done?
Not entirely, but his methods all crossed the line...
Take lime powder, for instance. He had it on hand, and he wasn't too bashful to use it, either. But before the match, he had gone out of his way to ask Shen Youran whether it was allowed. Shen Youran had been so dumbfounded by the question that he replied, "Worthy Brother, are you serious?"
Sun Yixie deduced that this was roughly equivalent to: "If you use that, you'll probably get thrown off the stage and beaten by an angry mob." Thus, he had no choice but to give up on the idea.
As for Huang Donglai's knockout... er... fast-acting sleeping drugs, they obviously couldn't be used either. Even if they could, Huang Donglai had no intention of lending them to Sun Yixie. Huang Donglai knew all too well that if Brother Sun were condemned by the crowd after using the drug, he would sell him out without a second's hesitation, likely bellowing, "It was that Huang Donglai who forced me to use it! I was seduced by his slanderous counsel!"—clearing himself completely of all blame.
In short, Sun Yixie truly had lost—a helpless defeat, but a thoroughly reasonable one.
From a certain perspective, given his level of martial arts, winning all the way to the semifinals was what had been unreasonable; calling it a "miracle" was hardly an exaggeration.
And so, Sun Yixie swiftly conceded and stepped down from the arena in dejection.
He glanced back over his shoulder, only to see Heroine Song standing tall upon the arena stage. In appearance and bearing, she was truly dashing and gallant, beautiful as a blossom, otherworldly in aura, and utterly unattainable.
She seemed to glance at him once more.
Yet she also seemed never to have spared that glance at all.
He seemed to want to say something to her, but in the end, he spoke not a word.
Only many years later, when both had achieved fame and success yet lived oceans apart, did many jianghu busybodies dig up today's defeat... Some claimed he had possessed tender feelings for the fairer sex and thrown the fight intentionally; others claimed he had sought to lose the match to win a romance in life.
Some even made a ballad out of it, singing:
"I can't help but smile, fondly recalling how I lost to you.
Longing to return to that day,
To tie again the threads of our fate anew.
The peak stirs the winds of old."
...Such romantic, tender verses spun groundless rumors into vivid tales, leaving it unclear whether the story should be considered a charming romance or a laughingstock.
Of course, at least today, Sun Yixie did not look particularly battered or disgraced in defeat. Heroine Song had adhered strictly to the rule of stopping once victory was decided, and moreover, her martial skill was vastly superior to Sun Yixie's. After a few exchanges, she simply rested her saber against his neck to conclude the match, leaving Sun Yixie completely unharmed.
Holding his trident, he walked back to his "viewing stand" with a somewhat stiff expression and plopped down next to Huang Donglai and Lei Buji.
"Brother Sun," Huang Donglai immediately leaned in with a smirk, intending to console his brother with some teasing banter.
"Shut up," Sun Yixie cut him off sharply. "I don't want to hear it!"
"I haven't even said anything yet," Huang Donglai remarked.
"Motherfucker, I'm sick of this!" Sun Yixie retorted. "No ivory comes from a dog's mouth anyway, so what do you have to say?"
"Aiya~ let it go. What's there to be angry about? You were supposed to lose," Huang Donglai said. "A fighter like you—strong against the weak, but 'motherfucker' against the strong—was due for a loss long ago. Making it into the final four is already a miraculous overperformance." At this point, he paused for half a second before adding in a rather sincere tone, "In all honesty, even if I went up there, I wouldn't have made the final four, all right?"
"Oh..." Hearing that, Sun Yixie pondered for a moment. "Now that you mention it, that makes sense. No matter what, your brother made the semifinals. Who knows, maybe when they hold the third-place playoff later, I can still fight for third or something."
"Huh?" Huang Donglai froze. "Brother Sun, what are you talking about? You're already fourth."
"Ha? Why?" Sun Yixie froze too.
"Weren't the rules written right beside the posted tournament bracket?" Huang Donglai replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Contestants eliminated in the same round have their ranks decided by their literary exam scores. Otherwise, when would this tournament ever end?"
He was right. In every session of the Youth Heroes Assembly, the rankings were determined meticulously. Not just the top four, but from fifth down to the very last place, every spot was clearly established. That was another reason the "literary exam" existed. For example, among the four contestants knocked out in the quarterfinals of the "martial exam," there was no need to stage cross-matches or round-robins to decide fifth through eighth place; their ranks were simply assigned based on their literary exam scores.
Therefore, according to the rules, between Sun Yixie and Chun Kong, who was likewise eliminated in the semifinals, whichever one had scored higher on the literary exam would automatically take third place.
Sun Yixie... was obviously fourth place. After all, he couldn't even read the rules.
"Holy crap~ There's a rule like that?" Having heard Huang Donglai's explanation, the mood that had just begun to brighten for Sun Yixie soured once more.
Fortunately, he was quite adept at adjusting his mindset, possessing a healthy dose of the Ah Q spirit. He soon persuaded himself: "Sigh... fine then. Fourth is fourth. Taking fourth out of nearly a hundred people, your brother is satisfied."
Yet at this moment, Huang Donglai once again brought out his uncanny talent for touching a sore spot, remarking, "That's the spirit. Besides, with your family wealth, Brother Sun, you wouldn't care about the prizes anyway."
"What?!" Sun Yixie, who had just leaned back in his chair, shot upright at the word "prizes." "This tournament has prizes? Why didn't I know about this?"
He shouted so loudly that numerous spectators turned around to stare at him.
Huang Donglai finally realized something and continued, "Oh, Brother Sun, you're illiterate, so I don't blame you. Let me explain... This tournament does have prizes, and they were clearly listed in the rules column. This year, first place receives a martial arts secret manual gifted by the Justice Sect, second place can freely pick a treasured weapon from the Justice Sect's treasury, third place is awarded one hundred taels of gold, and as for fourth place... you don't get jack shit."
Amid the stares of the surrounding crowd, Sun Yixie listened to Huang Donglai finish speaking. His lips twitched twice on the spot. Then, with an expression as if he had lost all will to live, he slowly sank back down, covering his face with one hand pressed against his forehead. "Ah... I want to fucking die..."
Chapter 53