The Ashes of Fate - Chapter 8: Fighting for meat
Translator – Synthsoon
In fact, they originally wanted to challenge An Jing the next day, but because the practice was so tiring their entire body was wracked with pain, they couldn’t even stand. So everyone waited until the third day.
The reason everyone wanted to collectively challenge An Jing wasn’t because of the one-eyed instructor’s praise towards him.
Everyone has seen clearly what An Jing was capable of in the past half a month or so.
To put it simply, he was good in both literature and Martial Arts.
Those who were more capable of literature couldn’t match his Martial Arts, and when it came to Martial Arts… nobody was more capable than him.
Ignoring everything else, during a training session, a big kid named Zhan Feng got into a fight with the other children.
Although he was only twelve years old, he was eight feet tall, and even though his opponent looked thin, he was actually incredibly strong.
When they fought, the clash was so fierce nobody could get close to them.
But the two young men were each held down with one hand by An Jing, and ended up unable to move and crying for mercy.
So, even if it was just a “silent admission” at the beginning, after half a month or so, everyone had already recognized An Jing as the de facto Senior Brother.
The results of the limit test also showed that An Jing’s physical strength was the best among all of them.
But this recognition was based on the lack of incentives.
On the day of the test, An Jing’s dinner included one more bowl of braised pork ribs and a bowl of vegetable and tofu soup.
The aroma of the steaming ribs was incredibly rich, and the brown sauce seemed to have a bit of a pungent medicinal flavor, arousing one’s appetite. The vegetable and tofu soup looked ordinary, but it seemed to be boiled with bones and exuded a strong flavor, this was considered a master chef’s work even in the outside world.
There was a good supply of food at the Life Suspending Manor, including corn meat soup, soybean rice, and occasionally eggs and tofu, which wasn’t much but stable.
But that’s about it.
A large bowl of braised pork ribs and the aroma of oil and sauce caused the entire cafeteria to stir the moment it appeared.
An Jing didn’t even look back, but from the rapid breathing, he knew that everyone was green with envy.
In fact, he was also envious of himself.
Without a moment’s hesitation, An Jing finished the meat in front of him as quickly as possible.
That night, a satisfied An Jing heard twice as many teeth grinding noises in his dormitory, and his dreams were all about ‘barbecued meat’ and ‘ribs’, an almost materialized resentment that almost kept him awake. And happy.
He knew very well that he wouldn’t be able to live peacefully for the next period of time.
But An Jing had no fear.
Trying to take his share of meat?
Ha, what a joke!
No matter who it was, he wouldn’t lose!
An Jing ate meat ribs for three days, and after everyone had recovered, ten of the thirteen people who had completed the entire course under the supervision of the instructor asked to challenge An Jing.
“A Continuous Battle?”
After hearing the rules announced by the instructor, Gu YeQi, who was following An Jing the entire time, opened her already large eyes even wider.
She asked with confusion, “Instructor Lai, this doesn’t seem fair, does it? Brother Jing …… An Jing has to defeat all the challengers consecutively before he can continue to be a senior brother?”
This girl who came from the same hometown as An Jing was quite energetic, everytime she met An Jing she would call out “Big brother Jing!”, and everytime training was finished, she would hand him a bowl of water.
This feeling was new to An Jing who never had a young sister, so he also went out of his way to take care of her and teach her some Martial Arts, building a good relationship between the two.
Of course, An Jing also knew if he really had a sister, she would never be as kind and considerate as Gu YeQi.
“Yeah.” Behind An Jing, Zhang Ying who still had a bruise on his forehead spoke out “Doesn’t this mean the challengers who come last will have the biggest chance of winning? Even if they did win nobody would accept the result!”
“If your physical strength isn’t enough, that means your cultivation isn’t enough. Others who are unconvinced can naturally continue the challenge during the next ten days.”
The one-eyed instructor’s last name was Lai, he gazed toward An Jing playfully, intent to test his limits “You are all disciples here, finishing a fight won’t take that long. You don’t have the skills to drag fights out, so one mistake can already cost you the match.”
“If you really have the skill, it won’t take half an hour to defeat ten people in a row.”
“It’s not that easy to become the ‘leader’ of this year’s bunch, senior brother.”
Instructor Lai was right, An Jing didn’t think it was unfair as well, rather, it was a good opportunity.
It was a good opportunity to subdue all those who didn’t obey him!
This challenge didn’t limit any weaponry, so everyone could choose the weapons they were best at, such as wooden staffs, wooden blades, wooden swords and so on. After all, the Martial Arts of DaChen were very powerful, many youngsters had already learnt how to wield a weapon since their childhood.
An Jing chose a short stick instead, which was more of a weapon for blocking.
The first challenger used a blade, since it was some kind of butcher family’s heirloom, the wielder was ruthless with it.
It wasn’t that he hated An Jing, but because he knew An Jing’s skills very well, he knew he would be defeated in one blow if he didn’t use everything, he wasn’t expecting to win but he would do anything for more meat!
After saluting each other, he took the lead and stepped forward, his blade swinging in an arc as he aimed for An Jing’s inner circle from a diagonal angle, but An Jing instantly recognized this blade technique was only suitable for close-range pointed meat cleavers, not long blades, that’s why he was trying to get close to him. However, the blade he was using was already long enough, there was no need to close the distance, as a result his advance only shifted his center of gravity.
Catching the opportunity, An Jing struck and deflected the challenger’s blade to the side, with a single step he pushed the unsteady challenger down to the ground.
The second challenger probably belonged to a woodcutter family, he picked a good axe and was proficient at it. He even wielded it with great vigor, his strikes could’ve made bruises and were powerful enough to reach bone. Even An Jing had to catch his breath after getting caught by one hit.
The only problem was that An Jing was neither firewood nor a tree.
He could move.
An Jing easily dodged the powerful axe, and then struck his opponent on the side of his chest from under his armpit, staggering him and causing him to give up.
The third and fourth challengers weren’t ough opponents either, one wielded a sword and the other used a short spear, and after a little bit of struggle, they were defeated by An Jing in turn, who managed to find flaws in each of them.
Although their physical strength was good and their talent was not bad, they survived the Frost Scourge mostly by depending on their parents or on luck, even if they killed people before, it was mostly by luck, their understanding of Martial Arts were only at the basic level.
While An Jing had already been practicing Martial Arts from his childhood, he killed horse bandits with his mother during his time in the Northern Plains, slayed cannibal vagrants several times, and even survived direct ambushes too. The difference between battle experience was just too wide.
An Jing even had to consciously hold back, otherwise the short stick in his hand would’ve pierced someone’s heart or cut their neck.
This is also the reason why he chose the short stick, beating challengers to become a proper senior brother who got to enjoy meat was one thing, accidentally killing his classmates was another thing.
“Not even close.”
As Instructor Lai watched An Jing cut down his fifth and sixth opponents, he couldn’t help but shake his head, “Originally I wanted to test this kid’s skills, but I didn’t expect the gap to be so wide.”
He then looked at the remaining four challengers and was even more dissatisfied, “None of them can do it.”
Among these four challengers, only one of them was adequate in Martial Arts, the others could only bully little kids, but even so, there were at least three or four levels of difference between them and An Jing’s performance just now.
Moreover, from the girl’s expression of admiration, she clearly had no intention to fight, she might even surrender immediately.
By now, An Jing had already defeated the seventh challenger – he didn’t even use a weapon this time, grabbing the stick swing to him with his bare hands, he knocked the opponent all the way back with one kick, forcing him to cough and wave his hand to admit defeat.
It was now just over a quarter of an hour, and the ten of them wouldn’t be able to hold out for a quarter and a half of an hour, not to mention half an hour.
Instructor Lai frowned, he came here with a mission, An Jing’s level being this high was a good thing, but now everyone’s morale was lost, which wasn’t his purpose.
His eyes scanned the whole room, there were two hundred Children of Calamity, there were those who had An Jing’s level of talent, but that’s also exactly why they realized their actual combat experience was lacking and wouldn’t stand a chance against him.
For those who were experienced and had good strength, they could also see the gap between themselves and An Jing.
Instructor Lai scanned over a few potential seeds that he was quite optimistic about, but all of them didn’t have the slightest intention to fight, After looking around, he found one who was watching the fight but wasn’t intimidated at all, instead he was so excited he clenched his fists, his actual strength was also good enough to threaten An Jing a bit.
“You.”
Instructor Lai came directly in front of the teenager, tapped his shoulder, and then pointed at An Jing, “Go and beat him down.”