463: Martial arts fight only

Looking at Mo Yunshan, who was passionately speaking on stage, Yang Dian couldn't help but elbow the Old Daoist beside him.

“Daoist Master, how many drafts do you think Director Mo went through for this speech?”

The Old Daoist shook his head slightly:

“I don’t know, but it was quite a few.”

“What about you?”

“The closing ceremony speech for this Martial Arts Competition was assigned to you, wasn’t it?”

“Are you ready?”

Yang Dian paused, then slapped his forehead:

“I forgot.”

As he spoke, he tapped on the podium, summoning Zero, who had already ignited the Spark and could freely enter and exit the territory map.

“Zero, project my speech onto the podium’s surface. I need to cram.”

So, when Mo Yuntao, Director of the Martial Security Bureau, who had spent a few minutes concluding the opening speech for the championship battle, returned, he saw Yang Dian muttering to himself while staring at the podium in front of him.

“What’s going on?”

The Old Daoist chuckled:

“Young Yang is giving the closing remarks, but he’s been busy with other things and completely forgot about it.”

“He’s memorizing it now.”

Mo Yuntao, Director of the Martial Security Bureau smiled:

“That’s quite interesting…”

Time flew by quickly as the two chatted and Yang Dian painstakingly memorized, and in the blink of an eye, it was 9:30.

As the second hand returned to zero, the host on stage spoke:

“It is now 9:30 AM Chinese time. The finals of the Chinese Martial Arts Competition officially begin.”

“Next, please welcome from the first-grade elementary school group, student Abdul Aziz from Urumqi First Martial Arts Elementary School in Xinjiang, and student Xu Song from Northeast Liaoning Second Elementary School.”

As the host finished speaking, two youths, who were nominally first-graders but were already nearly 1.6 meters tall with bulging muscles, walked through the aisle and stepped onto the ring.

Watching Abdul Aziz and Xu Song salute the surrounding stands and then look towards the judges’ panel, Yang Dian, under the gaze of over a billion people, stood up and quietly began:

“Martial Dao is all about contention.”

He didn’t use the manuscript provided by the organization but spoke according to his own thoughts:

“Contend with the heavens, contend with the earth, contend with people…”

“This is just like our Huaxia Civilization.”

“To ensure the Spark of civilization endures forever and illuminates the cosmos, we must contend with heaven and earth, with foreign races, with alien civilizations, and even with intelligent life forms of different morphologies.”

“Therefore, in Martial Dao, there is no such thing as ‘friendship first, competition second’.”

“Martial Dao is about vying for supremacy; it’s about striving for first place.”

“Just like civilization.”

“If we lose in a war against other civilizations, will those other civilizations tell us ‘friendship first,’ not invade us, and even send us resources?”

“No!”

Saying this, Yang Dian tapped the podium in front of him, making a “thump, thump” sound:

“So, everyone.”

“All the contestants waiting to step onto the ring for the competition.”

“All compatriots in the stands.”

“Martial Dao is all about contention.”

“Civilization is all about contention.”

“No contention means falling behind, means death.”

“Go all out, there’s no such thing as stopping at a certain point. Since you’ve stepped onto the ring, then fight to the death.”

“Show our Chinese people’s unyielding will and tenacious passion!”

“As long as you fight with spirit, regardless of whether you ultimately win, our Expeditionary Force will provide additional special resources to help you grow and become a pillar of our Huaxia Civilization!”

As his voice fell, the entire arena immediately erupted in cheers.

“Good, the Army Lord spoke so well! Martial Dao is about contending, about fighting, about fighting to the death! If even on the territory map ring, you fight weakly, talking about stopping at a certain point, is there still a need to Cultivate such a Genius?”

“The Army Lord is indeed the Army Lord. The purpose of the Martial Arts Competition is to select our Chinese Prodigies, but what is a Prodigy? In my opinion, one must not only have outstanding Cultivation talent but also a strong and unyielding spiritual will. What’s the use of cultivating a Genius who has good Cultivation talent but is timid and afraid to advance in battle? Giving resources to him is also a waste.”

“It’s ignited! Let the entire Universe be illuminated by the Spark of our Huaxia Civilization!”

“Holy crap, a personal promise from the Army Lord, additional special resources provided by the Expeditionary Force? Are the contestants that lucky?”

“It’s not the contestants who are lucky, it’s us who are lucky. In the past, would such good things ever fall to us ordinary people?”

“Damn it~ I was just a little bit short of being able to step onto the championship ring, to get the Army Lord’s attention and receive special Cultivation! Just that little bit! In the future, I must work hard, work harder, and strive to get on the championship ring next year!”

“Holy crap, there’s another big shot? What was his ranking in the Martial Arts Competition?”

“Sixth hundred seventy-ninth in the sophomore group.”

“Uh? Over six hundredth?”

“What, is over six hundredth bad? Among millions of university students, being ranked over six hundredth is already a one-in-ten-thousand Genius!”

“Indeed, the competition in China is still too fierce. There are hundreds, even thousands, of one-in-ten-thousand Geniuses at each university stage.”

“It’s certainly competitive, but competing domestically is better than competing with the Machina abroad…”

“Oh no, after seeing a man like the Army Lord, how can I find a partner? Army Lord, you owe me, you have to take me as compensation!…”

Listening to the occasional vulgarities mixed in with the passionate shouts, Yang Dian scanned the agitated stands again, then tapped the stage with his hand.

“I announce, the first Martial Arts Competition finals, first-grade elementary school group match, begins!”

As his voice fell, the two ‘children’ on stage, each about 1.6 meters tall, with solid muscles and weighing over 200 jin, had already transformed into afterimages and collided.

Amidst the “thump, thump” of collisions, most of the people in the stands began to sigh again.

“Although I’ve seen it many times, it still feels outrageous.”

“Same here, other people are first-graders, six or seven years old, throwing punches on the ring, while I, a first-year university student, nineteen years old, just ‘ah ba ah ba’ all day…”

“Are you not Cultivating properly?”

“How could I not Cultivate properly? 48 hours a day, I Cultivate for 36 hours, but the effect just isn’t great. Maybe I really don’t have the talent for Martial Arts, so I plan to reduce my Cultivation time and work hard towards scientific research.”

“Scientific research is also good. War Machina, artificial intelligence, Universe starships, all these are created by scientific researchers. A Genius scientific researcher is much more useful than an ordinary Transcendent Realm Martial Artist.”

“Sigh~ My academic performance isn’t that great either, but I just think I can’t disgrace the motherland and civilization. I should find a position to shine and contribute. If scientific research doesn’t work out, I’m even planning to apply for a mecha to see if I have any talent in ‘piloting’.”

“Did everyone see Xu Song? He’s my son! My son! Thank the organization, thank the Party; it’s all thanks to the organization’s Cultivation that he could succeed!”

“Wow, brother, you have a great son!”

“What brother, I’m a woman!”

“As expected of the mother of a championship candidate, her physique is indeed robust. Only someone as magnificent as you could give birth to a Genius of such extraordinary talent as Xu Song, right?”

“Young man, you have good taste!”

Amidst the clamor, Yang Dian looked at the two on stage with some astonishment:

“Six or seven-year-old children~ Qi Circulation Realm?”

“Are these Geniuses?”

The Old Daoist stroked his beard and smiled:

“Heroes are as numerous as carp crossing a river.”

“Before the dimension overlap, China’s resources were limited, and even the best of men struggled.”

“But with the successful breeding of Mutated Cockroaches, early Martial Arts Cultivation resources are no longer scarce, and Martial Dao Prodigies have finally appeared like a surging tide.”

“This is National Martial Arts (mass participation in martial arts), this is our China…”