93: Second move

On the arena stage, Su Ze held a shield, parrying and dodging several long-range attacks from Liu Yiyi in succession.

When faced with an unavoidable attack, his figure would instantly vanish from the spot.

A moment later, he would emerge from the shadows, closing in on Liu Yiyi.

Liu Yiyi specialized in long-range attacks; once someone closed the distance, it meant victory for Su Ze.

Over the past month, Su Ze had firmly secured the fourth-seeded position.

He had displaced the original number four, Jiang Jianbin, but the tower-like burly man held no grudges.

Su Ze finally reached Liu Yiyi's side, his scimitar slashing toward her.

But this was just a spar, after all; he couldn't actually cut her down.

As long as Liu Yiyi admitted defeat, Su Ze would stop immediately.

However, she did not surrender. Instead, she sighed somewhat helplessly and said, "Sigh, you really are improving fast. It seems I can't hide it anymore..."

A stream of pure water transformed into a pair of short daggers in her hands. With an upward block, she parried Su Ze's scimitar.

Then, like a butterfly flitting about, the twin daggers in her hands danced with her movements, constantly slashing at Su Ze.

Daggers formed from water were naturally not as resilient as the scimitar transformed from Su Ze's Shadow Moon Wolf King weapon, but they were essentially just water.

If any part was damaged, other water would immediately flow in to fill the gap.

After several rounds of back-and-forth like this, the two pulled apart, neither having gained the upper hand.

Only the front of Liu Yiyi's collar had been sliced open by Su Ze, clearly revealing her magnificent curves, a pale and eye-catching sight.

Seeing this, she didn't shy away. She directly tore the damaged clothing and tied it around her waist; her black undergarment formed a sharp contrast with her fair skin.

"I'm done, I'm done. Let's call it a draw."

"My clothes have been torn to shreds like this. I really suspect you did it on purpose, kid!"

"This thing alone can't hold me in now. If I use too much force and the clasp snaps, wouldn't that be a treat for you all?" Liu Yiyi let go of her hands, allowing the short daggers to turn back into ordinary water and fall to the ground as she spoke irritably.

Su Ze scratched his head and gave an embarrassed smile.

He really hadn't done it on purpose. He thought victory was within his grasp, but he hadn't expected Liu Yiyi to have such a powerful hidden move; her close-combat skills were also outstanding.

Caught off guard, Su Ze had no choice but to use his full strength.

Fortunately, Liu Yiyi's footwork was agile, and she dodged the blade, only having her clothes sliced; otherwise, she would have been injured.

"Sister Yiyi, everyone thought you had specialized in long-range attacks. I didn't expect your close-combat ability to be so formidable," Su Ze praised from the side.

Liu Yiyi was a sixth-year student who had stayed at the school for two extra years, while Su Ze was just a freshman. Being five years older, he called her "Sister."

Hearing this, Liu Yiyi said somewhat indignantly, "This was the trump card I prepared for the Beast Taming Grand Competition. Who would have thought you'd force it out so easily!"

When others thought she was only good at long-range and believed they could win by closing in, suddenly revealing incredible close-combat skills would surely catch them off guard.

But such a tactic could only work once; it wouldn't be effective once someone was on guard.

"Forget it. Since you could force me to this point, it means my trump card wasn't hidden deep enough. It would have been the same with anyone else," Liu Yiyi consoled herself.

Then, she shot an annoyed look around. Everyone immediately averted their eyes and looked elsewhere.

"None of you have seen a woman before? I'm going home to change. If you have the guts, come and peek!"

She then walked out of the training room in that state. As soon as she stepped out, Su Ze and the others heard a series of "Whoa!" exclamations from outside.

Kuang Yi, Li Heng, and Jiang Jianbin all gave Su Ze, the culprit, a thumbs up.

"Brother! Nice work!"

Su Ze ignored the three lifelong bachelors. After all, he had his childhood friend, Xu Yao; what happened just now was truly an accident.

After leaving the training room, Su Ze hurried to the Thirteenth Squad's camp.

During this month, he had drawn three more gold eggs and several silver eggs.

Unfortunately, he still hadn't drawn a platinum-level demon beast egg, and his extra beast-taming slot remained empty.

Including the previous one, Su Ze now had a total of four gold eggs in his possession, enough to significantly boost the Thirteenth Squad's strength.

But he certainly wouldn't take them all out at once; instead, he would distribute them as rewards.

And he had already chosen the first candidate.

The camp was now mostly repaired, with Skinny Monkey and a few others deserving much of the credit.

So they no longer had to move bricks, but they couldn't escape the high-intensity training of several hundred kilometers every day.

Under such high-intensity exercise, even Skinny Monkey had become much more muscular.

As soon as Su Ze sat down in his office, Sun Hao immediately began his report.

They could handle those trivial matters themselves; he only spoke of things Su Ze was interested in.

"Captain Su, we released the photos as you instructed, but no one has come to claim the bodies yet."

Su Ze nodded. He hadn't expected to catch Jiang Sheng and the others' tails this way anyway.

"In that case, let's forget it. Send the bodies for cremation and then bury them."

"No problem," Sun Hao continued. "There's one more thing. According to our informants, Jiang Liu has been gone for some time for unknown reasons."

Sun Hao didn't know why, but Su Ze did. He must have gone home to hide and recover from his injuries.

"Not long after Jiang Liu left, his eldest son—Jiang Sheng's older brother, Jiang Donglin—also arrived in Beishan City."

"Oh?" Su Ze raised an eyebrow. He thought the Jiang Family would continue to look for someone higher up, like Jiang Liu calling his own father.

He didn't expect them to step back and send a son instead.

"So, have the two brothers made any moves?"

Sun Hao shook his head. "Not yet. They've been very quiet, but it seems they've been sending people out to gather some kind of information."

"Go see if you can find out what they're looking for, but try not to provoke them. I'll be heading to the Imperial Capital in a while to participate in the Beast Taming Grand Competition."

Sun Hao nodded and replied, "Understood."

After arranging things for his absence, Su Ze said with a smile, "Alright, call everyone over. It's the end of the month, payday, and I've also prepared a surprise for you all!"

Hearing this, Sun Hao also immediately went outside with a smile to call everyone into the hall. What worker doesn't love payday?

Moreover, he was also very curious about what the surprise Su Ze mentioned actually was.