17: Chapter 17 New Opponents in the Quarterfinals

The next day, before dawn.

Morning mist shrouded the back mountain of Third High School.

Dragging his exhausted body, Jiang Xun appeared on time at the agreed-upon clearing. The wound on his shoulder had begun to heal under the nourishment of the Divine Kingdom's power, but the icy sensation of being on the brink of death last night still lingered.

Lame Zhang was already there, still wearing his tattered security guard uniform. He leaned against an old locust tree, holding a wine gourd and drinking fitfully. When he saw Jiang Xun, he didn't even raise his eyelids.

"You're here."

"Tell me, in a situation like yesterday's, where did you get the confidence to think you could survive?"

Jiang Xun remained silent. He had replayed the events of last night many times. If not for Lame Zhang's bizarre broom, even if he had managed to counter-kill in the end, he would have certainly paid a far more painful price.

"Your Divine Kingdom's power is messy, but your Foundation is decent. However, your fighting style is garbage."

Lame Zhang stood up and used his foot to draw a circle on the ground.

"This is the battlefield."

He then picked up a large rock and placed it in the center of the circle.

"This is your enemy—a lump of iron, an idiot who only knows how to charge head-on."

Next, he grabbed a handful of gravel and threw it on the other side of the circle.

"This is you. A pile of loose sand."

He looked at Jiang Xun, his gaze becoming sharp for the first time.

"Now, tell me, how are you going to use this loose sand to smash this lump of iron?"

Jiang Xun frowned in thought.

"Concentrate my forces and attack a single point?"

"Stupid!"

Lame Zhang kicked the gravel apart.

"That's the bullshit theory those academy instructors taught you! On a real battlefield, will an enemy give you the chance to assemble leisurely? Will they just watch as you smash their hard shell?"

He picked up a branch and drew quickly on the ground.

"War is not addition and subtraction. It's not about whose fist is harder."

"It is an art. It is deception, it is attrition, it is using your strengths to attack the enemy's most vulnerable spots."

"Let him be strong, let him be hard. You don't touch his shell. You gouge out his eyes, cut his tendons, and sever his supply lines. When a giant can't even stand steadily, what use is the hardest fist?"

Lame Zhang didn't teach any specific Cultivation Technique; everything he spoke of was the purest, bloodiest Law of the battlefield.

Asymmetric warfare.

Using the small to overcome the large, using the weak to defeat the strong.

Jiang Xun listened intently. The countless battle cases he had accumulated from his previous life as a history major rapidly merged with the theories from Lame Zhang's mouth, striking new sparks.

In the span of one morning, a whole new world seemed to open up for Jiang Xun.

Afternoon, the quarter-finals of the Resource Competition.

The atmosphere inside the gymnasium was even more explosive than yesterday.

Jiang Xun's odds had shifted from the initial 300-to-1 to 1.1-to-1, making him the biggest favorite to win.

His opponent today was named Shi Lei, a veteran in his thirties with the B-rank Talent 'Legion Command'.

The believers in his Divine Kingdom were all standardized legions—strictly disciplined and formidable in combat—making him the nemesis of all flashy tactics.

"There isn't much suspense in this match. Although the contestant Shi Lei is a veteran, his Legion Civilization has extremely strong frontal combat capabilities. Jiang Xun's surprise attack tactics will likely be ineffective."

The commentator analyzed, and most of the audience held the same view.

The battle began.

In Shi Lei's Divine Kingdom, a heavy infantry phalanx of over a thousand believers raised their tower shields and marched in unison. Like a moving mountain of steel, they slowly pressed toward Jiang Xun's Divine Kingdom.

That chilling, iron-blooded Aura caused the entire arena to suffocate.

However, facing this overwhelming pressure, Jiang Xun's Divine Kingdom remained tightly shut, with no movement at all.

"What is Jiang Xun doing? Has he given up?"

"Impossible, he must be charging up some big move!"

Just as everyone was bewildered, dozens of small combat units of no more than a dozen people suddenly rushed out from both sides of Jiang Xun's Divine Kingdom.

They didn't charge the indestructible heavy infantry phalanx.

Instead, like a pack of wolves smelling blood, they scattered and bypassed the frontal battlefield, disappearing into the edges of the map.

Seeing this, Shi Lei let out a disdainful snort.

"Trivial tricks."

In his view, this kind of harassment was completely meaningless. Once his main legion destroyed the opponent's Divine Kingdom core, everything would be over.

But soon, he couldn't laugh anymore.

To his rear, the logistics units responsible for transporting supplies were suddenly attacked.

The scouts he sent out to investigate lost contact one by one.

The light cavalry protecting the flanks of his formation were frequently ambushed by enemies leaping from the shadows, and the formation began to fall into chaos.

Across the entire battlefield, except for his massive main legion, signal fires were being lit everywhere else.

Jiang Xun's small units used hit-and-run tactics, never lingering for a fight.

They were like a swarm of the most annoying mosquitoes, buzzing around you. When you slapped at them, you couldn't even touch a shadow, but they always managed to give you a nasty sting when you least expected it.

"Damn it!"

Cold sweat broke out on Shi Lei's forehead.

He tried several times to assemble his main force for a decisive battle, but that massive legion was like a giant being bitten by countless insects—possessing great strength but unable to even touch the opponent's shadow.

Instead, because of the frequent redeployments, his formation began to scatter, and morale continued to drop.

"Now is the time."

Jiang Xun, who had been holding his ground, finally issued the order for a general offensive.

The true ace main force in his Divine Kingdom, like the sharpest of daggers, followed a route ignored by the opponent and accurately, ruthlessly pierced into Shi Lei's already chaotic command center.

Ten minutes later.

"In this match, Jiang Xun wins!"

The entire arena fell into a dead silence once again.

If yesterday's victory was a crushing display of power, then today's victory was a complete outclassing in intelligence and tactics.

Shi Lei stood rooted to the spot, lost in his thoughts. He couldn't understand why the iron-blooded legion he was so proud of would lose in such a humiliating way.

After the match, in the players' tunnel, Shi Lei blocked Jiang Xun.

This iron-willed man looked at him with a complex gaze.

"I admit defeat wholeheartedly. But I just want to ask one thing: where did you learn this fighting style... this 'Wolf Pack' tactic?"

"Only the 'Blood Wolf Regiment' that roamed the borders years ago would use this. What is your relationship with them?"

Jiang Xun adjusted his glasses and didn't answer.

He had plundered Shi Lei's civilization, and a trace of the Law of iron-blooded military discipline was added to his Divine Kingdom. The organization and discipline of his believers were greatly enhanced.

He walked through the tunnel, preparing to leave.

But another figure blocked his path.

It was Xu Qingran.

Today, she wasn't wearing her valiant combat uniform, but a simple white dress instead.

She looked at Jiang Xun with admiration and curiosity in her eyes, but more than that, a hard-to-define sense of distance and worry.

"You're looking less and less like a student."

She said softly.

"In your eyes, there's no longer the hot-bloodedness and impulsiveness of youth, only calculation and... Killing Intent."