Chapter 2103 — The Third Match

"You may be confident, but the rest of us are rather short on confidence!" Old Master Pi frowned. "I hear Wei Zhao wiped out three Earth-rank fighters with a single move. His martial skills must be formidable indeed. In tomorrow's martial arts contest, I fear the Hidden Pi Family will not be a match for Wei Zhao!"

"That is not necessarily so!" The old master of the Hidden You Family spoke up. "From what I know, Wei Zhao cultivates fire-element martial arts. Fire techniques are formidable, yes, but only against a living foe. Our contest is to strike a great boulder—whoever shatters it into the most fragments with a single blow wins. Fire techniques may burn a man to death, but they cannot burn stone. High heat is useless against rock. Even striking with inner force would only break it into two or three pieces at best. But your Pi Family excels at external arts—not to mention that you have some connection with the ancient sect Divine Fist Hall... When the time comes, one punch from you can split the stone into any number of small pieces. Who could hope to beat you?"

Divine Fist Hall was an ancient sect devoted to external body techniques, famed for the might of its fists—a single punch could split mountains and cleave seas. That was how it had earned its name. One of the Hidden Pi Family's ancestors had once served as its Grand Elder, and though he had vanished afterward, the Hidden Pi Family still maintained certain ties with Divine Fist Hall.

Of course, once a man is gone, his influence cools. Had that Grand Elder still been around, the Hidden Pi Family would never have declined so far—they would long since have stood shoulder to shoulder with the Yu and You Families as great established houses.

Even so, the Pi Family's fighters had gained a measure of favor from Divine Fist Hall, achieving great mastery in fist techniques. Their martial arts in particular came directly from Divine Fist Hall—overbearing to the extreme.

"Indeed. Even I could not withstand a single blow from those Heaven-rank experts of Divine Fist Hall. Heh heh, so what is there for your Pi Family to worry about in this martial arts contest?" The speaker was Adamant Diamond, sect master of the Golden Bell Sect.

"There is sense in that!" Old Master Pi nodded, much reassured. The trouble was that the day's events had cast too great a shadow over his mind, leaving him somewhat uneasy.

"Enough. There is no need to trouble ourselves over nothing!" The old master of the Yu Family spoke as well. "When the time comes, for both the single-competitor and the paired-contest arenas, we need only add a rule: martial arts techniques are not permitted. Without them, let us see how Wei Zhao can win!"

"Exactly!" Old Master Zhuang immediately chimed in his agreement.

The single-competitor arena was the Yu Family's forte, and the paired contest was the Zhuang Family's. If Wei Zhao were barred from using martial arts techniques, their chances of victory would be far greater! And with Wei Zhao unable to use them, there would be no fear of their own young disciples being injured!

With the matter settled, the family elders and sect masters all retired to rest at ease, making ready for the next day's contests...

Sure enough, at nine the next morning, the same Zhao Family disciple from the day before came running over. "Is the venerable head of the Han Family present? Today's contest is about to begin. Please, Elder Han, bring your family's competitors to the council hall to register and place your wagers!"

"Good!" Han Tianba and Wei Zhao had been ready for some time, so the moment the disciple arrived, they set off with him for the council hall.

As for being the last to arrive at the council hall, the three of them had grown used to it by now. In any case, even under these people's joint schemes, Wei Zhao had still won—so there was no fear of them playing any further tricks.

"The third contest—and the first of today—is a trial of martial arts!" Once Han Tianba had registered, placed his wager, and taken his seat, Old Master Zhao began to explain the day's rules of competition. "A martial arts contest means that each competitor unleashes a single martial arts technique, and the target of that technique is a single hard boulder. Whoever shatters the boulder into the greatest number of fragments wins! Naturally, only fragments larger than a fist are counted; dust and debris are not. Does anyone object?"

After all, even breaking a great stone into two pieces might produce any number of tiny fragments. If every last speck were to be counted one by one, the tally would be impossible—so naturally, fist-sized stones were the standard for counting.

"What sort of rule is that? What if someone smashes the boulder to powder with a single punch, so that most of the fragments are smaller than a fist—by your reckoning, would that count as a loss?" Han Xiaopo had listened carefully to the rules and immediately spotted the flaw in them.

In truth, it was not that the others could not find such flaws, but that they had never bothered to think them through. After all, the predetermined champion of this round was the Hidden Pi Family—whatever happened, they would win—so no one had examined the rules so closely.

But now that Han Xiaopo had raised it, Old Master Zhao was momentarily at a loss for words. Indeed—if that were so, would the rule not be flawed?

"That is easily handled. What Elder Zhao described is the first rule. Should the situation Han Xiaopo describes indeed arise, then each competitor shall produce the largest fragment from his own pile of rubble, and whoever's largest fragment is the smallest shall be the winner!" Old Master Pi assumed that Han Xiaopo, having heard the rules, thought his own chances slim and was being a poor loser, deliberately picking a quarrel—so he calmly added another rule.

"But that still does not prove that the one with the smallest largest fragment shattered the stone into the most pieces!" Han Xiaopo said.

"Then what do you propose?" Old Master Pi frowned with some impatience. It seemed the contest rules would have to be made stricter in future—at the very least, Han Xiaopo must not be allowed to spot the flaws so easily. As for his realizing it afterward, that would no longer count.

"Never mind, Xiaopo. Let it be this rule." Wei Zhao shook his head, stopping Han Xiaopo from pressing further. As far as Wei Zhao was concerned, the rule posed no problem at all.

"If the competitors have no objections, then non-competitors should not make trouble!" Seeing Wei Zhao speak up, Old Master Pi breathed a sigh of relief. He assumed Wei Zhao had no confidence of winning no matter what, and so did not wish Han Xiaopo to keep haggling—he wanted the contest over with as quickly as possible.

"Good. Since no one has any objections, then let us proceed to the trial grounds behind the council hall. Everyone to your positions—make ready for the contest to begin!" Old Master Zhao brought down his hammer of finality.

It was still the same ground where the projectile-evasion contest had been held the night before, except that today a number of great boulders, identical in size and shape, had been brought in beforehand, with a wide gap between each pair—this, too, to prevent competitors from affecting one another when they unleashed their techniques.

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