Chapter 283: Wiped Out in One Fell Swoop

Upon hearing her ask this, Wu Hongwen almost choked on the last slice of beef.

Xiao Yun and Yao Jiamu set down their chopsticks awkwardly. They had such a fun time watching the whole thing go down that they forgot!

Shi Qin and the others all looked at Gu Xiqiao in astonishment. The girl barely batted an eyelash when they gave her admiring looks after she smote the mythical Qilin, but now she had such a reaction from a small piece of beef?

“Qiao… No, uhm, Miss Gu.” Betty’s gaze had never left Gu Xiqiao as she looked at her like an idol, to the point where she even changed her manner of address.

She was too excited that she couldn’t even calm down!

Gu Xiqiao handed Jiji the flower before looking over at Betty that was looking at her with a heated stare.

“Come on, let’s pack things up and choose another place to rest. “Gu Xiqiao said, and the others snapped out of their astonishment to pack everything up.

And so the team left, each holding a weapon in one hand and cooking utensils and pottery in the other.

If one looked at them, they would look like a bunch of youngsters going out for a picnic, not a team of strong individuals…

It was only after everyone left did Cecil and his party come back to their senses from the pressure.

“Master Cecil, I can’t believe my eyes…” One of his teammates rubbed his face in disbelief.

Cecil wiped off the trail of blood from the edge of his lips as he looked over in the direction where Gu Xiqiao’s party left. “She’s strong, very strong. Felix didn’t lie when he said that there was a peerless adversary in Bahuang Forest, probably even Nozawa couldn’t beat her.”

Once he said this, everyone’s expressions turned even more surprised than before.

Not even Nozawa could beat her? How strong was she?

“She looked younger than you are, how could she be so strong?” Someone asked in disbelief.

“The ancient martial arts world…” Cecil took his weapon and led everyone away from the scene, quite elated at that. “Even if I can’t beat you, Nozawa, you’ll be faced with her sooner or later.”

He smiled as he remembered the demeanor of Gu Xiqiao’s party, and it was clear that they were never ones to flaunt their ability or strength. Therefore, probably no one else knew about Gu Xiqiao’s existence just yet.

The ranking tournament this year was bound to be interesting…

He’d definitely be unable to get the first or second place, but he could still get the third place!

At this point, Cecil didn’t know that not only would he not get third place in the end, but he also wouldn’t even get into the top ten!

Meanwhile, Gu Xiqiao’s party had already found a relatively quiet and peaceful place to set up camp.

Without anyone to bother her, Gu Xiqiao leaned back on a tree as she read a book.

Yao Jiamu and the two others were talking about what Gu Xiqiao had done earlier, knowing that the reason why she used Wu Hongwen’s wooden sword was as a demonstration for them. Even though the three of them were busy eating beef, they were still very focused on what she had done.

At the same time, Shi Qin and the two others stood in front of Gu Xiqiao, not daring to say anything.

It was only after Gu Xiqiao finished reading through the yellowed pages did she raise her head and look at them. “Are the three of you… Interested in getting into the top twenty?”

And so, they were stunned once again.

The top twenty?

It was already a dream for them to be able to get into the top hundred, but the top twenty? Were they dreaming?

Even though they were still in disbelief, they nodded their heads as if possessed, and in the future they would be indefinitely grateful for their choice on that day, looking back.

“Alright.” Gu Xiqiao nodded before popping open the lid on Jiji’s chest and putting her book in there. “Little Wu, give them some wooden weapons.”

Wu Hongwen turned around and grinned at the three of them. “Glad you decided to join us!”

From that moment on, a strange team could be found in the Bahuang Forest, each holding useless-looking wooden weapons as they fought with weak monsters and beasts with all their might.

Behind six of those people stood a pretty girl that didn’t seem to be able to fight at all.

Some teams saw that there weren’t a lot of people in this team and assumed they were weak from how they used so much time to deal with weak monsters, and so they all tried to take advantage of them. To them, this small team was free pickings!

The first team that tried to pick them off was a twenty-member team from France, with members that all passed the thirtieth level of the Trial Tower at least.

When they saw Xiao Yun and the others hack at a Fleet Foot stage beast with wooden swords, they all laughed and jeered, “Hey, do you small fry need some help from your frères? You seem to be having some trouble there!”

After they said this, they all burst out in laughter.

Wu Hongwen and the others completely ignored them as they continued to fight the beast in full concentration.

Gu Xiqiao sighed and looked over in their direction with a cold expression as she said, “You want us to call you our brothers? We’re not rats, though?”

She spoke in Chinese so it took a while for them to react, and when they finally understood what she said, they were all filled with rage. “You have a death wish!”

One of them took out his weapon and rushed forward while the others watched coldly, and it was clear that they did this sort of thing quite often.

“… And here I wanted to spare you.” Gu Xiqiao’s visage flickered out of existence before reappearing in front of the opposing group.

Before they could react, they were all disarmed, their weapons discarded by Gu Xiqiao before she snapped her fingers.

Then, they all fell weakly onto the ground.

Gu Xiqiao smiled down like an angel at the men that were lying helplessly on the ground, ignoring their ghastly expressions. “Either you forfeit, or you die. Which do you choose?”

Purple lightning danced between her fingers, and the energy that pulsed off of her made it abundantly clear to the twenty people that she was being completely serious. “Forfeit! We forfeit!”

As soon as the words were uttered, the space around them rippled as a figure appeared from thin air.

Dressed in a white button-up shirt, the man looked down at these people before he raised his right hand and touched a piece of white jade, his finger glowing white before the twenty people all disappeared.

At that moment, Yao Jiamu and the others finished beating the monster, and a pulse of energy surged split into sixths and went into their wooden plaques.

They all looked back to see the tall and lean figure, and Betty’s jaw almost dropped to the ground. “He’s- The strongest-”

“The strongest man in the ancient martial arts world, yes.” Wu Hongwen helped her finish her sentence.

“Right!” Betty was both surprised and excited. “He’s right there! I’m so- Ah, I’m so excited! Do you think he would give me his signature? But I’m too scared to ask him for one…”

Shi Qin and Hans have both heard of Jiang Shuxuan before, especially Shi Qin who was part of the ancient martial arts world.

That being said, none of them dared to go close to the man that was infamous for being as cold as ice—What if they angered him?

The next moment, Betty almost blacked out from shock.

The handsome man walked over and pulled Gu Xiqiao into a hug before whispering in her ear.

“Something’s not quite right with Bahuang Forest, if you get into any trouble, call for me.” Jiang Shuxuan said, before letting go of her and glancing over at the six others coldly, making them shake in their boots before he turned around and disappeared.

Gu Xiqiao looked on as the man left, before rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

“M-Miss Gu… You know Master Jiang?” Betty asked carefully.

Gu Xiqiao didn’t reply and only smiled, and muttered to herself. “So when I get someone to forfeit I can summon Brother Jiang, huh…”

Yao Jiamu, Xiao Yun, and Wu Hongwen: “…” There’s that expression of hers again.

***

Meanwhile, the group from France appeared outside Bahuang Forest.

The person in charge of the teams from France looked at them in disbelief. “It’s only the second day, how did you get disqualified so quickly?”

“Elder, we crossed paths with a monster! We were rendered powerless with a single move, and were threatened by death to forfeit!” They were all crying, both from escaping from death and also from regret and shame.

Not only did the twenty of them get disqualified by the same person, but it was a girl that was younger than any of them at that!

How could they live with themselves?

If they knew they were so strong, they wouldn’t go provoke them like that!

Why did that team act as if they were weaklings like that? Attacking monsters with wooden swords? Acting like they were a bunch of pushovers?

Were they acting weak so that they could fish in chumps like them?!

How unbelievable!

“Was it Nozawa?” The elder asked, not being able to imagine anyone else with that degree of strength.

“Not him, but a girl.” They shook their heads as they sat on the floor, not willing to get up nor talk anymore.

The person in charge of the teams Thailand had sent laughed mockingly. “Bullied by a nameless girl? My, you’ve really promoted your country far and wide!”

As soon as he said so, the other supervisors laughed too.

The elder from France could only grip his fists. “Laugh now while you can, I don’t think you can keep that smile when your teams meet her!”

The next afternoon.

The forty participants from Thailand were all disqualified at once, appearing outside Bahuang Forest with the exact expression that the France team had the day before.

The supervisor from Thailand was completely dumbfounded by this scene, and as he looked at the forty geniuses that were handpicked from his country, he remembered how he had mocked the other team the day before and he almost collapsed to the ground in shame.

At that moment, the French all looked over at him with their eyebrows raised. Wasn’t he the one that poked the most fun at them the day before? Now he had a taste of his own medicine!

It was only at this point that the supervisors from the other countries that came all looked at each other, realizing that something wasn’t right.

If these people were all beat by the same person and not Nozawa from Japan, then who would that be? How strong could someone be to beat so many elites into the ground like that?

It was a woman too? How could there be such a strong woman here? Neither Cecily from America nor the little demon girl from China joined, had they?

And even if they did, the two of them could definitely achieve such a feat!

And so the dozens of supervisors crowded together and looked at the exit of the Bahuang Forest, in fear that the representatives from their countries would be disqualified.

In the next two days, there were three more such incidents where an entire team was disqualified all at once.

This was the first time that such a thing had happened in the ranking tournament, where an entire country’s representatives were disqualified all at once…

***

Meanwhile, over on the side of the elders that were in charge of the ranking tournament.

“The ranking tournament this time around seems… Interesting.”