Chapter 607: A Smart Mouth doesn’t make a Smart Man
=Do you think we should make a wager on how long this takes or how brutally he ends it?=
=Fair observation.=
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<{"Now, as a reminder to the contestants, these matches aren't timed so there are only three ways to secure victory in this round robin. You must either render your opponent unable to continue the match, knock them out of the ring for a ring out, or have them surrender by their own volition. You can begin fighting in thirty seconds."}>
‘Why am I getting a terrible case of deja vu?,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he stared at his opponent from across the arena.
The person he had matched with was a guy named Zhen Rin, an Aether Master from what Zhen Liu could sense.
The man appeared to be the typical Zhen Clan disciple, albeit, he also gave off the vibe of being a fanboy of the matriarch.
At least…that’s the vibe he got since the man was essentially shirtless in order to show off a series of tattoos that looked incredibly similar to Zhen Xun Tian’s tattoos, but they weren’t the same kind of special tattoos that the matriarch had.
They were just plain old ink tattoos.
<
<
‘Oh I can already see where this is going…’
Unlike the qualifier rounds where no one had any idea what kind of opponents they were going to face and in what kind of arena, the round robin portion was more or less an open book.
All the combatants knew who their future opponents were, at least by name, meaning that depending on how familiar someone was with a given name, they could use that as a means to learn more about their opponent ahead of time.
Be it reputation, abilities or affiliations, as long as one had a name, they had a lead.
Of course, depending on who that name belongs to, one didn’t need to work all that hard to learn all sorts of information.
Like the family history of a certain unofficial “branch”, however, it should be noted that information also has a nasty habit of becoming…outdated.
As of this moment in time, Zhen Liu was standing in the middle of a floating arena with a controlled, flat expression, as his opponent, Zhen Rin, proceeded to prattle on about, well, a variety of topics.
But they all shared one cohesive theme: his extreme dislike of Zhen Liu because of not how he was as a person, but the fact that he didn’t know his place.
Needless to say, this shit was getting on Zhen Liu’s nerves.
<> Zhen Rin asked with a contemptuous, sarcastic tone.
Zhen Liu could clearly tell this guy would actually love to try and beat him up, but he had to make a show of “mercy” before he could do so.
<
“…”
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[Maestro, just say the word and we can turn this guy into mincemeat. I promise it’ll be quick…or slow if you want.]
[I’ve always wanted to try and kill by a thousand cuts!]
‘Guys, chill. This guy clearly is just trying to rile me up so I act rash. It’s the same tactics I do, remember.’
[But, milord it’s-]
‘It’s fine, guys…I just need to ignore it…despite everything he is saying right now…’
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<{"Fifteen seconds..."}>
Zhen Liu wanted to tell Zhen Rin that he could go suck on a railroad spike at this moment, but railroads weren’t a thing on the Roaring Tide continent so he had no idea whether or not this insult would land.
Besides that though, he didn’t want to give Zhen Rin the satisfaction of knowing that he was getting under his skin.
As someone who also made use of other people’s anger, arrogance or any other strong feelings against them in order to get the upper hand in a fight, Zhen Liu knew damn well that the moment he showed a hint of emotion that it would be his loss.
Besides, in a couple of seconds, he was going to summon up some zakos and show this guy why his smart mouth did not make him a-
<
<<...the fuck did you just say?>>
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[Oh…boy…]
[I’m just gonna…stay quiet for this,] Hurricroak told the others.
[Welp, there goes testing out the waters with the zakos plan.]
[To be fair, we didn’t expect this guy to use that as an insult.]
[Is…is the ringmaster okay?! Because my connection with him is getting really, really agitated right now!]
[It’s fine, Spring Brawler. Just…don’t distract him right now…he’s about to get some…what’s the word…catharsis.]
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<["Ten seconds..."}>
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‘True…descendant…,’ Zhen Liu repeated in his head not wanting to grind his teeth if he said the words aloud.
Zhen Rin had finally done what he sought to achieve at the beginning of this fight, ticking Zhen Liu off.
However, he did so by accidentally poking at a significantly more sore spot for Zhen Liu: the fact that while his body was definitely of Zhen Clan origins, the person occupying it was…technically a thief.
‘Okay…now I’m pissed.’
Practically speaking, there was no good reason for Zhen Liu to actually be angered by this comment.
The knowledge on the existence of otherlanders was sparse at best, so it would be near impossible for some average asshole to know about Zhen Liu’s condition and use it against him.
Physically speaking, he was a Zhen Clan descendant, with the blood to back it up.
Mentally speaking, his memories were amended with the original Zhen Liu’s memories, so even if he technically remembered two different childhoods, they were now both his…sort of.
<{"Five seconds..."}>
Regardless, a complicated feeling arose in Zhen Liu’s stomach as he processed Zhen Rin’s insult, because…he wasn’t sure what he was feeling in this moment.
<{"Four..."}>
Was it shame over the fact that he was lying to the original owner’s family?
<{"Three..."}>
Was it anguish over the fact that his afterlife was technically someone else’s life?
<{"Two..."}>
Was it anger, because some ass-hat distant relative had the audacity to try and shame him over something as banal as ethnicity and origin?
<{"One..."}>
Or maybe it was all three at the same time…and he was about to show this guy what happens to someone when they try to talk shit…or at least, what happens when they try to talk shit about him.
<{"Battle...start!"}>
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*FWIP!*
<<-huh?>>
Before Zhen Rin could finish his sentence, Zhen Liu had already moved across the arena right up to the man’s face.
Zhen Rin looked absolutely shocked at this turn of events, since he didn’t even feel the slightest fluctuation of aether when Zhen Liu made his move.
Zhen Rin was completely caught off guard at this turn of events, failing to even circulate his aether fast enough to make a rudimentary defense.
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*SMACK!*
He was just about to ask Zhen Liu how he managed to move that fast in such a short amount of time, but before he could, Zhen Liu slapped him across the face.
Hard.
“Now consider that, a deliverance of all the whoopings your parents failed to give you. You’re welcome.”
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<{"Battle...start!"}>
“WOOO!”
*CLANG!*
*BANG!*
Soon after the Wisdom Elder made his announcement, the combatants began to throw themselves at one another, ready to win glory and honor through battle.
‘Oooh, looks like this year’s gonna be good one.’
The Wisdom Elder was all set to begin commentating on some of the more notable battles taking place in this first round, namely involving the tournament favorites, when a few short moments after announcing the fighters to begin, he received a surprising notification from one of the arenas.
<{"Alright, ladies and gentlemen! Lets have ourselves a-"}>
*Ding!*
<{"Huh?"}>
[Arena 7: Zhen Liu vs Zhen Rin, concluded. Winner: Zhen Liu!]
The moment the Wisdom Elder saw these words, he was stunned speechless.
The only thing he could in this moment was think of a simple question.
How the hell did that happen?
