You Lost

The elder giddily pulled his hand out of the container with a piece of paper in his grasp. He was certain that he couldn't have picked Li Bai's name this time!

Humming, he unfolded the paper with his eyes closed. He was still a little worried that he picked his name again.

He slowly opened one of his eyes, and read the name written on the paper. The crowd was paying close attention to his actions. The elder frowned.

"Don't tell me... did Li Bai get picked again?"

The crowd started to discuss the reason why the elder frowned again.

Could it be that Li Bai truly did get picked again? If so, then his luck would have run out already!

However, they didn't dismiss that possibility. There was still a slight chance that Li Bai could get picked by the elder, seeing as he looked so hesitant to announce the name that got picked.

"Z..."

Suddenly, the elder's voice rang throughout the area. The crowd stopped their chatter and turned to look at the elder. As they heard the "Z" sound, they all wiped their foreheads in relief.

They were still confused nonetheless. Why is the elder so dissatisfied with the one he picked? It surely isn't Li Bai, who else could he be disappointed with?

"Zhao Mei... gets the free pass."

As they heard the elder's voice announcing the name, they were even more perplexed. Why didn't he want that lass Zhao Mei to get the free pass?

One of the people amongst the crowd suggested.

"Maybe it's because she only won out of luck, like Li Bai."

Upon hearing this man's statement, many nodded in agreement. This lass did win through luck, didn't she? Even the elder picking the names was nodding his head!

Only Li Bai shook his head in disagreement as he knew that Zhao Mei did not win out of sheer luck but rather, it was because of her extremely fast movements, so fast that even the formidable experts among the crowd couldn't detect them!

Regardless, the elder continued quickly, not like in the previous cases where he picked Li Bai. He was too shocked to continue!

The next name that he picked was... Li Bai!

Everyone rejoiced! At last, that trash is finally going to get lost! Losing in under a breath's time... is already overestimating him!

Even Li Bai was full of joy when he heard his name! However, it was for the completely opposite reason as opposed to the crowd's reason. At last, I finally get to show my strength! Winning in under a breath's time... is already underestimating me!

The elder picked the next name immediately, hoping to pick a strong competitor so that he could destroy Li Bai's arrogance! As he retracted his hand and unfolded the paper, a grin slowly crept up his face.

The crowd saw this creepy expression by the elder, and they all shuddered. Even Zhou Gang shuddered! Except, it was because water from behind fell on him accidentally.

The elder announced the next name, and it was none of the three who were the most cheered for. Zhao Mei was already removed from the group, as she was thought to be winning out of luck, just like Li Bai.

The name that the elder announced, however, was from the Zhou clan!

"Zhou Yang!"

Immediately after hearing the name, the crowd had similar expressions to the one the elder possessed a few moments ago, grinning sinisterly.

This is overkill!

Even though this Zhou Yang kid wasn't one of the standouts in the tournament, given that his surname was Zhou, he would surely be formidable!

You used all your luck in the past two rounds...

If this Zhou kid was to fight Li Bai, given Li Bai's terrible cultivation and the desire of his opponent to teach him a lesson, the result would be... delightful!

Everyone desired Li Bai to be taught a lesson, who knew that he would be paired up with a kid from the Zhou clan?

The crowd meticulously watched Li Bai's every expression, waiting for despair to take over... only to see that his face still remained indifferent.

Confused, the people watching formed conclusions of their own as to why Li Bai remained expressionless even with a Zhou clansman as his opponent.

"He's probably putting up fronts..."

Almost everyone thought of the exact same thing, and it was that Li Bai was only acting. Of course, he's only acting, a trash like him wouldn't stand a chance against a cultivator from the Zhou clan.

In the midst of this discussion in between the spectators, Li Bai had already climbed up the stage, waiting for his opponent. The elder also proceeded to announce the other pairings in the tournament.

Even with the seeded participants, it was clear that the crowd would be most pleased watching Zhou Yang's one-sided pummeling of Li Bai.

The elder was paying attention to the stage where Li Bai and Zhou Yang were as well, hoping to see Li Bai learn his lesson and tone down his arrogance.

Everyone thought that Li Bai participated in the tournament because he wanted to increase his popularity. If this wasn't a show of arrogance, nothing is!

Zhou Yang also harbored the same thoughts as the people among the crowd. What an arrogant little trash! It's time for me to teach you a lesson!

He climbed up on the elevated stage where Li Bai was waiting, with a confident smile on his face. He truly regarded his opponent as a useless trash that he could defeat within minutes, maybe even seconds!

Finally, Zhou Yang was on the stage, standing. He pointed at Li Bai and taunted him with a few insults.

"Trash! Useless! Zero cultivation!"

The crowd was already excited when Zhou Yang made it on the stage, but when they heard Zhou Yang's thoughts, they felt themselves sympathizing with him.

I can also see myself doing that!

They got even more riled up, screaming and cheering for Li Bai's loss!

However, a slight mishap occurred.

"Bam!"

Zhou Yang fell off the stage as soon as he got there.

"..." Crowd.

Just as the excitement of the crowd was at its peak, this Zhou Yang managed to destroy said expectations completely! The expectations were destroyed in a negative way, a very negative way.

Li Bai could also be said to have looked forward to the battle. He saw through Zhou Yang's cultivation - Fourth Level Mark. With that number, he thought that he would at least last ten seconds against him. Who knew that he would trip himself over at the very first second?

Embarrassed, Zhou Yang recouped immediately and stood up. He readied to go up the stage again when an elder stopped him from doing so. This elder was from the Zhou clan.

It was Elder Xuan! He was the one that managed who the participants would be. He was placed there as he was known for his fair and just personality.

Zhou Yang saw his clan's elder and bowed, cupping his fists.

"Zhou Yang pays respects to Elder Xuan!"

He readied this response if he were to see an elder during the tournament. He looked at Elder Xuan's face, wondering if this pleased him.

"Yes, yes."

The elder replied with an indifferent tone. His expression was also indifferent, which left Zhou Yang wondering, what is this guy's problem?

"What are you doing?"

Speaking so suddenly, the elder caught Zhou Yang off-guard. As such, he stuttered as he answered Elder Xuan.

"I-I was going back to the stage..."

Hearing this, Elder Xuan displayed a confused expression, raising his eyebrows. He did not understand why he would go back to the stage.

"Why would you do that?"

Zhou Yang got puzzled as well when he heard the elder's question. Why wouldn't you know the reason? I'm going to continue the match, of course!

But he could not, of course, be disrespectful to his clan's elder. He modified this sentence a bit before muttering the words meekly to the elder.

"To continue the battle, elder."

Zhou Yang looked at the elder as he waited for him to move aside. But for some reason, the elder would not move! Confused, he planned to ask why he was continuing to block him when the elder suddenly opened his mouth.

"But you already lost, right?"

After speaking, Elder Xuan put his hands on the other party's shoulders and started to turn Zhou Yang around, implying that the exit was that way.

Zhou Yang was still bewildered at the elder's previous statement that he did not notice the elder turning him around and pushing him towards the exit.

As their voices were really quiet, the crowd could not hear Zhou Yang and Elder Xuan's conversation. Because of this, the sudden action of the elder, turning Zhou Yang to face towards the exit and urging him to go out, confused the crowd.

"What is the elder doing?"

"I don't know, he's crazy..."

Zhou Yang, finally snapping out of his daze, turned around to face the elder.

"W-what do you mean I've lost, elder?"

"As I said, you've already lost... because you've fallen off the stage."

Explaining to the young man why he had lost, Elder Xuan bent his knees to match Zhou Yang's height and put his hands on his shoulders.

Annoyed, Zhou Yang brushed the elder's hands off. He could not care less about respect now that this elder was proclaiming that he had lost, especially because it was a battle against the famous trash!

This was an attack on his pride and dignity! If his relatives and friends knew that he had lost against the trash, even if he explained that he just fell off the stage, and didn't actually lose, they would still use that as an excuse to mock him.

Losing by tripping off the stage was even worse! He could not possibly reveal this fact to anyone! Except that everyone already knew of this since they were all witnesses.

As much as he wanted to respect the elder in front of him, he could not do so right now as he was blinded by his anger towards Elder Xuan.

Displeased, Elder Xuan stood up again and looked down at the man who was shorter than him. How could you brush off my hands? This kid is disrespectful...

His indifferent gaze was now gone, replaced by a malicious stare as he looked at the young man's face. Zhou Yang saw the elder's eyes and was snapped out of his blinding rage.

"B-but that was just an accident!"

After saying this, Zhou Yang crossed his fingers and muttered to himself, please don't say 'there are no accidents...'

The elder could not care less about the other party's arguments against him as he already decided that this young man was disrespectful. He did not deserve to be in his presence.

"I don't care, you lost."