Flower Stealing Master

Ah Jiu didn’t know what Song Qingshu was thinking about, and continued, “The leader of Feihuyu Village, Nie Tianfeng, nominated Yang Miaozhen, the fourth lady of the Red Coat Army. The Red Coat Army is a rebel army active in the Jin Empire, and its power is no less than that of the Golden Serpent Camp. This fourth lady is even known as the invincible Pear Blossom Spear. Although the ‘invincible’ part might be a little exaggeration, she has indeed led the Red Coat Army against the Jin Empire’s cavalry, and dominated the generals of the Jin Empire for many years.”

“I have met her once in the past. After fighting against each other, I can attest that her Pear Blossom Spear is indeed very powerful.” Song Qingshu said with lingering fear as he recalled the flashes of deadly pear blossoms all around him.

“Is she pretty?” Ah Jiu’s lips showed a beautiful curve.

“She’s quite beautiful. She has a bit of heroic spirit that ordinary women don’t have…eh?” Song Qingshu was halfway through his words when he suddenly noticed that the two women were looking at him with a faux-smile. So he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed and hurriedly defended, “She and I have nothing to do with each other.”

“We didn’t say anything. Why are you so nervous?” 

“Right.”

A strange look flashed in Situ Bolei’s eyes. Listening to their conversation, it seems that Madame Yuan and Song Qingshu also had an unusual relationship, but since the Ninth Princess didn’t seem to care about such things, he didn’t see it fit to mind it either.

“What are you thinking about? Although her spearmanship is superb, I am not that weak, so why would I rely on her favors?” Song Qingshu looked depressed at the fact that her was actually being treated as a moocher.

“Okay, okay, I know you are strong, so brighten up.” Ah Jiu smiled sweetly, obviously not caring too much about the matter, “The one nominated by Gai Mengchang and Meng Bofei was a young man named Shi Potian. This person is extremely mysterious. We couldn’t even find his martial arts background.”contemporary romance

“Shi Potian?” At this point, Song Qingshu’s nerves had turned numb. Since Ah Qing had already appeared, it wouldn’t be a big deal if Shi Potian appeared as well. 

In the entire Jin Yong novel universe, the ranking of the top ten martial artists was controversial, it was the same for the top three, but the top two in the martial arts rankings were almost universally recognized.

However, the martial arts system in the book “Ode to Gallantry” was really out of the ordinary. It was completely different from the martial arts system in the other books. In the book, unexpected events were the norm, and it was almost to the point of being illogical. For example, there were masters who could crush stones to produce water!

Mysterious hidden masters were numerous, and anyone could be defeated by another stronger master in disguise. When Zhang San and Li Si sent by the Heroes’ Island were defeated, dozens of other masters who were just as skilled as Zhang San and Li Si would appear. Leading straight to the appearance of Island Lords Long and Mu, who were far more powerful than Zhang San and Li Si.

The two Island Lords, who were so arrogant, were almost killed by the palm strike of Shi Potian, who had learned the Supreme Mysteries Scripture (Taixuan Sutra). 

Song Qingshu really couldn’t imagine how high Shi Potian’s martial arts realm was at the moment.

Crush stones to produce water? Not to mention Shi Potian, even Song Qingshu with his Joyful Meditation, and Zhang Wuji with his Nine Yang Divine Art couldn’t do it!

“Who is this Meng Bofei, and how could he find Shi Potian?” Song Qingshu asked with a dark expression.

“Although Meng Bofei has a long-standing reputation in the world, he mainly got them by being charitable and doing good deeds. His so-called Meng Family Divine Fist and Thirty Radiant Palms may sound grandiose, but they are actually just third-rate martial arts. I think the martial arts of the person he found shouldn’t be much higher.” Seeing the change in his expression, Ah Jiu curiously asked, “Song Lang, do you also know this person?” 

“I know a little bit about his martial arts. It should not be inferior to Ah Qing.” Song Qingshu sighed.

Xia Qingqing’s expression changed, “That’s bad, I thought his martial arts skills wouldn’t be that good, so I specially arranged him to fight you!” 

“You arranged for me to fight him?” Song Qingshu took a deep breath, “Which round is it?”

“If you both win, you will meet in the penultimate round,” Xia Qingqing said with a guilty face, “If I had known that he would be this strong, I would have arranged him to fight with Ah Qing. That would have been a good way to expend their energy.”

“You don’t have to worry too much. As the saying goes, there is to free lunch. If I want to win the position of the Golden Serpent King, I must defeat all the opponents.” Song Qingshu recovered quickly and comforted her.

Ah Jiu also explained, “Yes, you have to have some confidence in Song Lang, his martial arts is already very high.”

Xia Qingqing pouted, and said with a depressed look on her face, “Everyone hopes that the candidates they nominate will encounter weak opponents, so after several hours of negotiation among the leaders, everyone picked the less famous candidates as their nominee’s opponents. The result of this competition will probably make many of the faction leaders slap their own faces.”

“What is the matchup like?” Song Qingshu asked in a deep voice.

“This competition will be divided into two groups, with eight candidates in each group. The winners of each group will fight against each other in the final battle, and decide the winner. We know how powerful Ah Qing is, so we specially wanted to avoid her, and placed her in the other group. Those who didn’t know about her rushed to choose her as their opponent. I wonder if they will be scared to death by Ah Qing during the competition.”

At this point, Xia Qingqing couldn’t help but gloat at their misfortune.

“Who is the unfortunate person to fight Ah Qing in the first round?” Song Qingshu had already sentenced that person to death in his heart.

“Everyone was rushing to choose Ah Qing as their opponent. In the end, they couldn’t decide, so they gave her up to someone who had no backer.” Xia Qingqing looked regretful, obviously very dissatisfied with the result.

Seeing the girlish cunning Xia Qingqing occasionally showed, Song Qingshu couldn’t help but smile, and then he remembered that she was indeed quite cunning in the past.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Noticing Song Qingshu’s gaze, Xia Qingqing lowered her head in embarrassment.

“Nothing,” Song Qingshu smiled gently, “Who is that unlucky person?”

“It’s a person who calls himself the God of the Sword.” Ah Jiu replied.

“So it is Zhuo Bufan? The God of the Sword meets the Sword Immortal. Now that is interesting.” Song Qingshu imagined the scene of the fight between the two and maintained two seconds of silence for Zhuo Bufan, “Then who is my opponent in the first round?”

Hearing his question, the two women looked at each other and smiled, “You will like this opponent.”

Song Qingshu was startled and quickly realized, “It can’t be He Tieshou, right?”

Xia Qingqing stuck out her tongue, “Isn’t that great? You are old acquaintances. Although her martial arts skills are high, she is still a inferior to you. Unless you show pity, it would be impossible for you to lose.”

Song Qingshu touched his nose and smiled, “If I remember correctly, He Tieshou seemed to have fallen in love with someone who was disguised as a man, right?” (G: He’s referring to an event from the original novel, where Xia Qingqing met He Tieshou in disguise.)

Xia Qingqing’s fair face suddenly turned red, and she was so ashamed that she couldn’t speak. 

Ah Jiu looked at her friend and covered her smile with her hand, “I didn’t expect you to know such a secret…Song Lang, this time Qingqing betrayed her old lover for you.”

“Bah!” Xia Qingqing couldn’t help but snap, and she stretched out her hand to pinch Ah Jiu’s waist, “That was your idea!”

Looking at the two girls fighting each other with cute smiles, Song Qingshu smiled happily. It seemed that the rift between the two girls from the past had disappeared. If he had known that this would happen, he would’ve gotten them into the same bed as soon as possible.

Under the careful explanation of the two women, Song Qingshu finally figured out the matchup of each candidate, which was similar to the football match system in his previous life. 

Soon, a matchup similar to the football tournaments in his previous life emerged in his mind.

First Round:

Group A:

Fight 1: Song Qingshu vs He Tieshou

Fight 2: Xiao Banhe vs You Tanzhi.

Fight 3: Yang Miaozhen vs Chen Jinnan

Fight 4: He Shiwo vs Shi Potian

Group B:

Fight 1: Ah Qing vs Zhuo Bufan.

Fight 2: Xu Zhu vs Murong Fu.

Fight 3: Yang Guo vs Lord Sun Zhi

Fight 4: Linghu Chong vs Duan Yanqing

Second Round:

Group A:

Winner of Fight 1 vs Winner of Fight 2

Winner of Fight 3 vs Winner of Fight 4

Group B:

Winner of Fight 1 vs Winner of Fight 2

Winner of Fight 3 vs Winner of Fight 4

Third Round:

Group A:

Winner of Fight 1+2 vs Winner of group 3+4

Group B:

Winner of Fight 1+2 vs Winner of group 3+4

Last Round:

Winner of Group A vs Winner of Group B

As he imagined the tournament bracket in his mind, Song Qingshu felt full of emotions, ‘It seems that Xia Qingqing and Ah Jiu has worked hard for me. Their grouping is quite good.’

He Tieshou and Chen Jinnan were all his old acquaintances. He had also fought against Xiao Banhe and Yang Miaozhen in the past. So he was more or less familiar with their martial arts. As for the others, whether it was You Tanzhi, He Shiwo, or Shi Potian, they were all unknown in the wulin. It’s just that they were unaware of the fact that those three people were all top experts except He Shiwo.

But even so, compared to those in the Group B, Song Qingshu was undoubtedly much luckier. Almost everyone in the Group B were all top masters. Especially, Ah Qing and the ariheaded little monk Xu Zhu would probably surprise everyone. 

The situation with Murong Fu was even more ridiculous. He tried every means to avoid Song Qingshu, and thought that he had chosen a soft persimmon, who knew that he would get his teeth knocked out in the end. However, he also had the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, so it wasn’t like there was no chance for him to win at all.

‘Yang Guo, last time Xiao Longnu went to find him, didn’t the two of them meet yet?’

Judging from the current situation, Yang Guo should not have created the Sorrowful Palm yet, but even so, in the original novel, he had swept through the martial arts world only with his black iron heavy sword. So he should be quite a strong opponent.

‘The fight between Linghu Chong and Duan Yanqing should be quite interesting…’

Although Linghu Chong’s attainments in the Nine Swords of Dugu was far inferior to Feng Qingyang’s, it would be more than enough to deal with most martial artists in the world.

However, Duan Yanqing was the leader of the Four Evils, and he has been active in the wulin for decades. The few defeats he had experienced were to Xiao Feng and Song Qingshu, who were both anomalies. 

‘In the original novel, he faced Ding Chunqiu several times. Although it wasn’t a life-and-death fight, the few moves they exchanged were described to be evenly matched.’

Duan Yanqing’s attainments in One Yang Finger was thought to be the best among the Duan family in Dali. Even if you include the monks from Tianlong Temple, only Master Yideng had the ability to beat him.

‘Who will have the last laugh, Linghu Chong or Duan Yanqing, the possibility is fifty-fifty…’

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