Chapter 37 The Biggest Variable

On the second day, the paired battles took place. Each country was only allowed to send in two pairs. One of Hua Country’s pairs was Zhao Ke and Li Zeming while the other pair was made up of the disciples of the Demonic Clan and the Zheng Mo Sect.

According to this pattern, Hua Country was only taking this opportunity to train their participants and didn’t care too much about winning or losing.

As expected, Zhao Ke and Li Zeming lost during the top 4 matches and the other pair also hadn’t managed to enter the rankings, so He Zhou and Wen Renyi didn’t continue to observe the following matches and returned to their room early. Not long after, they received Feng Lan’s notice.

It was finally the team battle tomorrow. Since it was already decided that Wen Renyi would take Qi Changling’s place, they needed to figure out possible team formations of other country’s groups and come up with a counterattack plan for each formation.

Although the identities of the participants joining the team competition weren’t announced, there were still breadcrumbs left to follow. Take the Hua Country as an example. Other countries would have definitely guessed that He Zhou would join the team battle.

There were a total of 6 countries participating in the team competition. Among them, were Sakura Country, Rose Country and the United States who were Hua Country’s strongest adversaries.

Sakura Country’s ninjutsu was crafty and unpredictable, however, to He Zhou who had a strong godly sense, it didn’t serve as a problem. He had also previously watched many showdowns between ninjas and although they moved slyly, it wasn’t difficult to catch each step clearly so there was no need for concern.

Rose Country’s specialty was in magic. There was no doubt that they would utilize magical arrays during battle and speaking on the topic of magical arrays, several people successively cast glances towards He Zhou. He Zhou had already exhibited the might of his array to them so would it be alright to assume that against those magical arrays, it would be a cinch?

“Young Master He. Since you’re proficient in arrays, does that include an understanding of magical arrays?” Feng Lan inquired.

He Zhou nodded. “I’ve come up with a plan but according to my judgement from these past few days, their magical arrays require a sufficient amount of time to produce, so making the first move will give us the advantage.”

Li Zeming pondered for a moment. “The opponent’s strength is impressive. We also can’t guarantee that we would be able to defeat them before they create the magical array.”

Wen Renyi calmly responded. “Ah Zhou’s meaning is that we can set up an array before they could form theirs and all we need to do is to give him a definite amount of time.”

Several people got the gist at once. This was a display of He Zhou’s array strength and it was unquestionable. However, even if He Zhou’s array was amazing, it would still be the first time for it to be put into show and myriads of changes would happen instantaneously on site. There would undoubtedly be opponents who would try to disrupt his array formation and they didn’t

“Your responsibility will primarily focusing on dealing with the enemy. I’ll be the one protecting Ah Zhou.” Wen Renyi was calm as usual. He stated this as if he was only participating in the competition for He Zhou’s sake.

The meeting lasted 3 hours. By the time He Zhou and Wen Renyi had returned to their room, it was already half past 8 at night.

He Zhou stared at Wen Renyi’s extremely elegant side profile and pursed his lips. He was unable to say anything and was even beaten by Wen Renyi to it.

“Ah Zhou.” He turned around to face He Zhou and spoke in a gentle and romantically tinted tone. “Ever since yesterday, you’ve been in a sulky mood, is it because of the Zheng Mo Sect’s matter?”

Wen Renyi’s thoughts were excessively clever, that sometimes, it made He Zhou feel as if he was a transparent person in front of him. Even when he tried to assume the might and wisdom he had as a sect leader in his past life, in front of Wen Renyi, it was completely ineffective. The underlying reason for it wasn’t because he had turned foolish, it was only because Wen Renyi had now become more powerful than him. In this short period of time, Wen Renyi could predict the result after every move he made which made him feel a sense of defeat.

“I just… don’t know how to say it.” He Zhou sat on bedside, lifting his head to look at Wen Renyi’s slightly murky eyes.

Wen Renyi bent down slightly and replied with a humble attitude. “I just wanted to protect you the same as how you protect me.” He understood what He Zhou was thinking. The stronger animal would always have a desire to protect their own partner, hence, the moment the partner didn’t require other’s protection, to the extent that, on the contrary, their partner was the one to protect them, it would produce an extremely noticeable disparity.

He Zhou was feeling exactly like that.

Wen Renyi initially assumed a weak stance to enter He Zhou’s sights. He Zhou then assumed the role of the protector and accompanied Wen Renyi. He was used to this kind of relationship dynamic. Even if Wen Renyi had recovered his cultivation base, in the Young Master He’s eyes, he still needed a partner who could defend him.

However, until now, he had clearly realized that Wen Renyi was still the stronger one in this relationship. All the things he did were incomparable to his. Hence, he had immediately felt an enormous gap between them.

Young Master He replied in a low tone. “You said you didn’t want to struggle hard without support. I thought that meant that you didn’t need me.”

Wen Renyi heard this and slowly crouched down, placing both hands on He Zhou’s knees and resting his head on his hands. He appeared to have turned back into the weak Wen Renyi, entirely different from the Wen Renyi back in the meeting room.

“Ah Zhou. You are the person I want to protect the most. The present me right now cannot fully guarantee if the Wen Renyi from hereon forwards will be able to protect He Zhou.” He closed his eyes, and his lashes trembled, appearing like he was begging. This made He Zhou feel distressed at once.

Wen Renyi didn’t do anything wrong. It was him who penetrated into a bull’s horn (1)

Penetrated into a bull’s horn: to waste time on an insignificant problem

“Ah Yi.” He Zhou reached his hand out and touched Wen Renyi’s soft hair. “I’m sorry.”

Wen Renyi slowly lifted his head up, his misty eyes looked straight into He Zhou’s as his expression appeared extremely gentle. “I should’ve said those two words instead.”

Young Master He smiled and he cupped Wen Renyi’s face. He then bent his hand and planted a light kiss between his eyebrows. Wen Renyi closed his eyes and smiled lightly.

The international tournament started at 8am on the third day and the team battle began.

Hua Country had drawn Italy to be their opponent which wasn’t considered bad news at all. Italy’s strength was mid-level, but to He Zhou and the others, it was considered quite easy.

Young Master He and Wen Renyi were basically cutting water the entire period, even Li Zeming didn’t even have any time to take action. Zhao Heng schemed and Wen Renyu violently attacked. And since Chi Huan was unable to kill the culprit to take revenge for his sister, he unleashed his anger onto the field like an untouchable madman.

In the end, Hua Country won and Italy entered the eliminated groups.

Naturally, Hua Country’s win did not arouse too much attention because people were more focused on the fact that Wen Renyi had actually joined the competition! This was something completely out of their expectations.

Once He Zhou exited the field, he immediately went to the resting area and saw Auster and Gars walking over.

Auster looked towards Wen Renyi. “Wen Ren. Congrats on returning to the field. But, there’s one thing I’m really curious about. How on earth did you manage to recover?” Earlier, Wen Ren had not used a lot of strength so he couldn’t determine Wen Renyi’s exact current skill, he could only assume that he had recovered a bit of strength.

Wen Renyi only replied. “Congratulations on advancing.“

”Congratulations to you as well.” Auster saw that Wen Renyi didn’t bother replying back to his question and lifted his golden head up, saying. “We’ll definitely meet on the field again. At that time, I’ll personally see myself just how far you’ve recovered.”

Gars also exposed a smile, his two sharp fangs easily incited people’s anxiety. “He Zhou, I look forward to confronting you on the field.”

He Zhou suddenly had a chill. He feared that the biggest variable from United States was this vampire – Gars Bruch.