Chapter 285: Three Plum Blossoms Fall
Seeing that his opponent was Cui Zhongheng of the Cui Clan, Lu Song’s hanging heart relaxed slightly. He felt a bit fortunate to have drawn Cui Zhongheng as his opponent. After all, apart from the anomaly Cui Baiyu, others in the Cui Clan were not known for their martial prowess, and he still had the trump card bestowed by Lu Xian, so his hope of passing should not be small…
After calming himself down, Lu Song focused on the matchups of Lu Yun and the other two. At this moment, Lu Bai’s opponent appeared – Platform Number Eight, against Xie Jin!
“Not bad,” Lu Bai’s expression also relaxed a little.
Immediately after, Lu Lin’s opponent also appeared – Stage Eleven, against Huangfu Ji!
“Huangfu Ji is the top expert among the young generation of the Huangfu Family,” Lu Bai said with a sigh as he looked at Lu Lin, who was grinning with delight. “Unfortunately, the Huangfu Family is not as strong as it once was…”
“Only Lu Yun is left.” Several people nervously watched the last few matchups until the fifteenth drawing was completed, but Lu Yun’s name was not among them.
“Heh heh…” The brothers chuckled lewdly, because there was one person left without an opponent, and her name was Mei Ruohua!
As expected, in the next moment, Lu Yun and Mei Ruohua’s names appeared on Stage Sixteen.
“You’re quite lucky,” Lu Song said with a smile, slinging an arm around Lu Yun’s shoulder and teasing, “Young Lady Mei is a famous ice beauty in the Capital City. Don’t be too rough with her…”
“You should worry about yourself,” Lu Yun rolled his eyes and said with a cold laugh. “According to the intelligence, Cui Zhongheng’s strength has improved extremely rapidly, and his fighting style somewhat counters yours. Don’t be careless.”
“Heh…” Lu Song said confidently, “Don’t worry. We were evenly matched before, but now with the techniques taught by the Vice Sect Master, the situation is different!”
At this time, the drumming became more intense again, notifying everyone to take their positions. The brothers then bid each other good luck and headed to their respective fighting stages.
Before they parted, Lu Bai earnestly instructed Lu Yun, “Because of what happened ten years ago, the Mei Clan has always held a grudge against us, and they hate your father to the bone. Mei Ruohua will definitely not hold back against you, so you must not be careless.”
Lu Yun nodded.
At this time, the areas below each fighting stage were crowded with people. Besides the officials and soldiers responsible for judging victory or defeat and maintaining order, there were more clan members and relatives coming to cheer for both sides on the stage.
Lu Yun walked to Stage Sixteen, which was located at the very edge. To his surprise, the crowd gathered here was no less than at Stage Six, where the popular Xiahou Rongguang was, or Stage Seven, where the most popular Cui Baiyu was. The audience numbers at these three locations were clearly higher than at the other thirteen fighting stages.
A slight difference was that the spectators around Xiahou Rongguang were almost all men, those around Cui Baiyu were half men and half women, and those around Stage Sixteen, apart from the Lu family members, were almost all women.
Although Lu Yun was cold-faced and cold-hearted, seeing this situation, he couldn’t help but feel a bit pleased, his vanity somewhat satisfied. But when he came to the stage, he realized that these beautiful ladies were not here for him at all.
“Please make way.” The guards of the Lu Clan helped Lu Yun clear a path, and the girls and young ladies all turned their gaze towards Lu Yun, whispering amongst themselves, “Is this kid Sister Ruohua’s opponent?”
“I heard he’s quite skilled…”
“That’s still no match for Sister Ruohua.”
“Exactly.”
Lu Yun then realized that they were all here for his opponent.
Chuckling to himself ‘what a self-infatuation’, Lu Yun stepped onto the fighting stage.
On the fighting stage, Mei Ruohua was wearing a green dress embroidered with red plum blossoms, which further enhanced her outstanding beauty, making her appear exceptionally pure and elegant. However, her face was as cold as ice, like a proud plum blossom in the snow, making her someone to be admired from afar but not to be trifled with.
The Investigative Bureau official responsible for the match announced the rules of the competition as a formality. “Neither party may use hidden weapons or poisons. The one who is knocked off the stage, voluntarily surrenders, or remains on the ground for ten breaths will be judged defeated…”
After both parties signed and affixed their seals on the competition document, the Investigative Bureau official stepped down and said in a deep voice, “Begin!”
The thunderous drumbeats sounded, and almost all the matches began simultaneously!
“Sister Ruohua will win!” Amidst the cheers of the women below the stage, Mei Ruohua immediately rushed towards Lu Yun. Her speed was incredibly fast, and she had already mastered the Mei Clan’s ‘Stepping on Snow to Find Plums’ movement technique to the point of leaving no trace. In the blink of an eye, like a stream of green smoke, she enveloped Lu Yun!
Lu Yun seemed to be suppressed from the start, only able to hold his ground and counter each move, appearing very passive.
The onlookers, upon seeing this, became even more agitated, screaming excitedly, “Fight! Teach him a real lesson!”
Without their prompting, Mei Ruohua had no intention of letting Lu Yun off easy. She unleashed the Mei Clan’s ultimate skill – Plum Blossom Falling Thrice: Heavenly Plum Blossoms Scattering! Instantly, her pair of jade-like palms transformed into over a hundred red plum blossoms, surging towards Lu Yun!
Lu Yun only felt red plum blossoms falling before his eyes, just like a Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers. Every movement was incredibly graceful, yet concealed terrifying killing intent. Anyone touched by a single blossom would bleed profusely like a plum!
But Lu Yun remained unfazed because he had witnessed Mei Yu use this technique in a cave. Back then, the scattering red plum blossoms were impossible to evade. However, the red plum blossoms unleashed by Mei Ruohua couldn’t compare to Mei Yu’s in terms of quantity or speed! At least in Lu Yun’s eyes, there were large enough gaps between the slowly falling blossoms for him to dodge with ease.
In an instant, several attack routes materialized before his eyes, capable of breaking through Mei Ruohua’s flashy but impractical move. But he didn’t strike, nor did he even dodge. He merely channeled the Heaven and Earth Righteous Law, using Transforming Circle into Square to forcefully shatter the approaching red plum blossoms, appearing rather clumsy…
“How long can he hold on?” To the young ladies watching from below, Lu Yun seemed to be just standing there taking hits, and they couldn’t help but look down on him. “This kid really isn’t Sister Ruohua’s match.”
“Sigh, Sister Ruohua hasn’t even used her ultimate move yet, how can you say he’s not a match? What a disappointment…”
“Such good looks wasted on a mere pretty boy…”
Lu Ying and the other clan members watched the stage nervously. Hearing these discussions, they were all very indignant. But Lu Yun’s situation was so dire that the Lu Clan members didn’t dare to argue with those women, as it would only lead to their own humiliation. They could only feel a sense of disappointment. Could this truly be the half-step Xiantian realm cultivator they had placed so much hope in?
However, Lu Ying and the clan members were different. She had absolutely no doubt about her younger brother’s abilities. She was simply angered that these people, with their mortal eyes, couldn’t see that Lu Yun was actually going easy on Mei Ruohua…
.
Lu Ying’s guess was entirely correct. Lu Yun was indeed going easy on Mei Ruohua. Seeing the hateful fire in her eyes, he only felt a warmth in his heart – because this Mei Ruohua was his own maternal cousin!
He clearly understood that Mei Ruohua’s rage stemmed from her belief that his mother had been harmed by Lu Xin. The Mei Clan’s failure to forget their hatred meant they hadn’t forgotten his mother… Even though he had changed identities, he would still acknowledge this debt. He wouldn’t intentionally lose to Mei Ruohua, but he would preserve the Mei Clan’s dignity.
But Mei Ruohua did not know that Lu Yun’s birth mother was the aunt she had admired most in her childhood. She only saw Lu Yun as the son of the killer of her aunt, wishing to tear him to pieces to vent the hatred that had festered in her heart for years!
Seeing that the Falling Plum Palm, while suppressing Lu Yun, could not break through his tortoise shell defense, she gritted her teeth, let out a clear cry, retracted her palm technique, and unleashed the second move of Plum Blossom Falling Thrice: Blooming Plum Blossoms!
She unleashed a long leg, enveloped in a fierce gust of wind, attacking Lu Yun with the force of a whirlwind. The attack range narrowed to a single point, increasing its power by more than tenfold!
“Kick through his turtle shell!” The young ladies below were so excited they completely disregarded their composure.
