Chapter 54: The Tiger List Storm (Part 2)

  The fighting on this ranking is very fast, a real master's competition often only takes a few minutes to determine the winner. Those that last ten or fifteen minutes or even half an hour are only possible in TV shows and movies because physical strength is depleted very quickly during fights, if they really fought for that long it would definitely be fake.

  The fight on the stage was intense, with all sorts of strange and bizarre events unfolding. Some used iron hammers, others used nunchucks, and some fought bare-handed. Zhao Tiezhu even saw someone using a needle. "I'm going to learn from him, just like Dongfang Bubai?" Zhao Tiezhu thought to himself. The person using the needle was extremely skilled, with silver needles flying through the air, often knocking their opponents to the ground with just a few strikes. "Medicine Mortar Stone... what a strange name." Lei Zi was also watching from the side, savoring every moment of it. Many of these people's abilities were on par with his own, and some were even stronger. The battle on stage had ignited Lei Zi's fighting spirit, but for now, he had to maintain order as a security personnel. Otherwise, he would have loved to jump onto the stage and join in the fight.

  Very soon, the top three challengers emerged, and Zhēn, who used the Needle, was among them. According to the rules, these three people could challenge those on the Tiger List.

  The medicine grinder was very thin and small, with a face that had no blood color, wearing a gray cloak, and occasionally revealing a strange smile at the corner of his mouth.

  He was the first to take the stage, and surprisingly challenged the 50th ranked Zhao Long, nicknamed "The Mountain Opener". This person happened to be from the same clan as Zhao Tiezhu, but his strength was vastly different from Zhao Tiezhu's. When Zhao Long heard that someone was challenging him, he was taken aback at first, but then broke into a cruel smile. Zhao Long had initially entered the Tiger List at 60th place, and after three rounds, he jumped directly to 50th place, skipping over several people in the process. Each of his opponents had been brutally defeated by him, their bones shattered by his hands, a testament to his ferocity.

  "You're amazing, you chose me first." Zhao Long said in a low voice, standing in front of the Medicine Cauldron Stone. The Medicine Cauldron Stone remained silent, with silver needles flashing on his hands.

  "This thing is useless to me." Zhao Long said with a smile, and as soon as the white-bearded referee gave the order, Zhao Long instantly sprinted towards the Medicine Mortar Stone like thunder.

  Yaojiu Shi took a few steps back, his hands waving in succession, as flashes of silver light shot out. Zhao Long raised one hand, palm facing upwards, and with a single swipe, he knocked the silver needles to the ground! "I told you it's useless, haha, now die!" A gust of wind blew from Zhao Long's palm, but Yaojiu Shi's expression didn't change. With a flip of his wrist, another row of needles appeared, except these were entirely black in color!

  Whoosh. Just as the medicine mortar was about to hit him, a black shadow shot towards Zhao Long's face. Zhao Long nonchalantly stretched out his other hand, but this black needle was sharper than the silver one by countless times. With a hiss, the silver needle pierced through Zhao Long's hand and half of it lodged into his left cheek.

  Zhao Long didn't even frown, stretched out his hand and pulled it off his face in one swift motion. The black needle was instantly removed, leaving only a tiny blood stain on Zhao Long's face.

  Bang, Zhao Long's palm also collided with the medicine mortar stone. The medicine mortar stone hastily retreated to dissipate the force, but was still hit and spun around in place twice before stopping. His face had already swollen up.

  "Haha, come on again, this isn't even painful or itchy, no passion at all." Zhao Long sneered and approached the Medicine Cauldron again. The Medicine Cauldron slightly raised the corner of its mouth, looking at Zhao Long with disdain.

  Suddenly, Zhao Long only felt a dizziness in his eyes, the scene in front of him became more and more blurred, and finally he couldn't see anything at all!!!!!

  "You! What have you done to me?" Zhao Long frantically grabbed around him, trying to grab the medicine mortar.

  "Your optic nerve has been pierced by my needle," the pharmacist said coldly. "If you don't receive treatment within an hour, you'll never see again."

  "Ahh!!! I'm going to kill you!" Zhao Long frantically charged around the stage, while Yao Jing Shi continuously moved, occasionally shooting silver needles from his hands towards various acupoints on Zhao Long's body.

  Zhao Long was futilely waving his fists, and was getting closer and closer to the white-bearded referee. The referee didn't move at all, but just looked at his watch. When Zhao Long was about to hit him, the white-bearded referee said: "Five minutes are up, Yao Lian Shi wins."

  "No!" Zhao Long shouted loudly, and actually rushed towards the white-bearded referee. The white-bearded referee's face was expressionless, and when Zhao Long rushed to his side, he delivered a dazzling aerial kick that sent Zhao Long flying tens of meters away. He fell to the ground, gasping for air, unable to breathe in.

  "Awesome!" Zhao Tiezhu exclaimed, the old man's sudden burst of energy was simply overwhelming, if Zhao Long was a drop of water, then Zhao Tiezhu was a river, and the white-haired old man was an ocean.

  Cold sweat had soaked Zhao Tiezhu's clothes.

  The old man seemed to have done something insignificant and continued, "The victory of the medicine mortar stone challenge has given you an opportunity to continue challenging. Do you want to continue the challenge?"

  Yao Jiushi nodded and said, "This time, I'll challenge Li Lingyun, who has 40 names."

  A handsome young man jumped onto the boxing ring, facing the medicine mortar stone and said: "I am Li Lingyun, please give me more guidance."

  Yaojiu Shi nodded slightly, and Li Lingyun didn't waste any words. He charged forward and began fighting Yaojiu Shi. Li Lingyun was using a long sword, and his swordsmanship was beautiful and impressive. However, Zhao Tiezhu watched and found that it was a bit too flashy and lacking in substance.

  This man's strength was also very powerful, and he fought with Yaohu Shi for several minutes. In the end, he cut a mouth on Yaohu Shi's chest, and the white-haired old man declared Li Lingyun the winner.

  The next two people were not as fierce as Yao Wenyu. One challenged the 90th ranked Tiger List expert and won, while the other challenged the 93rd ranked and also emerged victorious. The person who successfully challenged the 90th ranked Tiger List expert looked very young, probably around 18 or 19 years old. This person was Chen Wenda, a member of the Chen family brought by Taichi Sword Chen Daoling, who was ranked fourth on the Dragon List.

  "These people's strength is still pretty good." Lei Zi said to Zhao Tiezhu beside him.

  "Indeed, look at those wealthy and powerful people, many of them have already started to recruit those individuals, even those who didn't make it into the top three have been recruited. This competition is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leap to greatness, no wonder it's so highly valued." Zhao Tiezhu said.

  But after the challenge is over, the real showdown between the Tiger List masters begins.

  "This year's Tiger Ranking competition will adopt a brand new rule." The old man with white beard suddenly said, "This year's competition will use the method of dispersing and reorganizing. All 100 Tiger Ranking contestants will be dispersed into 10 groups, each group will engage in a mixed battle, and the last person standing will be this year's top 10 masters of the Tiger Ranking. From this session onwards, there will no longer be a list of 100 people for the Tiger Ranking, only 10 people will be selected each time, and these 10 people will directly obtain the opportunity to challenge the Dragon Ranking masters."

  The audience suddenly fell silent, especially those who were ranked lower, strongly protested. The old man with white beard slowly said: "Actually, in my opinion, the tenth place and below on the Tiger List are all useless. The country spends so many resources every year to cultivate a group of useless people, it's really a waste of resources and time. The new rules for this competition were decided by the higher-ups, if anyone doesn't agree, either roll out or don't give me nonsense." By the time the old man finished speaking, he was almost shouting, his aura had reached its peak, and the audience suddenly fell silent.

  "No more nonsense, wait for me to read out the names, 10 people will form a group on their own, then each group has 10 minutes, in the end whoever is standing wins. If there are two people standing, I'll be the one to decide. Now let's start grouping..." The old man didn't allow anyone to object and directly assigned the groups.

  "How could this be?" Zhao Tiezhu asked.

  "How am I supposed to know?" Lei Zi also looked bewildered.

  Zhao Tiezhu couldn't figure out what was going on, what kind of conspiracy or trickery was at play. But the old man with the white beard was secretly laughing to himself: "This is great, if we had to compare them one by one, it would waste so much time. I'm smart to have suggested this method to those old guys. It's so convenient, and we can determine the top 10 in just one go. Originally, only the top 5 could challenge the Dragon Rankings, but this time we're giving five more people a chance, which is also a way of comforting them."

  If Zhao Tiezhu knew that this so-called new rule was purely to save time, I wonder if he would regret wasting so many brain cells thinking about it.