Chapter 1583

Zhao Chi felt something was a bit strange.

In his impression, Li Ruanyu was always very cautious in the way she spoke and handled things.

Words like these, which clearly amounted to leaking a battle plan, she would absolutely never say openly in front of everyone.

Then what was she doing…?

Could she already confirm that there wasn't a single werewolf spy in this venue?

Impossible…

Perhaps, the things she said out loud were only decoy targets?

But that wouldn't work either.

The morale of the other squadrons had already been roused; if they didn't go fight, she wouldn't be able to explain that away either, would she?

Zhao Chi watched Li Ruanyu walk confidently back to her seat, unable to quite figure out what she was actually thinking.

Gu Zhan walked to the center of the stage.

He smiled and said:

"In every battle, there are always quite a few lords who perform outstandingly, exceeding their usual level, and this time is no different.

"We screened out the top 10 lords with the most outstanding performance this time, then chose again from among them, and after great difficulty finally selected one, to receive this session's 'Best Performance' commendation.

"This lord turned out unexpectedly to be a village-level lord — none of us had expected that."

A village-level lord?

Every person below the stage, upon hearing this rank, felt questions rise in their hearts.

What can a village-level lord even do?

Village-level lords are all newcomers.

With populations under 1,000.

Even if every single person were a soldier, that would only be 1,000 soldiers, and at most tier-3 troops at that, right?

A beginner lord's technology is limited — what can so many low tier soldiers do?

No matter how outstandingly they perform, it's still useless, right?

Could it be that one person crushed three village-level lords?

That doesn't add up either.

Even if that were the case, it still absolutely wouldn't be enough to win the 'Best Performance' commendation.

Then what's going on?

Su Qin listened with full concentration, and suddenly noticed Zhao Chi helplessly closing his eyes.

She asked softly, puzzled: "Zhao Chi, what's wrong?"

Zhao Chi smiled: "Nothing…"

"Huh? It wouldn't be you again, would it?"

Su Qin really did have a mind-link with him.

She didn't know who Zhao Chi's side had fought this battle, but based on her understanding of Zhao Chi, she could still guess some of it.

After all, Su Qin had fought alongside Zhao Chi against a Shi Laimu nest, and knew Zhao Chi's strength.

Zhao Chi shook his head: "I don't know, doesn't matter either way, even if it's me it's fine."

The suspense was already stretched to the max.

All the lords below the stage burst into discussion.

They were very puzzled — even if a village-level lord performed outstandingly and defeated multiple village-level lords, the combat power of enemies destroyed shouldn't exceed 5,000, right?

No matter how great the disparity in strength between the two sides, a result like that still couldn't win Best Performance, because the total doesn't reach the threshold.

So… that village-level lord crushed enemies with over 5,000 combat power?

That's equivalent to the combat power of 10 ordinary villages, or 2 ordinary towns.

If viewed from the perspective of a village-level lord, pulling off a result like that is indeed worth some commendation.

Gu Zhan swept his gaze across the venue.

Then he smiled and said: "This village-level lord is still only a member of the trainee group — oh, of course, they've already been promoted to the official group now."

The moment these words came out, every lord looked toward the 5 groups that had just been promoted to the official group.

Ye Kai was stunned: "Holy crap, it wouldn't be me, would it?"

Ye Kang said, speechless: "Are you a village-level lord?"

Ye Kai was dumbfounded: "Ah? I'm not… then it's not us?"

Ye Kang said: "Our group, the Devout group, and the Clear Bamboo group are all town-level lords, so it can only be someone from the Glazed group or the Strategy group."

Ye Kai said, puzzled: "Those two groups are that strong?"

Ye Kang said: "I don't really understand it either. The leader of the Glazed group is Wei Li; she's the only fighter in their group. She was previously at the Seventh Academy, a student of Shangguan Ting's, and has always followed Shangguan Ting, so her combat style is very similar to Shangguan Ting's — could it be her?"

Ye Kai hurriedly said: "Keep your voice down, damn it — Shangguan Ting this, Shangguan Ting that — you dare call Captain Shangguan by her name directly? Want to die?"

"Oh shit." Ye Kang quickly covered his mouth.

Fortunately the surroundings were noisy, and no one noticed them.

But Ye Kang didn't dare speak anymore either.

The Clear Bamboo group was also guessing over here.

Xiang Yuan's guess was similar to Ye Kai and the others — she ruled out the Devout group, the Clear Bamboo group, and the Righteous Unity group, leaving only the Glazed group and the Strategy group.

Xiang Yuan asked softly: "Could it be the Strategy group? That one called Zhou Lue is quite famous — you could always hear his name mentioned back in class."

Fu Yi shook his head: "It won't be him. I followed them before — Zhou Lue is already a town-level lord now, so it can only be one of his group members."

Xiang Yuan nodded: "I don't actually know the others — it couldn't be Wei Li, could it?"

Fu Yi said, "Wei Li is also a town-level lord, just newly promoted. Wei Li and Zhou Lue's strength should be about the same — they're both the top students of their year in their respective academies. It definitely isn't those two team leaders, it must be a team member."

Geng Zhan said roughly, "I know, Zhou Lue's team has someone called Wei Jinlong, who's also very strong. I heard he's also been promoted to town-level lord, so… damn! He's a town-level lord now? Then isn't it him…"

Xiang Yuan looked at him speechlessly.

Fu Yi began analyzing again.

Only Su Qin said nothing.

She merely listened to the people around her guessing back and forth, but her eyes stayed fixed on Zhao Chi.

Her eyes were full of pride.

She asked softly, "It's you, right? Isn't it? Tilt your head over, let me fix your hair a bit — you'll look even more handsome when you go up there."

Zhao Chi gave him a slight nod.

"Zhao Chi, is it you?"

At that moment, an untimely voice came from behind.

The voice was familiar — it was Yang Xiong.

Zhao Chi shook his head: "I don't know either. We'll only find out after Captain Gu announces it."

Yang Xiong said, "It's definitely you. Both Lu Yi and I guessed it's you. Cao Feng says it's Wei Li."

Li Xun said, "And Wang Lie and I also guessed it's you."

Cao Feng said, "I'm just going by analysis. Zhao Chi, you are indeed very strong, but you don't know how strong Wei Li is. She was previously from the Wei family of Jin Sha Village, and she's been following Captain Shangguan since her trainee days. I've seen her fight. Her fighting style is even fiercer than Yang Xiong's — those ghouls back then left me stunned, and my Shadow Leopard would absolutely be no match for her."

Lu Yi said, "What kind of nonsense are you talking? Have you forgotten that Zhao Chi and Wei Li fought in the Rookie Tournament? Didn't Zhao Chi win back then?"

Cao Feng snorted: "That was in the past. Wei Li has now directly joined the Phantom Squad, as Captain Shangguan's Zhili team member. You think Captain Shangguan wouldn't give Wei Li heavy support?"

Yang Xiong laughed: "If you put it that way, Zhao Chi's Clear Bamboo team is also Captain Li's Zhili team."

Cao Feng shook his head: "How can those be the same?"

Lu Yi said, "Enough, Captain Gu will announce it soon. This time the bet is settled — Cao Feng, you're definitely treating."

Cao Feng said, "If it really is Zhao Chi, then I'll treat willingly this time. After all, he's one of us, and I'd be glad if one of us is stronger."

Wang Lie said, "Enough, listen."

Gu Zhan stood on the stage.

He continued with a smile:

"This village-level lord, with a combat power of 1,114, consecutively defeated a werewolf lord with combat power 7,841, and another werewolf lord with combat power 8,508.

"Altogether, he eliminated enemy effective forces totaling 16,349 combat power!

"That's nearly fifteen times his own combat power!

"When our verification team was checking the data, we were all stunned. There were originally a few people still debating the candidate, but once this lord's battle record came out, the argument vanished on the spot.

"Most importantly, this village-level lord didn't achieve this record by fighting desperately — this kind of record can't be achieved by fighting desperately alone.