Chapter 169: 169 Champion

While Luoning and Jialier were talking, the competition on the plaza had already begun.

Jiamu drew his knight sword, and his fiery red Battle Qi exploded with a boom; the immense energy generated turned him into a cannonball as he charged at his opponent, his speed so fast it was astonishing.

Luoning raised an eyebrow; from just one opening move, he could see that this person's fighting style was extremely wild, and his strength might even be above that of Luogena.

Sure enough, the ensuing battle confirmed his guess.

Jiamu's swordsmanship was extremely sharp, and both his power and speed were subtly superior to Luogena's.

After every clash of their longswords, Luogena's stance would appear slightly unstable, and as a series of tight, consecutive offensives arrived, his disadvantage was gradually magnified.

Soon, after a head-on collision, Jiamu lifted his leg and stomped on Luogena's breastplate, sending the latter flying directly and crashing heavily to the ground.

"My apologies, you have lost," Jiamu said, looking down from above.

Luogena rubbed his chest, picked up his sword, and stood up, "Congratulations, you won."

On the balcony, Viscount Mawen, who had been excited just a moment ago, saw his expression turn cold; he glanced gloomily in the direction of Aosen, knowing that the other party had sent someone out specifically because they did not want Luogena to win the third match.

"I didn't expect Luogena to lose so quickly."

Jialier sighed, "Baron Beiernaduo Mengsong is said to be Bronze-ranked, and this Jiamu must be his son; I didn't expect his talent to be so strong."

Luoning nodded.

Since Jiamu was participating in the competition, it meant he was under thirty years of age; to have the strength to easily defeat Luogena at such a young age, his talent was naturally not weak.

"However, Luogena is only twenty-one, which should be much younger than Jiamu. When it comes to talent, it's hard to say who is higher or lower."

While the two were talking, Jiamu in the center of the plaza looked toward the direction where Luoning was.

He performed a respectful Knight Salute and said in a loud voice, "Baron Luoning, I wonder if I may issue a challenge to you?"

As his voice fell, the nobles on the entire balcony and corridor suddenly went quiet; none of them had expected that someone would name a specific challenger.

Even Luoning had not anticipated such a scene; he had been peacefully eating melon just a moment ago.

"Uh, Sir Jiamu, the knight competition does not have a segment for active challenges."

As the host, Buleidun spoke up to remind him, wanting to help Luoning out of the awkward situation.

But facing such a challenge, it was impossible for Luoning not to respond directly.

There were so many nobles watching on the balcony, including Princess Blanche; if Luoning chose not to accept, wouldn't that make others think he was afraid?

In any case, Luoning had already decided to participate in the knight competition to take the championship prize money, and since his strength had already been exposed, it was all the same whether he went on stage in the morning or the evening.

"Of course you may."

Luoning stretched out his hand, and Tangmu, who was waiting to the side, walked up and respectfully handed over the Liuyan Sword.

He gripped the hilt and, while strolling toward the plaza, said, "The Wushan Family never fears any challenge."

In an instant, thunderous applause and cheers erupted all around.

The eyes of the young noble ladies were filled with little stars.

"Malike, Luoning is even more handsome than last time!"

Marina from Lake Town said to her younger brother beside her; she felt a bit annoyed as she recalled the night she wanted to sneak into Luoning's tent.

If she had persisted a little more back then, could she have succeeded?

Malike coughed, "Sister, watch your speech; Jiemi will misunderstand."

Standing beside Marina was a fat man with dead-fish eyes; this was the second son of Viscount Dennis, the person Marina was betrothed to.

Jiemi laughed and said very gentlemanly, "Marina is right, Luoning is indeed very handsome!"

In fact, it wasn't just them; even Princess Blanche's hands under her long dress were tightly clenched, her little heart pounding, silently cheering for Luoning in her heart.

Lulansi, sitting at the very front in the center, had a smile on his face; hearing the words "The Wushan Family never fears any challenge" made him feel very comfortable.

"Many thanks to Lord Luoning for giving me this opportunity."

Jiamu still maintained his etiquette, "Please!"

"Come on!"

Luoning raised his hand and unleashed a Fire Cloud Coverage, a wide-range flame shockwave that rushed toward his opponent.

Jiamu was not flustered in the slightest and used the exact same move.

"Boom!"

The two fan-shaped flame shockwaves collided midway, erupting with a violent roar, and the heatwave they kicked up turned into a strong wind that swept through the surroundings.

"Luoning's Battle Technique is slightly more powerful!"

Many people saw that Luoning's fire cloud swallowed the opponent's Battle Technique entirely and continued to sweep toward Jiamu with its remaining force.

Luoning's Attribute Affinity was already strong, so the power of his Fire Attribute Battle Technique was naturally higher, plus the Liuyan Sword in his hand provided an amplification.

Using the same Battle Technique, it was naturally going to be stronger.

"His sword is problematic."

Jiamu keenly captured the uniqueness of the longsword in Luoning's hand, knowing that competing in Battle Techniques might not give him the upper hand.

He covered his entire body in Battle Qi Armor, slashed out a wave of air to split the remaining force of the Fire Cloud Coverage, and then charged forward, wanting to defeat Luoning using the same fast-attack style that had won him the match against Luogena.

It was a pity that this time, he had picked the wrong target.

Luoning's swordsmanship combined the specialties of Maiken and Ruidar, and he was adept at both defense and fast attacks.

Facing Jiamu's fast attack, Luoning defended flawlessly.

"His swordsmanship is fast, but his power is insufficient."

Amidst the clashing of longswords, Luoning analyzed Jiamu's level of swordsmanship.

"And the precision of his longsword is also lacking; there are relatively large openings when switching between offense and defense."

These were all points Ruidar had raised when coaching him in swordsmanship, and now he saw his own former shadow in Jiamu.

On the balcony, the more Lulansi watched, the more gratified he felt; the smile on his face grew wider, and at the same time, his amazement toward Luoning in his heart grew ever greater.

He could not understand why this kid's defensive swordsmanship was at such a high level.

The other nobles were the same; they had originally thought there was some exaggeration regarding Luoning's strength in the Colosseum incident, but they had not expected that what the outside world said was all true.

Aosen frowned deeply; he did not understand why Luoning had become so outrageous in just half a year.

"It's my turn."

In the plaza, Luoning, who had been locked in a stalemate, chose to stop defending; his power erupted, and with one sword strike, he directly parried the opponent's blade.

He lunged forward, his right side slamming into the opponent like a weapon, and both men's Battle Qi Armor distorted and deformed under the impact of the immense force.

The sudden change in rhythm, combined with the impact of the immense force, left Jiamu completely unable to react.

As he retreated, he swung his sword, a massive flame slash intended to delay Luoning's attack.

But Luoning's speed erupted completely; he not only dodged the strike but also caught up to the opponent's flying form.

"Liedafeng Zhang!"

Luoning struck down with his palm, the Wind Attribute Battle Qi in his palm condensing into a gale, slamming into Jiamu.

"Boom!"

The armor on the opponent's body shattered completely, and he was slammed heavily onto the ground like a sandbag with a broken rope; his outer coat was torn open, revealing the soft armor underneath.

Jiamu only felt the blood surging in his chest, and then a mouthful of blood sprayed out.

"You are defeated," Luoning said, looking down from above.

"I..."

Jiamu seemed to want to speak to concede, but he did not expect the blood in his throat to garble his voice; he could not speak and could only nod silently.

Luoning turned his head to look at Buleidun, who was still too shocked by the scene of the match ending so suddenly to pull himself together.

It had looked like a evenly matched fight, so how did it become like this in an instant?

"Buleidun, don't just stand there like a fool; announce the result and have the attendants carry the injured Jennie away for treatment."

"Oh, oh, alright."

Buleidun finally came back to his senses, "The... the winner is Luoning!"

"Good!"

On the balcony, Viscount Mawen cheered loudly; it seemed that Luoning winning was more satisfying to him than Luogena winning.

Others also began to applaud and cheer.

Blanche applauded while saying, "Mixi, present five hundred gold coins to the heroic Knight!"

"As you wish, Your Highness Princess!"

Following the Princess's reward, other nobles also sent out gold coins one after another; of course, the amounts they gave were far behind five hundred.

And the reason Blanche only gave five hundred was actually to save face for Wushan Castle, as the prize for the Knight competition champion was only one thousand gold coins after all.

Luoning had not expected to earn an extra sum and could not help but feel very grateful to Blanche.

This girl was sensible.

Following Luoning's forceful defeat of Jiamu, the subsequent matches were relatively monotonous, because everyone knew who the champion would be this time.

However, to warm up the atmosphere, knights from various families still came up to initiate challenges under the guise of requesting guidance on sword techniques.

Luoning defeated them one by one.

More than ten minutes later.

After Buleidun shouted three times, there were still no knights continuing to challenge.

"Since there are no more challengers to continue the competition, I can announce that this Wushan Castle Knight competition has come to a successful conclusion!"

He looked at Luoning in the arena, "The champion of this competition is..."

"Wait!"

Buleidun subconsciously thought there was still a challenger.

But when he saw the identity of the speaker clearly, he was stunned.

"Brother, is there anything else?"

Luoning nodded; he looked up at the balcony, "I would like to take this opportunity, in the name of the Knight competition champion, the Baron of Shanlin Town, and the eldest grandson of the Wushan Family, to invite Baron Leisen of Sain Territory to come down."

(End of this chapter)