Chapter 52: Martial Champion

"B-73, Chen Mo, weapon dance, B-Medium!" the bailiff responsible for announcing the results shouted aloud.

Putting away his weapon and leaving the Drill Ground, the skill competition officially began in the afternoon.

While called a skill competition, it was actually a sparring match; before taking this test, one had to sign a life-and-death contract, and any death or injury during the competition would be one's own responsibility.

Of course, most examinees would hold back thirty percent of their strength and would not deliberately kill anyone.

Although a life-and-death contract was signed and death or injury was one's own responsibility, if any examinee deliberately killed someone, it would by no means go uninvestigated.

"The poor study, the rich practice martial arts"; ordinary commoners could not afford to practice martial arts, so the examinees who came to take the test all had some family assets, and most had a sect behind them.

If an examinee killed someone by accident, then according to the rules, no one would pursue the matter.

But if it were intentional murder, then even if the Imperial Court did not pursue it, the forces behind the killed examinee would certainly do so.

Therefore, in such skill competitions, while injuries occurred, deaths rarely happened.

When afternoon arrived, the skill competition officially began.

The skill competition was divided into seven rounds; the winner of each match received two points, a draw received one point each, and the loser received zero points.

After the seven rounds ended, the one with the most points would receive an A-High rating.

Not only that, but the skill competition carried significant weight in the martial examination.

Whoever could take first place in this part of the exam, as long as their other subjects were not too poor, could basically be considered the Martial Champion of this year's cohort.

For the Scholar title, a literary Scholar is called the "Case Head," while a Martial Student is called the "Champion."

In literature there is no first, in martial arts there is no second.

To obtain a martial title, being able to fight is not enough, but this does not mean that being able to fight is unimportant.

Once they obtain a martial title, they will sooner or later go to the battlefield, so their own combat power is also a very important part of the examination.

"Qingbao County, Liu Shuimu."

Chen Mo stepped onto the ring, and the Martial Artist facing him cupped his hands in a salute and announced his name.

Chen Mo did the same as the other party, exchanging names and cupping his hands in a salute; neither side wasted words.

Immediately, each held their wooden weapons and began to fight.

The wooden spear Chen Mo used was specially made from high-quality hardwood, sturdy enough to withstand his strength.

His fighting method had no technique, or rather, it did not require any technique.

According to his own estimation, with his full strength now, his true power was likely no less than two thousand catties.

And his opponent could not even lift a seven-hundred-catty stone wheel; under such an absolute, crushing advantage, any technique was unnecessary.

With one thrust of his spear, he knocked away his opponent's weapon, and the opponent would naturally concede to avoid injury.

After all, there were seven rounds to compete in; if one were injured in the first round, it would be no different from being eliminated directly.

For seven consecutive rounds, Chen Mo won in this simplest of ways, crushing others with force; unless the opponent's strength was not much different from his own, they had no power to fight back.

However, he also discovered that the opponents he drew were indeed somewhat weak.

He did not draw any of those few who could lift eight-hundred-catty or even nine-hundred-catty stone wheels.

There was no need to think too much; this must be his foster father's influence at work, ensuring he could steadily win these seven rounds of competition.

Chen Mo won the final match and walked off the ring, only to see a youth of sixteen or seventeen years old, dressed in a brocade robe, walking toward him.

"I didn't expect that you could win seven consecutive matches just like me; it seems we will be opponents next!"

The youth's tone was disdainful and his expression arrogant; as his words fell, it drew the side-glances of other Martial Students.

It was clear that he greatly enjoyed this feeling of being the center of attention.

"Oh." Chen Mo nodded in response, though internally he was wondering who this person actually was.

Aside from Xu Dabao and Sun Li who came with him, Chen Mo truly did not know anyone else.

These people were simply too weak and not worth his time to pay much attention to.

With that energy, Chen Mo would rather go find some local snacks in the prefecture city or find that famous physician in the city to ask him to prescribe a digestive medicine.

"You!" Seeing that Chen Mo ignored him entirely, as if he didn't even see him, the youth was instantly ashamed and angry.

"Brother Mo, this person is named Wu Kai, a native of Anning County, capable of lifting a nine-hundred-catty stone wheel.

His Wu family has been officials for five generations, with the highest reaching the sixth rank; he is considered a scion of a noble family," Xu Dabao walked to Chen Mo's side and whispered an introduction.

He was a local and his family had some influence, so he was quite familiar with these matters.

There was no help for it; his strength was not equal to Chen Mo's, so he had to pay extra attention to the few strong contenders in this examination.

If he were unlucky enough to draw these people for a skill competition, he would either concede directly or have to muster his full focus to deal with them.

Therefore, he had already roughly investigated the backgrounds of these people beforehand.

Chen Mo nodded lightly; five generations of officials, with the highest only reaching the sixth rank—looking at the entire Great Gan, this certainly did not count as a major noble family.

But if placed within the territory of a single county, it was quite rare and definitely the existence of a local hegemon.

Following the bailiff's guidance, Chen Mo stepped onto the ring again; he and Wu Kai were the only two who had won all seven rounds.

Therefore, the two of them had to compete one more time to determine the final winner.

"You were able to win before only because you didn't run into me; your strength is only slightly greater than mine, but in terms of weapon technique, you are far inferior to me."

Wu Kai was indeed young and impetuous, speaking without much thought.

Before Chen Mo could even speak after stepping onto the ring, he had already analyzed his own advantages and disadvantages clearly and stated them without any reservation.

Chen Mo did not care about this at all; if his strength were truly only one thousand catties, then the other party would be right.

But Wu Kai did not know that one thousand catties was the limit of this examination, not the limit of Chen Mo's strength.

Seeing that Chen Mo remained unmoved, Wu Kai wanted to speak again, but the bailiff below the ring struck the Gong and Drum, announcing the start of the match.

Chen Mo planted his feet on the ground, his figure like the Wind, reaching Wu Kai's front, and the long spear in his hand suddenly thrust upward.

He had used this move throughout the skill competition; one move is enough to conquer all, and one shouldn't fear an old move as long as it works.

Seeing him use this move again, a flash of joy could not help but cross Wu Kai's eyes; he had long since noticed Chen Mo and regarded him as his only opponent in this skill competition.

He knew the other party loved using this move; if it were anyone else, they would certainly be helpless against him, as the gap in strength was too great to be easily bridged by technique.

But to use this move against him was truly being a bit too conceited.

He flicked the weapon in his hand, intending to use technique to deflect this force.

However, upon the clash of weapons, he only felt the web between his thumb and index finger go numb, and by the time he regained his senses, his weapon had already been knocked away.

"How could your strength possibly be so much greater than mine!" Wu Kai was full of astonishment; he knew clearly that he had lost.

Since Chen Mo could knock his weapon out of his hand with a single spear strike, it would not be very difficult for him to kill him while he was at it.

It was just that the other party had spared his dignity and did not strike again.

Yet he could not understand why Chen Mo's strength was so great; logically speaking, if he could lift a thousand-jin stone and he himself could lift nine hundred jin, there was a gap, but it should never be to this extent!

Chen Mo did not answer his question; he was currently pondering a more important issue.

And that was what to eat tonight!

Eating meat was certainly good, and eating meat every day was of course even better, but to eat even better, one had to find ways to vary the styles and not always eat those few dishes.

"You can lift nine hundred jin because you can only lift nine hundred jin; our Brother Mo can lift a thousand jin because the stone wheel in this Drill Ground only weighs a thousand jin." Xu Dabao spoke loudly, answering Wu Kai's confusion.

He had just lost to the other party's hands and had long been unable to stand his arrogant posture; now that Chen Mo had won, it could be considered venting his pent-up anger.

The next day, the Policy Essay examination began.

After the numerous student candidates had their identities verified, they walked into the examination hall to answer the questions.

The exam topic was, as expected, a passage from the Martial Strategy; Chen Mo could not say he was completely confident, but he could at least grasp the gist and knew how to respond.

After carefully writing out his answers and checking them for errors, he waited for about half an hour before the bailiffs began to collect all the examination papers.

Three days later, the prefectural office posted the results, and Chen Mo ranked at the very top, becoming the Martial Top Scholar of this year's examination!

(End of chapter)