by Catofdreams
"Err… you're right… wait a minute…", Mister M muttered while he called upon his bodyguards. They huddled together and discussed how they should change the duel conditions. After settling the matter, the bodyguards went back to their positions behind him. Mister M took another pose and pointed towards Lang Jie.
"If you win, I'll upgrade your room into the Presidential Suite!", Mister M proudly announced the new condition he had set.
Lang Jie simply sighed in response.
"Look, if you think that I would be moved by money, think again! My wife isn't worth any amount of money!", Lang Jie expressed his displeasure towards the new conditions. Xue Yan, who was just watching the scene unfold before her, felt her knees becoming weak as soon as she heard those words. Any sort of pleasantry that her husband says could easily melt her into a puddle.
One of Mister M's bodyguard approached them.
"Y-you should consider! The Presidential Suite has a good view! It even has it's own private hot spring! And-"
"We'll do it!", Xue Yan immediately answered as soon as she heard the bodyguard's words. A good view? Pfft… Xue Yan didn't care much about it, but as soon as she heard that the suite had its own private hot spring, her mind began to simulate each and every possible situation that could happen if she could stay in the private hot spring with her husband.
"But… honey…", Lang Jie tried to convince Xue Yan to take back her words, but she had already made her decision.
"Don't worry darling… we'll definitely win!", Xue Yan confidently exclaimed as she wiped off her drool. After imagining everything they could do in the private hot spring together, she had a smile identical to one of those perverted old men.
After feeling his wife's confidence, he sighed and gave up. He was the kind of man that could never go against his wife's wishes. He also felt that he had to do this since his wife rarely depended on him.
"Fine! Let's do it!", Lang Jie accepted the duel.
"Heh! You fool! It's too late to turn back now!", Mister M let out an evil laugh as he felt that he had already won. After all, a trained man such as him had a massive advantage against a completely average man in terms of athletics. What's more is that his partner is his wife, who, in his eyes, looked like a fragile flower. If only he knew that Xue Yan was the complete opposite of fragile…
"Now… I shall call upon my partner…", Mister M took on another pose and clapped.
The ground shook beneath them.
"W-what the…?!", Lang Jie's jaw dropped as he saw who Mister M had as his partner.
Behind his bodyguards, the sand started rising, as if something was underneath it.
After a while, a large silhouette appeared behind the bodyguards. Whatever it was, it was as wide as three of the bodyguards and it was also double the height of the tallest one.
"This is my partner… Rilla!", Mister M announced. The shadow that covered the appearance of his teammate quickly disappeared, showing his teammate's appearance to everybody.
Just like Mister M's bodyguards, Rilla was also wearing the same ridiculous outfit, which is a suit with swimming trunks over his suit. The difference between Rilla and the other bodyguards wasn't just the size. Unlike the other bodyguards, who were all bald, Rilla had hair… all over his body. He looked like an extremely oversized ape.
"I-is that even a human?", Lang Jie turned pale as he looked up at his opponent's partner.
Mister M laughed as he saw his opponent's defeated expression.
"Rilla! Would you like to say a few words before we completely decimate our opponents?", Mister M asked his partner with a smug look.
"Ooh! Ooh Aah!", Rilla exclaimed while beating his chest with his hands as if it was a drum.
"He said that weaklings such as you shouldn't have offended the great me!", Mister M translated his partner's gibber and manically laughed once again.
As Lang Jie looked at his opponents, he felt that this duel wasn't fair, to begin with. One of his opponents was literally an ape more than twice his size. He felt panicked.
While he was trying to calm himself down, he felt a warm feeling surging from behind him. Xue Yan hugged him tightly.
"Don't worry, darling! We'll win this for sure", Xue Yan felt her husband tensing up and gave him words of encouragement. She didn't feel intimidated at all. She had faced many other monsters far scarier than the one in front of them. What's there to be feared of from a little monkey?
She also had another plan concocted in her head. While she was hugging her husband, she was giving him a small fraction of her qi. The warm feeling that Lang Jie felt was his wife's qi surging throughout his body.
Lang Jie felt that he could take on anything after Xue Yan hugged him. His pale face quickly returned to normal as he bravely faced his opponents.
"Let's do this!", Lang Jie's expression turned to one similar to a soldier about to join a war.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Today, a beatdown will be happening live, here in this very resort!", an announcer suddenly appeared, seated on a chair beside the net.
"I am totally not biased, but let this match be proof as to how great Mister M is compared to the average male human!", the announcer exclaimed and winked at Mister M, who winked back at her and gave her a thumbs up.
"On the blue side, we have Team M!"
Mister M and Rilla waved their hands towards the crowd as they stood on their side of the court. Mister M's black speedo turned into a blue one, and Rilla's suit, as well his swimming trunks, also turned blue.
The crowd cheered as they showed their support towards their idol.
"On the red side, we have…", before the announcer finished, she leaned towards one of Mister M's bodyguards.
"Do we still have to introduce them? They're just gonna be beaten down anyways…", the announcer whispered to the bodyguard, who only gave a nod in response.
"We have… Team Red!"
The crowd immediately jeered as soon as Lang Jie's team was introduced. Mister M smiled as he saw the crowd going against Lang Jie. Everything was part of his plan from the very start. After all, the one who carries the hearts and wishes of the people would always win in the end, just like those manhwas and novels that Mister M always read.
Mister M looked at Lang Jie, expecting to see a disheartened expression as he heard the crowd's boos, but he was only met with the sight of Lang Jie happily flirting with his wife, completely disregarding the crowd.
"Grr… after this match, you will be mine!", Mister M gritted his teeth and looked at Xue Yan.
"Are both sides ready?", the announcer called upon both sides, who were just both doing their own thing.
"Ready!", Mister M proudly exclaimed.
"Honey… this isn't going to be easy… but let's both do our best!", Lang Jie tried to motivate Xue Yan, who he thought was intimidated by the opponents, but Xue Yan didn't even feel worried. In fact, she even thought that they would achieve flawless victory, considering that she had given his husband some of her power.
Xue Yan nodded and held her husband's hand tightly.
"Don't worry, darling… we got this!", she confidently told her husband.
"We're ready!", Lang Jie announced.
"Both sides, come to the middle. Let's decide who serves with a coin toss.", the announcer stepped forward and took out a coin from her pocket, which had Mister M's face engraved on one side and some weird drawing on the other.
"I'll give you the liberty to choose a side first… either way, the result is going to be the same!", Mister M told Lang Jie and let out another maniacal laugh.
"Don't be too complacent!", Lang Jie glared at him.
"I'll go with tails!", Lang Jie told the announcer, who nodded in response.
The announcer tossed the coin in the air and caught it on the back of her hand and immediately covered it. She slowly unveiled the coin, revealing Mister M's engraved face.
"It's heads!", the announcer exclaimed.
Mister M's laugh became even louder.
&
nbsp; "Even in the pre-game, I still win!", Mister M proudly exclaimed as the crowd cheered for him.
"We will serve… I want to get this over with quickly so I can prepare for my date later!", Mister M said as he took another pose. The announcer nodded and handed them the ball.
The four of them went to their respective positions. Lang Jie and Xue Yan decided to cover the left and the right spaces, while Mister M and Rilla adapted a weird pose. Mister M stood beside the announcer outside the court, leaving Rilla alone at the back of the court.
"Rilla, let them eat dirt with your serve!", Mister M commanded his teammate, who gave a nod in response as he held the ball tightly in his hands.
The announcer looked at both sides, checking to see if everything was in order. As soon as she finished checking, she blew the whistle.
Rilla threw the ball up high. His height alone was already far higher than the net. Rilla was going to use an advanced technique to start off the game. By hitting the ball from an extremely high angle, its trajectory would be steep, making it hard to return.
As the ball flew in the air, the announcer looked in shock as she recognized the move that the large man before her was about to perform.
"C-could it be? Is he going to…", the announcer was shocked, but she had to perform her duty, otherwise, she would be a failure of an announcer.
"M-Meteor Smash! It's an extremely complex move known to be extremely hard to return! Only legends have been able to pull this move off!", the announcer explained to the crowd how advanced the move was.
"It gets its name from the fact that it looks like a meteor descending to earth! It's supposed to be a smash, but due to Rilla's height, he could do it as a serve!", the announcer continued. The crowd immediately cheered as they watched the advanced move being performed before them.
As Rilla was about to hit the ball with all of his strength, Mister M shouted with all his might:
"Go! Rilla!"
"OOH AAH!", Rilla shouted as he exerted every ounce of strength he had.
*BOOM*
The sound of Rilla's palm hitting the ball filled the ears of every human in the resort.
Despite looking like a brute, Rilla was calculative. He was a man that took no risks. Both of his opponents looked incredibly weak, but he decided to aim for the one that looked weaker, who was Xue Yan.
As the ball quickly descended towards Team Red's side of the court, Xue Yan nonchalantly looked at the ball hurling towards her. She didn't care much as she could easily return it, but she had to make it look like a normal return since she doesn't want people to see her power.
She expected to just hit it lightly and toss it back towards the other side of the court, but then… the unbelievable happened.
From the left side of Team Red's side of the court, Lang Jie jumped straight towards the ball with his hands up, trying to protect his wife from the smash. As he was in the air, some people swore that they saw the figure of a short, orange-haired man, just like from that one anime.
The ball hit his hands and bounced back towards the other side of the court. Everyone looked in disbelief at the scene that unfolded before their eyes, including their opponents. A ball that was incredibly hard to follow with the human eyes, was easily blocked by an average looking man.
"P-point for Team Red!"
CHAPTER 7 – “THE IMMORTAL CULTIVATOR TURNS INTO A WILD BEAST”
As the ball rolled on Team M's side of the court, Lang Jie couldn't help but contain the excitement surging through his bones.
"YOSHAA!!", he shouted at the top of his lungs. He couldn't believe that he managed to block such a strong looking serve. Whether it was a fluke or not, what mattered was that they were now in the lead.
Lang Jie gained confidence as he looked at his opponents once more. The fear he felt earlier when he first saw them was now a distant memory. As the warm feeling continued to surge inside him, he felt that he could do everything.
"Good job darling!", Xue Yan leaped towards Lang Jie and hugged him. Even though she knew that it was because of her powers, she still felt extremely proud of her husband. As she saw her husband's gallant figure flying in the air, defending her from a ball hurling straight at her, she couldn't help but fall in love all over again.
The spectators looked confused as they tried to figure out what just happened. They all expected that it was going to be a one-sided beatdown, but all their expectations were shattered.
"P-perhaps that was just a fluke! Miracles do happen from time to time!", the announcer tried to loosen up the crowd, which partly worked. Some people started telling each other that perhaps it was really just a fluke, or maybe Mister M told Rilla to show some mercy.
Mister M had a flustered look on his face. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Lang Jie's block. He himself knew that if he was the one that received that serve, his arms might be broken from the sheer force that it delivered.
He took a moment to recollect his thoughts. Lang Jie really was someone that wasn't to be underestimated. An average office worker couldn't possibly be able to do that.
It didn't take much time before Mister M recovered from the shock. He had a public image to maintain, therefore he had to prevent himself from looking distraught.
Mister M's mood turned incredibly serious. The crowd around them no longer saw any trace of the charismatic Mister M that entertained them earlier. They felt like they were now looking at an entirely different person.
"S-so cool…", the announcer couldn't help but say her thoughts out loud as she stared at Mister M's gallant figure. The crowd nodded in unison as they all agreed that Mister M looked way cooler than he did before.
"I guess I'll have to go all out against you.", Mister M stepped on the court, ready to fight on the battlefield.
He examined his two opponents and examined every inch of them.
"Lang Jie… looks average, but incredibly dangerous… black hair… fair-skinned… glasses…", he muttered every single result that he gained from examining his opponent. Next, he looked at his opponent's partner.
"Xue Yan… tall… perfect facial structure… waist is around thirty-four inches… breast is…"
Before Mister M could finish his examination, his bodyguards hurriedly approached him while bringing tissues.
"Young master! What's wrong?!", one of them asked with a face full of worry.
"What? What's happening?", Mister M asked his subordinates who were now gathered around him.
"Sir, your nose is bleeding!", a subordinate handed him the tissue in his hand. Mister M immediately wiped the blood off his face and clogged his nose with the tissue.
The crowd looked at him with worry. How could such a cool and handsome man get hurt?
"Don't worry… I was just… focusing too much.", Mister M reassured everybody.
As soon as the commotion settled down, he pointed towards his opponents.
"Be warned. Since I have decided to personally fight in this battle, your chance of winning has now gone down to zero.", Mister M no longer made a pose to make himself look better, which showed that he was now completely serious.
"We'll see about that!", Lang Jie answered back. His confidence was now at an all-time high.
"Team Red will serve!", the announcer went back to doing her job and tossed the ball over towards Lang Jie.
Lang Jie held the ball in his hands and glared at his opponents, who were ready to receive his attack. Mister M was in front of Rilla, and both had their eyes glued to the ball. He looked for the best places to land his attack.
"There? No… perhaps there…?"
His eyes darted everywhere on his opponents' side of the court, trying to look for any kind of weakness. As he finally decided what to do, he took a deep breath and faced his wife.
"Honey, can you serve? I don't know how to serve…", Lang Jie scratched his head while letting out an awkward laugh.
Everyone in the area couldn't help but facepalm. Even the cool Mister M shook his head and groane
d in disbelief as to what he just heard. Perhaps the earlier point was really just a fluke.
"Don't worry darling! I'm sure you can do it!", Xue Yan patted her husband on his back, urging him to take the shot.
As soon as Xue Yan's palm touched his back, he could feel more of the warm feeling surging inside him. Xue Yan gave him more of her qi, as to make him look even cooler than before. She wanted to show everyone that her husband was the cooler than everyone in the world, far better than Mister M!
Lang Jie's confidence reached a new peak once again.