This was only their third match, and they had already been matched against two seedling squadrons. According to the statistics as well as evaluation from the officials, the Divine Dragon Academy was undoubtedly stronger than Bella Dean. Most importantly, with Tianjing having revealed all of their cards, how would they be able to continue blazing their trail?
Frankly speaking, Ma Dong and a large bunch of people felt that Tianjing really had a horrendous bout of luck.
Admittedly, although their victory over Bella Dean had caused the entire Tianjing squadron not to feel the despair of utter defeat upon being matched up against another S ranked seedling squadron, there was no doubting the fact that the Divine Dragon Academy squadron was really, really strong! Regardless of Wang Zhong's invincible cross wheels, or the incredible strategical arrangement, they, in fact, had the advantage due to their opponents not going all out to analyse and understand them.
Trump cards were things that had a diminishing marginal utility with each use. Everyone could already imagine that the Divine Dragon Academy had definitely come up with various arrangements to counter Wang Zhong as well as Tianjing's strange tactics. If Tianjing were to use something like a three ranged soldier formation, they would not be able to take advantage of the moment when the Divine Dragon squadron's formation split apart.
What's even worse was that Tianjing's strength and trump cards had already been clearly witnessed by others after the two matches they fought. On the contrary, during the elimination rounds and past two matches, the Divine Dragon squadron had not used even an ounce of their actualstrength. That was especially true for the previous two matches, where they had obtained 4:0 victories just by relying on their substitutes, hence others were simply unable to see how strong they actually were.
Admittedly, the prestige of victory would definitely bring about honour and glory. However, it would also leave one more vulnerable to analyses and counters from others. In fact, commoner squadrons like Tianjing, who had created miracles by defeating opponents stronger than them, had appeared before in the 100-year history of the CHF. Nonetheless, all of them were short-lived, like the blooming of cactus flowers. The real big shots were not propped up just by winning one two times, or by creating a miracle. Instead, they were built on the experience of countless opponents, being analysed and countered in various aspects, yet still standing in the end. Only those who could do that would possess the qualifications to be known as big shots.
As for Tianjing, the real difficult times had just begun.
Wang Zhong clearly understood this point and did not hold any delusional thoughts, like Tianjing being able to go all the way to the finals and clinching the CHF championship. To him, fighting every single battle with all his might, and treasuring every opportunity to cross hands with experts were the most important things to him; it was about the journey and not the destination.
During the night when the teams obtained the match schedules for the round-of-32, Laura and Sharmie had both sent over messages via Skylink to him. Appearing to be rather understanding, both girls did not mention about the matter of All Mouthy King, seemingly treating Wang Zhong as the Wang Zhong they had always known. To them, it was no longer important whether he was All Mouthy King or not. However, other than sending congratulatory greetings, Laura had raised another issue. "Although the Divine Dragon Academy isn't the strongest squadron in this CHF, they're definitely the most troublesome one. Be careful of their leader, Zhao Zimo, and his use of many underhanded methods."
Divine Dragon Academy, underhanded methods?
Laura didn't go into many details, most likely due to it being involved with some secrets, or that her information originated from some rumours that she had heard. Wang Zhong was unable to make any guesses from this information. Nonetheless, he had never ever made light of any S rank seedling squadron. There was also the saying: counter soldiers with arms, water with an earth weir. (adopt measures appropriate to the situation)
With the schedules for the being released, the various squadrons were given three days of preparation time. The general atmosphere of the CHF was still rather relaxed, with the various great squadrons staying at the CHF squadron village, finding time to mingle and exchange about. Within the luxurious training grounds opened to the participants, there were also squadrons having combined training with others that were familiar to them, in hopes to squeeze in as much preparation as possible to obtain one of the top 16 ranks.
Wang Zhong's Skylink was currently playing back the combat footage of a few people.
Present in the current video was a female assassin. Frankly speaking, she had a slightly horrifying appearance. Perhaps, she might have used to be a beautiful lady. However, there was now a long knife scar stretching from the corner of her left eye to the right side of her mouth, splitting her face into 2. Her nose and left eye had completely tilted to one side. With such a look, she would be able to scare people to death if she appeared before them in the middle of the night. What's more, her weapon of choice wasn't a dagger, like ordinary assassins, but two gleaming slender hooks. The hooks were covered with spikes, causing them to look exceedingly strange and weird.
The combat footage showed that her fighting methods were pretty cruel and vicious. Of the three different fights that she had participated in, the faces of her opponents had been torn apart by her. This woman appeared to have a particular love for mutilating her opponent's face and seemed to enjoy the process of doing so.
Life rending hooks were weapons that were considered queer and rarely used. Only people from the Zhao Family, nicknamed the Sacred Land of soldiers and martial arts, were likely to use them.
Zhao Wuying was the main assassin for the Divine Dragon Academy. From the videos, Wang Zhong could tell that her speed and movement techniques were top-class. Coupled with those strange and peculiar Life Rending Hooks, and her considerably cruel and vicious combat style, she was a rather hard opponent to fathom and deal with.
"It'll be excruciating to engage in a close range fight against her. Furthermore, I've heard that she also possesses an Earth attribute special ability. However, none of her opponents in these videos was able to force her to use it. There's no doubt of her S rank evaluation. If we're purely talking about close combat prowess, she might even be considered to be quasi Mo's List level."
This information was gathered together by Ma Dong and Qian Duoduo. They had indeed spent quite a bit of effort in doing so. Businessmen always had many more channels and connections than other people. As long as one recognised people and was willing to foot the price, one could solve many of the problems encountered in this world.
"Zhao Tianlong, one of the five great Mo's List heavy soldiers. The information about him is more comprehensive." The video on the screen was replaced with a picture of a male with a Heaven Reaching Rod in his hand. Although everyone had seen the video about the five great Mo's List heavy soldiers, the show he had put on for that video was completely unlike the performance he had shown in the combat footage collected. "An offensive type heavy soldier, he has mastered the 108 fighting moves of the mad demon, causing him to appear somewhat like a berserker. Nonetheless, the more important trait is his indestructible body."
In the video, Zhao Tianlong was being surrounded and attacked by what seemed like 4 to 5 people, with them using blades and axes to chop and cleave at his body. However, despite using just his fleshly body to defend himself, those attacks were unable to even leave a scratch on his body, before his attackers were swept up and sent flying with a swing of his rod.
"The important factor for this is still the attackers' standards. Those people surrounding him have yet to reach S rank. Nonetheless, it's still hard to judge exactly how strong Zhao Tianlong's body defence ability is."
As the contents on the screen changed once again, Wang Zhong's gaze immediately snapped over.
An overbearing long spear was shown. Although it wasn't as long as Divian's Dragon's Terror, it was more rough looking and hefty, while the spear body, which was as wide as the mouth of a bowl, gave it an amply powerful appearance. An ordinary person would definitely be unable to lift it up with a single hand. However, this rough and heavy spear was wielded and spun around in such a light and nimble manner by the man in the video. With a slight horizontal swing powered by a massive force, the tip of the long spear was sent arcing over a large radius. Present within the video was a heavy shield wielding earth attribute heavy soldier, who had already activated his defence to the extreme of his ability. Yet, when faced against the casual horizontal sweep of the spear, he was sent flying 20 to 30 metres back like a ping pong ball! The entire thick and heavy runic shield was smashed to the point where the top and bottom were in contact with each other!
"Overlord spear, Zhao Yilong." Wang Zhong's eyes sparkled with fighting intent.
Although it was still not possible to predict what would happen in a match with the Divine Dragon Academy, just Zhao Yilong himself was already sufficient to get Wang Zhong excited. Being one of the 10 great Mo's List soldiers, and one of the two great spear gods of the younger generation alongside Divian, he was hailed as the most overbearing soldier! Just that spear swing alone was already sufficient to allow Wang Zhong to catch a glimpse of his true strength!
As the screen continued to change, the remaining two mainstays of the Divine Dragon Academy appeared one after another.
Zhao Zhancheng, the mainstay range soldier of the Divine Dragon Academy. Being an archer, the successive shot frequency for his Wind Chasing arrows was considerably high. Even though there was only one video of his participation in a group match, and Wang Zhong was unable to glean much information from that one video, from him continuously unleashing shot after shot for 4 to 5 minutes, one could see how vast and deep his Soul sea was and how terrifying his Soul Power output was. What's more, the usage of a bow and arrow was, by itself, one of the more perfect mainstream weapon choices for a range soldier. Regardless of the shooting distance, the might of the arrows was considered to be above average. He was a S ranker without the slightest doubt.
Zhao Zixin, the mainstay soldier of the Divine Dragon Academy. He was yet another atypical weapon user, with his weapon of choice, the Soul Returning Whip, used in conjunction with his terrifying Lightning attribute special ability. His combat style was considered to be ferocious and unyielding, excelling in taking dominance of combat momentum. Even against heavy soldiers, he still possessed explosive lethality in his attacks.
The other more random information about the Divine Dragon squadron's substitutes were also similarly comprehensive. Nonetheless, they were lacking in unique traits as compared with the main lineup and were considered to be the average of the average within the S ranks.
"Indeed, the strength of their entire lineup is above that of Bella Dean, with more perfection in their formations and member compatibility. They have extremely impressive performances in both extremes of offencse and defence, while not having any obvious weaknesses."
Wang Zhong closed the video playback.
Frankly speaking, his upcoming opponents were stronger than Bella Dean. However, the expressions of everyone from his Tianjing squadron were much better than the day before their match against Bella Dean. Even Colby and Hymin, the most pessimistic people in his squadron, did not have the any of the utter despair they had during that day. On the contrary, there was a thirst for combat present in their eyes.
Upon witnessing this, a smile appeared on Wang Zhong's face. Self-confidence wais something accumulated from successive victories. As of now, the current Tianjing was no longer a hothead which would get terrified in the presence of others. This was the progress they had made.
"Let's not make concrete arrangements for our combat tactics." said Wang Zhong with a smile. "Before our opponent gets a sufficiently clear understanding of us, there's no quick fix available for this match but a straight-on confrontation! This match will be a head-on fight, so everyone must be prepared to attack a wall! For the next few days, let's get an estimation of our opponents and do a few counter-attack type training sessions!"
At the same time, in another training facility in the squadron village...
That was the training room for the Divine Dragon Academy. Zhao Yilong was currently sitting on the bench, with a white towel draped on his head. His upper torso laid bare, revealing the exquisite and well-proportioned musculature that exuded power and strength.
He had just come out of the 20x gravity training room. To him, this was just a routine morning warm up. Being a freak with incomparable energy and vigour, this fellow's daily warm-ups were more than sufficient to account for several times of what others would do in one day!
The slow and deep rhythmic breathing sounded like muffled thunder, as bean-like droplets of perspiration rolled down his face, dripping onto the ground.
Behind him, the rest of the 9 members of the Divine Dragon Academy stood quietly. This included the Mo's List expert, Zhao Tianlong, who was also quietly standing still, with not the slightest unhappiness present on his face, appearing just like a foot soldier standing behind a god of war.
At this moment, the door of the training room was pushed open, before Zhao Zimo walked in. Upon seeing the current appearance of Zhao Yilong, "Third bro, I know that you're full of energy, but please don't go too overboard in your training. Too much of anything will become counterproductive."
Upon hearing those words, the corner of Zhao Yilong's mouth curled upwards, something that could be considered as a reply. Causing this cold and callous fellow to smile was by no means an easy feat, even if the person was Zhao Zimo.
Unlike the other squadron captains who were the ones to arrange the combat tactics deployed by the squadron, in the Divine Dragon squadron, anything that required thinking was left to Zhao Zimo. The only thing he needed to do was to fight! While other people might feel that their benefits were halved, Zhao Yilong was quite happy with this arrangement. To him, he no longer needed to get distracted by other matters, thereby allowing him to focus even more on fighting!
If he represented the heart of the Divine Dragon Academy, Zhao Yimo would represent their brain. Without the heart, the brain would be unable to function. However, without the brain, no matter how strong the heart was, it would only be driving a handicapped person.
Not replying to Zhao Yimo's words, Zhao Yilong nodded slightly before saying, "Everyone waiting for you. Let's begin."
Zhao Zimo gave a laugh as he opened the Skylink video.