My starting summon is a small skeleton-Chapter 152 - 151 The Cost of Tempering

Time passed amid the tense preparations of both Lu Wu and Jiang Beifeng.

May 19th arrived quickly.

After the preliminaries ended, since three teams in Group A had the same score, they had to play an additional match.

This match was to decide which two teams among squads 001, 018, and 042 would enter the top four of Group A and the top eight of the league.

Due to team 001 being a trump team, the match garnered a lot of attention.

Early in the morning, the audience stands and the live streaming rooms were already packed with people.

It could be said that it was the most highly anticipated match of the league so far.

Before the match even started, the number of people in the streaming room had skyrocketed directly to six million, which excited Lu Wu immensely.

With such high viewership, the advertising effect would definitely be superb!

"Great, today, not to mention anything else, just the advertising fees should net a hefty sum."

Lu Wu was excited and so was Jiang Beifeng on the other side.

Jiang Beifeng was a very smart, cautious, and confident person.

Although team 038 unexpectedly defeated team 018, giving Lu Wu who was supposed to be eliminated in the preliminaries a chance to make it to the finals, thwarting his plan to target Lu Wu, he was still confident about today’s competition.

For today’s battle, he had been researching for two days.

He had hypothesized all sorts of possibilities.

He had anticipated every method Lu Wu could think of.

Any potential strategies, this side had already figured out and prepared accordingly.

Under such preparedness and possessing absolute power, Jiang Beifeng had no reason not to be confident!

If he wasn’t confident even under these circumstances, how insecure would Jiang Beifeng have to be?

Hence, Lu Wu was sure to lose today!

That was a declaration from Jiang Beifeng, and no one could change this outcome.

Meanwhile, in another corner of the stands, squad 044 sat once again.

Li Kui stretched out his legs and chewed on a toothpick, quipping while waiting for the match to start, "I actually thought 042 had a solid chance of making it into the top eight, but who knew this sort of thing would happen.

This place in Jiangnan Province really is a small temple with big gusts of wind."

Zhang San, sitting next to him, adjusted his glasses, "The backstory here is probably quite complex, possibly involving issues between Jiangnan and Jiangbei. 042 just had bad luck and got caught in the crossfire.

Otherwise, this sort of thing wouldn’t have happened."

Li Kui smirked, "Seems that women are just women..."

"Shut up!"

Wang Jun’s face darkened as he sharply interrupted Li Kui, "If you can’t keep your mouth shut, I don’t mind sewing it up for you."

Li Kui instinctively covered his mouth, repeatedly apologizing.

"Boss, don’t be angry, I just talk too much without thinking!"

To defuse the tense atmosphere, Zhang San quickly changed the topic, "Captain, do you think 042 can make it through this round?"

"Very unlikely!"

Zhang San tried to lighten the mood. Wang Jun didn’t dwell on Li Kui’s comment and refocused on the game, "Team 001 is not weak, 042 virtually has no chance to beat their opponent in terms of pure strength.

The only chance is tactics!

And the battle between 018 and 038 has already made team 001 wary, so without any surprises, 001 will also be prepared in this aspect.

That means, 042 needs to outplay them tactically while they are prepared and aware of 042’s strategy, what do you think the odds of 042 winning are?

Virtually zero!"

Making that judgment, Wang Jun fell silent.

From what he knew, the biggest problem for Lu Wu was probably not whether he would win this match, but what would happen after this match.

Now, Lu Wu seemed to already be caught up in the conflict between Jiangnan and Jiangbei.

This wasn’t good for Lu Wu.

’It’s a shame, Jingcheng University won’t interfere in this, otherwise, they should consider taking Lu Wu and getting him out of this whirlpool.

A talent like him shouldn’t be mired in such a quagmire.’

Wang Jun felt conflicted.

Meanwhile, Hengheng Monster was even more conflicted.

Sitting in the stands at the moment, she alternated between puffing out her chest proudly like a little rooster and gritting her teeth in annoyance.

This was because after the preliminaries ended yesterday, their team in Group B had successfully made it to the top four and into the top eight.

Comparing this achievement to Lu Wu’s side, Hengheng Monster felt she had brilliantly outperformed Lu Wu.

Nowadays, Lu Wu had been targeted by team 001 and seemed hardly likely to hope for the top eight, certifying her win.

Yet, when she thought that Lu Wu might not make it to the top eight, her inability to personally crush Lu Wu caused her to lose some excitement and feel a bit regretful, making her somewhat irritated when looking at team 001.

This girl silently resolved.

If Lu Wu failed to make it into the top eight, she would defeat 018 and make them cry as a way to avenge Lu Wu.

As for 001? Sorry, she felt she probably couldn’t handle it.

Hmm, Lu Wu was even less likely to handle it!

Now on this particular platform, apart from the brainless fan squad of Lu Wu which includes member 038, basically, no one believed that Lu Wu could take down team 001.

In this battle, losing was almost a consensus among 99% of the audience here and in the live streaming room there.

Not only the audience, but even some others didn’t think that Lu Wu could win this battle.

Jiangnan University, the Principal’s Office.

Just as the match was about to begin, the office door was violently pushed open, Zhao Kai Ming charged in, and as soon as he entered, he pointed at Zhang Wentao’s nose and cursed, "Zhang Wentao, are you dead or what?

People are bullying you to this extent, yet you’re hiding here? Acting like a shrinking turtle, huh!

In my opinion, Jiangnan University is declining day by day because you are the principal!

Can you even remain a principal? If not, get lost and let someone else take over!"

The cursing was horribly unpleasant.

However, the cursed Zhang Wentao didn’t get angry but instead stood up and poured a cup of tea for Zhao Kai Ming. "Have some tea, calm down. At your age, why so fiery?"

But Zhao Kai Ming refused to accept the gesture, sweeping the tea aside: "Drink tea, what the hell tea!

Old Zhang, you better handle that Jiang guy for me right now!

Daring to act up on our turf, what the hell!"

"Handle? How to handle? What excuse do we have to take action against him?"

"Excuse? What do you mean by excuse? He’s blatantly manipulating the match, do we need an excuse to take action?"

"But he has an excuse, if you want to take action against him for manipulating the match, you need to consider the evidence, right? Even if the evidence is sufficient, aren’t you supposed to follow the proper procedures?

Without these, how can you take action against him?"

Zhang Wentao spread his hands, utterly helpless.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Kai Ming was even more furious: "You can’t even handle an admissions office director, and yet you call yourself the Jiangnan University Principal, and the head of the Fucheng Cultivation Center."

"Are you blaming me now?" Zhang Wentao felt resentful: "If it weren’t for your messing around, causing such a big scene that we can’t cover it up, owing Jiangbei University such a huge amount of money, would I be such a pathetic principal?

Now they constantly shove the IOU in my face demanding repayment, and I, the esteemed Principal of Jiangnan University and head of the Cultivation Center, am being bullied like a grandson.

Fine, you think you’re capable? You come here and be the principal!"

Once Zhang Wentao exploded, Zhao Kai Ming’s momentum was instantly suppressed, but he still muttered, "I know you have it tough, but even in difficulty, can’t you secure just treatment for your own students?

If you had intervened earlier, it wouldn’t have come to this."

Actually, Zhao Kai Ming was right; Zhang Wentao was partially responsible.

He had indeed been too lenient, mainly because Lu Wu’s recent performance had greatly enhanced his perception of Lu Wu. In his eyes, Lu Wu was no longer just a normal student.

He even considered Lu Wu as the hope for revitalizing Jiangnan, so he thought it was necessary to let Lu Wu experience some pressure and test him.

Without any ability to withstand pressure, how could Lu Wu shoulder the responsibility of revitalizing Jiangnan?

As for Zhao Kai Ming’s words, Zhang Wentao thought they were an overreaction.

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He had everything under control.

"What step has it come to now? Where are we even at? If Xiao Lu loses, at most he’ll just miss out on the top eight, that’s not a big deal, right?

Actually, this is good for Xiao Lu, at most he’ll lose some advertising deals, and I’ll compensate him for that!"

Zhao Kai Ming was stunned, "You don’t know?"

"Know what?"

"I just spoke to Xiao Lu on the phone, he told me he made a bet with that Jiang guy, if he loses this match, he will not only miss the top eight, but he’ll also lose 55,000 points!"

"What?" Zhang Wentao was dumbfounded when he heard this.

The 55,000 points bet was a private wager between Lu Wu and Jiang Beifeng, an agreement kept unpublicized by both, so Zhang Wentao was genuinely unaware of this.

Seeing Zhang Wentao’s ignorance, Zhao Kai Ming quickly relayed the intelligence he had just received.

Actually, Zhao Kai Ming only knew because Lu Wu was cunning enough to deliberately inform him, showing loyalty to get some benefits while also emphasizing how Jiang Beifeng had tried to poach him and the conditions offered for that.

He explained the reasons for the bet as well.

Once Zhang Wentao roughly understood the situation, his face turned completely dark.

He had guessed that Jiang Beifeng had attempted to recruit Lu Wu, but he hadn’t anticipated the generous terms offered by Jiang Beifeng, nor the existence of such a hefty bet.

"So, what do you suggest we do now? If Xiao Lu loses later, who’s going to cover these 50,000 points?"

This question directly buzzed Zhang Wentao’s head.

Being a principal already burdened by debt issues made him headache-prone at any mention of money.

But as painful as it was, the incident had occurred, and he had to deal with it.

Thus, Zhang Wentao, clutching his head and grinding his teeth, responded to Zhao Kai Ming: "It depends on Xiao Lu; with Jiangbei University offering such terms, if he decides to go to Jiangbei after the competition, then this money has nothing to do with us.

If he decides to stay, then I’ll pay the money, even if I have to sell everything I own!"

At this moment, Zhang Wentao wished he could slap himself.

He felt his brain must have been damaged to think of toughening up Lu Wu, given the steep cost of this ordeal.