As a pair of warm hands grasped the crown of his head and his chin, he only then reacted, a primal fear instantly crawling into his eyes.
"No!"
The胖正 shouted a single word in terror, but in the next second, everyone below the stage clearly heard the crisp snap of bone breaking.
*Crack.*
The胖正's head tilted at a ninety-degree angle, and he fell heavily onto the擂台.
The entire venue fell silent. Li Chonglou walked off the擂台 with a cold expression. It wasn't until he returned to the crowd that the onlookers finally reacted.
"Damn, another instant kill!"
"Who was it that said sumo wrestlers had him figured out? Step forward and let's talk?"
"This guy seems to be hiding his strength, doesn't he? How can he instantly kill any opponent?"
If before, the crowd merely admired Li Chonglou, then at this moment, they were completely filled with deep shock.
Especially Lei Feng, he stood there completely stunned, his mouth slightly agape, a look of bewilderment on his face.
"Lei Feng, you're getting old, you don't even have this much foresight anymore."
A Yi Long suddenly spoke from the side, but there was no hint of mockery in his words, more like playful banter between friends.
He then reacted, understanding that Yi Long was giving him an out, and for a moment, he couldn't help but feel immensely ashamed.
"You, you knew all along?"
"Nonsense, if I didn't know, why would I have pulled him in? So? Are you still blaming me for calling him to participate in the competition?"
Lei Feng was speechless for a moment. Looking at Yi Long's smug expression, he could only sigh deeply.
"It seems I'm truly old..."
Lei Feng secretly glanced at Li Chonglou and, finding that he wasn't looking at him, felt relieved.
However, he didn't know that Li Chonglou had never considered him from beginning to end. This wasn't due to disdain or any other emotion, but simply outright disregard.
Because he knew that Lei Feng's animosity stemmed from the 胖正, and there was no real conflict between them.
As far as Li Chonglou was concerned, if he hadn't taken his senior brother into account who was also in the dark部, things might not have been so simple. After all, Lei Feng's previous targeting had been too obvious.
The matches on the擂台 continued, but with Li Chonglou's stunning performance earlier, the subsequent matches felt somewhat dull to the audience below.
It wasn't until Yi Long stepped onto the stage that the crowd's interest was piqued.
"This seems to be the second captain of the dark部. Although the dark部 isn't highly ranked, I remember his performance in the previous session was quite decent."
"Indeed, if he hadn't encountered someone from the Ghost Team halfway through last time, he should have made it into the top 20."
Listening to the surrounding discussions, Li Chonglou realized that Yi Long also had some reputation.
However, when Yi Long saw his opponent, his expression instantly turned grim.
Another person from the Ghost Team.
This was the second consecutive session of facing a member of the strongest team.
Yi Long couldn't help but curse inwardly. He knew that in this round of the competition, every victory would earn points, and personal rankings were calculated based on these points. They were only halfway through the competition.
"Forget it, at least there's a resurrection match. I'll try to win more matches then and improve my ranking."
Before the match even began, Yi Long had already made plans for what was to come.
Besides the win-loss record for points, this one-on-one elimination match also had another reference point: the overall ranking at the end of the competition.
This prevented strong individuals from being disadvantaged by not participating in resurrection matches due to winning every round, thus having fewer matches and not achieving the final first place.
This meant that although no one would know their final ranking at the moment, with variables usually only revealed by the official announcement, a rough position could be estimated.
And Yi Long was thinking about this. If he had been lucky and hadn't encountered strong opponents so early, based on his original calculations, he should have at least placed around 18th.
But now, with an unexpected event similar to last time, he could only try his best to keep his ranking within the top 30.
And this ranking also contributed to points.
After all, the competition in the entire trial zone was divided into three rounds, and the final ranking of each hunting team was determined by the total scores from the three rounds.
As expected, on the擂台, Yi Long lasted only about five minutes under the fierce attacks of the Ghost Team member before voluntarily surrendering and jumping off the擂台.
Facing this scene, neither the Ghost Team member on the擂台 nor the crowd below found it strange.
It was as if everything was as it should be.
At this moment, Li Chonglou also noticed the position the man occupied after leaving the擂台; it was next to the person who had shown him hostility earlier.
Coupled with the different reactions from the people around, Li Chonglou couldn't help but ask the returning Yi Long, "Who is this person?"
Yi Long didn't feel any shame in losing to a member of the strongest team. Instead, Li Chonglou's question at this moment surprised him.
"You don't even know the Ghost Team?"
"What Ghost Team?"
Yi Long's expression suddenly changed, and he quickly looked around, making a shushing gesture to Li Chonglou.
"Damn, you kid, speak cautiously! The Ghost Team absolutely hates hearing that kind of mockery!"
Li Chonglou felt somewhat baffled and couldn't help but scratch his head, saying, "Did I say something?"
Yi Long rolled his eyes but didn't explain further, instead giving Li Chonglou a rundown of the Ghost Team.
He then learned that the strongest team in the entire Tie Lin was the Ghost Team.
In Yi Long's words, there was a very straightforward explanation as to why the Ghost Team was the strongest in Tie Lin: all of the top 10 in the individual competition were members of the Ghost Team.
All of them!
And this situation had persisted for five consecutive sessions. Although they hadn't consistently held the championship title, apart from the occasional dark horse in between, their championship seat was largely stable.
Therefore, no one present had any objections to the Ghost Team.
And as Yi Long concluded, he told Li Chonglou another piece of news that stunned him.
"When you experienced the beast tide in the base, did you ever hear of the Dare-to-Die Squad? Actually, if we disregard outposts, the truly strongest team should be this squad. And their members are basically all from the Ghost Team."
"The members of the Dare-to-Die Squad all come from the Ghost Team?"
Li Chonglou's brows suddenly furrowed. If he guessed correctly, the man who had shown him hostility earlier was likely the captain of the Ghost Team, as the man on the擂台 had greeted him first after coming down.
If that were the case, the situation had become somewhat complicated, as he had already become true brothers with members of the Dare-to-Die Squad.